Kronid Arkadyevich Lyubarsky (; 4 April 1934 – 23 May 1996) was a Russian journalist, dissident, human rights activist and political prisoner.

Early career
Born in the city of Pskov, USSR, on April 4, 1934, Lyubarsky graduated from the Moscow State University in 1956 and worked as an astrophysicist at the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His academic work included studies on meteors and space biology. He was also working in the Soviet program of interplanetary exploration of Mars. He authored several books on astrobiology and translated scientific works into Russian, including books by Fred Hoyle.

Dissident activity
In the mid-1960s, Lyubarsky became active in the civil rights movement and became a contributing editor of various samizdat publications. These included the Chronicle of Current Events which circulated between April 1968 and August 1983, documenting extrajudicial persecution, arrests, court proceedings, incarceration in psychiatric hospitals and other forms of harassment in the Soviet Union.

In January 1972, Luybarsky's apartment was searched by the police and more than 600 documents, manuscripts and books were confiscated. The search was followed by his arrest three days later on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Following his conviction on October 30, 1972, Lyubarsky spent the next five years in various labor camps and prisons in Mordovia, as well as the notorious Vladimir Central Prison.

While still in the camps, he initiated the idea of celebrating a Day of the Political Prisoner in the USSR. The initiative spread quickly to other camps and prisons. The annual event later became Russia's Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions.

After his release, Lyubarsky was exiled to Tarusa, a town in the Moscow Region, where he was kept under surveillance. During this period, he became one of the managers of the Public Aid Fund set up by the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn to aid political prisoners, and a member of the Soviet branch of Amnesty International. However, mounting pressures by the authorities and the imminent threat of a renewed arrest forced Lyubarsky and his family into emigration in October 1977. Stripped of his citizenship, he sought political asylum in West Germany.

Emigration
In Munich, Lyubarsky founded a bulletin, Vesti iz SSSR (USSR News Brief), a periodical providing comprehensive information between November 1978 and December 1991 about the human rights situation and resistance to the Communist regime in the Soviet Union. Published in Russian and English twice a month, this bulletin included an annual "List of Political Prisoners in the USSR", a yearbook of political prisoners complete with case details and family contacts. The list appeared until 1989, when the last Soviet political prisoner was released, and was widely used for reference by private citizens, human rights organizations and numerous parliamentary commissions, as well as the United States Congress.

Beginning in 1984, Lyubarsky also edited and published the magazine Strana i Mir (The Country and the World). Taking its name from a well-known book by the political dissident and Nobel laureate, Andrei Sakharov, the magazine was intended for a broad readership. It reported not only on repression and resistance in the USSR but also economic and political developments in the rest of the world.

Post-Soviet Russia
Lyubarsky returned to Russia following the breakup of the USSR. His citizenship was restored in June 1992.

Lyubarsky was one of the authors of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation and drafted a number of its articles, including those on the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of Russia.

In 1990, he joined the Soviet-International commission chaired by Irwin Cotler investigating the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who disappeared into the Soviet prison system.

In February 1993, he joined the magazine The New Times, where he was appointed first deputy editor in chief. He continued to write articles in defense of democracy and human rights. He was strongly opposed to the First Chechen War and took Duma deputy and film-maker Stanislav Govorukhin to court for defamation, when the latter quoted from a letter supposedly showing that certain Russian journalists were in the pay of the Chechen authorities. (After his death, Lyubarsky's widow Galina won the case against Govorukhin, and received the nominal damages — one Russian rouble — that he had demanded.)

From 1993 to 1996, Lyubarsky led the revived Moscow Helsinki Group, a watchdog organization first set up in the mid-1970s to monitor Soviet compliance with the human rights provisions in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.

Death and legacy

Lyubarsky died of a heart attack, while vacationing in Indonesia, on 23 May 1996, aged 61.

An online version of USSR News Brief, the historic fortnightly bulletin compiled and issued by Lyubarsky in Munich, in the original Russian (Vesti iz SSSR), offers historians and activists the thousands of long and short reports provided by this unique source in the crucial and ambivalent years of Soviet history from 1978 to 1987 (and see below "External Links").

Lyubarsky's earlier years as a dissident and his work abroad, between 1976 and 1992, were recognised, posthumously, in 2000 when the International Press Institute  named him a World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years.

Bibliography

  (publicly available unabridged Russian text)

References

External links

 Marjorie Farquharson (18 June 1996), "Obituary - Kronid Lyubarsky" The Independent (London)

 USSR News Brief, 1978-1987 .
 Любарский Кронид Аркальевич Articles on hro.org .

1934 births
1996 deaths
People from Pskov
Moscow State University alumni
Soviet astrophysicists
Soviet astronomers
Russian astrophysicists
Russian astronomers
Soviet non-fiction writers
Soviet male writers
20th-century Russian male writers
Russian political writers
Soviet dissidents
Soviet human rights activists
Russian human rights activists
Moscow Helsinki Group
Soviet emigrants to Germany
Deaths in Indonesia
People denaturalized by the Soviet Union
Inmates of Vladimir Central Prison
20th-century non-fiction writers
Male non-fiction writers

Kronid Lyubarsky


Baby Shark's Big Show! is an animated children's television series based on the "Baby Shark" brand from the South Korean company Pinkfong. SmartStudy, Pinkfong's parent company, co-produces the show with Nickelodeon Animation Studios from the United States.

In South Korea, Baby Shark's Big Show! debuted on the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) with a Christmas special on December 25, 2020; from September 2021 onward, the series will regularly air on EBS1 on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and other channel Tooniverse. In the United States, it premiered on Nickelodeon on December 11, 2020.

Production
On June 7, 2019, Pinkfong announced the show on their official Instagram account. On June 25, the Nick Jr. social media accounts posted about the show.

Characters
 Brooklyn "Baby" Shark (voiced by Kim Seo-yeong in Korean, Kimiko Glenn in English) - A yellow male shark and the main protagonist.
 William (voiced by Yeo Min-jeong in Korean, Luke Youngblood in English) - An orange male pilot fish and Brooklyn's best friend.
 Mommy Shark (voiced by Moon Nam-sook in Korean, Natasha Rothwell in English) - A pink female shark and Brooklyn's mother.
 Daddy Shark (voiced by Jeong Jae-heon in Korean, Eric Edelstein in English) - A blue male shark and Brooklyn's father.
 Grandma Shark (voiced by Kim Eun-ah in Korean, Debra Wilson in English) - An orange female shark and Brooklyn's grandmother.
 Grandpa Shark (voiced by Lee Won-chan in Korean, Patrick Warburton in English) - A green male shark and Brooklyn's grandfather.
 Chucks (voiced by Alex Cazares) - A purple male seahorse who is clumsy.
 Vola (voiced by Kimberly Brooks) - A green female octopus who is cheerful, tomboyish and loves sports.
 Mason (voiced by Teddy Walsh) - A red male crab who has his pitch.
 Goldie (voiced by Cole Escola) - a gold female goldfish who is a fashionista and is often vain and flamboyant.
 Hank (voiced by Georgie Kidder) - A blue male whale and the youngest of Baby's friends.
 Shadow (voiced by Cristina Pucelli) - A grey male shark and Baby's archival.
 Bait and Switch (voiced by Rama Vallury and Tara Strong respectively) - Shadow's sidekicks. Bait is a purple tang and Switch is a brown angelfish.
 Rayna Ray (voiced by Shelby Young) - A purple female manta ray who's a news reporter, and William's mother.
 Marty Minnow (voiced by Griffin Puatu) - A green bespectacled male minnow and the leader of the minnows.

