The Tupolev Tu-334 () was a Russian short-to-medium range airliner project that was developed to replace the ageing Tu-134s and Yak-42s in service around the world. The airframe was based on a shortened Tu-204 fuselage and a scaled-down version of that aircraft's wing. Unlike the Tu-204, however, the Tu-334 has a T-tail and engines mounted on the sides of the rear fuselage instead of under the wings. With the nationalisation of the Russian aircraft companies in 2009 to form United Aircraft Corporation it was decided not to continue with the programme.

Development

The Tupolev Design Bureau introduced the Tu-334 in early 1989 as an eventual propfan-powered airliner to potentially enter service for Aeroflot in 1995. However, it would have an interim turbofan-powered version that would begin airline service around 1991–1992. Consuming about 20 percent less fuel than the best Soviet turbofan, the propfan engine would be a then-unnamed geared powerplant from the Lotarev engine design bureau. The engine would have a thrust specific fuel consumption (TSFC) of , resulting in a per-passenger aircraft fuel consumption rate of . The turbofan-powered version of the Tu-334 would use Lotarev D-436T engines with a TSFC of  and a bypass ratio of 6.5, and it would consume  per passenger. The propfan Tu-334 would seat 104-137 passengers, compared with 86-102 passengers for the shorter, turbofan Tu-334.

Tupolev confirmed the use of the D-436 for the turbofan version shortly afterward. However, they initiated discussions with International Aero Engines (IAE) at the 1989 Paris Air Show to discuss using a  derated version of IAE's V2500  engine. The talks, which continued through at least the end of the year, were attributed to worries that the Lotarev could not meet Tupolev's timeline or fuel burn targets, or that Tupolev was canceling the propfan version. There was also concern that Tupolev could not meet Soviet state carrier Aeroflot's urgent capacity needs quick enough. In this scenario, the Soviet aircraft production ministry could allow the Yakovlev Design Bureau to compete and build the Yak-42M (a Yak-42 airliner derivative) because of its quicker availability, despite the ministry's assumed preference for the Tu-334.

Information about the propfan engine began to be revealed during the second quarter of 1990, although the details were often conflicting. In April 1990, while announcing the interim aircraft's service entry date of 1993, Tupolev's chief designer said that the ultrahigh bypass engine to be used would be a Lotarev (now renamed to the Progress design bureau) propfan resembling the General Electric GE36 UDF, and not the propfan it had been working on. However, the Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM), a Soviet engine research institute, reported that Tupolev expected to have a propfan Tu-334 operating by the 1995-1997 period, probably using a geared propfan instead of gearless. Then a subsequent report named the Tu-334 propfan engine as the Lotarev D-27, a ,  powerplant with a TSFC of . The D-27 would also power the newly announced Yakovlev Yak-46 propfan airliner, which was similar to the Yak-42M competitor but used two propfans instead of three turbofans in the aft fuselage. Three weeks later, Tupolev said that government officials would decide shortly between two D-27 offshoot engines from the Progress design bureau for the final Tu-334 version in 1996: a Progress D-227 propfan, or a Progress D-527 "super contrafan," an ungeared but ducted contra-rotating powerplant with a bypass ratio of 18. Days earlier, the Soviet Union premiered a running propfan engine before Western audiences for the first time, flying an Ilyushin Il-76LL testbed aircraft with one installed Progress D-236 engine to the ILA Air Show in Hannover, Germany. Although the Soviets declined in Hannover to name the aircraft that would use the D-236, an October 1990 article named that geared engine as the powerplant for the final Tu-334 variant, which would compete against the D-27-powered Yak-46 for Aeroflot's Tu-134 replacement order.

Work commenced on the Tu-334 in the early 1990s, but proceeded slowly due to funding problems arising from the breakup of the Soviet Union. A prototype was displayed in 1995, but this was little more than a mockup with few systems installed. A functional aircraft first flew on 8 February 1999, and later that year, agreements were put in place for MiG to undertake part of the production of the airliner. A Russian type certificate was obtained – after some delay – on 30 December 2003.

Development remained slow due to protracted budget problems. In turn, the certification of the aircraft and its planned entry into serial production was delayed multiple times. As of December 2006 there were  firm orders for the Tupolev Tu-334 from seven airlines, including Atlant-Soyuz Airlines and there were letters of intent from 24 airlines to obtain another 297 airplanes. The price per unit for the business version is estimated to be around $43–44 million.

One of the projected customers for the type was Iran. The Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) was in negotiations to purchase licenses to assemble the aircraft in Iran by 2011 and manufacture them completely by 2015 alongside the Tu-214. Nothing concrete became of these negotiations before the cancellation of the Tu-334 programme.

As late as 2008, Tupolev reported that a total of about 100 airlines had expressed an interest in placing orders for Tu-334s; on 31 July 2008, Tupolev Managing Director Sergei Ilyushenkov announced that production was targeted to begin no later than January 2009. However, this date also passed without any reported progress on Tu-334 serial production.

In 2009, with the project years behind the projected schedule and only two examples built and flying ten years after the first flight, the Tu-334 came under review during the rationalisation of the Russian aircraft companies, which led to the formation of United Aircraft Corporation. In mid-2009, the decision was taken to not continue with the Tu-334 programme and instead focus efforts on the Sukhoi Superjet 100, the Antonov An-148, and the Irkut MC-21.

Variants
Tu-334-100 Basic version, with accommodation for 72 passengers in mixed-class configuration (12 first-class and 60 tourist-class) or 102 passengers in high-density layout. Two  Progress D-436T1 turbofans.
Tu-334-100C Proposed combi (passenger/freight) version of Tu-334-100.
Tu-334-100D Planned stretched, extended-range version. Fuselage stretched by  and longer span () wing. Powered by two  Progress D-436T2 engines.
Tu-334-120 Planned derivative of Tu-334-100, powered by two  Rolls-Royce BR715-55 engines.
Tu-334-120D Based on the Tu-334-100D, but with two Rolls-Royce BR-715-55 engines.
Tu-334C Production cargo variant.
Tu-336 Proposed liquid natural gas-fueled version, with cryogenic fuel tanks above the passenger cabin.
Tu-354 Further stretched version, originally designated Tu-334-200. Stretched by  over Tu-334-100, with accommodation for up to 126 passengers. Powered by two Progress D-436T2 or Rolls-Royce BR-715-55 engines, the Tu-354's landing gear was strengthened to use four-wheel bogies.

Specifications (Tu-334-100)

See also

References
 Citations

 Bibliography

External links

Tu-0334
1990s Soviet and Russian airliners
Twinjets
Low-wing aircraft
Abandoned civil aircraft projects
T-tail aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1999

Tupolev Tu-334


Javier Moll (born in 1950) is a Spanish businessman and owner of the Barcelona-based media company Editorial Prensa Ibérica. In 2007 his company owned more than 20 newspapers in Spain and Portugal. He currently owns assets in South Australia, including The Adelaide Review, which he purchased in 2002, and has investments in South Australian wineries and real estate. As of 2015, plans for Moll's company to establish a daily newspaper to rival The Advertiser under the registered name Adelaide Times are yet to eventuate. In 2011, he launched The Melbourne Review in Victoria. Moll is the former owner of the heritage-listed Science Exchange building (previously the Adelaide Stock Exchange), which is now owned by the Government of South Australia. Moll holds a seat on the governing council of RiAus, which has occupied the building since 2009. Since 2019, Moll also chairs Grupo Zeta, a mass media company purchased by Prensa Ibérica.

References

Spanish business executives
Living people
1950 births

Javier Moll


Jessica Drake is an American pornographic actress and sex educator.

Career
Drake spent two years as a contract performer for the studio Sin City until May 31, 2002, when her contract expired. She gained her first AVN Award in 2001, winning "Best Tease Performance" for her role in VCA Pictures' Shayla's Web. In 2003, she signed an exclusive contract with Wicked Pictures.

In 2004, during an HIV outbreak in the industry, she stated that she had only performed with men who wore condoms, although she added that "working without condoms in the industry is less dangerous than going home with someone who you just met randomly in a bar."

Her performance in Fluff and Fold, a romantic comedy set around a laundromat, earned her the 2005 AVN Award for Best Actress, Video and the 2005 XRCO Award for Single Performance, Actress. Along with comedian Jim Norton, Drake was chosen to co-host the 2007 AVN Awards, and stated "this is probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me." At the awards, she won Best Actress, Film for her role in Manhunters, for which Drake trained as a bounty hunter during pre-production. Her directorial debut came in the 2008 film What Girls Like, having gained previous experience working as Brad Armstrong's assistant director on titles such as 2007's Coming Home.

She began writing screenplays during her tenure with Sin City, and has since penned films including Dating 101, Love Always and Just Between Us. In January 2009, she won her third Best Actress AVN Award, this time for her performance in Fallen, which she has described as "the best movie I have ever been in." In the film, she plays an angel trapped on Earth after the death of a woman she was sent to protect. Around the time of the awards, she suffered a stress fracture to her left foot.

