Dibbā () is a coastal area at the northern tip of the eastern Arabian peninsula on the Gulf of Oman.

Political administration
Dibba is politically divided into three segments:
 Dibba Al-Fujairah, ruled by the Emirate of Fujairah, UAE
 Dibba Al-Hisn, ruled by the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE
 Dibba Al-Baya, ruled by the Governorate of Musandam, Oman

History

This large natural harbor on the east coast of the northern Emirates has been an important site of maritime trade and settlement for millennia, with relatively recent excavations underpinning the importance of the town as a site of entrepot trade throughout the Iron Age and into the late pre-Islamic era. A collective tomb, discovered by accident in 2004, led to a number of excavations in the area of the present town which have yielded evidence of a large settlement with layers of occupation and significant finds of trade goods, bitumen, ceramics and glass as well as coins. Three copper alloy tetradrachms were found at the site which, as well as pottery finds, link it to the Hellenistic period at the major pre-Islamic cities of Mleiha and Ed-Dur, while Roman amphorae, ceramics and glass attest to a continuity of not only occupation but a lively regional trade. Finds at the site attest to trade links with Bahrain, north-eastern Arabia, Iran, Mesopotamia and India, while amphorae, terra sigillata, glass and intaglios demonstrate connections between Dibba and the Roman Empire - two intaglios found in the town were engraved with figures of Perseus and Medusa (similar to one found in southern Thailand), further suggesting an extensive pre-Islamic trade network stretching far to the East.

Under the Sasanians, and their clients, the Julanda and Azd, an important market existed at Dibba. The Julanda, reported to the Persian marzban (military governor), based at Al-Rustaq in what is now Oman. According to Ibn Habib, "merchants from Sindh, India, China, people of the East and West came to it."

Battle of Dibba

Soon after the death of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad a rebellion broke out at Dibba and a faction of the Azd, led by Laqit bin Malik Dhu at-Taj, rejected Islam. According to one tradition Laqit was killed by an envoy of the caliph Abu Bakr in what may have been a relatively small struggle, while other sources including al-Tabari say that at least 10,000 rebels were killed in one of the biggest battles of the Ridda wars, the Battle of Dibba. The plain behind Dibba still contains a large cemetery which according to local tradition represents the fallen apostates of Dibba. Thereafter, the region of southeast Arabia became nearly entirely Muslim.

During the time of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tadid (CE 870–892), a great battle was fought at Dibba during the conquest of Oman by the Abbasid governor of Iraq and Bahrain, Muhammad ibn Nur. Thereafter references to Dibba in historical literature are scarce until we come to the Portuguese who built a fortress there. Dibba (Debe) appears in the list of southeast Arabian placenames preserved by the Venetian jeweler Gasparo Balbi in CE 1580 and depictions of its Portuguese fort can be found in several sources, such as Armando Cortesão's Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica.

Portuguese
Around 1620–1621 the Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle, while staying with the Sultan of Bandar Abbas, met the son of the ruler of Dibba. From this he learned that Dibba had formerly been subject to the Kingdom of Hormuz, but was at that time loyal to the Safavids. In 1623, Safavids sent troops to Dibba, Khor Fakkan and other ports on the south-east coast of Arabia in order to prepare for a Portuguese counter-attack, following their expulsion from Hormuz (Jarun). The Portuguese, under Rui Freire, were so successful that the people of Dibba turned on their Safavid overlords putting them all to death, whereupon a Portuguese garrison of 50 men was installed at Dibba. More Portuguese forces had to be sent to Dibba in 1627 as a result of an Arab revolt. Two years later the Portuguese proposed moving part of the Mandaean population of southern Iraq to Dibba under pressure from neighboring Arab tribes. Although Dibba was offered to the Mandaeans they were wise enough to see that the Portuguese force there would be insufficient to guarantee their security and, while a few Mandaeans tested the waters by moving to Muscat, most returned to Basra in CE 1630.

In 1645 the Portuguese still held Dibba but the Dutch, searching for potential sites for new commercial activities, sent the warship Zeemeeuw ('Seagull') to explore the Musandam peninsula between Khasab, on the Persian Gulf side, and Dibba on the east coast. Claes Speelman, the captain of the Zeemeeuw, made drawings in his logbook, including what is certainly the earliest depiction of Dibba in a European source. Within a year or two the Portuguese were forced out of Dibba and held only Khasab and Muscat, which they finally lost in 1650.

Eleven years later, Jacob Vogel's description of the east coast of the Oman peninsula, prepared for the Dutch East India Company in 1666, contained the following: "Dabba (which we were unable to visit because of calm and counter currents) is a place (according to the interpreter assigned to us) with about 300 small houses constructed from branches of date trees. During the days of the Portuguese, there were here four fortresses of which the biggest one is still standing. This place also has a valley with a lot of date trees under which there are water wells, where one can get fresh water. At the Northern side of Dabba there is a small freshwater river where the fishermen live.".

The 1900s witnessed land disputes over Dibba.

