Shirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. It takes the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife. It focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.

Plot
Shirley finds herself regularly alone and talking to the wall. She prepare an evening meal of egg and chips for her emotionally distant husband. Her best friend offers to pay for a trip-for-two to Greece. She leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen. In Greece she rediscovers what she had been missing in England. She is so happy that she decides not to return. She leaves her friend at the airport and goes back to the hotel. She asks for a job.

Productions
Commissioned in 1986, by the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. Noreen Kershaw starred. It was directed by Glen Walford. In 1988 it opened in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre. Pauline Collins starred. It was directed by Simon Callow. On 16 February 1989, the Broadway production, with Collins again directed by Callow, opened at the Booth Theatre. It ran for 324 performances. Ellen Burstyn replaced Collins later in the run. Loretta Swit starred in a US national tour in 1995.

From 26 March - 8 May 2010, as part of the Willy Russell season at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Meera Syal played Shirley in the production's first London West End revival. A West End transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory production ran at the Trafalgar Studios from 20 July - 30 October 2010. Meera Syal reprised her role as Shirley; this production was adapted and broadcast by BBC Radio Four in 2010 and 2017.

A 30th Anniversary Tour, starring Jodie Prenger ran in the UK from March 2017 to November 2017.

Awards and nominations
 Awards
 1988 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy
 1988 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress
 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play
 1989 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
 1989 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
 1989 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut

Nominations
 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play
 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play
 1989 Tony Award for Best Play

Film adaptation
Russell adapted his play for a 1989 film version, directed by Lewis Gilbert, with Collins again playing the title role.

Further reading

References

British plays adapted into movies
Plays by Willy Russell
1986 works
1980s plays

Shirley Valentine


La Madeleine de Corps, Inc., operating as La Madeleine, is a restaurant chain of 86 locations (as of 2018) in the U.S. states of Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Virginia. Its headquarters is in Dallas, Texas.

History
La Madeleine Country French Café was founded in February 1983 by Patrick Esquerré, a Loire Valley-born businessman. With the advice and support of legendary retail magnate Stanley Marcus, of Neiman Marcus fame, and his mother, Monique Esquerré, opened his first bakery on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, Texas near Southern Methodist University and it soon expanded to a café.

In 1998, Esquerré resigned and La Madeleine was sold to four investment companies. In 2001, the company was sold again to Groupe Le Duff, a French restaurant chain company owned by Louis Le Duff, and co-purchasers Lapointe Rosenstein and Cadigan Investment Partners, for an undisclosed amount.

In 2008, the company caused outrage after discontinuing the free side of bread after 20 years due to wheat costs, and started charging 49 cents. In addition, the restaurants only offered sourdough bread with certain items that were purchased such as entrées, soups, and salads. However, the discontinuation was recalled three days later with the suggestion that customers not waste the food after La Madeleine allegedly received a "couple hundred responses...mostly complaints".

Food is served cafeteria style for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The buildings are designed to resemble restaurants found across the French countryside. Farm tools and impressionist paintings hang on the walls, and the restaurants are known for keeping a fire burning in winter. However, in March 2010, at the Preston Rd/Forest Ln location in Dallas, the cafeteria style was dropped for a modern ordering station system.

In a news article regarding this, Esquerré called his resignation a regret and announced he was joining La Madeleine again as an ambassador/adviser, claiming he was even "going to be in the dishwashing room". That same year, La Madeleine's Belt Line Rd location in Dallas was named "Best Soup in Dallas" by Dallas Observer. Esquerré has commented that he dislikes the term "chain," and has repeatedly referred to his restaurants as a family.

The original store is still in existence, at 3072 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, Texas, despite major reconstruction of the surrounding area by SMU.

The chain was named a winner of the Great Dallas Business Ethics Award in 2018 by the North Texas Ethics Association.

Current President is Philippe Jean, French former CEO of the Del Arte brand, another sister company inside Le Duff Group in France. Philippe Jean has been with Le Duff for more than 7 years. He has been in the industry for 30 years in companies such as Sodexo, Pierre et Vacances Center Parcs, Elior Areas and Groupe Flo.

See also

 List of French restaurants

References

External links

 Groupeleduff.com profile

Restaurants in Dallas
French-American culture in Texas
French restaurants
Restaurants established in 1983
1983 establishments in Texas
Fast casual restaurants
Restaurant chains in the United States
American companies established in 1983

La Madeleine (restaurant chain)


Airlie Beach is a coastal locality and resort town in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the , Airlie Beach had a population of 1,208 people.

Geography
Airlie Beach is one of many departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. Cruise ships visit the area, anchoring offshore while passengers are transported via ship's tender to the marina. Near latitude 20 degrees south, Airlie Beach, Proserpine and the nearby Whitsunday Islands enjoy a tropical climate and lifestyle.

The Proserpine–Shute Harbour Road (State Route 59) passes through the locality from west to east.

Each year the residents of Airlie Beach celebrate The Blessing of the Fleet on Whitsunday or Pentecost Sunday.

History
The name derived from the former town of Airlie and unbounded locality of Airlie Beach. Airlie was named following a request by the Lands Department in December 1935 for the Proserpine Shire Council to provide a name for a new sub-division on the coast. It is almost certain that the town was named for the parish of Airlie, in Scotland, as the name was suggested by the chairman of the former Proserpine Shire Council, Robert Shepherd, who was born in nearby Montrose, Scotland. The official name was Airlie from 1936 until 1987, when it was amalgamated into the larger town of Whitsunday while Airlie Beach became the official name of the locality.

Airlie Beach Post Office opened on 2 November 1959.

In December 1956, 18 allotments were offered for auction as Perpetual Town Leases by the Department of Public Lands office. The map advertising the auction states the allotments were situated approximately 15 miles north-east of Proserpine.

Busking was made legal in June 2010 through an adopted draft policy created by Whitsunday Regional Council.

In the 2010s, there were several shark attacks off the coast of Airlie Beach. In 2018, there were 2 near fatal attacks and another attack occurred on 29 October 2019.

At the , the locality of Airlie Beach had a population of 1,208. 50.9% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 9.2%. 71.2% of people only spoke English at home.  The most common response for religion was No Religion at 34.7% of the population.

Airlie Beach has a high number of residents working in the tourism and hospitality industries and in 2020 the town was named one of the most likely Australian towns to suffer for the longest from the economic downturn caused by the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.

Education
There are no schools in Airlie Beach. The nearest government primary school is Cannonvale State School in neighbouring Cannonvale to the west. The nearest government secondary school is Proserpine State High School in Proserpine to the south-west.

Facilities

There are two marinas in Airlie Beach:

 Abel Point Marina ()
 Port of Airlie Marina ()

There are two boat ramps, both managed by the Whitsunday Regional Council:

 at Abel Point off Shingley Drive ()
 at Port of Airlie ()
Airlie Beach Water Police Station is at 38 Shingley Drive (). The station's area of responsibility extends from Cape Upstart to north to St Lawrence to the south.

Events
Annually, The Great Barrier Reef Festival is held in Airlie Beach and includes attractions ranging from fireworks on the foreshore to live music by local artists. The event is hosted by local company Cruise Whitsundays.

In November each year, the Airlie Beach Festival of Music is held in the area and spans over multiple days. The event includes both Australian and international musicians that play throughout the festival.

References

External links

 Aerial film footage of Queensland places, State Library of Queensland. Contains aerial footage of Airlie Beach

Coastline of Queensland
Seaside resorts in Australia
Beaches of Queensland
Whitsunday Region
Localities in Queensland

Airlie Beach, Queensland


The RCA tape cartridge (labeled the RCA Sound Tape Cartridge) is a magnetic tape audio format that was designed to offer stereo quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape recording quality in a convenient format for the consumer market. It was introduced in 1958, following four years of development. This timing coincided with the launch of the stereophonic phonograph record. It was introduced to the market by RCA in 1958.