With porn actress Kayden Kross, Drake co-hosted the 2009 XRCO Awards, at which her role in Fallen won the award for "Single Performance, Actress." She and Sunny Leone co-hosted the F.A.M.E. Awards in July 2010. Drake was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2010 and the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2011. Jessica Drake's Guide to Wicked Sex: Anal Edition (Wicked Pictures) was named "Specialty Release of the Year" at the 2012 XBIZ Awards.

On October 21, 2016, Drake opened an online store selling adult videos and sexual paraphernalia.

Appearances
In November 2007, Drake was among several porn actors to be guests on The Tyra Banks Show episode, "A Day in the Life of a Porn Star." In 2008, Drake, Kaylani Lei, and Mikayla Mendez shot a scene for the mainstream comedy movie, Barry Munday, in which they played themselves as judges in an air-guitar contest. Drake appears in the music video for the 2010 single "Telephone" by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé.

In 2014, Drake was on CNBC's list of "The Dirty Dozen: Porn's Most Popular Stars". Later in the year a documentary series began airing on The Movie Network and Movie Central titled Love, Jessica, directed by Kai Soremekun.

Drake, along with her then husband, actor and director, Brad Armstrong, were interviewed for a 2014 story in Cosmopolitan magazine about costume design in adult films. In April 2014, Drake was part of discussion panel at the USC School of Cinematic Arts titled "The Piracy of Sex." The event featured Drake and copyright enforcement activist Nate Glass and was hosted by David Lerner.

Charity
Drake is affiliated with an organization that focuses on building homes and providing clean water to people in poverty-stricken and remote areas. She has performed charity work in Cambodia, Kenya and Tanzania. In 2012, Drake formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit to assist in domestic efforts. This is separate from her role in the adult industry and the "jessica drake" brand, since she does not want anyone to believe that she volunteers her time as part of a public relations campaign. Her charity work is done anonymously.

Sex educator
Noting a demand for modern sex education, Drake and Wicked Pictures launched Jessica Drake's Guide to Wicked Sex, a series of erotic educational films. The first DVD in the line, Jessica Drake's Guide to Wicked Sex: Fellatio, was honored with the 2012 award for Best Educational Release by AVN Media. In 2014 Drake added a video to the series that addressed a segment that she said was under represented, plus size. In collaboration with plus-size performer Kelly Shibari, they released Jessica Drake's Guide to Wicked Sex: Plus Size. "Guide to Wicked Sex" was also a weekly segment on Jessica's popular Playboy Radio show, IN BED with jessica drake.

Drake teaches sex education seminars and workshops around the world, including addressing a class of licensed therapists at UCLA on May 3, 2012 and speaking on a panel at CatalystCon West sexuality conference. In February 2014, Drake spoke on a panel with fellow actress Tasha Reign during the University of Chicago's Sex Week where they were featured on a panel entitled Jessica Drake: From Porn to Sex Ed.

Again in February, Drake along with Reign spoke on a panel titled Porn, Prostitution, and Censorship: The Politics of Empowerment at Moore Hall at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), along with UCLA Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Christopher Mott. The annual panel is sponsored by the Social Awareness Network for Activism through Art (SANAA) in honor of Eve Ensler's V-Day Organization. Ensler's The Vagina Monologues is an annual presentation on women's issues.

Sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump

Seventeen days before the 2016 United States presidential election, Drake became the 11th woman to accuse  Donald Trump, the 2016 Republican nominee, of sexual misconduct. On October 22, 2016, Drake and feminist civil rights attorney Gloria Allred held a news conference in which Drake accused Trump of having sexually assaulted her and two acquaintances nearly ten years prior. Drake said that she met Trump at the Wicked Pictures' (her employers') booth in a gifting suite during the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament, a charity golf tournament at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course Lake Tahoe in 2006. Drake claims that she was invited to meet with Trump, at his hotel suite and since she was "uncomfortable going alone" she brought along two women friends. Describing the meeting with Trump, Drake recounted that "He grabbed each of us tightly, in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking permission." Drake stated that she and her friends left the suite after 30–45 minutes. Shortly thereafter, Drake received multiple phone calls from Trump or his associate, requesting that she join him in his suite for $10,000, and offering to fly her on his jet plane back to Los Angeles. She said she declined his offers. At the press conference, Drake displayed a photo of herself and Trump together on the Lake Tahoe golf course.

During the news conference, Drake said, "I am not looking for monetary compensation. I do not need additional fame [...] I understand that I may be called a liar or an opportunist but I will risk that in order to stand in solidarity with women who share similar accounts." In response to Drake's allegations, the Trump campaign stated that her story is "false and ridiculous", that "[t]he picture is one of thousands taken out of respect for people asking to have their picture taken with Mr. Trump" but Trump did not know Drake and "would have no interest in ever knowing her," and that the story was "just another attempt by the Clinton campaign to defame a candidate".

In January 2018, Drake's publicist, Josh Ortiz, commented that Drake had signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding "any and every mention of Trump". On the following day, Ortiz however retracted his words by reading a statement supplied by Drake's lawyer, which stated that Ortiz had no knowledge of any non-disclosure agreement signed by Drake.

Personal life
In 2002, Drake married fellow pornographic actor Evan Stone,
after which she was living with Wicked director and performer Brad Armstrong, her partner for over a decade. In 2021, she mentioned in a Twitter Q&A session that she and Armstrong had separated and were single again.  She has said that her brother and father were more supportive of her career choice than her mother.

Awards

References

External links

 Photo of Drake and Donald Trump on golf links

Actresses from San Antonio
American female adult models
American female erotic dancers
American erotic dancers
American pornographic film actresses
American pornographic film directors
American sex educators
American women screenwriters
Living people
Philanthropists from Texas
Pornographic film actors from Texas
Radio personalities from Texas
University of Texas at El Paso alumni
Women pornographic film directors
1974 births
21st-century American women educators

Jessica Drake


George of Kunštát and Poděbrady (23 April 1420 – 22 March 1471), also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad (; ), was the sixteenth King of Bohemia, who ruled in 1458–1471. He was a leader of the Hussites, but moderate and tolerant toward the Catholic faith. His rule was marked by great efforts to preserve peace and tolerance between the Hussites and Catholics in the religiously divided Crown of Bohemia – hence his contemporary nicknames: "King of two peoples" () and "Friend of peace" (přítel míru).

During the 19th century, in period of the so-called Czech National Revival, he began to be praised (even somewhat idealized) as the last Czech national monarch (in terms of ethnic awareness), a great diplomat and a courageous fighter against the domination of the Catholic Church. In modern times he is remembered mainly for his idea and attempt to establish common European Christian institutions, which is now seen as an early historical vision of European unity.

Early life
George was the son of Victor of Kunštát and Poděbrady, a Bohemian nobleman whose ancestors were of Moravian origin, one of the leaders of more moderate faction (called Utraquists) of the Hussites during the Hussite Wars. George's mother is not known by name and it is likely that George was born out of wedlock; during his life he repeatedly heard ridicule from his enemies about his origin.

At the age of fourteen, George himself took part in the Battle of Lipany (1434), which marked the downfall of more radical Hussite factions (Taborites and Orebites) and the end of revolutionary phase of the Hussite movement. By that time he was already orphaned, as his father had died in 1427.

Early in life, as one of the leaders of the Hussite party, he defeated Austrian troops of King Albert II, who had succeeded King Sigismund as King of Bohemia, Germany and Hungary. George soon became a prominent member of the Hussite party after the death of Hynce Ptáček of Pirkstein, its leader.

King Albert was succeeded by his posthumously born son Ladislaus, during whose reign Bohemia sharply divided into two parties: the party faithful to Rome, led by powerful "viceroy" Oldřich II of Rosenberg, and the Hussite party, led by George.

After various attempts at reconciliation, George sought a military decision. He gradually raised an armed force in north-eastern Bohemia, where the Hussites were strong and where his ancestral Litice Castle was situated. In 1448, he marched this army, about 9000 strong, from Kutná Hora to Prague, and obtained possession of the capital almost without resistance.

Civil war broke out, but George succeeded in defeating the nobles who remained faithful to Rome. In 1451 the Emperor Frederick III, as guardian of the young king Ladislaus, entrusted Poděbrad with the administration of Bohemia. In the same year a diet assembled at Prague also confirmed the regency on George.

Ruler of Bohemia

The struggle of the Hussites against the papal party continued uninterruptedly, and the position of George became a very difficult one when the young king Ladislaus, who was crowned in 1453, expressed his pro-Roman sympathies, though he had recognized the compacts and the ancient privileges of Bohemia. In 1457 King Ladislaus died suddenly and some voices accused George of having poisoned him. However, research in 1985 proved acute leukemia as the cause of death.

On 2 March 1458 the estates of Bohemia unanimously chose George as king. Even the adherents of the papal party voted for him, some in honour of his moderate policies, some out of deference to popular feeling, which opposed the election of a foreign ruler.

