Milena Morena Tartagni (born 21 September 1949 Predappio) is an Italian road and track cyclist. At the Road World Championships she won three medals, two silvers and one bronze. She won ten national titles, two on the road and eight on the track.

Life
She moved to Bollate, Milan, together with her family. In 1965 she joined the Gruppo Sportivo Pregnanese. She began training immediately with coaches Enrico Zenaboni, and Alfredo Bonariva.

In 1966 she won her first "international" races in Prato and Adria (Rovigo). These victories allowed her to wear the blue jersey of the national team for the first time at the Nürburgring World Championships in Germany, where she was the youngest participant. In 1967 she won seven road victories, as well as a second place in the National Elite Road Championship. She won her first Italian track pursuit title in Lanciano. In 1968 she participated in the world championships held in Imola, and placed third. She won the Italian championships on the road and on the track (pursuit and speed). Also, she set a world record for 3 km on track at the Olympic Velodrome in Rome with a time of 4'09 "3. In 1969, she was confirmed Italian champion on the road and on the track. She competed in 34 races and won 11. She began to compete abroad. In 1970, at the Road World Championships in Leicester, she finished second behind the Soviet Anna Konkina. Also in 1970 she won the national track championships and came in second at the national road championships. In 1971, again at the world championships held in  Mendrisio, she came second again.  She won the  national road race, as well as finished in second place at the national track pursuit championships.. In 1972, in Bassano del Grappa, she won the title of speed and that of the pursuit, while she was third on the road. She was second on the road in 1973. In 1974 she won the Giro of Varese, and finished third in the road championships. In 1976 he won the Alfredo Binda Trophy in Cittiglio.

In 1980, she retired, after more than 100 victories (including ten national titles), continuing to deal with cycling and working within the Italian Cycling Federation.

Since April 2014 she holds, within the council of the Municipality of Senago, the position of Councilor for  sports and leisure, youth and labor policies.

References

Other websites

 Morena Tartagni – Foto F.OSSOLA | Cyclinside.it

1949 births
Italian cyclists
Living people

Morena Tartagni


Spirou à New York, written by Tome and drawn by Janry, is the thirty-ninth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the seventh of the authors. The story was serialised in Spirou magazine before being released as a hardcover album in 1987.

Synopsis
In Spirou in New York, the Italian Mafia of New York is dismayed as their criminal activities seem to be cursed and Don Vito "Lucky" Cortizone, the Mafia Godfather, initiates a plan put forward by his second-in-command, Alfredo, to reverse their uncannily rotten luck: to plant a golden key into a Cortizone & Son product, Lucky's Pizza, and rewarding a million dollars to the lucky finders. Spirou and Fantasio who are in an economic slump, are forced to eat an inexpensive dinner, and as Fantasio chokes on a bite of Lucky's Pizza, they become the finders of the golden key. Informed they simply have to travel to New York to collect their prize, The Mafia believe they are receiving a talisman to counteract their misfortune.

When they arrive in New York, they learn the true identity of their hosts and promptly leave without accepting any mafia money, but are unexpectedly attacked by members of the Chinese Triad, the Mafia's chief rivals, and as a result, Spip is abducted. Forced to collaborate with Cortizone in order to rescue Spip, they break into the Triad headquarters and discover the source of The Mafia's constant misfortune, a table with the power to influence good and bad fortune onto the subject of a photo placed onto the field, shaped in the design of a Taijitu, like the yin-yang, which is selected by Cortizone's Triad counterpart, "The Mandarin", who is the leader of the Chinese Triad and hides his deformed face with a hideous and grotesque mask.

Having levelled the balance of fortune, Cortizone and the Mandarin engage in a personal battle over briefcases containing money and a bomb, and following a deceptive swap of suitcases, the two rivals explode above the Hudson River.

Spirou and Fantasio later take the plane back to France, until they jump off the plane to see NYC's soccer games.

References

 Tome publications in Spirou and Janry publications in Spirou BDoubliées

External links
Spirou official site album index

Spirou et Fantasio albums
Works originally published in Spirou (magazine)
Literature first published in serial form
Comics set in New York City
1987 in comics

Spirou à New York


The congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, with its motherhouse at St. Elizabeth's Motherhouse, Allegany, New York, was founded in 1859 by the Very Rev. Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.F.M.

History
Father Pamfilo had come to the United States at the invitation of Bishop John Timon, C.M., of the Diocese of Buffalo, in order to provide education for the young Catholics of Western New York. To this end, he founded the College of St. Bonaventure (now St. Bonaventure University).

The bishop had reservations about having mixed classes of boys and girls being taught by the friar. He therefore suggested that Father Pamfilo should establish a group of religious sisters for this work. In keeping with this, the friar accepted the request of Mary Jane Todd to commit herself to the consecrated life, and, on April 25, 1859, in the chapel of the new college he gave her the habit of the Franciscan Third Order Regular and the name of Sister Mary Joseph. She was joined by two other women by the end of the year, Sister Mary Bridget and Sister Mary Teresa, a native of New Jersey, who, at the age of 15, had been recruited for this vocation by Father Pamfilo. This allowed the formation of a new congregation.

The Sisters opened St. Elizabeth Academy in the town of Allegany in 1860, followed soon by a parochial school at the Sparish of St. Francis of Assisi in Manhattan, staffed by the friars.

The Sisters remained under the authority of Father Pamfilo until 1865, when he gave them a set of statutes to govern their life which he had adapted from the Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow, Scotland. At that time, the Sisters held their first Chapter and elected Mother Mary Teresa as the first Superior General of the congregation. She served in that position for the next 55 years.

In 1866, at the request of Archbishop John McCloskey, Fr. Pamfilo sent friars to New York City, where they opened St. Anthony's Church on Sullivan Street to serve the Italian and Irish immigrants. Realizing they needed additional assistance, the friars called on the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and St. Anthony's School was opened in 1874. Although the school closed in 2005, the sisters of St. Anthony Convent continue to serve in the parish.

In 1879, three Sisters were sent to Jamaica, British West Indies, to assist the Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow, who had established a boarding and day school for girls, which they named "The Immaculate Conception Academy".

They were the first congregation founded in the United States to send overseas missionaries. Missions in Latin America were established in the 20th century.

Healthcare
The congregation expanded into health care in 1883, opening hospitals. They operated two hospitals in Manhattan, St. Elizabeth Hospital in Upper Manhattan, and St. Clare's Hospital in Hells Kitchen. St. Clare's was one of the first hospitals in the nation to focus on the care of AIDS patients. On completion of her term of office as leader of the Allegany Franciscan congregation, Sister Regina Catherine Kane, herself, went to St. Clare's to assist patient with AIDS, a service the Hospital rendered until its closing in 2007. Both are now closed.

Florida ministry
In 1927 the sisters arrived in Miami, Florida to staff Allison Hospital, established by businessman James A. Allison. It was later renamed St. Francis Hospital and closed in 1992 after being purchased for real estate development. In 1931 the sisters acquired Faith Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, renaming it St. Anthony's Hospital. In 1934 they established St. Joseph Hospital in Tampa. The last two Allegany Franciscans left Miami for their motherhouse in December 2019.

See also
Lourdes Health System (New Jersey, USA)
St. Anthony's Hospital (St. Petersburg, Florida)

References

External links
Official website

Congregations of Franciscan sisters

Franciscan Sisters of Allegany


A periodic comet is a comet which orbits around the Sun. A short-period comet will complete its orbit in less than 200 years. A long-period comet will take more than 200 years to orbit. In most cases the comets are named after the person who discovered them. The Shoemaker-Levy comets were named after Eugene Shoemaker, Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. A few comets are named after the person who calculated the orbits, such as 2P/Encke and 27P/Crommelin. It is very difficult to work out the orbit of a long-period comet because the orbit changes. The gravity of planets, or the release of gas or material from the comet itself, changes the orbit. Short-period comets can be predicted very accurately.

Periodic comets sometimes have the same name, for example there are nine Shoemaker-Levy comets and twenty-four NEAT comets. The Minor Planet Center, a part of the International Astronomical Union gives comets a different number prefix or uses the full title such as 181P/Shoemaker-Levy and 192/Shoemaker-Levy which are both "Comet Shoemaker-Levy". Sometimes an informal numbering system is used for periodic comets so 181P is Comet Shoemaker-Levy 6 and 192P is Comet Shoemaker-Levy 1. Because non-periodic Shoemaker-Levy comets are included in the number sequences there appear to be gaps in the numbers, for example C/1991 B1 is between Shoemaker-Levy 2 and 3, C/1991 T2 is between 5 and 6, C/1993 K1 and D/1994 E2 after Shoemaker-Levy 9.

In naming a comet, the letter before the "/" is:
 "C" for a non-periodic comet
 "P" is a periodic comet
 "D" is a comet which has been lost or has disintegrated
 "X" is a comet for which no reliable orbit could be calculated –usually historical comets
 "A" for an object that was thought to be comet, but is actually a minor planet.

Some lists keep the "C" prefix for comets of with orbits longer than about 30 years until their return is confirmed.

References

Related pages
 List of comets

Other websites

Comets

de:Liste der Kometen#Periodische Kometen
lb:Koméitelëschten#Periodesch Koméiten

Periodic comet


The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America extant until 1870 and named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land.

Due to the lack of development, exploration, and cartographic limits of the time, the exact boundaries, ownership, and administration of the region were not precisely defined when the territory was extant. There is also not a definitive date when the British first asserted sovereignty over the territory. Maps vary in defining the boundaries of the territory; however, in modern usage, the region is generally accepted to be the region bounded by modern-day British Columbia, the continental divide with Rupert's Land, Russian America (later Alaska), and the Arctic Ocean. The territory covered what is now the Yukon, mainland Northwest Territories, northwestern mainland Nunavut, northwestern Saskatchewan, and northern Alberta. Northern modern-day British Columbia is sometimes also considered to have been part of the territory as well.

The North-Western Territory was not technically within the area of land granted to the Hudson's Bay Company in May 1670, as the region did not drain into Hudson's Bay. However, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was still the de facto administrator of the region and the territory was included in the same process of transferring Rupert's Land to Canada from the HBC, effective on July 15, 1870.