Places
Carnivore Cove

Cast
Kimiko Glenn as Baby Shark, Kid, Meanie Minnow, Sea Critter, Penguin Scooper, Space Helmet Tuna, Blue Fish, Baby Fish
Luke Youngblood as William, Sea Snake, Audience, Meanie Minnow, Sea Critter, Whale, Sand Crab Walla, Salefish, Taste Tester, Salesfish, Orange Fish, Sluggy, Baby Red Fish, Sir Gilliad
Natasha Rothwell as Mommy Shark, Little Fishies, Catfish
Eric Edelstein as Daddy Shark, Kid, Sea Snake, Elderly Fish
Debra Wilson as Grandma Shark, She-Shark, Meanie Minnow, Sea Critter, Great-Great-Great-Granny Shark, Conscientious Fish #2, Pink Octopus, Mrs. Fish, Sea Dragon Actors, Crowd
Patrick Warburton as Grandpa Shark, Foam Finger Fish
Kym Whitley as Toothfish Fairy
Georgie Kidder as Hank
Alex Cazares as Chucks
Kimberly Brooks as Vola, Minnow
Cole Escola as Goldie, Ol' Sea Breeze
Fred Tatasciore as Slobber Slug, Mail Whale
Cristina Pucelli as Shadow, Minnow, Green Fish
Rama Vallury as Bait, Audience, Eel-ectric Guitar
Tara Strong as Switch, Dolphin, Audience
Andrew Morgado as Vigo
Alex Polinsky as Costello
Jeff Bennett as Fish, Red Fish, Dr. Sweet-Scales, Mr. Fish
Shelby Young as Rayna, Robot Female Fish, Ocean Sunfish, PA Voice
Antony Del Rio as Sledge
Carolina Ravassa as Mariana
Olan Rogers as Gary Goodspeed
Gary Anthony Williams as Sherman
Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Pinkfong (Returning Character)

Other websites

Nickelodeon television series

Baby Shark's Big Show!


The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) is a former government agency in England and Scotland.

History
It was founded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI, which became BERR in 2007) in April 2002. It was split into regions and was aimed at SMEs to offer technical and strategic advice. The regional offices were titled Regional Centres of Manufacturing Excellence. There was also co-operation with trade associations, research councils and university departments. In the first year the MAS had on average improved companies productivity by 30%, reduced waste by 37%, and increased inventory turnover by 90%. It had been launched with £27 million funding for three years. (50% Government and 50% Regional) The concept for MAS was based on US model the Manufacturing Extension Programme (MEP). A DTI official who had seen the programme in US brought the model back and developed it for the UK.

In many ways it is similar to what Business Link provides for all small businesses, except that Business Link may not have the in-depth experience of manufacturing, specifically the technical know-how. From November 2011 Business Link is mostly to be disbanded, due to abolishment of regional development agencies (RDAs), and replaced with regional websites.
Much of Business Link's advice was previously via its extensive website. Like Business Link, MAS was funded through RDAs. Half of the MAS's funding came from its RDA and the other half came from BIS.

Overhaul
On 14 October 2011 Mark Prisk, a minister at the BIS, announced an overhaul of the MAS. It will offer much of what it has done, but due to the regional development agencies being abolished, it will be a national organisation from 1 January 2012. The new national programme will be delivered by the Manufacturing Advisory Consortium comprising Grant Thornton, Pera, WM Manufacturing Consortium Ltd, and SWMAS Ltd.

On 10 December 2010 he had announced that the MAS would not be abolished, as Business Link will be, but will have a 25% cut in funding. It is costing £20 million a year, which will be reduced to £15 million. For the last financial year Business Link received £190 million.

Closure
With no warning, on 27 November 2015, the closure of the Manufacturing Advisory Service was announced as part of the conservative government austerity programme, with the programme formally closing on 31 March 2016.

Relaunch
In April 2017 following a high-level meeting with a consortium of Manufacturing MD's and CEO's in Birmingham led by Lord Mike Whitby and Baroness Lorely Burt, Manufacturing Advisory Service was asked to be relaunched by voices from industry. No longer reliant on government funding, MAS through its place on the All Parliamentary Manufacturing Group and its operational delivery by the Made in Brand will continue to offer the signposting service of Manufacturing Advisory Service, but not a grant funding arm.

As a result, the re-launch of the Manufacturing Advisory Service is not like the old service in any way.

In October 2016, a further programme was created to fill the void left by MAS by providing access to specialist support, free advice and grant funding to help SME Manufacturers grow and improve their businesses.
The Manufacturing Growth Programme, managed by those who ran the MAS programme for 10+ years across the West Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber, North West, and South regions, the new programme is also delivered by a number of previous MAS Advisors across 16 LEP regions who offer real advice and sustainable support.

The Manufacturing Growth Programme, is the new and only business support initiative to help support SME Manufacturers.

Manufacturing Growth Programme
In October 2016, SME Manufacturers were given a major boost with a new £9.7m business support initiative to support over 3,000 companies.
Funded by ERDF and delivered by Economic Growth Solutions (EGS), the Manufacturing Growth Programme promises to fill the void left by MAS by providing access to specialist assistance to help firms grow and improve.
With an 18-strong network of experienced Manufacturing Growth Managers, the majority of which previously delivered the MAS programme, providing bespoke honest advice, MGP also provides access to industry specialists and grant funding to support improvement projects.

In July 2017, the programme had supported more than 1,000 SME Manufacturers, created more than 400 new jobs for the industry and enabled companies to make sustainable changes to support continuous growth.

Function
It has a helpline for advice. It can conduct a free Manufacturing Review on SME manufacturers, and offers subsidised consultancy (up to 50%), and has local events.

The support offered by the Manufacturing Advisory Service covers

Level 1 (Enquiries) Provided by a small team of advisors geographically dispersed round England supported by a website offering online support.

Level 2 (Manufacturing Review) Continue to provide 1 day (2 days for more complex businesses), on-site specialist manufacturing diagnostic review. MAC will use a new diagnostic tool based on the principles of "Manufacturing Excellence" developed in conjunction with the Warwick Manufacturing Group which includes comparisons against best-in-class. In addition, a "Fast Track" over the 'phone Level 2 will be introduced for common, well understood issues.

Level 3 (Events) Continue to provide training and networking events, including best practice visits. These will be an integral part of delivering the Business Improvement actions identified at Level 2. This will be complemented by a Sustainable Improvement Community using best practice social networking tools to provide peer-led best practice examples and lower cost forms of self-help.

Level 4 (Consultancy)
Introduction of a three tier Level 4 project structure:
· MAS Foundation Service: Funding up to £1,000 (or a maximum of 50%) towards an improvement project - targeted at companies who need basic low-level help.
· MAS Step Change Service: Funding of up to £3,000 (or 50% maximum) towards a more significant improvement programme.
· MAS Transformation Service: Funding of up to £10,000 (or 50% maximum) for a strategic change to the business.

Level 5 (Referrals) MAS advisors are responsible for identifying partner organisation support but retain responsibility for referral until it is demonstrated and confirmed by the client that the partner organisation has addressed the client need.

Supply Chain Focus on helping SMEs diversify into advanced manufacturing supply
chains; helping original equipment manufacturers and their supply chains develop better relationships and greater efficiency; helping groups of SMEs in supply chains or clusters interact more effectively. It will use the tools available through Levels 1 - 5 with custom implementation packages assembled to suit client needs delivered by a team of dedicated supply chain experts.

See also
 Manufacturing Technologies Association
 Manufacturing in the United Kingdom
 Technology life cycle
 New Enterprise Allowance

References

External links
 MAS
 Manufacturing Growth Programme

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Manufacturing in the United Kingdom
2002 establishments in the United Kingdom
Government agencies established in 2002
Innovation organizations
Open innovation intermediaries
Research and development in the United Kingdom

Manufacturing Advisory Service


Michael Hatcher (born 1940) is a British explorer and marine salvor.

He has specialised in work in the South China Sea. In 1981 he was involved in investigating the wreck of Dutch submarine K XVII.

He is especially known for his recovery of large quantities of Chinese porcelain from the VOC ship {{ill|Geldermalsen (ship)|lt=Geldermalsen|nl|Geldermalsen (schip, 1747)}} (known as the "Nanking cargo") which was sold at auction by Christie's in Amsterdam in 1986.

Tek Sing
In 1999, he discovered the Tek Sing shipwreck and retrieved 360,000 pieces of porcelain, most of it in impeccable condition, making this the greatest porcelain treasure that has ever been recovered. The cargo originates from the Tek Sing, a junk whose history British shipping researcher Nigel Pickford was able to reconstruct in unprecedented detail. The porcelain was stowed in the tower cargo holds of the ship, where it also served as ballast to stabilize the enormous ship. Most of the porcelain was blue-white porcelain manufactured in the Chinese city of Dehua in the 18th and early 19th century. The greater part of the find is everyday Chinese porcelain utensils intended for export to other countries inside Asia and thus rarely found in the Western hemisphere. As the merchandise had not been made for the European markets, shapes and patterns were not adapted to European taste, but were genuinely Chinese. Other categories of porcelain from different periods were also found, dating back as far the 15th century. The cargo contained a remarkable amount of porcelain of different shapes and sizes, but with identical decoration. It gave buyers in the 21st century the opportunity to compose complete dinner sets with Qing porcelain.  Further items such as mercury, sextants, pocket watches, cannons, coins and other merchandise were also salvaged. The recovery was the largest in salvage history.

