The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS), also popularly known as the Great Mayan Reef or Great Maya Reef, is a marine region that stretches over  along the coasts of four countries – Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras – from Isla Contoy at the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula south to Belize, Guatemala and the Bay Islands of Honduras. The reef system includes various protected areas and parks including the Belize Barrier Reef, Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, Hol Chan Marine Reserve (Belize), Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve, and the Cayos Cochinos Marine Park. Belize's coastline, including the Belize Barrier Reef, is home to approximately 30% of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.

It begins near Isla Contoy on the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and continues south alongside the Riviera Maya including areas like Cozumel and Banco Chinchorro. It then continues south along the eastern coast of Belize including many cayes and atolls. It extends to the north-east corner of Honduras.

Biodiversity

The reef system is home to more than 65 species of stony coral, 350 species of mollusk and more than 500 species of fish. There are numerous species that live in or around the reef system that are endangered or under some degree of protection, including the following: sea turtles (green sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle, leatherback turtle, and the hawksbill turtle), the queen conch, the West Indian manatee, the splendid toadfish, the American crocodile, the Morelet's crocodile, the Nassau grouper, elkhorn coral, and black coral.

The reef system is suffering an invasion by the red lionfish (Pterois volitans and Pterois miles), which is native to the Indo-Pacific region. Lionfish severely damage the reef ecosystem by eating nearly every reef-tending species, such as cleaner shrimp and other species that eat algae. These animals keep the corals clean, alive, and disease-free. Lionfish eat up to 90% of the reef-tending species in a given area within just a few months, which can result in a quick death for a reef. Valuable commercial species, such as lobster, are being negatively affected by the spread of the lionfish due to their enormous appetite.

The reef system is home to one of the world's largest populations of manatees, with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 of them.

Some northern areas of the reef system near Isla Contoy are home to the largest fish on the planet, the whale shark. The normally solitary whale sharks congregate there in social groups to eat and to mate.

Conservation
The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System is considered critically endangered according to the criteria of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.

See also
 List of reefs
 Assisted evolution
 Coral Reef Alliance

References

External links

 Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System Project
 Mesoamerican Reef Alliance (MAR), a collaborative project for the management and conservation of the reef system, coordinated by the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN)

Coral reefs
Marine ecoregions
Ecoregions of Central America
Natural history of Mesoamerica
Regions of Central America
Ecoregions of Belize
Ecoregions of El Salvador
Ecoregions of Guatemala
Ecoregions of Honduras
Ecoregions of Mexico
Protected areas of Belize
Protected areas of Mexico
Caribbean Sea articles missing geocoordinate data
IUCN Red List of Ecosystems

Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System


Kas laimės milijoną? (English translation: Who will win the million?) was a Lithuanian game show based on the original British format of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The show was originally hosted by Henrikas Vaitiekūnas, later replaced by Vytautas Kernagis. The main goal of the game was to win 1 million litai by answering 15 multiple-choice questions correctly. There were three lifelines - 50:50 (vienas iš dviejų), Phone a Friend (skambutis draugui) and Ask the Audience (salės pagalba). Kas laimės milijoną? was broadcast from 16 May 2002 to 18 August 2005. It was shown on the Lithuanian TV station TV3 Lithuania. When a contestant got the fifth question correct, they left with at least 1,000 litai. When a contestant got the tenth question correct, they left with at least 32,000 litai. The biggest winner is Rita Nikolskienė, who won 64,000 litai on 9 May 2003.

Payout structure

References

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
2002 Lithuanian television series debuts
2005 Lithuanian television series endings
2000s Lithuanian television series
TV3 (Lithuania) original programming

lt:Kas laimės milijoną?

Kas laimės milijoną?


William Harrington (1566 – executed 18 February 1594) was an English Jesuit priest. He is a Roman Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

Life

His father had entertained Edmund Campion at the ancestral home, Mount St. John, early in 1581. Young William, inspired by Campion, went abroad to train as a priest. He was first at the seminary at Reims, then went to study under the Jesuits at Tournai (1582–1584). He would have joined the order, but his health broke down and forced him to keep at home for the next six years.

In February 1591, however, he was able to return once more to Reims, and, having been ordained, returned at midsummer 1592. The following May he fell into the hands of the English authorities, whereupon he was arrested and confined to the dungeons for several months.
Harrington was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn for the crime of being a Catholic priest. He was given the chance to spare his life if he renounced the Catholic faith and were to attend Protestant services just once. William refused.  He was tortured on the rack, hanged until not quite dead, then disemboweled, before being beheaded.

William's fate had an important literary side-effect. One of those who had sheltered him was Henry Donne, the brother of the poet John Donne. Henry was arrested, and died of the plague in Newgate Prison. John Donne was a Catholic too, but later embraced the Protestant Church of England, in an effort to spare his own life.

William Harrington was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI. His Feast Day is 18 February. He is also venerated on 22 November as one of the Martyrs of England, Scotland and Wales and on 29 October as one of the Martyrs of Douai.

Bibliography

 Commendacions of Matrymony, cir. 1528

References

Attribution

The Month, April, 1874, 411-423
Samuel Harsnet, Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, whereunto are annexed the confessions of the parties themselves (London, 1603), 230-232
Academy (London, 19 February 1876), 165
John Morris, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers (London, 1875), 104-107

1566 births
1594 deaths
English beatified people
16th-century venerated Christians
16th-century English Jesuits
People executed under Elizabeth I by hanging, drawing and quartering
Executed English people
People executed at Tyburn
One Hundred and Seven Martyrs of England and Wales

William Harrington (priest)


Henry Flood (1732 – 2 December 1791) was an Irish statesman and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became proficient in the classics. He was a leading Irish politician, and a friend of Henry Grattan, the leader of the Irish Patriot Party. He became an object of public interest in 1770, when he was put on trial for murder, after killing a political rival in a duel.

Henry was the son to Warden Flood. He was married to Lady Frances Beresford, daughter of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and Lady Catherine Power, who brought him a large fortune.

Irish Parliament
In 1759, he entered the Irish parliament as member for County Kilkenny, a seat he held until 1761. There was at that time no party in the Irish House of Commons that could truly be called national, and until a few years before there had been none that deserved even the name of opposition. The Irish parliament was still constitutionally subordinate to the English privy council; it had practically no powers of independent legislation, and none of controlling the policy of the executive, which was nominated by the ministers in London. Though the majority of the people were Roman Catholics, no person of that faith could either enter parliament or exercise the franchise; the penal code, which made it almost impossible for a Roman Catholic to hold property, to follow a learned profession, or even to educate his children, and which in numerous particulars pressed severely on the Roman Catholics and subjected them to degrading conditions, was as yet unrepealed, though in practice largely obsolete; the industry and commerce of Ireland were throttled by restrictions imposed, in accordance with the economic theories of the period, in the interest of the rival trade of Great Britain. Men like Anthony Malone and Hely-Hutchinson fully realised the necessity for far-reaching reforms; and it only needed the ability and eloquence of Flood in the Irish House of Commons to raise up an independent party in parliament, and to create in the country a public opinion with definite intelligible aims.

The chief objects for which Flood strove were the shortening of the duration of parliament which had then no legal limit in Ireland except that of the reigning sovereign's life, the reduction of the scandalously heavy pension list, the establishment of a national militia, and, above all, the complete legislative independence of the Irish parliament. For some years little was accomplished; but in 1768 the English ministry, which had special reasons at the moment for avoiding unpopularity in Ireland, allowed an octennial bill (limiting the term of parliament to eight years) to pass, which was the first step towards making the Irish House of Commons in some measure representative of public opinion.

It had become the practice to allow crown patronage in Ireland to be exercised by the owners of parliamentary boroughs in return for their undertaking to manage the House in the government interest. But during the vice-royalty of Lord Townshend the aristocracy, and more particularly these undertakers as they were called, were made to understand that for the future their privileges in this respect would be curtailed. When, therefore, an opportunity was taken by the government in 1768 for reasserting the constitutional subordination of the Irish parliament, these powerful classes were thrown into a temporary alliance with Flood. In the following year, in accordance with the established procedure, a money bill was sent over by the privy council in London for acceptance by the Irish House of Commons. It was rejected, but a reason for this course was assigned; namely, that the bill had not originated in the Irish House. In consequence, parliament was peremptorily prorogued, and a recess of fourteen months was employed by the government in securing a majority by the most extensive corruption. Nevertheless, when parliament met in February 1771 another money bill was thrown out on the motion of Flood; and the next year Lord Townshend, the lord lieutenant whose policy had provoked this conflict, was recalled. The struggle was the occasion of a publication, famous in its day, called Baratariana, to which Flood contributed a series of powerful letters after the manner of Junius, one of his collaborators being Henry Grattan.

The success which had thus far attended Flood's efforts had placed him in a position such as no Irish politician had previously attained. He had, as an eminent historian of Ireland observes, "proved himself beyond all comparison the greatest popular orator that his country had yet produced, and also a consummate master of parliamentary tactics. Under parliamentary conditions that were exceedingly unfavourable, and in an atmosphere charged with corruption, venality and subservience, he had created a party before which ministers had begun to quail, and had inoculated the Protestant constituencies with a genuine spirit of liberty and self-reliance." Lord Harcourt, who succeeded Townshend as viceroy, saw that Flood must be conciliated at any price "rather than risk the opposition of so formidable a leader." Even his trial for the murder of his long-time enemy James Agar in 1770 did nothing to damage his career or his reputation. Found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter, he was spared a prison sentence, and the episode is said to have made duelling more rather than less respectable.

