Doppelkopf (, lit. double-head), sometimes abbreviated to Doko, is a trick-taking card game for four players.

In Germany, Doppelkopf is nearly as popular as Skat, especially in Northern Germany and the Rhein-Main Region. Schafkopf, however, is still the preferred point-trick game in Bavaria. As with Skat and Bavarian Schafkopf there is a set of official rules, but numerous unofficial variants.

Although the German Doppelkopf Association (Deutscher Doppelkopf-Verband) has developed standard rules for tournaments, informal sessions are often played in many different variants, and players adopt their own house rules. Before playing with a new group of players, it is advisable to agree on a specific set of rules before the first game.

History

Classic Schafkopf
Games of the Schafkopf group date to the 18th century or earlier, the oldest member of the family being known as Schafkopf or, nowadays, German Schafkopf to avoid confusion with its modern Bavarian descendant. A 1783 novel describes the scene after a wedding dinner as the dining tables were cleared away and replaced by games tables: "here stood an Ombre table, there a noble Schafkopf was played, over there a game of forfeits, soon everybody was busy playing when suddenly the sound of the strings announced the arrival of the dance band..." In 1796, we learn that students at Leipzig University liked to repair to disreputable bars to play Solo or Schafkopf for a couple of Dreiers.
In 1803, it is described as "a cute little game [played] with chalk and collection bag pennies". and its rules are recorded for the first time by Paul Hammer. In 1853, they were reprinted by  Von Alvensleben who describes 'Schaafkopf' as being very common, especially with the lower classes perhaps due to its ordinary name ("sheep's head"), but that it also went under the "more noble" names of Society (Societätsspiel), Conversation (Conversationsspiel) or Denunciation (Denunciationsspiel). He hypothesises that the name comes from the practice of drawing the lines denoting points scored in the form of a stylised sheep's head. He goes on to describe in detail no less than nine variants of 'Schaafkopf', but states clearly that the original one was a four-hand, point-trick, team game with 4 Unters as top trumps, known as Wenzels (pronounced "Ventsels") and a trump suit nominated by the bid winner. The game was normally played for beer.

Early Doppelkopf
Among Hammer's 9 variants were three played with a double pack that appear to be an early form of Doppelkopf. These were all Ace-Ten games with the Tens ranking low and were played by teams of two, in fixed partnerships with Bells as the trump suit. They differed as follows:

 Four players, twelve Wenzels, 2 x 24 cards (Type G)
 Six players, twelve Wenzels, 2 x 24 cards  (Type H)
 Eight players, sixteen Wenzels, 2 x 32 cards (Type I)

Wendish Schafkopf
Several post-war sources claim that Doppelkopf has its origins in a game called Wendish Schafkopf which, however, is first mentioned in the 1850s. This may stem from a misreading of von Alvensleben by Georgens & Gagette-Georgens (1882) who stated that the original form of Schafkopf was Wendish, but then describes another different game: Hammer's type A. The error is repeated by Alban von Hahn (1905 and 1909) and may have led to others deriving Doppelkopf from Wendish Schafkopf instead of German Schafkopf.

Merino
In 1861, a short description was published of a game, probably referring to Types G and H above, that appeared under the alternative name of Marino (sic) as well as Schafkopf. "Despite its common name" (Schafkopf) it was said to be very popular in many areas, especially in northern Germany." This game for four "or even six" players was often played with two German packs. Bells were permanent trumps along with the twelve matadors, known as Wenzels, namely two each of the O O U U U and U. The usual Ace-Ten scoring scheme was used. No rules of play are given. The name Merino appears occasionally other contemporary sources, for example, an 1870 newspaper remarks: "It is strikingly clear how the common man recently viewed the world from the acquiescence of several playing card manufacturers who have designed the highest trump in German Solo, Obsern and Merino – the Ober of Acorns – with a face resembling that of Napoleon III."

Doppelschafkopf
In 1873 the name Doppelschaf(s)kopf appears for the first time in an Aichach newspaper which mentions a Doppelschafskopf Society (Doppelschafskopf-Gesellschaft).

In 1879 Anton records that the "usual Doppelschafkopf" is a four-hand partnership game "although more commonly played by three players, one of whom plays with a blind". Two packs of cards were used, the 7s and 8s being removed to leave 2 x 24, and there were 22 permanent trumps in the game: the Obers of Acorns and Leaves, the four Unters and the suit of Bells. This is the same format as Hammer's Type G (see above). If played by three, the dealer was designated the 'king' and played with a 'straw man' (Strohmann), an extra hand of cards laid on the table opposite the dealer and which was played open after the first trick.

The other two players were the 'folk'. Whist rules of play were followed. There were 240 points in cards and 121 were required to win. A team needed at least 61 points to avoid losing Schneider i.e. double. Each game or 'head' (Kopf) consisted of 4 lines (game points) and was worth typically 10, 20, 25 or more pfennigs. If teams tied on 120, the point was carried forward to the next hand.

If the two Acorn Obers came together in the same trick, there was often a bonus for the first one played since it won. The first team to 4 chalk up lines won. If four or five wanted to play in the same way as the three-hand game, the additional players sat out each time leaving three active players; however they won or lost along with the folk. As well as the three-hand game, variants for six and eight players were described; in the latter case, all the Obers and Unters were matadors as in the modern game.

In 1884 Doppelschafkopf was mentioned in a chess primer. During a chess trip to Ratzebüttel, the president of a ladies chess club declares that "our husbands play chess too badly; they are too prosaic and much prefer to sit at a beer table playing Doppelschafkopf."

In a set of 1890 rules, three players played with a 'blind' as before, but four played without the requirement for anyone to sit out. Other descriptions of Doppelschafkopf appear in the early 20th century, for example, in the 1911 Brockhaus.

Emergence of modern Doppelkopf

Name
In the 19th century the name Doppelkopf was sometimes used to refer to a French-suited double-ended playing card and sometimes to refer to winning a double game (a Doppel-Kopf or double head) in Doppelschafkopf. By the late 19th century it had become firmly attached to variants of Schafkopf played with two packs e.g. Brockhaus says in 1896 that "[German] Schafkopf may be played with one or two packs of 32 cards; in the latter case it is called Doppelkopf."

Early modern Doppelkopf
In 1927, an early version of modern Doppelkopf is described by Robert Hülsemann who calls it an elaboration of the old German 3-4 player game of Schafkopf that, itself, has almost died out. He says that Doppelkopf got its name because it is played with double the number of cards, the 7s and 8s being removed from two Skat packs to leave 2 x 24 cards. The game was also referred to here and there in north Germany as Juristenspiel ("Lawyer") probably because it was played in legal circles. French-suited packs are described and there were now eight matadors: Q Q Q Q J J J J along with the default trump suit of diamonds. It was played much as in Doppelschafkopf above, but there was now an extra penalty for losing the "Fox" – the trump Ace. Instead of lines (Striche) being used to keep score, winnings were paid in small stakes such as 5 or 10 pfennigs instead of one line. For the first time there were secret partnerships, the two players dealt the "Old Ones" (2 x Q) joining forces against the other two, but were not allowed to announce their possession of these cards. A player with both either played a silent Solo, played a Suit Solo against the other three or called for a partner by going with the taker of the 1st or 5th tricks as desired.

In a 1931 account by Karl Thoenen, further elaborations appear. "In many areas", a further two trumps were added: the two red 10s, each known as the Tolle ("mad one"). These are now the commanding cards, but partnerships were still decided based on the two Qs. Players may opt to play with "strict" (Zwang) or "wild" (wild) rules. In the former a player with the Q had to lead trumps; in the latter there was no such compulsion. Suit Solos, were not common. Players anted e.g. a Mark to a common pot and the winners drew 5 pfennigs; 10 in the event of Schneider and 15 in the event of a Schwarz. If the team with the two Old Ones lost, their opponents won double. A trump Solo cost 20 pfennigs and was usually paid directly from player to player.

The bonus for taking the last trick with the J, Charlie Miller (Karlchen Müller), appears in Meister (1933) alongside another new feature, the sheep race (Hammelrennen), a contract in which everyone played for himself.

In 1951, it was referred to as a "central German card game" and in 1958, as "one of the most popular card games in Germany."

Although early 19th century Schafkopf played with double packs appears to have originated in Saxony and was played with German-suited cards, today, Doppelkopf has become very much a north German and west German game played with French-suited cards. It bears traces of its origins, however, including the retention of Diamonds (the equivalent of Bells) as the trump suit. The major development has been the addition of contracts and bidding.

Rules
Note: In the following section, the most common rules are described.

General principles
Doppelkopf is a predominantly a team game with two players per team. As with Schafkopf, the pairing is not known from the start.

The card pack consists of either 48 or 40 cards:
 Eight Aces or deuces worth 11 points each
 Eight tens worth 10 points each
 Eight kings worth four points each
 Eight queens or Obers worth three points each
 Eight jacks or Unters worth two points each
 Eight nines worth zero points each (these may be dropped)

Each set of eight cards consists of two cards from each suit. Thus, each card exists twice in the pack (hence the name Doppelkopf), resulting in a total number of 240 points. In the ensuing description, the more common 48-card version is assumed. The rules for the 40-card variant are the same except that that the nines are removed.

If French-suited cards are used, the suits are diamonds , hearts , spades  and clubs . If German-suited cards are used, the suits are bells , hearts  , leaves  and acorns . The ace is replaced by the deuce or Daus (A), the queen by the Ober (O), and the jack by the Unter (U).

In every game, there are two teams, the Re team and the Contra team. To win, Re normally has to achieve 121 points or more; Contra wins when Re fails to do so.

Preparation
Each player is dealt 12 cards (or 10 in the 'sharp' 40-card version). After the cards are dealt, the type of game or contract is determined. In non-tournament play, it is assumed that a 'normal game' will be played and any player desiring a different game simply says so. In tournament games, a stricter procedure is used to prevent players from gaining information about their opponents' hands.

The types of contract that can be played only differ in which cards are considered trumps. When a player declares a game other than the normal game, that player alone is Re and must play against the other three players who form Contra. These non-standard games are, therefore, called 'solo games'.

In the normal game, the players who hold the queens of clubs (Die Alten = "the old women" or "the elders") or Obers of acorns constitute Re, while the other two are Kontra. In these games, the actual teams are not known from the start. When a player has both queens of clubs or Obers of acorns, that player declares a Wedding (Hochzeit).