Geology
The Dibba Fault is an active fault, which means that it had a displacement or seismic activity during the geologically recent period, and is one of the two faults that run through the UAE. The fault crosses into Oman from the north and runs southward to the center of the Arabian Peninsula. Gulf News reported that people in Dibba have felt at least 150 tremors during 2003 and 2004 which indicates that there is a major earthquake waiting to happen in the area. Dibba also felt the 2005 Qeshm earthquake.

The Mesozoic and the Cenozoic accretionary wedge is truncated on the western side by the right lateral fault, the Zendan Fault – Oman Line. West of the transform are the Zagros Mountains of southern Iran, the Musandam peninsula and the Oman Mountains, and the Arabian platform and the Dibba Fault. The Dibba Fault separates the ophiolites in the Oman Mountains from the Mesozoic carbonates in the Musandam Peninsula.

On 31 March 2009, Gulfnews reported that the UAE's National Centre of Metrology and Seismology (NCMS) recorded two earth tremors, measuring magnitudes of 2.9 and 3.5 on the Richter scale, which shook the Gulf of Aden and the north of Dibba at 6.21 am and 9.35 am. The tremors were lightly felt in some areas of the northern emirates.

Marine life
In 2008 an algal bloom affected the sea around Dibba and reached the tourist hot-spots of 'Aqqah and Al-Faqeet, which contain several high-end resorts. 95% of corals in the Dibba Marine Protected Zone were destroyed and the fish population dwindled to a minimum. Rita Bento, a marine biologist working with the Emirates Diving Association (EDA), said she saw only three fish during an hour-long dive in an area where previously hundreds were seen.

Natural disasters
In June 2007, Dibba was affected by Cyclone Gonu, which caused damage to buildings and homes.

Archaeology
There is evidence of extensive ancient settlement and Dibba was an international market on the coast of Oman frequented by merchants from India and China sailing through the Arabian Sea. Indian and Chinese merchant activity has also been discovered  in Dibba, and in Chinese sources as well.

Towns
 Dibba Al-Fujairah on the east coast is one of the largest towns in Fujairah. It contains several small villages located between the mountains and the seacoast. In winter people from all over the Emirates travel to Dibba to camp in the mountains and in summer they enjoy water sports and the sandy beaches. Beaches in Dibba are considered among the best of the UAE and have many luxury hotels.
 Dibba Al-Hisn is bordered by the Gulf of Oman to the east, Dibba Al-Baya to the north, and Dibba Al-Fujairah to the south. It is the smallest in size among the other "Dibbas" and is notable mostly for its fish market and a fortress, after which the town is named. Its population density is greater than the other towns. There have been land disputes between Dibba Al-Hisn and Dibba Al-Baya, which were resolved in the 1990s. Dibba Al-Hisn is believed to be the site where the Portuguese built a fort and a wall around the city during the Iberian Union.
 Dibba Al-Baya is the most northerly of the three "Dibbas" and acts as a gateway to the Musandam Peninsula.

Notable people
 Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah, an Azdi Arab and an eminent military commander born in Dibba, whose name appeared on the first-edition of the United Arab Emirates dirham coins shortly after the people of the country accepted Islam.
 Laqit bin Malik: A false prophet and an Azdi Arab in Dibba also known as the "Crowned One (Dhul'-Taj)" who rose against the local Muslim Julanda rulers. The army led by Hudayfa and supported by Ikrimah ibn Abi-Jahl and 'Arfaja arrived at the area of Tuwwam (which includes the modern areas of Al Ain and Al-Buraimi), where they wrote to local tribes to convince them to abandon the revolt. They then marched against and defeated Laqit in battle at Dibba, where reports of combined casualties of 10,000 are mentioned. Hudayfah then remained in Oman as governor restoring peace with the local tribes and bringing them back to the fold of Islam, while the remaining troops continued to chase the apostates into Mahra and then to Ash-Shihr in Yemen, both being in South Arabia.

In popular culture
"We will go to Dibba, and we will see how summer feels like" is a saying popular in the UAE and Oman. It is used to express the ability of proving a point or test if a fact is true or not, since Dibba allegedly enjoys a cooler weather in the summer than the rest of the UAE.

See also
Dhanha
Oman–United Arab Emirates border

References

Former Portuguese colonies
Populated coastal places in Oman
Populated coastal places in the United Arab Emirates
Disputed territories in the Persian Gulf
Territorial disputes of Oman
Territorial disputes of the United Arab Emirates
Oman–United Arab Emirates border
Regions of Oman
Regions of the United Arab Emirates
Divided cities

Dibba


Allan Robb Fleming  (7 May 1929 – 31 December 1977) was a Canadian graphic designer best known for having created the Canadian National Railway logo, designing the best-selling 1967 Centennial book Canada: A Year of the Land/Canada, du temps qui passe, and for revolutionizing the look of scholarly publishing in Canada, particularly at University of Toronto Press.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was vice president and director of creative services at the typographic firm Cooper and Beatty Ltd. when he designed the new CN logo in 1959. In 1962, he became art director for Maclean's magazine. From 1963 to 1968, he was director of creative services at MacLaren Advertising. From 1968 to 1976, he was the chief designer at the University of Toronto Press.