Flood represented Callan between 1762 and 1776, where he had a bitter feud with the Agar family, whose effective head James Agar he killed in a duel, and Longford Borough between 1768 and 1769. Accordingly, in 1775, he was offered and accepted a seat, in the Privy Council of Ireland  and the office of vice-treasurer with a salary of £3500 a year. For this step, he has been severely criticized. Flood may reasonably have held that he had a better prospect of advancing his policy by the leverage of a ministerial position. The result, however, was that the leadership of the national party passed from Flood to Grattan, who entered the Irish parliament in the same session that Flood became a minister.

Flood continued in office for nearly seven years. Re-elected for Enniskillen in 1777, he necessarily remained silent on the subject of the independence of the Irish parliament, and had to be content with advocating minor reforms as occasion offered. He was instrumental in obtaining bounties on the export of Irish corn to foreign, countries and other commercial concessions. On the other hand, he failed to procure the passing of a Habeas corpus bill and a bill for making the judges irremovable, while his support of Lord North's American policy gravely injured his popularity and reputation.

An important event in 1778 led indirectly to his recovering to some extent his former position in the country; this was the alliance of France with the revolted American colonies. Ireland was thereby placed in peril of a French invasion, while the English government could provide no troops to defend the island. A volunteer movement was then set on foot to meet the emergency; in a few weeks more than 40,000 men were under arms, officered by the country gentry, and controlled by Lord Charlemont. This volunteer force, in which Flood was a colonel soon made itself felt in politics.

A Volunteer Convention, formed with all the regular organisation of a representative assembly, but wielding the power of an army, began menacingly to demand the removal of the commercial restrictions which were destroying Irish prosperity. Under, this pressure the government gave way; the whole colonial trade was in 1779 thrown open to Ireland for the first time, and other concessions were also extorted. Flood, who had taken an active though not a leading part in this movement, now at last resigned his office to rejoin his old party. He found to his chagrin that his former services had been to a great extent forgotten and that he was eclipsed by Grattan.

When in a debate on the constitutional question in 1779 Flood complained of the small consideration shown him in relation to a subject which he had been the first to agitate, he was reminded that by the civil law if a man should separate from his wife and abandon her for seven years, another might then take her and give her his protection. But though Flood had lost control of the movement for independence of the Irish parliament, the agitation, backed as it now was by the Volunteer Convention and by increasing signs of popular disaffection, led at last in 1782 to the concession of the demand, together with a number of other important reforms.

No sooner, however, was this great success gained than a question arose known as the Simple Repeal controversy as to whether England, in addition to the repeal of the Acts on which the subordination of the Irish parliament had been based, should not be required expressly to renounce for the future all claim to control Irish legislation. The chief historical importance of this dispute is that it led to the memorable rupture of friendship between Flood and Grattan, each of whom assailed the other with unmeasured but magnificently eloquent invective in the House of Commons.

In 1783, Flood was again returned to the house, this time for Kilbeggan. His view prevailed for a Renunciation Act such as he advocated was ungrudgingly passed by the English parliament of the same year and for a time he regained popularity at the expense of his rival. Flood next (28 November 1783) introduced a reform bill, after first submitting it to the Volunteer Convention.

The bill, which contained no provision for giving the franchise to Roman Catholics, which Flood always opposed, was rejected, ostensibly on the ground that the attitude of the volunteers threatened the freedom of parliament. The volunteers were perfectly loyal to the crown and the connection with England. They carried an address to the king, moved by Flood, expressing the hope that their support of parliamentary reform might be imputed to nothing but a sober and laudable desire to uphold the constitution and to perpetuate the cordial union of both kingdoms. The convention then dissolved, but Flood had desired, in opposition to Grattan, to continue it as a means of putting pressure on parliament for the purpose of obtaining reform.

In Dublin, he was a member of Daly's Club.

British Parliament

In 1776, Flood had made an attempt to enter the British House of Commons. In 1783, he tried again, this time successfully. He purchased a seat for Winchester from the duke of Chandos, and for the next seven years he was a member at the same time of both the British and Irish parliaments. He reintroduced, but without success, his reform bill in the Irish House in 1784; supported the movement for protecting Irish industries; but short-sightedly opposed Pitt's commercial propositions in 1785. He remained a firm opponent of Roman Catholic emancipation, even defending the penal laws on the ground that after the Revolution, they were not laws of persecution but of political necessity; but after 1786, he does not appear to have attended the parliament in Dublin.

In the House at Westminster, where he refused to enrol himself as a member of either political party, he was not successful: Grattan remarked that Flood, at fifty, was too old a tree to be transplanted. His first speech, in opposition to Charles James Fox's India Bill on 3 December 1783, disappointed the expectations aroused by his celebrity. His speech in opposition to the commercial treaty with France in 1787 was, however, well received; and in 1790 he introduced a reform bill which Fox declared to be the best scheme of reform that had yet been proposed, and which in Edmund Burke's opinion retrieved Flood's reputation. But at the dissolution in the same year, he lost his seat in both parliaments, and he then retired to Farmley, his residence in County Kilkenny, where he remained until his death. He and Frances, who survived until 1815, had no children, and his property passed to a cousin, John Flood; a large bequest to Trinity College Dublin was declared invalid.

References

Notes

Sources

Further reading
 Warden Flood, Memoirs of Henry Flood (London, 1838);
 Henry Grattan, Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Hon. H. Grattan (5 vols., London, 1839–1846);
 Charles Phillips, Recollections of Curran and some of his Contemporaries (London, 1822); The Irish Parliament 1775, from an official and contemporary manuscript, edited by William Hunt (London, 1907);
 W. J. O'Neill Daunt, Ireland and Her Agitators; Lord Mountmorres, History of the Irish Parliament (2 vols., London, 1792); WEH Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century (8 vols., London, 1878–1890);
 Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (enlarged edition, 2 vols., London, 1903);
 J. A. Froude, The English in Ireland, vols. ii. and iii. (London, 1881);
 Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III (4 vols., London, 1845, 1894);
 Sir Jonah Barrington, Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (London, 1833);
 Francis Plowden, Historical Review of the State of Ireland (London, 1803); Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (Dublin, 1878); Francis Hardy, Memoirs of Lord Charlemont (London, 1812), especially for the volunteer movement, on which see also Proceedings of the Volunteer Delegates of Ireland 1784 (Anon. Pamphlet, Brit. Mus.);
 Also The Charlemont Papers, and Irish Parl. Debates, (vols. i.-iv.).

1732 births
1791 deaths
British MPs 1780–1784
British MPs 1784–1790
Irish MPs 1727–1760
Irish MPs 1761–1768
Irish MPs 1769–1776
Irish MPs 1776–1783
Irish MPs 1783–1790
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kilkenny constituencies
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Longford constituencies
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Fermanagh constituencies
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Westmeath constituencies

Henry Flood


The Black Horse was a study concept for a proposed winged single-stage to orbit spaceplane that would use aerial refueling to greatly reduce the size of the spacecraft, to about the size of an F-16 Fighting Falcon. The original concept was proposed in 1993 by US Air Force Captain Mitchell Burnside Clapp, who was familiar with the Air Force's use of aerial refueling to extend the performance of combat aircraft. The concept was further developed by others, including a smaller concept developed by Robert Zubrin, named the Black Colt. Clapp left the Air Force in 1996 and partnered with Zubrin to form Pioneer Rocketplane, who proposed a slightly larger version known as Pathfinder.

Black Horse Development

Clapp proposed Black Horse as a solution to the Air Force's ongoing TransAtmospheric Vehicle (TAV) mission. The concept was picked up by the Phillips Laboratory, and over the winter of 1993-94 they carried out a six-week study with WJ Schafer Associates and Conceptual Research Corporation (an aircraft design firm) into what was now known as the Aerial Propellant Transfer (APT) concept. APT was based on using as many off-the-shelf components as possible and considered a wide variety of possible propellants. Wishing to use only non-cryogenic fuels, they favored the use of conventional JP-5 jet fuel with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidizer. Other mixes considered, mostly for comparison purposes, were liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX), methane/LOX, and RP-1/LOX. Although the performance of the alternate fuels was higher, they all included at least one cryogenic component and were much less dense. Using peroxide had the additional advantage of cooling the combustion, which allowed the use of conventional JP-5 rather than the more expensive RP-1.

The study demonstrated that Black Horse would outperform any vertical take-off/horizontal landing concept no matter what fuel it used. The study also noted that the speed that the aerial fuel transfer took place was a key input to the overall performance of the system. Black Horse was deliberately designed to use existing tanker aircraft, specifically the KC-135Q and T models, which had fuel tanks completely separate from the aircraft's own fuel system (most models allowed the 135's engines to draw from the tanks). However, performance was slightly increased if the transfer took place in the supersonic regime at Mach 3.0, and dramatically increased, almost doubled, if it was hypersonic at Mach 5.5.

Black Colt

The concept was also picked up by Zubrin, who was then working at Martin Marietta, who carried out their own design series from January to May 1994. This developed the smaller Black Colt concept. Clapp and Zubrin later wrote an extensive article on the concepts in the June 1995 edition of Analog magazine. The Black Colt would take off with a tank of fuel, but load oxidizer while in the air. Zubrin considered the Black Colt to be a more feasible concept, as it would fly at a much lower speed.