George attempted to rule in a moderate manner based on the Compacta of Prague. He won the loyalty of some Catholics, but had to contend with the opposition of Pope Pius II, which proved one of the most serious obstacles to his rule. Pius declared the Compacta null and void in 1462 and wished George to consent to this. George rejected this demand but endeavoured to curry favour with the Papal See by punishing the more extreme Hussites (Taborites) or members of then newly founded Unitas Fratrum church.

Message of peace

George attempted to secure peace with Rome by a radical suggestion, which some consider to have been a proposal before its time of a European Union. He proposed a treaty among all Christian powers, with Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saxony, France, Burgundy and Italian states and its princes the founding members, but others, especially the Hispanic powers, joining later. The member states would pledge to settle all differences by exclusively peaceful means. There was to be a common parliament and other common institutions. George couched the proposal in Christian terms ("Europe" is not explicitly mentioned) as a way to stop the "abominable Turk", who had conquered Constantinople in 1453.

He sent his brother-in-law Jaroslav Lev of Rožmitál on a tour of European courts with a draft treaty of the message of peace to promote the idea. George hoped that the treaty would come into effect in 1464. It is seen as one of historical visions of European unity foreshadowing the European Union.

That did not happen. All George's endeavours to establish peace with Rome proved ineffectual, but Pius II's plan of a crusade against Bohemia remained unexecuted. After Pius' death in 1464, George attempted to negotiate with the new pope, Paul II, who proved to be an equally determined opponent.

Struggle with internal opposition and antiking
George made enemies among the nobles of the papal party, who assembled at Zelená Hora (Grüneberg) on 28 November 1465 to voice their grievances and conclude an alliance against the king. The alliance was from the outset supported by Paul II, who, on 23 December 1466, excommunicated George and pronounced his deposition as king of Bohemia, which released all subjects of the Bohemian crown from their oaths of allegiance to George. Emperor Frederick III and Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, George's former ally, joined the insurgent Bohemian nobles, starting the Bohemian War. Matthias conquered a large part of Moravia, and was crowned by the papal party in the Moravian ecclesiastical metropolis Olomouc as king of Bohemia on 3 May 1469.

George was successful against Matthias but, contrary to the wishes of his followers, came to an agreement with the Hungarian king in 1470.

His followers chose Vladislaus II, the son of the Polish king, as his successor to continue the fight against Matthias.

Legacy
The large Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Prague 3 with the nearby eponymous metro station are named after him. Other squares named after him are in Ostrava, Hořice, Toužim, Řevnice, Kunštát or Nový Knín.

In 1896, an equestrian statue of King George, sculpted by Bohuslav Schnirch was erected in Poděbrady.

During World War I, early in 1917, the 2nd Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment of the Czechoslovak Legions was formed in Russia and named after King George.

Marriages and children
In 1440 he married Kunigunde of Sternberg; they had the following children:
Boček (15 July 1442 – 28 September 1496)
Victor (29 May 1443 – 30 August 1500), Imperial prince, Duke of Munsterberg and Opava and Count of Kladsko. Married to 1. Margaret Ptáček; 2. Sophie of Silesian Piasts; 3. Helen Margaret Palaiologina, daughter of John IV, Marquess of Montferrat.
Barbara (1446–1469), married firstly to Henry of Lipá, and secondly to John of Ronov
Henry the Elder (1448–1498), married Ursula of Brandenburg, daughter of Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg
Katharina (11 November 1449 – 8 March 1464), twin of Sidonie, married Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, however died young
Sidonie (11 November 1449 – 1 February 1510), twin of Katharina, called Zdeňka, married Albert III, Duke of Saxony

After Kunigunde died in 1449, he married Johana of Rožmitál in 1450, they had the following children:
Henry the Younger (18 May 1452 – 1 July 1492) married Catherine, daughter of William III, Duke of Saxony
Frederick (1453–1458)
Agnes?, believed to have married in Wallachia
Ludmila (16 October 1456 – 20 January 1503), married Frederick I of Liegnitz

See also
Gregory of Heimburg

References

Further reading

 Colette Beaune: Chrétienté et Europe : le projet de Georges de Podiebrad au xve siècle, in: Chrétiens et sociétés, vol. 1, 1994, uploaded 8 July 2008 (in French).
 Frederik Dhondt, "Treaty on the Establishment of Peace Throughout Christendom (1464)". In: Hélène Ruiz Fabri (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (Oxford: OUP, 2021), https://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law-mpeipro/e3721.013.3721/law-mpeipro-e3721
 Frederick G. Heymann. George of Bohemia. King of Heretics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965.
 Otakar Odložilík. The Hussite King. Bohemia in European Affairs 1440–1471. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1965.
 Anthony D. Smith. "National Identity and the Idea of European Unity" International Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan. 1992), pp. 55–76

1420 births
1471 deaths
People from Poděbrady
15th-century people from Bohemia
Medieval kings of Bohemia
Hussite people
People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
Podiebrad family
15th-century monarchs in Europe
Burials at St. Vitus Cathedral

George of Poděbrady


Carl Theodore Liebermann (23 February 1842 – 28 December 1914) was a German chemist and student of Adolf von Baeyer.

Life
Liebermann first studied at the University of Heidelberg where Robert Wilhelm Bunsen was teaching. He then joined the group of Adolf von Baeyer at the University of Berlin where he received his PhD in 1865.

Together with Carl Gräbe, Liebermann synthesised the orange-red dye alizarin in 1868. After his habilitation in 1870 he became professor at the University of Berlin after Adolf von Baeyer left for the University of Strasbourg. Shortly after Liebermann retired, in 1914, he died.

Work

In 1826, the French chemist Pierre Jean Robiquet had isolated from the root of a plant, madder, and defined the structure of, alizarin, a remarkable red dye. Liebermann's 1868 discovery that alizarin can be reduced to form anthracene, which is an abundant component in coal tar, opened the road for synthetic alizarin. The patent of Liebermann and Carl Gräbe for the synthesis of alizarin from anthracene was filed one day before the patent of William Henry Perkin. The synthesis is a chlorination or bromination of anthracene with a subsequent oxidation forming the alizarin.

See also
 Pierre Jean Robiquet
 Carl Gräbe
 William Henry Perkin

References

1842 births
1914 deaths
19th-century German chemists
19th-century German Jews
20th-century German chemists
Jewish chemists
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala

Carl Theodore Liebermann


The Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Sprint is an American race for thoroughbred horses held in January at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California or at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida as part of the eight-race Sunshine Millions series. Half the eight races of the Sunshine Millions are run at one track and half at the other.

Open to fillies (younger than 5 years) and mares (5 years and older) willing to race six furlongs on the dirt, the Sunshine Millions Fillies & Mares Sprint is a restricted stakes carrying a purse of $150,000.

In its 15th running in 2017, the series of races called the Sunshine Millions is restricted to horses bred in Florida or California and is the brainchild of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association, Inc., Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, and Magna Entertainment Corp.

Winners

References
 Official site of the Sunshine Millions
 Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Sprint at Pedigree Query

Restricted stakes races in the United States
Horse races in Florida
Sprint category horse races for fillies and mares
Horse races in California

Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Sprint


Preview was an American subscription television service that launched in 1980. Like its competitors, such as ONTV and SelecTV, Preview was a scrambled UHF subscription channel requiring a special set-top box to decode the signal.

Preview's broadcast day was mainly between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., but varied depending on the market and during later periods of the channel's existence. Owned by American Television and Communications (ATC), the cable division of Time, Inc. (now Warner Bros. Discovery and Dotdash Meredith respectively), Preview was carried on several independent stations including WCLQ-TV (now Univision owned-and-operated station WQHS-DT) in Cleveland, WSMW-TV (now Univision affiliate WUNI) in the Boston area, and KTWS-TV (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station KDFI) in Dallas. A fourth Preview-branded service, not owned by ATC, was carried by KDNL-TV in St. Louis (later a Fox affiliate, now an ABC affiliate).

The service offered movies, sporting events, and specials. The service also broadcast programming from ONTV and SelecTV, in some cases, simulcasting in areas where any of these services and Preview were available. Preview lasted until 1986, when the last affiliate, WSMW, discontinued carrying the service.

Markets

Boston

Preview was most successful in Boston, its first market, where subscription television programs began to air on WSMW on September 8, 1980. WSMW had to fight competition from StarCase on WQTV channel 68 and a perception that its transmitter in Worcester was weak.

Preview reaped a windfall in February 1983 when Star TV, the renamed StarCase, ceased operations; Preview bought the subscriber list and temporarily simulcast most of its programming on both channels 68 and 27 until it could switch Star TV subscribers to Preview equipment. Preview also progressively expanded its broadcast day; it moved up its start time two hours to 5 pm on March 1, 1983, over objections by the city of Worcester, which feared the loss of its commercial TV station to subscription programs. More Preview hours were freed up by 1984 when Nolanda Hill, the station's owner, axed most of its local programming in response to WSMW's insufficient studio space in Shrewsbury.

Over the course of 1985, Preview progressively cut back its hours until ceasing operations late in 1985. WSMW then relaunched as a general independent station, WHLL.

