Ma'an News Agency (MNA; ) is a large wire service created in 2005 in the Palestinian territories. It is part of the Ma'an Network, a non-governmental organization media network created in 2002 in the Palestinian territories among independent journalists throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It has partnerships with eight local television stations and twelve local radio stations. Ma'an News Agency publishes news 24 hours a day in Arabic, Hebrew and English, and claims to be one of the largest wire services in the Palestinian territories, with over three million visits per month. Ma'an News Agency also publishes feature stories, analysis and opinion articles. The agency's headquarters are based in Bethlehem and it has an office in Gaza.

History
The Ma'an Network was launched in 2002 as a partnership between Bethlehem TV and local Palestinian media organizations. The name Ma'an is the Arabic word for "together". The group is run by Raed Othman, the former manager of Bethlehem TV. Ma'an has produced three soap operas (one of which, Mazih fi Jad (Joking Seriously), was described as the first television drama series produced in the Palestinian territories), numerous news and public affairs programs and the television film Kafah. Ma'an's programs are broadcast by ten independent terrestrial television stations in the West Bank and occasionally by the Fatah-run Palestine TV satellite broadcaster.

The Ma'an News Agency was launched in 2005 with funding from the Danish and Dutch Representative Offices to the Palestinian National Authority. The news agency is the most visible component of the Ma'an Network.

Independence
Ma'an News Agency says that it "scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promote access to information, freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine." The Ma'an Network was founded with the goal of creating a media source that was free of factional control, unlike the major existing broadcasters such as Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV and Fatah's Palestine TV. In an interview with media scholar Matt Sienkiewicz, former Ma'an Chief financial officer Wisam Kutom stated that he told potential Ma'an funders that: "Palestinian television is factional television right now we [Palestinians] cannot tell the stories we want to, only the stories the factions will let us. There is no independent television".

Funding
Funding for Ma'an Network comes from advertising revenue and from foreign donors.

Hamas pressure
In July 2007, at the time the de facto Gaza Strip government, MNA alleged that MNA's chief editor had received "direct threats" from Hamas to carry out a "defamation campaign" against MNA, and to cease its criticism of "the Hamas movement".

In July 2013, Hamas closed the Gaza City bureaus of Ma'an and Al-Arabiya after the outlets reported that Hamas was sheltering Muslim Brotherhood figures who had fled Egypt. Hamas officials also questioned Ma'an News bureau chief Emad Eid for several hours on 30 July. According to Ma'an News director-general Raed Othman, Hamas objected to Ma'an using sources from Israeli media. The bureau reopened in November.

Reach
Ma'an News Agency describes itself as "the main source of independent news from Palestine" and "the premier source of independent Palestinian news on the internet". According to a 2007 survey, 95.6% of Palestinians with internet access "frequently visit" the site. As of December 2013, Ma'an News receives the fourth most site visitors in the Palestinian territories.

Reality TV
In 2013, Ma'an TV (Ma'an Network's satellite channel) broadcast the hit reality show The President in collaboration with Search for Common Ground. Described as "a cross between American Idol and The Apprentice", audience members would vote through SMS to elect the show's young contestants who competed in mock press conferences, political campaigns, and debates.

Reliability
An Israeli NGO, NGO Monitor, criticizes Ma'an for regularly re-publishing "non-verifiable or inaccurate claims" from partisan NGOs and for, "subjective, biased reporting." Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) criticized Ma'an for "sanitizing" its English-language reporting while publishing in Arabic reports that "include the hate ideology espoused by the terror organizations that deny Israel's right to exist [and] express reverence for suicide terrorists."  In further reports, PMW criticized Ma'an for "demonization of Jews," for publishing news stories in materially different Arabic and English versions, and for Holocaust denial.

According to The New York Times during the spate of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis in 2015, Ma'an inaccurately reported that a young knife attacker had been "murdered" by Israeli police, (he was wounded and taken for treatment at Hadassah Hospital), "In a video report accusing Israel of faking evidence of other knife attacks, a reporter for the Palestinian news agency Ma'an described the clip as evidence of "murder" and claimed in her narration that the video showed the boy lying on the ground when "an Israeli occupation soldier shoots him in the head," which it does not."

See also
 Wafa
 Palestinian Information Center

References

External links
 Ma'an News Agency
 Ma'an News Agency

News agencies based in Palestine
Mass media in Bethlehem
Arabic-language websites
English-language websites
Multilingual websites
Palestinian news websites
2005 establishments in the Palestinian territories
Internet properties established in 2005

Ma'an News Agency


Portland International Airport  is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city limits just south of the Columbia River in Multnomah County,  by air and  by highway northeast of downtown Portland. Portland International Airport is often referred to by its IATA airport code, PDX. The airport covers 3,000 acres (1,214 ha) of land.

Portland International Airport has direct flights to cities throughout the United States and in several other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Germany, United Kingdom, and Iceland. The airport is a hub for Alaska Airlines. It also has a maintenance facility for Alaska Air subsidiary Horizon Air. General aviation services are provided at PDX by Atlantic Aviation. The Oregon Air National Guard has a base on the southwest portion of the airport property grounds, and is also the host unit of the 142nd Fighter Wing (142 FW), which operates the F-15 Eagle. Local transportation includes the MAX Red Line light rail, which takes passengers between PDX and downtown Portland, as well as farther west to Beaverton. There is also Interstate 205, which connects to southwestern Washington (north from PDX) along with many suburbs of Portland (south from PDX).

History
Portland's first airport was the Swan Island Municipal Airport, northwest of downtown Portland on the Willamette River. The Port of Portland purchased  and construction began in 1926. Charles Lindbergh flew in and dedicated the new airfield in 1927.

By 1935 it was becoming apparent to the Port of Portland that the airport was becoming obsolete. The small airfield couldn't easily be expanded, nor could it accommodate the larger aircraft and passenger loads expected to become common to Portland. Plans immediately were conceived to relocate the outdated airfield to a larger site. The Swan Island area is now used by the Port of Portland as an industrial park.

Construction and early operations
The Portland City Council purchased the present PDX site in 1936. It was  bordered by the Columbia River in the north and the Columbia Slough in the south. The city council issued US$300,000 and asked the Port of Portland to sponsor a US$1.3 million Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant to develop the site into a "super airport". The project provided badly needed Great Depression-era jobs. Construction of the airport steadily employed over 1,000 men, and was described by historian Neil Barker as "Portland's most significant public works improvement during the New Deal era". The WPA and Port of Portland faced difficulties in preparing the site for construction because the low-lying area was frequently covered by flood waters from the Columbia River. Workers covered the area with over  of sand to help drain it of water, and constructed a series of dikes to control flooding. Two runways capable of serving the modern aircraft of the time were operational by 1941. The airport was designated "Portland–Columbia Airport" to distinguish it from then-operating Swan Island Airport. During World War II, the airfield was used by the United States Army Air Forces.

The "super airport" had a terminal on the north side, off Marine Drive, and five runways (NE-SW, NW-SE, and an E-W runway forming an asterisk). This configuration was adequate until a new terminal and a longer,  east–west runway were constructed in 1952. View airport diagrams: 1955 and 1965

In 1948 the entire airport grounds were flooded during the Vanport Flood, forcing scheduled airline services to reroute to nearby Troutdale Airport. The grounds were under water for several months.

New terminal (1950s)
Portland's first jets were Pan Am 707-321s about October 1959. A new terminal opened in 1959, which for the most part serves as the present facility. The new terminal is located to the east of the original runways, and north of the then-new  runway. Construction of a second east–west runway to the north made this a midfield terminal. At this point, all but the NE-SW (3/21) runway in the original "X" were abandoned and turned into taxiways. 3/21 was extended for use as a cross-wind runway. "International" was added to the airport's official designation after the 1950s-era improvements.

The first international nonstop was Western's 720B to Vancouver in 1967. Plans made in 1968 to add a third runway by means of filling in parts of the Columbia River were met with vocal public opposition and scrapped. The airport switched from screening passengers at individual gates to screening all visitors at concourse entrances in 1973 as new FAA regulations went into effect. By 1974, the airport was served by Braniff, Cascade, Continental, Eastern, Hughes Airwest, Northwest Orient, Pan Am, United and Western, and the Seattle route was served by seven airlines with aircraft as large as Boeing 747s. In 1974, the south runway was extended to  to service the newest jumbo jets. The terminal building was renovated and expanded in 1977.

United was the dominant carrier at PDX during the regulated era and through the 1980s. Air Oregon started short-haul service from Portland following deregulation in 1978, and by 1979 had routes to seven other cities in Oregon. In April 1983, United Airlines began a flight from Chicago to Tokyo's Narita Airport that stopped in Seattle–Tacoma six days a week and in Portland once a week. The company operated the service with Boeing 747s. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines wanted to add Tokyo to its network, but it lacked aircraft that could fly there nonstop from its Atlanta base. Consequently, the company established a "Pacific gateway" in Portland, a small hub for routes to Asia. Delta began service from Portland to Tokyo in March 1987.

By the 1980s, the terminal building began an extensive renovation in order to update PDX to meet future needs. The ticketing and baggage claim areas were renovated and expanded, and a new Concourse D for Alaska Airlines was added in 1986. Concourse E was first to be reconstructed in 1992, and featured PDX's first moving sidewalks. The Oregon Marketplace, a small shopping mall, was added in the former waiting areas behind the ticket counters. The early 1990s saw a food court and extension added to Concourse C, and the opening of the new Concourse D in 1994. This marked the first concessions inside secured areas, allowing passengers to purchase items without having to be re-screened. An expanded parking garage, new control tower, and canopy over the curbside were finished in the late 1990s. Although hailed by architectural critics, the canopy blocked views of Mount Hood from the curbside. On July 31, 1997, during construction, the garage addition collapsed due to inadequate bolts holding girders together and inadequate securing of structural members, killing three steelworkers.