Clapp partnered with Zubrin to form Pioneer Rocketplane, who proposed a slightly larger version known as Pathfinder.

Rocketplane XS

A similar launcher, Rocketplane XS, has been proposed by Rocketplane Global Inc.

See also
List of space launch system designs

References

Bibliography

External links
 Encyclopedia Astronautica
 The Black Horse Page
 Aircraftdesign.com - Black Horse (bottom of page) - 3 View (.jpg)

Single-stage-to-orbit
Former proposed space launch system concepts
Air launch to orbit
Cancelled space launch vehicles

Black Horse (rocket)


Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 Mandarin-language wuxia martial arts adventure film directed by Ang Lee and written for the screen by Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen. It is based on the Chinese novel of the same name serialized between 1941 and 1942 by Wang Dulu, the fourth part of his Crane Iron pentalogy.

A multinational venture, the film was made on a US$17 million budget, and was produced by Edko Films and Zoom Hunt Productions in collaboration with China Film Co-productions Corporation and Asian Union Film & Entertainment for Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia in association with Good Machine International. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2000, and was theatrically released in the United States on 8 December. With dialogue in Standard Chinese, subtitled for various markets, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a surprise international success, grossing $213.5 million worldwide. It grossed US$128 million in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing foreign-language film produced overseas in American history. The film was the first foreign-language film to break the $100 million mark in the United States.

The film received universal acclaim from critics, praised for its story, direction, cinematography, and martial arts sequences. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won over 40 awards and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2001, including Best Picture, and won Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography, receiving the most nominations ever for a non-English-language film at the time, until 2018's Roma tied this record. The film also won four BAFTAs and two Golden Globe Awards, each of them for Best Foreign Film. For retrospective years, Crouching Tiger is often cited as one of the finest wuxia films ever made and has been widely regarded one of the greatest films in the 21st century.

Plot
In Qing dynasty China, Li Mu Bai is a renowned Wudang swordsman, and his friend Yu Shu Lien, a female warrior, heads a private security company. Shu Lien and Mu Bai have long had feelings for each other, but because Shu Lien had been engaged to Mu Bai's close friend, Meng Sizhao before his death, Shu Lien and Mu Bai feel bound by loyalty to Meng Sizhao and have not revealed their feelings to each other. Mu Bai, choosing to retire from the life of a swordsman, asks Shu Lien to give his fabled 400-year-old sword "Green Destiny" to their benefactor Sir Te in Beijing. Long ago, Mu Bai's teacher was killed by Jade Fox, a woman who sought to learn Wudang secrets. While at Sir Te's place, Shu Lien meets Yu Jiaolong, or Jen, who is the daughter of the rich and powerful Governor Yu and is about to get married.

One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the Green Destiny. Sir Te's servant Master Bo and Shu Lien trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound, where Jade Fox had been posing as Jen's governess for many years. Soon after, Mu Bai arrives in Beijing and discusses the theft with Shu Lien. Master Bo makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai, a police investigator from the provinces, and his daughter May, who have come to Beijing in pursuit of Fox. Fox challenges the pair and Master Bo to a showdown that night.  Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox. She reveals that she killed Mu Bai's teacher because he would sleep with her, but refuse to take a woman as a disciple, and she felt it poetic justice for him to die at a woman's hand. Just as Mu Bai is about to kill her, the masked thief reappears and helps Fox. Fox kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Jen). After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual. Fox is illiterate and could only follow the diagrams, whereas Jen's ability to read the manual allowed her to surpass her teacher in martial arts.

At night, a bandit named Lo breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him. In the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts of Xinjiang, Lo and his bandits raided Jen's caravan and Lo stole her comb. She pursued him to his desert cave to retrieve her comb. However, the pair soon fell in love. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a mountain to make his wishes come true. Because the man's heart was pure, his wish was granted and he was unharmed, but flew away never to be seen again. Lo has come now to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage. However, Jen refuses to leave with him. Later, Lo interrupts Jen's wedding procession, begging her to leave with him. Shu Lien and Mu Bai convince Lo to wait for Jen at Mount Wudang, where he will be safe from Jen's family, who are furious with him. Jen runs away from her husband on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. Disguised in men's clothing, she is accosted at an inn by a large group of warriors; armed with the Green Destiny and her own superior combat skills, she emerges victorious.

Jen visits Shu Lien, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Mount Wudang. After an angry exchange, the two women engage in a duel. Shu Lien is the superior fighter, but Jen wields the Green Destiny and is able to destroy each weapon that Shu Lien wields, until Shu Lien finally manages to defeat Jen with a broken sword. When Shu Lien shows mercy, Jen wounds Shu Lien in the arm. Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a bamboo forest, where he offers to take her as his student. Jen agrees if he can take Green Destiny from her in three moves. Mu Bai is able to take the sword in only one move, but Jen reneges on her promise, and Mu Bai throws the sword over a waterfall. Jen dives after the sword and is rescued by Fox. Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern, where Mu Bai and Shu Lien discover her. Fox suddenly attacks them with poisoned needles. Mu Bai mortally wounds Fox, only to realize that one of the needles has hit him in the neck. Before dying, Fox confesses that her goal had been to kill Jen because Jen had hidden the secrets of Wudang's fighting techniques from her.

Contrite, Jen leaves to prepare an antidote for the poisoned dart. With his last breath, Mu Bai finally confesses his love for Shu Lien. He dies in her arms as Jen returns. Shu Lien forgives Jen, telling her to go to Lo and always be true to herself. The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te. Jen goes to Mount Wudang and spends the night with Lo. The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a bridge overlooking the edge of the mountain. In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish. Lo wishes for them to be together again, back in the desert. Jen leaps from the bridge, falling into the mists below.

Cast

Credits from British Film Institute:

 Chow Yun-fat as Li Mu Bai (, )
 Michelle Yeoh as Yu Shu Lien (, )
 Zhang Ziyi as Jen Yu (, )
 Chang Chen as Lo "Dark Cloud" Xiao Hou (, )
 Lang Sihung as Sir Te (, )
 Cheng Pei-pei as Jade Fox (, )
 Li Fazeng as Governor Yu (, )
 Wang Deming as Inspector Tsai (, )
 Li Li as Tsai May (, )
 Hai Yan as Madam Yu (, )
 Gao Xi'an as Bo (, )
 Huang Suying as Aunt Wu (, )
 Zhang Jinting as De Lu (, )
 Du Zhenxi as Uncle Jiao (, )
 Li Kai as Gou Jun Pei (, )
 Feng Jianhua as Shining Phoenix Mountain Gou (, )
 Ma Zhongxuan as Iron Arm Mi (, )
 Li Bao-Cheng as Flying Machete Chang (, )
 Yang Yongde as Monk Jing (, )

Themes and interpretations

Title
The title "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a literal translation of the Chinese idiom "臥虎藏龍" which describes a place or situation that is full of unnoticed masters. It is from a poem of the ancient Chinese poet Yu Xin (513–581) that reads "暗石疑藏虎,盤根似臥龍", which means "behind the rock in the dark probably hides a tiger, and the coiling giant root resembles a crouching dragon". The title also has several other layers of meaning. On one level, the Chinese characters in the title connect to the narrative that the last character in Xiaohu and Jiaolong's names mean "tiger" and "dragon", respectively. On another level, the Chinese idiomatic phrase is an expression referring to the undercurrents of emotion, passion, and secret desire that lie beneath the surface of polite society and civil behavior, which alludes to the film's storyline.

Gender roles
The success of the Disney animated feature Mulan (1998) popularized the image of the Chinese woman warrior in the west. The storyline of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is mostly driven by the three female characters. In particular, Jen is driven by her desire to be free from the gender role imposed on her, while Shu Lien, herself oppressed by the gender role, tries to lead Jen back into the role deemed appropriate for her. Some prominent martial arts disciplines are traditionally held to have been originated by women, e.g., Wing Chun. The film's title refers to masters one does not notice, which necessarily includes mostly women, and therefore suggests the advantage of a female bodyguard.

Poison
Poison is also a significant theme in the film. The Chinese word "毒" (dú) means not only physical poison but also cruelty and sinfulness. In the world of martial arts, the use of poison is considered an act of one who is too cowardly and dishonorable to fight; and indeed, the only character who explicitly fits these characteristics is Jade Fox. The poison is a weapon of her bitterness and quest for vengeance: she poisons the master of Wudang, attempts to poison Jen, and succeeds in killing Mu Bai using a poisoned needle. In further play on this theme by the director, Jade Fox, as she dies, refers to the poison from a young child, "the deceit of an eight-year-old girl", referring to what she considers her own spiritual poisoning by her young apprentice Jen. Li Mu Bai himself warns that, without guidance, Jen could become a "poison dragon".

China of the imagination
The story is set during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), but it does not specify an exact time. Lee sought to present a "China of the imagination" rather than an accurate vision of Chinese history. At the same time, Lee also wanted to make a film that Western audiences would want to see. Thus, the film is shot for a balance between Eastern and Western aesthetics. There are some scenes showing uncommon artistry for the typical martial arts film such as an airborne battle among wispy bamboo plants.