History

It is obscure when exactly the United Kingdom first asserted sovereignty over the territory; however, after France accepted British sovereignty over the Hudson Bay coast by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the UK was the only European power with practical access to that part of the continent. The Hudson's Bay Company, despite the royal charter assigning only Rupert's Land to the company, had long used the region as part of its trading area. The North West Company also hunted and trapped on the land and this led to frequent conflicts between the companies. To ease tensions, the UK government assigned administrative duties to the HBC, while still allowing The North West Company to hunt on the lands with the passage of "An act for regulating the fur trade, and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts of North America", in 1821. As well, large areas of Rupert's Land were not accurately mapped then to know the precise boundaries. The British made almost no effort to assert sovereignty over the aboriginal peoples of the area. In accordance with the Royal Proclamation of 1763, large-scale settlement by non-aboriginal people was prohibited until the lands were surrendered by treaty.

In 1862 during the Stikine Gold Rush, part of the North-Western Territory became the Stickeen (Stikine) Territory when the Stikine became inundated by American miners and, to prevent any resulting American claims to or agitation for the region, Governor James Douglas of the Vancouver Island and British Columbia colonies declared the area a British territory. The coastal area at the mouth of the Stikine was part of Russian America at the time, but the British had rights of free navigation to the Stikine by treaties in 1825 and 1839 as well as a lease of coastal lands to the south of it. The boundary of the North-Western Territory in this region, and likewise the Stickeen Territories created from it, south of and northwards from the Stikine, had been set as "ten marine leagues" from the sea, but this remained undefined until the Alaska Boundary Settlement of 1903.  The North-Western Territory's boundary with Russian America north of the 60th Parallel had been set at the 141st line of longitude by the Treaty of St. Petersburg in 1825.
The year following the creation of the Stickeen Territories, part of the Stikine returned to the North-Western Territory when boundaries were adjusted and the Colony of British Columbia was extended to the 60th parallel north, a measure which also brought into British Columbia its portion of the Peace River Block, which had not been part of the Stikine Territory. In 1868, shortly after Canadian Confederation, the Hudson's Bay Company agreed to surrender its vast territories to the new dominion. However, it was not until July 15, 1870, that the transfer to Canada was made. On that date the North-Western Territory became part of the newly created Northwest Territories (often stylized as the North-West Territories). In 1880, the British Arctic Territories were claimed by Canada and later formed the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.  In 1898 the Yukon Territory was formed when the areas west of the Mackenzie Mountains were removed from the Northwest Territories during the Klondike Gold Rush, again as with the Stickeen Territory to prevent efforts at American takeover and also to enable easier governance.

See also

Former colonies and territories in Canada
Territorial evolution of Canada after 1867
Stikine Territory
History of Canada
Alaska boundary dispute

References

Further reading

External links
Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order

Hudson's Bay Company
History of the Northwest Territories
British North America
British colonization of the Americas
States and territories disestablished in 1870

North-Western Territory


Samsung Galaxy A03s was released in late 2021. It has a  display that has a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels. It has a 13 MP main, 2 MP depth and 2 MP macro cameras. It has an 8-core processor running at 2.3 GHz with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. It supports Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Bluetooth 5.0.

Samsung mobile phones released in 2021
Samsung Galaxy A-series

Samsung Galaxy A03s


In firearms terminology and at law, the firearm frame or receiver is the part of a firearm which integrates other components by providing housing for internal action components such as the hammer, bolt or breechblock, firing pin and extractor, and has threaded interfaces for externally attaching ("receiving") components such as the barrel, stock, trigger mechanism and iron/optical sights.

The receiver is often made of forged, machined, or stamped steel or aluminium. Apart from these traditional materials, modern techniques have introduced polymer and sintered metal powder receivers to the market.

Mounting
A barrel may typically be affixed to a firearm receiver using barrel and receiver action threads or similar methods.

In US law

For the purposes of United States law, the receiver or frame is legally the firearm, and as such it is the controlled part. The definition of which assembly is the legal receiver varies from firearm to firearm, under US law. Generally, the law requires licensed manufacturers and importers to mark the designated receiver with a serial number, the manufacturer or importer, the model and caliber.  Makers of receivers are restricted by International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Thus, in the case of a firearm that has multiple receiver parts, such as the AR-15, which has an upper and a lower receiver, the legally controlled part is the one that is serialized.

For the AR-15 rifle, the lower receiver assembly is legally considered the actual receiver, although it is functionally a chassis that also houses the separate trigger group. In the FN-FAL rifle, it is the upper assembly that is serialized and legally considered the receiver. This has led to prosecutors dropping charges against illegal manufacturing of AR-type firearms to avoid court precedents establishing that neither the upper nor the lower receiver individually contain all the components to be legally classified as a firearm.

Unfinished receivers
"Unfinished receivers", also called "80 percent receivers" or "blanks", are partially completed receivers with no serial numbers. Purchasers must perform their own finishing work in order to make the receiver usable. The finishing of receivers for sale or distribution by unlicensed persons is against US law. Because an unfinished 80% receiver is not a firearm, purchasers do not need to pass a background check. The resulting firearm is called a privately made firearm, also known as a ghost gun.

During the Biden Administration, the ATF imposed regulations on the sale and marketing of unfinished receivers and kits containing them by revising the legal definition of receivers to include "a partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional frame or receiver, including a frame or receiver parts kit, that is designed to or may readily be completed, assembled, restored, or otherwise converted to function as a frame or receiver". (The term "receiver" was also redefined as referring to non-handgun firearms, while "frame" was redefined as referring to handguns exclusively.) The new definitions went into effect on August 24, 2022. In the case VanDerStok v. Garland, filed on June 30, 2023, a federal court in Texas ruled that the new ATF regulations exceeded the agency's statutory authority, and struck them down. However, on August 8, 2023, the Texas court's nationwide vacatur was temporarily placed on hold by the Supreme Court of the United States, leaving the new ATF regulations on unfinished receivers in place.

3D printed receivers
, two designs for 3D printable polymer lower unfinished receivers for the AR-15 have been released: the AR Lower V5 and the Charon. 3D printed designs may also be used to produce privately made firearms.

References

Firearm components

Receiver (firearms)


Chitralekha is a weekly news magazine published in Gujarati and Marathi.

History and profile
Chitralekha'''s first issue was published in 1950, under the editorship of Vaju Kotak. The magazine is part of the Chitralekha Group from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is jointly published by Chitralekha and #BANNER1 & # Group.

It has given rise to many prominent Gujarati columnists including Kanti Bhatt, Chandrakant Bakshi, Taarak Mehta, and others. After the death of founding editor Vaju Kotak in 1959, Madhuri Kotak took charge of the magazine along with Harkisan Mehta, who edited it till 1998.

The Chitralekha Group publishes several other magazines, including Watch World (a niche magazine focused on Watches) and BTW (By The Way - a lifestyle magazine circulated with Chitralekha Gujarati).

A US edition of Chitralekha was launched in 2006 and was based in Maryland.

On 20 April 2011, the Indian Postal Service issued a Rs. 5 commemorative postage stamp honouring Chitralekha''.

References

External links
 Official website

1950 establishments in Bombay State
Gujarati-language magazines
News magazines published in India
Weekly magazines published in India
Magazines established in 1950
Mass media in Mumbai

Chitralekha (weekly)


The Other Man is a 2008 British-American psychological thriller film directed by Richard Eyre. It stars Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas as competitors for a woman's (Laura Linney) love. Released in 2008, the film was a box office bomb, earning just over $1 million against its $15 million budget.

Plot
Lisa, from the United States, is a shoe designer, married for 25 years to Peter Ryman, a software CEO from Northern Ireland. They live in Cambridge, and Lisa frequently travels to Milan on business. Peter disapproves of their daughter Abigail's boyfriend, George, and Lisa makes an oblique attempt to discuss her and Peter's monogamy, which he dismisses.

After Lisa dies, Abigail gives Peter a note with the message "Lake Como" from inside one of her mother's shoes. Peter discovers a romantic voicemail on Lisa's cell phone and a similar email on her computer from "Ralph," as well as a password-protected folder named "Love." Convinced that Lisa was having an affair, Peter wrongly accuses her colleague of the same name of being her lover. He replies to the email, "The Lisa you loved is no longer here," but Ralph continues to write, believing he is still communicating with Lisa. Peter accesses Lisa's folder with the password "Lake Como," discovering intimate pictures of her in Milan with another man. He has an employee illegally trace Ralph's IP address, revealing his physical address in Milan.

Peter travels to Milan and follows the half-Spanish, half-English cosmopolitan Ralph Cortés, striking up a conversation with him at a chess café. Over several meetings, Ralph – unaware of Peter's true identity – explains his twelve-year-long affair with Lisa. Having fallen in love with her despite knowing she was married, Ralph believes Lisa will soon rekindle their relationship. Concerned about her father, Abigail finds Ralph's messages and calls Ralph on Lisa's phone, confirming the affair. She confronts Peter in Milan, realizing he has become dangerously obsessed. Fixated on revenge, Peter goes to Ralph's apartment and discovers he is not the wealthy man he appears, but an impoverished building superintendent. Preparing to kill Ralph, Peter changes his mind and leaves.

Posing as Lisa, Peter emails Ralph, asking him to meet her at Lake Como. Ralph excitedly informs Peter, who gives him money to throw Lisa a lavish dinner party in London to seal their relationship. Buying expensive new clothes, Ralph arrives at the Villa d'Este to reunite with Lisa, only to be met by Peter, who reveals that he was Lisa's husband and that she died of cancer. In flashbacks, as Peter and Abigail care for the dying Lisa, Peter asks her to write down the place where she was happiest; Lisa writes down "Lake Como" for Peter to find, and has Abigail hide the note in one of the shoes she was wearing when she first met Ralph. Admitting that his pretensions of wealth are a lie, Ralph explains that Lisa knew the truth and paid off his debts, declaring that she truly loved him, and Peter leaves.

Back home, Peter decides to attend the dinner Ralph has arranged to celebrate Lisa, and invites Abigail and George. With Lisa's friends and loved ones gathered, Peter swallows his anger at Ralph and gives a heartfelt toast to his wife's memory, reconciling with Abigail and finally welcoming George to their family. As Ralph starts a new life as a hospital orderly in London, Peter and Abigail – having finally found closure in Lisa's death – return home.