The main advantage of the RCA tape cartridge over reel-to-reel machines is convenience. The user is not required to handle unruly tape ends and thread the tape through the machine before use, making the medium of magnetic tape more friendly to casual users. In addition, since the cartridge carries both supply and take-up reels, the cartridge does not have to be rewound before the tape is removed from the machine and stored. Because of these conveniences, the RCA tape cartridge system did see some success in schools, particularly in student language learning labs.

The same design concept would later be used in the more successful Compact Cassette, introduced by Philips in 1962.
Similar to the Compact Cassette, the RCA cartridges are reversible so that either side can be played. An auto-reverse mechanism in some models allows the tape to run continuously. Equal to 8-track tape and Stereo-Pak, the tape runs at a standard speed of 3.75 inches per second (IPS). This is double the speed of the Compact Cassette and half of the top speed of consumer reel-to-reel tape recorders, which usually offer both 3.75 IPS and 7.5  IPS speeds. Such consumer reel-to-reel machines are capable of superior audio performance, but only at the faster speed.

The RCA tape cartridge format offers four discrete audio tracks that provide a typical playtime of 30 minutes of stereo sound per side, or double that for monophonic sound. Some models can also play and record at 1.875 IPS, doubling playing time with a significant reduction in sound quality. This speed was of too low quality for music on these machines, but was acceptable for voice recording.

With two interleaved stereo pairs, the track format and speed of the RCA tape cartridge is the same as that of consumer reel-to-reel stereo tape recorders run at 3.75 IPS. It is possible to dismantle the cartridge, spool the tape onto an open reel, and play it on such a machine. In fact, RCA offered an adapter for their Sound Tape Cartridge machines to enable them to both play back and record traditional reels of tape up to 5 inches in reel diameter.

Unlike the Compact Cassette, the RCA tape cartridge incorporates a brake to prevent the tape hubs from moving when the cartridge is not in a player. Small slot windows extend from the tape hubs toward the outside of the cartridge so that the amount of tape visible on each spool can be seen.

Despite its convenience the RCA tape cartridge was not much of a success. RCA was slow to produce machines for the home market. They were also slow to license prerecorded music tapes for home playback. Cost was also an issue, with a single cartridge costing US$4.50 in 1960 ($ with inflation today) compared to a 1,200 foot (365 m) reel of tape, which cost $3.50  ($ today). The format was advertised nationally by RCA as late as fall 1964.

The physical tape width and speed of the tape and even the size of the RCA tape cartridge is similar to, though incompatible with, Sony's Elcaset system, introduced in 1976. That system also failed to achieve much market acceptance and was soon withdrawn.

References

External links
Revolutionary New Triumph in Tape, an RCA promotional film
Audio Recording History
Image of a prerecorded cartridge by Perez Prado
Techmoan: RetroTech: RCA Victor Tape Cartridge - A trailblazing failure, YouTube 22 September 2016

Audio storage
Tape recording
Discontinued media formats
RCA brands
1958 in music
1958 in technology
Products introduced in 1958

RCA tape cartridge


Royal Order of the Crown of Rwanda (Ikamba in the native Kinyarwandan language),  the second-highest, non-religious, decoration/order for merit in the  De jure Kingdom of Rwanda. It is the inheritor of ancient pagan tradition (the Gucana Uruti) envisioned by H.M. King Mutara III of Rwanda in 1950 and it was formally instituted by his successor, Kigeli V, in 1959.

This distinction granted the honoree the right to be treated as a member of the family of the reigning king. The decorated hero that had undergone Gucana Uruti was allowed to wear the crown of the Mwami (King) when the Mwami was seated and not using it.

The Order may be granted as a hereditary award or as a non-hereditary honor. Nobility is conferred upon the grantee.

There are three ranks in the Order. The highest is the Grand Collar, followed by the Grand Cross, and the lowest rank is Commander. A recipient at the ranks of Grand Collar or Grand Cross is entitled to the style of "Son Excellence". A recipient at the rank of Commander is entitled to the style of "L'honorable".

The original recipient was H.M. Baudouin the King of the Belgians gifted by H.M. King Mutara III in 1950. This gift was a physical precedent for the Order, and it was also a prelude to its official introduction years later.

The order has been rarely awarded by the last sovereign ruler of Rwanda HM Kigeli V and the most notable recipients include, among others, the socialist/communist affiliation leaders like Nobel prize winner and the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela (the rank of Grand Cross, 1999) and the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) Patrice Lumumba (posthumously handed over to the family, the rank of Grand Cross, 1966).

As a hereditary award in the rank of Grand Cross, it was granted to the pioneer of the New Ink Art movement a freethinker artist Alfred Freddy Krupa in 2013 and reconfirmed in 2016.

References

Orders, decorations, and medals
Rwanda

Royal Order of Crown of Rwanda


Grave, shortened as gv, was the word that was used to describe mass before the word kilogram was introduced. Grave comes from the word gravity and was first used in 1793 in France. The name kilogram was introduced in 1795 but was not the official word for mass until 1875.

In order to have full consistency in the International System of Units (SI), many people think that the kilogram should be called something different. Using the word kilogram creates a problem because it is a base unit that has the prefix "kilo" already in its name. To fix the problem, some people have suggested using the word grave again.

Other websites
 http://www.bipm.org/en/si/history-si/name_kg.html
 http://www.utc.fr/~tthomass/Themes/Unites/hist/Histoire%20du%20systeme%20metrique.pdf
 http://www.utc.fr/~tthomass/Themes/Unites/prehist/GBigourdan.pdf

References

Old units of measurement
Units of mass

Grave (mass)


Fanfares of Love () is a 1951 West German comedy film directed by Kurt Hoffmann and starring Dieter Borsche, Georg Thomalla and Inge Egger. It is a remake of the 1935 French film Fanfare of Love. It was a major hit and in 1953 a sequel Fanfare of Marriage was released, showing the further adventures of the main characters.

Production
The story was based on a screenplay written by Robert Thoeren while working in the Weimar Republic in the early 1930s. After emigrating to Paris following the Nazi takeover of power, it was developed into a French film directed by Richard Pottier.

It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich with sets designed by the art director Franz Bi. Location filming also took place at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.

Hollywood remake
The film was remade in Hollywood in 1959 by Billy Wilder as Some Like It Hot. Thoeren screened the 1951 German film for Wilder, who secured the remake rights. In contrast to the contemporary setting of the German film, Wilder shifted the action back to the 1920s. He later tried to downplay the extent to which he was influenced by the original, describing it as "a very low budget, very third-class German picture".

In the German film synchronisation of Some Like It Hot, Georg Thomalla served as the voice for Jack Lemmon in his role as the second musician - exactly the role which Thomalla played eight years earlier in this film.

Synopsis
Two struggling male musicians, unable to get any work, disguise themselves as women in order to join a successful all-female band.

Cast
 Dieter Borsche as Hans Mertens
 Georg Thomalla as Peter
 Inge Egger as Gaby Bruck
 Grethe Weiser as Lydia d'Estée
 Oskar Sima as Hallinger
 Ilse Petri as Sabine
 Beppo Brem as Boxer
 Hans Fitz as Friedrich
 Ursula Traun as Anette
 Viktor Afritsch as Friseur
 Herbert Kroll as Poehle
 Michl Lang as Hotelportier Brunhuber
 Walther Kiaulehn as Oberkellner

References

Bibliography
 Terri Ginsberg & Andrea Mensch. A Companion to German Cinema. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

External links

 Fanfaren der Liebe at filmportal.de/en

1951 films
1951 comedy films
German comedy films
West German films
1950s German-language films
Films directed by Kurt Hoffmann
Cross-dressing in film
Remakes of French films
German black-and-white films
1950s German films
Films shot at Bavaria Studios

Fanfares of Love


Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres. Such migrations are usually done for better feeding or to reproduce, but in other cases the reasons are unclear.

Fish migrations involve movements of schools of fish on a scale and duration larger than those arising during normal daily activities. Some particular types of migration are anadromous, in which adult fish live in the sea and migrate into fresh water to spawn; and catadromous, in which adult fish live in fresh water and migrate into salt water to spawn.