He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the Alliance Graphique Internationale, a Fellow of the Ontario College of Art, and the first Fellow of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada.

Chronology

Early years
Allan Robb Fleming was the son of Isabella Osborne Fleming, a nurse, and Allan Stevenson Fleming, a clerk with Canadian National Railways. They were both Scottish immigrants to Toronto.

Between 1937 and 1939 the young Allan was hospitalized in Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto because of an ear infection that required radical surgery and caused the permanent loss of hearing in his left ear. He never forgot the trauma. In 1939 Allan and his mother travelled to California as part of his recuperation; attending the Hollywood Premier of "The Wizard of Oz" formed an indelible impression.

Back in Toronto, he attended Western Technical Collegiate from 1943 to 1945 in the commercial art stream. When he was 15, in 1944, his father died of bone cancer. From 1945 until 1947 Fleming worked as an illustrator in the mail order-advertising department of the T. Eaton Company, and then until 1951 became a layout artist with Art Associates Studio and an art director with the advertising firm Aikin McCracken.

Fleming married Nancy Barbara Chisholm in 1951. Working at the advertising firm Art and Design Service, he was involved with clients such as Ford, Helena Rubenstein, and Kaiser-Frazer. In April 1953, the Flemings relocated to England for two years, where Fleming studied letterforms and the design of type and books, being mentored by such eminent English designers and design historians as Stanley Morison, Oliver Simon, Herbert Spencer, and Beatrice Warde.

Getting established

When the Flemings returned to Toronto in May 1955, Allan set up as a freelance designer with illustrator Lewis Parker and taught part-time at the Ontario College of Art. He became head of typography at the college, a post he held until 1961. He also set up an independent graphic design studio in his home in November 1955, hiring his then student, Ken Rodmell, as his assistant a year later. It was in this period that Fleming designed his first book.

In September 1957 Fleming joined Cooper & Beatty Typesetters as typographic director and designer. The range and flair of the work he effected for C&B garnered attention internationally, and brought in a host of awards from the New York Art Directors Club, the Type Directors Club of New York, and the AIGA among others. As well as paying work for companies such as General Motors, London Life, the Hudson's Bay Company, and others, Fleming produced witty and effective advertising ephemera for C&B itself. He also designed the "Type-o-file," an innovative pick-and-mix box of type specimens arranged by family.

Fleming also co-organized (with Franklyn Smith) a number of significant exhibitions of internationally acclaimed designers such as Karl Gerstner, Hermann Zapf and Saul Bass at C&B's headquarters in Toronto. In 1958 he attended the highly influential Silvermine Conference ("The Art and Science of Typography: An International Seminar of Typographic Design") in Norwalk, Connecticut, delivering that year the Rous Lecture on Typography at the Ontario College of Art, on the subject of legibility. The Flemings' first daughter, Martha, was born in October 1958.

CN logo

In 1959 the New York industrial design firm James Valkus commissioned Fleming to create a new logo for Canadian National Railways as a key part of Valkus' company-wide corporate redesign programme. The resulting logo, launched in 1960, is still in use today and acclaimed as one of the top 50 corporate logos of all time by design historian Alice Rawsthorn [Report on Business, October 2000]. In this same year he designed an innovative and gritty fundraising brochure in an unusual photo-documentary style for the United Church of Canada, as well as "Printing and Social Change" by Marshall McLuhan, which was published in Printing Progress: A Mid-Century Report by the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen. Fleming also established his first private press that year, the Tortoise Press, whose first book was Eight Poems, by Richard Outram.

Besides launching the CN symbol in 1960, Fleming redesigned the Bank of Nova Scotia logo, and worked on projects for Dow Chemical Company, Salada Foods, Jordan Wines, Vickers and Benson, Eaton's, and of course Cooper & Beatty. He began designing more books, such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Paul-Emile Borduas and the National Gallery of Canada's Canadian Painters in Watercolour and Folk Painters of the Canadian West. Peter Fleming, Nancy and Allan's only son, was born in August.

From late June to early September 1960 Fleming travelled to the UK and Europe on a Canada Council for the Arts grant, meeting among others Jan Tschichold, Karl Gerstner, and Gunter Gerhard Lange of the Berthold type-foundry. He exhibited work at Monotype House Gallery in London at the invitation of Beatrice Warde, gave an address on North American graphic design, and persuaded Ken Rodmell, then living in London, to return to Toronto to work for him at Cooper & Beatty and join Jim Donoahue who by then also worked in the creative department at C&B. In 1961, Fleming became vice-president and typographic director in charge of creative services at C&B.