Cast
 Liam Neeson as Peter Ryman
 Antonio Banderas as Ralph Cortés
 Laura Linney as Lisa Ryman
 Romola Garai as Abigail Ryman
 Pam Ferris as Vera
 Paterson Joseph as Ralph, Lisa's colleague
 Craig Parkinson as George
 Richard Graham as Eric
 Emma Fielding as Gail
 Amanda Drew as Joy
 Paul Ritter as Guy
 Joseph Long as Maître d'hôtel

Reception
The Other Man received negative reviews from film critics. It currently holds a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus: "Despite the best efforts of a talented cast, The Other Man is talky, witless and tension-free." It was a box office bomb as well, earning just over $1 million against its $15 million budget.

External links

2008 films
2000s mystery drama films
2008 romantic drama films
Adultery in films
American mystery drama films
American romantic drama films
British mystery drama films
British romantic drama films
2000s English-language films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about grieving
Films about widowhood
Films based on short fiction
Films set in Cambridge
Films set in Milan
Films shot in England
Films shot in Spain
Films scored by Stephen Warbeck
Films based on works by German writers
2008 drama films
2000s American films
2000s British films

The Other Man (2008 film)


Denzil Doyle C.M. is an electrical engineer and entrepreneur.

Career
He has become a  prominent figure in the Ottawa technology community having been the "founding president of Digital Equipment Corporation's Canadian subsidiary, one of the region's early high tech leaders. He ran the company for 18 years, during which annual sales reached $160 million." In his role with DEC he is especially notable for having brought together Canadian nuclear scientists with American DEC personnel to create the computers that evolved into the highly successful PDP-8 machines. Doyle is the Founder and Chairman of Doyletech Corporation, has been its President since November 1982. He is a Member of the Order of Canada.

References

Living people
Members of the Order of Canada
Canadian business executives
Year of birth missing (living people)

Denzil Doyle


The Dutch cruiser HNLMS Sumatra was a small protected cruiser with a heavy main gun.  The ship was named after the island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It was discarded in 1907.

Design and construction
The design resembled a smaller version of the Esmeralda concept (the 1883 protected cruiser built by Armstrong/Elswick shipyards for Chile) and is most similar in size to the Chinese protected cruiser Chi Yuan (1883) a ship built at about the same time as Esmeralda.
Sumatra had the 8.2-inch gun forward and the 5.9-inch gun aft, both in shields, with sponsons on the sides for the two 4.7-inch guns.  The Dutch Navy also built a larger protected cruiser with even heavier armament,  launched in 1892, which had an 11-inch gun forward and was most comparable to the Japanese protected cruisers of the  type. These ships represented a design philosophy in which navies that could not afford first-class battleships (including the Netherlands) mounted heavy weapons on coastal defense ships or moderately sized protected cruisers with the idea these ships would pose a threat to first-class opponents.

References

Bibliography

19th-century naval ships of the Netherlands
1890 ships

HNLMS Sumatra (1890)


Mary C. "Molly" Bingham is an American journalist and filmmaker.

Early life
Molly Bingham grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and went to Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, before getting her BA in 1990 at Harvard College in Medieval European History. In 1993 she traveled to Russia and Tibet and produced a portfolio from those trips that she showed to magazine and newspaper photo editors.

Career as a journalist
In 1994 she traveled to Rwanda to cover ongoing events after the genocide. From that time until 1998, Bingham focused her work on central Africa, including Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo (then called Zaire). In addition to working as a journalist, Bingham has worked on three projects with Human Rights Watch over the years, one in Burundi, one on small arms trafficking in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and later a short emergency project in Sierra Leone.

In August 1998 Bingham began work as official photographer to the vice president at the White House, a job documenting the life of the vice president that she continued until January 2001.

Bingham returned to Africa in the spring of 2001, working on a story for the New York Times Sunday Magazine on the mining of the mineral coltan that is used to coat computer chips. On September 11th, 2001, Bingham was in western Virginia on a training course for journalists, but returned to Washington, D.C. to photograph the Pentagon and the feeling in the capital in the wake of the attacks for the New Yorker. Post 9/11 Bingham has spent time in Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip, Iran and fourteen months in Iraq.

During the 2004–05 academic year Bingham won a mid-career Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and in 2011 was a Sulzberger Fellow at Columbia University. Bingham has won several awards including Pictures of the Year awards for her photography and an honorable mention from the Overseas Press Club for her story, "Ordinary Warriors: The Iraqi Resistance" that ran in the July 2004 issue of Vanity Fair. Bingham has given numerous talks at universities, on television and radio and is additionally one of five women journalists featured in the documentary Bearing Witness screened on A&E in May 2005.  Bingham was named one of "20 Women to Watch" by The Columbia Journalism Review in July 2012.

Bingham co-directed and produced the documentary film Meeting Resistance with journalist Steve Connors. The film was reported over ten months in Baghdad in 2003 and 2004, and features interviews with Iraqis (and one Syrian) directly involved in the violent resistance to the occupation of the country. Meeting Resistance opened in theatres in the U.S. in the fall of 2007 and was released on DVD the following year.  The film has subsequently been invited to screen around the world at universities, community groups and film festivals, as well as for US military audiences—including Baghdad where the directors were brought to how the film to military and diplomatic audiences.

The film won the "Golden Prize" at the Al Jazeera Film Festival among others and Bingham and Connors traveled extensively for sixteen months in support of the film and talking about their understanding of and experience in Iraq and how that knowledge translated into current events.

Bingham has expanded her work from photography to include writing and filmmaking. Her written work has been published in Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Nieman Reports and other online and print publications. After her Nieman Fellowship Bingham began considering the changes necessary within the structure of journalism to bring it into the current age. In 2009 she set up a site called "Transforming the Media" as a way to articulate her thinking on the media and interact with others on media issues.

Recent work

Molly is currently president and CEO of Orb Media, a non-profit journalism organization whose research and global reporting produces stories that matter to billions of people around the world. Orb simultaneously publishes with members of its Orb Media Network, a group of the world's agenda setting media, reaching audiences in 180+ countries. By working this way Orb's journalism catalyzes global dialogue, generating change.

Bingham is a trustee of  The Listen Campaign, a UK charity that campaigns for the needs and rights of the world's most vulnerable children, and on the advisory board of the  Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom focused on investigative journalism based in Louisville, KY.

External links
"ORBmedia" Official Website
Meeting Resistance Official website for Meeting Resistance

Video
Interview with Bingham and Connors, from Democracy Now! program, October 18, 2007
Op-Ed: Know Thine Enemy, published on the New York Times website on October 16, 2007

References

Harvard College alumni
Living people
Molly
Journalists from Kentucky
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
American documentary filmmakers
Kentucky women writers
American women non-fiction writers
American women documentary filmmakers
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women

Molly Bingham


Melissa McDermott is a former reporter for CBS News.  She is best known for being an anchor of the overnight CBS newscast, Up to the Minute.

Biography

Melissa McDermott is the daughter of Country Music Disc Jockey's Hall of Fame member and longtime Wichita, Kansas media personality "Ol' Mike" Oatman. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S. degree in broadcast news from the William Allen White School of Journalism and received her master's degree in Psychology from Pace University in New York.  She worked as the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor at KAYS-TV (now KBSH) in Hays, Kansas.

She worked at KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kansas, initially going by the name of Melissa Beck.  She and her ex-husband, Todd McDermott, were named co-anchors at KSNW.

McDermott later worked as 6 p.m. anchor and won several awards as an investigative reporter at  WJLA-TV in Washington, DC.

From 2000 through March, 2006, Melissa McDermott anchored CBS's overnight newscast, Up to the Minute.

McDermott now lives in the New York City area and is working on a number of documentaries.  She has two children.
Melissa worked as a clinician at St Christopher.inc in Dobbs Ferry NY,  and helping at-risk youth and their families prepare for their lives ahead.

Accomplishments

Melissa McDermott has covered presidential campaigns, the Oklahoma City bombing, and other events.  She has received many awards; including a national and two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, the SPJ Dateline Award, three Heartland Emmy Awards, an Ohio State Award, a National AP Award, a National Iris Award, and an Emmy Award.

References

External links
Melissa McDermott's CBS News biography

American television reporters and correspondents
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
University of Kansas alumni
CBS News people

Melissa McDermott


Leptospermum petersonii, commonly known as lemon-scented teatree, is a species of shrub or small tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has thin, fibrous or flaky bark, often strongly-scented elliptic to lance-shaped leaves, white flowers and fruit that are retained for several years. It is commonly grown as an ornamental and is regarded as a minor environmental weed in some areas.

Description
Leptospermum petersonii is a shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of about  or more. It has thin, rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the stems, and glabrous branchlets that have a flange under the leaf bases. New growth is often tinged with red or purple. The leaves are elliptical to narrow lance-shaped, mostly  long and  wide, often strongly-scented and lack a petiole. The flowers are white, about  in diameter and usually arranged singly on short side shoots. The flower buds have thin, papery, reddish brown bracts and bracteoles at the base but that usually fall as the bud develops. The floral cup is mostly glabrous, dark-coloured,  long and the sepals are hemispherical,  long. The petals are  long and the stamens  long. Flowering mainly occurs from December to January and the fruit is a capsule about  wide. The capsules remain on the younger stems but are lost as the plant ages.

Taxonomy and naming
Leptospermum petersonii was first formally described in 1905 by Frederick Manson Bailey in the Queensland Agricultural Journal from a specimen collected by W.J. Peterson on Wilsons Peak in January 1905.

Distribution and habitat
Lemon-scented teatree grows in sclerophyll forest or rainforest near creeks or on rocky escarpments south from Mount Timbeerwah in south-east Queensland to near Port Macquarie in New South Wales.

Ecology
This teatree is commonly grown in gardens from where it sometimes spreads. It has become established in some places beyond its natural range, including in native vegetation near Sydney and Melbourne and in Hawaii.

Uses

Essential oils
The essential oil from L. petersonii inhibits the pathological fungi Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus.

Use in horticulture
Lemon-scented teatree is well known as a garden plant, popular for its scent and attractiveness. It is fast growing and can be kept to shrub height by pruning. The ability to be pruned regularly also makes it well-suited for hedges, windbreaks and harvesting for distilled essential oils.