Delta added domestic flights to Portland to feed the Asia routes. In 1995, the carrier offered nonstop service to Tokyo, Seoul, Nagoya, and Taipei, with the Taipei flight continuing on to Bangkok. It also flew to eight domestic cities, such as Atlanta, New York, and San Francisco. However, Delta faced obstacles to the success of its operation in Portland. These included the 1997 Asian financial crisis and complaints about the treatment of Asian passengers at the immigration facility in Portland, which led to the nickname "Deportland." Moreover, airlines were introducing more flights from the United States to Asia, allowing travelers to bypass the Portland hub. Delta reduced the number of Asian destinations to two, Tokyo and Nagoya. It finally closed the hub in March 2001 due to financial losses. The move left the airport without transpacific air service.

The present H-shape of the PDX terminal, designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, was completed on September 10, 2001, when the new A, B and C concourses, as well as the light rail line, were finished. Probably the most stunning portion of PDX's interior, the new concourses reflect a Northwest theme, focusing heavily on the nearby Columbia River. A huge celebration was to be held the following weekend, but the September 11 attacks interceded. The new concourses, designed to be public spaces, were closed to non-passengers.

Lufthansa started direct flights to Frankfurt in March 2003. The route was operated by Airbus A340s. In June 2004, Northwest Airlines introduced nonstop service to its hub at Tokyo-Narita aboard a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. In order to funnel passengers from other American cities onto the flight, Northwest made use of its partnerships with four other carriers instead of adding its own domestic routes to Portland. This strategy was less costly than Delta's.

In August 2005, the concourse connector was opened. This is a long hallway on the secure side of the airport that connects the A, B and C concourses to the D and E concourses on the other side of the airport. If there is a long line at the checkpoint at one end of the airport, passengers may use the other checkpoint and walk through the connector to their desired concourse. The connector closed permanently on January 5, 2021, to make room for terminal expansion.

The airport's carpet, installed in 1987, was designed to stylize the criss-crossing north and south runways. Beginning in 2014, a new design replaced the original pattern. In response, many residents created products to celebrate the carpet as a local icon.

In December 2016, The Port of Portland renovated the security checkpoints and immigration facilities as part of its PDXNext project. This included the relocation, and wider of the exit lanes by the security checkpoints and upgraded security on both sides of the terminal.

Terminal expansion (2020s)
In the latter half of 2016, the Port of Portland and several airlines at PDX approved a project intended to balance the use of the terminal and concourses at Portland International Airport. The subsequent project extended Concourse E by  and added 6 new gates to the facility. After the project, Southwest Airlines relocated its operations from Concourse C to the newly expanded Concourse E, alongside United Airlines. With the relocation of Southwest Airlines to Concourse E, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways became the primary users of Concourses B and C. Construction on this project began in the spring of 2017 and opened to passengers on July 15, 2020.

Concourse A was demolished in November 2019 due to the age and space of the structure and was replaced by an expanded Concourse B. The extension featured 4 jet bridges, 6 ground loading zones, and improved concession stands. All Horizon operations that operated out of Concourse A was temporarily moved to Concourse C until the expanded Concourse B was completed. The new concourse opened on December 8, 2021.

In March 2020, the main terminal began a 5-year expansion process to generate more open space in the pre-security area and an expansion of 150 feet toward the west. The Concourse Connector was closed in January 2021 and the Clocktower Plaza closed 3 months later to make room for the expansion. During construction, the remains of the concourse connector will be reused for passengers to bypass the construction zone to get to concourses C and D. Construction of the new main terminal is expected to be complete by May 2024.

Facilities

The airport has one passenger terminal composed of four concourses, which are designated B, C, D, and E. There are 60 gates in total. The international section of Concourse D was renamed the Governor Victor G. Atiyeh International Concourse to honor the former Oregon governor, who was also known as "Trader Vic" for launching international tourism and trade initiatives during his gubernatorial term.

The Port of Portland requires all airport shops and restaurants to practice fair retail pricing—businesses are not allowed to charge more than at off-airport locations. Unique amenities include a microcinema run by the Hollywood Theatre; it shows free short films by Portland-based filmmakers that are primarily focused on the culture of the Pacific Northwest. The terminal also houses a distillery. In the pre-security area, there are several local food carts. In addition, the lower terminal roadway near the TriMet MAX Red Line station has a work station and assembly for repairing bicycles. The Oregon Welcome Center also has a "Tool check-out".

Jet fuel is supplied via the Portland Jet Line, an  Kinder Morgan fuel pipeline running from the Northwest Industrial area of Portland's Willbridge Terminal to the airport. Willbridge contains 40 tanks, connected to the  Olympic pipeline and  Eugene pipeline, BNSF rail, truck, and ships.

Airlines and destinations

Cargo

Statistics

Top destinations

Airline market share

Annual traffic

Ground transportation

Public transit service to the airport is provided by TriMet, the metropolitan area's primary transit agency, with its MAX Red Line light rail service. During late nights, service is provided by the 272-PDX Night Bus route. The 1986-opened MAX Light Rail system was extended to the airport in 2001. The Red Line originally provided service as far as downtown Portland only, but in 2003 it was extended west to Beaverton. The light rail station is located only about  from the airport's baggage claim area. Prior to 2001, TriMet service to the airport consisted of bus route 72-82nd Avenue from 1970 to 1986, and route 12-Sandy Blvd. from 1986 to 2001.

C-Tran route 67 bus connects the airport to Fisher's Landing Transit Center in east Vancouver, Washington.

By road, the terminal is accessible from exit 24 on Interstate 205.

Accidents and incidents
On October 1, 1966, West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashed in a desolate section of the Mount Hood National Forest during descent into Portland International Airport. Of the 18 passengers and crew, there were no survivors. The probable cause of the accident was "the descent of the aircraft below its clearance limit and below that of surrounding obstructing terrain, but the Board was unable to determine the cause of such descent." The accident was the first loss of a Douglas DC-9.
On December 28, 1978, United Airlines Flight 173 was en route to Portland International Airport from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado. On approach to Portland International Airport, the crew lowered the landing gear which caused a loud thump, abnormal vibration, unusual yaw, and the landing gear indicator lights failed to light. The plane circled Portland while the crew investigated the problem. After about an hour, the plane exhausted its fuel supply and crashed into the suburban neighborhood of East Burnside Street and NE 158th Ave. Of the 189 passengers and crew on board, ten died and 24 more were injured. An investigation revealed that the crash was caused by "the failure of the captain to properly monitor the aircraft's fuel state". This accident's investigation led to substantially improved aviation safety by widespread adoption of crew resource management which emphasizes crew teamwork and communication instead of a command hierarchy.
On February 16, 2008, visibility of 1/8 mile was a possible factor in the fatal accident that took the life of the pilot, Oregon doctor Richard Otoski, a Klamath Falls dermatologist flying his Columbia 400. The accident took place just short of runway 10R at Portland International Airport. Otoski was the only person on board the aircraft, manufactured by the former Lancair Company. "Damn it... we're gonna crash" were the last words PDX controllers heard from N621ER. The aircraft was apparently in the process of making another missed approach in poor visibility following the ILS when it clipped an airport perimeter fence, crashed, and soon caught fire. The aircraft had departed from Klamath Falls 90 minutes earlier.

See also

 Oregon World War II Army Airfields
 Pearson Field
 Portland-Mulino Airport
 Tourism in Portland, Oregon
 Western Air Defense Force

References

External links

Airport Wayfinder: Interactive video guide and detailed information about Portland International Airport

1936 establishments in Oregon
Airports established in 1936
Airports in Multnomah County, Oregon
Airports in Portland, Oregon
Northeast Portland, Oregon
Port of Portland (Oregon)
Works Progress Administration in Oregon

Portland International Airport


Take Heed Mr. Tojo is a 1943 American animated short film directed by Shamus Culhane. It is an American World War II propaganda film featuring the character Hook, who was a character similar to Private Snafu at the Warner Brothers' animation department.

Plot
The cartoon starts ten years in the future, in 1953. Hook tells his son about the time that he was a sailor ten years prior. In a flashback Hook receives a message about a Japanese air raid. He quickly informs his superiors. Several American planes take off in the sky and leave the ship unprotected. Then a Japanese pilot, who was hiding in a cloud, attacks the ship. Hook runs away, but finds a huge collection of war bonds which he literally uses as ammunition for his plane. After a few chase scenes Hook defeats the Japanese soldier by throwing the war bonds at the Japanese pilot who crashes down on an island, leaving only his clattering teeth behind. Back in 1953 Hook tells his son that thanks to the war bonds we won the war and it paid for their home, their new furniture and their new plane. He tells his son: "As a matter of fact if it weren't for the war bonds you wouldn't be here." The son remarks: "That ain't the way I heard it." Thereupon the cartoon ends with a close-up of Hook's startled face.

References

External links

1943 films
American animated short films
American World War II propaganda shorts
American aviation films
American black-and-white films
Cultural depictions of Hideki Tojo
Pacific War films
1940s English-language films
Films directed by James Culhane
1940s American films

Take Heed Mr. Tojo


The Waccamaw Neck is a long narrow peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Waccamaw River in Georgetown County, South Carolina. The town of Pawleys Island is located on the Waccamaw Neck, as well as the unincorporated mainland area, which includes the areas of Litchfield Beach and North Litchfield Beach. The entire area shares Zip Code 29585. The Waccamaw Neck is located south of Myrtle Beach on the Grand Strand, and just north of the historic seaport of Georgetown.

The neck is a historic area that was a major hunting and fishing ground for the prehistoric Waccamaw tribe, followed by rice plantations along the river side, with summer homes for the planters and their families on the coastal side that extended from colonial times to the beginning of the 20th century.

Today, the Waccamaw Neck is both a seaside resort community and  suburb of the Myrtle Beach/Grand Strand Area.

Notable cultural locations are Brookgreen Gardens, Huntington Beach State Park, and the Belle Baruch Nature Preserve at Hobcaw Barony, a group of former plantation purchased between 1905 and 1910 as a hunting preserve by financier Bernard Baruch.

The Waccamaw Neck Bikeway is part of the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000 mile long system of trails that connects Maine to Florida.