Marine forage fish often make large migrations between their spawning, feeding and nursery grounds. Movements are associated with ocean currents and with the availability of food in different areas at different times of year. The migratory movements may partly be linked to the fact that the fish cannot identify their own offspring and moving in this way prevents cannibalism. Some species have been described by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as highly migratory species. These are large pelagic fish that move in and out of the exclusive economic zones of different nations, and these are covered differently in the treaty from other fish.

Salmon and striped bass are well-known anadromous fish, and freshwater eels are catadromous fish that make large migrations. The bull shark is a euryhaline species that moves at will from fresh to salt water, and many marine fish make a diel vertical migration, rising to the surface to feed at night and sinking to lower layers of the ocean by day. Some fish such as tuna move to the north and south at different times of year following temperature gradients. The patterns of migration are of great interest to the fishing industry. Movements of fish in fresh water also occur; often the fish swim upriver to spawn, and these traditional movements are increasingly being disrupted by the building of dams.

Classification

As with various other aspects of fish life, zoologists have developed empirical classifications for fish migrations. The first two following terms have been in long-standing wide usage while others are of more recent coinage.

 Anadromous – fish that migrate from the sea up (Greek: ἀνά aná, "up" and δρόμος drómos, "course") into fresh water to spawn, such as salmon, striped bass, and the sea lamprey
 Catadromous – fish that migrate from fresh water down (Greek: κατά kata, "down" and δρόμος dromos, "course") into the sea to spawn, such as eels

George S. Myers coined the following terms in a 1949 journal article.
 Diadromous – all fish that migrate between the sea and fresh water. Like the two aforementioned, well-known terms, diadromous was formed from Classical Greek ([dia], "through"; and [dromous], "running").
 Amphidromous – fish that migrate from fresh water to the sea, or vice versa, but not for the purpose of breeding. Instead they enter saltwater or freshwater as larvae, where they will grow into juveniles before returning to the habitat they originally came from and stay there for the rest of their life, growing into sexually mature adults.
 Potamodromous – fish whose migrations occur wholly within fresh water
 Oceanodromous – fish that live and migrate wholly in the sea

Although these classifications were originated for fish, they are, in principle, applicable to any aquatic organism.

List of diadromous orders and families, and the number of known species:

Forage fish

Forage fish often make great migrations between their spawning, feeding and nursery grounds. Schools of a particular stock usually travel in a triangle between these grounds. For example, one stock of herrings have their spawning ground in southern Norway,  their feeding ground in Iceland and their nursery ground in northern Norway. Wide triangular journeys such as these may be important because forage fish, when feeding, cannot distinguish their own offspring.

Capelin are a forage fish of the smelt family found in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. In summer, they graze on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin also eat krill and other crustaceans. The capelin move inshore in large schools to spawn and migrate in spring and summer to feed in plankton rich areas between Iceland, Greenland and Jan Mayen. The migration is affected by ocean currents. Around Iceland maturing capelin make large northward feeding migrations in spring and summer. The return migration takes place in September to November. The spawning migration starts north of Iceland in December or January.

The diagram on the right shows the main spawning grounds and larval drift routes. Capelin on the way to feeding grounds is coloured green, capelin on the way back is blue, and the breeding grounds are red.

In a paper published in 2009, researchers from Iceland recount their application of an interacting particle model to the capelin stock around Iceland, successfully predicting the spawning migration route for 2008.

Highly migratory species

The term highly migratory species (HMS) has its origins in Article 64 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Convention does not provide an operational definition of the term, but in an annex (UNCLOS Annex 1) lists the species considered highly migratory by parties to the convention. The list includes: tuna and tuna-like species (albacore, bluefin, bigeye tuna, skipjack, yellowfin, blackfin, little tunny, southern bluefin and bullet), wahoo, pomfret, marlin, sailfish, swordfish, saury and  oceangoing sharks, dolphins and other cetaceans.

These high trophic level oceanodromous species undertake migrations of significant but variable distances across oceans for feeding, often on forage fish, or reproduction, and also have wide geographic distributions. Thus, these species are found both inside the  exclusive economic zones and in the high seas outside these zones. They are pelagic species, which means they mostly live in the open ocean and do not live near the sea floor, although they may spend part of their life cycle in nearshore waters.

Highly migratory species can be compared with straddling stock and transboundary stock. Straddling stock range both within an EEZ as well as in the high seas. Transboundary stock range in the EEZs of at least two countries. A stock can be both transboundary and straddling.

It can be challenging to determine the population structure of highly migratory species using physical tagging. Traditional genetic markers such as short-range PCR products, microsatellites and SNP-arrays have struggled to identify population structure and distinguish fish stocks from separate ocean basins. However, population genomic research using RAD sequencing in yellowfin tuna,  albacore, and wahoo has been able to distinguish populations from different ocean basins and reveal fine-scale population structure. Similar population genomics methods have also provided improved insight towards population structure in striped marlin.

Other examples

Some of the best-known anadromous fishes are the Pacific salmon species, such as Chinook (king), coho (silver), chum (dog), pink (humpback) and sockeye (red) salmon.  These salmon hatch in small freshwater streams. From there they migrate to the sea to mature, living there for two to six years. When mature, the salmon return to the same streams where they were hatched to spawn. Salmon are capable of going hundreds of kilometers upriver, and humans must install fish ladders in dams to enable the salmon to get past. Other examples of anadromous fishes are sea trout, three-spined stickleback, sea lamprey and  shad.

Several Pacific salmon (Chinook, coho and Steelhead) have been introduced into the US Great Lakes, and have become potamodromous, migrating between their natal waters to feeding grounds entirely within fresh water.

Remarkable catadromous migrations are made by freshwater eels. Examples are the American eel and the European eel which migrate huge distances from freshwater rivers to spawn in the Sargasso sea, and whose subsequent larvae can drift in currents for months and even years before returning to their natal rivers and streams as glass eels or elvers.

An example of a euryhaline species is the bull shark, which lives in Lake Nicaragua of Central America and the Zambezi River of Africa. Both these habitats are fresh water, yet bull sharks will also migrate to and from the ocean. Specifically, Lake Nicaragua bull sharks migrate to the Atlantic Ocean and Zambezi bull sharks migrate to the Indian Ocean.

Diel vertical migration is a common behavior; many marine species move to the surface at night to feed, then return to the depths during daytime.

A number of large marine fishes, such as the tuna, migrate north and south annually, following temperature variations in the ocean. These are of great importance to fisheries.

Freshwater (potamodromous) fish migrations are usually shorter, typically from lake to stream or vice versa, for spawning purposes. However, potamodromous migrations of the endangered Colorado pikeminnow of the Colorado River system can be extensive. Migrations to natal spawning grounds can easily be 100 km, with maximum distances of 300 km reported from radiotagging studies. Colorado pikeminnow migrations also display a high degree of homing and the fish may make upstream or downstream migrations to reach very specific spawning locations in whitewater canyons.

Sometimes fish can be dispersed by birds that eat fish eggs. They carry eggs in the digestive tracts and then deposit them in their faeces in a new place. The survival rate for fish eggs that have passed through a bird's digestive tract is low.

Historic exploitation
Since prehistoric times humans have exploited certain anadromous fishes during their migrations into freshwater streams, when they are more vulnerable to capture. Societies dating to the Millingstone Horizon are known which exploited the anadromous fishery of Morro Creek and other Pacific coast estuaries. In Nevada the Paiute tribe has harvested migrating Lahontan cutthroat trout along the Truckee River since prehistoric times. This fishing practice continues to current times, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has supported research to assure the water quality in the Truckee can support suitable populations of the Lahontan cutthroat trout.