References

 Harden, G.J., Flora of New South Wales, Volume 2, .

peteronii
Myrtales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Plants described in 1905
Taxa named by Frederick Manson Bailey

Leptospermum petersonii


Andhranatyam is a dance in the Nattuva Mela tradition, one of the two ancient dance traditions in India. Natya Mela which is performed by men, and Nattuva Mela which women perform.

Andhranatyam, the ancient classical temple dance of Andhra which has been in vogue for the past 2000 years. It was performed in the Buddhist Aramas, temples, and royal courts by the cultured and dedicated female artists. Andhranatyam is formerly known with different names like Aradhana, Kacheri, Darbar,  Kelika, Chinna Melam, Mejuvani, and Dasi Ata, etc.

Unlike other female dances like Bharatanatyam, temple, and court dances, Andhranatyam had become inert at one point in time. It was later revived in 1970 and is being propagated for the last 50 years at national and international platforms, particularly in the Telugu-speaking regions

The Repertoire
Andhranatyam includes beautiful, delicate body movements with graceful gestures and slenderness of the Kaisiki Vritti, performed by the female artists. It has Agama, Asthana, and Prabandha styles in it. It is performed in Marga tradition in temples as prescribed in Agama sastras. With a tinge of the Desi tradition, it is performed in the classical style in temple asthanas and courts of kings called Kacheri, Darbar ata, etc. The Prabandha style is famous for its classical regional rendition with lokadharmi.

Andhranatyam is a combination of Agama, Asthana, and Prabandha traditions, which a female artiste can showcase on the same stage and in the same performance. It is an Eka Patra Kelika, i.e. a solo performance by a female artist. It has been designed and is being depicted as one of the earliest female-oriented dance traditions, with a well-knit repertoire to suit the modern theatre.

The distinct feature of Andhranatyam is the process that depicts the ancient tradition to suit the current stage. The repertoire contains the three traditions: Agama nartanam, Asthana nartanam, and Prabandha nartanam.

Agama Nartanam
Agama Nartanam, also called as Temple Dance. This form of repertoire is dedicated to the temple deities and performed in the temples.  The usage of traditional Kumbha Harathi as a part of the worship to the God is done.

In addition to the items in the image to the right, the following items are also performed:
Kauthams
 Kaivarams
 Ashtadikpalaka Aaradhana
 Navasandhi
 Adhyatma Ramayana Keerthanas, etc.

Asthana Nartanam

This form of the repertoire is performed in King's courts

In the Asthana sampradaya, selected items like Sabda, Swara, Sahithya Pallavis, Sabdam or salam jatis, Padavarnams, Padams, Javalis, Slokas, etc are performed. Asthana kelika in a temple is different from a kelika in the court of a king. According to the king's taste, the former leads the audience towards spiritualism, whereas the latter is for entertainment for kings, scholars, intellectuals, and others. Saatvikabhinayam predominates in the depiction of Padam. Slokabhinayam is unique to the version of "Anvayam." Padyams are also performed as part of the repertoire.

Prabandha Nartanam

This form of repertoire is performed in public places used as a method for story telling.

Kalapams are performed as part of the Prabandha nartanam. The Kalapams are Bhamakalapam, Gollakalapam, Radhamadhavam, etc. In Nattuva Mela tradition, the Bhamakalapam was performed for nine nights outside the temple and called Navajanardhana Parijatham. Earlier it was performed for nine consecutive nights at Kunti Madhava Temple by Late Pendyela Satyabhama and artists from the same family of Pithapuram.

See also
 Perini Sivatandavam
 Perini Natyam
 Vilasini Natyam

References

Classical dance genres of India
Culture of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Natyam


Flora Artashesi Martirosian (; February 5, 1957 – November 20, 2012) was an Armenian folk singer, founder of the "Artists for Peace" Foundation, and initiator of the cultural movement Never Again.

Biography
Flora Martirosian was born on February 5, 1957, in Leninakan (now Gyumri) to a family of an athlete and a housewife. She inherited her vocal skills from her mother. Martirosian studied at the Gyumri Musical School. Her participation in the Garun 73 contest in 1973 brought her the first prize. A graduate of the Yerevan State Conservatory, she later married Hrahat Gevorgyan, a journalist, in 1987. Martirosyan won her first international award in the Hamburg International Festival in 1978. The song Tsovastghik (author: Gusan Ashot) which brought the singer a great fame, was recognized as a top song for 15 years. Martirosian performed guest concerts in over 60 countries around the world. The family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1987 and returned to Yerevan in 1997. Martirosian was the principal of Yerevan's Armen Tigranyan Musical School between 1997-2001. She then again moved to Los Angeles after her husband received an appointment. Martirosian founded the Komitas Musical Academy in Los Angeles in 2002. In 2007, she established the Artists for Peace Charity Foundation which attracted a large number of world-renowned singers and Hollywood superstars who joined under the slogan "Never Again" to raise their voice of protest against genocides. Martirosian gave her first concert in Los Angeles in 2011. In 2005, she and Christine Pepelyan won an award called "The Best Duet" in Los Angeles.

Death
Martirosian died on November 20, 2012. Complications of a gallbladder surgery are thought to be the cause of her death. She was buried in Yerevan's Komitas City Pantheon on December 12, 2012.

The then-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan stated that she was "truly national", then continued "Audiences, which she collected in homeland and in the Diaspora, talk about the ethnic routes of her songs, which she has earned as a distinctive singer and Armenian artist".

Discography
Tsov Astghik (1994)
Uni Veradardz (1998)
Kangnir Qaravan (2002)
Qele Lao (2002)
Yeraz Tesa (2003)
Im Ughin (2005)
Menq (2007)
Paylogh Astgher (2007)

References

 Yerevan to host last farewell to celebrated singer , Tert.am

External links

1957 births
2012 deaths
20th-century Armenian women singers
Armenian folk singers
People from Gyumri
21st-century Armenian women singers

Flora Martirosian


Lumisterol is a compound that is part of the vitamin D family of steroid compounds. It is the (9β,10α) stereoisomer of ergosterol and was produced as a photochemical by-product in the preparation of vitamin D1, which was a mixture of vitamin D2 and lumisterol. Vitamin D2 can be formed from lumisterol by an electrocyclic ring opening and subsequent sigmatropic [1,7] hydride shift.

Lumisterol has an analog based on 7-dehydrocholesterol, known as lumisterol 3.

References

Vitamin D
Sterols

Lumisterol


Arthur Nicolaier (4 February 1862 in Cosel, Upper Silesia, Prussia – 28 August 1942 in Berlin) was a German Jewish internist.
Most famous for his work on discovering a cure for tetanus which was an extremely fatal disease if it wasn't treated in the correct way.
"Beiträge zur Aetiologie des Wundstarrkrampfes" (Contributions to the etiology of tetanus). He was a senior physician at the Göttingen university hospital 1897–1900 and then moved to Berlin. In 1921, he was appointed as an extraordinary professor of internal medicine at
Charité. He was removed from office in 1933 when the Nazis passed laws that made it illegal for Jews to be civil servants. He committed suicide  in 1942 when he learned that he was about to be deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Scientific contributions
As an assistant to Carl Flügge in Göttingen, Nicolaier discovered Clostridium tetani, the bacterium that causes tetanus, in 1884.

He was the first to use hexamethylentetramin (Urotropin) for treating urinary infections.

References

1862 births
1942 suicides
1942 deaths
19th-century German Jews
Tetanus
Suicides by Jews during the Holocaust
German Jews who died in the Holocaust
German internists
Suicides in Nazi Germany

Arthur Nicolaier


The Bornes Massif (French: Massif des Bornes) is a mountainous massif in the north French Prealps in the département of Haute-Savoie. It has 20 peaks higher than 2000 m and is a popular destination for winter sports. The Massif is the source of the celebrated cheese Reblochon.

Geography

Location

The massif is bounded on the east by the Thônes depression and the Aravis Range, where the highest peaks of the Northern Prealps are to be found, to the south-west by Lake Annecy and the Bauges Massif, and to the north by the valley of Arve and Chablais. The name "Aravis Massif" is also used to refer to the whole massif, possibly an effect of tourist marketing.

The massif can be accessed though numerous open valleys which separate the massif's peaks:
 From Annecy via the Bluffy col (631 m) or via the recently widened Dingy-Saint-Clair pass, both of which lead to Thônes,
 From Bonneville via the Borne gorge which leads to Saint-Jean-de-Sixt,
 From the east (Megève) via the Aravis col (1486 m, with a view of Mont Blanc) which leads to La Clusaz,
 From Cluses to the north-east via the col de la Colombière, closed in winter, which leads to Le Grand-Bornand,
 From the south (Faverges, Ugine) via the Marais col (843 m) which leads to Thônes.
Two important rivers traverse the massif:
 The Fier from Mont Charvin in the Aravis at Annecy passing by Thônes, the crossroads of the valleys,
 The Borne de la Pointe-Percée at Bonneville which flows into the Arve, passing by le Grand-Bornand and le Petit-Bornand.

Summits

Main summits of the massif, outside those from the Aravis range:
 Pointe Blanche, 2438m, highest point in the Massif, part of the Bargy range
 Pic de Jallouvre, 2408m part of the Bargy range
 Pointe du midi, 2364m Bargy range
 La Tournette, 2351m good view from Annecy lake
 Grand Bargy, 2301m
 Pointe de Balafrasse, 2296m
 Pointe Dzérat (or pointe Est du Midi), 2278m
 Pointe d'Almet, 2232m
 Pointe de la Grande Combe, 2210m
 Petit Bargy, 2098m
 le Buclon, 2072m
 la Cime de Février, 2056m
 Mount Lachat de Châtillon, 2050m (below le Grand-Bornand)
 l'Aiguille verte, 2045m
 Pointe de la Beccaz, 2041m
 le Crêt des Mouches, 2033m
 Mont Lachat, 2023m (north Thônes)
 Pointe de Deux Heures, 2018m
 Pointe de Banc Fleuri, 2009m
 la Montagne de Sous-Dine, 2004m
 Pointe d'Andey, 1877m
 Mont Veyrier, 1291m

Summits visible from Annecy (and the massif de la Tournette):
 Tête du Parmelan, 1832m
 Dents de Lanfon, 1824m
 Mount Veyrier, 1291m
 Mount Baron, 1254m (in the Veyrier mountains)

As well as its peaks, it has plateaus which are slightly elevated but difficult to access, such as the plateau des Glières tragically famous from the time of the Second World War.