Cleveland

Preview debuted in Cleveland on March 7, 1981—four days after WCLQ-TV itself, which signed on March 3. It was able to obtain some rights to Cleveland Cavaliers NBA basketball during its operational period. However, as in other markets, Preview struggled. Cleveland's more affluent suburban areas were wired for cable much faster than anticipated, taking away a critical segment of Preview's potential customer base. While Preview Cleveland at its peak numbered nearly 40,000 subscribers, it had fallen to just 23,000 by mid-1983, prompting the STV service to close down effective August 31, 1983. Also cited by observers were poor marketing and customer service.

Dallas

In Dallas, Preview entered one of the most competitive STV markets in the nation; at one point, Preview, ON TV and VEU all operated in the Metroplex.

ATC exited Dallas not by shuttering its Preview service, but by selling it to Golden West Broadcasters, the parent company of VEU, in September 1982. The deal, which was estimated at between $15 and $18 million, combined Preview's 25,000 subscribers with the 42,000 of VEU. VEU, which had broadcast over KNBN-TV, began simulcasting on KTWS, to which all subscribers were moved by mid-December.

St. Louis

Preview in St. Louis was among the shortest-lived STV operations in the country, operating over KDNL-TV in St. Louis for just seven months. It began operating June 1, 1982, with 2,500 households signed up for the first night of programming. In contrast to most STV operations, Preview St. Louis struggled to attract interest from professional sports teams—only seven St. Louis Cardinals baseball games aired on the service, but the St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Steamers expressed no interest. The system had only 10,000 subscribers, and KDNL owner Cox Enterprises announced before the end of the year it would drop Preview on February 28, 1983, laying off 77 employees in the process. Preview struggled with the depressed state of the St. Louis economy and the faster-than-anticipated wiring of area homes for cable. One source quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch estimated the service made a loss of $100,000 a month.

References

Television channels and stations established in 1980
Defunct television networks in the United States
Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries
American subscription television services
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1986

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The Catacombs of Rome () are ancient catacombs, underground burial places in and around Rome, of which there are at least forty, some rediscovered only in recent decades.

Though most famous for Christian burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed together, Jews and also adherents of a variety of pagan Roman religions were buried in catacombs, beginning in the 2nd century AD, occasioned by the ancient Roman ban on burials within a city, and also as a response to overcrowding and shortage of land. The most extensive and perhaps the best known is the Christian Catacomb of Callixtus located near the Park of the Caffarella, but there are other sites, both Christian and not, scattered around the city, some of which are now engulfed by modern urban sprawl.

The Christian catacombs are extremely important for the history of Early Christian art, as they contain the great majority of examples from before about 400 AD, in fresco and sculpture, as well as gold glass medallions (these, like most bodies, have been removed). The Jewish catacombs are similarly important for the study of Jewish culture at this early period.

Etymology
The word catacombs comes from the Latin root word catatumbas meaning either "among the tombs" or, according to other translations from the original Late Latin, "next to the quarry". The later translation stems from the first excavations done to create the catacombs system, which was conducted outside of Rome near the quarry.

Precursors

The Etruscan civilization dominated a territory including the area which now includes Rome from perhaps 900 to 100 BC. Like many other European peoples, it had buried its dead in excavated underground chambers, such as the Tomb of the Capitals, and less complex tumuli. In contrast, the original Roman custom had been cremation of the human body, after which the burnt remains were kept in a pot, urn, or ash-chest, often deposited in a columbarium or dovecote. Rome faced two problems in the 2nd century CE: overpopulation and a lack of land. The city was growing, and many of the buildings were four or five stories tall. Since burials were not allowed inside the city walls, and early Christians did not agree with the pagan practice of cremating their dead, communal underground cemeteries provided a practical alternative. From about the 2nd century AD, inhumation (burial of unburnt human remains) became customary, either in graves or, for those who could afford them, in sarcophagi, often elaborately carved.  By the 4th century, burial had overtaken cremation as the usual practice, and the construction of tombs had grown greater and spread throughout the empire. Jews and Christians preferred burial due to the idea of preserving the dead body for the resurrection. Considerable tracts of the ancient roads leading out of Rome and other Roman cities, like the Via Appia to this day, had monumental tombs running alongside them.  These would inevitably cost a fortune to construct, whereas clearly in digging out of the catacombs would be less expensive.

Despite widespread popular modern ideas, these tunnels were probably not used for regular worship at first, but simply for burial. However, extending pre-existing Roman customs, memorial services, and celebrations of the anniversaries of Christian martyrs took place there. There are sixty known subterranean burial chambers in Rome. They were built outside the walls along main Roman roads, like the Via Appia, the Via Ostiense, the Via Labicana, the Via Tiburtina, and the Via Nomentana. Names of the catacombs – like St Calixtus and St Sebastian, which is alongside Via Appia – refer to martyrs that may have been buried there.  However, about 80% of the excavations used for Christian burials date to after the time of the persecutions.

Discoveries
Through research, it has been found that the population's diet consisted of freshwater fish. Sample D9-W-XVI-8, considered to be a two-year-old child, shows that children in Ancient Rome were breastfed and this child, in particular, had not yet been weaned off its mother. This results from the fact that the δ15N values had not begun to decline.

Fish had intertwined secular and religious aspects in Roman society. For one thing, it was a staple of the daily diet. It also had a variety of significance for Christians, for whom it was not only a common food, as for other Romans, but featured as a symbol in Christian iconography and was consumed at meals held to commemorate the dead.

Christian catacombs
Roman law forbade burial places within city limits and so all burial places, including the catacombs, were located outside the walls of the city.  The first large-scale catacombs in the vicinity of Rome were dug from the 2nd century onwards.  They were carved in "tufa" (tuff), a type of volcanic rock which is relatively soft to dig into but subsequently hardens.

Christian catacombs existed as a burial ground for early Christians accompanied by inscriptions and early wall art.  Although catacombs were of Jewish origin in the first century, by the end of the sixth century there were over 60 Christian catacombs. These catacombs served as a connector for various Christian communities through the underlying concepts of socio-economic status shown within the art. Additionally, the art showed a story of how Christians in the first couple of centuries viewed the world and their idealistic view of how it should be.

According to L. Michael White, the catacombs of Rome have a place in the romantic historiography of how early Christianity developed. This is because it has often been said those catacombs were good hiding places, and that when Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire, they would go there to hold their worship.

However, White believes Christians did not use the catacombs of Rome to secretly hold their worship during times of persecutions. He says that they did not do so, first because Christians were not persecuted on a regular basis by the Roman Empire. Second, because the larger rooms or chambers within the catacombs were not used for regular worship, eucharist or assembly by Christians. White says that those catacombs' larger rooms, which had some benches along their walls and were appropriate to hold eucharistic assemblies, were in fact used by Christians to "hol[d] meals for the dead." He states such "funerary meals" were practised among most families of the city of Rome. Therefore, he explains, Christians, in their everyday life, regularly went down into the catacombs of Rome, not to hold assemblies or eucharist but, "to hold memorial meals with dead members of their families, just like their pagan neighbors." V. Rutgers considers that "[r]esearchers have long debunked the myth that Christians used the catacombs as hiding places in times of persecution", because when those persecutions took place, the exact locations of the catacombs of Rome were widely known. Frank K. Flinn considers that during the period of Christian persecutions and shortly after it, Christians held "memorial rites and Eucharist" near the graves of the more famous Christian martyrs. He adds that "[c]ontrary to novel and movie lore," the catacombs of Rome "were not used as hiding places for Christians." Author J. Osbourne says that "nothing could be further from the truth" than the idea that Christians inhabited the Catacombs during the period of persecution.

Christian art in the catacombs is split into three categories: iconographic, stylistic, and technical. From the first to the sixth century, the art in Roman Christian catacombs progressively went into phases as well: an early phase, an Old Testament phase, and a New Testament phase.

Excavators (fossors) built vast systems of galleries and passages on top of each other. They lie  below the surface in an area of more than . Narrow steps that descend as many as four stories join the levels. Passages are about . Burial niches (loculi) were carved into walls. They are  high and  long. Bodies were placed in chambers in stone sarcophagi in their clothes and bound in linen. Then the chamber was sealed with a slab bearing the name, age, and the day of death. The fresco decorations provide the main surviving evidence for Early Christian art, and initially show typically Roman styles used for decorating homes – with secular iconography adapted to a religious function. The catacomb of Saint Agnes is a small church. Some families were able to construct cubicula which would house various loculi and the architectural elements of the space would offer support for decoration. Another excellent place for artistic programs were the arcosolia.

History of original tunnelling
The complex system of tunnels that would later be known as the catacombs were first excavated by the Etruscan people that lived in the region predating the Romans. These tunnels were first excavated in the process of mining for various rock resources such as limestone and sandstone. These quarries became the basis for later excavation, first by the Romans for rock resources and then by the Christians and Jews for burial sites and mass graves.