Production
The film was adapted from the novel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Wang Dulu, serialized between 1941 and 1942 in Qingdao Xinmin News. The novel is the fourth in a sequence of five. In the contract reached between Columbia Pictures and Ang Lee and Hsu Li-kong, they agreed to invest US$6 million in filming, but the stipulated recovery amount must be more than six times before the two parties will start to pay dividends.

Casting
Shu Qi was Ang Lee's first choice for the role of Jen, but she turned it down.

Filming

Although its Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was presented to Taiwan, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was in fact an international co-production between companies in four regions: the Chinese company China Film Co-production Corporation, the American companies Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Sony Pictures Classics, and Good Machine, the Hong Kong company Edko Films, and the Taiwanese Zoom Hunt Productions, as well as the unspecified United China Vision and Asia Union Film & Entertainment, created solely for this film.

The film was made in Beijing, with location shooting in Urumchi, Western Provinces, Taklamakan Plateau,
Shanghai and Anji of China. The first phase of shooting was in the Gobi Desert where it consistently rained. Director Ang Lee noted, "I didn't take one break in eight months, not even for half a day. I was miserable—I just didn't have the extra energy to be happy. Near the end, I could hardly breathe. I thought I was about to have a stroke." The stunt work was mostly performed by the actors themselves and Ang Lee stated in an interview that computers were used "only to remove the safety wires that held the actors" aloft. "Most of the time you can see their faces," he added. "That's really them in the trees."

Another compounding issue was the difference between accents of the four lead actors: Chow Yun-fat is from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese natively; Michelle Yeoh is from Malaysia and grew up speaking English and Malay, so she learned the Standard Chinese lines phonetically; Chang Chen is from Taiwan and he speaks Standard Chinese in a Taiwanese accent. Only Zhang Ziyi spoke with a native Mandarin accent that Ang Lee wanted. Chow Yun Fat said, on "the first day [of shooting], I had to do 28 takes just because of the language. That's never happened before in my life."

The film specifically targeted Western audiences rather than the domestic audiences who were already used to Wuxia films. As a result, high-quality English subtitles were needed. Ang Lee, who was educated in the West, personally edited the subtitles to ensure they were satisfactory for Western audiences.

Soundtrack

The score was composed by Dun TAN in 1999. It was played for the movie by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai National Orchestra and the Shanghai Percussion Ensemble. It features solo passages for cello played by Yo-Yo Ma. The "last track" ("A Love Before Time") features Coco Lee, who later sang it at the Academy Awards. The composer Chen Yuanlin also collaborated in the project. The music for the entire film was produced in two weeks. Tan the next year (2000) adapted his filmscore as a cello concerto called simply "Crouching Tiger."

Release

Marketing
The film was adapted into a video game and a series of comics, and it led to the original novel being adapted into a 34-episode Taiwanese television series. The latter was released in 2004 as New Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for Northern American release.

Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on 5 June 2001 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. It was also released on UMD on 26 June 2005. In the United Kingdom, it was watched by  viewers on television in 2004, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on television.

Restoration
The film was re-released in a 4K restoration by Sony Pictures Classics in 2023.

Reception

Box office
The film premiered in cinemas on 8 December 2000, in limited release within the United States. During its opening weekend, the film opened in 15th place, grossing $663,205 in business, showing at 16 locations. On 12 January 2001, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon premiered in cinemas in wide release throughout the U.S., grossing $8,647,295 in business, ranking in sixth place. The film Save the Last Dance came in first place during that weekend, grossing $23,444,930. The film's revenue dropped by almost 30% in its second week of release, earning $6,080,357. For that particular weekend, the film fell to eighth place, screening in 837 theaters. Save the Last Dance remained unchanged in first place, grossing $15,366,047 in box-office revenue. During its final week in release, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon opened in a distant 50th place with $37,233 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $128,078,872 in total ticket sales through a 31-week theatrical run. Internationally, the film took in an additional $85,446,864 in box-office business for a combined worldwide total of $213,525,736. For 2000 as a whole, the film cumulatively ranked at a worldwide box-office performance position of 19.

Critical response

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was widely acclaimed in the Western world, receiving numerous awards. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus states: "The movie that catapulted Ang Lee into the ranks of upper echelon Hollywood filmmakers, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon features a deft mix of amazing martial arts battles, beautiful scenery, and tasteful drama." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 94 out of 100, based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Some Chinese-speaking viewers were bothered by the accents of the leading actors. Neither Chow (a native Cantonese speaker) nor Yeoh (who was born and raised in Malaysia) spoke Mandarin Chinese as a mother tongue. All four main actors spoke Standard Chinese with vastly different accents: Chow speaks with a Cantonese accent, Yeoh with a Malaysian accent, Chang Chen with a Taiwanese accent, and Zhang Ziyi with a Beijing accent. Yeoh responded to this complaint in a 28 December 2000, interview with Cinescape. She argued, "My character lived outside of Beijing, and so I didn't have to do the Beijing accent." When the interviewer, Craig Reid, remarked, "My mother-in-law has this strange Sichuan-Mandarin accent that's hard for me to understand," Yeoh responded: "Yes, provinces all have their very own strong accents. When we first started the movie, Cheng Pei Pei was going to have her accent, and Chang Zhen was going to have his accent, and this person would have that accent. And in the end nobody could understand what they were saying. Forget about us, even the crew from Beijing thought this was all weird."

The film led to a boost in popularity of Chinese wuxia films in the western world, where they were previously little known, and led to films such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers, both directed by Zhang Yimou, being marketed towards Western audiences. The film also provided the breakthrough role for Zhang Ziyi's career, who noted:

Film Journal noted that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon "pulled off the rare trifecta of critical acclaim, boffo box-office and gestalt shift", in reference to its ground-breaking success for a subtitled film in the American market.

Accolades
Gathering widespread critical acclaim at the Toronto and New York film festivals, the film also became a favorite when Academy Awards nominations were announced in 2001. The film was screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. The film received ten Academy Award nominations, which was the highest ever for a non-English language film, up until it was tied by Roma (2018).

The film is ranked at number 497 on Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. and at number 66 in the magazine's 100 Best Films of World Cinema, published in 2010.
In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.
In 2016, it was voted the 35th-best film of the 21st century as picked by 177 film critics from around the world in a poll conducted by BBC.
The film was included in BBC's 2018 list of The 100 greatest foreign language films ranked by 209 critics from 43 countries around the world. In 2019, The Guardian ranked the film 51st in its 100 best films of the 21st century list.

Sequel
A sequel to the film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, was released in 2016. It was directed by Yuen Wo-ping, who was the action choreographer for the first film. It is a co-production between Pegasus Media, China Film Group Corporation, and the Weinstein Company. Unlike the original film, the sequel was filmed in English for international release and dubbed into Chinese for Chinese releases.

Sword of Destiny is based on Iron Knight, Silver Vase, the next (and last) novel in the Crane–Iron Pentalogy. It features a mostly new cast, headed by Donnie Yen. Michelle Yeoh reprised her role from the original. Zhang Ziyi was also approached to appear in Sword of Destiny but refused, stating that she would only appear in a sequel if Ang Lee were directing it.

In the West, the sequel was for the most part not shown in theaters, instead being distributed direct-to-video by the streaming service Netflix.

Posterity
The theme of Janet Jackson's song "China Love" was related to the film by MTV News, in which Jackson sings of the daughter of an emperor in love with a warrior, unable to sustain relations when forced to marry into royalty.

The names of the pterosaur genus Kryptodrakon and the ceratopsian genus Yinlong (both meaning "hidden dragon" in Greek and Chinese respectively) allude to the film.

The character of Lo, or "Dark Cloud" the desert bandit, influenced the development of the protagonist of the Prince of Persia series of video games.

In the video game Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover there are two hybrid fighting styles that pay homage to this movie. Which have the following combinations: Crouching tiger (Martial Arts + Streetfighting + Submissions) and Hidden Dragon (Martial Arts + Streetfighting + Kickboxing).

See also
Anji County
Clear waters and green mountains

References

Further reading

  – Collection of articles

External links

2000 films
2000 fantasy films
2000 martial arts films
2000s adventure films
American martial arts films
Martial arts fantasy films
BAFTA winners (films)
Best Film HKFA
Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners
Best Foreign Language Film BAFTA Award winners
Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winners
Chinese martial arts films
Films based on Chinese novels
Films directed by Ang Lee
Films scored by Tan Dun
Films set in 18th-century Qing dynasty
Films set in Beijing
Films set in the 1770s
Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award
Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Films whose director won the Best Direction BAFTA Award
Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe
Films with screenplays by James Schamus
Georges Delerue Award winners
Hong Kong martial arts films
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation winning works
Independent Spirit Award for Best Film winners
Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award winners
Magic realism films
2000s Mandarin-language films
Nebula Award for Best Script-winning works
Sony Pictures Classics films
Taiwanese martial arts films
Wuxia films
2000s American films
2000s Chinese films
2000s Hong Kong films
Chinese-language American films

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon


El Puento Nuevo (Spanish for New Bridge) or Puente de Hierro (Spanish for Iron Bridge) is a parabolic metallic bridge spanning the Segura River, completed in 1903 and located in the city of Murcia (Region of Murcia, Spain). As the second bridge built in the city across the river, was called New Bridge to distinguish it from the old bridge (Puente Viejo o Puente de los Peligros), even though today it is the second oldest of the city.