Maclean's magazine, MacLaren advertising, Ontario Hydro

1962 was another busy year for Fleming. He designed a logo for the Montreal Trust Company; letterhead for Hawker Siddeley Canada; graphics and the logo for Toronto's Malton Airport (architect John B. Parkin); all signage, monumental lettering, and the foundation stone for Massey College at the University of Toronto (architect Ron Thom); annual reports and invitations; and much more. But in November 1962, he left C&B in order to become art director at Maclean's magazine. After a tumultuous nine months there, during which Fleming radically redesigned the look of the magazine, he was hired as executive art director at MacLaren Advertising Company Ltd. Its clients included General Electric, General Motors, Hockey Night in Canada, Imperial Oil, and Lever Brothers. That same year Fleming was commissioned to design a new logo for Ontario Hydro (launched 1965), as well as the crest, letterhead, and other related materials for the new Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario (architect Ron Thom). In April 1963, Allan and Nancy's third child, Susannah, was born.

Fleming was promoted in 1965 to vice-president and associate general manager, creative department at MacLaren Advertising. Fleming was involved that year in Liberal Party campaign materials – an election the Liberals won. Although he has never received any credit for it, it's very likely that he had a hand in guiding the final design execution of the Canadian flag. Although it's attributed to others, it bears many of his typical design stylings and hallmarks and that he was hired by the federal government is indicated in his archives, according to his daughter. It has stood as one of the best national flag designs ever done.

In 1966 Fleming became a MacLaren's director; by then he was responsible for the work of sixty-three staff in creative services. Among other accomplishments that year, seven of Fleming's projects were chosen for exhibition in Typomundus 20, the first international juried exhibition of typographic design, which was held in Toronto.

Lorraine Monk of the National Film Board, Still Photography Division, commissioned Fleming to design the sumptuous NFB Centennial book, Canada: A Year of the Land/Canada, du temps qui passe, for which he was awarded the Centennial Medal of Canada and a gold medal for book design at Graphica '67'.

University of Toronto Press
In 1968 the first hint of heart trouble occurred. Fleming was unwell that spring, and left MacLaren Advertising in May, though he continued to be on the board of directors and served as a creative consultant. That month he shifted gears to become chief of design at the University of Toronto Press (UTP), a post that was created for him, and an association he maintained until his death in 1977. UTP was then the fourth largest university press in North America, publishing an average of eighty to a hundred books a year.

While revolutionizing the look of scholarly books at UTP, Fleming also continued to do a wide variety of other design jobs for the Canada Council, Galanty Productions, Gramercy Holding Ltd, Jordan Wines, Philip and Noah Torno, the Hudson's Bay Company, and other MacLaren Advertising clients. With master printer Ernie Herzig, he set up another small press, Martlet Press, which produced among others high-quality photography books with the National Film Board. A UTP Christmas keepsake, The Alphabet Book, by Kettle Point School and Anne and Alex Wyse, won an AIGA '50 Books of the Year'. The Martlet Press's own John Fillion: Thoughts About My Sculpture also won an AIGA award.

Last decade
In 1969 Fleming designed both a symbol and the launch publications for the new Ontario Science Centre, a symbol for the Metropolitan Separate School Board (now today as the Toronto Catholic District School Board), the NE Thing Company logo, and a style guide for Canada Post that set the bar for the next 20 years. As a public educationalist, he was also a driving force behind such exhibitions as Art at the Service of Intention: Graphic Designers at Work (Art Gallery of Ontario), and appeared on Robert Fulford's TV program, 'On Books'. Two of UTP's publications designed by Fleming --  The Economic Atlas of Ontario and Rural Ontario—won AIGA awards in 1969. The following year, Fleming designed a logo for the Metropolitan Educational Television Authority and one for Gray Coach Lines, and was appointed to the National Design Council. Fleming also found time for civic duty, designing posters for the "Stop the Spadina Expressway" movement spearheaded by Jane Jacobs, Marshall McLuhan and William Kilbourn. Also in 1971, another UTP book, Goethe's Faust, translated by the renowned literary scholar and painter Barker Fairley and illustrated by one of Fleming's protégés, Randy Jones, won yet another AIGA award, and The Economic Atlas of Ontario won the World's Most Beautiful Book prize at the Leipzig International Exhibition of Book Arts. 1971 saw Fleming designing the United Church of Canada's new Hymnal, in tandem with designer and UTP colleague Laurie Lewis. A notable UTP book that year was Sculpture Inuit, done for the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council. Closer to home, Fleming's Martlet Press published Twenty-Eight Drawings by Barbara Howard: Howard was a close family friend, the wife of poet Richard Outram. And, in exchange for books for his considerable collection, Fleming also began designing stationery and catalogues for Monk Bretton Books, an antiquarian book dealer specializing in fine press books.

In June 1971 Fleming had a heart attack while in Halifax and then a few months later a paralyzing stroke, forcing him to go on disability leave from UTP. He didn't stop working, designing philatelic materials for Canada Post such as a stamp with the artist Alma Duncan, first-day covers for the Paul Kane and British Columbia centennial stamps, and writing and hosting a program for CBC TV entitled "Calligraphy: My Love Affair with the Alphabet." Quill & Quire, the monthly Canadian book trade magazine, ran a feature on AF, and he continued to make regular contributions to professional gatherings. By 1972 Fleming had returned to UTP, but not for long: he suffered another debilitating heart attack early in the year.