Decline and rediscovery

In 380, Christianity became a state religion. At first, many still desired to be buried in chambers alongside the martyrs. However, the practice of catacomb burial declined slowly, and the dead were increasingly buried in church cemeteries. After the Edict of Milan in 313, many Roman Christians flocked to the catacombs in order to find relics from the martyrs, and would pillage through the remains. Due to this, vandalism became rampant in the catacombs. In the 6th century, catacombs were used only for martyrs' memorial services, though some paintings were added as late as the 7th century, for example, a Saint Stephen in the Catacomb of Commodilla. Apparently, Ostrogoths, Vandals and Lombards that sacked Rome also violated the catacombs, presumably looking for valuables. By the 10th century, catacombs were practically abandoned, and holy relics were transferred to above-ground basilicas. Osbourne disputes this characterization, suggesting that the catacombs fell into disrepair following the move out of Rome for the Avignon Papacy and it was only because of the lack of sufficient religious practice in Rome that led the catacombs to completely fall into disrepair.

In the intervening centuries they remained forgotten until they were accidentally rediscovered in 1578, after which Antonio Bosio spent decades exploring and researching them for his Roma Sotterranea (1632). Archeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822–1894) published the first extensive professional studies about catacombs. In 1956 and 1959 Italian authorities found more catacombs near Rome. The catacombs have become an important monument of the early Christian church.

Today
Responsibility for the Christian catacombs lies with the Holy See, which has set up active official organizations for this purpose: the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology (Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra) directs excavations and restoration works, while the study of the catacombs is directed in particular by the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology. The administration of some sites is entrusted on a day-to-day basis to local clergy or religious orders who have an activity on or adjacent to the site. The supervision of the Catacombs of St. Callixtus by the Salesian Fathers is well known. In the last years, with the growth of the internet, updated information is often available online, with an indication of a current street address, opening hours, fees, availability of guides in the different languages, size of groups permitted, and public transport. Like other historical sites in Italy, the catacombs are often not accessible at certain times of the day or on certain days of the week and may require online pre-booking. There are currently only 5 Catacombs open to the public; San Sebastiano, San Callisto, Priscilla, Domitilla, and Sant'Agnese.

Typology
Roman catacombs are made up of underground passages (ambulacra), in the walls of which horizontal niches (loculi) were dug. These loculi, generally laid out in sequences (pilae) one above the other from floor or waist level, could each contain one or more bodies. When placed inside of loculi, bodies were usually covered in a shroud and often covered in lime, which helped to cover the smell of the decaying process. In order to make more money, fossores would often sell occupied loculi to other people. A loculus large enough to contain two bodies were referred to as a bisomus. Another type of burial, typical of Roman catacombs, was the arcosolium, consisting of a curved niche, enclosed under a carved horizontal marble slab. Cubicula (burial rooms containing loculi all for one family) and cryptae (chapels decorated with frescoes) are also commonly found in catacomb passages. When space began to run out, other graves were also dug in the floor of the corridors – these graves are called formae.

List of catacombs in Rome
The Roman catacombs, of which there are forty in the suburbs or former suburbs, were built along the consular roads out of Rome, such as the Via Appia, the Via Ostiensis, the Via Labicana, the Via Tiburtina, and the Via Nomentana. With the exception of the Via Ostiensis (Italian: Via Ostiense), these ancient Latin terms are also the current Italian names for these roads.

Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter

These catacombs are situated on the ancient Via Labicana, today Via Casilina in Rome, Italy, near the church of Santi Marcellino e Pietro ad Duas Lauros. Their name refers to the Christian martyrs Marcellinus and Peter who, according to tradition, were buried here, near the body of St. Tiburtius.

Catacombs of Domitilla

Close to the Catacombs of San Callisto are the large and impressive Catacombs of Domitilla (named after Saint Domitilla), spread over  of caves.

In the beginning of 2009, at the request of the Vatican, the Divine Word Missionaries, a Roman Catholic Society of priests and Brothers, assumed responsibility as an administrator of St. Domitilla Catacombs.

Catacombs of Commodilla

These catacombs, on the Via Ostiensis, contain one of the earliest images of a bearded Christ. They originally held the relics of Saints Felix and Adauctus. Excavations on the Commodilla were conducted by Franciscan archaeologist Bellarmino Bagatti (1933–34).

Catacombs of Generosa

Located on the Campana Road, these catacombs are said to have been the resting place, perhaps temporarily, of Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrix, Christian Martyrs who died in Rome during the Diocletian persecution (302 or 303).

Catacombs of Praetextatus
These are found along the via Appia and were built at the end of the 2nd century. They consist of a vast underground burial area, at first in pagan then in Christian use, housing various tombs of Christian martyrs. In the oldest parts of the complex may be found the "cubiculum of the coronation", with a rare depiction for that period of Christ being crowned with thorns, and a 4th-century painting of Susanna and the old men in the allegorical guise of a lamb and wolves.

Catacombs of Priscilla

The Catacomb of Priscilla, situated at the Via Salaria across from the Villa Ada, probably derives its name from the name of the landowner on whose land they were built. They are looked after by the Benedictine nuns of Priscilla.

Catacombs of San Callisto

Sited along the Appian way, these catacombs were built after AD 150, with some private Christian hypogea and a funeral area directly dependent on the Catholic Church. It takes its name from the deacon Saint Callixtus, proposed by Pope Zephyrinus in the administration of the same cemetery – on his accession as pope, he enlarged the complex, that quite soon became the official one for the Roman Church. The arcades, where more than fifty martyrs and sixteen pontiffs were buried, form part of a complex graveyard that occupies fifteen hectares. The Catacombs of San Callisto are around 90 acres large, 12 miles long, contains 4 levels, and spans more than 20 meters underground.  Because of the high volume of popes buried inside the catacombs, it is often called the "Little Vatican".

Catacombs of San Lorenzo
Built into the hill beside San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, these catacombs are said to have been the final resting place of St. Lawrence. The church was built by Pope Sixtus III and later remodeled into the present nave. Sixtus also redecorated the shrine in the catacomb and was buried there.

Catacombs of San Pancrazio

Established underneath the San Pacrazio basilica which was built by Pope Symmachus on the place where the body of the young martyr Saint Pancras, or Pancratius, had been buried. In the 17th century, it was given to the Discalced Carmelites, who completely remodeled it. The catacombs house fragments of sculpture and pagan and early Christian inscriptions.

Catacombs of San Sebastiano

One of the smallest Christian cemeteries, this has always been one of the most accessible catacombs and is thus one of the least preserved (of the four original floors, the first is almost completely gone). On the left-hand end of the right-hand wall of the nave of the primitive basilica, rebuilt in 1933 on ancient remains, arches to end the middle of the nave of the actual church, built in the 13th century, are visible, along with the outside of the apse of the Chapel of the Relics; whole and fragmentary collected sarcophagi (mostly of 4th-century date) were found in excavations. This is where the martyrs Sebastian and Eutychius were buried.

Via a staircase down, one finds the arcades where varied cubicula (including the cubiculum of Giona's fine four stage cycle of paintings, dating to the end of the 4th century). One then arrives at the restored crypt of S. Sebastiano, with a table altar on the site of the ancient one (some remains of the original's base still survive) and a bust of Saint Sebastian attributed to Bernini. From here one reaches a platform, under which is a sandstone cavity ad catacumbas which once may have been named "ad catacumbas", thus giving this and all other tombs of this type their name. 3 mausolea of the second half of the 2nd century (but also in later use) open off the platform. The first one on the right, decorated on the outside with paintings of funereal banquets and the miracle of the calling out of Cerasa's demons, on the inside contains paintings (including a ceiling painting of a Gorgon's head) and inhumation burials and has a surviving inscription reading "Marcus Clodius Hermes", the name of its owner. The second, called by some "tomb of the Innocentiores" (a burial club which owned it), has a refined stucco ceiling, Latin inscriptions in Greek characters, and a graffito with the initials of the Greek words for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". On the left is the mausoleum of Ascia, with an exterior wall painting of vine shoots rising from kantharoi up trompe-l'œil pillars.

A room called the "Triglia" rises from the platform, roughly in the middle of the basilica and cut into from above by the present basilica. This covered room was used for funereal banquets; the plastered walls have hundreds of graffiti by the devotees at these banquets, carved in the second half of the 3rd to the beginnings of the 4th century, with appeals to the apostle's Peter and Paul. From the "Trigilia" one passed into an ancient ambulatory, which turns around into an apse: here is a collection of epitaphs and a model of all the mausolei, of the "Triglia" and of the Constantinian basilica. From here one descends into the "Platonica", construction at the rear of the basilica that was long believed to have been the temporary resting place for Peter and Paul, but was in fact (as proved by excavation) a tomb for the martyr Quirinus, bishop of Sescia in Pannonia, whose remains were brought here in the 5th century. To the right of the "Platonica" is the chapel of Honorius III, adapted as the vestibule of the mausoleum, with interesting 13th-century paintings of Peter and Paul, the Crucifixion, saints, the Massacre of the Innocents, Madonna and Child, and other subjects. On the left is an apsidal mausoleum with an altar built against the apse: on the left wall, a surviving graffito reading "domus Petri" either hints at Peter having been buried here or testifies to the belief at the time the graffito was written that Peter was buried here.

