Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), was a United States Supreme Court case deciding on the issue of silent school prayer.

Background
An Alabama law authorized teachers to set aside one minute at the start of each day for a moment for "meditation or voluntary prayer."

Ishmael Jaffree, an American citizen, was a resident of Mobile County, Alabama and a parent of three students who attended school in the Mobile County Public School System; two of the three children were in the second grade and the third was in kindergarten. His youngest was being made fun of by peers because he refused to say the prayers.

On May 28, 1982, Jaffree brought suit naming the Mobile County School Board, various school officials, and the minor plaintiffs' three teachers as defendants. Jaffree sought a declaratory judgment and an injunction restraining the defendants from "maintaining or allowing the maintenance of regular religious prayer services or other forms of religious observances in the Mobile County Public Schools in violation of the First Amendment as made applicable to states by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution."

Jaffree's complaint further alleged that two of his children had been subjected to various acts of religious indoctrination and that the defendant teachers had led their classes in saying certain prayers in unison on a daily basis; that as a result of not participating in the prayers his minor children had been exposed to ostracism from their peer group classmates; and that Jaffree had repeatedly but unsuccessfully requested that the prayers be stopped.

The original complaint mentioned no specific statutes, but the case later dealt with three laws for public schools in Alabama:

 The first law (1978) created a minute of silence for meditation.
 The second law (1981) added the option of voluntary prayer.
 The third law (1982) authorized teachers to recite a prayer with "willing students".

Despite initially granting a preliminary injunction, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama ultimately allowed the practice, found in favor of the defendants and upheld all three laws. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit also upheld the 1978 law but reversed with respect to the laws from 1981 and 1982 by holding them unconstitutional.

Decision
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Alabama laws from 1981 and 1982 violated the US Constitution, but it upheld the law from 1978 that enabled a minute of silence for meditation in public schools of Alabama. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, and Lewis Powell. Justice Powell wrote a separate concurring opinion, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Associate Justices William H. Rehnquist (later Chief Justice) and Byron White each issued a dissenting opinion. Rehnquist asserted that the Court's reasoning was flawed inasmuch as it was based on the writings of Thomas Jefferson, who was not the author of the Establishment Clause.

The Court first noted that "the proposition that the several States have no greater power to restrain the individual freedoms protected by the First Amendment than does the Congress of the United States" is "firmly embedded in our constitutional jurisprudence" and that "the First Amendment was adopted to curtail the power of Congress to interfere with the individual's freedom to believe, to worship, and to express himself in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience." The "Lemon Test," which had been created by the Court to determine whether legislation violates the Establishment Clause, included as a factor that "the statute must have a secular legislative purpose." The Court further held in Jaffree that "the First Amendment requires that a statute must be invalidated if it is entirely motivated by a purpose to advance religion."

The record in the case shows that the Alabama law "was not motivated by any clearly secular purpose" but also that "indeed, the statute had no secular purpose." With no secular purpose behind the law, which expanded a previous law that already allowed for meditation so that it now explicitly included "voluntary prayer" as well, the only possible conclusion was that the new law had been passed "for the sole purpose of expressing the State's endorsement of prayer activities for one minute at the beginning of each school-day."

"Such an endorsement is not consistent with the established principle that the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion" and so the Court ruled in favor of Jaffree and upheld the Eleventh Circuit's decision.

Dissents

Chief Justice Burger
In his dissent to the US Supreme Court case, Wallace v. Jaffree, Chief Justice Burger expressed several reasons for his opinion that the Court decided incorrectly. He began by pointing out that the statute authorizing a moment of silence at the beginning of a school day, which mentioned the word "prayer," did not unconstitutionally promote a religion. He maintained that the ruling against that statute was directly aggressive and intimidating to religion, which is as unconstitutional as a candid establishment of religion. Also in his first point, he contested the decision with the point that a school is constitutionally on the same level of government as state and federal legislatures and even the Supreme Court. Thus, the endorsement of a "moment of silence" with an oblique suggestion of prayer is no less constitutional as is the opening of Congress or a court session with a prayer by a publicly-funded chaplain.

In his next point, Burger emphasized the tenuousness of the Court's peripheral reasoning by specifically including the statements of the statute's sponsor and the differences between the statute and its predecessor statute. Upon the subject of the statute's sponsor's comments, he raised many points that work to invalidate the use of the statements as evidence for the original intent of the legislature at the time of the statute's enactment. Firstly, he mentioned that those statements were made by the sponsor after the legislature's vote on the bill and that the legislature did not in all likelihood know any portion of his views enough to claim his motives to be those of the entire legislature. He also brought attention to the fact that the same legislator also stated that one of his purposes was to resolve a misunderstanding that silent, individual prayer was unconstitutionally prohibited.

Next, Burger discussed the differences between the debated statute and its predecessor by bringing up the Court's opinion that the inclusion of the phrase "or voluntary prayer" endorsed and promoted religion. He stated that the Court's reasoning relied upon the removal of the phrase from its context. He compared that addition to the addition of the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and contested that the Court's logic would also condemn the Pledge of Allegiance as unconstitutional and so was discernibly preposterous. He suggested that when taken in context, the phrase "or voluntary prayer" was perfectly constitutional as a measure to prevent the unconstitutional prohibition of individual prayer.

Burger, in his third point, called out the Court's use of the "Lemon Test as an indolent attempt to apply a test that was "one size fits all" to a less-than-standard case. He suggested that the use of the test ignored the Court's duty to examine the statute against the ideas of the Establishment Clause and that the decision of the case clearly showed that shortcoming.

In his conclusion, Justice Burger reiterated the fact that the statute was not an unconstitutional endorsement and promotion of religion that sought to establish a state church but an entirely-constitutional measure designed to prevent truly-unconstitutional infringements upon the rights of students to pray individually as they please.

Justice Rehnquist
Justice Rehnquist's dissenting opinion relied heavily upon pointing out the faults behind the common misunderstanding of Thomas Jefferson's statements about the "wall of separation of church and state" in his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. Rehnquist began by explaining that the Establishment Clause has been closely linked with Jefferson's letter since Everson v. Board of Education.

Rehnquist called attention to the fact that Jefferson did not write the letter until 14 years after the amendments to the US Constitution had been ratified and that Jefferson then resided in France. Thus, Rehnquist considered that Jefferson to be a less-than-ideal source of background on the Establishment Clause, regardless of Jefferson's intended meaning.

Justice Rehnquist suggested instead to turn to the actions of the Congress and James Madison's significant role in it for insight into the original intent of the Establishment Clause. He continued by referencing the debates of the colonies' ratification conventions.

He pointed out the fact that the states frequently opposed the ratification of the Constitution was the lack of a Bill of Rights. Those who upon that basis opposed ratification thought that the government, without such an enumeration of rights, had a great potential to follow the authoritarian path that they wished to avoid.

To solve the impasse, Madison urged Congress to consider his draft of amendments. After some time of debate and revision, a version what is now the First Amendment was created: "No religion shall be established by law, nor shall the equal rights of conscience be infringed."

That version was met with opposition by many representatives as it could be construed "to abolish religion altogether" or "to be taken in such latitude as to be extremely hurtful to the cause of religion." It was on that basis that the final version of the amendment was selected and ratified. Thus, Rehnquist stated that it is indisputable that the spirit in which the Congress approved the Establishment Clause was one of open-minded toleration, not hostility towards religion.

He then brings up Thomas Jefferson's reasoning for not issuing a Thanksgiving Proclamation. Jefferson said that partaking in prayer and religious exercises are acts of individual discipline and that the right to those activities can never be safer than in the hands of the people. Rehnquist maintained that the meaning of the Establishment Clause was a preventative measure to keep the government from establishing a religion, not to prevent the individual freedom to follow one's own beliefs.

In his conclusion, Rehnquist denounced the Lemon Test as "having no more grounding in the First Amendment than the wall theory created from 'separation of church and state' " in Everson v. Board of Education. He says that because it has no basis in the amendment that it is designed to interpret, it cannot yield predictably constitutional results when applied to a statute.

See also
 Engel v. Vitale (1962): the earlier precedent on school prayer
 Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County (11th Cir. 1987): another case involving the Mobile schools and religion
 List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 472

Further reading
.
.
.
.

References

External links

 Case Brief for Wallace v. Jaffree at Lawnix.com

Establishment Clause case law
1985 in United States case law
1985 in religion
American Civil Liberties Union litigation
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
1985 in education
Prayer
Education in Mobile County, Alabama
Religion and education
Religion in Alabama
United States Supreme Court cases

Wallace v. Jaffree


Guardians of the Galaxy is a 2014 science fiction superhero movie based on the Marvel team of the same name and directed by James Gunn. It was an unexpected success at the box office and had great reviews. It is the tenth movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cast
Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Zoe Saldana as Gamora
Dave Bautista as Drax
Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot
Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon
Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta
Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector
John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey
Glenn Close as Nova Prime Rael
Josh Brolin as Thanos

2014 science fiction movies
2014 action movies
2010s superhero movies
American science fiction movies
American action movies
Marvel Cinematic Universe movies
Movies about raccoons
Movies composed by Tyler Bates
Movies directed by James Gunn
Movies set in 1988
Movies with screenplays by James Gunn
American superhero movies

Guardians of the Galaxy (movie)


Last Chance Canyon is a canyon in the El Paso Mountains near Johannesburg, California. The canyon runs from Saltdale in the south to Black Mountain in the north; part of it lies within Red Rock Canyon State Park. The canyon includes a variety of archaeological sites, including pictographs, villages, rock shelters, mills, and quarries. Historic sites such as gold mining camps are also located in the canyon.

The canyon is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and is open for recreational use. Hiking, camping, and 4-wheel drive vehicles are permitted in most parts of the canyon.

The canyon was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1972.