In 1973, Fleming joined Burton Kramer Associates as one of two principals, alongside Kramer. Among other projects during that period, the firm developed the new visual identity for the CBC and for Reed Paper.  Concurrently, he also incorporated as Allan R. Fleming Graphic Design Consultants, but in August he experienced further heart problems which forced him to cut back on various activities. A highlight of the year was being made a fellow of the Ontario College of Art, the first year this honour had been given, alongside the painter A.Y. Jackson. Another NFB book, "Canada", won the Leipzig World's Most Beautiful Book prize.

As of January 1974 Fleming became a director of the industrial design firm Kuypers Adamson Norton Ltd. and launched the CBC symbol with Burton Kramer. St Thomas's Anglican Church in Toronto commissioned him to design a logo for its centennial, and continued to design philatelic materials for Canada Post. His work with UTP that year included the template for The Collected Works of Erasmus, which is still used by UTP for this monumental editorial project, and another AIGA award-winner, Clarence Tracy's The Rape Observ'd.

He resigned from Burton Kramer Associates Ltd in March 1976, joining Burns Cooper Donaohue and Fleming the following month. The range of his work from that office covered his complete editorial redesign for Canada's newspaper The Financial Post, a logo for media company Torstar, packaging design for MacKenzie Seeds and an award-winning album cover for singer-songwriter Sylvia Tyson.

It was a tumultuous year: in March he also left his wife and family and set up house with an editor from UTP, Prudence Tracy. A solo exhibition of Fleming's work curated by Alvin Balkind opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery; the exhibition also travelled to the Alberta College of Art in Calgary, and coming back to Toronto from the opening there, Fleming suffered a stroke. In late December Fleming had a cardiopulmonary collapse, from which he died on 31 December.

Influence and legacy
This outlined trajectory of Allan Fleming's career gives a sense of his personality and energy if only by demonstrating the sheer quantity and variety of his undertakings, but a simple chronology can't adequately suggest what Brian Donnelly in issue 63 of The Devil's Artisan calls "his persuasive presentation style and genuine brilliance with words." Nor can it convey the attentive and inclusive style that made Fleming such an inspiring colleague and friend: one from whom all who were interested could learn. He was an indefatigable mentor, teacher and public champion of design in all aspects of Canadian cultural life. He revolutionized more than the design department at UTP; he also revolutionized the relationship between editors, designers, and production and marketing employees, inspiring all with his camaraderie and brilliant innovation. This ability to inspire and galvanise disparate professionals was also a hallmark of his work in advertising and in typographic design, when those professions were not the flat hierarchies they have since become. His early death was a great loss to family and friends, but his work as a designer, collaborator and teacher continues to reverberate through the Canadian design world and beyond.

Notable logos

References

 http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/allan-fleming-the-man-who-branded-a-nation

External links (collections)
 Allan Fleming Papers, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario
 Allan Fleming Collection of Digitized Images, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario
 Cooper & Beatty Fonds (MS297), Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
 MacLaren Advertising Fonds (R4467), Archives of Ontario
 CCCA
A.R. Fleming Collection at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

1929 births
1977 deaths
Canadian graphic designers
Logo designers
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
People from Toronto

Allan Fleming


Vlas Mikhailovich Doroshevich (, April 17, 1864 – February 22, 1922), was one of Russia's most popular and widely read journalists, and a novelist, essayist, drama critic, and short story writer.

Early life
Doroshevich was born in Moscow, where his mother Alexandra Sokolova was a member of the wealthy upper class. She was educated at the prestigious Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg, but was disinherited by her family for marrying Vlas's father, who was an unsuccessful writer, and far beneath her in social status. He died shortly before Vlas was born.

When Vlas was six months old, Alexandra, who had two other children and was struggling financially, brought him to Moscow and gave him to a childless couple by the name of Doroshevich. His mother requested that he be named Blaise in honor of the French philosopher Blaise Pascal, but his adopted parents Russianized the name as Vlasii, or Vlas. Ten years later Alexandra reclaimed custody of Vlas through legal procedures that Mikhail Doroshevich, Vlas's adopted father, said had violated his rights.

Career
At the age of sixteen Vlas withdrew from school, and left home because of a desire to be amongst the people. Rather than doing social work as many former students did at the time, Vlas became a laborer and a dock worker. His time as a common worker was brief, though, and he soon found work as a proof-reader and actor. At seventeen he began writing for a paper called The Moscow Flyer.