Myxovirus genes
Because salmonids live an anadromous lifestyle, they encounter a larger range of viruses from both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Myxovirus resistance (Mx) proteins are part of a GTP-ase family that aid in viral immunity, and previously, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) had been shown to possess three different Mx genes to aid in viral defence in both environments. The number of Mx genes can differ among species of fish, with numbers ranging from 1 to 9 and some outliers like Gadiformes that have totally lost their Mx genes. A study was performed by Wang et al. (2019) to identify more potential Mx genes that resided in rainbow trout. An additional six Mx genes were identified in that study, now named Mx4-9. They also concluded that the trout Mx genes were "differentially expressed constitutively in tissues" and that this expression is increased during development. The Mx gene family is expressed at high levels in the blood and intestine during development, suggesting they are a key to immune defense for the growing fish. The idea that these genes play an important role in development against viruses suggests they are critical in the trout's success in an anadromous lifestyle.

See also

Notes

References
 Blumm, M (2002) Sacrificing the Salmon: A Legal and Policy History of the Decline of Columbia Basin Salmon Bookworld Publications.
 Bond, C E (1996) Biology of Fishes, 2nd ed. Saunders, pp. 599–605.
 Hogan, C M (2008) Morro Creek, The Megalithic Portal, ed. by A. Burnham
 Appendix A: Migratory Fish Species in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa in Carolsfield J, Harvey B, Ross C and Anton Baer A (2004) Migratory Fishes of South America World Fisheries Trust/World Bank/IDRC. .

Further reading
 Ueda H and Tsukamoto K (eds) (2013) Physiology and Ecology of Fish Migration CRC Press. .

External links

 United Nations: Introduction to the Convention on Migratory Species
 Living North Sea – International project on tackling fish migration problems in the North Sea Region
 Fish Migration Network – Worldwide network of specialist working on the theme fish migration

Ichthyology
Aquatic ecology
Animal migration

Articles containing video clips

Fish migration


Energy quality is a measure of the ease with which a form of energy can be converted to useful work or to another form of energy: i.e. its content of thermodynamic free energy. A high quality form of energy has a high content of thermodynamic free energy, and therefore a high proportion of it can be converted to work; whereas with low quality forms of energy, only a small proportion can be converted to work, and the remainder is dissipated as heat. The concept of energy quality is also used in ecology, where it is used to track the flow of energy between different trophic levels in a food chain and in thermoeconomics, where it is used as a measure of economic output per unit of energy. Methods of evaluating energy quality often involve developing a ranking of energy qualities in hierarchical order.

Examples: Industrialization, Biology

The consideration of energy quality was a fundamental driver of industrialization from the 18th through 20th centuries. Consider for example the industrialization of New England in the 18th century. This refers to the construction of textile mills containing power looms for weaving cloth. The simplest, most economical and straightforward source of energy was provided by water wheels, extracting energy from a millpond behind a dam on a local creek. If another nearby landowner also decided to build a mill on the same creek, the construction of their dam would lower the overall hydraulic head to power the existing waterwheel, thus hurting power generation and efficiency. This eventually became an issue endemic to the entire region, reducing the overall profitability of older mills as newer ones were built. The search for higher quality energy was a major impetus throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, burning coal to make steam to generate mechanical energy would not have been imaginable in the 18th century; by the end of the 19th century, the use of water wheels was long outmoded. Similarly, the quality of energy from electricity offers immense advantages over steam, but did not become economic or practical until the 20th century.

The above example focused on the economic impacts of the exploitation of energy. A similar scenario plays out in nature and biology, where living organisms can extract energy of varying quality from nature, ultimately driven by solar energy as the primary driver of thermodynamic disequilibrium on Earth. The ecological balance of ecosystems is predicated on the energy flows through the system. For example, rainwater drives the erosion of rocks, which liberates chemicals that can be used as nutrients; these are taken up by plankton, using solar energy to grow and thrive; whales obtain energy by eating plankton, thus indirectly using solar energy as well, but this time in a much more concentrated and higher quality form.

Water wheels are also driven by rainwater, via the solar evaporation-condensation water cycle; thus ultimately, industrial cloth-making was driven by the day-night cycle of solar irradiation. This is a holistic view of energy sources as a system-in-the-large. Thus, discussions of energy quality can sometimes be found in the Humanities, such as dialectics, Marxism and postmodernism. This is effectively because disciplines such as economics failed to recognize the thermodynamic inputs into the economy (now recognized as thermoeconomics), while disciplines such as physics and engineering were unable to address either the economic impacts of human activity, or the impacts of thermodynamic flows in biological ecosystems. Thus, the broad-stroke, global system-in-the-large discussions were taken up by those best trained for the nebulous, non-specific reasoning that such complex systems require. The resulting mismatch of vocabulary and outlook across disciplines can lead to considerable contention.

History

According to Ohta (1994, pp. 90–91) the ranking and scientific analysis of energy quality was first proposed in 1851 by William Thomson under the concept of "availability". This concept was continued in Germany by Z. Rant, who developed it under the title, "die Exergie" (the exergy). It was later continued and standardised in Japan. Exergy analysis now forms a common part of many industrial and ecological energy analyses. For example, I.Dincer and Y.A. Cengel (2001, p. 132) state that energy forms of different qualities are now commonly dealt with in steam power engineering industry. Here the "quality index" is the relation of exergy to the energy content (Ibid.). However energy engineers were aware that the notion of heat quality involved the notion of value – for example A. Thumann wrote, "The essential quality of heat is not the amount but rather its 'value'" (1984, p. 113) – which brings into play the question of teleology and wider, or ecological-scale goal functions. In an ecological context S.E. Jorgensen and G.Bendoricchio say that exergy is used as a goal function in ecological models, and expresses energy "with a built-in measure of quality like energy" (2001, p. 392).

Energy quality evaluation methods
There appear to be two main kinds of methodology used for the calculation of energy quality. These can be classed as either receiver or donor methods. One of the main differences that distinguishes these classes is the assumption of whether energy quality can be upgraded in an energy transformation process.

Receiver methods: view energy quality as a measure and indicator of the relative ease with which energy converts from one form to another. That is, how much energy is received from a transformation or transfer process. For example, A. Grubler  used two types of indicators of energetic quality pars pro toto: the hydrogen/carbon (H/C) ratio, and its inverse, the carbon intensity of energy. Grubler used the latter as an indicator of relative environmental quality. However Ohta says that in multistage industrial conversion systems, such as a hydrogen production system using solar energy, the energy quality is not upgraded (1994, p. 125).

Donor methods: view energy quality as a measure of the amount of energy used in an energy transformation, and that goes into sustaining a product or service (H.T.Odum 1975, p. 3). That is how much energy is donated to an energy transformation process. These methods are used in ecological physical chemistry, and ecosystem evaluation. From this view, in contrast with that outlined by Ohta, energy quality is upgraded in the multistage trophic conversions of ecological systems. Here, upgraded energy quality has a greater capacity to feedback and control lower grades of energy quality. Donor methods attempt to understand the usefulness of an energetic process by quantifying the extent to which higher quality energy controls lower quality energy.

Energy quality in physical-chemical science (direct energy transformations)

Constant energy form but variable energy flow
T. Ohta suggested that the concept of energy quality may be more intuitive if one considers examples where the form of energy remains constant but the amount of energy flowing, or transferred is varied. For instance if we consider only the inertial form of  energy, then the energy quality of a moving body is higher when it moves with a greater velocity. If we consider only the heat form of energy, then a higher temperature has higher quality. And if we consider only the light form of energy then light with higher frequency has greater quality (Ohta 1994, p. 90). All these differences in energy quality are therefore easily measured with the appropriate scientific instrument.

Variable energy form, but constant energy flow
The situation becomes more complex when the form of energy does not remain constant. In this context Ohta formulated the question of energy quality in terms of the conversion of energy of one form into another, that is the transformation of energy. Here, energy quality is defined by the relative ease with which the energy transforms, from form to form.

If energy A is relatively easier to convert to energy B but energy B is relatively harder to convert to energy A, then the quality of energy A is defined as being higher than that of B. The ranking of energy quality is also defined in a similar way. (Ohta 1994, p. 90).