Construction
It was designed in 1894 by the civil engineer José María Ortiz and was built by the company Materiales para Ferrocarriles y Construcciones of Barcelona with a budget of 592,982.95 pesetas finishing work on 21 February 1903.

The bridge had a central span (46.80 meter long) with external platforms and an upper parabolic chord supported by tubular cells, and eight additional spans of 11.25 m each supported on metallic girders. These height access spans were demolished with the channelling of the river in the 60s, remaining in place only the central parabolic span.

Traffic closure and restoration
In March 2001, the bridge was closed to traffic for structural reasons. Murcia City Council decided its restoration trying to preserve as much as possible the original structure. This led to its transformation into a pedestrian-only bridge because the original bridge was not designed for the traffic loads required by the current Spanish bridge standards (IAP-98).

The restoration project was conducted in June 2001 by Javier Manterola. After a series of preliminary studies which confirmed the validity of the proposed restoration, works began on 26 July 2002. The bridge reopened to the public on 13 May 2003.

References

Bibliography

Nuevo
Pedestrian bridges in Spain

Puente Nuevo (Murcia)


The Black Marvel (Daniel Lyons) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist Al Gabriele with an unknown writer, he first appeared in Mystic Comics #5 (March 1941), published by Marvel's 1930s forerunner Timely Comics during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books.

An original version of the Black Marvel named Omar Mosely appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by Paul Winfield.

Publication history
The Black Marvel appeared in the multi-character omnibus title Mystic Comics #5–9 (March 1941 – May 1942). His first-appearance origin story was reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #15 (July 1968).

The character also starred in a story in All Winners Comics  #1 (Summer 1941), which was written by Lee and reprinted in The Golden Age of Marvel Comics, Vol. 2.  The cover was also reprinted in Giant-Size Invaders vol. 2 #2 (Dec. 2005).

Fictional character biography
Man-to, the last chief of a Native American tribe of Blackfeet, was dying and sought a worthy successor. His medicine man, Running Elk, arranged a series of tests for potential candidates, but over a hundred prospective braves tried and failed to reach the standard required. Dan Lyons was the last contestant, the son of a white man whose life Man-to had saved many years before. Wishing to repay this debt, he braved the tests. He outran a deer, swam upstream faster than the salmon and proved himself an incredible marksman on the archery range, getting four consecutive bullseyes while blindfolded. When other arrows were fired at him, he caught them in the air. He then wrestled a bear and snapped its neck, slaying it. Satisfied, Man-to gave Dan the sacred costume of the Black Marvel, along with the responsibility to right wrongs and destroy those who would prey on the helpless. He also gave him a long bow, telling him to notch it every time he performed a good deed. Only when he had one hundred notches would he be truly worthy of calling himself the Black Marvel.

His first public adventure saw him stopping a raid on the city armory, carried out under cover of darkness after the crooks created a black-out by attacking the electrical plant. In his next adventure, the Black Marvel stops Nazi agents from killing a refugee who has escaped the regime in Germany.

Later, the Black Marvel would relocate to California where he would take down the Order of the Hood, who were attempting to extort the United States into giving them massive amounts of money through acts of murder and robbery. Later, the Black Marvel would fail to prevent the murder of German-American scientist Dr. Eisenberg from Nazis operating out of a German Bund. Despite this failure, the Black Marvel managed to track down his killers and bring them to justice. The Black Marvel then clashed with a new criminal known as the Grinner. Upon killing the crook, he learned that the Grinner was Dr. Weem, whose only mistake was testing out a cure for pneumonia that transformed him into a ruthless killer. He then traveled to South America to investigate a supposedly haunted mine with a massive diamond that killed with a touch. He helped expose that it was all a hoax created by a con man named Ridley and his accomplice Baku, the local witch doctor who posed as the natives' god Vool-Kah. In his last recorded solo adventure, the Black Marvel protected reformed criminal Jerry Madden from the vengeful Longnails Legarya.

In 1942, the Black Marvel met Captain America for the first time and joined a number of other heroes in a parachute drop on a Nazi stronghold in occupied Europe.

In 1943, the Black Marvel was among a number of heroes who were slain by the Cosmic Cube wielding Red Skull and impaled on a massive wall. However, the Cube was recovered by Private Paul Anslen who resurrected all the slain heroes who aided the combined efforts of the Invaders and the time displaced New Avengers and Mighty Avengers. When the Skull was defeated, the heroes used the Cube to wipe out the Black Marvel's memories of the event to preserve history.

In 1945, the Black Marvel went to Europe to assist the United States military in the war fighting the Nazis. On April 25, 1945 he participated in a massive super-hero invasion of Berlin. The Black Marvel's final mission saw him fail to save a hotel full of burning people, causing him to retire in shame.

Modern Age
As an old man, the Black Marvel attended a reunion party of golden age heroes, of which Captain America was the guest of honor. The party was actually a trap set by the hero killer Zeitgeist, who died in battle with Captain America.

Later, Lyons made a Faustian bargain with the demonic being Mephisto that allowed Lyons to obtain four superpowered costumes abandoned by the superhero Spider-Man, and use them to launch the superhero team known as the Slingers. The heroes eventually helped release Lyons from his demonic contract, allowing him to die in peace.

The Black Marvel had seemingly returned to lead the Slingers once again, but Dusk quickly established that their apparently reborn mentor has no soul and was subsequently identified as a demon.

Powers and abilities
Black Marvel had no superpowers but he was an excellent hand-to-hand combatant at the peak of his physical condition.

In other media
An original incarnation of the Black Marvel appears in the Spider-Man five-part episode "Six Forgotten Warriors", voiced by Paul Winfield. This version is an African-American man named Omar Mosely, a friend and former teacher of Robbie Robertson who was selected for an experiment meant to recreate the process that empowered Captain America alongside the Whizzer, Miss America, the Thunderer, and the Destroyer during World War II, though their process proved flawed and they had to use special rings to regulate their powers. While Mosely's employer, Dan Lyons, was originally meant to be one of the five test subjects, the latter's father forbade him from taking part and had Mosely take his son's place. To protect his employee's identity, Lyons allowed the public to believe he was the Black Marvel and Mosely his sidekick while the latter wore a hooded mask to physically operate as the hero. After Captain America apparently sacrificed himself to stop the Red Skull from activating a doomsday device, Mosely and the other heroes claimed its activation keys and retired while the former held on to Captain America's shield. After the Kingpin and his Insidious Six target the five heroes in the present day for the keys, Spider-Man discovers the truth about Mosely and helps him come out of retirement to defeat them. When Captain America returns from a void he had been trapped in, Mosely returns his shield to him before joining him, his fellow WWII heroes, Spider-Man, and the Insidious Six in defeating the Red Skull and Electro.

References

External links
 Black Marvel at International Hero
 The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

Fictional World War II veterans
Marvel Comics superheroes
Marvel Comics male superheroes
Golden Age superheroes
Timely Comics characters
Comics characters introduced in 1941
Fictional archers

Black Marvel


Stockholm Half Marathon is an annual half marathon arranged in Stockholm, Sweden. It is held in the beginning of September, and so is not connected with Stockholm Marathon directly. Up until 2007 the race was called S:t Eriksloppet (S:t Erik's Race, S:t Erik is the official saint of Stockholm).  In order to attract more runners, especially foreign, the name was changed in 2007, however, in 2007 both names were used in parallel. The race has been arranged since 2001, although there was a predecessor called Stockholmsloppet (the Stockholm Race) during the years 1995-2000.

Results

Key:

References

External links
 Official Site
 Official Site (in English)

Half marathons
Athletics competitions in Sweden
Sports competitions in Stockholm
1984 establishments in Sweden
September sporting events
Recurring sporting events established in 1984
Autumn events in Sweden

Stockholm Half Marathon


New Muslim Cool is a 2009 documentary film directed and produced by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. The film was initially released on POV and follows the life of Hamza Perez, a Puerto Rican American Rap artist who converted to Islam after he decided to quit his life as a drug dealer. Hamza spends his time on the streets and jail cells spreading the message of Islam to at-risk youth and communities. The film also features the hip-hop group M-Team, a musical collaboration between Hamza and his brother Suliman Perez. The duo utilize the medium of hip-hop to spread their faith and religious message to other young people. In the midst of his journey to establish a new religious community and a new family in the North side of Pittsburgh, Hamza is forced to face the reality of being an active Muslim in a post 9/11 America when the community's Mosque gets raided by the FBI.

Plot
In the city of Pittsburgh where Hamza Perez is seen walking through the streets while narrating about his two recurring life prophecies that would come to him in dreams. One of his dreams was experiencing death at the age of 21, the second was him being in jail. Later he reveals both prophecies had come true. Hamza explains that at the age of 21 he became a Muslim, therefore he experienced a death of all his past doings. According to Hamza, one day while he was on the street smoking marijuana, a sheikh approached him to talk about Islam and that is when he knew things were going to change.