It is the story of an incredible shipping disaster with more than 1600 dead (and was consequently entitled the "Titanic of the East" by Spiegel news magazine), involving economic difficulties and mass emigration in the early 19th century. The porcelain itself was robust and survived almost 200 years in the sea. Never before have experts been able to examine Chinese export porcelain intended for the South East Asian market on this scale.

The catalogue itself broke new ground, becoming a valuable reference work on porcelain in professional circles. It also served as an auction catalogue in conjunction with the auction list featuring all the individual lots.

Hatcher already had two important finds of Chinese porcelain to his name: the Hatcher Collection (from an unidentified Chinese junk) and the Nanking cargo from the Dutch Geldermalsen that sank in 1752. Both cargoes were successfully auctioned in Europe in the 1980s. Hatcher chose Nagel Auktionen, the leading auction company for Asian art on the European continent, to release the items to the market.

The importance of the discovery and the auction was emphasized by the commissioning of a special book on the history of the Tek Sing and its cargo. Harper Collins published a book about Mike Hatcher's life written by Hugh Edward and Nigel Pickford and titled Treasures of the Deep. The book The Legacy of the Tek Sing contains an account of the story behind the shipwreck, a tale of treachery and heroism, arrogance and greed, all played out against a background of opium smuggling, piracy and mass emigration. It gives details about the salvage as well as the historical background.

 Controversy

A number of controversies surround the salvaging of historic wreck cargo undertaken by Michael Hatcher. The salvaging of both the Tek Sing and the Geldermalsen have been heavily criticized by archaeologists for stripping archaeological sites of valuable artefacts without recording any context and destroying the less economically valuable parts of the assemblage, such as the ships themselves.

Seven containers of the Tek Sing cargo were seized by Australian authorities pursuant to their Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 as the Indonesian government had confirmed that they had been illegally exported from its territory. This confirmation came too late for much of the cargo however, and it was able to continue its journey and be sold at auction in the EU. On 12 September 2001, the 71 939 seized ceramics were returned by Australia to Indonesia.

References

Further reading
 Hugh Edwards. Treasures of the Deep: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Captain Mike Hatcher (HarperCollins Publishers, 2000)
Nigel Pickford and Michael Hatcher. The Legacy Of The Tek Sing, Granta
 Christie's Amsterdam B.V. The Nanking Cargo, Chinese Porcelain and Gold, European Glass and Stoneware, recovered by Captain Michael Hatcher from a European ship wrecked in the South China Seas. Amsterdam, 1986
Sheaf, Colin (1988). Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes: The Complete Record.'' Phaidon. .

1940 births
Living people
Treasure hunters

Michael Hatcher


Silverwing is a best-selling novel, written by Kenneth Oppel and published in Simon & Schuster. It follows the journey for a group of silver-haired bats. The tone and artistic honor for bestsellers were compared to Watership Down. The four novels became part of the series. The first book was adapted into an animated television miniseries on Teletoon and Jetix. It was also released on DVD.

Story
The series has four novels for the series, including the original one, Sunwing, Firewing and Darkwing.

Long ago, the rest of the animals banished the bats for not taking sides in the great war. Years later, the bats often roam outside at night to avoid the sun (the backstory inspired by Aesop's fable). When Shade breaks the law for the colony, the owls destroy their home, forcing the bats to migrate. Shade befriends Marina and learns an echo projection from Zephyr. Shade and Marina meet Goth and Throbb, two cannibal bats (Vampyrum spectrum) who were captured from South America and escaped from the laboratory. After Shade and Marina reunite with the colony, the bats resolve conflicts with the animals. After finding Cassiel, the owls allow the bats to roam outside anytime. Shade's son, Griffin, travels to the underworld, along with his friend Luna. After Shade sacrifices himself to foil the plan of Cama Zotz (a bat god opposing Nocturna), Griffin and Luna return home.

Characters
Shade Silverwing: A silver-haired bat who uses echo projection.

Marina Brightwing: A red bat living in the island.

Chinook: The son of Plato and Isis.

Frieda: A wise bat making decisions and having a silver band. She later dies in Sunwing.

Ariel: Shade's mother and Cassiel's mate.

Goth: One of the cannibal bats living in the jungle and the servant of Cama Zotz and Nocturna, the goddesses of bats.

Throbb: Goth's brother-in-law who is killed by a thunderstorm in the novel.

Other websites

English-language novels
1997 books
Canadian literature

Silverwing (novel)


Thomas John Bright Robinson (August 12, 1868 – January 27, 1958) was a Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 3rd congressional district. Elected in an era in which Republicans held every Iowa U.S. House seat, Robinson served five terms before losing in the 1932 general election.

Born in New Diggings, Wisconsin, Robinson moved with his parents to Hampton, Iowa, in 1870.  He attended the public schools and the Hampton High School. A farmer, Robinson also served as president of the Citizens National Bank of Hampton from 1907 to 1923, as a member of the Hampton Board of Education, and on the board of trustees of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Robinson was elected to one four-year term in the Iowa Senate in 1912, and served as delegate to many Republican State conventions.

In 1922, Robinson was elected as a Republican to represent Iowa's 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House. During the 1920s, no Democrat was elected to any of Iowa's U.S. House seats, and every incumbent Republican congressman from Iowa who was renominated by their party was elected in the November general election. However, in 1932, the Roosevelt landslide carried many Democrats into the House, and the former Republican majority lost 101 seats.  Running for a sixth consecutive term, Robinson lost a close race to Albert C. Willford. Robinson had served in the Sixty-eighth and the four succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1923 to March 3, 1933.

Returning to Iowa, Robinson engaged in the real estate and investment business.  He died in Hampton on January 27, 1958, and was interred in Hampton Cemetery.

References

External links

1868 births
1958 deaths
People from New Diggings, Wisconsin
People from Hampton, Iowa
Republican Party Iowa state senators
American bankers
American real estate businesspeople
American chief executives
Businesspeople from Iowa
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa

Thomas J. B. Robinson


Czerwień was a West Slavic settlement located near the site of modern Czermno near Tyszowce. In early Middle Ages, the town was the administrative centre of the so-called Czerwień Towns, that is the region roughly correspondent to later Red Ruthenia. The town itself had been destroyed by a Tartar raid around 1289, never to be rebuilt. Its role as the local administrative centre was taken over by the town of Bełz.

Czerwien Land
In addition to being the name of an ancient city, long since destroyed, Land of Czerwien () was the name of a region in the southeast of Poland. See Red Ruthenia.

Most of the Land of Czerwien was seized by the  Soviet Union, first in September 1939 during the Soviet invasion of Poland.

Then at the end of World War II Czerwien is one of the territories annexed by the Soviet Union. The main cities in Czerwien, taken into the USSR and now in Ukraine are Lwow, Kolomea, Kowel, Lutsk, Rovno, Sokal, Stryy, Ternopol, etc. Only a very small part of the original Czerwien territory remains in present-day Poland.

During World War II, one of the new Polish squadrons in the Royal Air Force was named  No. 309 Land of Czerwien Squadron.

Razed cities
Populated places disestablished in the 13th century
1289 disestablishments in Europe
13th-century disestablishments in Poland

Czerwień


Wii Sports is a sports game made by Nintendo for the Wii system in late 2006. It was bundled with the Wii (except in Japan). (This means that when people bought a Wii, they would also get a copy of Wii Sports). The game has five sports which can be played - tennis, golf, baseball, bowling, and boxing. The rules for each sport are simplified to make them easier for new players. Although its main criticism is its lack of detail, its motion sensing gameplay and accessibility had a big impact on the video game market.

Wii Sports was well received and got lots of awards. It sold over 82 million copies by the end of 2017. This makes it the best selling single-platform game of all time, and fourth best overall.

Gameplay
Wii Sports is a collection of five separate sports games: tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing. The games use the motion-sensing Wii Remote in different ways. When playing the games, the player moves the Wii Remote in a similar way to how the games are played in real life. They can hold and swing the Wii Remote like a golf club, baseball bat or bowling ball. Some parts of the gameplay are computer controlled. For example, in tennis, the players movement is controlled by the Wii, and the swinging of the racket is controlled by the player. Baseball uses batting and pitching, with all of the fielding controlled by the Wii.