External links
Belle Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Research
Brookgreen Gardens
Hobcaw: Tranquil Sanctuary

Landforms of Georgetown County, South Carolina
Peninsulas of South Carolina

Waccamaw Neck


David Morris Schnarch ( ); September 18, 1946, in New York City, New York – October 8, 2020, in Evergreen, Colorado) was an American couples, sex and trauma therapist, clinical psychologist and urologist.

Work
Schnarch was professor of urology at the Louisiana State University Medical School in New Orleans, Louisiana, and led the Marriage & Family Health Center in Evergreen, Colorado, as Director. David Schnarch became known to the public through his research in the field of couple and sex therapy and related publications. Schnarch studied the widespread problem of people losing sexual desire in couple relationships, and suggested in the 1980s that the notion of self-differentiation introduced by Bowen was the real starting point for solving problems with intimacy and sexual desire. His hypothesis was that a low degree of differentiation must inevitably lead to problems with intimacy and desire and that for this reason only a higher degree of differentiation is suitable for solving these problems. Guided by these considerations, he propagated an allegedly new form of psychotherapy, which differs in principle from classic, bond-based psychotherapies and called his development the "melting pot" approach. It should be noted critically, however, that this conception of psychotherapy is anything but new, because C.G. Jung found the idea of differentiation in his conception of the "Individuation" process.

Differentiation based psychotherapy

Differentiation based psychotherapy is based on the theoretical assumptions of Murray Bowen and understands the so-called self-differentiation as a central variable for human personality development. The aim of this form of psychotherapy is to confront the client with themselves, their actions and dilemmas, to help them through a process of self-knowledge, and to find new solutions to the problems that are burdening their life and relationships.

Schnarch used his melting-pot approach in particular for the treatment of problems with initimacy and in sexual relationships. Schnarch used collaborative confrontation as a central element in his therapy.

Therapy should help people to find a more balanced psychological balance when their own self ("Who am I and what do I want?") is in conflict with the need to establish connections with other people. Schnarch achieved this through collaborative confrontation (with himself and the partner), through self-confirmed (instead of third-party-confirmed) intimacy and through the promotion of self-respect and respect for others.

Differentiation-based psychotherapy has been included in the training program for psychiatrists and psychologists at some US universities. Their use is not limited to couple and sex therapy.

Writings

 Constructing the Sexual Crucible: An Integration of Sexual and Marital Therapy. WW. Norton & Company, New York, 1991,
 Passionate Marriage: Sex, Love & Intimacy in emotionally committed relationships. WW. Norton & Company, New York, 1997.
 Resurrecting Sex: Solving Sexual Problems and Revolutionizing Your Relationship. HarperCollins, New York, 2002,   Intimacy & Desire: Awaken the Passion in Your Relationship Beaufort Books, New York, 2009.
 Brain Talk. How Mind Mapping Brain Science Can Change Your Life & Everyone In It. Sterling Publishers, Hardcover, Pappband, 592 Seiten,  ''

References

2020 deaths
1946 births
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American physicians
20th-century American physicians
People from Jefferson County, Colorado
American urologists
American psychotherapists
American clinical psychologists

David Schnarch


Lubuli is a town in southeastern Eswatini (Swaziland). It is located close to the South African border just to the northwest of the town of Nsoko on the road between there and Maloma.

References
Fitzpatrick, M., Blond, B., Pitcher, G., Richmond, S., and Warren, M. (2004)  South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Footscray, VIC: Lonely Planet.

Populated places in Eswatini

Lubuli


Luigi Marini (1885–1942) was an Italian lyric tenor.

Marini was born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, in 1885.  He made his operatic debut in Ravenna as Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata.  After his great success, he appeared at Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo as Enzo Grimaldo in Ponchielli's La Gioconda.  In 1910 he made his appearance in Bucharest (Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Rodolfo in La bohème).  Then, in 1912, he appeared at the Municipal Teatro of Rio de Janeiro, where he sang the roles of B. F. Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Hagenbach in Catalani's La Wally and Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca.  In the same year he visited Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, where he had enormous successes in the roles of Hagenbach and Rodolfo.

In 1915 he debuted at the Teatro alla Scala di Milano, in the role of Enzo Grimaldo, where he had a great success.  In 1921 he returned to La Scala and sang the title roles in Puccini's Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi, and Catalani's La Wally. In 1924 he was invited to Covent Garden in London, where he first sang the role of Andrea Chénier of the opera of the same name by Umberto Giordano.  After that Andrea Chénier became Marini's signature role.  In 1929 he sang this role in the first complete recording of Andrea Chénier made together with Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano under the baton of maestro Lorenzo Molajoli (Naxos Historical 8.110066-67).

Marini was also successful in Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli and Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, where he sang the roles of Luigi (Puccini's Il tabarro), Rinuccio (Puccini's Gianni Schicchi), Rodolfo (La bohème), Faust (Boito's Mefistofele), Enzo Grimaldo (Ponchielli's La Gioconda) and Walter (Catalani's Loreley).

Marini also made his appearances outside Italy: he sang at Oper Zürich, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon, where he debuted in the roles of Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème and Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana.  Marini ended his operatic career in 1931 after he had sung the role of Andrea Chénier. He died in Ascoli Piceno in 1942.

Discography
1928 - La bohème (Puccini) - Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan; Lorenzo Molajoli: Luigi Marini (Rodolfo), Rosetta Pampanini (Mimì)
1931 - Andrea Chénier (Giordano) - Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan; Lorenzo Molajoli: Luigi Marini (Andrea Chénier), Lina Bruna Rasa (Maddalena)

References

1885 births
1942 deaths
Italian operatic tenors
People from Ascoli Piceno
20th-century Italian male opera singers

Luigi Marini


Gaston Jean Baptiste de Renty (born 1611 at the castle of Beni, Diocese of Bayeux in Normandy; died 24 April 1649) was a French aristocrat and philanthropist. He ruled the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement (Company of the Blessed Sacrament) between 1639 and 1649, and was under the influence of the French Oratorians, through his confessor Paul de Condren.

Life

The only son of Charles, Baron de Renty, and Elisabeth de Pastoureau, Gaston studied at the Collège de Navarre in Paris, with the Jesuits at Caen, and finished at the age of seventeen at the College of the Nobles in Paris. He wrote several treatises on mathematics, in which he excelled.

The reading of the Imitation of Christ aroused the desire to become a Carthusian, but obeying the wish of his parents, he married. In 1638 he abandoned public life and devoted himself to the service of the needy and suffering. Struck by the ignorance, in religious matters, of travellers at the Hospital of St. Gervaise in Paris, he gave them catechetical instructions and induced others to do likewise. In the course of his charitable works he made the acquaintance of Henry Michael Buch (b. 1590 in the Duchy of Luxembourg; d. 9 June 1666 at Paris; surnamed der gute Heinrich) and induced him to found a congregation of shoemakers and tailors, Frères Cordonniers. They worked at their trade, divided their earnings with the poor and performed special acts of devotion prescribed by the pastor of St. Paul's.

The statutes were approved by the Archbishop of Paris, Jean Francis de Gondi. After his death, Renty's body was brought to Citri in the Diocese of Soissons. When the coffin was opened nine years later his body was found intact. The bishop ordered it placed in a marble tomb behind the high altar. Throughout his career at court, in the army, and in politics he merited the esteem of all, and took an active part in public good works.

References

Attribution
 The entry cites:
Hélyot, Gesch. d. Klöster u. Ritterorden, VIII (Leipzig, 1756), 207;
ST. JURE, Das Bild eines vollkommenen Christen (Ratisbon, 1837);
MICHAUD, Biog. Univers.;
HELYOT-BADICHE, Dictionnaire des ordres religieux, I (Paris, 1847), 1139.

1611 births
1649 deaths
University of Paris alumni
French Roman Catholics

Gaston Jean Baptiste de Renty


Istinggar is a type of matchlock firearm built by the various ethnic groups of the Maritime Southeast Asia. The firearm is a result of Portuguese influence on local weaponry after the capture of Malacca (1511). Before this type of gun, in the archipelago already existed early long gun called bedil, or Java arquebus as the Chinese call it. Most of the specimens in the Malay Peninsula are actually Indonesian in origin, manufactured in the Minangkabau lands of West Sumatra. The states of the Malay Peninsula imported this firearm as it was widely used in their wars.

Etymology
The name istinggar comes from the Portuguese word espingarda meaning arquebus or firearm. This term then corrupted into estingarda, eventually to setinggar or istinggar. The word has many variations in the archipelago, such as satinggar, satenggar, istenggara, astengger, altanggar, astinggal, ispinggar, and tinggar.

History

The predecessor of firearms, the pole gun (bedil tombak), was recorded as being used by Java in 1413. However the knowledge of making "true" firearms in the archipelago came after the middle of the 15th century. It was brought by the Islamic nations of West Asia, most probably the Arabs. The precise year of introduction is unknown, but it may be safely concluded to be no earlier than 1460. Before the arrival of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia, the Malays already possessed early firearms, the Java arquebus. This firearm has a very long barrel (up to  in length), and during the Portuguese conquest of Malacca (1511), it is proven to be able to penetrate a ship's hull to the other side. However the lock mechanism and the barrel of the gun are very crude.

The Portuguese in Goa independently produced their own matchlock firearms. Starting in 1513, the tradition of German-Bohemian gun-making was merged with Turkish gun-making traditions. This resulted in the Indo-Portuguese tradition of matchlocks. Indian craftsmen modified the design by introducing a very short, almost pistol-like buttstock held against the cheek, not the shoulder, when aiming. They also reduced the caliber and made the gun lighter and more balanced. This was a hit with the Portuguese who did a lot of fighting aboard ship and on river craft, and valued a more compact gun.

Afonso de Albuquerque compared Malaccan gun founders as being on the same level as those of Germany. However, he did not state what ethnicity the Malaccan gun founder was. Duarte Barbosa stated that the arquebus-maker of Malacca was Javanese. The Javanese also manufactured their own cannon in Malacca. Anthony Reid argued that the Javanese handled much of the productive work in Malacca before 1511 and in 17th century Pattani.