During the 1880s he became a skillful journalist and critic, writing for popular papers such as Entertainment, the Petersburg Gazette, and the Alarm Clock, which also employed the young writer Anton Chekhov. In 1893 he moved to Odessa to work as a reporter for the Odessa Flyer, a local paper with a large circulation. He later visited France on assignment, where he was impressed by the feuilleton style of journalism, a style he soon began using himself. This style was widely popular, but some literary figures, like Zinaida Gippius and Alexander Blok criticized it for being talentless and vulgar.

In 1897 he traveled to Sakhalin as part of a larger international assignment. He recorded his experiences and impressions in his book Sakhalin, originally serialized in Russian Wealth, God's World, and other papers, and recently published in English translation by the Anthem Press as Russia's Penal Colony in the Far East.

From 1902 to 1918 he was the editor of the paper Russian Word. He also gained fame as a novelist, short story writer, and religious commentator. Some of his published works were: In the Promised Land (Palestine) 1900, Mu-Shan: A Chinese Novel 1901, and Legends and Stories of the East 1902.

Later life

He published what is now his best known work The Way of the Cross, in Russian Word in October 1915. The Way of the Cross is Vlas's account of the refugees from the German invasion of Russia during World War I, in August and September 1915. Vlas journeyed from Moscow to meet the oncoming refugees, travelling through to the rear of the Russian army and recording the hardships and struggling he witnessed along the way. When people died at the roadside, they put up crosses to mark the burial sites, giving the account its title The Way of the Cross.

Even though he was rich, Vlas welcomed the rise of the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution. This might've been partly due to his outcast status among intellectuals because of his feuilletons, and their popularity with middle and working-class people. After his death in Petrograd in 1922, he was buried next to the grave of the writer and revolutionary Vera Zasulich.

English translations
The Way of the Cross, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1916. from Archive.org
Russia's Penal Colony in the Far East: A Translation of Doroshevich's Sakhalin, Anthem Press, 2009.
Three Chinese Tales, Glas Magazine, Read online
What the Emperor Cannot Do: Tales and Legends of the Orient, GLAS New Russian Writing, 2012.

References

1864 births
1922 deaths
Novelists from the Russian Empire
Newspaper editors from the Russian Empire

Literary critics from the Russian Empire

Writers from Moscow

Residents of the Benois House

Vlas Doroshevich


Jahrtausendturm () is, at , one of the highest wooden towers in the world. It was established on the occasion of the Bundesgartenschau 1999 in the Magdeburger Elbauenpark in Magdeburg, Germany. The tower houses an exhibition on the development of sciences, which is supported by many descriptive experiments with which the visitor can interact. One notable example is a powerful telescope through which visitors can observe the distant clock-face on the Magdeburger cathedral.

Construction
The intentionally inclined designed tower leads its visitor through an exhibit representing 6,000 years of human history. The tower has six floors, five of which comprise the history exhibit. The individual floors are accessible by means of an internal stairway, as well as a spiral wooden stair on the tower's exterior. The 8,000 square meter exhibition surface offers approximately 80 interactive experimental setups for the visitor to manipulate. In addition, the tower offers several hundred informational exhibits and diagrams. The exhibit is installed in chronological order. The Millennium Tower is in the Elbauenpark Magdeburg. Admission to the tower is included in the entrance price of the park.

Floors
On the lowest floor one finds exhibits related to the earliest cultures and the birth of human history. The visitor will find (among other things) an accessible Ancient Egyptian dwelling, a grave chamber and a labyrinth. Exhibits are not limited to physical anthropology. The physical sciences and mathematics of earliest antiquity are described and represented in experiments, exhibits and diagrams.
The second floor concerns itself with the Middle Ages (500-1500). Here is represented antique world systems and medicine, simple machines and the science of early Arabia. Included in the interactive exhibits are pulley-blocks, a water wheel, and a human-powered impeller for pumping liquids.
The third floor is devoted to the knowledge of the Renaissance to early modern times (1500–1750). Here the visitor finds exhibits on mechanics, vacuum, magnetism, mathematics, alchemy, medicine and conceptions of world change. Important wars, the important journeys of discovery and major inventions (e.g., the printing press, the telescope) are among the main topics.
The fourth floor shows the period 1650-1859. The floor is divided into the levels 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3. Topics include medicine and chemistry, biology and sensory perception, as well as optics. Topics here include electricity, radio engineering, caloric theory, fixed star parallax, Doppler effect, space and time, as well as genetic engineering and the nuclear energy. Numerous experiments illustrate the topics.
The fifth floor concerns itself with modern research in the natural sciences and medicine. Emphasis is on the general topics "microcosm" and "macrocosm".
The sixth floor houses the observation platform.

Data

height: 60 m;
oval base: 70x50 m;
wood used in construction: 5,500 m³;
surrounded space: 61.000 m³;
tarpaulin: 5000 m²;
exhibition area: 8,030 m²;
height of the observation deck: 43 m;
steps to the observation deck: 243;
length of the exterior ramp: 450 m

See also
 List of towers

External links

Towers in Germany
Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium
Towers completed in 1999
Buildings and structures in Magdeburg
Tourist attractions in Magdeburg
1999 establishments in Germany

Jahrtausendturm


"Faust in der Tasche" (Fist in the pocket) is a song by Die Toten Hosen, performed under the alias Ricky Curl and the Standing Ovations. It's the only single and the first track from the EP The Battle of the Bands.