Playing
Forehand, the player to the left of the dealer, leads to the first trick and the others follow in clockwise order. Each player must follow suit, that is, play a card of the led suit. A player unable to follow, may trump or discard. The player playing the highest trump, or the highest card in the led suit if no trumps are played, wins the trick and leads to the next. Since each card exists twice, there is the possibility of a tie; in that case, the first-played card wins the trick. For example, when the trick consists of ♠10 ♠A ♠9 ♠A, the player who played the first ace of spades wins the trick.

During the first trick, each player may make announcements, which increases the value of the game.

After all the cards have been played, the card points taken in the tricks are counted and each player in the winning team gets the game points added to his or her score, while the losing players have that value deducted.

Contracts

Auction
There is then an auction during which players bid for a contract by making announcements. In Doppelkopf there is a single round of bidding starting with forehand.

Each player says either "Fine" (Gesund), if content to play a normal game, or "Hold" (Vorbehalt = "reservation", formerly Halt) if wishing to play a 'special' game such as a Solo. If one or more players have said "Hold", each, in turn, names the contract they wish to play. Whoever has the highest-ranking "Hold" wins the auction and plays the game bid. In the event of two players bidding the same contract, the first player in bidding order wins.

The special contracts, from lowest-ranking to highest-ranking, are:

 Wedding (Hochzeit)
 Free Solo (Lustsolo, various types)
 Compulsory Solo (Pflichtsolo, various types)

Normal game

The 10 of hearts (often called the Dulle or Tolle) is the highest trump in every normal game as well as any suit solo. Except for hearts solo, there are actually more trumps than non-trump cards. One noteworthy result of this rule is that there are only six non-trump cards left in hearts, making this suit more likely to be trumped in the first trick it is played.

Wedding
A player who has both queens of clubs or Obers of acorns, usually declares a "Wedding" (Hochzeit). The 'suitor' will then form a partnership, the red team, with the first other player to win a trick. Otherwise, the game is played like a normal game. If, however, the suitor makes the first three tricks, that player must play a diamond solo against the other players.

A player may choose not to announce a Wedding and instead play a silent Solo (stilles Solo). This is played like a normal diamond solo, except that the defenders do not know at the start they are playing against a Solo. Apart from this, the game is scored like a normal Solo (times three for soloist, normal for all others).

Solo contracts

A player can announce a solo game if they wish. These games change the status of trump cards; the player also must play against the other three players. They will get thrice game value-added (or subtracted) from their scoreboard in case of a win (or a loss).

The kinds of solo games are, according to the official rules:

 Jack Solo / Unter Solo (Bubensolo) with only jacks or Unters as trump cards;
 Queen Solo / Ober Solo (Damensolo) with only queens or Obers as trumps;
 Ace Solo (Fleischloser = "trumpless", lit. fleshless" or Knochenmann = "skeleton") where no trumps exist;
 Suit Solo  (Farbensolo) which makes the announced suit along with jacks and queens/Obers and Unters trump cards. A "diamond solo", therefore, has the same trumps as in a normal game.

Bids
During play, a player may make announcements claiming that their team will succeed in achieving a specific goal. These announcements increase the game value regardless of whether they are fulfilled. If a team fails to accomplish the self-given goal, they automatically lose.

Apart from increasing the game value, the bids fulfill the role of clarifying which side the player who makes them belongs to.

The bids that are possible are:
 "Re" (pronounced "ray") or "Contra" (Kontra), announcing the name of the player's team and undertaking that their team will score more than 120 points. Note that this means that, in the case of an announced "Contra", the Contra team must now make 121 points instead of 120 to win the game, unless Re is also announced. Either of these announcements enables the other players to work out whether they are partnered with the announcer or not.
Each of the following announcements can only be made after Re or Contra. If, for example, Re was said and a Contra player wants to make an announcement, they must announce Contra. If Re was announced by one player and their partner wants to make an additional announcement, they have to identify themself as being on the Re team before being able to do so.
 "No 90" (Keine 90), often abbreviated to "No 9" (keine 9), meaning that the opponents will get less than 90 points
 "No 60" (Keine 60), or "No 6" (keine 6), announces the opposing team will not make 60 points
 "No 30" (Keine 30) / No 3 (keine 3)
 "Schwarz", meaning the opponents will not get a single trick, not even a trick worth zero points

Each announcement implies any previous announcements, for example, "no 60" implies "no 90" and "Re"/"Kontra", increasing the game-value by 4 (for the standard rules) points. Every bid may be countered by "Contra" or "Re" if the opponents think the goal will not be met. For example, if the Re Team announces "Re, no 60", a reply of "Contra" simply claims Contra will score 60 points.

Players must bid in time i.e. they must hold a minimum number of cards in their hands. In the official rules:
 A Re or Contra may be made with 11 cards left (that is, before playing one's second card; it does not require the announcement to be made before the first card of the second trick is played).
 For "No 90", 10 cards must be held.
 "No 60" (keine 60): 9 cards
 "No 30" (keine 30): 8 cards
 "Schwarz": 7 cards

A player that has, for example, announced "Re", but not "no 90", may not announce "no 60" with 9 cards left, because the implied "no 90" would not be legal.

A Contra/Re in response to a bid from the opposing team may be made until one-trick later, e.g. a player can say "Contra" in response to "Re/no 90" as long as they hold nine cards, regardless of when "Re" and "no 90" was announced.

In a Wedding, if the partner is found with the second (third) trick, all players need to hold one card (two cards) fewer than in a normal game in order to make their announcements. A player may not make an announcement before a partner has been found.

Positive and negative announcements
The official rules distinguish between Ansagen and Absagen, positive and negative announcements. The positive announcements are those claiming the win i.e. "Re" or "Contra". The negative announcements (an Absage is a rejection) are those claiming that the opposition are not going to achieve certain scores e.g. "No 90" (keine 90) or "Schwarz" i.e. "no tricks".

Scoring
After all cards are played, each team counts the points of their tricks (since the total sum of points always is 240, in theory only one team has to count; letting both parties count serves as verification). The game value is calculated as follows:

 1 point base value ("won the game")
 +1 if the winning team is Kontra ("gegen die Alten", against the elders) unless a solo is played
 +2 for an announcement of Re
 +2 for an announcement of Kontra
 +1 if the losing team has less than 90 points
 +1 if No 90 was announced
 +1 if the winning team won with more than 120 points against an announcement of No 90
 +1 if the losing team has less than 60 points
 +1 if No 60 was announced
 +1 if the winning team won with at least 90 points against an announcement of No 60
 +1 if the losing team has less than 30 points
 +1 if No 30 was announced
 +1 if the winning team won with at least 60 points against an announcement of No 30
 +1 if the winning team made all tricks
 +1 if Schwarz was announced
 +1 if the winning team won with at least 30 points against an announcement of Schwarz

Extra score points
Unless a solo is played, the following additional score points can be made during the game, which affects the game value. There are no extra points in a solo game, not even in a silent solo (when a Wedding is not announced).

Catching the fox
If a team's ace of diamonds, known as the fox (Fuchs), is won by the opposing team, the opposing team scores an extra point.

Doppelkopf

A trick containing 40 or more points (four Volle, i.e. tens and aces) scores an extra point for the team that collected the trick.

Charlie Miller
If a team's jack of clubs, dubbed "Charlie Miller" (Karlchen Müller) or just "Charlie" (Karlchen), wins the last trick, the team scores an extra point.

Score of each player
The game value is added to the score of each player on the winning team and subtracted for the losing team. If the game was a solo game, the soloist gets thrice the game value added or subtracted. This rule ensures the total sum of points won/lost in a round is always zero.

Examples
The following examples show the scoring as stated in the official rules.

 No bids were made, Re wins with 131 points.
 Game was won: +1
 Both Re players get +1, both Kontra -1.
 Kontra, no 60 was announced, Kontra gets 183 points.
 Game was won: +1
 Won against the elders: +1
 Kontra was announced: +2
 Losing team has less than 90 points: +1
 No 90 was announced: +1
 Losing team has less than 60 points: +1
 No 60 was announced: +1
 Both Kontra players get +8, both Re -8.
 Re, no 60 was announced, Kontra team said Kontra. Kontra gets 60 points and therefore wins.
 Game was won: +1
 Won against the elders: +1
 Re was announced: +2
 Kontra was announced: +2
 No 90 was announced: +1
 No 60 was announced: +1
 Both Kontra players get +8, both Re -8.
 Re, no 60 was announced, Kontra team said Kontra. Kontra gets 90 points.
 In addition to the previous example, Kontra got 90+ points against the No 60 announcement: +1
 Both Kontra-players get +9, both Re -9.
 A Soloist wins without announcements with 153 points.
 Game was won: +1
 Losing team has less than 90 points: +1
 Soloist gets +6, all others -2.
 Soloist announces Re, keine 90 but only manages to get 87 points for himself.
 Game was won: +1
 Re was announced: +2
 No 90 was announced: +1
 Kontra got 120+ points against Re's No 90 announcement: +1
 Losing soloist has less than 90 points: +1
 Soloist gets -18, all others +6.

Tactics
Suggested tactics shown here come from the Pagat website.

Leads
The "first of equal cards wins" rule makes it important to lead one's ace of a non-trump suit before an opponent can lead theirs, as the second round is almost certain to be trumped - there are only eight cards in a suit (six in hearts). It is recommended to avoid leading the second round of hearts, because of the danger of giving a ruff and discard to the opponents, since there are only six cards in the suit.

Therefore, if leading at the start, one would normally lead:

 a single black ace (shortest suit first with both club and spade single aces);
 a single ace of hearts;
 an ace from a pair.

After this, players should try to give the lead to their partner:
 If leading on the Re side, players would lead a trump to their partner's queen of clubs.
 If on the Kontra side players may lead a side suit. However, if their partner has said Kontra players should lead a trump as they should have at least one 10 of hearts.

Trumping
If one is trumping, and there is a possibility of being overtrumped, it is key to try trump, at least, a jack so that the fourth player cannot win with a fox or 10 of trumps. Similarly, if trumps are led then if one is the last player of the team to play the trick, with one or both opponents playing after, play a jack or higher if no high card has been played so far.

Announcements
Players must announce Re or Kontra if things seem to be going well, not only to increase the score for the game but also so that they can announce "no 90" if things continue to go well.

Announcing Re or Kontra earlier than when one needs to, for example, on the first play rather than the second, indicates possession of additional strength (similar conceptually to jump bidding in Contract Bridge).