There were 2 different lock mechanisms used in Indo-Portuguese guns. One has a single leaf mainspring of the Lusitanian gun prototypes, which can be found in Ceylon, Malay peninsula, Sumatra, and Vietnam, and the other has a V-shaped mainspring, which can be found in Java, Bali, China, Japan, and Korea. The lock mechanism of istinggar is usually made of brass. The Malays used bamboo covers in their matchlock arquebus barrel and bound them with rattan, to keep them dry in wet weather. Istinggar is typically longer than Japanese guns. The absence of a channel for the ramrod indicated that they were used resting on a wall or used from a ship's railing like the lela or rentaka. In this case, the ramrod did not need a compartment. The Malays also made small mallets to drive the musket balls down the barrel.

Minangkabau people of interior Sumatra are renowned for their manufacture of gunpowder-based weapons. Contemporary records of João de Barros (1496–1570) indicated that before the arrival of European people, the Sumatrans had not used firearms. Iron and steel were produced in their forges, but by the 19th century, they became more reliant on the Europeans. The matchlock arquebus of Minangkabau was dubbed "Istenggara Menangkabowe" (or istinggar Minangkabau, or simply satingga). The production was enough to fulfill local needs, the Minangkabau also exported their firearms to other areas, such as Aceh, Malacca, and Siak Sultanate. The barrels are made by rolling a flatted bar of iron of proportionate dimensions spirally around a circular rod, and beating it till the parts of the former unite, and the art of boring is probably unknown to them. This manufacture continued even into the 19th century when matchlock has already been obsolete. A manuscript called Ilmu Bedil (means "knowledge of firearm") is a treatise about this type of istinggar. The Minangkabau also produced other firearms, the terakul (dragoon pistol). The Batak people used matchlock guns with locks made of copper and were regarded by Marsden as expert marksmen. However, the guns of Batak were supplied by Minangkabau traders.

The Makassar people of the Kingdom of Gowa, which maintained friendly relationships with the Portuguese since 1528, benefitted considerably from Portuguese assistance in building up its military strength. Converted to Islam in the early 1600s, they made holy war (jihad) on its nonbeliever neighbor, the Bugis. The Makassan were already manufacturing muskets, probably from Portuguese espingarda, sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. By the 18th century, European people praised the guns produced by their Bugis neighbor, which has a straight bore and fine inlay work. During years of warfare, Bugis and Makassarese soldiers, dressed in waju rante (chain mail) and muskets which they made themselves. Between 1603 and 1606, the Iberian Union troops attacked Ternate twice and reported muskets and arquebuses were used by the "Moros" (i.e. Moors, or Muslims). Nicolas Gervaise notes that in Makassar "There are no people in East Indies more nimble in getting on horseback, to draw a bow, to discharge a fuzil (musket), or to point a cannon (than the Makassarese)".

Eventually, the Istinggar spread to the Muslim-controlled areas of the Philippine archipelago, where it was known as "astinggal". The 1613 San Buenaventura Tagalog dictionary defines "astingal" as "arquebus, of the kind they used to use in olden times in their wars and which came from Borneo". This appears to be the first reference to them in northern Luzon. Despite this, the Spaniards never faced any in their encounters in Luzon as they did in Mindanao. In 1609, the Spaniards reported that in Zambales many of the natives handle the arquebuses and muskets quite skilfully, since they have seen the Spaniards use their weapons.

The Hindu inhabitants of Bali and Lombok, being the remnant of Majapahit hindus, are famous for their manufacture of the matchlock. In the 1800s Alfred Wallace saw two guns of their manufacture,  long, with a proportionately large bore. The wooden stock is well made, extended to the front end of the barrel. The barrels were twisted and finished, with silver and gold ornament. For making the long barrel, the natives use  pieces of barrel which are first bored small, and then welded together upon a straight iron rod. The whole barrel is then worked with borers of gradually increasing size, and in three days the boring is finished.

For firearms using flintlock mechanism, the inhabitants of the Nusantara archipelago are reliant on Western powers, as no local smith could produce such complex components. These flintlock firearms are completely different weapons and were known by another name, senapan or senapang, from the Dutch word snappaan. The gun-making areas of Nusantara could make these senapan, the barrel and the wooden part is made locally, but the mechanism is imported from the European traders. The Javanese was among the earliest to modernize: After the VOC began replacing matchlocks with flintlocks in the 1680s, the Javanese already requested them by 1690s. Flintlock senapan began to appear in the Javanese arsenal in early 1700 AD.

Gallery

See also

 Java arquebus, earlier, more primitive firearm of Nusantara archipelago
 Vietnam arquebus, several type of firearms used by Vietnamese
 Lantaka, light swivel gun of the Malays
 Tanegashima (gun)

References

Early firearms
Malay culture
Muskets
Weapons of Indonesia
Weapons of Java
Weapons of the Philippines
16th-century military history
Weapons of Malaysia
Firearms of Indonesia

Istinggar


Manila Water Company, Inc. has the exclusive right to provide water and used water (wastewater) services  to over six million people in the East Zone of  Metro Manila. It is a subsidiary of the country's oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corporation.

Incorporated on January 6, 1997, Manila Water became a publicly listed company on March 18, 2005. It is the east concessionaire of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System during its privatization on August 1, 1997, with its counterpart Maynilad Water Services, Inc. as the west concessionaire. The 25-year water concession agreement inked with MWSS was expected to terminate in 2022. In 2009, its concession agreement with the MWSS was extended by another 15 years up to 2037.

History

Manila Water Company, a publicly listed company and a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation, holds the exclusive right to provide water and used water services to over six million people in the Manila Water Concession, particularly the East Zone of Metro Manila and Rizal Province consisting of 23 cities and municipalities.

The National Water Crisis Act enacted by the Philippine government paved the way for government-run Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to turn over the operation of water utilities in the East Zone concession to Ayala-led Manila Water, and the West Zone of Metro Manila to Maynilad Water Services, Inc. in August 1997. This was brought about by the various water supply problems when only 26 percent of the area's population had access to round-the-clock water supply due to high system losses caused by illegal connections, meter tampering, and leaking pipelines. This Concession Agreement was originally for a period of 25 years, due to expire in 2022. In 2009, it was extended by another 15 years by MWSS and the Philippine government, extending the concession until 2037.

As the agent and concessionaire of MWSS, the Concession Agreement gives Manila Water the right to the use the land and operational fixed assets, and the exclusive right to extract and treat raw water, distribute and sell water, and collect, transport, treat and dispose used water discharged by the sewerage system in the East Zone.

Service area

Since 1997, the Company has been significantly improving its water and used water services by expanding its distribution lines and eliminating system losses in its coverage areas, resulting in increased water availability from 26% in 1997 to 99% of the central distribution system to date.
Manila Water provides water treatment, water distribution, sewerage and sanitation services to over six million people in the East Zone to a broad range of residential, semi-business, commercial, and industrial customers in 23 cities and municipalities :

East Zone of Metro Manila
 Makati (Eastern part)
 Mandaluyong
 Manila (Santa Ana and San Andres area)
 Marikina
 Pasig
 Pateros
 Quezon City (Eastern part)
 San Juan
 Taguig

Rizal

 Angono
 Antipolo
 Baras
 Binangonan
 Cainta
 Cardona
 Jalajala
 Morong
 Pililla
 Rodriguez (Montalban)
 San Mateo
 Tanay
 Taytay
 Teresa

Manila Concession Water Sources
Manila Water gets its water from Angat Dam at the Angat River in Norzagaray, Bulacan, which is 38 kilometers north of Metro Manila. It is a rockfill dam with a spillway equipped with three gates at a spilling level of 217 meters. Angat Dam supplies 96% of Metro Manila's water needs with a storage capacity of about 850 million cubic meters. Five auxiliary turbines release water from Angat Dam, where it is diverted to the two tunnels going to Ipo Dam.

Ipo Dam is a gravity-concrete dam located about 7.5 kilometers downstream of the Angat Dam in Bulacan. Primarily a diversion dam, its elevation is maintained at 101 meters as it delivers water into tunnels that lead to La Mesa reservoir and Balara Filtration plants through three tunnels leading to three settling basins in Bicti, Norzagaray, Bulacan. Five aqueducts connected to these settling basins will then deliver a maximum of 4,000 million liters of water daily at the Novaliches Portal, which will then be conveyed through three open channels going to the Balara Treatment Plant.
La Mesa Dam is an earth dam located in Novaliches, Quezon City and it serves as a primary sedimentation basin prior to water treatment in the Balara and East La Mesa Treatment Plants. Its maximum level is at 80.15 meters. During dry months, La Mesa Dam may be used as a buffer or reliability dam to provide supply. It can store water that is good for 19 days of Manila Water's supply requirements. Its critical dam level is at 69 meters above sea level.
Manila Water has also begun drawing water from the Laguna Lake, which is treated in and distributed from the Cardona Water Treatment Plant located in Brgy. Del Remedio, Cardona, Rizal. Commencing operations on March 14, 2019, the water treatment plant is now providing up to 100 million liters of potable water per day to several towns in Rizal, augmenting water supply to Manila Water's concession area while alternative major water sources are being developed.

Water Treatment Facilities
Manila Water operates four water treatment plants: Balara Filter 1, Balara Filter 2, and East La Mesa, all located in Quezon City, as well as the Cardona Water Treatment Plant in Rizal.

The Balara Treatment Plants filter the equivalent of 6.5 billion glasses of water every day. The Balara Filter 1, operational since 1935, has a treatment capacity of 470 million liters per day. On the other hand, Balara Filter 2 has been operational since 1958 and treats 1,130 million liters of water daily. Both treatment plants deliver water to Metro Manila's eastern area.

The East La Mesa Treatment Plant, located in Payatas, Quezon City, has a capacity of treating 150 million liters of water per day. Since 2012, it supplies water to far-flung expansion areas in the Rizal Province, improving the supply balance of the entire network.