Gallery

References

External links
Friends of Last Chance Canyon

Mojave Desert
Canyons and gorges of California
Landforms of Kern County, California
History of the Mojave Desert region
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Kern County, California
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in California

Last Chance Canyon


Claude de Seyssel (Italian:Claudio di Seyssel) (died 1520) was a Savoyard jurist and humanist, now known for his political writings. He wrote La Grande Monarchie de France as a supporter of the French crown, in the person of Louis XII. Written around 1515, in French, it was published 1519; it supports hereditary monarchy. A Latin translation De Republica Galliae was printed in 1548 in Strasbourg.

Biography
Seyssel was born in Aix-les-Bains as the bastard son of Claude de Seyssell, marshall of Savoy. He studied law and theology in Chambéry, Turin and Pavia.  He graduated in 1485 and started teaching at the university of Turin. In 1499, he became a counsellor to King Louis XII of France, and was charged with various embassies to Italy and England. He praised the French king in  Histoire singuliere de Louis XII (A Biography of Louis XII) (1508) and in Les louanges de Louis XII (In Praise of the King)(1509). To extricate himself from the dispute opposing Louis XII to Pope Julius II, he withdrew for a while from politics; in 1512, however, he went back to Rome to present his credentials to the new pope, Leo X. This was the apex of his diplomatic career. After the death of Louis XII in 1515, he gave up politics. The same year he was made bishop of Marseille.

His best-known work, written at the instigation of King Francis I of France, was
La grant monarchie de France (1518). He is considered as one of the best examples of French political thinking in the early 16th century. Seyssel had a high regard toward the French monarchy and constitution. He thought the power wielded by the monarch was both controlled and balanced, being limited by religion, existing laws and justice. He discussed "estates", or social class as well, dividing society into the nobility, a composite class of merchants and bureaucrats, and a third class of producers and lower-ranking merchants. His ideas were very influential in the 16th century. Later French thinkers adopted a different stance and distanced themselves from his beliefs.

He was made Archbishop of Turin, in 1517, through the king's influence.

He also wrote on the Salic law, composed propaganda after the French victory over the Venetians, and worked as a translator of ancient historians, including Appianus of Alexandria.

Bibliography

 Speculum feudorum, Milano 1508.

La Victoire du Roy contre les Véniciens, Paris, Antonie Vérard, 1510.
La grant monarchie de France, A Paris, pour Regnault, 1519.
 Adversus errores et sectam Valdensium disputationes, Parisiis, in aedibus Reginaldi Chaudiere, 1520.
 Thucydide, L'Histoire de la guerre, qui fut entre les Peloponnesiens et Atheniens, translatee en langue Francoyse par feu messire Claude de Seyssel, A Paris, en l'hostel de maistre Iosse Badius, 1527.
 Eusebe Cesarien, L'Histoire ecclesiastique translatee de Latin en Francois par messire Claude de Seysse, A Paris, par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, 1532.
 Appian Alexandrin, Des Guerres des Rommains livres XI, assavoir le Libyque, le Syrien, le Parthique, le Mithridatique, le Illyrien, le Celtique et cinq des Guerres civiles. Le tout traduict en Francoys par feu m. Claude de Seyssel, A Lyon, pour Antoine Constantin, 1544.
 Trogue Pompee, Les Histoires uniuerselles, abbregees par Iustin historien, traslatees de Latin en Francois par Messire Claude de Seyssel, A Paris, de l'Imprimerie de Michel de Vascosan, 1559.

References

Further reading
 Rebecca Ard Boone, War, Domination, and the Monarchy of France: Claude de Seyssel and the Language of Politics in the Renaissance (Leiden, Brill, 2007) (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 156).

External links
 portail.atilf.fr

1520 deaths
People from Aix-les-Bains
16th-century French historians
Year of birth unknown
French male writers
Latin–French translators
Bishops of Marseille
Archbishops of Turin
Bishops of Lodi
16th-century French Roman Catholic bishops
Bishops appointed by Pope Julius II
Bishops appointed by Pope Leo X
1458 births
15th-century jurists
16th-century jurists

Claude de Seyssel


Ghost Style (born Brandon Ho 1973 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian rapper, producer and actor based in Hong Kong. He is credited with releasing the first English language rap album in Hong Kong (Ghost Style's Alias, 2002). He followed up with two other English rap albums (Supathugz' How Deep Is Yo Love in 2004 and Ghost Style's Message Is Complete, 2005).

Career
Ghost Style started his career as the frontman for a Hong Kong local band called "Site Access." They are known for bringing out an original sound Alternative Groove Funk. The band decided to take a break in 2003 and that's when Ghost Style started his solo career.

His first major work as rapper/producer was for Cantopop star Eason Chan. In 2001, Ghost Style was invited to remix one of Chan's songs for a remix project Mixed Up. At the same time Ghost Style met international dance music producer Dan F (Disuye). At that time Dan F was creating breakbeat tracks and both collaborated on the remix. Dan F who won two Breakbeat Awards in the UK, would be Ghost Style's collaborator on 2002 release Alias and Ghost Style's 2005 release Message Is Complete. Ghost Style was the voice talent in the 2005 movie soundtrack release Initial D.

Ghost Style had formed a project label called Rebel Studio (now defunct). The producer is giving back by supporting local talents and other urban events in Hong Kong. In Summer 2006, while out on the weekend Ghost Style bumped into Hong Kong actor/celebrity Conroy Chan. Conroy suggested to form a group consisting of six members; Eddie Chung (drum music), Brian Siswojo (designer for street fashion label Know1edge, 8five2 Shop owner), Kit & Phat (from Hong Kong legendary crew LMF), Ghost Style and himself. GS thought this would be a great collaboration and "24HERBS" was formed.

Since 2006, Ghost Style has worked with 24Herbs. Ghost Style is both a rapper and one of the producers in the crew. Their album released on 24 January 2008 at the Causeway Bay Delay No Mall Hong Kong. Ghost Style helped pen hits  such as "Superstar", "Jiu Jo" and "Chillin & Blazin". 24Herbs won an award for Hong Kong best new song on January 1, 2009. "Jiu Jo" was also featured on Nike Skateboard website.

Discography

Albums
Site Access Slow Jam LP, 2000
Ghost Style Alias LP, 2002
Site Access Funk Fu LP, 2003
Supathugz How Deep Is Yo Love LP, 2003
Supathugz So Hot It Hertz LP, 2004
Ghost Style Message Is Complete LP, 2005
LY.S O1 Mash up live recording The Darlings + Ghost Style LP, 2007
24HERBS 24HERBS Double-Disc LP, 2008
Ghost Style "Quantum Beats and Alien Bloodlines" instrumental, 2010
24HERBS Bring it On CD+DVD, 2011
Ghost Style GeeStyles Collabo EP Digital Download, 2011

Productions
CR2 Tribute to Beyond Paradise, 1999
Videodrome Make You Die Slowly, 2001
MCB Music for Your Beautiful Boy In the Land of The Ice and Snow, 2001
Alok's Wahoo! Future Moon Slay, 2002
FAMA F.A.M.A., 2002
MC Su  Trip , 2004
Alok's 31 Minutes to Midnight Dead Poet's Society, 2005
5th Element Compilation What's Going On, 2005
Jan Lamb's 30something First Romance, 2005
MC Su  Pills & Permit , 2006
Jan Lamb's 30something World is Strange, 2008
24Herbs Chillin' & Blazin''', 2008
24Herbs "Jiu Jo", 2008
24Herbs "Crazy Night", 2008
24Herbs "Keepin' It Raw", 2008
Ghost Style feat. Maggie Hou Love Affair, 2010
Ghost Style X Green Robot Up Down Girl, 2010
Ghost Style x Green Robot "Giant F*ckin' Robot" 2011
Ghost Style x DJ Jay Weezy "The Brighter Side", 2011
Ghost Style "Beat Bang Baby", 2011
24Herbs "Fashionista", 2011
24Herbs "Rock As One", 2011
24Herbs "Perfect", 2011
24Herbs "Hu Ge", 2011
Edmond Leung "Big Man" ft. 24Herbs, 2012

Feature
Alok "Future Moon Slay" ft. Ghost Style, 2002
Alok "Dead Poet's Society" ft. Ghost Style, 2005
Paul Wong "Let's Fight" ft. Ghost Style, 2009
Sammi Cheng 鄭秀文 "Forgiveness (Eng. Version)" ft. 24Herbs' Ghost Style, Drunk, JBS, 2009
85up2 Mixtape ""So Far To Go"" ft. Ghost Style, 2009
24Herbs Bring It On ""Chillax"" ft. Ghost Style, Soft Lipa 蛋堡, 2010
24Herbs Bring It On ""Why Can't U"" ft. Ghost Style, 2010
Niki Chow - Zui Hou Dao Shu featuring Ghost Style, 2010
Khalil Fong "张永成 (Cheung Wing Sing)" ft. Ghost Style, 2011
Paul Wong "這個荒唐無聊盲目的世界" ft. Ghost Style, Phat, Kit, JBS, 2012
MastaMic Justice Is What IRap For Mixtape ""仇富不仁(Justice Remix)"" ft. Ghost Style, 肥寶, Critical, 鳥人, BIG Sammy, 2012
My City - Ghost Style ft. Liz Ho and Joyce Yung, 2012
《La La La》Robynn & Kendy ft. Ghost Style, 2013
Sammi Cheng 鄭秀文 "戰勝自己" ft. 24Herbs' Ghost Style, Phat, Kit, 2014
Chung Brothers "Mammon" ft. Ghost Style, Kwokkin 2014
Aga "3am" ft. Ghost Style 2017

Remixes
 Eason Chan Mixed Up (track 2)'', 2001
 inLove "Realm (Ghost Style remix)", 2005
 Oliver "Scent of U", 2007
 KZ ""90年代曲"" (mixing engineer), 2010
 Tommy Grooves "Room Service" (mixing engineer), 2012

Soundtrack
Initial D The Movie Soundtrack, 2005
Girl$ 囡囡(unreleased soundtrack), 2010

References

Hong Kong male rappers
Hong Kong male singers
Hong Kong hip hop
English-language singers from Hong Kong
Living people
1973 births
Hong Kong people of Canadian descent
Canadian hip hop singers

Ghost Style


Gregorio Celli (1225 (purportedly) – 11 May 1343) was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and a professed member of the Order of Saint Augustine. Celli lived with the latter order in Rimini until he decided to spend the remainder of his life in deep contemplation and so moved to the region's hills where he dwelled in a cave near the Franciscans stationed there. It is claimed he was expelled from his order and became a Franciscan though there is no evidence to support this claim.