While Hamza visits his brother Suliman to cook Boricua Halal cooking (Puerto Rican Kosher cooking) the two brothers talk about their cultural hybridity and how they communicate through Arabic spanglish ebonics since they don't speak Arabic, English, or Spanish fluently. In a family gathering, Hamza and Suliman's mother Gladys expresses her hesitation about the religion since both brothers were brought up in a Catholic home and attended private Catholic school. Gladys reveals that Hamza's birth given name is Jason, and although she is still unsure about the religion Gladys has accepts the decision of her two sons. The two brothers travel to Harlem to conduct an interview for a radio station where they talk about their music and religious message. While still in New York, Hamza visits the projects where he reaches out to young since he works for a social service agency as an anti-drug counselor.

Back in Pittsburgh, Hamza begins to talk about plans to create a Mosque, school, and youth center for the newly established Muslim community. According to Hamza, many people traveled from different places to create a community away from drugs and alcohol, and to learn more about Islam. Hamza also reveals he has two children from a previous marriage and wishes to have a family again since there is no dating in Islam only marriage. In the next scene Rafiah describes how she met Hamza in a Muslim social network (naseeb.com) and decided to get married after courting through the internet. The wedding according to Hamza is a "clash of civilizations" since Hamza himself is Puerto Rican and Rafiah is African American. After the wedding Hamza and Rafiah travel to Massachusetts where she meets the rest of the family and learns more about Hamza's past as a drug dealer. When Hamza returns to Pittsburgh, he introduces the new community Mosque. Hamza also shows where the FBI has placed a hidden on a light post pointing directly towards the Mosque. Hamza continues to use his music as form of religious outreach in the streets of Pittsburgh, and explains that those who are experiencing oppression and hardship need something to relate to. Rafiah reveals she was apprehensive about Hamza's rapping career, however once listened to his music she enjoyed it.
After two months of marriage Hamza and Rafiah decide to move into a new home. While preparing for a family bbq for the 4th of July Hamza expresses his worry stating that everything is going too good. Shortly after, that same day the FBI raids the new Mosque. Through news footage and an interview with a former reporter, it is established that the raid occurred on a Friday on the 4th of July during prayer hours. Hamza and other witnesses who were at the Mosque describe in detail the incident stating that the FBI forced everyone out at gunpoint. The explanation given to the media outlets to why the FBI went into the Mosque was in connection to the apprehension of an individual who had various felony charges and was staying at the Mosque for the evening. After the raid, Hamza shares his fear about being apprehended and what would become of his family.

Six months after the raid, Hamza is seen more involved in his home life since Rafiah began to work. Hamza has shifted his mentality from just an Islamic activists to a well-rounded family man following the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. Hamza has begun to closely read the word of the prophet Muhammad, giving him a new perspective in life and now seeks to collaborate with other religious groups. As part of his job, Hamza begins to teach regular classes at the county jail, dealing with various religious groups. Hamza also begins to collaborate with Carol Elkid, a Jewish woman who is part of an organization that encourages diverse groups of Jewish and Muslim youth to express themselves through poetry.

A year after the raid Rafiah is expecting a baby and the family is seen bonding over the news. Later on, the county jail abruptly revokes Hamza's security clearance along with two other Muslim clerics. Hamza is given no reason to why his clearance was revoked until months after when his attorney reveals that an interview Hamza gave before the release of an album in 2003 was brought into question. Hamza and his attorney continue to fight for his clearance. After one of the meeting with his attorney Hamza's wife goes into labor and gives birth to a baby boy.
Hamza continues to work with at risk-youth and meets with an anti-drug committee at the housing projects in Pittsburgh to talk about a program for recovering drug dealers. Hamza also continues to record new tracks with his brother. The film concludes with Hamza being able to obtain his clearance to the county jail.

Production
During the time Jennifer Maytorena Taylor spent teaching in Argentina and Brazil, she witnessed first hand friends and family coping with the transition of a military dictatorship to elected governments. What stood out to her was the power that pop-culture had as a coping mechanism. She realized how it helped individuals and communities from different countries to express themselves in a unique way.

Closely after 9/11, while working with PBS in the bay area, she came across what she called a "thriving Muslim hip-hop scene" in Oakland. There she came across a diverse group of Muslim men and women including converted Muslims and those who were born into the faith. The group collaborated with one another to create a culture that expressed their beliefs as Muslim while also reinforcing their "American-ness." Jennifer made the connection with the young adults she met in Oakland with what she experienced in Argentina and Brazil a decade before. She discovered that both communities used pop-culture to cope with post traumatic events.
Initially when Jennifer arranged her production team, their plan was to produce a survey-like film on the up-and-coming American-Muslim culture involving a group of young adults working alongside a small Muslim hip-hop label. It was going to follow the way that these young adults would utilize their resources to spread their faith and pop-culture.

When the production decided to focus on Hamza and his family's day-to-day life, the film took a more profound and meaningful route. "Part of the magic of making a long-form documentary is not knowing where it will end up. Inevitably, though, you discover you've been profoundly changed, for the better, by the journey," quotes Jennifer in her statement for the film on her POV filmmaker statement.

Cast
Hamza Perez (Rap Artist/Activist)
Suliman Perez (Brother)
Gladys Perez (Mother)
Rafiah Daughtry (Wife)

Funding
The film was funded by Latino Public Broadcasting, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Sundance Documentary Fund, Center for Asian American Media, LEF Foundation, Anthony Radziwill Fund/Independent Feature Project, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Hartley Film Foundation, Paul Robeson Fund, and the Nu Lambda Trust.

Release
New Muslim Cool premiered on PBS June 23, 2009. It is currently streaming on Hulu and Netflix.

Awards/Festivals
Featured on PBS television series POV as the Opening Night Selection.
Received the Freedom award at the Al Jazeera International Film Festival
Nominated for the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2009
Was a selection for the Rooftop Film Festival and the Lincoln Center Independents Night,
co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Reception
Bakari Kitwana from The Huffington Post stated that the film New Muslim Cool gives the audience a glimpse of a new generation of Americans with intricate interweaving identities calling it a "journey full of collisions -- mainly because the very act of shining a spotlight on the ways race, politics, religion and generational rifts have evolved."

Jonathan Curiel from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that by the end of New Muslim Cool, the audience is able to experience the difficulty of being a young Muslim in America.

Ginia Bellafante from The New York Times states that, "New Muslim Cool possesses a kind of beauty that sneaks up on you, " and "the film is an opportunity to access a closer view of human decency."

See also
 Latino Muslims
 Hamza Perez

References

External links

2009 films
American documentary films
2009 documentary films
POV (TV series) films
Documentary films about hip hop music and musicians
Documentary films about Islam in the United States
Films set in Pittsburgh
2009 in Islam
2000s English-language films
2000s American films

New Muslim Cool


Private placement life insurance is a form of cash value universal life insurance that is offered privately, rather than through a public offering.

Overview

Variable or indexed life insurance is a form of life insurance that has cash value linked to the performance of one or more investment accounts within the policy. Because of its investment features, insurance carriers in the United States typically register offerings of variable life insurance with federal and state securities regulators. To register the offering, carriers typically need to provide some level of detail of the investment selections within the policy. Without knowing the specifics of each potential client's investment profile, carriers often settle for registering a uniform offering that includes a selection of mutual funds or hedge funds as investment options within the policy.  Not all investments are suitable for placement within these policies.  They are better suited to absolute return and hedged strategies rather than equity based investments.  Because of the volatility of the stock market the drawdowns within the investment portfolio tend to be larger and the owner may end up having to put more money into the policy to keep it in force if the account value drops considerably.

This can become a very powerful tool for purposes of estate planning.  In essence you can buy a hedge fund inside an insurance policy and the value will grow tax-free and upon death the cash value of the policy passes to heirs tax-free.  See also Private Placement Variable Annuities.

By comparison, private placement life insurance is offered without a formal securities registration. The advantage with this approach is that the carrier customizes the investment options within the policy to meet the needs of the prospective investor. The key advantages to a private placement policy are there are no K-1s, vast investment platform and cost.  Due to its nature, private placement life insurance is only offered to qualified purchasers seeking to invest large sums of money (often more than US$1 million) in the policy.  In addition, an attorney will be needed to help draw up the documents, adding to the cost of the purchase.

Offshore versus Domestic
While private placement life insurance ("PPLI") (a product also known as insurance wrappers) first developed offshore. United States carriers followed.  The industry has witnessed significant growth in the placement of PPLI offshore. Offshore insurance companies specializing in PPLI typically offer the product as a financial service for high net worth clients and price their services as a provider, rather than as a traditional insurance carrier. For example, most offshore carriers are prohibited to maintain a domestic sales force.  Also, offshore carriers cannot engage in onshore marketing.

The regulatory climate governing life insurance in certain offshore jurisdictions is also not as restrictive as may be found in the United States. Some of the better known jurisdictions to offer the product are Luxembourg, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Singapore, Barbados and Bermuda. While the lack of plentiful offshore regulation may not be comforting to traditional insurance consumers, high-net-worth individuals and their advisors are more likely to be able to carefully examine the merits and risks associated with insurance products from offshore carriers. Especially in Europe PPLI offers a lot of tax benefits. In all the European countries where the product is available the product offers at least a tax deferral, and in most European countries there are also substantial income, wealth and inheritance tax benefits. It is therefore that a growing number of financial advisors change existing offshore company, family foundation and trust structures in to PPLI solutions. The product also offers solid asset and investment protection features, which makes the product even more interesting.