Geology
As with all the prealpine massifs, the Aravis chain is primarily formed of limestone and its derivatives.

Activities

Tourist station
The massif benefits from exceptional snow considering its moderate altitude. It hosts two stations for the winter sports Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing, with pistes from 900m up to 2000m:
 Le Grand-Bornand (Chinaillon)
 Le Mont-Saxonnex (pronounced "saxxonay")
 Saint-Jean-de-Sixt

Tourist activities are also very popular in summer. The stations are first and foremost mountain villages where there remains significant farming activity.

The Glières Plateau is likewise a well-known site for cross-country skiing.

Economy
The massif is the source of reblochon, the famous cheese. Reblochon was first made in Le Grand-Bornand, and is now produced in large quantities using traditional methods in the massif's valleys. Two important markets are held weekly at Thônes and at Le Grand-Bornand.
There is also a notable wood industry.

See also
 Geography of the Alps

External links
  Geology of the Bornes Massif
  Mount Saxonnex
  The ancient glaciers of the Bornes Massif
 Bornes Massif on Google map

Mountains of Savoie
Mountains of Haute-Savoie
Mountain ranges of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

Bornes Massif


Andrew Lackfi (;  1310October 1359) was an influential nobleman and a successful military leader in the Kingdom of Hungary. He was Count of the Székelys between 1343 and 1350, Ban of Macsó from 1355 to 1356, and Voivode of Transylvania between 1356 and 1359.

Early life

Andrew was a younger son of Lack, or Ladislaus, of the Hermán kindred, who was Count of the Székelys from 1328. Andrew was born around 1310. His brother, Denis, who became a Franciscan friar, was the tutor of the future Louis I of Hungary. Lack's sons and grandsons held important offices after Louis I ascended the throne in 1342.

Early career

Andrew replaced his father as count of the Székelys and ispán, or head, of the Transylvanian Saxon district of Medgyes (now Mediaș in Romania) in 1343. Next year, he also became the head of the Saxon districts of Beszterce and Brassó (now Bistrița and Brașov in Romania). The office of the head of Beszterce district was attached to the honour of the Counts of the Székelys during his tenure.

To take revenge of the Tatar invasions of Transylvania in the previous years, Louis I dispatched Andrew to lead a military campaign across the territories subjected to the Golden Horde. Andrew and his Székely warriors crossed the Carpathian Mountains and imposed a decisive defeat upon a large Tatar army on 2 February 1345.

References

Sources

1359 deaths
Bans of Macsó
Counts of the Székelys
Voivodes of Transylvania
Andrew
14th-century Hungarian nobility

Andrew Lackfi


James Hong (; born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. He has worked in numerous productions in U.S. media since the 1950s, portraying a variety of roles. He is known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time. In 2022, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the American film and television industries.

Earlier in his career, Hong co-founded East West Players, the first Asian American theatre organization and the longest continuously running minority theatre in the United States, to increase Asian American representation in the industry. Hong became known to audiences through starring in the detective series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1957–1958), and appeared in numerous shows including Hawaii Five-O (1969–1974), Bonanza (1960), Perry Mason (1962–1963), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965–1966), I Spy (1965–1967), and Kung Fu (1972–1975). He also guest starred in numerous sitcoms including his memorable role as Bruce in the Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant" (1991).

He has appeared in numerous films, in both comedic and dramatic roles. He has acted in films such as Soldier of Fortune (1955), Flower Drum Song (1961), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Chinatown (1974) and its sequel The Two Jakes (1990), The In-Laws (1979), Airplane! (1980), True Confessions (1981), Blade Runner (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Wayne's World 2 (1993), Balls of Fury (2007), Safe (2012), and R.I.P.D. (2013). Hong gained newfound prominence and acclaim for his role as the elderly grandfather, Gong Gong, in the Academy Award winning science fiction absurdist comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) for which he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award.

As a voice actor, Hong has voiced numerous roles including Chi-Fu in Mulan (1998), Daolon Wong on the animated television series Jackie Chan Adventures (2002–2004), Professor Chang in Teen Titans (2003–2006), Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda media franchise, Zong Shi in Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021), Father Level Bests in Wendell & Wild (2022), and Mr. Gao in Turning Red (2022).

Early life and education
Hong was born on February 22, 1929, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chinese emigrant parents Ng Fok Hong (吳福堂; aka Frank Wu Hong) and Lee Suey Far (李瑞花; aka Lee Shui Fa). His father emigrated from Hong Kong to Chicago, Illinois, via Canada, and later moved to Minneapolis where he owned a restaurant and was leader of the local Hip Sing Tong. Hong's paternal grandfather was from Taishan.

For his early education, Hong moved to Hong Kong, where he lived in Kowloon, before returning to the United States at the age of 10. Growing up, Hong stated he was the only Asian student in a class of 500 children. As a result, he was the victim of bullying and racism by classmates who targeted him because he was seen as a foreigner and because he could not speak English well. He graduated from Minneapolis Central High School. He first developed an interest in performing arts after watching Peking opera performers rehearse at his father's shop.

Hong studied civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he concentrated the majority of his free time on moving plates and fixing templates for the drill squad.  However, his studies were soon interrupted as the Korean War began in early 1950s, and Hong was drafted into the United States Army. After the war, Hong moved to Los Angeles in 1953 with a friend, where he would finish his degree at the University of Southern California. Hong soon began working full time as a road engineer for Los Angeles County during the day, while acting in the evenings, the weekends, and during his vacation and sick days. He eventually quit engineering for good, after five and a half years, to devote himself to acting and voice work full-time.

Military service
Hong served in the United States Army at Fort McClellan and Camp Rucker in Alabama with the Special Services for 18 months from 1952 to 1953. After finishing his training for the day, he would entertain soldiers during the Korean War; upon witnessing Hong's performing prowess, the camp general asked Hong to stay at Camp Rucker and be in charge of the camp's live shows rather than deploy overseas.

Hong reflected on this experience and how it may have saved his life:

Career

1950s: Early career
Hong has played over 600 television and film roles. His career in show business began in the 1950s when he redubbed soundtracks of several Asian films. He dubbed the voices of characters Ogata (Akira Takarada) and Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata) in the 1956 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, as well as the title character in The Human Vapor.

In February 1954, Hong appeared on the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx. In this appearance, he did a number of impersonations including one of Groucho himself. Hong and his partner won $140 in the quiz. They contested the major prize of $2000 but did not win. The following year he acted opposite Clarke Gable in the war film Soldier of Fortune (1955). In 1956, Hong was cast as Jimmy Ling in the episode "Red Tentacles" of the Western aviation adventure series Sky King, starring Kirby Grant. He also guest-starred in the NBC Western series The Californians.

In 1957–1958, he was cast as the "Number One Son", Barry Chan, in the British-American series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan starring J. Carrol Naish as Charlie Chan. In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Hong revealed that Naish in a racist outburst had him fired from the series for missing only one line. Hong described Naish as a very prejudiced person and how Naish's actions were very hurtful to him. The role of the Number One Son was played by Keye Luke in the predecessor films. However, Keye Luke's character was known as Lee Chan.

In 1959, he appeared as a prince on an episode of Walt Disney's ABC series, Zorro. He was thereafter cast as Chung Lind in the 1960 episode "East of Danger" in the David Janssen NBC crime drama series Richard Diamond, Private Detective. From 1960 to 1962, he appeared four times on the ABC/Warner Brothers crime drama Hawaiian Eye, twice each on the ABC series Hong Kong and Adventures in Paradise, and once on ABC's related series, The Islanders.

1960–1979
Hong's first appearance as a host in a Chinese restaurant was in the Rodgers and Hammerstein film musical Flower Drum Song (1961). In 1962, he appeared on CBS's Perry Mason as Dean Chang in "The Case of the Weary Watchdog". On September 23, 1963, Hong hit the prime time slot playing spy Wen Lee in, "The Hundred Days of the Dragon", the second episode of ABC's "The Outer Limits" first season. That year Hong also played Louis Kew in "The Case of the Floating Stones". He also appeared three times on the NBC military sitcom Ensign O'Toole. In 1964, he appeared in an episode of Kentucky Jones. In 1965, Hong was one of the original founding members of the East West Players, an early Asian American theatre organization. Also in 1966, he played the bar owner Mr. Shu in The Sand Pebbles. Hong also appeared in several episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O.

Hong had a small part on a 1972 episode of CBS's The Bob Newhart Show. Hong then appeared as a host in a Chinese restaurant in the 1975 All In the Family episode "Edith Breaks Out". He was a frequent guest star on the 1972–1975 ABC television series Kung Fu, joined the cast on the final season of CBS's Switch, as Wang, and also played a flight attendant in the original 1979 film In 1975 he played restaurant owner Mr. Wong on All in the Family; the episode was entitled, "Edith Breaks Out". He appeared as a doctor accused of performing an illegal abortion in the Blake Edwards movie The Carey Treatment in 1972. He was also in the 1979 film The In-Laws.

1980–1999

He appeared as a uniformed man in the 1980 comedy cult film Airplane! He has also directed such films as Teen Lust. Hong played immortal ghost sorcerer Lo Pan in John Carpenter's cult classic Big Trouble in Little China (1986), eye manufacturer Chew in Blade Runner, Evelyn Mulwray's loyal and vigilant butler in Chinatown and The Two Jakes, and a low-rent private eye in Black Widow.

He also appeared in the film The Vineyard (1989). Hong portrayed Chow Ting, a dry cleaner with the power to wash sins and guilt from a person's conscience in the 1985 Tales from the Darkside episode "It All Comes Out in the Wash". Hong then appeared in a memorable role as Bruce, the host in a Chinese restaurant in Seinfeld episode "The Chinese Restaurant" (1991). Hong played Jeff Wong, Cassandra Wong's martial arts expert father, in the comedy sequel Wayne's World 2, and was featured as the head of the Scarred Foot society in the pilot for The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993). In 1994, he, his wife Susan and daughter April appeared as a family riding mountain bikes beneath the Hollywood sign in the mountain-bike travel-adventure documentary, Full Cycle: A World Odyssey.