The characters in the game are Miis. Wii Sports is the first Wii game to use Miis. Players can choose which Mii they want to play as. Miis saved on the Wii will be in the crowd during bowling games and as team members in baseball. The non-player characters in the game were also created using the Mii Channel.

After a game, a player gains or loses skill points based on how well they played compared to the computer's skill level. Some games do not calculate points if the player is playing with other people (multiplayer) and not with a computer (single-player). The game keeps track of points by putting them on a graph. The more skill points a player has, the more people will be in the crowd during some games like Tennis and Boxing. If a player gets 1000 skill points, they get the "Pro" rank. The "Pro" rank gives the player some new features, such as a shiny bowling ball when playing Bowling. If a player gets the "Pro" rank, the game will put a message on the Wii Message Board.

Wii Sports also has a fitness test that calculates a player's fitness age (from 20 to 80 years old, 20 being the best possible). The test uses the player's performance in three randomly chosen challenges in each test from the training mode. The fitness test can only be taken once a day for each Mii. Fitness age takes into account a player's balance, speed, and stamina. Fitness age results are graphed over one, two, or three months, with daily results on the Wii Message Board.

Development
Wii Sports was made by Katsuya Eguchi, who managed a software development group at Nintendo. The aim of the Wii was to appeal to people who had not played video games before. To do this, they needed a game that let both experienced and new players play in a fun way. Nintendo also wanted people to use the Wii daily, so they wanted to make Wii Sports a flagship game. This is why Wii Sports has such simple graphics and gameplay. Eguchi needed a widely familiar theme for the game, so he chose sports. Instead of having professional athletes or realistic graphics, the game was designed to be easy so complicated gameplay was left out. Motion-sensing actions used the Wii Remote's accelerometer to interpret movements, and Nintendo focused on actions like hitting to make them very realistic. Nintendo did not think players would buy the Wii just to play Wii Sports, so they bundled it with the console, which helped it to sell a lot of copies.

Reception
Overall, Wii Sports was received well by critics for its basic pick-up and play style, even though it was criticised for lacking in graphic quality and not having much depth. It received awards such as 6 BAFTA Gaming awards in 2007. In 2009, it outsold Super Mario Bros to become the bestselling video game of all time. In fact, it had sold 60.67 million copies worldwide by the end of 2009, which has now increased to 82.88 million copies, making it Nintendo's highest sold game. Wii Sports has been featured on television in Wii commercials, news reports, and other programming. Many competitions and social gatherings have been held by players of all ages to play it. It is even used in some care homes so that elderly people can exercise.

Sequels

A sequel, Wii Sports Resort, was released in 2009. This was released with the Wii Motion Plus accessory. The game has 12 sports. Golf and Bowling, which were in Wii Sports, are also in this game.

A high-definition remake of the game, Wii Sports Club, was released in 2013 for the Wii U.

In February 2022, Nintendo announced a sequel to the game for the Nintendo Switch. This sequel is called Nintendo Switch Sports. It was released on April 29, 2022. Tennis and bowling, which were in Wii Sports, are playable in the game. A third game from Wii Sports, Golf, was added in Fall 2022.

References

2006 video games
Wii games
Wii-only games
Sports video games

Wii Sports


In topology, a branch of mathematics, for , the i-th homotopy group with coefficients in an abelian group G of a based space X is the pointed set of homotopy classes of based maps from the Moore space of type  to X, and is denoted by . For ,  is a group. The groups  are the usual homotopy groups of X.

References

Algebraic topology
Homotopy theory

ko:호모토피 군#계수가 있는 호모토피

Homotopy group with coefficients


Lactase is an enzyme which acts on lactose, breaking it down so it can be digested.

Mammals in their infancy usually make lactase: they need it for digesting the lactose found in their mother's milk. Mammalian adults usually lose the capacity to produce lactase. Thus, if you give milk to an adult cat it causes discomfort and diarrhea.

Lactase evolution in humans
Humans are somewhat different. Some humans continue to produce lactase, and some do not. It is a type of polymorphism.

The ability to digest lactose into adulthood ('lactase persistence') was useful to humans after the development of animal husbandry. This created a system providing a consistent supply of milk.

Hunter-gatherer populations before the Neolithic revolution were overwhelmingly lactose intolerant. So are modern hunter-gatherers.

Genetics
A mutation on chromosome #2 stops the shutdown in lactase production, making it possible for those with the mutation to continue drinking fresh milk (and eating other dairy products) throughout their lives.

This appears to be a recent adaptation to dairy consumption. It has occurred independently in both northern Europe and East Africa in populations with a pastoral lifestyle. Lactase persistence, allowing lactose digestion to continue into adulthood, is a dominant allele, making lactose intolerance a recessive trait.

Genetic studies suggest that the oldest mutations associated with lactase persistence only reached appreciable levels in human populations in the last ten thousand years. Therefore, lactase persistence is often cited as an example of recent human evolution. As lactase persistence is genetic, but animal husbandry a cultural trait, this is gene–culture coevolution.

Related pages
 Lactose intolerance

References

Genetics
Enzymes
Evolutionary biology

Lactase


WTNX-LD (channel 29) is a low-power television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network Telemundo. Owned by Gray Television, it also functions as a repeater for its full-power sister station, NBC affiliate WSMV-TV (channel 4). The two stations share studios on Knob Road in West Nashville; WTNX-LD's transmitter is located on Oldham Street near downtown.

History

First incarnation of Telemundo Nashville (2006–2010)
From 2006 to 2010, Telemundo was broadcast as a second digital subchannel of WSMV-TV, making it the first full-power Spanish-language TV service in the city. However, after five years on the air, the subchannel went defunct on December 31, 2010, leaving Nashville at the time with only one Spanish-language television station, WLLC-LP (channel 42), the area's Telefutura (now UniMás) outlet; WLLC had been the first Spanish-language TV station in the city upon affiliating in 2004.

Origins and as a translator station
Landover 2, LLC, applied for and was granted a construction permit to build a new low-power TV station on channel 41, W41EI-D, at Algood (a suburb of Cookeville). As a result of the repack, the permit sat for several years. The station would be purchased by Lowcountry 34 Media, LLC (owned by Jeffrey Winemiller) on July 30, 2021; Winemiller relocated the facility to channel 15 at Nashville, with the new call sign W15ER-D, and completed construction of the station, airing two subchannels of religious programs.

Winemiller initially filed to sell W15ER-D to Marquee Broadcasting in August 2021, but he instead opted to sell another low-power station, W09DM-D (now WNSH-LD), to the group. Winemiller then filed to sell the channel 15 station to Gray Television, which was in the process of merging with the Meredith Corporation, owner of WSMV-TV. The $3.75 million transaction between Lowcountry 34 and Gray included 24 different low-power facilities, including two in Tennessee. On December 30, 2021, W15ER-D converted from airing religious programming to a rebroadcast translator of the WSMV-TV multiplex. As WSMV-TV is broadcast on the VHF band, the additional UHF facility improves reception with smaller indoor antennas—which more easily receive UHF—in the Nashville metro area.

Telemundo conversion
Gray announced on May 3, 2022, that it had reached an agreement with Telemundo to start Telemundo channels, primarily as adjuncts to Gray stations, in 22 additional Southern markets and renew existing affiliations in 12 others. The new service launched August 29, 2022, with the renamed WTNX-LD also carrying the main WSMV 4.1 subchannel as 4.10.

Newscasts
In the 5 p.m. CT timeslot on weekdays, the station airs a locally-oriented newscast, Telemundo Noticias Tennessee, produced at Gray Television headquarters in Atlanta. The station's statewide-oriented newscast aired its debut edition on November 28, 2022.

Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

References

Telemundo network affiliates
TNX-LD
Spanish-language television stations in Tennessee
TNX
Gray Television
Television channels and stations established in 2021
2021 establishments in Tennessee

WTNX-LD


In biology, a nymph (from Ancient Greek νύμφα nūmphē meaning "bride") is the immature form of some invertebrates, particularly insects, which undergoes gradual metamorphosis (hemimetabolism) before reaching its adult stage.  Unlike a typical larva, a nymph's overall form already resembles that of the adult, except for a lack of wings (in winged species). In addition, while a nymph moults, it never enters a pupal stage. Instead, the final moult results in an adult insect. Nymphs undergo multiple stages of development called instars.