His beatification received approval from Pope Clement XIV on 6 September 1769 after the pontiff confirmed the late friar's local 'cultus' - otherwise known as popular and enduring veneration.

Life
Gregorio Celli was born in Rimini. His father died in his childhood. He was baptized in the church of Saint Martin.

Each evening his mother would set off for the local church to find her son there who remained entranced with the Gregorian Chant. His mother's relations - despite being devout - feared that Celli would not follow in his father's footsteps to become a doctor of law but rather that he would consider the religious life. In 1240 he was admitted into the Order of Saint Augustine and his mother became a third order religious. He travelled to the convent on a mule for admission to commence his period of novitiate and in 1242 he had become a well-noted and regarded figure in the convent for his penances and strict adherence to the rule of Saint Augustine. He made his solemn profession into the hands of the order's superior Matteo de Modena. It was Brother Matteo who later selected Celli to preach and hear confessions in the region despite the latter not being an ordained priest - though he was soon ordained as such at the successful conclusion of his ecclesiastical studies. It was during this period that he preached against the heresies of Catharism and he even met the famous heretic Armanno Pungilupo. In 1256 he witnessed the Grand Union of the order.

In 1300 he set off for Rome to participate in the Jubilee that Pope Boniface VIII called for and he visited each of the tombs of the Apostles. In 1300 he decided to withdraw from the active life of the apostolate he had served for decades in favor of a more contemplative existence somewhere in the hills surrounding the region he lived in. He confided this to Agostino Novello - the general of the order - and the general embraced and encouraged him. He lived in a cave where he spent the remainder of his life in reflection and fasting.

Gregorio Celli died in mid-1343. His remains are now interred in the church of Saint Augustine in Verucchio.

Beatification
Citizens in Rimini requested on numerous occasions that a beatification process be opened and it was believed that Pope Innocent VI drew up a decree for the actual beatification itself in 1357. People in Rimini again began pushing for beatification in 1757. The beatification was later approved on 6 September 1769 after Pope Clement XIV issued a formal decree that acknowledged the fact that there existed a spontaneous and enduring local 'cultus' - otherwise known as popular veneration - to the late monk.

References

External links
Saints SQPN

1343 deaths
13th-century venerated Christians
13th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests
14th-century venerated Christians
14th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests
Augustinian friars
Augustinian monks
Italian beatified people
Longevity claims
People from Rimini
Venerated Catholics
1225 births

Gregorio Celli


Ibrahim Hamidi (; also transliterated Ebrahim Humaydi) is a Syrian journalist who is a senior diplomatic editor for the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, and who contributes to severalinternational media outlets and think tanks. Previously, he served as head of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) office in Damascus, and  of the Damascus bureau of Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat, and as a senior writer for Forward Magazine in Damascus. Hamidi's work focuses on strategic issues in the Middle East, with special insight into Syria's internal and regional politics. He is also a Research Fellow and co-founder of the Syrian Studies Center at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Hamidi is also a co-founder of the Arab Investigative Journalism Program (ARIJ).

Hamidi is married to writer and novelist Dima Wannous.

Early life
Hamidi was born in 1969 in Idlib Governorate. In 1986, Hamidi was able to move to Damascus to study journalism at Damascus University through a government stipend. His English professor at the time, Abdullah Dardari, was also a correspondent for the London-based Arab daily al-Hayat. Dardari, who later became Deputy Prime Minister of Syria in 2005, helped Hamidi find work as a secretary at his al-Hayat bureau in Damascus.

Career
Hamidi replaced Dardari as al-Hayat correspondent when the latter left to work for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). His 1996 coverage of the Arab League Summit in Cairo and the US presidential election, was highly acclaimed and helped bring him to a prominent place between Syrian journalists. Hamidi also delved into the Kurdish issue, interviewing Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Syrian authorities responded by suspending his journalism credentials but he continued to meet and interview Kurdish politicians, most of whom, like Jalal Talbani and Massoud Barzani, rose to power in Iraq after downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Hamidi also conducted interviews with high-profile Palestinian leaders including Fathi Shaqaqi, head of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine who was assassinated in Malta days after his interview with al-Hayat, his successor Ramadan Shalah, and Khaled Mashal, head of the political bureau of Hamas. As an independent correspondent his credentials have been suspended by the Syrian government several times.

Hamidi went on to cover the death of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and the subsequent inauguration of his son Bashar al-Assad as president. His coverage of the following period, known as the Damascus Spring, and his interviews with Syrian opposition figures earned him the reprimand of the Syrian government and his journalist credentials were suspended several times. In 2002 he reported on Syria's preparations for the Iraq War. The government accused him of spreading "false information" and he was arrested on 23 December 2002. He remained in solitary confinement until 25 May 2003 and was later acquitted in court in 2005.

References

Syrian journalists
1969 births
Damascus University alumni
Academics of the University of St Andrews
People from Idlib Governorate
Living people

Ibrahim Hamidi


Devizes Pie is a dish closely associated with the town of Devizes, Wiltshire, England. It is a pie which consists of offal within a huff paste casing. It was thought to originate from the 15th century, but fell out of fashion several times. It was first rediscovered in the 1950s and 60s, and again in 2006. Some modern recipes have replaced the majority of the offal with other proteins.

History
Probably created in the 15th century, the Devizes Pie consists of offal, such as calf head, cooked in a case of hard huff paste. It is associated with the town of Devizes, Wiltshire. The details of the dish had supposedly been lost for generations—although it appears in a recipe book of 1830—until a recipe was discovered in the 1960s and the dish was then served in the Bear Hotel in Devizes for several years. After falling out of fashion again, it was revived in 2006 as part of the Devizes Food and Drink Festival. In 2009, it was claimed to ease the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome due to the high quantities of nucleotides in the offal.

A recipe published in The Times in 1956 specified the main ingredients as thin slices from a boiled calf's head with the brains and tongue cut into strips, as well as slices of cold cooked bacon and lamb, and rounds of hard-boiled eggs. More recent recipes have limited the offal to tongue, and replaced the other proteins with stewing lamb, lean veal, sliced ham and bacon. The dish was featured by Terry Wogan during his television series The Great British Food Trip in 2015, when he sampled it at the Black Swan in Devizes.

See also
 List of pies, tarts and flans

References

British pies
Savoury pies
Devizes
Wiltshire cuisine

Devizes pie


Wilbert Huntington Harrison (January 5, 1929 – October 26, 1994) was an American rhythm and blues singer, pianist, guitarist and harmonica player.

Biography
Harrison  was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He had a Billboard #1 record in 1959 with the song "Kansas City". The song was written in 1952 and was one of the first credited collaborations by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Harrison recorded "Kansas City" for the Harlem-based entrepreneur Bobby Robinson, who released it on his Fury record label.

At the height of the song's success, Robinson was sued by Savoy Records who informed them that the release of the record in March 1959 violated a contract Harrison had with that label that was to expire in August 1959. The litigation, which lasted until September 1959, abruptly prevented Robinson from issuing follow-ups to "Kansas City" while Harrison was a star.

Meanwhile, Harrison continued to perform and record but it would be another ten years before he again cracked the Billboard Top 40 when he released the self-penned "Let's Work Together (Part 1)" that went to #32 in early 1970 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1970 hit version was released as a single on Sue Records (Sue 11) and was backed with "Let's Work Together (Part 2)". The song also was released in a 5 minute 19 second version on the Sue Records album SSLP-8801 Let's Work Together. The song was originally released by Harrison in 1962 with different lyrics as "Let's Stick Together" on Fury 1059 and Fury 1063.

"Let's Work Together" was later a hit for Canned Heat, and, again as "Let's Stick Together", for Bryan Ferry. It was also recorded by country rock band the Kentucky Headhunters for the soundtrack to the movie Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.

In 1970, Harrison had some success with "My Heart Is Yours", and he toured for many years with a band known as 'Wilbert Harrison and the Roamers', and as a solo act. A follow-up album was released that year, Anything You Want. Reviewing it in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "Let's Work Together was an anachronistic, even primitive r&b album based on the fluke hit of the same name, which makes this the follow-up. Side one consists entirely of roll and rock songs you'd swear you've heard before—'Your Three Letters,' eh, and what's this 'Let's Stick Together,' and why not bring out 'Kansas City' again? Very unprepossessing, very charming. In fact, if the second side weren't all standards and uncharming filler—only 'Sentimental Journey' is even funny—I wouldn't be recommending this to r&b diehards only."

Harrison died of a stroke in 1994, in a Spencer, North Carolina, nursing home at the age of 65.

In 2001, his recording of "Kansas City" was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and has also been named as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Harrison was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

References

External links

[ All Music page]

Review Of Kansas City

1929 births
1994 deaths
American rhythm and blues singers
American rhythm and blues guitarists
American male guitarists
Bell Records artists
Savoy Records artists
Fury Records artists
Sue Records artists
Musicians from Charlotte, North Carolina
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American pianists
American male pianists
African-American pianists
African-American guitarists
20th-century African-American male singers

Wilbert Harrison


Suhenphaa was the king of Ahom kingdom from 1488 CE to 1493 CE. His reign was characterized by the expansion of Ahom kingdom which resulted in conflicts with the Nagas and with the Kachari kingdom. He was successful in the military actions against the Nagas, while in case of Kacharis, he suffered defeat and had to sue for peace with the Kacharis. He was assassinated by one Ahom of Tairungban clan.