He had a small role in the independent film Broken Vessels (1998). He played the role of Mr. Takato in the movie Chasing Zoey, the final episode of Zoey 101. His character taught Michael Barret how to operate a manual transmission, and it was revealed at the end of the episode that he did not exist. Hong also voiced the character Daolon Wong, an evil wizard in the Jackie Chan Adventures television series, and was the voice of Chi-Fu in Disney's Mulan.

2000–2019
Hong also played a similar role in several episodes of The Big Bang Theory during its first season, as well as in the "Color Blind" episode during the first season of Alias. Hong appeared as a villain in a season three episode of The X-Files. He appeared in two episodes of The West Wing (Ep. 1.11; 3.15) as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States. He also played Mr. Soo on The King of Queens, an Asian restaurant owner again who rents Doug Heffernan and his friends a loft apartment above his store, in the episode "Apartment Complex" (2006). Additionally, Hong had guest-starred on Friends, playing Hoshi, the former paid assassin and boxing coach for Monica's boyfriend Pete (played by Jon Favreau) in the episode "The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion".

Among Hong's other roles include in A.N.T. Farm, Mandarin in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, and Professor Chang in Teen Titans. He made a cameo appearance on the television series Las Vegas as a presumed cheating monk. Hong also lent his voice to the Cartoon Network animation Chowder as Mung Daal's mentor in the "Won-Ton Bombs" episode. In 2006, Hong voiced the character Mayor Tong in Avatar: The Last Airbender in the second season's episode titled "Avatar Day" in addition to his previous role as Monk Tashi in the first-season episode "The Storm" in 2005. In 2006, he also voiced the character of the High Lama in the film Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!

Hong's voice also appeared as Colonel Zhou Peng in the video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Dr. Chang in Def Jam Icon (2007), Ancient Wu in True Crime: Streets of LA, and reprising his role as Chew in the Blade Runner video game. His most recent appearances were in the films Balls of Fury and The Day the Earth Stood Still. In 2008, he voiced Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda, the adoptive father of Po and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance; he later reprised the role on Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special and won an Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Television Production. Furthermore, he and Lucy Liu have been collaborated in the feature film series and in the television series adaptation, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. After the release of the third film he stated that he hoped to continue in the role, though due to his advanced age he wanted the filmmakers to start work on it quickly. He would reprise again for subsequent streaming series Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny and Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. In 2015, Hong voiced Azmorigan on Star Wars Rebels as well as the Sugi arms dealer Endente in an unfinished four-part story arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars; the rough animatics of which were posted on the Star Wars website.

He appeared in the film Safe (2012). He also provides the voices for the jeweler NPC Covetous Shen in Diablo III, Master Bruised Paw in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Bucky (for two episodes) from the television series Archer, and Uncle Po in Sleeping Dogs. In 2013, he appeared as Ogisan, the gift shop keeper from the Incredible Crew sketch "Magical Video Game Controller" alongside Jeremy Shada and Shauna Case. He also appeared in the film R.I.P.D. (2013). In 2014, he voiced the character Ho Chan in the 2012 3D animated cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a clear parody of his character in Big Trouble in Little China, David Lo Pan.

Hong guest-starred in a 2015 episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the father of Melinda May, played by Ming-Na Wen, with whom he co-starred in Mulan. In 2018, it was announced that he was producing a feature screenplay about a grandfather and his estranged granddaughter who realize, through an unexpected adventure that pushes them into another world, that family relationships are the key to survival. Later it was revealed that the film's title is Patsy Lee & the Keepers of the 5 Kingdoms, directed by Zack Ward, starring Michelle Fang.

2020s–present
Hong appears in the A24 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was released on March 25, 2022. He won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture with the film's ensemble. He attended the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony, where the film garnered 7 Oscars from 11 nominations, wearing a bow tie with googly eyes.

Hong voiced Grandpa Wing in the animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, released on Max in 2023.

Personal life

Hong lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Susan Tong whom he married in 1977. The couple have three daughters and eight grandchildren.

Hong is a Presbyterian; he attended the Westminster Presbyterian Church with his family as a child in Minneapolis.

In 2020, Daniel Dae Kim started a GoFundMe campaign to get Hong a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received a star as a member of the 2022 class of honorees, becoming the oldest person to receive the honor at age 93.

Filmography

Selected filmography

Soldier of Fortune (1955)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
Flower Drum Song (1961)
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
The Carey Treatment (1972)
Chinatown (1974)
Bound for Glory (1976)
The In-Laws (1979)
Airplane! (1980)
True Confessions (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
Breathless (1983)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)
The Two Jakes (1991)
The Perfect Weapon (1991)
Wayne's World 2 (1993)
The Shadow (1994)
Mulan (1998)
Def Jam Icon (2007)
Balls of Fury (2007)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Safe (2012)
R.I.P.D. (2013)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
Sherlock Gnomes (2018)
Wendell & Wild (2022)
Turning Red (2022)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

Awards and nominations

References

Sources

External links

1929 births
Living people
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James Hong


Neoauthoritarianism (), also known as Chinese Neoconservativism or New Conservatism () since the 1990s, is a current of political thought within the People's Republic of China (PRC), and to some extent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that advocates a powerful state to facilitate market reforms. It may be described as classically conservative even if elaborated in self-proclaimed "Marxist" theorization.

Initially gaining many supporters in China's intellectual world, the failure to develop democracy led to intense debate between democratic advocates and those of Neoauthoritarianism in the late 1980s before the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Neoauthoritarianism remains relevant to contemporary Chinese politics, and is discussed by both exiled intellectuals and students as an alternative to the immediate implementation of liberal democracy, similar to the strengthened leadership of Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

Based on reworked ideas of Samuel Huntington, Huntington had advised the post-Communist East European elite take a gradualist approach to market economics and multiparty reform, hence "new authoritarianism". A rejection of the prevalent more optimistic modernization theories, but nonetheless offering faster reform than the socialist market economy, policy makers close to Premier Zhao Ziyang would be taken by the idea. The doctrine may be typified as being close to him ideologically as well as organizationally. In early March 1989, Zhao presented Wu's idea of neoauthoritarianism as a foreign idea in the development of a backward country to Deng Xiaoping, who compared it to his own ideology.

Background
Post-Mao China stressed a "pragmatic approach to rebuilding the country's economy", employing "various strategies of economic growth" following the 1978 Third Plenum that made Deng Xiaoping the top leader of China, beginning the Chinese economic reform. By 1982 the success of China's market experiments had become apparent, making more radical strategies seem possible, if not desirable. This led to the lifting of price controls and agricultural decollectivization, signaling the abandonment of the New Economic Policy, or economic Leninism, in favour of market socialism.

Alongside economic development, political changes were made as well, departing from totalitarianism towards what Harry Harding characterizes as a "consultative authoritarian regime." One desire of political reform was to "restore normalcy and unity to elite politics so as to bring to an end the chronic instability of the late Maoist period and create a more orderly process of leadership succession." With cadre reform, individual leaders in China, recruited for their performance and education, became more liberal, with less ideological loyalty.

History

Emergence
Having begun in the era of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, decentralization accelerated under Deng Xiaoping. Writing in 1994, in an apparently neoauthoritarian/neoconservative vein, Zheng Yongnian considers of the era that "Deng's early reform decentralized power to the level of local government (with the goal) to decentralize power to individual enterprises... But this attempt... ran afoul of the growing power of local government, which did not want individual enterprises to retain profit (and) began bargaining with the central government over profit retention, (seizing) decision-making power in the enterprises. This intervention inhibited the more efficient behavior that reforms sought to elicit from industry; decentralization... limited progress."

Though the government took a clear stance against liberalization in December 1986, political discussions centered in Beijing would nonetheless emerge in academic circles in 1988 in the form of democracy and Neoauthoritarianism. Neoauthoritarianism would catch the attention of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in early 1988 when Wu Jiaxiang wrote an article in which he concluded that the British monarchy initiated modernization by "pulling down 100 castles overnight", thus developmentally linking autocracy and freedom as preceding democracy and freedom.

Persistence as Neoconservativism

With the failure of democracy in Russia, and the good performance of Singapore, neo-conservatism would continue to infiltrate the upper echelons of the CCP. Most associated with Shanghai intellectuals, Wang Huning, a leading advocate in the 1980s, would go on to become a close advisor to CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin in the 1990s. The neo-conservatives would enjoy Jiang's patronage.

Neoauthoritarianism lost favor after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Henry He considers that, while June 4 halted the movement for democracy, because neoauthoritarianism avoids the issue of popular involvement, it would therefore be a downfall for it and General Secretary Zhao Ziyang as well. He considers it to have transformed into a kind of "neo-conservatism" after that.

New Conservatism or neoconservatism () argued for political and economic centralization and the establishment of shared moral values. The movement has been described in the West by political scientist Joseph Fewsmith. Neoconservatives are opposed to radical reform projects and argue that an authoritarian and incrementalist approach is necessary to stabilize the process of modernization.

Joseph Fewsmith writes that, the 1989 crackdown aside, the government lacked the resources to fundamentally address the problems of the worsening agricultural sector, shifting the past conservative-reform dynamic to one of guiding marketization and managing the consequences of reform. Writing in 1994, Zheng Yongnian considered capitalism as providing a check on state power by dividing public and private spheres, and that "Neoconservativism" was becoming popular at that time, in contrast to liberal intellectuals who argued for the collapse of the centralized state as necessary to economic growth. He writes that "In order to introduce a true market economy, Beijing has to free individual enterprises from local administrative meddling and regain control over funds for central investments in the infrastructure. The state must first recentralize in order to deepen decentralization, as many authors suggest."

Still considering democracy a long-term goal, the events of June 4 seemed to confirm the "neoconservatives" belief in a strong state, considering China's autocratic model to actually be weak and ineffectual. They also consider a strong state important in economic growth along the lines of Asian Tiger economies and continued to draw ideas from Samuel Huntington, particularly his book Political Order in Changing Societies. Whatever his use as a foreigner who advocated limiting the scope of democracy, his ideas seemed to have merit on their own.