This is the case, for example, in Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers and locusts), Hemiptera (cicadas, shield bugs, whiteflies, aphids, leafhoppers, froghoppers, treehoppers etc.), mayflies, termites, cockroaches, mantises, stoneflies and Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies).

Nymphs of aquatic insects, as in the Odonata, Ephemeroptera, and Plecoptera, are also called naiads, an Ancient Greek name for mythological water nymphs. Some entomologists have said that it the terms larva, nymph and naiad should be used according to the developmental mode classification (hemimetabolous, paurometabolous or holometabolous) but others have pointed out that there is no real confusion. In older literature, these were sometimes referred to as the heterometabolous insects, as their adult and immature stages live in different environments (terrestrial vs. aquatic).

Relationship with humans
In fly fishing with artificial flies, this stage of aquatic insects is the basis for an entire series of representative patterns for trout. They account for over half of the over all patterns regularly fished in the United States.

See also
 Naiads in Greek mythology

References

Insect developmental biology

Nymph (biology)


The Franco-Austrian Alliance was a diplomatic and military alliance between France and Austria that was first established in 1756 after the First Treaty of Versailles. It lasted for much of the remainder of the century until it was abandoned during the French Revolution.

The alliance had its heyday during the Seven Years' War, when France and Austria joined forces to fight their mutual enemy, Prussia. After the allies' defeat, the intimacy of the alliance weakened, and by the 1780s, the alliance had become something closer to a formality. Austria even briefly considered the idea of entering the American War of Independence on Britain's side against France. During the French Revolution, when France first declared itself a constitutional monarchy and then overthrew and executed its king, the alliance had collapsed entirely. Austria actively tried to restore the French monarchy by going to war with the new French Republic.

Background

Throughout the 17th century and for the first half of the 18th century, France and Austria had been enemies and repeatedly fought wars against each other. During the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1735), France and its allies managed to weaken the power of Austria severely and forced it to give up small amounts of territory. In the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), France allied with Prussia to attack Austria, which ended in Austria being forced to cede its richest and most prized province, Silesia, to the Prussians.

The failure of Britain in both wars to prevent Austria's losses led to a re-evaluation of the Anglo-Austrian Alliance, which had existed since 1731. Austria began to consider gaining new allies to help it to recover Silesia, which was the priority of Maria Theresa, the ruler of Austria.

France and Habsburg Austria were two traditional geopolitical great rivals in Europe. Between 1494 and 1697, the French-Habsburg rivalry had played out in the Italian Wars, the Thirty Years' War and the Nine Years' War. The rise of the absolute monarchy in France was motivated partially by a desire to seek allies against the Habsburgs, even the interests of the state went against the Church (as was the case in the Franco-Ottoman alliance or the Heilbronn League, with Protestant princes against the Habsburg-led Catholic League during the Thirty Years' War). That made the alliance a major diplomatic realignment for both France and Austria.

Diplomatic Revolution

By 1754, six years after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had brought the previous war to an end, a new figure, Count von Kaunitz, had risen to power in Vienna as a close advisor of Maria Theresa. He was committed to ending the British alliance and to looking for a new military partner. His friendship with the French ambassador, Choiseul, provided a close link between Paris and Vienna. Choiseul indicated to Kaunitz that France was willing to consider a rapprochement with Austria despite the long history of conflict between the two states.

In 1756, Britain signed a limited defensive alliance with Prussia, Both Austria and French were outraged at what they perceived as a betrayal by their respective allies.

In response, Austria and France signed a defensive alliance of their own, the First Treaty of Versailles. It stipulated that if either was attacked by a third party, the other would come to its assistance. As Austria were now planning an attack on Prussia to retake Silesia, the treaty was seen as a way of preventing any other power from trying to intervene on the side of Prussia.

The sudden political changes formed part of what became known as the stately quadrille.

Seven Years' War

In August 1756, Frederick the Great of Prussia, fearing that his country was about to be overrun and partitioned by its enemies, launched a pre-emptive strike against Austria's ally, Saxony, which he succeeded in capturing. That triggered the declaration of the Seven Years' War, and Austria went to war with Prussia with France as an ally. The Treaty of St Petersburg saw Sweden and Russia join the anti-Prussian alliance. Britain was Prussia's only major ally but was at war with France only, not with Austria, Russia, Saxony or Sweden.

The alliance reached its high-water mark in late 1757, when a French invasion overran Hanover, Austrian troops recaptured Saxony, and Austria liberated its own province of Bohemia, which had been occupied by Prussia. Having signed a Second Treaty of Versailles in 1757, the French were now committed to an offensive war and sent troops to aid the Austrians against Prussia as well as financial subsidies to support the large armies put onto the field by Austria. By autumn 1757, the Franco-Austrian forces had appeared to be about to overwhelm the much-smaller Prussia, which would then be partitioned by their allies. However, two decisive Prussian victories at Rossbach and Leuthen ended that offensive.

France and Austria struggled then to defeat their enemies, as Prussia fought them to a standstill in a conflict that was extremely costly in terms of men, resources and money and brought the French government just at the brink of bankruptcy. While French troops were poured into Germany, Britain attacked France's colonies around the globe, causing France to lose most of its colonies in North America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia colonies. France was ultimately forced to abandon its financial commitments to Austria because of a lack of money. France and Austria continued fighting in Germany until late 1762, when an armistice was signed with Britain and Prussia.

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris forced Austria to acknowledge the continued Prussian ownership of Silesia, and France had to cede a number of colonies to the British. The war was extremely costly and left large swathes of Central Europe in ruins, with little discernible continental advantage for any of the participants.

Peacetime alliance

Austria and France were disappointed with each other's military performance during the war. The failure of them and their allies to overwhelm Prussia was considered by France to be a major reason for the loss of numerous global French colonies to the British. The Austrians was unimpressed by the level of help that they had received from France to recover Silesia. That disappointment led to a cooling of relations between the two states, as France drew closer to its neighbour, Spain, and Austria looked to its Russian ally in the east, as both Austria and Russia shared an enmity towards the Ottoman Empire.

By the 1780s, the alliance had grown much weaker after the death of Maria Theresa and the fall from power of Kaunitz. The new emperor, Joseph II, was more willing to consider establishing fresh alliances, such as with Great Britain, which was fighting a global war against France, Spain, the Dutch Republic and the United States. (The latter having declared its independence in 1776.) Britain was diplomatically isolated and without a major ally and so it tried to secure Austrian support. Britain hoped that an Austrian attack on France would draw French resources back across the Atlantic to concentrate on Europe, which would thereby safeguard Britain's valuable West Indian colonies.

Although Austria ultimately remained neutral in the conflict, the alliance was considerably weakened, partly because the French failed to support Austria adequately in its brief War of the Bavarian Succession against Prussia. One of the strongest remaining links between the two states was the marriage of Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Maria Theresa and a sister of Joseph II, to Louis XVI of France, which had taken place in 1770. Marie Antoinette was mistakenly regarded by the French public as having enormous influence over her husband and in persuading him to pursue a pro-Austrian line. In reality, she had little control over Louis, who was guided instead by his ministers, including the anti-Austrian Comte de Vergennes.

French Revolution
The French Revolution destroyed the ties between the two states, despite appeals by the French National Assembly for Austria to honour the 1756 treaty. In 1792, the Austrians sent troops to invade France and threatened to destroy Paris unless Louis XVI, now reduced to a constitutional monarch, was restored to his previous status. The Austrians suffered a defeat at the Battle of Valmy; Louis XVI was overthrown and, together with Marie Antoinette, was executed the following year. Austria has joined a coalition of states trying to crush the French revolutionaries by force, and Vienna became one of the centres of anti-revolutionary activity by giving shelter to many French royalist refugees.

Napoleonic Wars

After the Austrian Empire was defeated in the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 by the First French Empire, the alliance was briefly revived. Francis II's second daughter, Marie Louise, married Napoleon I and became Empress consort of the French. The Austrians contributed 34,000 men to La Grande Armée during the French invasion of Russia.

The alliance broke down after Napoleon's retreat from Russia, and Austria joined the Sixth Coalition against France in 1813.