If on the opening lead the fourth player says Re or Kontra before second-hand plays, this indicates that they are going to trump the lead and want their partner to put a valuable card on it.

Wedding announcements
It is generally correct to announce a Wedding and rarely profitable to go solo.

It is desirable to partner with Wedding as one's partner normally has at least 2 high trumps.

When leading against a Wedding , players might lead a 10 of hearts to win the trick; otherwise, they could lead an ace in their shortest suit.

Solo games
When considering a solo, the initial lead is a big advantage. Trumping solos require a much stronger hand than expected, and these hands would also play well in a normal game. For an ace solo, a five-card suit to A A 10 will normally capture over 60 points. For a queen or jack solo, four trumps are sufficient with a reasonable number of aces.

See also note on solo games in tournament play below.

90/60/30 announcements
Care must be taken with 90/60/30 announcements as they change the target. It can be very rash gambling one extra point against the possible loss of the whole game.

Tournament Play
It is highly likely that a player will not get a hand warranting a solo bid during the session. A compulsory solo, particularly towards the end, should almost always have Kontra said if the declarer does not say Re to increase the game value when the soloist loses.

Variants

Poverty
A player with three or fewer trumps can say "Hold" and announce "I'm strapped" (Armut, lit.: "poverty"). If no one has a higher special, the 'pauper' places all those trumps face down on the table. A player who wishes to partner (preference being given clockwise, starting from the pauper - if nobody wishes to partner then the hand is redealt by the same dealer) has the right to take the trumps (without seeing them first) and discard any three cards, which are returned to the pauper. The returned cards may contain trumps and may include cards originally passed.

Without nines
Many groups remove the nines so that there are 40 cards left. This way, there are no more dummy cards and the balance between trumps and non-trumps is shifted even more towards trumps. This is referred to as Sharp Doppelkopf (scharfer Doppelkopf), "Doppelkopf without nines" (ohne Neunen) or "Doppelkopf without blanks" (ohne Luschen).

Wedding
Some variants allow the Wedding (Hochzeit) player to announce a specific kind of trick that must be taken, e.g. the first non-trump trick. However, this is usually not a good idea since it is in the interest of the Wedding player to find a "strong" partner, e.g., one with a 10 of hearts.

Dullen
It may be agreed that - as the only exception - the second 10 of hearts is considered higher than the first if both are played in the same trick. In some variants, this is true for all but the last trick, where the first 10 of hearts is considered higher. Playing this variant makes the game less predictable because some conventions (such as playing a 10 of hearts in the first trick by a Re player, or to marry a wedding player) cannot be used anymore.

Forced announcement
If a player collects 30 points or more in the first trick (not counting the tricks needed to determine the partners after a wedding has been announced), they have to announce either Re or Kontra. This is a "forced announcement" (Pflichtansage). This variation is often played in games "without nines".

Some players even insist that a further announcement (i.e. 90) be made if the announcement in question has been made already.
This rule is popular among recreational players in order to render the game more dynamic.

Catching a fox in the final trick
Losing an Ace of Diamonds to the opposing team in the last trick of the game may lead to two extra points (instead of one) counted against the team losing the fox.

Piglets
When one player has both foxes (aces of diamonds) on their hand, they announce "piglets" (Schweinchen). That means, that these cards become the highest trumps in play, outranking the Dullen (tens of hearts) and Alten (queens of clubs). It may be played that a piglet forces the player to an announcement of Kontra or Re. Other variants include the announcement at any point during the game, often breaking the opposing team's bid or the possibility of 'super piglets', if one holds both nines of diamonds. In some variants, only the first played fox becomes a piglet at the top of the trump suit while the second one still ranks low.

Super piglets
Only when piglets is announced does 'super piglets' become possible. When one player has announced piglets and a player has both nines of diamonds on their hand, the player with the nines of diamonds may announce super piglets. That means, those nines of diamonds become the highest trumps in play, outranking the piglets, the Dullen and Alten.

Lost Charlie
As a variant, a jack of clubs may be also scored if a team loses it to the opposing team in the last trick. If a player loses their jack of clubs to their partner, no point is counted. Many groups play "Lizzie Miller" (Lieschen Müller or Karola Müller or Karlchen Killer): only if the queen of diamonds catches the opponent's jack of clubs in the last trick one point is scored. A Charlie lost to another higher trump is not scored.

Five nines
Some groups of players use a rule that a player holding five or more nines (Fünf Neuner) may, before the bidding, reveal their hand, throw their cards in (schmeißen) and demand a re-deal. Some groups that follow this rule also use a similar rule for hands with five or more kings.

Half a chicken
Under this house rule, a player may announce "half a chicken" upon being dealt both tens of diamonds. This bid does nothing - but a gentleman should announce it regardless.

Tournament play
Tournaments are played over a series of sessions, each of 24 deals. Each session having 20 normal hands plus four compulsory solos (or 25 hands with five solos for five players at a table).

Compulsory solos
Each player must bid one compulsory solo during the session. He/she may bid other free solos thereafter if desired. The first solo each player bids is a compulsory solo. The soloist always leads to the first trick in a compulsory solo.

Following the hand, the same dealer deals again.

A compulsory solo ranks above a free solo in the bidding; if more than one player wants to play a compulsory solo, the bidding order decides.

Failure to bid a solo
If a player fails to bid a solo by the end of a session, an additional hand is dealt on which they must bid a solo regardless (vorführen (showing up)).

Conventions

Essen system
The Essen system is a system of conventions used in Doppelkopf in accordance with the rules of the German Doppelkopf Association.

See also
 Sheepshead (game)
 Skat
 Ombre

Footnotes

References

Literature
 Klinke, Stabsarzt Karl (1941). Doppelkopf: das Spiel der Soldaten und aller Kartenfreunde. Reprint by Horst Klein.
 Anton, Friedrich (1889). Encyclopädie der Spiele, 5th edn. Leipzig: Otto Wigand.
 Brockhaus, F. A. (1896). Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon. 14th fully revised edn. Vol. 14 (Rüdesheim–Soccus). Berlin, Leipzig and Vienna: Brockhaus.
 Brockhaus J. A. (1911). Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon, 5th edn., Vol. 2. Leipzig.

 Georgens, Jan Daniels and Jeanne Marie von Gagette-Georgens (1882). Spiel und Sport. Leipzig & Berlin: Otto Spamer.

 Hirzel, Dr. Heinrich (1861). Das Hauslexikon. Vol. 5. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
 Hülsemann, Robert (1927). Das Buch der Spiele: für Familie und Gesellschaft. 1st edn. Leipzig: Hesse & Becker.
 McLeod, John (1978). "Rules of Games: No. 8. Schafkopf" in The Journal of the Playing-Card Society, Vol. VII, No. 2. pp. 38-47. ISSN 0305-2133.
 Meister, Friedrich (1933). Rommee und Doppelkopf: Anleitung und Regeln. Hachmeister & Thal. 24 pp.
 Minckwitz, J. (1884). Das ABC des Schachspiels. Leipzig: Von Veit.
 Müller, Karl Friedrich (1951), Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft und Volkskunde: Festschrift für Ernst Ochs zum 60 Geburtstag. M. Schauenburg.
 Thoenen, Karl (1931). Skat, Tarock, Bridge, Whist, Rommé, Sechsundsechszig, Doppelkopf und andere Kartenspiele. 5th expanded edn. Dresden: Rudolph.
 Trumpf, Peter (1951). Spielkarten und Kartenspiele. Keyser. 187 pp.
 Ulmann, S. (1890). Das Buch der Familienspiele. A. Hartleben, Vienna, Munich and Pest.

 Weber, Ferdinand Adolf (1877). Erklärendes Handbuch der Fremdwörter: welche in der deutschen Schrift- und Umgangssprache gebräuchlich sind. 14th revised edn. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz.

External links
 Doppelkopf Strategy in English 20 Basic rules in Doppelkopf for beginners
 Deutscher Doppelkopf Verband e. V. where the official rules (in German) can be downloaded
 Concise Doppelkopf Rules (with 1-page pdf for download)
Doublehead Kids on Boardgamegeek
"The Essener System" (www.skatonline.de) (Google Translate)
 "The Essener System" (www.rasche-software.de) (English)

Schafkopf group
Year of introduction missing
Four-player card games
French deck card games
German deck card games
Point-trick games

Doppelkopf


John Hewlett Nunneley MBE (22 November 1922 – 27 July 2013) was a British Army officer and businessman. A veteran of the Burma campaign, he later worked for reconciliation between Japanese and British.

He was born in Sydney, Australia and educated at Lawrence Sheriff School, a grammar school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.

He concealed his age to enlist in the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) at 17 and was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry in September 1941.

He was seconded to the King's African Rifles (KAR) and mostly served with a battalion recruited from the Tanganyika Territory. He was initially based in British Somaliland where his battalion guarded Italian prisoners after the East African Campaign. He moved to Ceylon in August 1943 while attached to 25th (East African) Brigade headquarters at Kurunegala. He rejoined 36 KAR when it was posted to Ceylon and accompanied it to India and Burma. In 1944 the battalion spearheaded the advance of the Fourteenth Army down the Kabaw Valley. While in Burma he recovered a Union Jack flag that had been captured by the Japanese at Singapore in February 1942. Serving as an Intelligence Officer, he was wounded in the leg by a grenade on 17 October 1944.

After the war, Nunneley worked for Beaverbrook Newspapers and as a director of the British Railways Board from 1962 to 1987. As chief publicity officer, he worked as Dr Beeching's assistant on writing "The Reshaping of British Railways" report (1963).

In later life he was chairman of the Burma Campaign Fellowship Group and worked towards reconciliation between Burma veterans of Japan and the Allies. He wrote an account of his wartime experiences and of the death of a young Luo recruit Tomasi Kitinya (Thomas Liech) in Tales from the King's African Rifles (2000). He had earlier edited Tales from the Burma Campaign 1942-45 (1998) from accounts of Japanese soldiers. In 2001 he was appointed MBE for services to UK-Japanese relations.