Catacombs of San Valentino

These catacombs were dedicated to Saint Valentine. In the 13th century, the martyr's relics were transferred to Basilica of Saint Praxedes.

Catacombs of Sant'Agnese

Built for the conservation and veneration of the remains of Saint Agnes of Rome. Agnes' bones are now conserved in the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome, built over the catacomb. Her skull is preserved in a side chapel in the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone in Rome's Piazza Navona.

Catacombs of via Anapo
On the via Salaria, the Catacombs of via Anapo are datable to the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century and contain diverse frescoes of biblical subjects.

Jewish catacombs
There are six known Jewish catacombs in Rome, two of which are open to the public: Vigna Randanini and Villa Torlonia.

The Jewish catacombs were discovered in 1918, and archaeological excavations continued for twelve years. The structure has two entrances, one on via Syracuse and the other inside Villa Torlonia. The catacombs extend for more than , and date back to the period between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and possibly remained in use until the 5th century. There are almost a century of epitaphs, but these do not show any examples of a particular belief, beyond some rare frescoes showing the classic Jewish religious symbols. Jewish Catacombs are distinguished from their Christian counterparts by various signs as well as the fact that Jewish people did not visit the dead in the Catacombs. Parts of the Old Testament and the symbol of a candlestick with seven-branches have been spotted on the walls of Jewish Catacombs.

Due to high levels of humidity and temperature, bone preservation has been negatively affected in the catacombs. Scientists are unable to identify the sex of the dead due to the lack of preservation in the bones.

The other catacombs are not open to the public because of the instability of their structure and the presence of radon.

Gallery of paintings from the catacombs of Rome
In the Catacombs of Rome, there are many different pieces of artwork. Most artworks are religious in nature some depicting important Christian rites such as baptism, or religious scenes and stories such as the story of "The Three Hebrews and the Fiery Furnace" or biblical figures such as Adam and Eve.

See also
Antonio Bosio, (c. 1575-1576–1629) was an Italian scholar, the first systematic explorer of subterranean Rome
Catacomb saints, corpses from the Roman catacombs that were decorated and presented as relics of Christian saints
Depictions of Jesus
List of ancient monuments in Rome

References

Sources
 B. L. Benas, Records of the Jews in Rome and their Inscriptions from Ancient Catacombs, Literary & Philosophical Society of Liverpool, 1895
 L'Abbe Jean-Joseph Gaume, Les Trois Rome, journal d'un Voyage en Italie, Gaume Freres, 1847
 William Ingraham Kip, The Catacombs of Rome; as illustrating the Church of the first three Centuries, Redfield, 1854
 Charles Macfarlane, The Catacombs of Rome, with illustrations, 1852
 Charles Maitland, The Church in the Catacombs: a Description of the Primitive Church of Rome, illustrated by its Sepulchral Remains, Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847 (second revised edition) w
 Fabrizio Mancinelli, Catacombs and Basilicas: Early Christians in Rome, Scala, 1981
 Rev. J. Spencer Northcote & Rev. William R. Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea; or an Account of the Roman Catacombs, Especially of the Cemetery of St. Callixtus, compiled from the works of Commendatore De Rossi, with the author's consent, London, Longmans, 1869; re-written and expanded 1879
 Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, The Roman Catacombs; or, some account of the Burial-Places of the Early Christians in Rome Charles Dolman, 1857
 Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, A Visit to the Roman Catacombs, Burns & Oates, 1877
 Rev. J. Spencer Northcote, Epitaphs of the Catacombs; or Christian Inscriptions in Rome during the first four Centuries, Longman, 1878
 Philippe Pergola, Christian Rome: Early Christian Rome, Catacombs and Basilicas, OUP, 2002
 Ivana della Portella & Mark E. Smith (photo.), Subterranean Rome: Catacombs, Baths, Temples, Streets (Art & Architecture series), Konemann, 2000
 Benjamin Scott, The Contents and Teachings of the Catacombs at Rome... a vindication of Pure and Primitive Christianity etc., Longmans, 1853; reprinted in numerous editions
 Dean Arthur Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, John Murray, 1861
 James Stevenson, The Catacombs: Rediscovered Monuments of Early Christianity (Ancient Peoples and Places series), Thames & Hudson, 1978
 James Stevenson, The Catacombs: Life and Death in Early Christianity, Thomas Nelson, 1985
 Jocelyn Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World, JHU Press, 1996 reprint, , 9780801855078, google books
 John Harvey Treat, The Catacombs of Rome; and a History of the Tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, The Old Corner Bookstore, 1907
 Rev. William Henry Withrow, The Catacombs of Rome and their Testimony Relative to Primitive Christianity, Nelson & Phillips, 1874
 Rev. William Henry Withrow, Valeria, the Martyr of the Catacombs, William Briggs, 1882

Further reading

 The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome, a book from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the catacombs

External links

Ancient Roman tombs and cemeteries in Rome
Burial monuments and structures
Cemeteries in Italy
Christian buildings and structures in the Roman Empire
Papal tombs

Catacombs of Rome


Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen (Amalienborg Plads) is an 1896 oil-on-canvas painting by the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi in the Statens Museum for Kunst.

This painting shows Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen in a hazy setting with full sunlight on the 1768 Neoclassical statue of Frederik V on Horseback, commissioned by the Asiatic Company and created by the French sculptor Jacques Saly. This statue took 14 years to complete and cost more than Amalienborg's four palatial buildings which surround it, which is perhaps why Hammershøi decided to place it in full sunlight. The lack of any trace of human life in the painting is typical of Hammershøi's work and emphasizes the monumental qualities of the subject. The skewed architectural lines give the painting a sense of space and the horseman seems to be trotting calmly out of the painting, leaving the two-dimensional palace behind him. The trompe l'oeil effect makes the painting seem taller, but it is actually square.

Other monumental paintings of architecture by Hammershøi in this period were:

References

artwork record on Europeana website

1896 paintings
Paintings in the National Gallery of Denmark
Paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi
Cityscape paintings
19th-century paintings in Denmark

Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen


The Musée du Barreau de Paris is a French museum dedicated to the history of the Paris Bar and its lawyers. It is located close to the Église Saint-Eustache, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, at 25 rue du Jour, Paris, and opens for groups, on appointment. A guided visit in English can be organised on request. An entrance fee is charged.

The museum occupies the vaulted cellars of the 17th century Hôtel de la Porte, named after its owner, Antoine de la Porte (1641-1697), fresh fish merchant and town magistrate of Paris, and restored in 1980-1981. Its collections include items that reflect legal history from the 17th century to the present (1960's), including manuscripts and exhibits from the trials of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Émile Zola at the Dreyfus affair, Michel Ney, Pierre Cambronne, Raoul Villain(assassin of Jean Jaurès), and Alexandre Stavisky. It also has a fine collection of notes of oral arguments by lawyers including Claude François Chauveau-Lagarde (defender of Marie Antoinette), Fernand Labori (defender of Zola), Léon Gambetta, Raymond Poincaré, and Jacques Isorni (lawyer for Marshal Philippe Pétain). It contains numerous works of art related to the Paris Bar, including paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs.

See also
 List of museums in Paris

References

 Evene.fr entry
 UGCE description

External links
 Le Musée du Barreau de Paris

Museums in Paris
Law enforcement museums in France
Buildings and structures in the 1st arrondissement of Paris

Musée du Barreau de Paris


Good Guys Wear Black is a 1978 American martial arts action film starring Chuck Norris and directed by Ted Post. This was the second film to feature Norris as the star, following Breaker! Breaker! (1977). However, this is the one that Norris considers his "breakthrough".

Following years of kung fu film imports from Hong Kong action cinema during the 1970s, most notably Bruce Lee films followed by Bruceploitation flicks, Good Guys Wear Black launched Chuck Norris as the first successful homegrown American martial arts star, having previously been best known for his film debut as a villain in Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon (1972). Good Guys Wear Black distinguished itself from earlier martial arts films with its distinctly American setting, characters, themes, and politics, a formula which Norris continued with the similarly successful Force of One (1979). The film featured a first screen appearance by Norris' brother Aaron Norris and the final appearance of Lloyd Haynes.

Plot
In 1973, United States Senator Conrad Morgan (James Franciscus), the chief delegate diplomat in negotiating the terms of the end of the Vietnam War, made a deal in Paris, France with Kuong Yen; a North Vietnamese negotiator. The deal called for Yen to release certain key CIA POWs in exchange for Morgan setting up a death-trap for an elite group of CIA assassins, known as the Black Tigers. The treaty was signed and the Black Tigers were sent into the Vietnam jungle to their unwitting demise, having incorrectly been told that they were on a mission to liberate American POWs. However, the negotiators failed to account for one thing: the commandos' team leader was Major John T. Booker (Chuck Norris). Despite all odds, Booker survives, as do the four men wise enough to have remained in his general vicinity.