Ancestry and accession
Suhenphaa was the son of Ahom king Susenphaa. Susenphaa ruled for a long period of 49 years, during which the kingdom witnessed peace and prosperity. When Susenphaa died in 1488 CE, Suhenphaa succeeded him as the king of Ahom kingdom.

Reign

Conflicts with Nagas
The Tangsu Nagas, who were defeated during the reign of Suhenphaa's father Susenphaa, again raised their banner against the royal authority. They began to raids villages in the plains of Brahmaputra and took common Assamese people as prisoner. To counter this acts of atrocities by Tangsu Nagas, Suhenphaa dispatched Taokangbanrek Borgohain with a contingent of Ahom soldiers. The Tangsu Nagas attacked the Ahom forces and completely destroyed it. The commander of the army, Taokangbanrek Borgohain was captured and later beheaded by the Nagas. His head was taken by the Tangsu Nagas to their native villages as prize of battle. Suhenphaa immediately ordered fresh recruitment of soldiers and after gathering a huge army, he dispatched the newly appointed Nangraang Borgohain against the Tangsu Nagas. After fierce battle, Nangraang Borgohain scored complete victory against the Tangsu Nagas, and they were forced to submit to the Ahoms. The Tangsu Nagas also agreed to pay an annual tribute to the Ahom king. Nangraang Borgohain brought several Naga prisoners as a symbol of his victory and after obtaining permission from Suhenphaa, settled them in different parts of the Ahom kingdom.

War with the Kacharis
Suhenphaa desired to expand his kingdom towards downstream of Brahmaputra river. The Kacharis who, at that time, held a large portion of Upper Assam, obstructed the expansion of Ahom kingdom into their territory. Suhenphaa decided to use force, and ordered one Ahom officer Chelaoseng Neog to construct a fortification at Tongsu within Kachari territory. The fortification was constructed without any opposition from Kacharis. Encouraged by this success, he dispatched Khunlung Burhagohain with an army to march further inwards into Kachari territory. The Kacharis fiercely resisted the advance of Khunlung Burhagohain and were successful in defeating the Ahom army. One Ahom commander Jiyeumung Neog and 150 soldiers lost their lives. The Kacharis chased Ahoms to the banks of Dikhou river. The commander of Ahom army, Khunlung Burhagohain managed to escape by swimming across the Dikhou river, leaving his elephants and other valuables. After consultations with the nobles, Suhenphaa sued for peace with the Kachari king. A princess was sent to the Kachari king with two elephants and twelve female slaves as her dowry. Some chronicles stated that the result of the battle was indecisive, and when peace was made, the Kacharis ceded some territory to Ahom.

Assassination
One Ahom named Lantarunban of Tairungban clan was caught for stealing some paddy from the royal granary. He and his companions were punished and fined for their crime. therefore Lantaruban and his friends were eager to exact revenge on the king. In 1493 CE, Lantaruban and his friends were engaged on some repairs in the Royal Palace. While coming for work, Lantaruban hid a spear inside the hollow space of one bamboo. When Suhenphaa came to inspect the progress of the work, Lantaruban stabbed the king to death with the spear(some account say the king was stabbed with pointed bamboo). According to some accounts, the murder was instigated by Khunlung Burhagohain.
Suhenphaa had three sons. The eldest among them, Supimphaa will succeed as the king of Ahom kingdom.

Character and legacy
Suhenphaa's reign showed the continuation of the policy of expansion of Ahom kingdom. His conflict with the Kacharis proves the fact that the Ahoms wanted to expand their territory, in expense of their neighbouring kingdoms. Though Suhenphaa suffered defeat in the hands of Kacharis, the conflict which he started will be continued by his grandson Suhungmung, who will conduct successful military operations against the Kacharis and the Chutiyas extending the boundaries of Ahom kingdom. He also seem to be very strict administrator, owing to which persons found guilty of criminal activities cannot escape punishment, but unfortunately this very quality of him made enemies among some influential people of the court, who then plotted his assassination.

See also
 Ahom Dynasty
 Ahom Kingdom
 Assam
 Assassination
 Kachari kingdom
 Nagaland
 Regicide
 Sibsagar district
 Singarigharutha ceremony
 Sukaphaa
 Chutiya kingdom

Notes

References

Ahom kings
Ahom kingdom

15th-century births
1490s deaths
Year of birth unknown

Year of death uncertain

Suhenphaa


Edward Meyers McCreight is an American computer scientist.  He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1969, advised by Albert R. Meyer. He co-invented the B-tree with Rudolf Bayer while at Boeing,
and improved Weiner's algorithm to compute the suffix tree of a string. He also co-designed the Xerox Alto workstation,
and, with Severo Ornstein, co-led the design and construction of the Xerox Dorado computer while at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.  He also worked at Adobe Systems.

Notes

External links
 Edward McCreight's website

Computer science educators
American computer scientists
Database researchers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Scientists at PARC (company)

Edward M. McCreight


Professor Grampy is an animated cartoon character appearing in the Betty Boop series of shorts produced by Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures. He appeared in nine of the later Betty Boop cartoons beginning with Betty Boop and Grampy (1935). He had a starring role in the "Color Classic" Christmas Comes But Once A Year (1936).

Grampy is an ever-cheerful and energetic senior citizen with a bald, dome-shaped head, white beard, and black nose. One author speculates that the character's design may suggest he is Ko-Ko the Clown in retirement. His primary activities include singing, dancing and building Rube Goldberg-esque devices out of ordinary household items. When presented with an unexpected problem, he puts on his thinking cap (a mortarboard with a lightbulb on top). In short order, the lightbulb lights up as Grampy exclaims, "Hooray, I've got it!" and builds a new gadget to solve the problem. The character was possibly based upon Max's brother, Charles, an inventor, one of whose creations was the clawing device that (in 2021) is still omnipresent in arcades and standalone toys.

It is not clear whether Grampy is related to Betty Boop, because everyone calls him "Grampy" and he seems to be equally affectionate to almost everyone he meets. There is also some inconsistency as to living arrangements. In some cartoons like Betty Boop and Grampy and House Cleaning Blues, he and Betty live in separate houses. However, in The Impractical Joker, he lives in an upper floor.

The identity of Grampy's voice actor has been subject to debate. The Fleischer Studios credits Popeye voice actor Jack Mercer, while the character's article on Don Markstein's Toonopedia indicated that standard reference sources didn't name Grampy's voice actor, aside from some isolated mentions crediting Everett Clark for the role.

Grampy appeared in nine of the later Betty Boop cartoons in the mid-1930s, often having a larger role than Betty. He also made one appearance without Betty, in the aforementioned Christmas Comes But Once a Year.

Filmography
Betty Boop and Grampy (1935)
A Song A Day (1936)
Grampy's Indoor Outing (1936)
Be Human (1936)
Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)
House Cleaning Blues (1937)
The Impractical Joker (1937)
The Candid Candidate (1937)
Service with a Smile (1937)
Zula Hula (1937)

References

Animated human characters
Fleischer Studios series and characters
Fictional inventors
Male characters in animation
Film characters introduced in 1935

Grampy


The 1999 Sunderland Council election took place on 6 May 1999 to elect members of Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council in Tyne and Wear, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Labour Party stayed in overall control of the council.

After the election, the composition of the council was:
Labour 64
Conservative 8
Liberal Democrat 2
Liberal 1

Election result
The results saw Labour stay in control, but their leader, Bryn Sidaway, lost his seat after 16 years on the council. Sidaway lost in Hendon ward by 2 votes to Conservative Paul Maddison after 3 recounts, which was one of 4 gains made by the Conservatives. Labour blamed the defeat of Sidaway on dirty tricks after anonymous posters were displayed associating Sidaway with neo-nazis, but this was denied by the Conservatives. Overall turnout was 20%, but was as low as 12.4% in Central ward.

Following the election Colin Anderson was elected as the new leader of the Labour group and the council.

References

1999 English local elections
1999
20th century in Tyne and Wear

1999 Sunderland City Council election


Confidence Girl is a 1952 American crime film written and directed by Andrew L. Stone. The film stars Tom Conway, Hillary Brooke, Eddie Marr, John Gallaudet, Jack Kruschen, Dan Riss and Walter Kingsford. It was released on June 20, 1952 by United Artists.

Plot

Con man Roger Kingsley convinces the Los Angeles police that, acting as an insurance company's investigator, he can help them apprehend a notorious swindler, a woman named Mary Webb.

Kingsley sets a trap at a department store and nabs Webb as she steals a mink coat. But while the store detective is contacting police, Webb, who is actually Kingsley's girlfriend, is permitted to escape. However, Kingsley has gained the trust of the police.

In a second scam, Webb and Kingsley bilk a pawnshop owner out of several thousand dollars. She then prepares for their biggest con yet, a stage act at Johnny Gregg's nightclub in which Webb will pose as a clairvoyant. Her psychic powers amaze Gregg's customers, but the act is just an elaborate ruse.

The suspicious police set a trap. A dentist named Braddock is implicated in a murder, but while trying to save the life of whom she believes to be an innocent man, Webb is tricked into confessing her scam in front of the club's entire audience. She and Kingsley are taken to jail.