Nomenclature: Prior to Ohta's definition above, A. W. Culp produced an energy conversion table describing the different conversions from one energy to another. Culp's treatment made use of a subscript to indicate which energy form is being talked about. Therefore, instead of writing "energy A", like Ohta above, Culp referred to "Je", to specify electrical form of energy, where "J" refers to "energy", and the "e" subscript refers to electrical form of energy. Culp's notation anticipated Scienceman's (1997) later maxim that all energy should be specified as form energy with the appropriate subscript.

Energy quality in biophysical economics (indirect energy transformations)
The notion of energy quality was also recognised in the economic sciences. In the context of biophysical economics energy quality was measured by the amount of economic output generated per unit of energy input (C.J. Cleveland et al. 2000). The estimation of energy quality in an economic context is also associated with embodied energy methodologies. Another example of the economic relevance of the energy quality concept is given by Brian Fleay. Fleay says that the "Energy Profit Ratio (EPR) is one measure of energy quality and a pivotal index for assessing the economic performance of fuels. Both the direct and indirect energy inputs embodied in goods and services must be included in the denominator." (2006; p. 10) Fley calculates the EPR as the energy output/energy input.

Ranking energy quality

Energy abundance and relative transformation ease as measure of hierarchical rank and/or hierarchical position

Ohta sought to order energy form conversions according to their quality and introduced a hierarchical scale for ranking energy quality based on the relative ease of energy conversion (see table to right after Ohta, p. 90). It is evident that Ohta did not analyse all forms of energy. For example, water is left out of his evaluation. It is important to note that the ranking of energy quality is not determined solely with reference to the efficiency of the energy conversion. This is to say that the evaluation of "relative ease" of an energy conversion is only partly dependent on transformation efficiency. As Ohta wrote, "the turbine generator and the electric motor have nearly the same efficiency, therefore we cannot say which has the higher quality" (1994, p. 90). Ohta therefore also included, 'abundance in nature' as another criterion for the determination energy quality rank. For example, Ohta said that, "the only electrical energy which exists in natural circumstances is lightning, while many mechanical energies exist." (Ibid.). (See also table 1. in Wall's article for another example ranking of energy quality).

Transformity as an energy measure of hierarchical rank

Like Ohta, H.T.Odum also sought to order energy form conversions according to their quality, however his hierarchical scale for ranking was based on extending ecological system food chain concepts to thermodynamics rather than simply relative ease of transformation . For H.T.Odum energy quality rank is based on the amount of energy of one form required to generate a unit of another energy form. The ratio of one energy form input to a different energy form output was what H.T.Odum and colleagues called transformity: "the EMERGY per unit energy in units of emjoules per joule" (H.T.Odum 1988, p. 1135).

See also

 EKOenergy ecolabel for energy
 Green energy
 Eugene Green Energy Standard
 ISO 14001
 Monism
 Emergy
 Renewable energy
 Renewable energy development
 Transformity
 Thermodynamics
 Energy accounting
 Energy economics
 Pirsig's metaphysics of Quality

References

 M.T. Brown and S. Ulgiati (2004) 'Energy quality, emergy, and transformity: H.T. Odum's contributions to quantifying and understanding systems, Ecological Modelling, Vol. 178, pp. 201–213.
 C. J. Cleveland, R. K. Kaufmann, and D. I. Stern (2000) 'Aggregation and the role of energy in the economy', Ecological Economics, Vol. 32, pp. 301–318.
 A.W. Culp Jr. (1979) Principles of Energy Conversion, McGraw-Hill Book Company
 I.Dincer and Y.A. Cengel (2001) 'Energy, Entropy and Exergy Concepts and Their Roles in Thermal Engineering', Entropy, Vol. 3, pp. 116–149.
 B.Fleay (2006) Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee Inquiry into Australia's Future Oil Supply and Alternative transport Fuels
 S.Glasstone (1937) The Electrochemistry of Solutions, Methuen, Great Britain.
 S.E.Jorgensen and G.Bendoricchio (2001) Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling, Third Edition, Developments in Environmental Modelling 21, Elsevier, Oxford, UK.
 T.Ohta (1994) Energy Technology:Sources, Systems and Frontier Conversion, Pergamon, Elsevier, Great Britain.
 H.T.Odum (1975a) Energy Quality and Carrying Capacity of the Earth, A response at prize awarding ceremony of Institute La Vie, Paris.
 H.T.Odum (1975b) [ Energy Quality Interactions of Sunlight, Water, Fossil Fuel and Land], from Proceedings of the conference on Water Requirements for Lower Colorado River Basin Energy Needs.
 H.T.Odum (1988) 'Self-Organization, Transformity, and Information', Science, Vol. 242, pp. 1132–1139.
 H.T.Odum (1994) Ecological and General Systems: An introduction to Systems Ecology, Colorado University Press, (especially page 251).
 D.M. Scienceman (1997) 'Letters to the Editor: Emergy definition', Ecological Engineering, 9, pp. 209–212.
 A.THumann (1984) Fundamentals of Energy Engineering.

Environmental economics
Industrial ecology
Natural resources
Resource economics
Thermodynamics
Energy economics

Energy quality


Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) is a member-owned health insurance company in the United States. HCSC was formerly known as Hospital Service Corporation and changed its name to Health Care Service Corporation in 1975. The company was founded in 1936 and is based in Chicago, Illinois with a network of offices in the United States. Health Care Service Corporation is the licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association for five states. It concentrates its operations in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

HCSC is the fifth-largest health insurer in the US overall and employs more than 23,000 people. As of 2019, it was noted to be the third-largest commercial health insurer in the United States  It serves nearly 16 million members. HCSC offers group life, disability, and dental policies, as well as a range of other individual policies. The company also provides various care management and wellness resources.

Geographical area of operations
 HCSC's operations are concentrated in Illinois and Texas, which accounted for 84% of total revenue through the first nine months of 2014, followed by Oklahoma (9% of revenue).

HCSC's membership was approximately 16 million as of December 31, 2019. HCSC's revenue continues to be concentrated in Illinois and Texas, accounting for 83% of premium for the full year 2017. The company's next largest state in terms of premiums is Oklahoma, accounting for approximately 9% of premium.

In January 2020, HCSC announced that it was cutting about 400 employees, most of them in middle management, in order to reduce organizational redundancy and improve decision making efficiency.

Educational opportunities
As of May 1, 2019, HCSC announced an in-house educational program aimed at developing the skills of its employees, dubbed Blue University. Blue University will focus on a number of topics such as healthcare management, leadership, marketing and sales, technology, and service delivery to name a few. Alongside Blue University, HCSC has partnered with local universities where it operates to offer master's degree and certificate partnerships for employees.

Financial information
, HCSC was the country's largest nonpublic health insurer and the fifth-largest health insurer overall, with more than 16 million members.  HCSC's membership was approximately 16 million at December 31, 2019. HCSC's revenue continues to be concentrated in Illinois and Texas, accounting for 83% of premium for the full year 2017.

In 2010 HCSC nearly doubled its income to $1.09 billion, and began "a streak of billion-dollar profits for 4 straight years".
Between 2009 and 2013, HCSC's five-year average of return on capital was 10.5%.  During 2014 HCSC profits decreased "from medical losses and expenses associated with the company's aggressive addition of members sourced from ACA exchanges". Yet in 2015, Fitch Ratings assessed its financial strength still at 'A+' and gave it an 'A' for likelihood of default and senior unsecured rating.
Finch stated that "lack of geographic diversification has historically kept HCSC out of the 'AA' rating category and that HCSC would be downgraded if it were no longer to market itself as a Blues plan.

HCSC reported a strong underwriting profit in 2017 after losses related to Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange-sourced business in 2014 and 2015. The company reported annualized return on capital of greater than 40% through the first half of 2018, where achieving a high single-digit ROC would be consistent with Fitch's median guideline for the current rating category. An income tax benefit related to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act equal to $833 million contributed to the sizeable ROC ratio during the first half of 2018. Results are expected to moderate somewhat during the second half of 2018 as policyholders exhaust their deductibles and HCSC pays a greater percentage of claims.