See also
 Foreign alliances of France
 Anglo-Austrian Alliance
 Anglo–Prussian Alliance

References

Bibliography
 Dull, Jonathon R. The French Navy in the Seven Years' War. University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
 MacDonogh, Giles. Frederick the Great: A Life in Deeds and Letters. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999.
 McLynn, Frank. 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World. Pimlico, 2005.
 Mansel, Philip. Prince of Europe: The Life of Charles-Joseph De Ligne. Phoenix, 2005.
 Murphy, Orvile T. Charles Gravier: Comete de Vergennes: French Diplomacy in the Age of Revolution. New York Press, 1982.
 Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire. Penguin Books, 2008.

Geopolitical rivalry
18th-century military alliances
1756 treaties
Treaties of the Kingdom of France
Treaties of the Habsburg monarchy
Military alliances involving Austria
Military alliances involving France
18th century in Austria
18th century in France
1756 in the Habsburg monarchy
France–Habsburg monarchy relations

Franco-Austrian Alliance


Pete Thelonious Orta (born August 26, 1971) is a Christian rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter and music producer. He was a member of Christian rock band Petra from 1996 to 2000.

Born in Port Lavaca, Orta moved to Lubbock at age six. Despite the roughly 540-mile initial relocation from south to north Texas, Orta's family kept moving within Lubbock city limits. Orta attended Haynes Elementary School, Mackenzie Junior High School, Evans Middle School, Matthews Junior High School and Lubbock High School before graduating from Coronado High School.

Orta was given his first guitar—a red, no-brand toy—by his aunt when he was four, which he taught himself to play.

At age 18, Orta left home, and although he had a job, he couldn't afford to pay both rent and for the black Steinberger guitar he had financed from Jent's House of Music. Choosing his guitar over a home, he lived in his car, slept in open churches and showered at the YMCA for a year. He eventually landed a job at Jent's, where he fell under the tutelage of co-worker and revered local guitarist, John Ellis. Ellis was surprised by Orta's melodic lines and fast playing ability, which he says often don't go hand in hand. He was also surprised that Orta had never heard of music greats, like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin or Van Halen, all of which he had been deprived of hearing as a child with no electronics made available to him.

In 1996, Orta moved to Nashville and joined Petra; he contributed greatly to the band's success in the late 90s.  His awards include a Gold Record, a Dove Award, three Grammy Nominations and for Gospel Rock Album of the year was presented a Grammy in the year 2000 for the award-winning album, Double Take.

Petra's single Breathe In on Petra's Double Take. album, which attracted the attention of Word/Sony Records A&R staff and eventually led to the Recording of his first solo record Born Again. In 2000, Orta left Petra and embarked on a solo career and was inducted with Petra, into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and also had his guitars inducted in Hard Rock Cafes around the world.  In 2001, prior to the release of his album, friend and label mate singer Jaci Velasquez invited Orta to tour as her guitar player on her Crystal Clear Tour where she featured him in a step out solo performance and he was presented another Gold Record, this time while touring with Velasquez. Soon after, Orta recorded a duet with Jaci on her 2001 Christmas release Season of Love.  In 2001, his solo album, Born Again on Word Records was finally released to rave reviews and rock radio success, which culminated in a 2002 Dove Award Nomination for Rock Recorded Song of the Year.

In late 2001, Orta performed as part of the all-star chorus of CCM artists who recorded the 9/11 tribute song, "In God We Trust," penned by Mark Heimermann and Wayne Kirkpatrick and
commissioned by the Gospel Music Association.

Aside from Velasquez, Orta has performed on the albums of other CCM artists, including Tammy Trent, Steven Delopoulos, and Rachel Lampa. He also rearranged and performed Jimmie Dale Gilmore's "Braver Newer World" for use in the 2002 motion picture Joshua.<ref name="lubbockonline3">Kerns, William. Christian recording artist Orta blazes personal trail  (April 28, 2002). 'Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved February 18, 2008.</ref>

In 2005,  Orta produced the debut album from Jaci Velasquez's record label, Apostrophe, by Michael Cook called Imprint'' Orta also contributed his production techniques to the soundtrack for the Left Behind: World at War soundtrack.

Apart from Jaci Velasquez, Orta has worked with other artist including:  Jack Blades, Desmond Child, Tommy Sims, Michael W. Smith, Tony Rich, The Waiting, Guardian, Chris Rodriguez, Trey Bruce, Rosas Divinas Pete Kipley and David Rice.

In 2009, Orta along with his wife, began a non-profit called in Triumph, where he began to take "unchosen" young adults off the streets and into his home. Out of his past, Orta says he is "able to relate to the young people in his program, young people who in their few short years have experienced prostitution, drug addiction, imprisonment and all manners of abuse and rejection". Now, when given the opportunity to address an audience about his journey, Orta loves helping people understand the blessing of taking on the suffering and burdens of those who could never return the favor. The young people he calls "unchosen" are a nameless and growing group in our country and Thelonious loves the opportunity to introduce his audience to the third world here in America.

References

External links
P. Thelonious Orta's official site
P. Thelonious Orta's Non-Profit
Pete Orta Recent Interview
More About Pete Orta's Life
Christianity Today's Review of Born Again

Living people
Petra (band) members
1971 births
Musicians from Lubbock, Texas
Coronado High School (Lubbock, Texas) alumni
American performers of Christian music
People from Port Lavaca, Texas

Pete Orta


Matthew Foschini (born 19 October 1990) is an Australian footballer who plays as a defender for Oakleigh Cannons.

Club career

Early career
Foschini began his football career at Glen Waverley Junior Soccer Club.

Melbourne Victory
On 18 August 2009, Foschini was signed to a contract with the Melbourne Victory senior squad on a two-year deal, becoming the first player to be signed straight from the Youth Academy. On 27 December 2009 he made his starting debut for Victory against North Queensland Fury in a 1–0 loss.

In 2012, Foschini signed another two-year contract deal with Melbourne Victory. He was given the number 2 jersey from Kevin Muscat.

Foschini was a part of Victory's 2010-2012 ACL campaigns, where played 11 games.

Foschini played a number of exhibition matches for Victory including LA Galaxy FC, Boca Juniors FC, Celtic FC, and Olympiakos FC .

On 8 August 2013, Foschini was released by the Victory.

Salgaocar
On 31 October 2013, Foschini signed for I-League club Salgaocar F.C.
He made his debut for Salgaocar in the I-League on 22 November 2013 against Pune F.C. at the Duler Stadium in which he played the whole match as Salgaocar drew the match 1–1. On 18 December 2014, he scored against Mumbai F.C. in the Group Stage of the 2013–14 Indian Federation Cup, Slagaocar would ultimately win 2–1.

Ottawa Fury FC
Foschini trained with Ottawa Fury FC from early pre-season through to mid May 2015. He trained with the team full-time and played several pre-season matches. Marc Dos Santos said Foschini would have been signed already if Fury wasn't carrying the maximum number of international players."I loved him ... he's definitely an NASL-level player," said Dos Santos. "We're going to keep a door open, a good contact and maybe he could be an option in 2016."

Oakleigh Cannons FC
In June 2015, Matthew joined Oakleigh Cannons FC. Foschini was an integral part of getting the team to the FFA Cup Finals.
Foschini was a versatile defender for Oakleigh and the big games was what he thrived on.
Oakleigh Cannons coach Arthur Papas wished he had another 10 Matt Foschini's at his disposal following the club's heartbreaking FFA Cup quarter-final exit against Hume City.

South Melbourne FC
In December 2015, South Melbourne FC signed Foschini. South experience a shortage of defenders in 2015, and Foschini could play a number of defensive positions including right back, centre-half or holding midfield.
South Melbourne won the NPL Victoria Championship, defeating Oakleigh Cannons.
Foschini was awarded with the club's Most Valuable Player and Media's Team Player Choice.

Personal life
Foschini was born in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the son of former Australian rules footballer Silvio Foschini. He attended Caulfield Grammar School, where he captained the First XI Team.

See also
 List of Caulfield Grammar School people

References

External links

1990 births
Living people
Australian people of Italian descent
Soccer players from Melbourne
Melbourne Victory FC players
Salgaocar FC players
Oakleigh Cannons FC players
People educated at Caulfield Grammar School
A-League Men players
I-League players
Expatriate men's footballers in India
Australia men's youth international soccer players
Men's association football defenders
Australian men's soccer players
Australian expatriate sportspeople in India
Australian expatriate men's soccer players

Matthew Foschini


Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (28 January 1858 – 16 December 1940) was a Dutch paleoanthropologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus (later redesignated Homo erectus), or 'Java Man'. Although hominid fossils had been found and studied before, Dubois was the first anthropologist to embark upon a purposeful search for them.