PPLI outside the USA
Private Placement Life Insurance in one form or another is gaining popularity throughout Europe and the rest of the world as it is used in many cases as a substitute for a trust or Foundation or to strengthen existing structures by adding 'substance'. Many Tax authorities are looking through trusts and not accepting the trustees as the legal owner of the assets and this can cause difficulties that are not experienced when using PPLI.

Due to the unique nature of the relationship between the life company, the individual and the contents of the life policy, PPLI can be used to overcome specific issues such as management and control, beneficial ownership and substance.
Since the Life company is recognized as the legal owner of the assets, in most cases they will also be outside the reach of future creditors.

Protection and Privacy are a major feature of PPLI and a policy issued by a Luxembourg insurer is covered by the unique  'Triangle of Security'. With the introduction of directives in support of tax transparency by various governmental bodies over the last few years, the privacy of previously secure structures is not nearly so secure.

A properly set up contract can also protect against bank failure and 'Bail Ins' by holding cash off any bank balance sheet, whilst at the same time often providing capital guarantees not available elsewhere.

In the current climate legislating on money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance, structures with real commercial substance will be expected and demanded and PPLI contracts can provide this on a compliant basis.

PPLI policies can be an invaluable resource for those seeking tax efficiency, a decreased reporting burden, asset protection or confidentiality. However, due to the complexities an experienced adviser with specialist knowledge of international insurance arrangements should always be consulted.

Expanded Worldwide Planning

There exist a number of structures that provide clients security from data breaches, erroneous government reporting, and the "blanket and indiscriminate nature of automatic exchange under CRS".  Among these structures, Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) is a concept that has emerged. It offers international families a framework that enhances privacy and asset protection within a flexible, open architecture platform. For example, Advanced Financial Solutions Inc. is one proponent of EWP. It is an element of international taxation created to implement directives from several tax authorities following the 2008 worldwide recession.  EWP gives privacy and compliance with tax laws. It also enhances protection from data breach and strengthens family security. It allows for a tax compliant system that still respects basic rights of privacy. EWP addresses the concerns of  law firms and international planners about some aspects of CRS related to their clients' privacy. EWP assists with the privacy and welfare of families by protecting their financial records and keeping them in compliance with tax regulations.

References

Life insurance
Tax incidence

Private placement life insurance


The Renault 9 and Renault 11 are small family cars produced by the French manufacturer Renault for model years 1981–1988 in saloon (Renault 9) and hatchback (Renault 11) configurations — both were styled by the French automobile designer, Robert Opron.

Variants were manufactured by American Motors Corporation (AMC), as the Renault Alliance and Renault Encore for the North American market. The car was produced in Turkey until 2000.

The models use a transverse front-wheel drive engine configuration, and feature four wheel independent suspension. They were chosen as the European Car of the Year in 1982, as well as the Car of the Year by Motor Trend and one of the 10Best by Car and Driver in 1983.

Phases

There were three facelifts given to the Renault 9, two facelifts to the Renault 11, during its career. The Renault 11 that was released in 1983 was introduced with double headlights, which was different from the Renault 9. In 1985 the Renault 9  was given a facelift, giving it the same front look and double headlights as the Renault 11 but only in GTS, GTD, TSE, TDE, TXE and GTX levels, while C, TC, GTC, TL, GTL and TD retained the phase 1 front. Renault 9 broadway series, however had the 4 headlight front of the phase 1 renault 11.
The more aerodynamic Phase 2 appeared in 1987 where there was only a difference at the rear of the car, sedan or hatchback.

Finally, the Phase 3, which was not sold in most of Europe, was released in Turkey in 1997. This final revision had more rounded head and tail lights, as well as ovoid body cladding around the bumpers and boot lid, which aimed to give the car a more modern look. The front design was originally developed for the 1993 facelift model assembled in Taiwan under the name "Renault Luxmore." These later Turkish-made cars carried a "Broadway" badge as well as the Renault 9 designation, but note that "Broadway" had already been used on special editions of the earlier phase models.

Overview

The Renault 9 was launched in October 1981 as a four-door saloon (in right-hand drive form for the UK market in March 1982), while the 11 was launched at the beginning of 1983 (in the UK from June that year) as a three or five door hatchback.

Both had been developed under the Renault code name L42, and were designed by Robert Opron. Renault had begun the conception of the Renault 9 in 1977, as a "four metre" model (referring to its length) to fit between the Renault 5 and the Renault 14.

Opron conceived a traditional three box design to appeal to the traditional customer and avoid the poor reception that had met the Renault 14's styling. Exhaustive consumer studies suggested that buyers rejected innovation, resulting in a rather nondescript design, albeit of modest elegance.

By the time the models entered production, Renault had assigned more than 500 people to the project, logging 14,500,000 hours of study and testing, constructing 44 prototypes, testing 130 engines, and test driving prototypes more than 2.2 million km.

Both cars were also more conservatively engineered, although they retained front wheel drive, Renault abandoned the Douvrin (or "Suitcase") transmission in sump engine which it had shared with Peugeot-Citroën in the Renault 14, in favour of its in-house power unit – the venerable C-type "Cléon" engine with an end on mounted transmission. This mechanical layout, along with the 9/11's suspension design, was to become the basis of all small Renaults for the next 15 years or so.

The Renault 9 was awarded the 1982 European Car of the Year, while the Alliance appeared on Car and Driver's Ten Best list for 1983, and was the 1983 Motor Trend Car of the Year. The well-equipped Renault 11 TSE Electronic of 1983 was the first car in its class to have a synthetically voiced trip computer, but only because Renault moved up its launch date by a few days in order to get ahead of Austin's Maestro Vanden Plas.

Although the 9 and 11 cars had different names and body styles, they were identical under the skin, and were intended to jointly replace the older Renault 14. The 11 was also distinguishable from the 9 by its front end, which featured square twin headlights, which had been introduced on the North American Alliance. The 9 also received this new front end in late 1985 for the 1986 model year.

The 11 deliberately aped the styling of its larger brother launched almost at the same time - the executive Renault 25 (also styled by Robert Opron) - featuring the signature wraparound rear window and the dramatic hooded dashboard design, which had the option of an 'Electronique' trim level which featured a digital instrument cluster and a voice synthesis trip computer - similar to those on the 25. The 9, by contrast had a simpler and more conservative looking dashboard and the digital instruments were never available.  Both models were facelifted one more time for the European market (Phase 2) with matching nose and interior upgrades for the model year of 1987. At the Brussels Motor Show in January 1985 Renault showed the 11 Société, a light commercial version of the three-door hatchback with a cargo platform replacing the rear seat.

A version of the 9 was manufactured and marketed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) in the United States as the Renault Alliance and bearing a small AMC badge. With 623,573 examples manufactured for model years 1982–1987, AMC offered the Alliance as a four-door sedan, two door sedan (with higher rear wheel arches than the four door) and as a convertible, beginning in 1984.

The Renault 9 and 11 continued in production in France until 1989, a year after the launch of the Renault 19. However, production continued in other countries, with the end finally coming after nearly twenty years when production in Turkey was discontinued in 2000.

Competition
The Renault 11 Turbo was used extensively by Renault Sport for their Group A car in the 1987 World Rally Championship. Frenchman Alain Oreille managed a Group N victory in the 1985 Rallye Monte Carlo, followed by the Group A victory in 1986 (enough for an eighth finish overall). A Renault 11 Turbo was, however, piloted to a second and third-place finishes in the 1987 Portuguese Rally and San Remo Rally respectively with Jean Ragnotti in the driver's seat. The 11 Turbo also won the national Polish Rally Championship in 1985 and 1988, and both the Swiss and Portuguese rally championships in 1987. Its last result of importance was Oreille's fourth place overall in the 1988 Rallye Monte Carlo.

Engines

At launch, both cars used Renault's ageing Cléon-Fonte engine overhead valve engines in either 1.1  or 1.4 litre format, and a basic suspension design which won few plaudits for the driving experience. The exceptions were the 9 Turbo and the 11 Turbo hot hatch, which used the turbocharged engine from the Renault 5.

The C1E 1.1 liters engine was available only in the three doors body of R 11 and on the renault 9. Renault 11 TC and GTC with 5 doors, where available with the C1G 1.2 liters engine, since 1985. The C1E was phased out from the series since phase 2, making C1G the smallest engine of the series.

The 11 Turbo was introduced first, and originally only with three door bodywork. Unlike the 5 Turbo or the 205 GTi, the 11 Turbo had a more comfort oriented focus. Although the cars were heavier than the Renault 5, the increased power in later models was enough to ensure higher performance, thanks to its . The rally tuned version was impressively fast, producing about .

The newer F type engine which had been developed in collaboration with Volvo appeared from the end of 1983 on in twin carburetted 1,721 cc guise (F2N), powering the upmarket GTX, GTE, TXE, and TXE Electronic (Electronique in France) versions. These larger engined versions were specifically developed with American needs in mind, although they also happened to be well suited for a changing European market.

Later iterations also received fuel injected engines. The Alliance and Encore, while comparatively underpowered, had a definite advantage in ride and handling against other small cars available in America at the time and even had their own SCCA spec racing series, the Alliance Cup.