The song is narrated by a man, whose girlfriend has left him to date another guy. The narrator is pissed, because he sees them together all the time and it makes him sick.

Track listing
 "Faust in der Tasche" (Frege, von Holst/Frege) – 3:55 (as Ricky Curl and the Standing Ovations)
 "La historia del pescador Pepe" (The story of Pepe the fisherman [in Spanish]) (Breitkopf, Frege, von Holst, Meurer, Trimpop/Frege) – 3:17 (as Die Flinger Domspatzen)

1985 singles
Die Toten Hosen songs
Songs written by Campino (singer)
Songs written by Andreas von Holst
1985 songs

Faust in der Tasche


Aquatic Park is a public park in Berkeley, California, United States, located just east of the Eastshore Freeway (Interstate 80) between Ashby and University Avenues. The Works Progress Administration created the park in the 1930s simultaneously with the nearby Berkeley Yacht Harbor. Its centerpiece is an artificial mile-long lagoon that was cut off from San Francisco Bay by the creation of a causeway for the Eastshore Highway, during the construction of the approaches to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, also in the 1930s. The lagoon still communicates with the Bay through culverts under the freeway (one in line with Ashby Avenue, the other in line with Grayson Street). The east shoreline of the lagoon used to be the original shoreline of San Francisco Bay.

Park features
Aquatic Park features picnic areas, "Dream Land for Kids"—a large children's playground, a pedestrian-bicycle path, and a disc golf course. The lagoon is used by the Berkeley Paddling and Rowing Club year round, and by the Berkeley Water Ski Club during the summer months.  The lagoon is also used by the nonprofit organization, Waterside Workshops, for their youth boating and sailing, and boat rentals to the general public on weekends.  Waterside Workshops also houses a community bikeshop at the intersection of Bolivar Drive and Bancroft Way.  Historically, the Aquatic Park lagoon was also a practice site for the University of California crew teams.

References

External links
Aquatic Park official page
Aquatic Park cleans up, tackles brackish reputation
Aquatic Park advocate wins conservation award
Cruise Judgment: Berkeley takes tentative steps to limit public sex in Aquatic Park

Lagoons of California
LGBT culture in the San Francisco Bay Area
Parks in Berkeley, California
San Francisco Bay
Works Progress Administration in California
1930s establishments in California

Aquatic Park (Berkeley)


Black Tuesday is a 1954 American crime drama film noir directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring Edward G. Robinson, Peter Graves and Jean Parker. The supporting cast features Milburn Stone, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly and Russell Johnson.

Plot
A violent con, Vincent Canelli, escapes prison on the night of his execution.  With the help of a phony newspaper reporter and Canelli's girlfriend, the con takes along five hostages, including a priest.

Another inmate, Peter Manning, is taken along because Canelli wants the money Manning hid before going to jail.  Manning is injured badly in the escape and leaves a bloody trail.

The gang ends up at a hideout where they're surrounded by police.  Canelli threatens to kill hostages if he's not given safe passage and murders a kidnapped prison guard to make his point.  Manning is horrified and ends up killing Canelli, then giving up himself and the others to police.

Cast
 Edward G. Robinson as Canelli
 Jean Parker as Hatti
 Peter Graves as Manning
 Milburn Stone as Father Slocum
 Warren Stevens as Joey Stewart
 Sylvia Findley as Ellen Norris
 Jack Kelly as Carson
 James Bell as John Norris
 Vic Perrin as Dr. Hart
 Russell Johnson as Howard Sloane

Reception
The New York Times gave the film a positive review, writing, "...it's good to have a reminder that Hollywood still holds top priority in the gangster melodrama field. Take Black Tuesday, which accompanied the Palace's new stage bill yesterday, with Edward G. Robinson playing his old, snariing, savage self.  We hastily add that this medium-budget United Artists offering, produced by Robert Goldstein, by no means reprises the sterling tradition of those cops-and-killers yarns about our urban jungles of the roaring Twenties, when the Robinsons, Cagneys and Munis cut their fangs. However, purely on a surface level, the new entry can snuggle up to them quite respectably ... In contrast to Mr. Robinson's wholesale sputtering, the supporting cast of comparatively unfamiliar faces are brought, one by one, into impersonal but perceptive focus. And most of them shine convincingly."

Film historian and critic Alain Silver said of the film, "When society at large is threatened, the psychopaths presented tend to be of the most violent ilk, as if to justify social repression by exaggerating the threat.  Edward G. Robinson as gangster Vincent Canelli in Black Tuesday... exhibits a sadistic bent rivaled only by James Cagney in White Heat."