Cast

Tom Conway as Roger Kingsley
Hillary Brooke as Mary Webb
Eddie Marr as Johnny Gregg
John Gallaudet as Detective Chief Brownell
Jack Kruschen as Detective Sergeant Quinn
Dan Riss as Detective Lieutenant Fenton
Walter Kingsford as Mr. Markewell
Paul Livermore as Hal Speel
Aline Towne as Peggy Speel
Helen Van Tuyl as Maggie
Edmund Cobb as Detective Lieutenant Cobb
Truman Bradley as Narrator
Leo Cleary as Mr. Sheridan
Roy Engel as Store Detective Walsh
Charles Collins as Charlie
Yvonne Peattie as Gertrude Palmer
Joel Allen as Frank Palmer
Helen Chapman as Joey Ridgway
John Phillips as Allen Ridgeway
Margo Karen as Hilda
Bruce Edwards as 1st Detective
Tyler McVey as 2nd Detective
Paul Guilfoyle as William Pope
Michael Vallon as Richard Downs
Barbara Woodell as Miss Seabury
Madge Crane as Mrs. Markwell
Pamela Duncan as Braddock's Nurse
Carmen Clothier as Fur Saleswoman
Gil Frye as Nightclub Accomplice at Phone
Duke York as Nightclub Accomplice with Binoculars

References

External links

1952 films
1952 crime films
American black-and-white films
American crime films
Films about con artists
Films directed by Andrew L. Stone
United Artists films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films

Confidence Girl


Jacobus Cornelis Gaal (5 September 1796 in Oost-Souburg – 20 December 1866 in Kampen) was a Dutch painter and etcher.

Gaal was born in East Souburg, the son of Pieter Gaal (1769–1819) and Richardina Jacob van Eps (1765–1813). He was born to a family of painters and etchers.

A pupil of his own father, Gaal's focus were portraits and manufacturing miniatures including one of his father, Pieter. Some of his paintings were displayed in exhibitions in Middelburg 1822, Amsterdam 1852, and The Hague 1853. He painted portraits of King William I and King William II. His portrait of a young woman being dressed by a maidservant, "Junges Madchen in Weissem Kleid Beim  Ankleiden" was sold for US$4000.

During his life he made several trips down the Rhine.

On 16 July 1819 he married Cornelia Petronella Hofstede.

References

1796 births
1866 deaths
19th-century Dutch painters
Dutch male painters
Dutch etchers
People from Vlissingen
19th-century Dutch male artists

Jacobus Cornelis Gaal


Magnuson is a patronymic surname of Scandinavian origin, meaning "son of Magnus". It may refer to:

People
Algot Magnuson of Revsnes (c.1355–c.1426), Swedish magnate, and castellan of Styresholm
Ann Magnuson (born 1956), American actress
Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson (born 1943), sister of the King of Sweden
Christine Magnuson (born 1985), American swimmer
Donald H. Magnuson (1911–1979), U.S. representative from Washington State
E. Herman Magnuson (1894–1955), New York politician
Hugo Magnuson (1900–2003), American businessman and politician from North Dakota; founder of Hugo's grocery store chain
Jim Magnuson (1946–1991) was a Major League Baseball pitcher
Keith Magnuson (1947–2003), Canadian professional ice hockey player
Paul A. Magnuson (born 1937), United States District Judge from Minnesota
Quinn Magnuson (born 1971), Canadian football player, see 1993 CFL Draft
Warren Magnuson (1905–1989), American politician from Washington State; U.S. senator 1944–81
Trystan Magnuson (born 1985), Major League Baseball pitcher

Other
Magnuson Act, Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943
Magnuson Park, in the Sand Point neighborhood of Seattle
Magnuson Computer Systems, manufacturer of IBM-compatible mainframes
Magnuson Hotels

Swedish-language surnames
Patronymic surnames

Magnuson


Elisa Di Francisca (; born 13 December 1982) is an Italian former foil fencer, Olympic champion in 2012, World champion in 2010 and three-time European champion. She won the 2010–11 World Cup series and has seven World Cup victories to her name. With the Italian team, she was Olympic champion in 2012, five-time World champion and seven-time European champion.

Biography
Di Francisca was born in Jesi, a town of the province of Ancona in Marche, to a Sicilian father and a mother from Marche. She is the eldest of three children: her sister Martina was born in 1984 and her brother Michele in 1991. She first tried ballet, but found it too quiet to her taste. Along with her sister, she turned to fencing, the town's national sport: led by maestro Ezio Triccoli, Club Scherma Jesi produced Olympic champions Stefano Cerioni, Giovanna Trillini and Valentina Vezzali. Di Francesca immediately took to the sport and went on after her sister gave up, dragging her brother in her wake.

In 2013 Di Francisca took part in the ninth edition of , the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars. Paired with dancer Raimondo Todaro, she won with 56% of the vote.

Di Francisca is involved in several campaigns to end violence against women, testifying from her own experience of an abusive relationship when she was in high school. After the 2012 Summer Olympics she visited Kenya as part of a campaign by NGO Intervita Onlus to help underprivileged children and women. She is also committed to promoting Italy, especially Marche her home region. She is one of the ambassadors of Expo 2015 and the face of the 2015 campaign of the Wine Institute of Marche promoting Verdicchio.

Career
Di Francisca trained first under maestro Ezio Triccoli, then Giulio Tomassini and Stefano Cerioni. She soon showed promise, winning in 1995 the Italian national championship for her age class. In 2000, she earned a silver medal in the junior national championships and a bronze medal in the senior edition. She began taking part in international competitions, winning a bronze medal at the 2001 Junior World Cup event in Lyon.

2004–2008
She made her breakthrough in the 2003–04 season. She reached the quarter-finals at three senior World Cup events, in Como, St Petersburg and New York. These results caused her to be drafted as a reserve in the senior national team composed of Margherita Granbassi, Giovanna Trillini and Valentina Vezzali. At the European Championships in Copenhagen she placed fifth in the individual event and took a bronze medal with the team. She made her World Championships début at the New York event held on the sidelines of the 2004 Summer Olympics for women's team foil and sabre. Italy defeated Romania in the final, bringing Di Francisca her first world title. She finished the season No.21 in world rankings after a jump of 98 places.

In the 2004–05 season she climbed her first World Cup podium with a silver medal in Salzburg and went on to win the Havana World Cup. She claimed her first senior Italian title in the team event and her first European title, also with the team. The World Championships in Leipzig saw her début in the individual event. She reached the quarter-finals, where she lost to Hungary's Edina Knapek. These results pushed her to her No.6 world ranking.

The following season she placed third in the Seoul Grand Prix and the Marseille World Cup. She claimed her first individual European medal in İzmir, a silver, after defeating fellow Italian Claudia Pigliapoco in the semi-finals, but losing to Russia's Yana Ruzavina in the final. At the 2006 World Fencing Championships held on home ground in Turin Di Francisca lost again in the quarter-finals, this time to teammate Vezzali. In the team event director of foil Andrea Magro called Di Francisca in the quarter-finals against France to replace Granbassi, who was still emotional after having won the individual world title. Italy overcame France 32–30, then prevailed over Korea to meet Russia in the final. Di Francisca was called to replace Granbassi again after the latter lost 0–5 her bout to Aida Shanayeva. Entering on 15–19 in the last relay she defeated 4–1 Svetlana Boyko, allowing captain Vezzali to level the score. Italy was eventually defeated in sudden-death overtime and doomed to a silver medal.

2006–07 and 2007–08 were more difficult seasons, with only a silver medal at the 2007 Salzburg World Cup. Di Francisca was not selected into the team for the 2007 European Championships nor for the 2007 World Championships and failed to qualify to the 2008 Summer Olympics. She was offered to go to Beijing as a sparring partner for the team, but she refused, saying that if she was to go for the sake of tourism, she preferred to choose her own destinations.

2008–2012
The 2008–09 season saw Di Francisca's return to form with four quarter-finals finishes and a silver medal at the Dallas World Cup. She was called again into the national team for the European Championships in Plovdiv. In the individual event she was stopped in table of 16 by teammate Arianna Errigo, but in the team event Italy defeated successively Romania, France and Russia to take back the continental title, four years after Zalaegerszeg. At the World Championships she reached the semi-finals after defeating Valentina Vezzali, then lost to Russia's Aida Shanayeva and came away with a bronze medal, her first individual distinction in World Championships. In the team event Italy met Russia in the final and took revenge for the lost match in Torino by defeating them 45–33, including a 5–0 bout by Di Francisca against Shanayeva. Italy was thus able to reclaim the world title that had eluded them since 2004. Di Francisca finished the season No.5 in World rankings.

The 2009–10 season saw her claim six World Cup medals, including a victory in the Marseille Grand Prix. At the European Championships in Leipzig she defeated Errigo in the quarter-finals, but lost to Russia's Yevgeniya Lamonova in the semi-finals and came away with a bronze medal. In the team event Italy maintained their domination, earning their third gold medal in a row. At the World Championships in Paris Di Francisca reached the semi-finals without any major hassle. She prevailed over World No.1 Nam Hyun-hee of Korea in the semi-finals and met Errigo in the final. Despite a good 8–5 start by Errigo, who had just eliminated Vezzali, Di Francisca levelled up on 9–9 and proceeded to win 15–11, claiming her first individual World title.

In 2010–11 season Di Francisca earned a medal in six out of the seven World Cup events in which she took part, including two golds in Seoul and Tauberbischofsheim. At the European Championships she met again Vezzali in the final. After being led for the first two periods, Di Francisca levelled the score and hit twice in the last ten seconds to win the bout 10–8 and claim her first continental title. Vezzali took her revenge at the World Championships in Catania when they met once again in the final. Vezzali took a 0–6 lead in the first bout and kept until the final score of 7–15. "I didn't understand anything", commented Di Francisca. "It's as if she had a walkie talkie earpiece suggesting everything I was going to do. She anticipated everything and riposted." The silver medal however strengthened her ranking and she won the 2010–11 World Cup series.