References

Financial services companies established in 1936
Companies based in Chicago
Insurance companies based in Illinois
Mutual insurance companies
Members of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Mutual insurance companies of the United States
Health care companies based in Illinois

Health Care Service Corporation


Frank T. Brogan (born September 6, 1953) is an American educator and the former Assistant Secretary of Education (Elementary and Secondary Education). He succeeded Deborah S. Delisle.
He is the former Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, former Chancellor of the State University System of Florida, and former President of Florida Atlantic University. He was the 15th lieutenant governor of Florida, serving with Governor Jeb Bush.

Education
In 1976, Frank Brogan became the first member in his family to earn a college degree when he received his bachelor's degree in education magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati. In 1981, he earned his Master of Arts in Educational leadership from Florida Atlantic University.

On December 18, 2018, Frank Brogan was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Florida Atlantic University.

Early career

Education
Brogan began his education career in 1978 in the Martin County, Florida public school district. His first job was teaching fifth grade at Port Salerno Elementary School. It was while teaching at this school that he earned his master's degree in 1981.

Brogan next focused his career on educational administration. He went on to serve as the dean of students at Indiantown Middle School, and then assistant principal, and principal of Murray Middle School. While an administrator, Brogan negotiated a gun away from a student. Brogan was eventually elected to two terms as the Superintendent of Schools in Martin County.

Politics

Florida Commissioner of Education
In 1994, Brogan was elected Florida Commissioner of Education. In this position he oversaw all education activities in Florida and served as a member of the Florida Cabinet, which oversaw various aspects of state government. He was the youngest education commissioner in Florida's history.

Lieutenant Governor of Florida

Brogan was seeking a second term as Education Commissioner when, in 1998, Jeb Bush asked him to be his running mate as lieutenant governor. The Bush/Brogan team won the general election. As lieutenant governor, Brogan oversaw education policy and acted as legislative liaison for the Bush Administration. Bush and Brogan were re-elected in 2002; Brogan departed to become president of FAU in 2003.

Florida Atlantic University

Brogan became the fifth president of Florida Atlantic University in 2003 and was reappointed by the FAU Board of Trustees to a second six-year term, which began in 2009, although Brogan quit this position the same year to become Chancellor of the State University System of Florida. Recognizing the region's strong potential to become a center of biomedical research, Brogan has placed special emphasis on creating partnerships between the university and leading research organizations.

He fostered relationships with organizations such as The Scripps Research Institute, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, the Max Planck Society and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute. Additionally, FAU entered into a unique public/private medical school partnership that resulted in the introduction of a complete, four-year medical education program on FAU's Boca Raton campus and the creation of FAU's independent medical school in 2010.

During Brogan's initial six-year term, the university developed its first-ever comprehensive strategic plan, which has provided a roadmap for progress since its inception in 2006. He oversaw the largest physical development of the university's campuses as new facilities were built to serve FAU's undergraduate and graduate population, which surpassed 27,000 for the first time. He presided over the early planning stages of "Innovation Village" on the Boca Raton campus, which doubled the amount of on-campus housing while adding the wellness center, alumni center, football stadium, retail space and additional parking. The stadium and most of these features were developed and completed in the years after Brogan left FAU. In 2009 Brogan became chancellor of the State University System and resigned as president of FAU.

State University System of Florida

Brogan took office as Florida's university system chancellor in 2009 during a time of deep acrimony between the Florida Legislature and the Board of Governors. As the longest-serving chancellor since the creation of the Board of Governors in 2003, his tenure brought a welcome stability for the system. During his tenure, relationships with the Florida Legislature were restored, as evidenced by the landmark governance agreement of 2010 that provided clarity regarding oversight of the university system.

Meanwhile, the university system demonstrated significant progress in providing access to high-quality higher education. During his tenure, the system increased enrollment by 7 percent, increased degree production by 12 percent and saw record high attainment in academic standards, graduation rates, national rankings and research.

The board approved a new 2025 Strategic Plan that includes 39 key performance benchmarks, which is an integral part of Florida's nationally recognized accountability framework that tracks progress of university and system goals. This was part of Brogan's goal for Florida to have "the most accountable university system in America."

During the 2013 legislative session in particular, the university system took several major steps toward further excellence. The board and Legislature worked together to implement a number of top priorities, including establishing a path for universities to reach preeminent status, creating the nation's first fully online institute operated by a public research university, and providing a platform for a performance-funding model that fosters the unique mission of each institution while advancing system goals. The state legislature reversed an earlier $300 million budget cut and added more than $400 million in new funding for operations, facilities and maintenance.

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education
In October 2013, Brogan left his post as Chancellor of the State University System of Florida to serve as the chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Under his leadership of the PASSHE, the membership of the faculty union, APSCUF, which represents more than 5000 teachers, went on strike for the first time in 34 years, after working for more than 13 months without a contract.

References

External links

1953 births
Living people
Chancellors of the State University System of Florida
Florida Atlantic University alumni
Florida Commissioners of Education
Florida Republicans
Lieutenant Governors of Florida
People from Martin County, Florida
Politicians from Cincinnati
Presidents of the Florida Atlantic University
University of Cincinnati alumni

Frank Brogan


The Social Democratic Party (also known as the SDP) was a centrist political party that was made by Labour Party politicians in 1981 who did not like how left-wing the party was becoming. The SDP was founded on 26 March 1981 by four senior Labour Party moderates, dubbed the "Gang of Four": Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams.

They allied with the Liberals, winning 25% of the vote in 1983 and 23% in 1987. The alliance between the SDP and the Liberals was called the "SDP-Liberal Alliance". Most of the SDP and Liberals merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats.

David Owen continued to lead a much reduced party until 1990.  It continued with even less success until In November 2018 it got its first and only European parliamentarian when Patrick O'Flynn, Member of the European Parliament for East of England, defected from the UK Independence Party.

At the 2022 local elections it gained a seat on Leeds City Council from Labour and, later that year, a Conservative Derbyshire Dales District Councillor defected to the party. They  won a second council seat on Leeds City Council in 2023.

References

Liberal parties
1981 establishments in the United Kingdom

Social Democratic Party (UK)


The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a 2008 comedy-drama film based on Michael Chabon's 1988 novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. It was produced by Michael London and executive produced by Omar Amanat. Shooting in Pittsburgh ended in October 2006, with the film set for release in 2008. It made its world premiere in January 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival. Set in 1980s Pittsburgh, the film follows the affairs of two young men with one woman, and later also with each other.

Cast
 Jon Foster as Art Bechstein: The well-mannered, intelligent son of a Jewish gangster who gets caught up in a tangled love triangle with Jane and Cleveland.
 Sienna Miller as Jane Bellwether: Cleveland's girlfriend. In the novel, Jane is a minor character but is elevated to leading lady in Thurber's adaptation.
 Peter Sarsgaard as Cleveland Arning: Jane's rebellious bisexual boyfriend, with whom Art becomes involved. In the novel, Cleveland is entirely heterosexual; but, in adapting the film, he became merged with the homosexual character Arthur Lecomte, one of the novel's key love interests.
 Mena Suvari as Phlox Lombardi: A strange girl who works at the book shop, who becomes romantically involved with Art. In the novel, she is one of the main romantic interests along with Arthur, but her role is greatly reduced in the film.
 Nick Nolte as Joe Bechstein: Art's father is a Jewish gangster, who is disappointed with his son's choices and would like him to become a stockbroker.
 Shaz Khan as Lebanese Guy (Uncredited)

Production
Earlier attempts to bring Pittsburgh to the big screen failed, including Chabon's own attempt to adapt his novel.  In early 2000, independent filmmaker Jon Sherman (writer and director of 1996's Breathing Room) adapted Chabon's novel into a screenplay, hoping to film it with Jason Schwartzman in the role of Art Bechstein. By August of the same year, Chabon announced that the project had fallen apart, sadly writing, "Ah, well. Maybe someday."