Line-up
TC – 1.1 L – 1,108 cc;
GTC – 1.2 L – 1,237 cc;
TL – 1.4 L – 1,397 cc;
GTL – 1.4 L – 1,397 cc;
GTS - 1.4 L – 1,397 cc;
TSE – 1.4 L – 1,397 cc;
TX - 1.7 L – 1,721 cc;
TXE – 1.7 L – 1,721 cc;
GTX – 1.7 L – 1,721 cc;
GTE – 1.7 L – 1,721 cc;
Turbo – 1.4 L – 1,397 cc;
Turbo – 1.4 L – 1,397 cc;
GTD – 1.6 L – 1,595 cc;
TDE – 1.6 L – 1,595 cc;

Different versions around the world

Argentina

The Renault 11 was manufactured between October 1984 and December 1994 in Renault Argentina's Santa Isabel plant with the following trim levels: GTL, RL, RN, TR, TS, TSE, TXE with the 1.4 M1400 engine by Renault Argentina and after by CIADEA. Manufacture of the Renault 9 began in 1987 until 1997 in the same versions and engines, plus the 1.6 like the R11 and according to ADEFA 144,262 vehicles made (R9) and 79,037 (R11). Today, the R9 is a very popular car in the country, like in the small and the big cities.

All versions of the R11 and R9 manufactured in Argentina, as well as in Colombia and Turkey, suffered the problems that the material with which the dashboard is made degraded with ultraviolet rays, and ends cracking (especially on the right side, since it doesn't have the steering column that supports it).

Colombia
SOFASA started manufacturing the Renault 9 in 1983, launching the version GTL with 1400 cc and . This model's engine capacity was reduced to 1300 cc and became the entry model when the better equipped GTS (1400 cc) was launched in 1985.

The next European facelifted versions of the Renault 9 in the country were known as the Gama 2. In 1987, the TL (1300 cc) was introduced followed by the more advanced TSE 1.3 and GTX 1.4 in 1988. The latter featured front power windows, a spoiler, and a better interior. The new top of the range TXE was launched in 1989, and introduced updated front lights, power mirrors and the TIR – An infrared remote control to operate the locks. In 1990, SOFASA marketed a 50 vehicle, 50th special edition Prestige with leather seats and alloy rims.

In 1992, these versions ceased production and three models were introduced: The basic Brío (1.3 L), the mid range Súper (1.3 L) and the Máximo (1.6 L). In 1995, the Brío was renamed Brío RN, so it could be differentiated from the more sophisticated Brío RT. A more powerful variant of the RT was called Óptimo.

By the middle of 1996, SOFASA decided to experiment a much more flexible way to offer cars to the market. Called R9 Personnalité, the idea allowed customers to choose from different engines and accessories so they could assemble the car they wanted within their budget. This was possible through special software in dealerships. A year later, a facelifted version featured fuel injection, assisted steering, and a completely new interior.

After 16 years of production, the Renault 9 was discontinued in Colombia, and was replaced by the Renault 19 and the Renault Mégane. It became the quintessential family car in Colombia, reaching over 115,000 units built and sold between 1983 and 1999, a record in the automotive Colombian history up to that time.

Taiwan
Sanfu Motors in Taiwan assembled the Renault 9 from 1983 until 1996. An automatic-equipped version became available in January 1985. In 1985 the five-door Renault 11 also became available, initially only in sporting GTX trim with alloy wheels and equipped with the  F2NA engine with . As of April 1986 the Renault 9 gained the twin headlight front design of the 11, while the 11 GTX was replaced by the TXE. From October 1986 the 1397 cc engine originally reserved for the R9 was also made available in the R11 GTS, eroding its position as a sportier model, while the 1.7-liter R9 TXE was also added. In September 1987 the range received the Phase 3 facelift.

After French production came to an end in 1989, Sanfu Motors had to source parts from Argentina and Colombia instead. While this did allow them to lower the price, it had a negative impact on quality and thus on Renault's reputation in Taiwan. After the 1990 introduction of the Renault 19 to Taiwan, production of the R11 was halted, with sales coming to an end in February 1991. In 1993 a facelifted version of the 9 was introduced, now called the Renault Luxmore (雷諾銀鑽). Sold as a sedan only, this had a restyled front end combined with the Renault 19 Chamade's taillights, and also adapted much of the 19's interior. The Luxmore's engine was a 1.4-liter Energy SOHC unit borrowed from the Clio, producing . Production ended in 1996 and the revised front end became used for the Phase 4 design built in Turkey beginning in 1997.

Turkey

Built by Oyak-Renault in Bursa beginning in 1985, the Renault 9 retained the original "Phase 1" bodystyle until 1993. the Phase 2 Renault 9 was not built there, although a number of minor external and internal changes were carried out over the years. In 1986 the diesel-engined GTD joined the GTL in local production, becoming the first diesel-engined passenger car to be built in Turkey. There followed the petrol-engined GTC (1987) and the Broadway replaced the GTL in 1988. A Broadway GTE model also appeared around this time. The GTC was replaced by a new base model called Renault 9 Spring in 1991. Power varied between  depending on model and year. In April 1993 the range was updated, using the Phase 2 facelift front. The 1.4-liter Broadway with 72 PS replaced the Spring and other models, while the 1.6-liter  Fairway model was added, using the Argentinian C2L engine with a twin-barrel Weber carburetor. The Fairway received the headlights and various trim parts from the 11 Flash S in September 1994 but was discontinued in the first half of 1996 due to dropping sales.

A modernized, more ovoid design (phase 3) was released in Turkey in 1997 as the Renault Broadway and was sold there until 2000. From 1996, the 1.4-litre engine (now the only size available) received fuel injection in order to meet European emissions standards. These late models were initially sold as the RNi, later simply 1.4i, and produce .

The five-door Renault 11 was built in Turkey in 1.4-liter GTS trim from 1987. The following year the  1.7-liter TXE version was added, better known as the 11 Flash. The three-door 11 was never assembled by Oyak-Renault. To celebrate Galatasaray reaching the semifinals in the 1989 European Champions Clubs' Cup, a special edition of 500 cars called the Flash Galatasaray was produced. In 1990 there was a Fenerbahçe special edition. Both of these featured elements in the team colours and various other special equipment. In 1993 the 11 was facelifted (Phase 3), with the GTS replaced by a 1.6-liter 11 Rainbow, matching the Renault 9 Fairway. The 11 Flash S replaced the earlier Flash model, offering the exterior design features of the 11 Turbo with Speedline  Renault 5 GT Turbo wheels (but produced by CMS wheels) and an upgraded engine producing . The 11 ceased production in Turkey in 1995.

United States and Canada

The subcompact sized automobile was manufactured and marketed in North America by American Motors Corporation (AMC) as the Renault Alliance from model years 1983 to 1987, and with a three and five door hatchback variant, the Renault Encore marketed beginning in 1984. For 1987, AMC offered the one year only GTA Sedan and Convertible, which included a 2.0 L engine, sport suspension, aerodynamic body kit, and Ronal wheels. The Encore was renamed to Alliance Hatchback in the same year.

Production of the Alliance and GTA was discontinued after Chrysler's buyout of AMC in 1987. A total of 623,573 units were manufactured.

References

External links

9 11
Compact cars
Hatchbacks
Sedans
Convertibles
Cars introduced in 1981
1980s cars
1990s cars
2000s cars
Cars of Argentina
Cars of Turkey
Cars powered by transverse 4-cylinder engines
Rally cars
Cars discontinued in 2000

Renault 9 and 11


Cartoon TeleTales is a television series on ABC from 1948–1950. The show was the first children's series on ABC. It began in May 1948 as a local program in Philadelphia, before moving to New York as a late-afternoon program in June, and expanding to the national network in November.

The show consisted of an original tale told by Jack Luchsinger, illustrated by 10–12 drawings that his brother Chuck Luchsinger did as the story unfolded. Episodes were filmed with a small in-studio audience of children who listened and made suggestions. Musical accompaniment was provided by organist Rosa Rio. Viewers were encouraged to do their own drawings of the story and send them in to compete for prizes and be shown. At the conclusion of each episode, Chuck gave a drawing lesson. Contests drew as many as 5,600 entries a month during 1949.

The story characters included Maurice the Mouse, Melody the Hummaing Bird, Leon the Lightning Bug, Usta the Rooster, Bamboozle the Ostrich, Mimi the Mole, Bumsniff the Bloodhound, Bigstuff the Elephant, Roscoe the Raccoon, Bungle the Beaver, Dipsy the Dolphin, Pinto the Pony, Cletus the Caterpillar, Alice the Alligator, and a human boy named Hezekiah.

Besides Rio several others involved with the show went on to have notable careers in entertainment.

These include:

 Babette Henry, who was the director, shortly thereafter directed the Buck Rogers TV series
 Ed Nofziger, who was a substitute for Chuck on occasion, went on to be an animator at UPA and Hanna-Barbera plus did magazine gag cartoons and comic book scripts for the Disney Studio program
 Lee Orgel, who was the producer, went on to develop and produce Gay Purr-ee, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, The New Three Stooges and Defenders of the Earth

The Luchsinger family own copies of 1 or 2 episodes, and some are held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Two similar shows, Tele-Comics and NBC Comics aired from 1949 to 1951, showing still images of cartoon panels with accompanying voiceover.

References

Further reading
 Kevin Scott Collier. Chuck and Jack Luchsinger's Cartoon TeleTales. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.

External links

1950 American television series endings
1950s American children's television series
Black-and-white American television shows
1948 American television series debuts
1940s American children's television series
English-language television shows

Cartoon Teletales