The 2011–12 season saw her win the Tauberbischofsheim World Cup for the second time in a row, as well as the St Petersburg World Cup. At the European Championships in Legnano she lost in the quarter-finals to Russia's Larisa Korobeynikova. She qualified to the 2012 London Olympics as a member of the top-ranked Italian team. In the individual event she was seeded fourth and she received a bye in the first round. For her first Olympic bout she crushed Lebanon's Mona Shaito 15–2. In the table of 16 Germany's Carolin Golubytskyi took an early 8–3 lead against her, but Di Francisca managed to stop the onslaught. At 6–8 she was bridging the gap when she accidentally hit Golubytskyi under the mask with the bell guard of her foil. Her opponent stumbled to the ground and the bout had to be interrupted for medical care. Golubytskyi never regained her initial advantage and was defeated 15–9. Di Francisca prevailed over Japan's Chieko Sugawara on the same score. She had a narrow 11–10 victory in the semi-finals against Nam Hyun-hee, striking the winning hit in overtime. She then met fellow Italian Arianna Errigo in the final. After a slow start Di Francisca built a 7–3 lead in the second period, but Errigo managed to come back and the bout went into overtime with 11 all. Di Francisca received priority and scored immediately to win the Olympic title.

Italy entered the team event as a clear favourite, as the team was composed of the gold, silver and bronze medallists from the individual event. As the top seed, they received a bye in the first round. They proceeded to thrash Great Britain on the score of 45–14, then France on 45–22. Defending champion Russia offered less resistance than expected and Italy prevailed 45–31, allowing Di Francisca a double gold haul.

After the London Games

After the Olympics the women's foil team national coach Stefano Cerioni announced he would leave the Italian Fencing Federation for the Russian Fencing Federation, their historical rivals. Cerioni had also been Di Francesca's own coach at CS Jesi for fourteen years. Di Francisca chose Olympic champion Giovanna Trillini as her new coach "because she is a great champion, because we know each other and we have fenced together and supported each other before London, and because this solution does not keep me away from Jesi, where are my family, my friends and my fencing hall."

In the 2012–13 season Di Francisca placed third at the Gdańsk Grand Prix and second at the Tauberbischofsheim World Cup. At the European Championships in Zagreb she inflicted a 15–5 defeat to Errigo in the quarter-finals and eventually won the continental title after prevailing against Russia's Diana Yakovleva. She dedicated her victory to motorcycle racer and fellow Jesi dweller Alessia Politi, who had just been critically injured during practice for the Italian championship at Misano.

A month later at the World Championships she cruised to the semi-finals, where she met Carolin Golubytskyi. The bout was marked by an incident similar to that of their London Olympic encounter: during a collision Di Francisca struck a hard blow to Golubytskyi's mask with her bell guard, sending her opponent stumbling. She was shown a red card for dangerous action and received a penalty hit. The bout went into overtime and Golubytskyi struck the winning hit, dooming Di Francisca to a bronze medal. In the team event the Italian "Dream Team" asserted their domination in emphatic manner, cruising to the final then prevailing 45–18 against France to earn the world title.

In the 2013–14 season Di Francisca claimed three silver medals in St Petersburg, Tauberbischofsheim and Turin, as well as a bronze medal in Marseille. At the European Championships in Strasbourg she made her way to the semi-finals where she met Valentina Vezzali. After a cagey beginning which saw the first period end on 1 all, Di Francisca took control of the bout, striking 10 hits in a row and closing on 15–3. In the final she met another Italian, Martina Batini, against whom she had lost in the final at Tauberbischofsheim earlier in the season. Her opponent took a 5–2 lead, but Di Francisca hit 13 times in a row to conquer her third European title. In the team event Italy reached the final without any hassle, but met with strong opposition from Russia, who led most of the match. Chosen to close against Inna Deriglazova, Di Francisca entered the last leg on 38–40 for Russia. Deriglazova gained a 4–0 lead, taking the score to 44–38 with only one hit needed for the victory and 2′04″ to go. Di Francisca hit six times in a row to level the score. She finally struck the winning hit with one second remaining, allowing Italy to retain their European title and taking her second double European gold haul in a row.

At the World Championships in Kazan Di Francisca had a tight 15–14 victory over Egypt's Eman Shaaban, then reached easily the quarter-finals. She met Martina Batini, who took revenge of the Strasbourg final by defeating her 15–6. In the team event, Italy cruised again to the final, where they met Russia once more. The score stayed very tight until the three last legs. Di Francisca entered the penultimate leg on 33–35 for Italy and consolidated the advantage, taking it to 35–40 before Errigo closed on 45–39. Italy finished the year having won all team competitions.

In the 2014–15 season Di Francesca earned a silver medal in the Turin Grand Prix after losing 7–15 to Arianna Errigo in the final. After the Gdańsk World Cup in January 2015 she had a problem with her left ankle and was rested for the following World Cup stage in Algiers. She bounced back to win three competitions in a row: the Havana Grand PrixTauberbischofsheim, the Tauberbischofsheim World Cup and the Shanghai Grand Prix.

References

External links

  (archive)

1982 births
Fencers of Fiamme Oro
Fencers at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Fencers at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Italian female fencers
Italian foil fencers
Living people
Olympic fencers for Italy
Olympic gold medalists for Italy
Olympic silver medalists for Italy
Olympic medalists in fencing
People from Iesi
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy
Mediterranean Games medalists in fencing
Fencers at the 2013 Mediterranean Games
World Fencing Championships medalists
Reality show winners
Sportspeople from the Province of Ancona

Elisa Di Francisca


David Rolfe Graeber (; February 12, 1961September 2, 2020) was an American anthropologist and anarchist activist. His influential work in economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Bullshit Jobs (2018), and The Dawn of Everything (2021), and his leading role in the Occupy movement, earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time.

Born in New York to a working-class Jewish family, Graeber studied at Purchase College and the University of Chicago, where he conducted ethnographic research in Madagascar under Marshall Sahlins and obtained his doctorate in 1996. He was an assistant professor at Yale University from 1998 to 2005, when the university controversially decided not to renew his contract before he was eligible for tenure. Unable to secure another position in the United States, he entered an "academic exile" in England, where he was a lecturer and reader at Goldsmiths' College from 2008 to 2013, and a professor at the London School of Economics from 2013.

In his early scholarship, Graeber specialized in theories of value (Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value, 2002), social hierarchy and political power (Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, 2004, Possibilities, 2007, On Kings, 2017), and the ethnography of Madagascar (Lost People, 2007). In the 2010s he turned to historical anthropology, producing his best-known book, Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011), an exploration of the historical relationship between debt and social institutions, as well as a series of essays on the origins of social inequality in prehistory. In parallel, he developed critiques of bureaucracy and managerialism in contemporary capitalism, published in The Utopia of Rules (2015) and Bullshit Jobs (2018). He coined the concept of bullshit jobs in a 2013 essay that explored the proliferation of "paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence".

Although exposed to radical left politics from a young age, Graeber's direct involvement in activism began with the global justice movement of the 1990s. He attended protests against the 3rd Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001 and the World Economic Forum in New York in 2002, and later wrote an ethnography of the movement, Direct Action (2009). In 2011, he became well known as one of the leading figures of Occupy Wall Street and is credited with coining the slogan "We are the 99%". His later activism included interventions in support of the Rojava revolution in Syria, the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and Extinction Rebellion.

David Graeber died unexpectedly in September 2020, while on vacation in Venice. His last book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, co-written with archaeologist David Wengrow, was published posthumously in 2021.

Early life and education
Graeber's parents, who were in their forties when Graeber was born, were self-taught working-class Jewish intellectuals in New York. Graeber's mother, Ruth Rubinstein, had been a garment worker, and played the lead role in the 1930s musical comedy revue Pins & Needles, staged by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Graeber's father, Kenneth, was affiliated with the Young Communist League in college, participated in the Spanish Revolution in Barcelona and fought in the Spanish Civil War. He later worked as a plate stripper on offset presses. Graeber grew up in Penn South, a union-sponsored housing cooperative in Chelsea, Manhattan, described by Business Week magazine as "suffused with radical politics."

Graeber had his first experience of political activism at the age of seven, when he attended peace marches in New York's Central Park and Fire Island. He was an anarchist from the age of 16, according to an interview he gave to The Village Voice in 2005.

Graeber graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in 1978 and received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Purchase in 1984. He received his master's degree and doctorate at the University of Chicago, where he won a Fulbright fellowship to conduct 20 months of ethnographic field research in Betafo, Madagascar, beginning in 1989. His resulting Ph.D. thesis on magic, slavery, and politics was supervised by Marshall Sahlins and entitled The Disastrous Ordeal of 1987: Memory and Violence in Rural Madagascar.

Academic career

Yale University (1998–2005)
In 1998, two years after completing his PhD, Graeber became assistant professor at Yale University, then associate professor. In May 2005, the Yale anthropology department decided not to renew Graeber's contract, preventing consideration for academic tenure, which was scheduled for 2008. Pointing to Graeber's anthropological scholarship, his supporters (including fellow anthropologists, former students and activists) said the decision was politically motivated. More than 4,500 people signed petitions supporting him, and anthropologists such as Marshall Sahlins, Laura Nader, Michael Taussig, and Maurice Bloch called on Yale to reverse its decision. Bloch, who had been a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and the Collège de France, and a writer on Madagascar, praised Graeber in a letter to the university.

The Yale administration argued that Graeber's dismissal was in keeping with Yale's policy of granting tenure to few junior faculty. Graeber suggested that Yale's decision might have been influenced by his support of a student of his who was targeted for expulsion because of her membership in GESO, Yale's graduate student union.

In December 2005, Graeber agreed to leave Yale after a one-year paid sabbatical. That spring he taught two final classes: "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology" (attended by more than 200 students) and a seminar, "Direct Action and Radical Social Theory".