Director Rawson Marshall Thurber got hold of the project sometime prior to 2006, when he began filming after convincing Michael Chabon he could make it work. Chabon had seen the script, and was pleased with it. In order to facilitate the film adaptation, Thurber removed the character of Arthur Lecomte "whole cloth" from the original Chabon novel in what he described as "the most glaring change". Lecomte, a gay man for whom Art begins to develop feelings, had to be removed because Thurber felt strongly "that in order for the film to function properly, it needed a more efficient and more cinematic engine — in short, a love triangle." Consequently, many elements of Arthur Lecomte were folded into the character of Cleveland.

Controversy
Cast member Sienna Miller created a minor stir in Pittsburgh when, in a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, she referred to the city as "Shitsburgh", saying, "Can you believe this is my life? Will you pity me when you're back in your funky New York apartment and I'm still in Pittsburgh? I need to get more glamorous films and stop with my indie year." Miller has been parodied in Pittsburgh media (including one article that was headlined "Semi-famous actress dumps on the 'Burgh") and criticized for making what was seen as an unnecessarily disparaging remark, given the special treatment the film's cast and crew had been given by the visitor's bureau and other city offices. Miller soon apologized and said her remarks were taken out of context. She added that she was referring to night time shooting schedule of the production, and that what she had seen of the city was beautiful.

Reception
Upon major release, reviews were predominantly negative. On review aggregator website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 38, based on 14 reviews. Based on 42 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh has an overall approval rating from critics of 12% with an average score of 3.9/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "A listless interpretation of Michael Chabon's first novel, Mysteries of Pittsburgh features none of the source material's charm, but has coming-of-age film cliches in abundance."

CBC News gave the movie and Thurber a damning review. Reviewer Martin Morrow felt Thurber was "out of his depth" with the Chabon novel, and were amazed that "like some act of reverse alchemy, Thurber has taken movie-friendly gold and turned it into dull metal." Morrow added that the film "cuts, combines or perversely twists the book's characters, drops some of the best scenes, skimps on the sex and – unbelievably – substitutes Thurber's leaden writing for Chabon's wit", whereas the original novel was "just as camera-ready" as Wonder Boys, which had been adapted into a film in 2000. Morrow was also critical of Thurber's "timid" take on Art's sexual revelation, and Foster's acting. He described Cleveland as a "perfect role" for Sarsgaard, and praised Sarsgaard's acting, but felt the character's humour was missing.

Gay City News felt that the adaptation compromised the "very literary" debut novel and criticized Foster's "cheap voice-over narration" for failing to add any dimension to what's happening on screen. Reviewer Gary M. Kramer was critical of the film for excising the character of Arthur, compressing the character of Phlox and for bringing supporting characters Jane and Cleveland into the foreground, and was critical of Sarsgaard's acting. The review concluded that the film "seems a victim of poor planning and bad timing" and was very distant from "the excellent source novel."

Dave White of Movies.com noted that the movie "makes the 1137th film in which Peter Sarsgaard is called upon to play a smug, condescending, somewhat unbalanced, louche, bisexual jerk" and suspected the actor might become typecast. White added his disappointment with the self-pitying and mopy qualities of Foster's character, and consequently felt the movie played as if "watching Felicity if she were a sexually experimental guy." Despite his grievances, White awarded the film a mildly below average C− rating and commented, "I don't want to bash it too much because it's obviously a labor of love from director Rawson Marshall Thurber (he made Dodgeball just to get the cash to free himself to make this)".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, and felt the movie's premise was too similar to many others, such as the 1980s-set coming-of-age film Adventureland, which was released the week before, and is also set in Pittsburgh. He felt the main character was hard to sympathise with and that the plot was like a "1930s Warner Bros. social melodrama". Ebert was more praising of the acting for the film's supporting cast, but felt that their characters' motivations were left unclear. Sacha Howells of Film.com noted the release of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh coincided with the release of The Informers, another Jon Foster film about bisexuals in the 1980s, based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name. Howells noted that, while reviews for most films have been mixed, "the decision to see Pittsburgh on April 10 or Informers on April 24 is completely subjective -- do you like your literary adaptations debauched and nihilistic or wistful and bittersweet?", with Howells opining he would probably be seeing both.

References

External links

2008 drama films
2008 films
2008 independent films
Male bisexuality in film
American LGBT-related films
Films based on American novels
Films set in 1983
Films set in Pittsburgh
Films shot in Pittsburgh
QED International films
Films directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber
Films scored by Theodore Shapiro
2000s English-language films
2000s American films

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (film)


Paramathma also known as Parabrahman or highest atman is the ultimate destination where all atmans unite after moksha. Paramathma is the eternal truth, bliss, and knowledge. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva (The destroyer) and Lord Maha Vishnu (The preserver and the sustainer of the universe) are the two forms of Paramathma.

Paramathma is the first and foremost atman. He believed to have the highest level of knowledge and energy creates, preserves, sustains, and destroys all life. The Power and Energy of Paramathma is thought to be ineffable.

Paramathma is believed to have supermystical powers because of his penance. The Paramathma is the one who is in everything and an ananta(eternal or Infinite). The Atman is immortal as the Paramathma since all atmans are a part of Paramathma. He is a pure personification of everything beyond conceptualization and manifestation.

Hinduism

Paramathma


Babes in Arms is a 1937 coming-of-age musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and book by Rodgers and Hart. It concerns a group of small-town Long Island teenagers who put on a show to avoid being sent to a work farm by the town sheriff when their actor parents go on the road for five months in an effort to earn some money by reviving vaudeville.

Several songs in Babes in Arms became pop standards, including the title song, "Where or When", "My Funny Valentine", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Johnny One Note" and "I Wish I Were in Love Again".

The film version, released in 1939, starred Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and was directed by Busby Berkeley. The radically revised script retained only two songs from the original stage version—"Where or When" and "Babes in Arms". The film is credited with popularizing the trope of children staging musicals to raise money for charities.

The original version had strong political overtones with discussions of Nietzsche, the appearance of a Communist character, and two African-American youths who are victims of racism. In 1959 George Oppenheimer created a "sanitized, de-politicized rewrite" for stage performance; it is now the most frequently performed version. In the new version, the young people are trying to save a local summer stock theatre from being demolished, not trying to avoid being sent to a work farm. The sequence of the songs and orchestration are changed drastically, and the dance numbers eliminated.

The 1959 version was the only one available for performance until 1998 when the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music presented the original version (with a few race references slightly re-edited).

Production history
Babes in Arms opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on April 14, 1937, transferred to the Majestic Theatre on October 25, 1937, and closed on December 18, 1937, after 289 performances. The production, under the auspices of Dwight Deere Wiman, was staged by Robert B. Sinclair with choreography by George Balanchine. Settings were by Raymond Sovey, and costumes by Helene Pons. Hans Spialek created the orchestrations and Gene Salzer led the orchestra which included pianists Edgar Fairchild and Adam Carroll. The cast featured Mitzi Green, Ray Heatherton, and Alfred Drake, as well as the Nicholas Brothers

A studio cast recording starring Gregg Edelman as Val, Judy Blazer as Billie, Jason Graae as Gus, Donna Kane as Dolores, Judy Kaye as Baby Rose, Adam Grupper as Peter, with JQ and the Bandits as the Quartet and featuring the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra was released by New World Records in 1990.

On July 20, 2016, All Star Productions revived the original version at Ye Old Rose and Crown Theatre Pub, London. It was the first staging of the musical in the UK in almost 15 years. Theatre critic Darren Luke Mawdsley described the work as 'outmoded' stating that he "understand[s] why it has not been staged here in 15 years."

Porchlight Music Theatre presented Babes in Arms as a part of their "Porchlight Revisits" season in which they stage three forgotten musicals per year. It was in Chicago, Illinois in October 2015. It was directed by Jess McLeod and music directed by Alex Newkirk.

Revivals of original 1930s version
In addition to the revival of the 1930s original, a New York City Center Encores! staged concert version ran in February 1999. It was directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall and featured Erin Dilly, David Campbell, Jessica Stone and Christopher Fitzgerald.

The Cohoes Music Hall presented a reconstructed version of the 1937 production under the supervision of Richard Rodgers in 1976. This production was choreographed by Dennis Grimaldi and directed by David Kitchen and Dennis Grimaldi.