Hominid discoveries
Between 1887 and 1895, Dubois searched at potential sites near rivers and in caves, first on the island of Sumatra, then on the island of Java.

In 1891, Dubois discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes". He called his finds Pithecanthropus erectus ("ape-human that stands upright") or Java Man. Today, they are classified as Homo erectus ("human that stands upright"). These were the first specimens of early hominid remains to be found outside of Africa or Europe.

In 1895, Dubois returned to Europe and toured the continent to convince his colleagues that he had indeed found a missing link.  Although most anthropologists were intrigued, they did not always agree with Dubois' interpretations. After that, Dubois refused others access to his fossils, until he was forced to do so in 1923.

Related pages
Raymond Dart
Robert Broom
Louis Leakey
Human evolution

References

Dutch archaeologists
European anthropologists
1858 births
1940 deaths

Eugène Dubois


D-VHS is a digital video recording format developed by JVC, in collaboration with Hitachi, Matsushita, and Philips. The "D" in D-VHS originally stood for "Data", but JVC renamed the format as "Digital VHS". Released in December of 1997, it uses the same physical cassette format and recording mechanism as S-VHS, but requires higher-quality and more expensive tapes and is capable of recording and displaying both standard-definition and high-definition content. The content data format is in MPEG transport stream, the same data format used for most digital television applications. It used MPEG-2 encoding and was standarized as IEC 60774-5.

Design

As a final effort for VHS, the D-VHS system had significant advantages as a highly versatile domestic recorder (the other tape-based formats are DV and Digital8, which never gained any traction except as camcorder media), but given the wholesale move to DVD and then hard disk drive (HDD) recording, the format failed to make any headway into the video market.

Existing tape media is bulky and more expensive than hard drives.  Although cable companies are gradually switching to the H.264 codec, this should not be an issue for D-VHS units since they can act purely as data stores (like a hard drive but using tape instead), and thereby pass the previously recorded H.264 data directly to the Set-top Box or TV (via i.Link/FireWire).  Another alternative is a lengthy transfer to a computer for viewing.  Finally, since machines are no longer manufactured, maintenance of current recorders may prove difficult.

D-VHS's primary advantage is that it is still the best way to archive encrypted high definition material from cable programming in the US.  Cable, satellite companies, TiVo, and PCs equipped with cable card tuners all offered high-definition digital video recorders, but archival has proven to be an obstacle, as proprietary boxes have restrictions on moving encrypted content. Outside of D-VHS, only HD capture devices that use an analog conversion process, such as the Hauppauge HD PVR, have enabled removal of encrypted content off many of the above proprietary boxes. This uses an analog conversion process, producing slightly degraded but still high definition grade recordings. D-VHS, on the other hand, does not need to take advantage of this so-called "analog hole", since D-VHS makes a pure bit-for-bit recording with no conversion necessary. This is made possible by compliance with CCI flag values carried by the digital streams, wherein only D-VHS is allowed to digitally move recordings of content originally flagged as Copy Once off of a DVR device and onto a D-VHS tape. This programming that complies with the CCI flags then marks such material on the tape such that no second generation copies can be made from the tape itself, though additional copies can still be made directly from the original DVR unit to additional tapes.

Monthly rental fees to cable, TiVo, and satellite were also less with D-VHS.

The only PAL D-VHS model sold in Europe was the JVC HM-DR10000, also sold as the Philips VR-20D, and was standard definition only. This model was not a bitstream recorder, although it did have a FireWire input. Instead it is best thought of as a digital recorder for traditional analog inputs such as domestic analog TV and digiboxes for digital broadcasts. The deck was able to record D-VHS signals onto S-VHS tapes, which made it a cost-effective source of high quality domestic recordings (the US version also allows use of cheaper S-VHS media). Pictures were noticeably superior to S-VHS and were essentially transparent when compared to an off-air source. Using the LS3 mode, approximately 17.25 hours of digital video could be stored on a S-VHS E-240.  The deck's biggest shortcomings were the lack of a DV output and, perhaps more crucially, the lack of RGB input via the SCART connector. NTSC versions had component video outputs.

Tape length and speeds

D-VHS VCRs can record at multiple speeds.  "HS" is "High Speed", "STD" is "Standard" and "LS" is "Low Speed"; where LS3 and LS5 represent 3 and 5 times the standard length of tape, respectively.  High-definition content such as 1920x1080 or 1280x720 is typically stored at 28.2 Mbit/s (HS speed). Standard-definition content such as 720x576 (720x480) can be stored at bit rates from 14.1 Mbit/s down to 2.8 Mbit/s (STD, LS3, LS5 speeds).

The quality of STD speed is actually superior to the average DVD, since this speed has a much higher bitrate (approximately 14 versus 5 Mbit/s average) and suffers few compression artifacts. LS2 speed has a bitrate of 7 Mbits/s. The LS3 speed is roughly equal to an amateur DVD with some visible artifacts in high-action scenes (4.7 Mbit/s), and LS5 appears similar to a medium-quality video download (2.8 Mbit/s). JVC's HM-DH40000U and SR-VD400U were the only units to support LS5 recording.

As a result of all these different speeds, the tape labels are a bit confusing for the consumer.  D-VHS was originally a standard definition format that recorded at the STD speed.  When High Definition recording and HS speed was later introduced, it required twice the amount of tape. For this reason, a DF-240 will record 240 minutes of standard definition, and 240/2 = 120 minutes of high definition.    When reviewing the table, note that the digital speeds HS and STD are equivalent to the older analog speeds SP and LP.

Pre-recorded tapes

In 2002, prerecorded D-VHS cassettes were sold under the brand name D-Theater in the US. While D-Theater is a D-VHS tape, it is incompatible with D-VHS decks not bearing the D-Theater logo. They provide content in both 720p and 1080i as well as at least one Dolby Digital audio track. Supported films studios include 20th Century Fox, Artisan Entertainment, DreamWorks, and Universal Pictures. D-Theater does have region code restrictions. There are 3 known regions; 1 for the USA, 2 for Japan, and 3 for South Korea. There has never been a D-Theater video release in region 2 or 3. Region code hacks for Japanese decks have been performed to support playback of US titles. The last film available was 20th Century Fox's I, Robot. This title was a surprise to many as there were no prior announcements nor any indication that the title was available. It was originally available only on JVC's D-VHS store in late 2004 and no other distributor had it (not even Fox itself). A couple of weeks later they started trickling out to more distributors after much delay and confusion about its existence. Alien vs. Predator was announced to retailers as also being released on the same day as I, Robot, but Fox later announced that Alien vs. Predator was never shipped to retailers.

Most tapes have built-in copy protection mechanism (DTCP, also known as "5c") (copy never) that disables copying via FireWire. HDNet productions and 2929 Entertainment via Magnolia Entertainment did provide some of their original content on D-VHS but without copy protection. Many of the tapes have an introduction by owner Mark Cuban encouraging the viewer to make copies of the program in order to help distribute them.

Additional tracks may be included on D-Theater in other sound formats such as DTS. However, only the newest D-VHS players, like the JVC HM-DH40000, HM-DH5U, HM-DT100U, and Marantz MV-8300, include alternate audio track capabilities.

Compatibility

There are technical issues with compatibility between recordings from Mitsubishi and JVC D-VHS decks. PAL and NTSC recordings are also incompatible.

Adoption
Very few models were available to the world market and sales of this format have been weak; correspondingly, prices remained high for both VCRs and media, contributing to low demand. Additionally, low consumer knowledge of D-VHS's advantages and capabilities as well as input limitations led to its eventual demise. The introduction in 2006 of Blu-ray and HD-DVD put the final nail in the D-VHS coffin.

Similar formats

There has been no small-format version of D-VHS equivalent to VHS-C; JVC, the originator of the format, chose to use MiniDV for its digital camcorder lines, and since 2005 has also expanded into tapeless camcorder designs based on hard drive storage (the Everio line). JVC does market the Digital-S format for professional use; while the tapes and technology used are superficially similar to D-VHS tapes, the underlying data format is based on the DV codec and the media formulation is drastically different. Sony's MicroMV format uses the same codec as D-VHS. Therefore, D-VHS capture software can also be used to transfer MicroMV tapes.