Five years after returning from Vietnam, Booker, now living in Los Angeles, is working as a political science professor at UCLA, and with a hobby of race-car driving. At UCLA, Booker lectures on how the war should not have happened, and that the U.S. should not have been involved. Sitting in on one of his lectures is a bright female reporter named Margaret (Anne Archer) who has some very specific questions about the botched rescue mission. To their shock, someone is slowly killing all the surviving members of the special forces team.

Booker is suddenly thrown back into his past when Morgan's appointment as Secretary of State spurs Yen to blackmail his ex-negotiations buddy into making good on his unfinished deal: the extermination of the Black Tigers.

Cast

 Chuck Norris as Major John T. Booker, The Black Tigers
 Anne Archer as Margaret
 James Franciscus as Senator Conrad Morgan
 Lloyd Haynes as Murray Saunders
 Dana Andrews as Edgar Harolds
 Jim Backus as Albert, The Apartment Doorman
 Lawrence P. Casey as Mike Potter, The Black Tigers
 Anthony Mannino as Gordie Jones, The Black Tigers
 Soon-Tek Oh as Major Mhin Van Thieu, The Black Tigers
 Joe Bennett as Lou Goldberg, The Black Tigers
 Jerry Douglas as Joe Walker, The Black Tigers
 Stack Pierce as Holly Washington, The Black Tigers
 Michael Payne as Mitch, The Black Tigers
 David Starwalt as Steagle, The Black Tigers
 Aaron Norris as Al, The Black Tigers
 Don Pike as Hank, The Black Tigers
 Benjamin J. Perry as Finney, The Black Tigers
 Kathy McCullen as Kelly
 Michael Stark as Pitman
 James Bacon as Senator
 Hatsuo Uda as Shoeshine Man
 Virginia Wing as Mrs. Mhin Van Thieu
 Viola Harris as Airline Ticket Agent
 Jacki Robins as Fat Lady
 Pat E. Johnson as CIA Agent
 Warren Smith as James, Morgan's Chauffeur
 Dick Shoemaker as Newscaster

Production
Norris had been offered a number of karate films but turned them down because he did not want to be limited. "Bruce Lee movies were all karate with a little story thrown in. I want to have a story with some karate scenes."

Norris said a friend wrote the script from a storyline he devised with one of his students. "My country wasn't built on sacrificing people to expedite principles", said Norris.

Norris said he "peddled" the script "all over Hollywood. The night before I was to meet this producer – I'd gone through everyone; he was the last – I thought, 'What can I say to this guy that I haven't said to everyone that's turned me down?' I went to bed, and about 2 o'clock in the morning, the answer popped into my head. And when I met the producer, he asked me the same question the others asked, 'Chuck, why will this movie make money?' And I said, 'First of all, there's four million karate people in America. They all know who I am. And if only half of them go to the movie, that's a $6 million gross on a $1 million budget.' And he said, 'Sounds good to me'."

The film was produced by Allan Bodoh, Mitchell Cannold and Michael Leone. Bodoh ran Mar Vista Productions, who in a two-year period made Dirt, Acapulco Gold, Dogs and The Great Smokey Roadblock.

Norris said during filming that he compared "Breaker! Breaker! with Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars and Good Guys Wear Black with Dirty Harry."

Filming started in May 1977. There was an excellent support cast including Dana Andrews. "I do one film a year just to keep my hand in", said Andrews.

"I want to be as big in the movie industry as I've been in the karate industry", said Norris. ""I know I can do it because I've got the faith to do it."

Norris said his character of Booker "had more feeling than the Clint Eastwood characters. Booker's sensitive, caring about people, but if pushed he can take care of the situation. That's like me. I'm an easy going guy but in the ring I have a fanatical desire to win. I want Booker to be someone people can relate to, a hero to worship. Take Bruce Lee, who was an Oriental but able to pull Caucasians. I'm taking a little from Eastwood, a little from Lee, and a little special effects from James Bond. John T Booker is someone moviegoers can emulate, to be that kind of person, a guy who doesn't push his weight around, an easygoing person who can be dangerous."
Chuck Norris had a long dialogue scene with James Franciscus about the Vietnam War. Steve McQueen, who Norris knew, saw it and advised Norris to let support characters take care of the exposition, "then when there's something important to say, you say it." "Let the co-stars do the b.s. dialogue", Norris says McQueen told him. "I do it. Eastwood does it. Bronson does it."

Norris later stated:

Release

Rating
The film was originally rated R but Norris lobbied successfully to have it changed to PG. "My argument was the strong, positive image I project on the screen", he said. "The word karate, unfortunately, connotes violence to many people. Actually, it's a means of avoiding violent situations, and a form of defense if you have no choice and you're backed into a corner."

Distribution
The film was distributed by American Cinema Releasing.

Reception

Box office
After opening on five screens in Denver on June 2, 1978, the movie would go on to gross $18 million at the US box office, due in part to a year-long publicity tour Norris did. (The actor estimated he did over 2,000 interviews in a year and says he had to go to hospital for laryngitis.) It earned rentals of $8.3 million.

Critical response
Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called it "cynical, reasonably entertaining... the slick, efficient murders are less gory to watch than disturbing to contemplate." The Washington Post said "the little plot it [the film] does have goes a long way." Tom Buckley of The New York Times said the film was "short on everything."

The 1996 movie guide "Seen That, Now What?", the film was given the rating of "C-", stating that "the serious-minded plot is poorly matched with the karate-chopping action sequences, and Norris' fancy footwork only occasionally takes fire."

"The first time I saw myself, I didn't feel embarrassed yet thought I could be better", said Norris. "But, by the fourth viewing, I wanted to hide behind a chair."

According to Norris, the critics said that "I was the worst thing in 50 years. Well, I wasn't good, but my feelings were hurt. I said, 'I'm not trying to be Dustin Hoffman; I just want to project a strong positive hero image on the screen.' I went to Steve [McQueen], and he said, 'In Good Guys you talk too much. Too much dialogue. Let the character actors lay out the plot. Then, when there's something important to say, you say it, and people will listen. Anyway, you'll get better as an actor. You should have seen me in The Blob."

The producers went on to make Go Tell the Spartans with Ted Post.

The film was meant to be the first in a series. However no further Booker movies resulted.

Other media

In popular culture
Chuck Norris' character in The Expendables 2 is named Booker "The Lone Wolf", in homage to John T. Booker in Good Guys Wear Black. (It also references his movie Lone Wolf McQuade)

See also
 Chuck Norris filmography

References

External links

1978 films
1970s action films
American action films
American martial arts films
Films directed by Ted Post
Films scored by Craig Safan
Films set in 1973
Films set in 1978
Films set in Los Angeles
Films set in Paris
Vietnam War films
1978 martial arts films
1970s English-language films
1970s American films

Good Guys Wear Black


Sir Arthur Cecil Tyrrell Beck (3 December 1876 – 22 March 1932) was a British Liberal Party politician.

Background
He was born in Bloemfontein South Africa and was the son of Arthur William Beck and Annie Tyrrell. He was educated at Haileybury and the Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1922 he married Lillian Clare Charteris Rickards. They had no children.

Professional career
In 1898 he qualified as a Barrister and was called to bar at Lincoln's Inn, but he never practised. He did serve as a Justice of the peace. He was an Under-writer at Lloyds.

Political career
From 1905 to 1906 he served as Mayor of St Ives, Huntingdonshire.
He was Liberal candidate for the Wisbech division of Cambridgeshire at the 1906 General Election. It was already a Liberal seat and he comfortably held it in that election;

He only served for one parliament as MP when the Liberals replaced him as their candidate for the January 1910 General Election. He managed to find another seat to contest, the Conservative seat of Chippenham in Wiltshire. Chippenham's Conservative MP since 1892 had joined the Liberals in 1904 and had retained his seat as a Liberal in 1906. He had since taken a seat in the House of Lords and Beck was given the tough job of trying to hold the seat. He was unsuccessful.
Another General election came along in December 1910 and Beck tried his luck with a different constituency, Saffron Walden in Essex. This was a traditional Liberal seat that had been marginally lost to the Conservatives at the January 1910 elections. Beck narrowly regained the seat;

In parliament he started off his governmental career in 1912  working as Parliamentary Private Secretary for Percy Illingworth who was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury. In 1912 he became Chairman of the Liberal Insurance Committee. Also in 1912 he was appointed one of the Commissioners on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into methods of appointment in the Civil Service. He was made a Lord of the Treasury in the Liberal government of H.H. Asquith in February 1915, then was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household on the formation of the wartime coalition government in May 1915.  He continued in this post until June 1917, when he was appointed one of the Parliamentary Secretaries and Controller of Finance to the Ministry of National Service. He was one of the minority of Liberal MPs who agreed to continue serving in the Coalition Government when David Lloyd George took over as Prime Minister. When the 1918 General Election came along, as an office holder in the Coalition Government, Beck received the endorsement of Lloyd George and had no Unionist opponent, making his re-election easy;

The National Service Ministry was abolished in December 1919. Beck was knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours. In August 1921 Beck resigned the Coalition Whip to join the Independent Parliamentary Group, a new right wing group led by Horatio Bottomley. Beck intended to contest a London constituency rather than defend his seat at the 1922 General Election, but he did not stand for parliament again.