Productions of the 1950s version
In 1985, Ginger Rogers directed a production at the Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, that starred Randy Skinner who also choreographed the show and Karen Ziemba as Susie. The song "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" was added to the song list.

The musical was produced at the Chichester Festival Theatre from June 7, 2007, through July 7, 2007, and cast Judy Garland's daughter Lorna Luft as the domineering mother of former child star Baby Rose Owens. One reviewer complained that the musical seemed to have lost its legendary political bite, evidently unaware that this was the revised 1950s de-politicized version. She was given two new songs from neither the stage version nor the film in which her mother appeared.

Goodspeed Opera House Production
In 2002, a very successful production was mounted at Goodspeed Opera using a new book by Joe DiPietro which included plot points from the original 1937 version and also elements from the 1939 MGM film. The original score was utilized along with several additional Rodgers and Hart songs. Randy Skinner choreographed the production.

Plot of original 1937 version
In Seaport, Long Island in the 1930s, Val and Marshall's vaudeville parents leave them behind to go on tour. Val meets Billie, a girl who has driven from the coast, only to have her car break down. The pair sing a love song about their sense of having met before ("Where or When").

The Sheriff then visits them to inform them that they have to work at the work farm because they are not yet 21. The "kids" decide that they will stick around instead and find another way to support themselves ("Babes in Arms"), forming a group with Val as the leader. After deciding nothing (except that violence is good), they disperse.

Dolores, the Sheriff's daughter, talks to Gus, her ex, who tries to woo her but fails. However, the two then sing and flirt about how they do not care that their relationship is over ("I Wish I Were in Love Again"). Marshall arrives, jealous of Gus still wooing Dolores. When Val enters mentioning that he has also kissed Dolores, a fight begins and escalates when others enter. The sheriff comes in and the kids pretend to be dancing. This causes Val to decide to put on their own follies. The Sheriff decides to give them two weeks to put on the show ("Babes in Arms Reprise").

Later, Val enters and tells Irving and Ivor to practice their number ("Light on Our Feet"). Lee then arrives and chastises his brother, Beauregard, for hanging out with "the blacks". Billie then convinces Lee to invest his money in the show. Lee smears some of her lipstick on his cheek and convinces the boys that she kissed him.

The boys next convince "Baby Rose", a former child star, to be in their show. Rose performs a number she learned (Way Out West).

Billie enters with a jealous Val. After calming him, they discuss the show. Lee does not want Irving and Ivor in the show. After learning this, Val leaves in a huff. Billie reflects on her romance with Val ("My Funny Valentine"). They transition into the day of the show and show the final number of the follies performed by Baby Rose ("Johnny One Note"). Backstage, Lee and Val fight over letting Irving and Ivor go on despite their race. Val punches Lee, and Irving and Ivor go and do the big dance finale ("Johnny One Note Ballet").

Act 2 opens on the gang sitting despondently trying to cheer each other up because they are at the work farm ("Imagine"). Val comes in and calls them away to lunch, staying behind to inform Billie that his parents will be away for 3-4 more months. They talk and Val mocks Billie's beliefs on luck and her immaturity ("All at Once").

For the gang's first night off, the sheriff is throwing a party in a field on Val's property. The former communist Peter enters, having won money in a raffle, and proclaims that he is to travel the world and not share his money to which the gang is upset ("Imagine Reprise"). A ballet dream sequence of his travels ("Peter's Ballet") follows. After the ballet he decides to invest the money ("Imagine Reprise 2").

Later at the party, the Sheriff attempts to make good with the kids. Billie tells Val that she plans on leaving the farm for the road. Val insists on going with her before being called back to the kitchen. Billie sings about how she doesn't mind driving around. She also talks about how she likes living on her own terms ("Lady is a Tramp").

Peter returns to the party informing the crew that he lost all the money. The gang leaves following the news of a trans-Atlantic flight and Delores tells Gus that she will come work on the farm to be with him. He reacts by telling her how she doesn't return his affections and drags him along ("You are so Fair"). After pretending to not care about each other, they admit that they like each other.

The gang re-enters and listen to the radio. They realize the Aviator must make a forced landing, and in their field no less! After much scrambling, they call the airport to get reporters to come, and Val decides to impersonate the aviator. The reporters believe his impersonation and the city decides to throw the aviator a party. After concocting a scheme, Billie takes control of the unconscious and tied-up aviator and relishes the fact that the gang treats her as an equal ("Lady is a Tramp Reprise").

At the party, the gang repeatedly interrupts the mayor's introduction of the Aviator to delay the Aviator's speech. Performing a variety of musical numbers ("Specialty: You are so fair, Imagine, My Funny Valentine, Light on Our Feet, and Lady is a Tramp"). After The Aviator's speech the entire chorus performs a rousing closing number ("Finale Ultimo").

Original Broadway cast
 Mitzi Green as Billie Smith
 Ray Heatherton as Val Lamar
 Alfred Drake as Marshall Blackstone
 Duke McHale as Peter Jackson
 Wynn Murray as Baby Rose
 Rolly Pickert as Gus Fielding
 Grace McDonald as Dolores Reynolds
 Harold Nicholas as Ivor DeQuincy
 Fayard Nicholas as Irving DeQuincy
 Dana Hardwick as Lee Calhoun
 George Watts as Sheriff Reynolds

Musical numbers
Overture [including the Lamars act and the Blackstones act]—Orchestra

ACT I
 "Opening Act I"—Orchestra
 "Where or When"—Billie & Val
 "Babes in Arms"—Val, Marshall, Billie & The Gang
 "I Wish I Were in Love Again"—Gus & Dolores
 "Babes in Arms—Reprise"—Marshall, Sheriff & The Gang
 "Light On Our Feet" with dance (originally the racially insensitive "All Dark People Are Light On Their Feet")—The DeQuincy Bros.
 "Way Out West" with dance break—Baby Rose & Men's Quartet
 "My Funny Valentine"—Billie
 "Johnny One Note"—Baby Rose
 "Ballet—Johnny One Note" including (Orchestra):
 Section 1: Tango and Jazz Ballet
 Section 2: The Scene Moves Backstage
 Section 3: Move Back to Ballet
 Section 4: Finale—Act I
Entr'acte—Orchestra

ACT II
 "Imagine"—Men's Quartet, Baby Rose, Peter, & Marshall
 "All At Once"—Val & Billie
 "Imagine—Reprise #1"—Peter & The Men's Quartet
 "Peter's Journey (Ballet)"—Orchestra
 "Imagine—Reprise #2"—The Men's Quartet & Peter
 "The Lady Is a Tramp" with encore—Billie
 "You Are So Fair" with two dances—Gus & Dolores with Orchestra
 "Reprise: The Lady Is a Tramp"—Billie
 "Specialty #1 (Light On Our Feet) & Specialty #2 (Imagine)"—Orchestra
 "Finale Ultimo"—The Gang with Val & Billie
 "Bows (Johnny One-Note)"—Orchestra
 "Exit Music (Where or When)"—Orchestra

See also
 Babes in Arms (film)

References

External links
 Liner Notes to cast recording with detailed synopsis of original 1937 version
 Detailed synopsis of revised 1950s version
 Internet Broadway Database listing
 "Babes in Arms" production information, Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization
 The Judy Garland Online Discography "Babes In Arms" pages.

1937 musicals
Broadway musicals
Musicals by Rodgers and Hart
Original musicals
Musicals choreographed by George Balanchine
Musicals set in Long Island

Babes in Arms


The burrhead shiner (Notropis asperifrons) is a species of cyprinid fish. It is endemic to the United States and occurs in the Alabama and Black Warrior River systems in southeastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, and Alabama, mostly above the Fall Line. It grows to  total length. It can be locally common and occurs in rocky and sandy pools and runs of clear creeks and small rivers, usually on or near bottom.  It is state threatened in Georgia, however.

References

Notropis
Freshwater fish of the United States
Endemic fish of the United States
Fish described in 1955

Burrhead shiner