"Academic exile" and London (2005–2020)
On May 25, 2006, Graeber was invited to give the Malinowski Lecture at the London School of Economics. Each year, the LSE anthropology department asks an anthropologist at a relatively early stage of their career to give the Malinowski Lecture, and only invites those considered to have made significant contributions to anthropological theory. Graeber's address was called "Beyond Power/Knowledge: an exploration of the relation of power, ignorance and stupidity". It was later edited into an essay, "Dead zones of the imagination: On violence, bureaucracy and interpretive labor". The same year, Graeber was asked to present the keynote address in the 100th anniversary Diamond Jubilee meetings of the Association of Social Anthropologists. In April 2011, he presented the anthropology department's annual Distinguished Lecture at Berkeley, and in May 2012 he delivered the second annual Marilyn Strathern Lecture at Cambridge (the first was delivered by Strathern).

After his dismissal from Yale, Graeber was unable to secure another position at an American university. He applied for more than twenty, but despite a strong track record and letters of recommendation from several prominent anthropologists, never made it past the first round. At the same time, a number of foreign universities approached him with offers. In an article on his "academic exile" from the United States, The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed several anthropology professors who agreed that Graeber's political activism could have played a role in his unsuccessful search, describing the field as "radical in the abstract" (in the words of Laura Nader) but intolerant of direct political action. Another factor suggested by the article was that Graeber had acquired a reputation as being personally difficult or "uncollegial", especially in light of allegations of poor conduct made by Yale during the dispute over his dismissal. Graeber himself interpreted his exclusion from American academia as a direct result of his dismissal from Yale, likening it to "black-balling in a social club", and arguing that the charge of "uncollegiality" glossed a variety of other personal qualities, from his political activism to his working-class background, that marked him as a trouble-maker within the academic hierarchy. Laura Nader, reflecting on Graeber's case amongst other examples of "academic silencing" in anthropology, speculated that the real reasons could have included Graeber's growing reputation as a public intellectual, and his tendency to "write in English" rather than jargon.

From 2008 to 2013, Graeber was a lecturer and a reader at Goldsmiths College of the University of London. In 2013, he accepted a professorship at the London School of Economics.

Graeber was a founding member of the Institute for Experimental Arts in Greece. He gave a lecture with the title "How social and economic structure influences the Art World" in the International MultiMedia Poetry Festival organized by the Institute for Experimental Arts supported by the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Scholarship
Graeber is the author of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology and Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. He conducted extensive anthropological work in Madagascar, writing his doctoral thesis, The Disastrous Ordeal of 1987: Memory and Violence in Rural Madagascar, on the continuing social division between the descendants of nobles and the descendants of former slaves. A book based on his dissertation, Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar, was published by Indiana University Press in September 2007. A book of collected essays, Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire was published by AK Press in November 2007, and Direct Action: An Ethnography appeared from the same press in August 2009. Moreover, the aforementioned publisher printed a collection of essays by Graeber – co-edited with Stevphen Shukaitis and Erika Biddle – called Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations/Collective Theorization (AK Press, May 2007).

In December 2017, Graeber and his former teacher Marshall Sahlins released a collection of essays entitled On Kings, outlining a theory, inspired by A. M. Hocart, of the origins of human sovereignty in cosmological ritual. Graeber contributed essays on the Shilluk and Merina kingdoms, and a final essay that explored what he called "the constitutive war between king and people". He was working on a historical work on the origins of social inequality with David Wengrow, published posthumously as The Dawn of Everything.

From January 2013 until June 2016, Graeber was a contributing editor at The Baffler magazine in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he, too, participated in the public debate about futures of technology. From 2011 until 2017 he was editor-at-large of the open access journal HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, for which he and Giovanni da Col co-wrote the founding theoretical statement and manifesto of the school of "ethnographic theory".

Charles Kenny, writing in the political magazine Democracy, claimed that Graeber sought out data that "fit the narrative on the evils of neoliberalism" and challenged or criticized data which suggested otherwise.

Debt: The First 5000 Years

Graeber's first major historical monograph was Debt: The First 5000 Years (2011).

Karl Schmid, writing in the Canadian Anthropology Society's journal Anthropologica, described Debt as an "unusual book" which "may be the most read public anthropology book of the 21st century" and noted that "it will be difficult for Graeber or anyone else to top this book for the attention it received due to excellent timing". Schmid compared Debt to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and James C. Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed for its "vast scope and implication". However, Schmid expressed minor frustrations with the sheer length of the book, and the fact that Graeber raises many claims and examples which he does not go on to develop in full.

J. Bradford DeLong, an economic historian, criticized Debt on his blog, alleging mistakes in the book. Graeber responded that these errors had no influence on his argument, remarking that the "biggest actual mistake DeLong managed to detect in the 544 pages of Debt, despite years of flailing away, was (iirc) that I got the number of Presidential appointees on the Federal Open Market Committee board wrong". He dismissed his other criticisms as representing a divergence of interpretation, truncation of his arguments by DeLong, and mistakes in the copy editing of the book.

Bureaucracy, managerialism, and "bullshit jobs"

Much of Graeber's later scholarship focused on the topic of "bullshit jobs", proliferated by administrative bloat and what Graeber calls "managerial feudalism". One of the points he raised in his 2013 book The Democracy Project—on the Occupy movement—is the increase in what he calls bullshit jobs, referring to forms of employment that even those holding the jobs feel should not or do not need to exist. He sees such jobs as being typically "concentrated in professional, managerial, clerical, sales, and service workers". As he explained also in an article in STRIKE!: "Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed".

Because of the article's popularity, Graeber then wrote the book Bullshit Jobs: A theory, published in 2018 by Simon & Schuster. Writing for The New Yorker, Nathan Heller described the resulting book as having "the virtue of being both clever and charismatic". Reviewing the book for The New York Times, Alana Semuels noted that although it could be criticized for generalizations about economics "Graeber's anthropological eye and skepticism about capitalism are useful in questioning some parts of the economy that the West has come to accept as normal." The Guardian gave a mixed review of Graeber's Bullshit Jobs, accusing him of having a "slightly condescending attitude" and attesting to the book's "laboured arguments", while referring to aspects of the book's thesis as "clearly right". Bullshit Jobs spent four weeks in the top 20 of the Los Angeles Times''' bestseller list. The book was awarded "Book of the Year 2018" by each of the Financial Times, New Statesman, and City AM.

 Activism

In addition to his academic work, Graeber was directly and indirectly involved in political activism. He was a member of the labor union Industrial Workers of the World, protested at the World Economic Forum in New York City in 2002, supported the 2010 UK student protests, and played an early role in the Occupy Wall Street movement. He was co-founder of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence.

Graeber became a strong advocate of the democratic confederalism of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria after visiting the region in 2014, often drawing parallels between it and the Spanish Revolution his father fought for in the 1930s.

On October 11, 2019, Graeber spoke at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square about the relationship between "bullshit jobs" and environmental harm, suggesting that the environmental movement should recognize these jobs in combination with unnecessary construction or infrastructure projects and planned obsolescence as significant issues.

 Occupy movement

In November 2011, Rolling Stone credited Graeber with giving the Occupy Wall Street movement its theme: "We are the 99 percent". Graeber wrote in The Democracy Project that the slogan "was a collective creation". Rolling Stone said he helped create the first New York City General Assembly, with only 60 participants, on August 2. He spent the next six weeks involved with the burgeoning movement, including facilitating general assemblies, attending working group meetings, and organizing legal and medical training and classes on nonviolent resistance. A few days after the encampment of Zuccotti Park began, he left New York for Austin, Texas.

Graeber argued that the Occupy Wall Street movement's lack of recognition of the legitimacy of either existing political institutions or the legal structure, its embrace of non-hierarchical consensus decision-making and of prefigurative politics made it a fundamentally anarchist project. Comparing it to the Arab Spring, he claimed that Occupy Wall Street and other contemporary grassroots protests represented "the opening salvo in a wave of negotiations over the dissolution of the American Empire." Writing in Al Jazeera, he noted that from the beginning the Occupy movement was about a "commitment to answer only to a moral order, not a legal one" and so held meetings without the requisite permits. Defending this early decision of the Occupy movement, he said, "as the public, we should not need permission to occupy public space".

Graeber tweeted in 2014 that he had been evicted from his family's home of over 50 years due to his involvement with Occupy Wall Street. He added that others associated with Occupy had received similar "administrative harassment".

 British politics
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Graeber signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, calling him "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election. In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few." Graeber, who was Jewish, also defended Corbyn from accusations of antisemitism, saying that "What actually threatens Jews, the people who actually want to kill us, are Nazis", and that the allegations represented a "weaponization" of antisemitism for political purposes.Stuart Jeffries (March 21, 2015), "David Graeber interview: 'So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they think are unnecessary'" , The Guardian. Retrieved April 12, 2019.

Graeber advocated for a boycott of The Guardian newspaper by fellow left-wing authors after alleging that the paper published distortions against Corbyn for years. He denounced what he claimed was the weaponization of antisemitism for political purposes, and The Guardians alleged role in undermining Corbyn in the 2019 election, which, according to Graeber, resulted in a landslide victory for Boris Johnson. He asserted that The Guardian only publishes progressive authors in order to gain credibility with its readership, but its editorial policy is at odds with socialist politics. He was a vocal critic of the Labour centrists who attacked Corbyn, stating their disdain for socialist movements was due to their previously selling-out: "If those activists were not naive, if this man was not unelectable, the centrists' entire lives had been a lie. They hadn't really accepted reality at all. They really were just sellouts."

 Influence and reception
Kate Burrell wrote, in the journal Sociology, that Graeber's work "promotes anarchist visions of social change, which are not quite believed possible by the Left, yet are lived out within social movements every day" and that his work "offers poetic insight into the daily realities of life as an activist, overtly promotes anarchism, and is a hopeful celebration of just what can be achieved by relatively small groups of committed individuals living their truth visibly."