Social critic Liu Xiaobo believed that the CCP grew conservative in response to 1989, without any new ideas, and apart from "neo-conservativism" conservatism itself became popular in intellectual circles along with the revival of old Maoist leftism.

An important neoconservative document was the 1992 China Youth Daily editorial "Realistic Responses and Strategic Options for China after the Soviet Upheaval", which responded to the fall of the Soviet Union. "Realistic Responses" described the end of the Soviet state as the result of "capitalist utopianism", and argued that the CCP should transform from a "revolutionary party" into a "ruling party". The authors believed that the party should depart from the legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution and reformulate socialism according to China's particular national conditions.

The neoconservatives enjoyed the patronage of Jiang Zemin during his term as top leader and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1989–2002), and Jiang's theory of the Three Represents has been described as a "bowdlerized form of neoconservatism". Prominent neoconservative theorists include Xiao Gongqin, initially a leading neoauthoritarian who promoted "gradual reform under strong rule" after 1989, and Wang Huning, who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the CCP's highest executive body, headed by CCP general secretary Xi Jinping in 2017.

Theory
A central figure, if not principal proponent of Neoauthoritarianism, the "well-connected" Wu Jiaxiang was an advisor to Premier Zhao Ziyang, the latter being a major architect of the Deng Xiaoping reforms. Essentially, Wu restated some ideas presented by Marxist scholar Rong Jian, and through him Samuel Huntington.

Samuel Huntington's Political Order in Changing Societies rejected economic development or modernization as transferable to the political sphere as a mere variable of the former. He preconditioned democracy on institutionalization and stability, with democracy and economic change undermining or putting strain on political stability in poor circumstances. He considered the measure of a political system to be its ability to keep order. Writing in the 1960s, he lauded the United States and Soviet Union equally; what the Soviet Union lacked in social justice was made up for in strong controls.

By the late 1980s, many elements of Maoism had been abandoned in China and a complete transition to capitalism seemed possible to many given past performance. Though needing restating by Wu Jiaxiang to receive attention, Marxist scholar Rong Jian proposed a neoauthoritarianism requiring a strong state and reform-minded elite, or "benevolent dictatorship", to facilitate market reform and with it democracy.

Chinese theory does not generally advocate repression. Despite its dictatorial program, neoauthoritarianism seems viewed even by its more-progressive opponents among the Chinese as having democracy as a long-term goal through building markets, with which democracy is ultimately co-dependent (and may have been rejected as too radical partly for this reason).

With a more Marxistic foundation, Neoauthoritarianism is differentiated from both Maoism and Huntington by holding economic change to be a condition for political change, while late Maoism considered either as being able to facilitate the other. Moreover, the idea that superstructural development was necessary to facilitate economic growth seemed dubious to Chinese leadership given the explosion of the market, giving credence to the idea.

Wu considered considered social developments like liberal democracy unable to proceed simply from new authorities. Democracy has to be based on the development of the market, because he market reduces the number of public decisions, the number of people seeking power and political rights for economic bernefit, and therefore the "cost" of political action. The separation of the political and economic spheres lays a foundation for a further separation of powers, thereby negating autocracy despite the centralizing tendency of the state. The market also defines interests, increasing "responsibility" and thereby decreasing the possibility of bribery in preparation for democratic politics. On the other hand, political actions become excessive without a market, or with a mixed market, because a large number of people will seek political posts, raising the "cost" of political action and making effective consultation difficult. To avoid this problem, a country without a developed market has to maintain strongman politics and a high degree of centralism.

Socialistic resurgence
Despite comparison to his own views, Deng Xiaoping's approach would appear to have been more moderated in approach than Neoauthoritarianism would suggest, favoring continued state control over the economy.

Although China's Leninist, or New Economic Policy (NEP) type model had been abandoned by 1982, there was not initially any attempt at privatization. Despite the dictates of the neoauthoritarian current that rapid industrialization lead to privatization in the countryside and the encouraging of commerce, decollectivization was very slow. The agricultural system remained largely unchanged following the program for family farming that had been begun in the 1970s, which was finished by late 1983.

The death of Deng Xiaoping would seem to have removed the last barrier to Jiang Zemin's neoauthoritarian program. However, though the market performed very well, and China's state could be considered "strong" enough for neoauthoritarianism, privatization, even while maintaining a mixed economy, would require a massive program that might threaten the regime with unemployment, and given the problems in Eastern Europe, the party seems to have taken a more realistic route than neoauthoritarianism suggested. Despite Jiang Zemin's rapprochement with Dengist reformism, reception of free trade remained shallow, with a higher level of state ownership than any of the other East Asian economies.

With price liberalization appearing much more feasible, the party took on a massive program in 1996. However, the ideological vision followed for the 1990s continued to be market socialism, of a sort advocated by the conservative Chen Yun and which might be compared to John Roemer, with price liberalization being completed in 2003. Moreover, price liberalization can be considered as "merely continuing a policy begun in the 1980s." "Market socialism" was seen as doing away with the informational problems of the planned economy while possibly avoiding the inequalities of share ownership.

Growth aside, the economic expansion and price liberalization of the 1980s led to inflation, contributing to the growth of the democratic movement preceding the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, while the old Leninist or NEP model continued to attract Old Left intellectuals. The 1990s also saw the emergence of the New Left of Wang Shaoguang and Cui Zhiyuan against market economics, with Wang providing powerful arguments against decentralization and inequality and Cui for workplace democracy based on Mao's Angang Constitution. On the other hand, the nationalistic He Xin portrayed the attempts by the World Bank to impose neoliberalism as cultural imperialism if not suicide, gaining him many allies. More generally, Chinese leadership saw parliamentarism, independent judiciary and a free media as key components to (more real) private property if China was to develop a market, decreasing its appeal.

Legacy
China's measures for successful economic and political stabilization led many scholars and politicians to accept the role of an authoritarian regime in fast and stable economic growth. Although the Chinese state is seen as legitimizing democracy as a modernization goal, economic growth is seen as more important.

In his 1994 article Zheng Yongnian elaborates that, "Administrative power should be strengthened in order to provide favorable conditions, especially stable politics, for market development. Without such a political instrument, both 'reform' and 'open door' are impossible...  A precondition of political development is the provision of very favorable conditions for economic progress. Political stability must be given highest priority... without stable politics, domestic construction is impossible, let alone an 'open door' policy. So, if political reform or democracy undermines political stability, it is not worthwhile. In other words, an authoritarian regime is desirable if it can produce stable politics."

Deng Xiaoping explains: "Why have we treated student demonstrations so seriously and so quickly? Because China is not able to bear more disturbance and more disorder." Given the dominance of the Chinese state, Zheng believes that, when it is finally implemented, democracy in China is more likely to be a gift from the elite to the society rather than brought about by internal forces.

A 2018 study of schools of political theory in contemporary China identified neoconservatism, still alternatively named neoauthoritarianism, as a continuing current of thought alongside what are now the academically more prominent Chinese New Left, New Confucianism, and Chinese liberalism.

Criticism and views
When neoauthoritarianism emerged to scholarly debate, Rong Jian opposed his old idea as regressive, favoring the multiparty faction. He would become famous for a news article on the matter.

Chinese-Canadian sociologist Yuezhi Zhao views the neoauthoritarians as having attempted to avoid an economic reform crisis through dictatorship, and Barry Sautman characterizes them as reflecting the policy of "pre-revolutionary Chinese leaders" as well as "contemporary Third World strongmen", as part of ideological developments of the decade he considers more recognizable to westerners as conservative and liberal. Sautsmans sums its theory with a quote from Su Shaozi (1986): "What China needs today is a strong liberal leader."

Li Cheng and Lynn T. White nonetheless regard the neoauthoritarians as resonating with technocracy emerging in the 1980s as a result of "dramatic" policy shifts in 1978 that promoted such to top posts. Henry He considers the main criticism of neoauthoritarianism to be its continued advocacy of an "old" type of establishment, relying on charismatic leaders. His view is corroborated by Yan Yining and Li Wei, with the addition that for Yan what is needed is law, or Li democracy, administrative efficiency and scientific government. Li points out that previous crisis in China were not due to popular participation, but power struggles and corruption, and that an authoritarian state does not usually separate powers. A criticism by Zhou Wenzhang is that neoauthoritarianism only considers problems of authority from the angle of centralization, similarly considering the main problem of authority to be whether or not it is exercised scientifically.

See also

Politics of China
Dang Guo
Authoritarianism
Benevolent dictatorship
Conservatism
Neoconservatism
Technocracy
Traditionalist conservatism

References

Conservatism in China
Politics of China
Authoritarianism
Contemporary Chinese philosophy

Neoauthoritarianism (China)


Dork Diaries Is A Nickelodeon Canadian-American Childrens Animated Educational Television Series Produced By Nelvana Limited In Assassction With YTV Treehouse TV and Nickelodeon Animation Studio (Poilt Only)

Plot
In the first book, Nikki Maxwell had always wanted an iPhone so she could become a popular girl at school, she got a telephone but in her locker. Before she starts eighth grade, Nikki hoped her mom bought her an iPhone as a back to school present. She becomes very disappointed that her mom got her a diary instead. So when she starts eighth grade on a scholarship her dad got her due to his bug extermination contract with the horrible!!! school, she doesn't want anyone to know she only attends the school due to her dad's extermination contract. She is devastated to have a locker next to the most popular girl in school, Mackenzie Hollister, who makes nasty comments about other girls. So when she goes to class one day, Mackenzie hands her an invitation to her big birthday bash. Nikki thought she was going to be invited to the party, but Mackenzie wanted her to pass it to her best friend, Jessica, who sits behind Nikki. Then Nikki finds out about the school's annual art competition, in which the grand prize is $500. She went to the office to fill out a form, but she fills out a paper to sign up to be a Library Shelving Assistant. Nikki eventually does sign up for the art competition, and enters a watercolour she painted in art camp. The day the art is due, her painting is destroyed by her dad's van. So her friends and crush team up to make an art project from pictures of tattoos Nikki did with her lucky pen. Her art wins the art contest, and Nikki is excited to receive the $500.