The Cardona plant, with a capacity of treating 100 million liters of water per day, employs a more rigorous and complex treatment process and types of equipment compared to other existing water treatment plants because of the diverse quality of water from Laguna Lake. The process includes treatment for suspended solids, organic matter, algae, and dissolved solids. The treatment plant is complemented by 45 kilometers of transmission lines plus 61 kilometers of distribution lines.

Water Distribution
Manila Water's distribution system consists of transmission and distribution lines, pumping stations, and reservoirs to ensure that potable water is delivered to all customers. Pipelines laid and maintained across the East Zone since 1997 have spanned over 5,000 kilometers, serving 99 percent of the Company's concession area with a water supply pressure of 7 bar and above.

Water Sampling and Laboratory Analysis

On a regular basis, Manila Water's Laboratory Services processes an average of around 900 water samples from the distribution network monthly. This is to ensure that water to be delivered to the customers passes not only the regulatory standards on quality, but also to 100% comply with the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW).

Used Water Services
Manila Water also provides sewerage and sanitation services.

Sewerage services of Manila Water include the operation and maintenance of sewer pipeline networks that collect and convey sewage to a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) which cleans the used water before safely returning the treated water to rivers.

To address the sewage and sanitation needs of its service areas, Manila Water constructed compact or "package" sewage treatment plants to serve specific areas or communities. Manila Water also utilizes a Combined Sewer-Drainage System in the collection of used water from households, utilizing the existing municipal drainage system for used water conveyance. This minimizes the laying of separate sewer lines.

Manila Water has laid over 300 kilometers of sewer pipelines that goes to 38 sewage treatment plants with a combined treatment capacity of 310 million liters daily.

Sanitation
Around 85 percent of Metro Manila's East Zone are not yet covered by a sewer system. These households still utilize their own septic tanks that contains used water called septage. Since septic tanks only get partial treatment, these will eventually leak into the environment if not maintained properly. To address the possible leakage of septic tanks into the rivers and other water systems, Manila Water offers a sanitation service that collects the sludge from septic tanks. Siphoned sludge is then brought to Septage Treatment Plants where it is treated and returned to the environment safely. Manila Water manages two septage treatment plants that treats collected sludge to safely return the used water back to the environment. This sanitation program is carried out through barangay officials.

Subsidiaries
A subsidiary of Manila Water Company, Inc., Manila Water Philippine Ventures (MWPV) covers the country's key metropolitan areas including Cebu, Laguna, Tanauan City in Batangas, Clark in Pampanga, Zamboanga City, Tagum City in Davao and key locations in Bulacan, Pangasinan, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo and Samar.

Manila Water Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (MWAP) currently provides half of the bulk water requirements of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and leakage reduction programs in Bandung, Indonesia and Yangon, Myanmar. Recently, the company has acquired a stake in East Water, a publicly listed water supply and distribution company in Thailand and in PT Sarana Tirta Ungaran in Indonesia.

Under MWAP are two affiliated companies in Vietnam, namely Thu Duc Water B.O.O Corporation and Kenh Dong Water Supply Joint Stock Company, both supplying treated water to Saigon Water Corporation (SAWACO) under a take-or-pay arrangement. Also under MWAP are Saigon Water Infrastructure Corporation (Saigon Water), a holding company listed in the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, Cu Chi Water Supply Sewerage Company, Ltd. (Cu Chi Water) and another company tasked to pursue non-revenue water reduction projects in Vietnam called Asia Water Network Solutions (Asia Water).

Lastly, Manila Water Total Solutions Corporation (MWTS), a wholly owned subsidiary, handles after-the-meter products and services. Its current offerings include environmental services like waste-to-energy.

Ownership
 Ayala Corporation - 41.99%
 Public/Officers/Employees - 33.23%
 PCD Nominee Corporation (Non-Filipino) - 24.73%
 Public - 0.06%

See also
Ayala Corporation
Water privatization in the Philippines
 Water supply and sanitation in the Philippines

References

External links

Water companies of the Philippines
Companies listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange
Companies based in Quezon City
Companies established in 1997
Water supply and sanitation in Metro Manila
Ayala Corporation subsidiaries
Philippine companies established in 1997

Manila Water


George Chisholm OBE (29 March 1915 – 6 December 1997) was a Scottish jazz trombonist and vocalist.

In the late 1930s he moved to London, where he played in dance bands led by Bert Ambrose and Teddy Joyce. He later recorded with jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller and Benny Carter during their visits to the UK.

In 1940, during the Second World War, Chisholm signed on with the Royal Air Force and joined the RAF Dance Orchestra (known popularly as the Squadronaires), remaining in the band long after he was demobbed. He followed this with freelance work and a five-year stint with the BBC Showband (a forerunner of the BBC Radio Orchestra) and as a core member of Wally Stott's orchestra on BBC Radio's The Goon Show, for which he made several minor acting appearances, for example as 'Chisholm MacChisholm the Steaming Celt' in the 1956 episode 'The Macreekie Rising of '74'.

Chisholm had roles in the films The Mouse on the Moon (1963), The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965) and Superman III (1983). He was also part of the house band for the children's programmes Play School and Play Away. He also sang and was a storyteller on Play School occasionally.

During the 1980s Chisholm continued to play, despite undergoing heart surgery; working with his own band the Gentlemen of Jazz and Keith Smith's Hefty Jazz among others, and playing live with touring artists. He was appointed an OBE in 1984.

In the mid-1990s, Chisholm retired from public life suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He died in December 1997, aged 82.

References

External links

 George Chisholm's Life Story  Gentleman of Jazz - George Chisholm's life story
 George Chisholm 1976 interview with Les Tomkins (1) George Chisholm - Hand Over Mouth
 George Chisholm 1976 interview with Les Tomkins (2) George Chisholm - Spike (Spike Milligan)

Scottish jazz trombonists
Male trombonists
Scottish male radio actors
Scottish male film actors
Musicians from Glasgow
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
1915 births
1997 deaths
20th-century Scottish male actors
20th-century Scottish musicians
20th-century trombonists
Royal Air Force airmen
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
20th-century British male musicians
British male jazz musicians
The Squadronaires members
Black Lion Records artists

George Chisholm (musician)


Margot Bogert, a world Scouting leader, Chairman of the Board of the Frick Collection and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sarah Lawrence College, served as the National Secretary of the United States Fund for International Scouting (USFIS) within the Boy Scouts of America, as well as a member of the World Scout Development Committee.

Background
Bogert, a descendant of William C. Durant, the founder of General Motors, was the only daughter of Beatrice Hawn (-1987) and William Durant Campbell (March 18, 1907 - October 20, 1995), an early Boy Scouts of America notable.

In 1988, Bogert was awarded the 198th Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world Scouting. She and her father are the only father/daughter pair to have received the Bronze Wolf. She is also a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award.

References

External links

Recipients of the Bronze Wolf Award
Boy Scouts of America
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people

Margot Bogert


Religious activities generally need some infrastructure to be conducted. For this reason, there generally exist religion-supporting organizations, which are some form of organization that manages:

 the upkeep of places of worship, such as mosques, churches, temples, synagogues, chapels and other buildings or meeting places.
 the payment of salaries to religious leaders, such as Roman Catholic priests, Hindu priests, Protestant ministers, imams and rabbis.

In addition, such organizations usually have other responsibilities, such as the formation, nomination or appointment of religious leaders, the establishment of a corpus of doctrine, the disciplining of leaders and followers with respect to religious law, and the determination of qualification for membership.

Legal status

Public organizations
Some countries run the activities of one or more religions as part of their government, or as external organizations closely supported by the government. See state religion.

Private organizations
In some countries, the government is prohibited by law from establishing or supporting religions by separation of church and state, though there may be exceptions to such rules. Religions are thus necessarily supported by private organizations, generally funded by those who attend their services.

France
The French Republic is constitutionally laïque (roughly, secular). It is prohibited by a 1905 statute for the state to subsidize or recognize any religion, or to pay stipends; for historical reasons, this statute does not apply to the Alsace-Moselle area (where four religions are state-subsidized under the local law), to French Guiana (Catholic priests are employed by the local government, although this situation is likely to change) and to military chaplains (, there are indications that the statute of religious services to the military will be changed).

Religious organizations are not required to register, but may if they wish to apply for tax-exempt status or to gain official recognition. The French government defines two categories under which religious groups may register: associations cultuelles (associations of worship, which are exempt from taxes) and associations culturelles (cultural associations, which are not exempt from all taxes). Associations in these two categories are subject to certain management and financial disclosure requirements. An association of worship may organize only religious activities, defined as liturgical services and practices. A cultural association may engage in a profit-making activity. Although a cultural association is not exempt from taxes, it may receive government subsidies for its cultural and educational operations, such as schools. Religious groups normally register under both of these categories; the Mormons, for example, run strictly religious activities through their association of worship and operate a school under their cultural association.

Under the 1905 statute, religious groups must apply with the local prefecture to be recognized as an association of worship and receive tax-exempt status. The prefecture reviews the submitted documentation regarding the association's purpose for existence. To qualify, the group's purpose must be solely the practice of some form of religious ritual. Printing publications, employing a board president, or running a school may disqualify a group from receiving tax-exempt status. A common method is to run such activities in another financially separate association ("cultural association" or other similar denomination).

According to the 1905 law, associations of worship are not taxed on the donations that they receive. However, the prefecture may decide to review a group's status if the association receives a large donation or legacy that comes to the attention of the tax authorities. If the prefecture determines that the association is not in fact in conformity with the 1905 law, its status may be changed, and it may be required to pay taxes at a rate of 60 per cent on present and past donations.

According to the 100 Catholic associations that are tax-exempt; a representative of the Ministry of Interior reports that the number of non-tax-exempt Catholic associations is too numerous to estimate accurately. More than 50 associations of the Jehovah's Witnesses have tax-free status.

United States
In the United States, a faith-based organization (FBO) is an organization that has its mission based on a faith system. The U.S. IRS  designates tax exemptions for those legal entities that qualify. To be a legal entity in America each organization must file the required documents in the U.S. states in which they operate.