References

External links
 Obituary in the Daily Telegraph, 24 September 2013
 Obituary in The Times, 25 September 2013 (paywall)

1922 births
2013 deaths
People educated at Lawrence Sheriff School
King's African Rifles officers
Somerset Light Infantry officers
British Army personnel of World War II
British Rail people
Members of the Order of the British Empire
People from Richmond, London
Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom

John Nunneley


King Leodegrance is one of the known Dragon Slayers in the Knights of the Round Table. He has slain the whole race of the dragons from 1200-1300 B.C. just before the Era of the New Age of Dragon Revolution in mid 600-1200 B.C. It was estimated that he killed around 60,000-100,000 dragons during his time. Most notably known for killing the Dragon King (Jemuelito Bahag).

Legendary people

Leodegrance


Maki Okada (岡田 真紀, Okada Maki) is a Paralympic athlete from Japan competing mainly in category C8 sprint events.

Okada competed in both the 1988 and 1992 Summer Paralympics.  In the 1988 games she won the 400m gold medal in a world record time of 1 minute 13.40. She also won the gold medal in the 800m and it took a Paralympic record from Irish sprinter Alma Rock to beat her into silver in the 100m. She also finished in fifth place in the 200m.  In the 1992 Paralympics it took another world record by British sprinter Esther Cruice to beat her in the 400m while in both the 100m and 200m she finished behind Australian Alison Quinn and Esther to win the bronze medals.

References

External links

Paralympic athletes for Japan
Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Paralympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Paralympics
Paralympic gold medalists for Japan
Paralympic silver medalists for Japan
Paralympic bronze medalists for Japan
Living people
Medalists at the 1988 Summer Paralympics
Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics
Year of birth missing (living people)
Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field)
Japanese female sprinters
Japanese female middle-distance runners

Maki Okada


Trams in India were established in the late 19th century. Horse-drawn trams were introduced in Kolkata in 1873; in Mumbai, trams began operations in 1874; in Nashik in 1889; electric trams began in Chennai in 1895, and trams were also introduced in Kanpur and Delhi. They were discontinued in all Indian cities between 1933 and 1964, except for Kolkata.

Kolkata

Trams in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), West Bengal are operated by the West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC). It is the only operating tram network in India and the oldest operating electric tram in Asia, running since 1902. There are 257 trams in total, of which 125 used to run daily on the Kolkata streets, but now only 35 trams run daily. The single-deck articulated cars can carry 200 passengers (60 seated).

The first horse-drawn trams in India ran a  distance between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street on 24 February 1873. The service was discontinued on 20 November of that year. The Calcutta Tramway Company was formed and registered in London on 22 December 1880. Metre-gauge horse-drawn tram tracks were laid from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat via Bowbazar Street, Dalhousie Square and Strand Road. The route was inaugurated by Viceroy Ripon on 1 November 1880. In 1882, steam locomotives were deployed experimentally to haul tram cars. By the end of the 19th century, the company owned 166 tram cars, 1,000 horses, seven steam locomotives and 19 miles of tram tracks. In 1900, electrification of the tramway and reconstruction of its tracks to  (standard gauge) began. In 1902, the first electric tramcar in India ran from Esplanade to Kidderpore on 27 March and on 14 June from Esplanade to Kalighat.

Mumbai

A mass public-transport system for Mumbai (then Bombay) was proposed in 1865 by an American company, which applied for a licence to operate a horse-drawn tram system. Although a licence was granted, the project was never realised due to the city's economic depression.

The Bombay Tramway Company was set up in 1873. After a contract was signed between the Bombay Tramway Company, the municipality and the Stearns and Kitteredge company, the Bombay Presidency enacted the Bombay Tramways Act, 1874 licensing the company to run a horsecar tram service in the city. On 9 May 1874, the first horse-drawn carriage made its début in the city, plying the Colaba–Pydhone via Crawford Market, and Bori Bunder to Pydhonie via Kalbadevi routes. The initial fare was three annas (12 paise pre-decimalisation), and no tickets were issued. As the service became increasingly popular, the fare was reduced to two annas (8 pre-decimalisation paise). Later that year, tickets were issued to curb increasing ticket-less travel. Stearns and Kitteredge reportedly had a stable of 1,360 horses over the lifetime of the service.

In 1899, the Bombay Tramway Company applied to the municipality to operate electric trams. In 1904, the British Electric Traction Company applied for a license to supply electricity to the city with the Brush Electrical Engineering Company its agent. It received the Bombay electric license on 31 July 1905, signed by Bombay Tramways Company, the Bombay Municipality and the Brush Electrical Company. In 1905, the Bombay Electric Supply and Tramway Company (BEST) was formed. BEST received a monopoly on electric supply and an electric tram service in the city, and bought the Bombay Tramway Company's assets for . Two years later, the first electric tram debuted in the city. Later that year, a  steam power generator was commissioned at Wari Bunder. In 1916, a power purchase from Tata Power (a private company) began, and by 1925, all power generation was outsourced from Tata. To ease rush-hour traffic, double-decker trams were introduced in September, 1920. The trams met travellers' needs until the betterment of the city's train network, and the service closed on 31 March 1964.

Chennai (Madras)
Chennai (then Madras) was the third city in India to get a tramway for passenger carriage. The first horse-drawn tram service in Madras began operations in June, 1874, shortly after the opening of the tramway in Bombay. The tramway used metre gauge tracks and operated on several routes, the chief of them being a route between Royapuram and Triplicane. The tramway was in service for a few years, but like the early horse-drawn trams in Calcutta, it had to be discontinued due to poor financial returns.

Tramways saw a revival in the city with the opening of the Madras Electric Tramways in 1895, connecting the docks and the inland areas, carrying goods and passengers. When the system began on 7 May 1895, it was India's oldest electric tram system and it is the first electric tram system in India. The original conduit system was replaced by a conventional overhead wire system after a series of destructive monsoons. The trams could carry heavy loads and were popular, with thousands of riders daily. The route included Mount Road, Parry's Corner, Poonamallee Road and the Ripon Building. At its height in 1921, 97 cars ran on  of track. The tram company went bankrupt about 1950, and the system closed on 12 April 1953.

Nashik
Nashik was the fourth city in India after Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai to get trams in 1889. Trams in Nashik (then Nasik) were built in 1889 as  narrow gauge. The consulting engineer was Everard Calthrop, later known with the Barsi Light Railway. Originally, the tram used two carriages pulled by four horses. It ran from the present Old Municipal Corporation building on Main Road to the Nasik Road railway station, a distance of 8 to 10 km. The stretch between Nashik and Nashik Road was jungle-covered, and the only mode of transport from the station to the city was horse-drawn carriage or one of two taxis. The tram originated from the Old Municipal Corporation building located on Main Road, and terminated at the Nashik Road railway station (8–10 km). It passed through the areas of Ganjamal (the now defunct bus stop was earlier a tram stop) and behind Fame Multiplex. Brady's; a private company funded the project and later introduced India's first petrol engine driven tram under the aegis of Nasik Tramway Co. The tramway closed down in around 1933 owing to the successive years of famine and plague, it had run into heavy losses.

Kanpur
In June 1907, trams were introduced in Kanpur (then Cawnpore). There were  of track and 20 single-deck open trams. The single-track line connected the railway station with Sirsaya Ghat on the banks of the Ganges. Photographs of Cawnpore trams are rare. The introductory stock was electric-traction single-coach; single-coach trams were also used in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The service was discontinued on 16 May 1933.

Kochi
The Cochin State Forest Tramway was a  forest tramway running from the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary in Palakkad district to Chalakudy in Thrissur district. Operating from 1907 to 1963, it served then Cochin state (now part of Kerala) and brought teak and rosewood from forests for global shipment.

Delhi

Trams in Delhi began operation on 6 March 1908. At its zenith in 1921, there were 24 open cars on  of track. Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazaar, Katra Badiyan, Lal Kuan, Delhi and Fatehpuri were linked with Sabzi Mandi, Sadar Bazar, Paharganj, Ajmeri Gate, Bara Hindu Rao and Tis Hazari. The system closed in 1963 due to urban congestion.

Patna
Patna had horse-drawn trams as urban transport. The tram in Patna ran in the populated area of Ashok Rajpath, from Patna City to Bankipore, with its western terminus at Sabzibagh (opposite the Pirbahore police station). It was discontinued in 1903, due to low ridership, and plans to extend the route westward never materialised.

Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar had a  narrow-gauge tram built by Bhavnagar State. The first section was built in 1926 from Bhavnagar south to Talaja, and was extended to Mahuva in 1938. The total length of the tramway was . The tramway used small 4-8-0 locomotives later classified as T class. In 1947, the tramway was taken over by the Saurashtra Railway, and later by the Western Railway. It was closed during the 1960s.

See also
 Urban rail transit in India
 Rail transport in India
 List of tram and light rail transit systems

References

External links

 Tram routes and fares
 Calcutta Tramways Company website
 Trams in India – Facts and History

Tram transport in India

Trams in India


Pull-to-refresh is a touchscreen gesture that consists of touching the screen of a computing device with a finger or pressing a button on a pointing device, dragging the screen downward with the finger or pointing device, and then releasing it, as a signal to the application to refresh the contents of the screen.

The purpose of the gesture is to make refreshing immediately accessible. Criticism has been raised at pull-to-refresh for causing unwanted refreshes when the user is in the process of scrolling upwards.

Other names for the gesture include "pull-down-to-refresh", "pull-to-reload", "swipe to refresh", and variations thereof.

History
The pull-to-refresh gesture first appeared in the Tweetie mobile application developed by Loren Brichter. Brichter developed Tweetie, an iOS application for Twitter, as a personal project in 2008 after he quit his job at Apple Inc. in 2007.

While Brichter was initially developing Tweetie, he wanted to add a refresh function to the application. Regarding other mobile applications of that time, he said "They all had to find a spot and just cram a refresh button somewhere. Usually in one of the corners in a toolbar bordering a scrollable list. That was the most valuable real estate for navigation and action UI, so using it up for something as mundane as a refresh button just seemed wasteful." Brichter thus decided to create a different method of refreshing such that the valuable corner space could be utilized for something else.
Although he initially planned to create a refresh mechanism that follows Apple's platform conventions, Brichter's work with pull-to-refresh resulted in a novel interaction new to Apple's platform at the time.

The gesture was added as an option to the mobile edition of Google Chrome, the most used mobile web browser at that time, in version 41, 2015, and is mandatory since version 75, 2019.

Mozilla first added it to the "nightly" edition of their mobile Firefox web browser in 2020, and the year after they added it to the main version lineup, also known as "stable".