See also
 Sony HDVS
 ED Beta
 W-VHS
 MicroMV
 HDV
 Blu-ray
 HD-DVD

References

External links

 Audio Video Science Forum D-VHS list
 LaserDisc Database D-VHS Catalog
 Demonstration video New York City in 1993 in HD - DTheater DVHS Demo Tape

Video storage
VHS
High-definition television
Audiovisual introductions in 1998
Japanese inventions
Videocassette formats

D-VHS


Bianca's Kids is a non-profit organization which was founded by Deborah Anne Savigliano in 2010. Its headquarters are in Williamstown, New Jersey.  Its mission is to grant wishes to foster children and other children with special needs. Bianca's Kids was started by Savigliano to honor the memory of her 21 year old niece Bianca Yodice. She was studying to be a Social worker when she died in a car accident in 2010. Yodice loved kids and her aunt wanted to make sure she was remembered.

Organization
The 501(c) organization grants wishes to children who suffer from physical, emotional or financial issues. The group sees every child in need as deserving their attention. They obtain donations in order to help buy what the kids they help need. This includes medical devices such as braces and wheelchairs.

Since the organization started, Bianca's Kids has granted over 13,000 wishes to children in New Jersey as well as other parts of the world. Some of these wishes have included school backpacks, sports equipment and memorabilia. The charity has also provided things such as prom dresses and even diapers. In 2015, the organization granted a wish to a disabled student to travel to Disney World with his classmates. According to GreatNonprofits, $.95 of every dollar donated to Bianca's Kids goes to the children it helps. In 2014, Bianca's Kids was named a "Top-Rated 2014 Nonprofit" by GreatNonprofits, the leading reviewer of nonprofit organizations.

Savigliano wrote a book about Bianca's Kids in February 2015. The book was made into a documentary film, "From Grief to Gratitude." The movie premiered on June 4, 2016 in Williamstown, New Jersey.

References

Other websites
 Bianca's Kids Homepage
 From Grief to Gratitude (2016), 31 minute documentary short film

Non-profit organizations of the United States
2010 establishments in New Jersey

Bianca's Kids


The Cerro de la Viga is a mountain located in the municipalities of Arteaga, Coahuila and Santiago, Nuevo León in northeastern Mexico. Its peak named Cerro San Rafael culminates at 3,712 m above the sea level and has a prominence of 1,395 m. It is the highest point in Coahuila and the second highest point in the Sierra Madre Oriental and in northern Mexico. The mountain is surrounded by the Cerro Rancho Nuevo, Sierra El Álamo, Sierra San Isidro, Sierra Mauricio, Sierra El Muerto (Santiago), El Coahuilón, Sierra Las Alazanas and Cerro La Mina.

Its 40-km-long ridge is the border between Coahuila and Nuevo León over 22 km.

In June 2011, a fire affected the southern side of the mountain.

See also
 List of mountain peaks of Mexico

References

Sierra Madre Oriental
Mountains of Mexico
North American 3000 m summits
Landforms of Coahuila
Landforms of Nuevo León

Cerro de la Viga


Andrea Pizzitola (born 19 June 1992) is a professional French racing driver. He is best known for finishing as the runner-up in the 2011 French F4 Championship season.

Career

Karting
Born in Montpellier, Pizzitola entered karting in 2008, racing in local championships. His best achievement was eighth place in the French KF2 Championship in 2011.

Formula Renault
In 2011, Pizzitola made his début in single-seaters, taking part in the French F4 Championship 1.6-litre category. He finished as runner-up to his future Eurocup rival Matthieu Vaxivière with seven podiums, including wins at Lédenon, Val de Vienne and Albi.

Pizzitola moved to the 2-litre Formula Renault machinery in 2012, joining R-Ace GP in the Formula Renault Eurocup. He finished 21st with two-point-scoring finishes. He also had eleven starts in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup with the same team, collecting podiums at Hockenheim, the Nürburgring and Assen.

Pizzitola stayed with R-Ace GP — rebranded as the ART Junior Team for 2013. He took his first Eurocup podium in the series finale at Barcelona, as well as another four-point-scoring positions. He also continued competing in Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, winning his first Formula Renault race at Hockenheim, improving to sixth in the standings.

For the 2014 season, Pizzitola switched to Manor MP Motorsport. It helped him to secure his first Eurocup win at Alcañiz. He had another win at the Hungaroring, finally finishing the season in fourth place in the championship. As in previous years, he combined his Eurocup participations with the NEC series, winning a race at the Nürburgring.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete European Le Mans Series results

‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

1992 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Montpellier
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
French racing drivers
French F4 Championship drivers
Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers
Formula Renault Eurocup drivers
Manor Motorsport drivers
MP Motorsport drivers
R-ace GP drivers
ART Grand Prix drivers
Auto Sport Academy drivers
G-Drive Racing drivers
TDS Racing drivers

Andrea Pizzitola


Bromo and Juliet is a 1926 American silent comedy film starring Charley Chase with an appearance by Oliver Hardy. A print of the film survives in the film archive at the Library of Congress.

Plot
A group of people debate what type of show to put on in their theatre. Charley suggests a horse show. His prospective father-in-law suggests a dance show with girls. However Charley's fiancée Madge is already rehearsing Romeo and Juliet. This seems to involve her being manhandled in the next room. Charley goes through and punches a man throttling her. She explains it is her stage manager.

She agrees to marry him as long as he plays Romeo in the play. He looks shocked. He refuses but next we see him dressed as Romeo. He is advised that his legs look too thin and he pads them with bathroom sponges to look more muscular. He dons an overcoat to head to the theatre.

Meanwhile Madge's father is rehearsing Richard III and is a bit drunk: a horsh, a horsh … Charley collects him and they head outside to catch a cab. The cab driver refuses to go anywhere until the father pays him $40 already owed. The father writes a cheque but it just says Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and is signed W. Shakespeare. Charley apologises whilst the father goes into a barber for a shave. The drunken father leaves the barber and smashes the showroom window of a bathroom shop to start to shave. A crowd gathers: he is having a bath in the shop window. They get him out but the cabbie still wants $40. Charley decides to sell the father's case of whiskey (which was already in the cab). He has to hide it (as prohibition is still in force). When he tries to sell it a man draws a pistol and forces the bootlegger to "drink his own poison".

He returns to the cab still with the case of whiskey but very drunk. He wanders the street trying to sell it to strangers. He tries to avoid the policeman at the crossing seeing the case. Nevertheless he gets arrested. He escapes the police by running through a grass sprinkler system. This swells up the sponges in his leggings. He jumps on a bus and goes to the open upper deck. When he sits the water starts to pour out and soaks a man below, but when he goes to complain he presumes it is the small child with Charley.

Back at the cab the father lets a tyre down to distract the driver then runs off.

Both Charley and father arrive at the theatre in time for the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. A policeman follows Charley onto stage then realises what he has done. He sidles off as the crowd clap. Charley is too drunk and the audience laugh more. When Juliet leaves the balcony and is replaced by the policeman Charley drops off in shock. The audience query one another as to what is happening.

The policeman waits in one wing and the cab driver in the other. Charley escapes through the stage trap door. The next act comes on stage: the Great Brandenburg, a magic show. He makes his assistant disappear and Charley appears in her place. Both men are puzzled but the audience clap. He turns the trick box around and reveals the missing assistant.

Next Charley materialises in the ghost scene from Hamlet, sleeping on the rising moon. He borrows Banquo's sheet and staggers over stage followed by the policeman also dressed as a ghost.

Four sailors go on stage for a song and dance act and Charley joins the end of the line. The sailors go offstage but the set begins to sway and Charley sways with it. He is dragged off.

Backstage the cabbie is eventually given the $40 from the father.

Charley is congratulated by Madge and the cast for being able to "act" drunk so well. The crowd call out for Romeo. Romeo goes out to take a bow with the policeman.

Cast
 Charley Chase as Charley (Romeo)
 Corliss Palmer as Madge (Juliet)
 William Orlamond as Madge's Father
 Oliver Hardy as Cab Driver
 L. J. O'Connor as The Cop
 William Gillespie as The Great Brandenburg, stage magician
 Sammy Brooks as Bit Role (uncredited)
 Helen Gilmore as Bit Role (uncredited)
 Charlie Hall as Stagehand (uncredited)

See also
 List of American films of 1926

References

External links

1926 films
1926 short films
1926 comedy films
Silent American comedy films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Leo McCarey
American comedy short films
1920s American films

Bromo and Juliet