Croatia
The legal status of religious organizations (religious communities in Croatia) is determined by the Law on the Legal Status of Religious Communities. The Ministry of Justice and Administration keeps records in which all religious communities in Croatia are registered.

In Croatia, religious communities are non-profit legal entities. The Croatian government established the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities in order to regulate legal relations between the state and religious organizations.

In Croatia, religious communities have the right to establish religious schools and preschool education institutions, and in accordance with the contract between the religious community and the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

Religious communities have the right to organize religious education classes in public primary and secondary schools, in accordance with the contract between the religious community and the Government of the Republic of Croatia and at the request of the student's parents.

Every religious community has the right to pastoral care of their believers who are in health and social welfare institutions, as well as in penitentiaries and prisons, in accordance with the contract between the religious community and the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

Religious communities can acquire funds through income from their property, from the profits of commercial companies, by providing religious services, by inheritance and by gifts, from voluntary contributions, through charitable, educational and other generally useful activities.

Religious communities in Croatia can receive funds from the state and local budgets under special conditions, depending on their contribution to the national culture and in accordance with the generally beneficial activities of the religious community.

In Croatia, religious communities do not pay tax on real estate transactions, and tax on contributions made by citizens. Also, religious communities do not pay customs duties and taxes on items they receive from foreign religious communities.

The basic conditions for registering a new religious community in Croatia are that the religious community has at least 500 believers and proof that the newly founded religious community has existed as an association for at least 5 years before submitting the application.

See also
 Faith-based organization
 List of religious organizations
Religious community

References

 (Most of this information from International Religious Freedom Report 2004, US Department of State; information cross-checked in French legal texts.)

Religion and politics

Religious organization


I Medici is an opera in four acts composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo, with a libretto by the composer. Set in Renaissance Florence at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, it was intended as the first part of a planned but unfinished trilogy called Crepusculum. The opera premiered on 6 November 1893 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan.

Background and performance history

I Medici was intended as the first part of a planned but unfinished trilogy called Crepusculum, with the second and third operas to be called Savonarola and I Borgia. The word "crepusculum" is Latin for "twilight", signaling the influence of Richard Wagner's tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (whose fourth installment is called "Twilight of the Gods" (Götterdämmerung)). The remaining two operas were never completed. Leoncavallo sought to create an "epic poem" for the stage. However, one contemporary review of the premiere stated:
In I Medici we have a historical opera like those that have been made many times before and will be hence ... [but] we do not have either an epoch or a set of characters brought truthfully to life; we do not have, in a word, that human counterpart of Wagner's mythological trilogy at which Leoncavallo gazed.

It premièred at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 9 November 1893. It was not successful in its day and has never become part of the standard repertoire. However, it was revived at the Frankfurt Alte Oper in 1993 in a concert version conducted by Marcello Viotti (the opera's first performance in Germany) and was given a fully staged performance in March 2013 at the Theater Erfurt in Erfurt, Germany, conducted by Emmanuel Joel-Hornak.

Roles

Synopsis
The opera is set in Renaissance Italy and concerns intrigues centering on the Medici family, and the Pazzi conspiracy. Giuliano de' Medici loves Simonetta Cattanei, who tries to warn him of the conspiracy against his family. But she is killed by Montesecco, a murderer hired by Pope Sixtus V. Giuliano is killed by the conspirators, but Lorenzo de' Medici escapes with the help of the poet Poliziano. He then wins the support of the people, who lynch the conspirators.

Recordings
A recording of the opera was released in 2010 on Deutsche Grammophon featuring Plácido Domingo as Giuliano de' Medici, Carlos Álvarez as Lorenzo de' Medici, Vitaly Kovalkov as Francesco de' Pazzi, Daniela Dessì as Simonetta Cattanei (Simonetta Vespucci née Cattaneo ) and Renata Lamanda as Fioretta de' Gori. It was recorded in July 2007 at the Teatro Comunale Florence, with Alberto Veronesi conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino .

Notes

See also
Medici (TV series)

References

External links
Complete libretto

Operas
Operas by Ruggero Leoncavallo
Italian-language operas
1893 operas
Operas set in Italy
Operas set in the 15th century
Cultural depictions of Lorenzo de' Medici
Operas based on real people

I Medici


Bull Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Bull Point, about one mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Mortehoe, on the northern coast of Devon, England. The lighthouse provides a visual aid to the villages of Mortehoe, Woolacombe and Ilfracombe, and warns of the inhospitable and rocky coast that lines the area.

The old lighthouse
The original lighthouse was constructed in 1879 after a group of local "clergy, ship-owners, merchants and landowners" appealed to Trinity House for one. It was built on Bull Point, though the Maritime Corporations of the Bristol Channel seaboard had lobbied strongly for it to be placed offshore on the Morte Stone (a local hazard to shipping).

Bull Point Lighthouse was a two-storey round tower,  high and  wide, built of local stone and Blue Lias lime, and faced with Portland cement; it was topped by a large cylindrical lantern to give a total height of . Inside, the light-source (a Douglass six-wick oil-powered lamp) was set within a revolving first-order optic, manufactured (along with the lantern) by Chance Brothers of Smethwick. The optic, consisting of three asymmetric lens panels backed by a dioptric mirror, was an early example of the application of group-flashing lens technology (introduced by Dr John Hopkinson of Chance Brothers in 1874). Rotated by a weight-driven clockwork, it displayed three white flashes every half minute at an elevation of  above mean high water springs. A fixed red sector light was also displayed, from a window in the tower, to mark the Morte Stone; this used light diverted by lenses from the landward side of the main light source.

A fog siren was also provided, powered by two 12 h.p. caloric engines (provided by Brown & co. of New York); it gave three blasts every two minutes. The fog signal equipment was housed in a separate engine room, built (together with a coke store and a small workshop) on the seaward side of the tower; it sounded through a single vertical horn, which was designed to rotate so that it could be angled to face into the wind when in use. On the landward side of the tower, a set of dwellings were constructed 'for two married keepers and one married assistant'. The dwellings, tower and engine room were linked by passageways; they were set, along with gardens and outbuildings, in a 12,000 sq ft compound.

In 1919 a new twin-siren fog signal was installed, sounded through a pair of 'Rayleigh trumpets', together with a new set of 24 h.p. Hornsby oil engines in the engine room providing compressed air.

The light was electrified in 1960 when the lighthouse was connected to mains electricity. At the same time a new motor-driven optic was installed, providing an 800,000 candlepower light visible at a distance of , and a new twin-diaphone fog signal was installed, the Rayleigh trumpets being replaced by a set of rectangular exponential horns. Compressed air was provided by a pair of Reavell compressor sets (one diesel, the other electric) supplied by Petters Ltd (who also provided a standby generator in case the mains supply failed).

The new lighthouse
In September 1972 the headland on which the lighthouse stood subsided making the structure dangerous. Trinity House used an old light tower from Braunton Sands for two years whilst a new structure was rebuilt further inland. This was completed in 1974 at a cost of £71,000 and is currently in use; much equipment was reused from the old lighthouse, including the 1960 optic and fog signal. The sector light was also retained. It was fully automated from completion, stands 11 metres tall, has a light intensity of 800,000 candelas and can be seen for . The triple F-type diaphone foghorn was switched off in 1988, but inside the redundant equipment remains intact. The lighthouse was automated in 1995.

The site can be reached by an adjacent public footpath, although the lighthouse compound itself is private property and not accessible to visitors. The old lighthouse keepers' cottages are now being let out to tourists as self-catering holiday establishments.

Gallery

See also

 List of lighthouses in England

References

External links

 Trinity House

Lighthouses completed in 1879
Lighthouses in Devon
Bristol Channel

Bull Point Lighthouse


Mallawi is a toun in Egyp, locatit in the govrenorate o the Minya.

Owerview
Situatit in a ferm aurie, the toun produces textiles an handicrafts.

The total aurie o the ceety is about 3 acres (12,000 m2). The soothren limit is Allah Mansion (possibly a releegious structur), the northren limit is a telly transmitter, the eastren border is the Nile, an the wastren bundary is Dirotiah Lake.
The ceety contains mony auncient Egyptian airtifacts.

See an aw
Monastery o Saunt Fana

Freemit airtins
The Coptic Orthdox Diocese o Mallawi
Visits o the Holy Family: Mallawi, Egyp

Populatit places in Egyp

Mallawi


The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include websites, advertising and media, online film and video, mobile sites and apps, and social.

Two winners are selected in each category, one by members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and one by the public who cast their votes during Webby People's Voice voting. Each winner presents a five-word acceptance speech, a trademark of the annual awards show.

Hailed as the "Internet's highest honor," the award is one of the oldest Internet-oriented awards, and is associated with the phrase "The Oscars of the Internet."

History

In its early years, the organization was one among others vying to be the premiere internet awards show, most notably, the Cool Site of the Year Awards. Both shows would compare themselves to the Oscars, as did media outlets such as The New York Times to Canada's Globe & Mail.

The winners of the First Annual Webby Awards in 1995 were presented by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, writers for Columbia Pictures. It was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The televised Webby Awards were sponsored by the Academy of Web Design and Cool Site of the Day. The first Webby Awards were produced by Kay Dangaard at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel as a nod to the first site of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars). That first year, they were called "Webbie" Awards. The first "Site of the Year" winner was the pioneer webisodic serial The Spot.

The modern Webby Awards were co-founded by Tiffany Shlain, a filmmaker, when she was hired by The Web Magazine to re-establish them, and were first held in San Francisco in 1997. They quickly became known for its requirement that winners give their acceptance speeches in five words. After this, the awards became more successful than the magazine and IDG closed the publication. Shlain and co-founder Maya Draisin Farrah continued to run The Webby Awards until 2004.