Creation
In the initial design of Tweetie's refresh mechanism, Brichter placed a refresh button at the top of the Tweet list because users typically expected new tweets to appear at the top of the page. This design rolled out in Tweetie Version 1.0. Although it provided users with the ability to refresh their Twitter feed, the button utilized valuable screen real estate that Brichter wanted to use for other features. Brichter said "Tweetie 1.0 (with the refresh button at the top of the list) was so close to pull-to-refresh in hindsight, and it wasn't much of a leap to go from a button to a gesture."

Brichter experimented with two primary iterations of pull-to-refresh before releasing the final version. In the first iteration, users triggered the refresh when they scrolled across an invisible threshold on the screen. However, in this iteration there was no visual feedback that signaled to users that a refresh was occurring. Brichter believed it necessary to provide users with visual feedback, so the second and final iteration of pull to refresh added visual feedback when refreshing so users could better understand the gesture. This final iteration also included text alerting users that if the top of the page is pulled beyond a threshold and subsequently released, a refresh would occur. Brichter included this description text because he felt that since the gesture presented a new interaction technique that most users likely have not seen before, the purpose of the gesture had to be explicitly stated for users to understand its functionality. These two iterations of pull to refresh were created in a single afternoon with no user testing. Brichter states that he manually tested the iterations and the invisible threshold of the gesture until it felt "right" - that the threshold cannot be too small causing people to accidentally trigger the gesture, but it also cannot be too big causing it to be difficult for users to activate.

Following its initial release in Tweetie 2.0, further evolutions of the pull-to-refresh design were made by the design community as interaction designers applied different stylistic takes to the technique. Brichter currently does not have any plans to continue work on pull-to-refresh.

Mechanism
Steps involved in the original version of pull-to-refresh as released in Tweetie 2.0:
User pulls down on the screen and visual feedback appears at the top of the list showing a down arrow and text displaying the message "Pull down to Refresh".
If the user releases before reaching the refresh threshold, the refresh aborts and visual feedback disappears.
If the user pulls down enough to reach the refresh threshold, new visual feedback appears at the top of the screen showing an up arrow and text displaying the message "Release to Refresh".
Once the user releases, the refresh will occur.

Reception
Upon its initial release, pull-to-refresh received positive reviews from Tweetie users. Users praised the mechanism for its convenience and intuitive nature. Aside from general users, pull-to-refresh was also well received by the overall interaction design community. Designer Tim Van Damme reportedly emailed Brichter following the release of pull-to-refresh, saying "Thanks to you, I just tried to refresh my inbox by pulling the list down and releasing it. I hate it when you do things better than Apple."  Other interaction designers expressed similarly positive sentiments regarding the technique.

An article published by Co.Design in late 2013 titled "Why The Pull To Refresh Gesture Must Die", written by Austin Garr, criticized the gesture, stating that given smartphones have become fast and strong enough to auto-refresh, the pull-to-refresh technique has now become outmoded - essentially an unnecessary step.  However, since the gesture has now become so universal that users implicitly expect it to be part of the mobile app experience, it is hard for developers to move beyond it. The article reports that even Brichter agrees and believes that it is time for the gesture to evolve. Brichter is quoted in the article saying "The fact that people still call it 'pull-to-refresh' bothers me—using it just for refreshing is limiting and makes it obsolete...I like the idea of 'pull-to-do-action'." The article concludes by stating that rather than being used exclusively for refreshing, vertical swipe interactions should now evolve to perform other actions, thus giving birth to a new style of app interactions.

Following the publication of said article, an article on Neglected Potential, written by Nick Arnott, responded, countering that while smartphones are theoretically capable of auto-refreshing, data speeds for many users is still a limiting factor. Arnott adds that having the ability to manually refresh is still important to allow the user assurance that the content they are viewing is indeed up-to-date, and that pull-to-refresh is brilliant design since users would be scrolling to the top anyway if they wanted to see new content and refreshing is a logical extension of scrolling, as opposed to a different action to which a pulling gesture would be less intuitive.

References

User interface techniques

Pull-to-refresh


Nicholas Trübner (17 June 1817 – 20 March 1884), born Nikolaus Trübner, was a German-English publisher, bookseller and linguist.

Early life
The eldest of four sons of a goldsmith in Heidelberg, Trübner was born there on 17 June 1817, and educated at the gymnasium. When he was born Heidelberg was part of the Kingdom of Württemberg. He was studious, and his parents placed him in 1831 in the shop of Mohr, a Heidelberg bookseller. He was there for six years, and then had successive employment with Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht at Göttingen, Hoffmann und Campe at Hamburg, and Wilmann at Frankfurt.

In London
At Frankfurt William Longman (1813–1877) offered Trübner the post of foreign corresponding clerk in his own business, and Trübner came to London in 1843. In 1851 he entered into partnership with Thomas Delf, who had succeeded to Wiley & Putnam's American literary agency, but at first the venture failed. David Nutt joined him, the business was put on a sounder footing, and the American trade developed.

In 1855 he published his Bibliographical Guide to American Literature which he expanded four years later to five times its original size.

Trübner visited the United States and formed business connections with leading American writers and publishers.

As a bookseller Trübner imported books from publishers in the United States, India and many other countries, and sold and exported books to bookshops and individual customers around the world.

Scholarly publisher
In London, Trübner took on the ordinary business of a general publisher and foreign agent. Among the books he published was Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler, after Chapman & Hall had rejected it.

Trübner studied Sanskrit under Theodor Goldstücker and Hebrew with Abraham Benisch. On 16 March 1865 appeared the first monthly number of Trübner's American and Oriental Record, which kept scholars in touch internationally. In 1878 began the issue of Trübner's Oriental Series, a collection of works by authorities on Eastern learning, of which he lived to see nearly fifty volumes published. His English and Foreign Philosophical Library. This series is listed incorrectly in Stanley Lane-Poole's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) as "British and Foreign Philosophical Library". It fulfilled a similar purpose for philosophy. His interest in linguistic research led to his preparing in 1872 a Catalogue of Dictionaries and Grammars of the principal Languages and Dialects of the World, of which an enlarged edition appeared in 1882. He also published class catalogues of languages and branches of study. He was publisher for government state papers and for learned societies, such as the Royal Asiatic Society and the Early English Text Society.

Trübner's Record is the general name for a regular publication listing recently titles. It began in 1865 as Trübner's American and Oriental Literary Record. In 1880 a new, expanded series was launched: Trübner's American, European, and Oriental Literary Record. A third series was started in 1889, titled simply Trübner's Record. It ceased publication in 1891.

Trübner's Oriental Series was a hardback series of books in the field of Oriental studies launched in 1878 by Nicholas Trübner's firm Trübner & Co. in 1878. From 1890 it was published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.

Later life

Trübner associated with Douglas Jerrold, G. H. Lewes, Hepworth Dixon, W. R. Greg, John Doran, and Bret Harte. His services to learning were recognised by foreign rulers, who bestowed on him the orders of the Crown of Prussia, Ernestine Branch of Saxony, Francis Joseph of Austria, St. Olaf of Norway, the Lion of Zähringen, and the White Elephant of Siam.

He died at his residence, 29 Upper Hamilton Terrace, Maida Vale, on 30 March 1884, leaving one daughter. He was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

Works
His own works include, besides the catalogues and bibliographies already mentioned, translations from Flemish of Hendrik Conscience's Sketches of Flemish Life, 1846, from German of part of Brunnhofer's Life of Giordano Bruno, Scheffel's Die Schweden in Rippoldsau, and Eckstein's Eternal Laws of Morality; and a memoir of Joseph Octave Delepierre, Belgian consul in London, whose daughter he married. He also collected materials for a history of classical book selling. In 1857 he edited and expanded his friend Hermann Ludewig's manuscript work The Literature of American Aboriginal Languages.

References

Attribution

1817 births
1884 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
German publishers (people)
German orientalists
German booksellers
Businesspeople from Heidelberg
Emigrants from the Kingdom of Württemberg
Immigrants to the United Kingdom

Publishers (people) from London
English booksellers
19th-century English businesspeople

Nicholas Trübner


The Rebellion of Bardas Phokas the Younger (February 987 – October 989) was a major war within the Byzantine Empire, fought mostly in Asia Minor.

During the second half of the tenth century the Byzantine Empire was characterized by emperors either devoted to or forced into long periods of campaigning mostly in the Middle East, Crete, Cyprus, Antioch; many other territories were also conquered during this period. The success Byzantium experienced during this period was largely thanks to the Phokas clan, an aristocratic family who consistently produced competent generals, and their relatives. Indeed, during the reigns of Nikephoros II Phokas and his nephew John I Tzimiskes, these aristocratic generals supplanted the legitimate heirs of the Macedonian dynasty, the adolescent brothers Basil II and Constantine VIII, as the de facto rulers of the empire. When Tzimiskes died in 976 Basil II ascended to power. Quickly, however, tensions began to flare up within the royal court itself as the purple-born emperor attempted to reign fully out of the influence of the established court eunuchs. The figureheads behind the simmering tensions in the capital would come to blows in a major rebellion led by Bardas Phokas the Younger, the most powerful man left of the old Phokas regime.

Prelude to the rebellion
The war was sparked by tensions circulating between the newly crowned emperor Basil II and the Phokades-Lekapenos clan. In 985, Basil dismissed the longtime chief minister, the eunuch Basil Lekapenos. He first placed him under house arrest in Constantinople and then later exiled him and confiscated his possessions. Following this, Basil attempted to weaken the overall power of the Phokades-Lekapenos clan and their supporters across the empire. Throughout 985 he demoted or dismissed suspected sympathizers. Bardas Phokas the Younger was demoted from Domestic of the Schools of the East to mere doux of the East, with nominal authority over Antioch, while the former doux of Antioch, a supporter of Lekapenos, Leo Melissenos, was recalled to the capital. Basil also recalled the katepano of Italy, Delphinas, as he too was a supporter of Lekapenos.

It was around this time that Bulgarian forces once again began to raid into Byzantine Greece. Basil, however, saw this as an opportunity: by crushing the Bulgarian forces, he could legitimize his reign at home while diminishing the distinguished military record of the Phokades carried on by Bardas Phokas in the east, as this was his main catalyst of support, he himself being a poor strategist. He departed for the western front in 986 and reached Serdica by summer. He besieged the city for twenty days before becoming worried on account of circulating rumors that Melissenos was planning a coup in the capital. On August 16, however, he was ambushed by the Bulgarian tsar Samuel's forces at the Gates of Trajan. His forces were scattered, and Basil was disgraced by the defeat. Not only was Samuil able to reconquer much of the former Bulgarian Empire, as it had been before the conquests of John I Tzimiskes, but support for Basil's reign fragmented both in Constantinople and in the east. Worse yet, news of the disastrous defeat would reach as far as Baghdad, where the former rebel Bardas Skleros had been granted asylum by the ruling Buyid dynasty.