Series of books
American children's books

Characters

Nikki Maxwell: Dorky, writes in diary. Cute crush, 2 BFF's, pretty decent artist, experiences bullying a lot. Goes to Westchester on an extermination scholarship. Her real name is Nicole.

Brandon Roberts - Nikki's crush, volunteers at Fuzzy Friends, secretly likes Nikki too. His grandma, Betty, is owner of Fuzzy Friends.

Zoeysha E Franklin- Short name, Zoey, her dad is executive media producer (allows her to meet all celebrities). Mom is an attorney. She and Chloe are Nikki's BFF's.

Chloe C Garcia- Has Latin origins, her dad is an author and owns big library (allows her to read all novels). She and Zoey are also the back-up singers of Nikki's band, Actually, I'm Not Really Sure Yet.

Mackenzie Hollister- bully, spoiled brat, rich, lip-gloss addict, always wears designer clothes and shoes, blonde hair extensions. Like Nikki, she also has a little sister (who is named Amanda) and she is a lot like Brianna. In the 10th book of the Dork Diaries series (Tales from a Not-So-Perfect Pet Sitter), Amanda becomes Brianna's best friend at her ballet class. Mackenzie is also the leader of the CCP (Cute, Cool, and Popular) clique.

Brianna Lynn Maxwell
 Nikki's bratty little 6-year-old sister. Brianna is afraid of the tooth fairy because Nikki told her the tooth fairy collects children's teeth to make dentures for old people. She has a friend named Miss Penelope (which is her own hand with a face drawn on it with an ink pen). She thinks Brandon has cooties.

Jessica Hunter
 The second highest-ranking CCPs at WCD and Mackenzie's best friend. She also dislikes Nikki and is more than super mean to her. Jessica has blonde hair and loves the color pink. Her last name (Hunter) was revealed in Dork Diaries 3 1/2: How to Dork Your Diary.

Violet Baker
The most popular girl out of the most unpopular people. When she signs up to run for chairperson of WCD's Halloween dance, she loses to MacKenzie Hollister and signs up for clean-up committee instead. When Mackenzie quits, Violet becomes head of the entertainment committee. She has a huge iTunes collection and is in a wheelchair. She appears in the second and third book. In Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not So Talented Pop Star, it is revealed Violet plays the piano. She is the pianist in Nikki's band, Actually, I'm Not Sure Yet.

 Theodore L. "Theo" Swagmire III
 One of the unpopular boys in WCD and one of Nikki's friends. He has a big crush on Mackenzie. He was later really happy to hear the bit of news that Mackenzie's date was the lead singer of the band (as he was the lead singer), especially when he wanted to ask Mackenzie but was sure she would reject him. He is known for being the school nerd, and in Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not So Talented Pop Star, it is revealed he plays guitar. He is lead guitarist in Nikki's band, Actually, I'm Not Sure Yet. He hopes to one day go to Hogwarts. He now has a crush on Zoey Franklin because they went together as dates to the Sweetheart Dance in Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So Happy Heartbreaker. They held hands, slow-danced, and may have even kissed at the dance.

Marcy Simms
Nikki meets Marcy through her post as Miss-Know-It-All. Marcy sends an anonymous letter to Miss Know-It-All, saying that she's new, being bullied by some other girls, and can't find friends. Nikki tells her to hang in there, and keeps a look out for the new girl. She soon finds Marcy, and invites her to Brandon's birthday party, where Marcy has a great time. Marcy is Mackenzie's assistant fashion director for the newspaper, but is bullied by Mackenzie, and is deemed to be unfashionable by the latter. Marcy wears sports glasses and has short hair.

Marcus

Marcus is a recurring character in the Dork Diaries series. He is the guitarist of Nikki's band, Actually, I'm Not Really Sure Yet. He appears in Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So Talented Pop Star and Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So Happy Heartbreaker. He appears to be a shy, nice, and thoughtful character in Dork Diaries and is also known as one of the smartest people in school along with Theodore L. Swagmire III. He also has a crush on Chloe Garcia and the both of them went on a date at the Sweetheart Dance in Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So Happy Heartbreaker. They held hands, slow-danced, and took a keepsake picture together. They also may have kissed. Nikki Maxwell, Brandon Roberts, Zoey Franklin, and Theodore L. Swagmire III are all Marcus' friends.

Tiffany Davenport

Tiffany is the secondary antagonist of the Dork Diaries series. She is a student at North Hampton Hills International Academy, along with her BFFs, Hayley and Ava. She debuted in Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So Friendly Frenemy. She is Nikki's enemy, and Mackenzie's frenemy. Her mother found out in book 12 that she was a cyberbully, and forced her to do community service doing the summer (which Tiffany really disliked). André is her stepbrother.

Andre: Andre is the stepbrother of Tiffany. He was introduced in Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Secret Crush Catastrophe (the 12th book of the Dork Diaries series). He is one of the main antagonists in the newer books but turned into a protagonist in the story. André strongly rivals Brandon Roberts and tries to undermine his relationship with Nikki Maxwell as well as the popular ship Nandre. He is also the first and only friend of Nikki to call her Nicole.

Dork Diaries


Thinker could mean:
 an intellectual - the one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas.
 The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin.
 Thinker (comics), a pair of comic book characters at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, respectively.

Thinker


In sports, parity is participating teams having roughly equivalent levels of talent. In such a league, the "best" team is not significantly better than the "worst" team. That leads to more competitive contests in which the winner cannot be easily predicted. The opposite condition, which could be considered "disparity" between teams, is a condition in which the elite teams are so much more talented that the lesser teams are hopelessly outmatched.

Different major governing organizations attempt to achieve financial and/or competitive parity in different ways. For example, the National Football League (NFL) in the US has established the shared revenue plan in which all teams equally benefit from television revenue and sales of NFL franchised goods. All major leagues of North America use a draft system to ensure that the best prospects are allocated to the teams that are the most in need of them.

In much of the world outside North America, parity is enforced through promotion and relegation: the weakest teams in a league are forcibly expelled from the league and switch places with the best teams in a lower league.

Many consider the NFL to be the most "fair" or competitive league, with many different teams having a chance to win each year. In the NFL, complete parity would be a state in which on any given game, any given team can win any given game. The appearance of parity in the NFL over the course of the entire season may be something of an illusion; the New England Patriots, in particular, were noted for a prolonged dynasty in the 21st century under starting quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick, which league policies failed to break up, while their division rivals, the Buffalo Bills, simultaneously suffered through a 17-season playoff drought but may also have been harmed by Buffalo's small market, high taxes, and poor reputation as a destination city. A franchise may struggle because of ineptitude in talent evaluation, coaching, player development, organizational structure, or overall team and player operations. A league with parity would, in theory, allow such struggling teams to identify and fix those issues and ensure that a dynasty cannot take hold.

Expansion teams are among the most difficult to bring to parity. Especially in sports for which team chemistry is an important factor in success, expansion team players, who consist mostly of cast-offs from other teams, must learn to work as a team before success happens, a process that can take years. Two notable exceptions were the Baltimore Stallions, which reached the Grey Cup in both their seasons in the Canadian Football League and won in theor latter appearance, and the Vegas Golden Knights, which reached the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season in the National Hockey League.

An example of disparity in sports is Portuguese Liga, the top-flight professional football (soccer) league in Portugal, in which three clubs have accounted for 75 of the 77 championships in league history.

Salary cap limits set a maximum amount of money that may be spent on athletes' contracts. These limits exist to different extents in several other leagues as well. For example, Major League Baseball (MLB) in the U.S. does not have a cap but charges a luxury tax beyond a certain level.

Another example of disparity would be demonstrated by the NBA from the 2014–15 NBA season to the 2017–18 NBA season in which the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers were the only franchises to reach the NBA Finals during that specific time span and, during the 2017 NBA Finals and the 2018 NBA Finals, the Warriors won 8 out of the possible 9 finals games.

Prolonged disparity can be severely detrimental to a sports league. The All-America Football Conference collapsed in part because one of its teams, the Cleveland Browns, dominated the league throughout its four-year existence.

See also
 List of highest paid Major League Baseball players
 List of largest sports contracts
 Freak show fights in mixed martial arts
 Balance of performance (BoP) in auto racing

References

Sports terminology

Parity (sports)


Fisounis is a Greek dance. Kostas Mitsis who has researched the dances of Preveza and Epirus writes the following about the dance Fisounis: "The Dance Fisouni is from the area of Preveza and is believed to have been brought to the region from Constantinople. The name comes from the characteristic moves of the women's dress as they dance, when women dance the Fisouni, it is like wind blowing.' Fisoun means to a strong wind."

References

External links
 The Dance Fisouni

Greek dances

Fisounis


Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon is a 2015 award-winning documentary film co-directed by Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke.

Synopsis
The film showcases the development of conflict between local residents of Portland, Oregon and the law enforcement agencies during the last half century. It also features interviews of victims of police brutality and those by family members of people killed during police action. Interviews by members of Portland's abolition movement have also been included in the documentary. The film uses archival newsreel footage from the Oregon Historical Society along with scenes shot at the locations of police brutalities and tries to showcase a world without the current institution of the police.

The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art partly funded the documentary through the Andy Warhol Regional Re-grant Program which gave the film its 2013 Precipice Fund Project Grant. Supporters of the film made up the rest with donations.

The film has screened at the Northwest Film Center, the Hollywood Theatre (Portland, Oregon), the Clinton Street Theater, the Capitol Theater (Olympia), the Harlem International Film Festival and many other theaters, festivals, art spaces, community spaces around the United States and around the world.

Awards

 John Michaels Award for Social Justice Films, Second Place, Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, Illinois 2015
 Documentary Category, Best of the Northwest Award of Excellence, 2015
 Making a Difference Category, Best of the Northwest Award of Excellence, 2015

References

Further reading
"Don't Shoot: A New Documentary Examines the History of Police Brutality in Portland" Willamette Week, by Rebecca Jacobson, January 14, 2015

External links

 "Arresting Power" at Collective Eye Films

Films set in Portland, Oregon
2015 documentary films
2015 films
American documentary films
Law enforcement in Oregon
Documentary films about Oregon
Documentary films about law enforcement in the United States
2010s English-language films
2010s American films