Beck died in London on 22 March 1932, aged 55, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

References

External links

The Times Obituary: http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=esusslib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS319235703&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0
National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp61612/sir-arthur-cecil-beck?search=sas&sText=Cecil+Beck&OConly=true

1876 births
1932 deaths
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1906–1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
UK MPs 1918–1922
Burials at Brompton Cemetery
People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Knights Bachelor
19th-century British people
20th-century British people
People from St Ives, Cambridgeshire

Cecil Beck


The  California Gold Rush started when James Wilson Marshall was building a water-powered sawmill (for John Sutter) in 1848. When he finished building the mill, he went to the river to fetch some water. He saw some shiny little flakes of gold in the river. He immediately went to tell John, and they tried to keep it a secret. But word soon got out, and the gold rush started. It was 1849 when the Gold Rush started. People who came to California for gold were called forty-niners because they came in the year 1849. Some of them became rich but most did not.

Some people started selling things, mostly to miners at first. Some even became rich, famous, and politically powerful. Levi Strauss was one of them. He invented and sold jeans made from strong denim. Most merchants, farmers and other suppliers merely became richer than most miners. Sometimes a woman could earn more than her mining husband.

The California Gold Rush ended in 1855. Many gold miners returned to their home country because gold was harder to find than before; others found other work around the area. Henti was the only one.

1840s in California
1850s in California
Gold rushes

California Gold Rush


St. Lawrence Island (, ) is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, just south of the Bering Strait. The village of Gambell, located on the northwest cape of the island, is  from the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The island is part of Alaska, but closer to Russia and Asia than to the Alaskan  and North American mainland. St. Lawrence Island is thought to be one of the last exposed portions of the land bridge that once joined Asia with North America during the Pleistocene period.  It is the sixth largest island in the United States and the 113th largest island in the world. It is considered part of the Bering Sea Volcanic Province. The Saint Lawrence Island shrew (Sorex jacksoni) is a species of shrew endemic to St. Lawrence Island. The island is jointly owned by the predominantly Siberian Yupik villages of Gambell and Savoonga, the two main settlements on the island.

Geography

The United States Census Bureau defines St. Lawrence Island as Block Group 6, Census Tract 1 of Nome Census Area, Alaska. As of the 2000 census there were 1,292 people living on a land area of . The island is about  long and  wide. The island has no trees, and the only woody plants are Arctic willow, standing no more than a foot (30 cm) high.

The island's abundance of seabirds and marine mammals is due largely to the influence of the Anadyr Current, an ocean current which brings cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep waters of the Bering Sea shelf edge.

To the south of the island there was a persistent polynya in 1999, formed when the prevailing winds from the north and east blow the migrating ice away from the coast.

The climate of Gambell is:

Villages
The island contains and is jointly owned by two villages: Savoonga and Gambell. The island is now inhabited mostly by Siberian Yupik engaged in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. As a result of having title to the land, the Yupik are legally able to sell the fossilized ivory and other artifacts found on St. Lawrence Island.

The St. Lawrence Island Yupik people are also known for their skill in carving, mostly with materials from marine mammals (walrus ivory and whale bone). The Arctic yo-yo may have evolved on the island. Anthropologist Lars Krutak has examined the tattoo traditions of the St. Lawrence Yupik.

History

Prehistory
In St. Lawrence Island, earliest evidence of habitation dates from 2,000 to 2,500 years ago. Artifacts resemble the Okvik (oogfik) style. Archaeological sites on the Punuk Islands, off the eastern end of St. Lawrence Island, at Kukulik, near Savoonga and on hill slopes above Gambell, all indicate evidence of Okvik habitation. Okvik decorative style is zoomorphic and elaborate. Sometimes crude engraving, with greater variation than the Old Bering Sea and Punuk styles.

Okvik habitation, influenced by Old Bering Sea habitation of 2000 to 700 years ago, is characterized by the simpler and more homogeneous Punuk style. Stone artifacts changed from chipped stone to ground slate; carved ivory harpoon heads are smaller and simpler in design.

Prehistoric and early historic settlements of St. Lawrence Island were temporary. Periods of abandonment and reoccupation depended on resources along with favorable climate. Famine occurred, shown by Harris lines and enamel hypoplasia in human skeletons. With travel to and from the mainland during calm weather, the island was used as a hunting base. Sites were re-used occasionally rather than permanently.

Major archaeology sites at Gambell and Savoonga (Kukulik) were excavated by Otto Geist and Ivar Skarland of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Collections from these excavations are curated at the University of Alaska Museum on the UAF campus.

Arrival of Europeans

The island is called Sivuqaq by the Yupik who live there. It was visited by Russian/Danish explorer Vitus Bering on St. Lawrence's Day, August 10, 1728, and named after the day of his visit. The island was the first place in Alaska known to have been visited by European explorers.

There were about 4,000 Central Alaskan Yupik and Siberian Yupik living in several villages on the island in the mid-19th century. They subsisted by hunting walrus and whale and by fishing. The famine in 1878–1880 caused many to starve and many others to leave, decimating the island's population. A revenue cutter visited the island in 1880 and estimated that out of 700 inhabitants, 500 were found dead of starvation. Reports of the day put the blame on traders' supplying the people with liquor causing the people to ″neglect laying up their usual supply of provisions″. Nearly all the residents remaining were Siberian Yupik.

Reindeer were introduced on the island in 1900 in an attempt to bolster the economy. The reindeer herd grew to about 10,000 animals by 1917, but has since declined. Reindeer are herded as a source of subsistence meat to this day. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt established a reindeer reservation on the island. This caused legal issues in the indigenous land claim process to acquire surface and subsurface rights to their land, under the section 19 of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) as they had to prove that the reindeer reserve was set up to support the indigenous people rather than to protect the reindeer themselves.

World War II
During World War II, islanders served in the Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG).  Following disbandment of the ATG in 1947, and with the construction of Northeast Cape Air Force Station in 1952, many islanders joined the Alaska National Guard to provide for the defense of the island and station.

Cold War to Present
 On June 22, 1955, during the Cold War, a US Navy P2V Neptune with a crew of 11 was attacked by two Soviet Air Forces fighter aircraft along the International Date Line in international waters over the Bering Straits, between Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. The P2V crashed on the island's northwest cape, near the village of Gambell. Villagers rescued the crew, 3 of whom were wounded by Soviet fire and 4 of whom were injured in the crash. The Soviet government, in response to a US diplomatic protest, was unusually conciliatory, stating that:

The Soviet military was under strict orders to "avoid any action beyond the limits of the Soviet state frontiers."

The Soviet government "expressed regret in regard to the incident," and, "taking into account... conditions which do not exclude the possibility of a mistake from one side or the other," was willing to compensate the US for 50% of damages sustained—the first such offer ever made by the Soviets for any Cold War shoot-down incident.

The US government stated that it was satisfied with the Soviet expression of regret and the offer of partial compensation, although it said that the Soviet statement also fell short of what the available information indicated.

Northeast Cape Air Force Station, at the island's other end, was a United States Air Force facility consisting of an Aircraft Control and Warning (AC&W) radar site, a United States Air Force Security Service listening post; and a White Alice Communications System (WACS) site that operated from about 1952 to about 1972. The area surrounding the Northeast Cape base site had been a traditional camp site for several Yupik families for centuries. After the base closed down in the 1970s, many of these people started to experience health problems. Even today, people who grew up at Northeast Cape have high rates of cancer and other diseases, possibly due to PCB exposure around the site. According to the State of Alaska, those elevated cancer rates have been shown to be comparable to the rates of other Alaskan and non-Alaskan arctic natives who were not exposed to a similar Air Force facility. The majority of the facility was removed in a $10.5 million cleanup program in 2003. Monitoring of the site will continue into the future.

After the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, the villages of Savoonga and Gambell opted out of selling their land to the federal government and joining a larger regional Native corporation. In return, they were promised full ownership of St Lawrence Island. In 2016, after completing a decades-long land survey, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management transferred permanent private ownership of the island to the two corporations representing Savoonga and Gambell.

St. Lawrence Island made national news when Nanuq, an Australian Shepherd dog from Gambell, Alaska, was rescued and returned. The one-year-old dog belonged to a young Yupik named Mandy Iworrigan, who took the dog to Savoonga, where it disappeared. It was found weeks later in Wales on the Alaskan mainland. Large areas of the surrounding sea were covered by ice at the time. The dog is believed to have survived the 150-mile crossing by catching wild game. After posts about a lost dog in Wales were posted on social media, Nanuq was recognized and returned to its owner.

Transportation
The airports are Gambell Airport and Savoonga Airport.

Bibliography
Notes

References
 - Total pages: 520

External links

 Gambell and St. Lawrence Island Photos from Gambell and St. Lawrence Island, August 2001
 Video on St. Lawrence

Inuit territories
Siberian Yupik
Seabird colonies

St. Lawrence Island