Beginning of hostilities
In a formal treaty in December 986, Skleros agreed to a number of concessions to the Buyids, including an exchange of Muslim prisoners, and cession of certain border fortresses, provided that they would supply him with support in an open rebellion against the Byzantine Empire. The Buyids, however, did not assist Skleros with a standing army; instead he recruited Arab tribesmen and Armenians on his way to the Byzantine border. In February 987, he reached Melitene, which surrendered to him, where he would declare himself emperor. The Emir of the Buyids, however, Samsam al-Dawla, who had supported Skleros, was overthrown the same year, and while formal support from Baghdad continued, in reality the possibility of actual Buyid intervention in the war all but vanished. At Melitene, Skleros was able to confiscate large quantities of gold and provisions, as well as corral local support, including from the Kurdish chieftain Bad ibn Dustuk.

Meanwhile, Basil attempted to counter the invasion of Skleros by elevating Bardas Phokas back to Domestic of the East. Phokas, however, who was already in control of most of Byzantine Asia Minor, in turn rebelled against Basil. Phokas then appealed to Skleros to join his cause, as Phokas, despite being the inferior tactician, commanded a much stronger force. The two came upon an agreement that if they were victorious, they would partition the empire, with Skleros taking Antioch and the eastern provinces and Phokas taking the rest. Skleros took to the plan, however, upon meeting in Cappadocia, Phokas promptly had him imprisoned and took over the rebellion for himself. Following this Skleros' Arab contingents returned home; Phokas now controlled all of Byzantine Asia Minor. Phokas quickly moved his armies towards the Bosphorus Strait in an attempt to blockade Constantinople and eventually cross into Europe and besiege the capital itself. While Phokas encamped on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, Delphinas, Phokas' ally and the former katepano of Italy, and Phokas' blinded brother Nikephoros, encamped at Chrysopolis. Phokas attempted to take Abydos without success, leaving Melissenos in charge of the siege, while Delphinas attempted to block grain imports into Constantinople, also without success, as the loyalists were able to use their command of the Black Sea to bring in food from some loyalist coastal cities, such as Trebizond.

Basil turns the tide

At this time, Basil II made a foreign policy decision which would change the course of eastern European history forever. In exchange for Kievan Rus' assistance in his civil war, and a guarantee to Christianize the Rus', Basil agreed to marry off his sister, Anna, to the prince of Rus', Vladimir the Great. Early in 988, Vladimir's forces arrived in Byzantium with his own troops along with a contingent of 6,000 Varangians. The same year Basil crossed the Bosporus and took Delphinas' camp by surprise, defeating his troops and taking him into custody. He was swiftly executed, while Nikephorus was arrested, as Basil's forces continued to move onward. As this offensive continued, the Georgian loyalist Gregory Taronites landed in Trebizond. He soon began to ravage Phokas' rear with impunity, moving towards the Euphrates. Phokas sent his son, also named Nikephoros, to the kouropalates of Tao, David III, in order to procure new troops for the rebellion. He managed marshaled 2,000 Caucasian troops.

Taronites was defeated by Nikephoros, but his armies soon disbanded and returned to their respective homelands as they heard of the defeat at Chrysopolis. In early 989, Phokas became more and more desperate, and intensified the Siege of Abydos. Basil, however, was speedily approaching his camp, and Phokas had no choice but to make preparations for battle. He died, suddenly, possibly of a seizure, on April 16, before the battle could begin. The rebellion quickly disintegrated without his leadership. On November 3, Leo Phokas, under pressure from his people, surrendered Antioch. Many of Phokas' former followers wished to continue the fight under Skleros, and so they released him from captivity, but he was by now in his late 60's, and was tired of the fight. By October, he negotiated a surrender with Basil, guaranteeing his amnesty. He retired to Didymoteichon, where he died on March 6, 991.

Aftermath

Despite the inherently destructive nature of most rebellions, Bardas Phokas' rebellion in fact provided the Byzantine Empire with many long-term benefits. The first of these was the addition of the Varangians to the Imperial Guard. For the next three centuries this elite infantry force was the most effective component of the Byzantine army. Secondly, the resources-depleted David III was now in no position to withstand a concentrated Byzantine attack on his Iberian territories, and his countries were quickly overrun in the years after the civil war in retaliation for his support of Phokas. Kievan Rus' emerged from the civil war the newest Christian state in Europe, and one of the largest, largely as a result of the diplomacy sparked by the rebellion. The civil war also highlighted the inability of the Buyids to effectively influence Byzantine politics in a meaningful way despite their supposed military might and control of the Caliph.

References

Sources

 Stoimenov, D., Temporary Byzantine military administration in the Bulgarian lands 971-987/989 (Vremenna vizantiyska voenna administratsiya v balgarskite zemi 971-987/989, Временна византийска военна администрация в българските земи 971-987/989), in Yearbook of the Sofia University Magazine. Scientific Center of Slavic-Byzantine Research (GSU HCSVP), ch. 82 (2), 1988, pp. 39–65

 Stoimenov, D., Temporary Byzantine military administration in the Bulgarian lands 971-987/989 (Vremenna vizantiyska voenna administratsiya v balgarskite zemi 971-987/989, Временна византийска военна администрация в българските земи 971-987/989), in Yearbook of the Sofia University Magazine. Scientific Center of Slavic-Byzantine Research (GSU HCSVP), ch. 82 (2), 1988, pp. 39–65

980s in the Byzantine Empire
980s conflicts
10th-century rebellions
Civil wars of the Byzantine Empire
Rebellions against the Byzantine Empire
Basil II
Bagratid Iberia
Military history of the Buyid dynasty

Rebellion of Bardas Phokas the Younger


The Sugartone Brass Band, assembled in 2002, is a New Orleans-style second line brass band based in New York City.

The band has played in New York's Village Halloween Parade since 2004.  In 2004 they played for the inaugural induction ceremonies for the Coney Island Hall of Fame.  In 2006, they were the house band for the New York Burlesque Festival. They were the featured musicians at the 2006 James Beard Foundation Awards.  From 2005 to 2006 they had a weekly residency at Jacques-Imo's Café in New Orleans.  They have appeared on MTV's "Making the Band."

The first Sugartone Brass Band album, Live from Brooklyn, was released in January 2008.  The band appeared on MTV's Making the Band in March 2009.

History
The band was assembled in 2002 with six members, and expanded to eight in 2004.

American brass bands
American jazz ensembles from New York City

Sugartone Brass Band


Canalside Park is a public park in the Vauxhall district of north Liverpool, England. The park is a recent creation and is on reclaimed industrial land running alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal by Vauxhall Road. The park contains several wildflower areas that form part of the Roots project

From the south end of the park the entrance to Stanley Dock and the Port of Liverpool can be seen.

References

External links
   Aerial Picture

Parks and commons in Liverpool
Urban public parks

Canalside Park


Phodong Monastery (or Phodang and Podong; ) is a Buddhist monastery in Sikkim, India.  It is located 28 kilometres from Gangtok.
It was built in the early 18th century but an older monastery had pre-existed the current one.

9th Karmapa was invited by the king of Sikkim, where he founded three monasteries : Rumtek, one of the most important monastery of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, Phodong and Ralang Monastery.

It was reconstructed by Sidkeong Tulku Namgyal, who was recognized as the reincarnation of his uncle, Sidkeong Namgyal, the abbot of the monastery. The line was to be continued by Palden Thondup Namgyal

The monastery has a residence of approximately 260 monks and has a numerous collection of some ancient murals.

References

External links

 Buddhist monasteries in Sikkim
 Karma Kagyu monasteries and temples

Phodong Monastery


Oinophila is a small genus of the fungus moth family, Tineidae. Therein, it belongs to the subfamily Hieroxestinae.

O. v-flava, often misspelled "-flavum", is commonly known as the wine moth. Its caterpillars borrow into moist cork – such as of wine bottles stored in a damp cellar – in search of the mould which they primarily eat.

Species
Oinophila is only a minor lineage in a small subfamily, but the notoriety of the well-known wine moth made it quite well known. In the past, it was thus used as a sort of "wastebin taxon" for miscellaneous Hieroxestinae. Four species remain in the genus at present, but two of these do not actually seem to belong here – they might not even be Hieroxestinae:
 Oinophila argyrospora  Meyrick, 1931 (provisionally placed here)
 Oinophila nesiotes Walsingham, 1908
 Oinophila v-flava (Haworth, 1828)
 Oinophila xanthorrhabda  Meyrick, 1915 (provisionally placed here)

See also
 Cork moth (Nemapogon cloacella), another tineid moth occasionally feeding on cork of wine bottles.

Footnotes

References

  (2003): Stored Product Insects – Oinophila v-flavum (Wine Moth) [sic]. Retrieved 2010-MAY-01.
  (2004): Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species – Oinophila. Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2010-MAY-01.
  [2010]: Global Taxonomic Database of Tineidae (Lepidoptera). Retrieved 2010-MAY-01.

Hieroxestinae
Tineidae genera

Oinophila


Bernard Hoffer (born October 14, 1934) is a Swiss-born American composer and conductor. He is best known for his work on American cartoons such as ThunderCats and SilverHawks. He worked on several of Rankin/Bass' television series and specials. The music he developed for The MacNeil-Lehrer Report, used on the PBS NewsHour until 2015, was nominated for an Emmy Award, and he has won six Clio Awards for his work on commercials. He has also conducted several musical shows, such as the ballets A Boston Cinderella! and Ma Goose.

Early life and education
Hoffer was born in Zurich, Switzerland. In his early years he received musical training at the Dalcroze School in New York, then later studied composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.

Career
Hoffer worked as the arranger for the U.S. Army Field Band of Washington, D.C., and later became a freelance musician.