Hans Steinmüller, reviewing On Kings in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, described Graeber and his co-author Marshall Sahlins as "two of the most important anthropological thinkers of our time" and considered their contribution to represent a "benchmark" for the anthropological theory of kingship.

As stated by Penguin Random House editor Tom Penn, "David was a true radical, a pioneer in everything that he did. David's inspirational work has changed and shaped the way people understand the world... In his books, his constant, questing curiosity, his wry, sharp-eyed provoking of received nostrums shine through. So too, above all, does his unique ability to imagine a better world, borne out of his own deep and abiding humanity. We are deeply honoured to be his publisher, and we will all miss him: his kindness, his warmth, his wisdom, his friendship. His loss is incalculable, but his legacy is immense. His work and his spirit will live on."

Personal life
After a relationship with anthropologist Lauren Leve, Graeber married artist Nika Dubrovsky in 2019. The two collaborated on a series of books, workshops, and conversations called Anthropology for Kids'' and on the Museum of Care, a shared space for communication and social interactions nourishing values of solidarity, care, and reciprocity. According to Graeber's website, "The main goal of the Museum of Care is to produce and maintain social relationships." The concept "museum of care" was coined by Graeber and Dubrovsky in their article "The Museum of Care: imagining the world after the pandemic", originally published in "Arts of the Working Class" in April 2020. In the article, Graeber and Dubrovsky imagine a post-pandemic future, where vast surfaces of office spaces and conservative institutions are turned into "free city universities, social centers and hotels for those in need of shelter". "We could call them 'Museums of Care' – precisely because they are spaces that do not celebrate production of any sort but rather provide the space and means for the creation of social relationships and the imagining of entirely new forms of social relations."

Death
Graeber died suddenly from necrotic pancreatitis on September 2, 2020, while on vacation with his wife and friends in Venice. Graeber died during the COVID-19 pandemic and instead of a funeral, his family organized an "Intergalactic Memorial Carnival" of livestreamed events that took place in October 2020. His wife, Nika, attributed the pancreatitis to COVID-19, saying they both had strange symptoms for months beforehand, and she said there was a connection between COVID-19 and pancreatitis.

Selected publications

References

Further reading

External links

1961 births
2020 deaths
Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London
Academics of the London School of Economics
Activists from New York City
American anarchists
American anthropologists
American anti-capitalists
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
American male non-fiction writers
American political writers
Anarchist economics
Anarchist theorists
Anti-corporate activists
Economic anthropologists
Historians of anarchism
Industrial Workers of the World members
Jewish anarchists
Jewish philosophers
Jewish American writers
Phillips Academy alumni
State University of New York at Purchase alumni
University of Chicago alumni
World historians
Writers from New York City
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Critics of work and the work ethic
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David Graeber


In philately the word imprimatur refers to the first stamps printed from an approved and finished printing plate.

The term is particularly associated with British Victorian stamps as it was the practice of the printers to retain the first sheet as a record.

The word is from the Latin "let it be printed".

References

Philatelic terminology

Imprimatur (philately)


Emma Elizabeth Thoyts (1860–1949), aka Mrs. John Hauntenville Cope, was an English palaeographer, amateur historian, and genealogist.

Biography
Emma Elizabeth Thoyts was born in Bryanston Square, Marylebone in Middlesex on 8 July 1860, the eldest daughter Major William Richard Mortimer Thoyts of Sulhamstead House, Berkshire, and his wife, Anne Annabella Puleston. She was the great-granddaughter of William Thoyts, the High Sheriff of Berkshire, and grew up at Sulhamstead House where she developed an interest in history. She wrote widely, particularly upon subjects related to Sulhamstead and the surrounding villages and the families who lived there. She transcribed many Berkshire parish registers and soon became a recognised expert on the reading of ancient handwriting. One of her few published works, How to Decipher and Study Old Documents (1893), is still in print today under the title How to Read Old Documents. Her many manuscript works are now in the Berkshire Local Studies Library in Reading.

In 1899, Thoyts married one of the last of the great Cope family from Bramshill House in Hampshire, John Hautenville Cope. He was a fellow historian and major contributor to the Victoria County History of Berkshire. The two settled in Finchampstead in Berkshire, where Emma died on 9 November 1949, having outlived her husband by seven years and a day. They are buried together in the churchyard at St Mary's, Eversley, the Cope family burial ground. They also have a memorial plaque inside the church.

References

External links

1860 births
1949 deaths
English genealogists
19th-century English historians
English palaeographers
People from Marylebone
People from Sulhamstead
People from Finchampstead
British women historians
20th-century English historians

Emma Elizabeth Thoyts


Hillar Aarelaid (born 31 December 1967) is the founder and first CEO for Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-EE). He was the Director General of the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate from 1999 to 2003.

Aarelaid was one of the central officials in charge of responding to the computer attacks on Estonia after the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn controversy. American expert Bill Woodcock and other observers praised Aarelaid's calm professionalism displayed during the attacks.

References

Living people
1967 births
Chief executives of computer security organizations
Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 5th Class
Estonian computer scientists

Hillar Aarelaid


Albert John Luthuli (1898 – 21 July 1967) was a South African anti-apartheid activist, traditional leader, and politician who was the President-General of the African National Congress from 1952 until his death in 1967.

He was born to a Zulu family  at a Seventh-day Adventist mission in Bulawayo. He went to his family's ancestral home of Groutville, in the Colony of Natal in 1908 to go to school under the care of his uncle. After graduating from high school with a teaching degree, He went a small school in Natal where he was the only teacher.  Then he went to Adams College. He got a Higher Teacher's Diploma and became a teacher there - one  of their first African teachers.  He was  the secretary of the Natal Native Teachers' Association, and then its president.

In 1935 when he was elected chief of the Umvoti River Reserve in Groutville. He joined the African National Congress in 1944.  In 1952 he led the Defiance Campaign to protest against the pass laws.  He was deposed by the South African government as chief. He was elected President-General of the ANC.  He was against the use of violence.  In 1961 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

References

Nobel Peace Prize winners
1898 births
1967 deaths
South African politicians
South African anti-apartheid activists

Albert Lutuli


George Brock (May 16, 1932 – April 10, 2020), billed as Big George Brock, was an American blues musician. A native of Mississippi, he moved to Missouri in the 1950s and operated a series of nightclubs. He played alongside Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, and Albert King. Brock starred in the 2006 film Hard Times, a documentary about his life.

Life and career
Brock was born in Grenada, Mississippi on May 16, 1932. By the time he was eight, he was working as a sharecropper picking cotton. Brock was surrounded by blues music, and recalled, "the blues grew like grass out of the ground." His father taught him and his brothers how to play harmonica as a child.

As a teenager he moved to Mattson, Mississippi. There he met Muddy Waters, and they performed together on weekends. In the late 1940s he moved to Walls, Mississippi. While working as a pipeliner on Highway 61, Brock met Howlin' Wolf. He became his roadie and performed with him. Brock also met Memphis Minnie in Walls and jammed with her at house parties.

Brock moved to St. Louis in 1950 where he was an amateur boxer for a while. In 1952, boxer Sonny Liston was training at a gym alongside Brock. Liston challenged Brock to sparring match. Brock won the fight in the second round, recalling that "he'd just come out of the pen. He thought he was pretty tough." He focused on his music career because it was more lucrative, forming his own band Big George & the Houserockers. Blues guitarist Albert King played in Brock's band before forming his own.

In 1952, Brock opened his own nightclub, Club Caravan, near North Garrison and Franklin avenues. Brock worked as a bouncer and performed there with his band which at times featured King, Big Baddy Smitty, or Riley Coatie on lead guitar. The club hosted acts such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Ike & Tina Turner, and Jimmy Reed.

In the early 1960s, Muddy Waters arranged for him to meet with the executives of Chess Records. Brock turned down the record deal because although he was offered a tour bus and proceeds from the shows, he wouldn't have received any royalties from his recordings. He continued playing the club circuit, at one point he owned as many as three nightclubs at once. Brock closed the Club Caravan after his wife was killed during a shooting incident in 1970. He opened another Club Caravan at Delmar Boulevard and Taylor Avenue, but that closed in the late 1980s.

In 2005, Brock signed to the label Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art. He put out the album Club Caravan which received favorable reviews and a Blues Music Award nomination for best comeback album. In 2006 he released the album Round Two, which received three Blues Music Award nominations.

In 2006, Brock was featured in a documentary about his life titled Hard Times. In the film he visits the plantations where he worked as a child in Mississippi.

In 2017, Brock was honored with a special concert at the National Blues Museum in St. Louis. Brock toured overseas in England, Italy, Switzerland and France. He continued to perform and regularly headlined various blues festivals, including the Bluesweek Festival and the Big Muddy Blues Festival.

Personal life
Brock was married three times and claimed to have forty-two children. He died after a long illness at home in St. Louis on April 10, 2020, at the age of 87.

Discography

Albums
 1987: Should Have Been There (self-released)
 1999: I Got To Keep My Bedroom Door Locked (self-released)
 1999: Front Door Man (Tee-Ti)
 2005: Club Caravan (Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc.) – Big George Brock & The Houserockers
 2006: Round Two (Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc.)
 2006: Hard Times (Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc.)
 2007: Live At Seventy Five (Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc.)
 2007: Heavyweight Blues (APO Records)

References

External links

 Big George Brock on IMDb
 Big George Brock on Mississippi Blues Project
 Big George Brock discography on AllMusic

1932 births
2020 deaths
American blues harmonica players
American rhythm and blues singers
American blues singers
Music of St. Louis
St. Louis blues musicians
Blues musicians from Mississippi
People from Grenada, Mississippi
People from Coahoma County, Mississippi
People from Walls, Mississippi

Big George Brock