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which selects the winners of The Webby Awards, was established in 1998 by co-founders Tiffany Shlain, Spencer Ante and Maya Draisin. Members of the Academy include Kevin Spacey, Grimes, Questlove, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, Instagram's Head of Fashion Partnerships Eva Chen, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, Twitter Founder Biz Stone, Vice Media Co-Founder and CEO Shane Smith, Tumblr's David Karp, Director of Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Susan P. Crawford, Refinery29's Executive Creative Director Piera Gelardi, and CEO and cofounder of Gimlet Media Alex Blumberg.

The Webby Awards is owned and operated by the Webby Media Group, a division of Recognition Media, which also owns and produces the Lovie Awards in Europe and Netted by the Webbys, a daily email publication launched in 2009. David-Michel Davies, CEO of Webby Media Group, current Executive Director of the Webby Awards and co-founder of Internet Week New York, was named Executive Director of the Webby Awards in 2005.

In 2009, the 13th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries. That same year, more than 500,000 votes were cast in The Webby People's Voice Awards. In 2012, the 16th Annual Webby awards received 1.5 million votes from more than 200 countries for the People's Voice awards. In 2015, the 19th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 13,000 entries from all 50 U.S. states and over 60 countries worldwide.

Nomination process
The 2000 awards began the transition to nominee submissions. Previously, nominees had been selected by an internal committee.

During the Call for Entries phase, each entry is rated by Associate Members of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Entries that receive the highest marks during this first round of voting are included on category-specific shortlists and further evaluated by Executive Members of the Academy.

Executive Academy Members with category-specific expertise evaluate the shortlisted entries based on the appropriate Website, Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video, Mobile Sites & Apps, and Social category criteria, and cast ballots to determine Webby Honorees, Nominees and Webby Winners. Deloitte provides vote tabulation consulting for the Webby Awards.

In addition to the award given in each category by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, another winner is selected in each category as determined by the general public during People's Voice voting. Winners of both the Academy-selected and People's Voice-selected awards are invited to the Webbys.

Awards granted

The Webby Awards are presented in over a hundred categories among all four types of entries. A website can be entered in multiple categories and receive multiple awards. In each category, two awards are handed out: a Webby Award selected by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and a People's Voice Award selected by the  general public.

Ceremony
Between 2005 and 2019, the Webby Awards were presented in New York City. Comedian Rob Corddry hosted the ceremony from 2005 to 2007. Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live hosted in 2008 and 2009, B.J. Novak of NBC's The Office in 2010, and Lisa Kudrow in 2011. Comedian, actor, and writer Patton Oswalt hosted from 2012 to 2014. Comedian Hannibal Buress hosted in 2015.

The Webbys are famous for limiting recipients to five-word speeches, which are often humorous, although some exceed the limit. In 2005 when accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award, former Vice President Al Gore's speech was "Please don't recount this vote." He was introduced by Vint Cerf who used the same format to state, "We all invented the Internet." In 2013, the creator of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Steve Wilhite, accepted his Webby and delivered his now famous five-word speech, "It's pronounced 'Jif' not 'Gif'."

Criticism

The Webbys have been criticized for their pay-to-enter and pay-to-attend policy (winners and nominees also have to pay to attend the award ceremony), and thus for not taking most websites into consideration before distributing their awards.  Gawker, its Valleywag column, and others, have called the awards a scam, with Valleywag saying, "...somewhere along the way, the organizers figured out that this goofy charade could be milked for profit."

In response, Webby Awards executive director David-Michel Davies told the Wall Street Journal that entry fees "provide the best and most sustainable model for ensuring that our judging process remains consistent and rigorous and is not dependent on things like sponsorships that can fluctuate from year to year."

Anthem Awards

The Webby organization started a new line of awards, the Anthem Awards, in 2021 (first winners in 2022).  They describe themselves as "Celebrating purpose & mission-driven work from people, companies and organizations worldwide."

See also

 Shorty Awards
 The Streamer Awards
 Streamy Awards
 List of web awards

References

Further reading
 Joanna Glasner, "Usual Suspects Dominate Webbys" - Wired News, May 9, 2006
 Jack Shafer,  "What? You've Not Been Honored by the Webbys?", Slate Magazine, April 9, 2008

External links

 Webby Awards at YouTube

Computer-related awards
American science and technology awards
Web awards
Blog awards
Web development
Internet film festivals
Awards established in 1996

Podcasting awards
Television series by Boardwalk Pictures

Webby Awards


Atotonilco de Tula is one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo.  It is located in the central-southeastern part of the state of Hidalgo in Mexico.  The municipal seat is Atotonilco de Tula. The municipality is located at a southern pass leading out of the Mezquital Valley to 86 kilometers north of Mexico City and about 180 km northeast of the state capital of Pachuca de Soto. The name comes from Nahuatl and means "place of hot springs" and otomi language is Padehe. The municipality covers an area of 31 km².

As of 2010 census, the municipality had a total population of 31,078. It is now part of Tula de Allende built-up (or metro) area.

Geography

It is located between the parallels  99° 27' 51" and 99° 07' 32"  west longitude, and 20° 05' 35" and 18° 55' 22" north latitude. Atotonilco borders. It covers a total surface area of 192.7 km² at an altitude of 6,634 ft.  In the year 2010 census by INEGI, it reported a population of 17,055.

The town of Atotonilco de Tula, a municipal seat, has governing jurisdiction over the following communities: Vito, Boxfi, and Progreso. The total municipality extends 96.37 and borders with the municipalities of Tepeji del Río, Tula de Allende, Atitalaquia, Ajacuba and the state of México (Huehuetoca, Tequixquiac and Apaxco).

The municipal seat is in a small, elongated valley but most of the municipality is inside of the Mezquital Valley. The highest mountain the Picacho in the Sierra Tezontlalpa, it rises  above sea level, on the border between the municipalities of San Agustín Tlaxiaca and Atitalaquia.

Flora & fauna
Atotonilco de Tula municipality is a rural territory of Central Mexican Plateau, here there is a diversity in plants and animals of semi-desertic climate (Mezquital Valley).

The native animals are cacomistle, skunk, gopher, bobcat, falcon, Virginia opossum, rabbit, Mexican gray squirrel, turkey, colibri, turkey vulture, northern mockingbird, rattlesnake, pine snake, xincoyote, red warbler, rufous-crowned sparrow, lesser roadrunner, great horned owl, frog, toad, red ant, bee, and others.

Demography

Populated places in Atotonilco

References

Municipalities of Hidalgo (state)
Populated places in Hidalgo (state)
Populated places in the Teotlalpan

Atotonilco de Tula


Ernest Charles Wong (; died in 2004) was a Hong Kong entrepreneur and public figure active in the 1950s and 60s.

He worked for the Shriro as a manager of the watch department and co-founded the Federation of Hong Kong Watch Trades and Industries and later became its chairman in 1955. He was also director and later chairman of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in 1959. Under his spell, he oversaw the reconstruction of the Kwong Wah Hospital, in which his was responsible for fundraising. He had also been vice president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong.

In 1959, he was nominated by the Hong Kong Civic Association to run for the Urban Council election. He served for one term and stepped down in 1963.

He was married and had two sons. The younger son of his married to second daughter of Kan Yuet-hing, brother of Sir Kan Yuet-keung.

References

2004 deaths
Members of the Urban Council of Hong Kong
Hong Kong businesspeople
Hong Kong Civic Association politicians
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals

Ernest Charles Wong


Delbert Lee "Cigar" Daisey (March 6, 1928 – April 19, 2017), known as "Cigar" Daisey, was an American waterfowl wood carver and decoy maker.  He was the son of Herbert Lee Daisey and Emma Jane Daisey. He was born, lived and worked in Chincoteague, Virginia, and was the resident carver at the Refuge Waterfowl Museum.  His decoy carvings are recognized for both their artistic value and functionality as working pieces for waterfowl hunting.  His works include black ducks, mallards, redheads, ruddys and red-breasted mergansers and often crafted in drake (male) and hen (female) pairs. He had carved about 1900 ducks in total and he generally used cork or wood as his medium. He carved his first duck out of balsa wood in 1940 at his father's wood shop.  The Smithsonian has his works in their collection.  He was given his nickname in 1945 by John Buckalew, Federal Game Warden and first manager of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge because Daisey would leave cigar butts to taunt game wardens while poaching ducks on Assateague Island.  Later in life, Daisey was an avid conservationist.

One of the most valuable pieces he ever made was a pintail in 1973, as a present for his wife. That was the only fully decorative decoy he had ever made, and was featured in National Geographic magazine, June 1980, page 826. The decoy was estimated to be worth $150,000.

See also
Waterfowl decoy collecting

Notes

1928 births
2017 deaths
American woodcarvers
People from Chincoteague, Virginia
20th-century American sculptors
21st-century American sculptors
21st-century American male artists
American male sculptors
Sculptors from Virginia
20th-century American male artists

Delbert Daisey


Love in the Afternoon is a 1957 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn and Maurice Chevalier. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on the 1920 Claude Anet novel Ariane, jeune fille russe (Ariane, Young Russian Girl). The story explores the relationship between a notorious middle-aged American playboy business magnate and the 20-something daughter of a private detective hired to investigate him. The supporting cast features John McGiver and Lise Bourdin.

Plot
Young  cello student Ariane Chavasse eavesdrops on a conversation between her father, Claude Chavasse, a widowed private detective who specializes in tracking unfaithful spouses, and his client, "Monsieur X". After Claude gives his client proof of his wife's daily trysts with American business magnate Frank Flannagan in Room 14 at the Paris Ritz, Monsieur X announces he will shoot Flannagan later that evening. Claude is nonchalant, regretting only the business he will lose, since Flannagan is a well-known international playboy with a long history of casual affairs. When Ariane cannot get the Ritz to put her through to Flannagan on the phone, and the police decline to intervene until after a crime has been committed, she decides to warn him herself.

Ariane is in time. When Monsieur X breaks into Flannagan's hotel suite, he finds Flannagan with Ariane, not his wife, who is cautiously making her escape via an outside ledge. Flannagan is intrigued by the mysterious girl, who refuses to give him any information about herself, even her name. He starts guessing her name from the initial "A" on her purse, and when she declines to tell him he resorts to calling her "thin girl". She has no romantic history but pretends to be a femme fatale to interest him, and soon falls in love with the considerably older man. She agrees to meet him the next afternoon, withholding that she has orchestral practice in the evenings. She comes with mixed feelings, but spends the evening while waiting for him to leave for the airport.