Filmography
 The MacNeil-Lehrer Report (1975)
 The Ivory Ape (1980)
 The Return of the King (1980)
 Circle of Two (1981)
 The Sins of Dorian Gray (1983)
 The Coneheads (TV special) (1983)
 ThunderCats (1985)
 The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus (1985)
 SilverHawks (1986)
 The Wind in the Willows (1987)
 The Comic Strip (1987)
 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (2006)

External links

1934 births
Living people
Swiss conductors (music)
Male conductors (music)
21st-century American composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Swiss emigrants to the United States
Musicians from Zürich
Eastman School of Music alumni
21st-century conductors (music)
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century Swiss composers

Bernard Hoffer


The 1947 National Challenge Cup was the 33rd edition of the United States Soccer Football Association's annual open cup. Today, the tournament is known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Teams from the American Soccer League II competed in the tournament, based on qualification methods in their base region. Ponta Delgada S.C. won the tournament for their first time ever, by defeating Chicago Sparta.

External links
 1947 National Challenge Cup results – TheCup.us

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup
U.S. Open Cup

1947 National Challenge Cup


Anna and the King of Siam  is a 1944 semi-fictionalized biographical novel by Margaret Landon.

In the early 1860s, Anna Leonowens, a widow with two young children, was invited to Siam (now Thailand) by King Mongkut (Rama IV), who wanted her to teach his children and wives the English language and introduce them to British customs. Her experiences during the five years she spent in the country served as the basis for two memoirs, The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870) and Romance of the Harem (1872).

Landon took Leonowens' first-person narratives and added details about the Siamese people and their culture taken from other sources. The book has been translated into dozens of languages and has inspired at least six adaptations into various dramatic media:
 Anna and the King of Siam (1946 film)
 The King and I (1951 stage musical)
 The King and I (1956 film musical)
 Anna and the King (1972 TV series)
 The King and I (1999 animated film musical)
 Anna and the King (1999 film)

At the time of its publication, The New York Times called it "an inviting escape into an unfamiliar, exotic past... calculated to transport us instantly." The Atlantic Monthly described it as "enchanting" and added that "the author wears her scholarship with grace, and the amazing story she has to tell is recounted with humor and understanding."

Anna and the King was also published as an Armed Services Edition, distributed to American troops during World War II.

Radio adaptation

Anna and the King of Siam was presented on Hallmark Playhouse 15 September 1949. The 30-minute adaptation starred Deborah Kerr.

References

1944 American novels
Monarchy in fiction
American historical novels
Novels set in Thailand
American novels adapted into plays
American novels adapted into films
Novels adapted into radio programs
Fiction set in the 1860s
Biographical novels
American novels adapted into television shows
History of Thailand in fiction
Cultural depictions of Anna Leonowens
Cultural depictions of Mongkut
John Day Company books

Anna and the King of Siam (novel)


Herbert Pope Stothart (September 11, 1880February 1, 1949) was an American songwriter, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won Best Original Score for The Wizard of Oz. Stothart was widely acknowledged as a prominent member of the top tier of Hollywood composers during the 1930s and 1940s.

Life and career
Herbert Stothart was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied music in Europe and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he later taught.

Stothart was initially hired by producer Arthur Hammerstein to serve as a musical director for touring companies of Broadway shows. He soon began composing music for Oscar Hammerstein II, the producer's nephew. Notably, Stothart composed music for the famous operetta, Rose-Marie. He collaborated with renowned composers such as Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin and Franz Lehár. Stothart achieved success on the pop charts with standards like "Cute Little Two by Four," "Wildflower," "Bambalina," "The Mounties," "Totem Tom-Tom," "Why Shouldn't We?," "Fly Away," "Song of the Flame," "The Cossack Love Song," "Dawn," "I Wanna Be Loved by You," "Cuban Love Song," "The Rogue Song" and "The Donkey Serenade."

The year 1929 marked the end of the era of silent films. Shortly after completing his latest musical, Golden Dawn, with Emmerich Kálmán, Oscar Hammerstein, and Otto Harbach, Stothart received an invitation from Louis B. Mayer to move to Hollywood, an invitation which he accepted. In 1929, Stothart signed a substantial contract with MGM.

The next twenty years of his life were spent at MGM Studios, where he was part of elite group of Hollywood composers. Among the many films he worked on was the famous 1936 version of Rose-Marie, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. He conducted and composed songs and scores for films such as The Cuban Love Song, The Good Earth, Romeo and Juliet, Mutiny on the Bounty, Mrs. Miniver, The Green Years and The Picture of Dorian Gray. His notable contributions also include the Marx Brothers' Night at the Opera, the romantic drama Anna Karenina based on Leo Tolstoy's novel, two Charles Dickens adaptations (A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield), and Mutiny on the Bounty, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He ultimately won an Oscar for his musical score in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Herbert Stothart dedicated his entire Hollywood career to MGM. In 1947, while visiting Scotland, he suffered a heart attack. Afterward, he composed an orchestral piece titled Heart Attack: A Symphonic Poem, inspired by his personal tribulations. Additionally, he worked on another composition, Voices of Liberation, commissioned by the Roger Wagner Chorale. Stothart died two years later at the age of 68.

Awards
Stothart received 12 Academy Award nominations and won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Wizard of Oz.
 1939 Best Original Score Film – The Wizard of Oz

Academy Award Nominations:
 1935 Best Scoring Film – Mutiny on the Bounty
 1937 Best Scoring Film – Maytime
 1938 Best Original Score Film – Marie Antoinette
 1938 Best Scoring Film – Sweethearts
 1940 Best Original Score Film – Waterloo Bridge
 1941 Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture – The Chocolate Soldier
 1942 Best Music, Scoring a Dramatic or Comedy Film – Random Harvest
 1943 Best Music, Scoring a Musical Picture – Thousands Cheer
 1943 Best Music, Scoring a Dramatic or Comedy Film – Madame Curie
 1944 Best Music, Scoring a Dramatic or Comedy Film – Kismet
 1945 Best Music, Scoring a Dramatic or Comedy Film – The Valley of Decision

Works
Herbert Stothart's movie scores include:

Devil-May-Care (1929)
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
Queen Christina (1933)
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
What Every Woman Knows (1934)
Anna Karenina (1935)
China Seas (1935)
David Copperfield (1935 version)
 Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Naughty Marietta (musical score only; the songs were by Victor Herbert, Rida Johnson Young, and Gus Kahn) (1935)
A Night at the Opera (1935, which also used music by Giuseppe Verdi, Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Nacio Herb Brown, with some lyrics by Arthur Freed)
A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
After the Thin Man (1936)
The Good Earth (1937)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Idiot's Delight (1939)
The Wizard of Oz (Oscar: Best Original Score; songs by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen)
Northwest Passage (1940 film by King Vidor)
Pride and Prejudice (1940 version)
Come Live With Me (1941)
Blossoms in the Dust (additional uncredited music by Daniele Amfitheatrof) (1941)
Mrs. Miniver (additional uncredited music by Daniele Amfitheatrof) (1942)
I Married An Angel (1942)
Random Harvest (1942)
The Human Comedy (1943)
Madame Curie (1943)
National Velvet (1944)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Dragon Seed (1944)
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (additional uncredited music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1945)
They Were Expendable  (1945 World War II film by John Ford) (1945)
The Green Years (1946)
The Yearling (arrangement of Frederick Delius's music) (1946)
The Sea of Grass (1947)

Death
Herbert Stothart died of cancer in Los Angeles, California at the age of 68. He is interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

References

External links

Information on Herbert Stothart

New York Times
Herbert Stothart at Songwriters Hall of Fame
 Herbert Stothart recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

1880 births
1949 deaths
American musical theatre composers
American film score composers
Broadway composers and lyricists
Broadway music directors
American male film score composers
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American male musicians
Deaths from cancer in California

Herbert Stothart


The Historic Automobile Group International (HAGI) is a London-based research organization in the area of rare historic motorcars and collectors' automobiles. HAGI is known for its classic car market indices, which have been calculated since December 2008, based on a proprietary market capitalization formula called "survivor weighting".

Founded in 2007 HAGI has strong established links with members of the financial industry in London, Asia and North America, as well as the sector for historic motorcars.

Founding members are Dietrich Hatlapa, a former managing director of ING Barings financial markets, Hardeep Sohanpal, a publishing expert and private aviation specialist. They were joined by David Selby, a senior writer and journalist in the classic car sector and index expert Bruce Johnson, an independent advisor to global financial companies and author of The Hedge Fund Fraud Case Book.

The purpose of the research initiative is to improve transparency in the sector and create the initial foundations for an investment infrastructure into this long established area of 'passion' investment.

HAGI runs a proprietary database of actual transactions in the sector for rare classic cars. Data is sourced from four areas: Private transactions, dealer transactions, marque experts and auction results.

HAGI describes itself as an "independent research house and think tank with specialized expertise in the rare classic motorcar sector".

HAGI claims more than 1,000 individual members from more than 15 countries.

The group has developed a set of professional indices (HAGI Indices) and releases index data on a monthly basis for five indices. HAGI Top  and HAGI Top ex F&P are market indices whereas HAGI F (Ferrari), HAGI MBCI (Mercedes-Benz) and HAGI P (Porsche) are car marque specific indices. Index readings, other research results and market comments are published on its website Historic Automobile Group, in the Financial Times, and in Octane Magazine, a classic car special interest magazine based in the UK.

HAGI has been involved in a number of academic papers focusing on the classic car market.

Founder Dietrich Hatlapa  published a reference book about the classic car market in May 2011.

Classic Car Indices by HAGI

HAGI Top, market cap weighted index for the total market of rare classic cars.
HAGI MBCI, market cap weighted index for rare Mercedes-Benz classic cars.
HAGI F, market cap weighted index for rare Ferrari classic cars.
HAGI P, market cap weighted index for rare Porsche classic cars.
HAGI Top ex P&F, market cap weighted index for the total market of rare classic cars other than Porsche and Ferrari.

Senior research staff

Dietrich Hatlapa
Bruce Johnson
Hardeep Singh-Sohanpal
David Selby
Ludovic Lindsay

Council

Karl Ludvigsen, automotive consultant and historian
Fergus MacLeod, head of investor relations BP plc.
Philip Basil, former head of RBS asset management
Dr. Warren Eads, founder, Spydersports, USA

See also
Most expensive cars sold in auction

Fruits of Passion

References

Alan van Bergen - How do Classic Ferraris Perform as a Financial Instrument? – Master Thesis, Tias Nimbas Business School, 2009

John Reed - Rare cars put investors in pole position - Financial Times, 29 August 2009.

Adrian Finighan – Classic Car Investment -  CNN, 22 September 2009.

CNBC.com – Classic Car Market on Bumpy Road – 10 November 2009.

Octane Magazine – Market Comment, monthly since November 2009.

Thomas Hillenbrand – Rasende Rendite – Der Spiegel, 18 December 2009.

Seth Lubove – Classic Obsession – Bloomberg Markets Magazine, September 2010.

Scott Reyburn -  McCartney's Lamborghini for Sale; Bacon Priced $18 Million - Bloomberg.com, 31 May 2011

Sona Blessing - Alternative Alternatives: Risk, Returns and Investment Strategy, Wiley Finance, 2011, pp. 199–204

Dietrich Hatlapa - Better than Gold: Investing in Historic Cars - HAGI Publishing, May 2011.

External links
 Historic Automobile Group official website.

Motor clubs
Clubs and societies in the United Kingdom

Historic Automobile Group


Amr Ibrahim Mostafa Seoud (born 10 June 1986 in Damietta) is an Egyptian sprinter who specializes in 100 & 200 metres. His personal best times are 10.13 and 20.36 seconds in the 100 and 200 metres.

He ranked sixth in the 100 metres at the 2006 African Championships. In the 200 metres he won the 2007 Summer Universiade, and competed at the 2007 World Championships without reaching the final round. He also competed in 60 metres at the World Indoor Championships in 2003 and 2008.

Seoud represented Egypt at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He competed at the 200 metres and placed fifth in his first round heat in a time of 20.75 seconds. His record was among the ten best losing times, which granted him a slot in the second round. He improved his time in the second round to 20.55 seconds, placing sixth. This performance was not enough to compete at the semi-finals.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics he competed in both the 100 and 200 metres, but did not qualify from the heats.

Achievements

References

1986 births
Living people
People from Damietta
Egyptian male sprinters
Olympic athletes for Egypt
Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics
World Athletics Championships athletes for Egypt
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Egypt
Athletes (track and field) at the 2009 Mediterranean Games
African Games gold medalists for Egypt
African Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2007 All-Africa Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2011 All-Africa Games
Universiade medalists for Egypt
Medalists at the 2007 Summer Universiade
21st-century Egyptian people

Amr Ibrahim Mostafa Seoud


Cambarus cryptodytes, the Dougherty Plain cave crayfish or Apalachicola cave crayfish, is a small, freshwater crayfish endemic to Florida and Georgia in the United States. It is an underground species known only from waters associated with the Floridan aquifer.

Description
The Dougherty Plain cave crayfish grows to a length of about  with antennae twice this length. It is a colourless species with unpigmented eyes, segmented cephalothorax and abdomen, a pair of slender chelae (claws) with a row or two of tubercles and long slender appendages. The rostrum is long and unadorned with tubercles or spines.

Distribution
The Dougherty Plain cave crayfish is known from springs, wells and cave systems in the karst limestone region of Dougherty Plain in the Southeastern United States. It has been found in Dougherty County and Decatur County in Georgia and Jackson County and Washington County in Florida. It is likely also to be present in Mitchell County and Baker County, Georgia which lie between the two presently-known ranges.

Biology
Little is known of the biology of this crayfish. It is probably an opportunistic omnivorous scavenger and may feed on the Georgia blind salamander (Haideotriton wallacei) which shares the same range. It has a low metabolic rate, perhaps associated with the limited availability of food, and consequently it is possible that it may live for twenty years or more. Males with ripe gonads have been found between July and October but females bearing eggs have not been found and nor have juveniles or sub-adults.

Status
In 1996 this species was listed as "Vulnerable" in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species but following the discovery that its range is wider than originally thought, it was in 2010 recategorised as being of "Least concern" on the grounds that it has a broad range and is common within that range. It seems to be able to live in water with low oxygen levels and may be widespread in the aquifer away from locations that open to the surface. Potential threats include removal of water from the aquifer for human use and contamination of the water by pesticides and excess nutrients from agricultural operations.

References

cryptodytes
Cave crayfish
Endemic crustaceans of the United States
Freshwater crustaceans of North America
Crustaceans described in 1941
Taxa named by Horton H. Hobbs Jr.
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Cambarus cryptodytes


William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860-July 26, 1925) was an American politician in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  He was from the Midwest.  He is known for supporting causes that were not very popular or were old-fashioned, such as the silver standard or creationism.  In the 1890s, he was a Congressman from Nebraska.  He gained fame in 1896 for the "Cross of Gold Speech", a speech about the American economy he gave to the Populist Party.  He ran for President as a Democrat three times, in 1896, 1900, and 1908, but lost each time. During this time, he was the main leader of the Democratic Party.  He was one of the first people who gave lots of speeches around the country while running for President, and continued to give speeches even when not running on what was called the "Chatauqua Circuit".  He was United States Secretary of State from 1913 to 1915.  In his last years, he was one of the lawyers in the Scopes Monkey Trial. He is portrayed in the movie Inherit the Wind by the character Matthew Harrison Brady.

References

1860 births
1925 deaths
Lawyers from Nebraska
American Presbyterians
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Creationists
United States representatives from Nebraska
United States Secretaries of State
Democratic Party (United States) politicians
Lawyers from Illinois

William Jennings Bryan


International fast-food restaurant chain Burger King and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's have had a variety of breakfast sandwiches in their product portfolio since 1978. The Croissan'wich was the first major breakfast sandwich product introduced by the company.

The company sells slightly different versions of breakfast sandwich between international markets, using local breakfast traditions and tastes to cater to those regions. To promote continuing interest in the company's breakfast products, Burger King occasionally releases limited-time (LTO) variants on its breakfast sandwiches that have different ingredients from standard sandwich recipes. John Andrew "Jack" Cundari (b. 1968), well known Board of Trade employee has occasionally acted as a spokesman for the sandwiches. Being one of the company's major offerings, breakfast sandwiches are sometimes the center of product advertising for the company. Additionally, as a major product in the company's portfolio, Burger King has registered many global trademarks to protect its investment in these products.

United States

Croissan'wich

The Croissan'wich is a family of breakfast sandwiches sold by the fast-food restaurant chain Burger King. It was introduced in 1983.

The Croissan'wich, a portmanteau of the words croissant and sandwich, was introduced in 1983, as part of a menu expansion and as attempt to differentiate BK's breakfast line from McDonald's. Before this, BK's breakfast line was almost identical to McDonald's in composition.

In the U.S., the standard Croissan'wich consists of a sausage patty, bacon, or ham; eggs; and American cheese on a croissant.

 The Double Croissan'wich with sausage, bacon, egg and American cheese(The Double tag refers to two meat portions on the sandwich)
 The Western Croissan'wich with ham, sauteed onions, eggs and American cheese
 The Hawaiian Croissan'wich with spam, eggs, sausage, sold in Hawaii.

Internationally it is sold as either the Croissan'wich or the Croissant Sandwich, but the base composition of the sandwich varies; in New Zealand bacon is the primary meat and in Argentina where ham is the primary meat. It also sold in Korea and Taiwan, but sausage is not offered.

Supreme Breakfast Sandwich

The Supreme Breakfast Sandwich (formerly the Enormous Omelet Sandwich) is a breakfast sandwich sold by the fast-food restaurant chain Burger King. It consists of sausage patties, bacon, eggs and American cheese on a sesame seed bun. The Meat'normous Omelet Sandwich was a variant on the Enormous Omelet Sandwich that added a portion of ham to the sandwich.

It is one of their late teen to young adult male oriented products. The sandwich attracted criticism for its high fat and caloric content, and was discontinued in the United States for a short while. It is still sold in some of its international markets. The sandwich was re-introduced at US restaurants in 2016, albeit under a new name, entitled the Supreme Breakfast Sandwich.

The sandwich was introduced on March 28, 2005, as the Enormous Omelet Sandwich, and attracted significant media attention for its ingredients and caloric content. It was the first new product launched under the auspices of then CEO Greg Brenneman, and helped boost Burger King breakfast sales by 20%. The Meat'normous Omelet Sandwich was introduced in May of the same year.

Because of its large serving size and high fat and caloric content, the sandwich garnered negative press when first sold. The negative press was compounded when Burger King began selling the companion Meat'normous sandwich.

Ham omelet

BK Breakfast Muffin
Sandwich features savory sausage, egg and melted American cheese on a baked English muffin.

Burgers for Breakfast
Lunch items such as hamburgers and fries were not traditionally served during breakfast time, however, some BK stores began selling food under their "Burgers for Breakfast" program which began in 2000.

BK Breakfast Shots

Advertising

When the Croissan'wich was first introduced, television advertisements used a young woman in a BK uniform announcing the new product and having consumers on the street compare it to McDonald's Egg McMuffin much like the Pepsi Challenge. Later advertisements followed up on this by incorporating the slogan "Croissan'wich beat the stuffin' out of Egg McMuffin".

Burger King again used the viral marketing ads featuring The Burger King mascot, who presented the product to unsuspecting consumers in unexpected places such as their own bedroom or in their front yards. It was promoted with the slogan "Wake up to a mouthful of breakfast with the Enormous Omelet Sandwich".

See also
 Breakfast burrito
 List of sandwiches

References

External links

Burger King foods
American sandwiches
Breakfast sandwiches

Burger King breakfast sandwiches


Marisabina Russo (née Stark; born 1 May 1950) is a children's book author and illustrator.  She has written and illustrated over twenty books for children and young adults. Her most notable books include The Line Up Book (winner of the IRA Children's Book Award) and Always Remember Me (an ALA Notable Book).

She was born in New York City and graduated from Mount Holyoke College with BA in Studio Art in 1971. She began her career as a freelance illustrator. Her work appeared frequently in The New Yorker and included several covers. She then went on to illustrate a book of poetry for children, Vacation Time by Nikki Giovanni. She started publishing her own stories with Greenwillow Books in 1986.
Russo's books come from her own childhood memories and her experiences as a mother. Her illustrations, painted in gouache, are colorful and two-dimensional, reminiscent of folk art. More recently, Ms. Russo has written young adult novels.

Her books have also been translated into Korean and Japanese. She has published with Greenwillow Books, Simon & Schuster, Random House and Harcourt, Brace. Her picture book Sophie Sleeps Over will be published by Roaring Brook Press in March 2014.

External links
https://marisabinabooks.com/index.html

American children's writers
Mount Holyoke College alumni
Living people
1950 births
Writers from New York City

Marisabina Russo