Ariane's father, who has tried unsuccessfully to protect her from knowing about the tawdry domestic-surveillance details in his files, notices her change of mood but has no idea that it proceeds from one of his cases.

A year later, Flannagan returns to Paris and the Ritz. Ariane, who has kept track of Flannagan's womanizing exploits through the news media, meets him again when she sees him at an opera while surveying the crowd from a balcony. She puts herself in his path in the lobby, and they start seeing each other again. This time, when he persists in his questioning, she makes up a long list of prior imaginary lovers based on her father's files, later telling Flannagan that he is her 20th. Flannagan gradually goes from being amused to being jealously tormented by the possible comparisons, but is unsure whether they are real. When he encounters a still-apologetic Monsieur X, the latter recommends Claude to him, and thus Flannagan hires Ariane's own father to investigate.

It does not take Claude long to realize that the mystery woman is Ariane. He goes to the Ritz, tells Flannagan her first name, informs his client that the girl fabricated her love life, and eventually tells him that Ariane is his daughter. He tells Flannagan that she is a "little fish" that he should throw back, since she is serious and he wants to avoid serious relationships.

When Ariane comes to his hotel suite that afternoon Flannagan is hurriedly packing to leave Paris, pretending to be on his way to meet "two crazy Swedish twins" in Cannes. At the train station they both keep up their act of not caring deeply for each other, although Ariane sheds a few tears that she blames on the soot. As the train departs Ariane runs along the platform and tells Flannagan, who stands in the coach's door, that she will soon travel with her many lovers. Running faster and faster as the train speeds up, her femme-fatale facade cracks, she frantically repeats "I'll be all right, I'll be all right", and her love shows through. Flannagan changes his mind, sweeps her up in his arms onto the coach, and before kissing her calls her by her name, Ariane.

In  voice over, Claude informs us that the couple were married in Cannes on August 24th, and now live together in New York.

Cast

Music
Songs and music in the film include:

 "Fascination" by Fermo Dante Marchetti with lyrics (1905) by Maurice de Féraudy and English lyrics by Dick Manning; Performed by The Gypsies
 "C'est si bon" by Henri Betti; Lyrics by André Hornez; Performed by The Gypsies
 "L'ame de Poètes" by Charles Trenet; Performed by The Gypsies
 "Love in the Afternoon," "Ariane" and "Hot Paprika" by Matty Malneck

Production

Development
Love in the Afternoon was the first of twelve screenplays by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, who met when Wilder contacted Diamond after reading an article he had written for the Screen Writers Guild monthly magazine. The two men immediately hit it off, and Wilder suggested they collaborate on a project based on a German language film he had co-written in the early 1930s. The script was based on the 1920 Claude Anet novel Ariane, jeune fille russe (Ariane, Young Russian Girl), which had been filmed as Scampolo (1928) and Scampolo, a Child of the Street (1932), the latter with a script co-written by Wilder. Wilder was inspired by a 1931 German adaptation of the novel, Ariane, directed by Paul Czinner.

Casting

Wilder's first choices for Frank Flannagan were Cary Grant and Yul Brynner. "It was a disappointment to me that [Grant] never said yes to any picture I offered him," Wilder later recalled. "He didn't explain why. He had very strong ideas about what parts he wanted". The director decided to cast Gary Cooper because they shared similar tastes and interests and Wilder knew the actor would be good company during location filming in Paris. "They talked about food and wine and clothes and art", according to co-star Audrey Hepburn, Wilder's only choice for Ariane.

Talent agent Paul Kohner suggested Maurice Chevalier for the role of Claude Chavasse, and when asked if he was interested, the actor replied, "I would give the secret recipe for my grandmother's bouillabaisse to be in a Billy Wilder picture". Love in the Afternoon marked Chevalier's first non-singing role in a film since 1947. The film was also the American feature film debut of character actor John McGiver.

Filming
It was Wilder's insistence to shoot the film on location in Paris. Outdoor locations included the Château of Vitry in the Yvelines; the Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera; and the Hôtel Ritz Paris. Interior scenes were filmed at the Studios de Boulogne. However, Cooper was reportedly uncomfortable in this, his first filming location outside the United States. To cover over Cooper's performance and also to obscure "the lines and age in Cooper's face", Wilder photographed the actor's face in shadow and with "gauzy filters"; the camera was also often positioned behind Cooper's back.

For the American release of the film, Chevalier recorded an end-of-film narration letting audiences know Ariane and Flannagan had married and were living in New York City. Although Wilder objected to the addition, he was forced to include it to forestall complaints that the relationship between the two was immoral.

Music
Music plays an important role in the film. A four-piece band of musicians called "The Gypsies" entertains Flannagan and his various lovers in his hotel suite, since Frank says he's "not much of a talker" and lets music create the romance. The Gypsies stick with Flannagan through thick and thin, serenading him as he drowns his sorrows in drink while listening to Ariane's recording of her long list of lovers, joining him in a Turkish bath, and following him to the train station.

Much of the prelude to the 1865 Richard Wagner opera Tristan und Isolde is heard during a lengthy sequence set in the Palais Garnier opera house, possibly conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch. Matty Malneck, Wilder's friend from their Paul Whiteman days in Vienna, wrote three songs for the film, including the title tune. Also heard are "C'est si bon" by Henri Betti, "L'ame Des Poètes" by Charles Trenet, and "Fascination", a 1932 song based on a European waltz, which is hummed repeatedly by Ariane.

Malneck later wrote lyrics for "Fascination" and "Hot Paprika". "Fascination" became a popular hit for Chevalier and for many other singers; "C'est si bon" was also recorded by numerous singers and became an international hit.

Johnny Mercer later wrote lyrics for "Love in the Afternoon". The song became a hit for Jerry Vale and other singers.

Release

Produced at a cost of $2.1 million, the film was plagued by underfinancing. The debt Allied Artists incurred while making Friendly Persuasion prompted the studio to sell the distribution rights of Love in the Afternoon for Europe to gain more financing.

The film had its world premiere in Paris on May 29, 1957. It opened in Los Angeles on June 19, 1957, and in New York on August 23, 1957.

Box-office
The film was a commercial failure in the United States. It did not resonate with American audiences in part because Cooper looked too old to be having an affair with Hepburn's young character. Wilder himself admitted: "It was a flop. Why? Because I got Coop the week he suddenly got old". Allied Artists re-released the film in 1961 under the new title Fascination. However, in Europe, the film was a major success, released under the title Ariane.

Reception
In his 1957 review, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film a "grandly sophisticated romance ... in the great Lubitsch tradition" and added, "Like most of Lubitsch's chefs-d'oeuvre [masterpieces], it is a gossamer sort of thing, so far as a literary story and a substantial moral are concerned ... Mr. Wilder employs a distinctive style of subtle sophisticated slapstick to give the fizz to his brand of champagne ... Both the performers are up to it—archly, cryptically, beautifully. They are even up to a sentimental ending that is full of the mellowness of afternoon."

Wilder is often mentioned as Lubitsch's disciple. In his 2007 essay on the two directors for Stop Smiling magazine, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that Love in the Afternoon was "the most obvious and explicit and also, arguably, the clunkiest of his tributes to Lubitsch, partially inspired by Lubitsch's 1938 Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (which Wilder and [Charles] Brackett also helped to script, and which also starred Gary Cooper, again playing a womanizing American millionaire in France)". John Fawell wrote in 2008 that "Lubitsch was at his most imaginative when he lingered outside of doorways, particularly when something promiscuous was going on behind the door, a habit his pupil Billy Wilder picked up. In Wilder's most Lubitsch-like film, Love in the Afternoon, we know when Gary Cooper's rich playboy has bedded another conquest when we see the group of gypsy musicians (that travels with Cooper to aid in his wooing) tiptoe out of the hotel room, shoes in hand."

In an undated and unsigned review, TV Guide observes that the film has "the winsome charm of Hepburn, the elfin puckishness of Chevalier, a literate script by Wilder and Diamond, and an airy feeling that wafted the audience along," but felt it was let down by Gary Cooper, who "was pushing 56 at the time and looking too long in the tooth to be playing opposite the gamine Hepburn ... With little competition from the wooden Cooper, the picture is stolen by Chevalier's bravura turn".

Channel 4 stated: "the film as a whole is rather let down by the implausible chemistry that is meant to develop between Cooper and Hepburn."

In her film analysis, Marilyn Throne calls the script an exposure of the myth of "the girl-virgin as the seductress of the worldly and successful American male". Throne notes that the character of Ariane is surrounded by men—including her father—who all affirm and support the prerogative of men to philander and flirt, while women are expected to remain chaste. The sexual double standard is seen for what it is when Ariane's father confronts Flannagan and both realize their wrong, as the detective-father who has made his wealth from investigating this playboy now realizes the playboy has seduced his own daughter, and the playboy who has mocked and eluded cuckolded husbands comes face to face with the father of the girl he seduced. Flannagan's decision at the end to scoop up Ariane into the moving train, and later marry her, puts an unrealistic romantic stamp on the story, considering Flannagan's long philandering past and Ariane's total inexperience with men and money. Throne concludes, "One rather wishes he'd adopted the girl instead of marrying her".

Accolades
Screenwriters Wilder and Diamond won the award for "Best American Comedy" at the 1957 Writers Guild of America Awards.

Wilder was nominated for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film by the Directors Guild of America.

See also
 List of American films of 1957

References

Sources

External links

American romantic comedy films
1957 romantic comedy films
1957 films
Films directed by Billy Wilder
American black-and-white films
Allied Artists films
American remakes of German films
Films set in Paris
Films based on French novels
Films based on romance novels
Films with screenplays by Billy Wilder
Films with screenplays by I. A. L. Diamond
United Artists films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films

Love in the Afternoon (1957 film)