References

External links

Films directed by Hugo Fregonese
1954 films
American crime thriller films
American black-and-white films
Film noir
United Artists films
Films scored by Paul Dunlap
1950s crime thriller films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films

Black Tuesday (film)


David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett,  (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough from  1987 to 2015, when he stood down. Blind since birth, and coming from a poor family in one of Sheffield's most deprived districts, he rose to become Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet following Labour's victory in the 1997 general election.

Following the 2001 general election, he was promoted to Home Secretary, a position he held until 2004, when he resigned following publicity about his personal life. Following the 2005 general election he was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, though he resigned from that role later that year following media coverage relating to external business interests in the period when he did not hold a cabinet post. The Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell, in a letter of 25 November 2005, exonerated him from any wrongdoing.

On 20 June 2014, Blunkett announced to his constituency party that he would be standing down from the House of Commons at the next general election in May 2015. The editor of the conservative The Spectator magazine, Fraser Nelson, commented: "He was never under-briefed, and never showed any sign of his disability ... he was one of Labour's very best MPs – and one of the very few people in parliament whose life I would describe as inspirational." Responding to a question from Blunkett on 11 March 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "As a new backbencher, I will never forget coming to this place in 2001 and, in the light of the appalling terrorist attacks that had taken place across the world, seeing the strong leadership he gave on the importance of keeping our country safe. He is a remarkable politician, a remarkable man."

In May 2015, he accepted a professorship in Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield (in 2014 he was invited to be a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences), and in June 2015 he agreed to become chairman of the Board of the University of Law. In addition to his other work with charities, he was also chairman of the David Ross Multi Academy Charitable Trust from June 2015 to January 2017. He is the honorary president of the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT).

In August 2015, he was awarded a peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours. He was created Baron Blunkett, of Brightside and Hillsborough in the City of Sheffield, on 28 September.

Early life
Blunkett was born on 6 June 1947 at Jessop Hospital, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, with improperly developed optic nerves due to a rare genetic disorder. He grew up in an underprivileged family; in 1959 he endured a family tragedy when his father was gravely injured in an industrial accident: he fell into a vat of boiling water while at work as a foreman for the East Midlands Gas Board, dying a month later. This left the surviving family in poverty, especially since the board refused to pay compensation for two years because his father worked past the retirement age, dying at the age of 67.

Blunkett was educated at schools for the blind in Sheffield and Shrewsbury. He attended the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford. He was apparently told at school that one of his few options in life was to become a lathe operator. Nevertheless, he won a place at the University of Sheffield, where he gained a BA honours degree in Political Theory and Institutions; one of his lecturers was Bernard Crick. He entered local politics on graduation, whilst gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Huddersfield Holly Bank College of Education (now part of the University of Huddersfield). He spent a total of six years going to evening classes and day-release classes to get the qualifications needed to go to university. He worked as a clerk typist between 1967 and 1969 and as a lecturer in industrial relations and politics between 1973 and 1981.

By 1970, Blunkett was a Methodist local preacher based at Southey church in the Sheffield (North) circuit of the Methodist Connexion. He told the Methodist Recorder: "My politics come directly from my religion. As a Christian I seen myself as a Socialist; not exactly a Donald Soper, but that way inclined". At that point, he was engaged to Ruth Mitchell and they planned to marry in July.

Local government
In 1970, at the age of 22, Blunkett became the youngest-ever councillor on Sheffield City Council and in Britain, being elected while a mature student. He was elected on the same day as fellow Labour member Bill Michie, who, like Blunkett, would go on to serve as a Sheffield MP. Blunkett served on Sheffield City Council from 1970 to 1988, and was Leader from 1980 to 1987. He also served on South Yorkshire County Council from 1973 to 1977. This was a time of decline for Sheffield's steel industry. Blunkett and Michie were among what political journalist Julia Langdon has described as "an energetic group of young Labour activists who emerged in Sheffield in the 1970s, a number of whom moved on to Westminster". The Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam, Irvine Patnick, coined the phrase "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire" to describe the left-wing politics of its local government. Although bestowed as a criticism of the radical policies being pursued by Labour councillors in the area, Langdon notes that it "was in fact happily embraced by those it was intended to denigrate". Sheffield City Council supported the National Union of Mineworkers in their 1984–85 strike, designated Sheffield a "nuclear-free zone", and set up an Anti-Apartheid Working Party. Blunkett became known as the leader of one of Labour's left-wing councils, sometimes described pejoratively as "loony left". Blunkett was one of the faces of the protest over rate-capping in 1985 which saw several Labour councils refuse to set a budget in a protest against Government powers to restrain their spending. He built up support within the Labour Party during his time as the council's leader during the 1980s, and was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

Parliamentary career
Having unsuccessfully fought Sheffield Hallam in February 1974, at the 1987 general election, Blunkett was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside with a large majority in a safe Labour seat. He became a party spokesman on local government, joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 as Shadow Health Secretary and became Shadow Education Secretary in 1994.

Education and Employment Secretary
Following Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 general election, he became Secretary of State for Education and Employment, thus becoming Britain's first blind cabinet minister (Henry Fawcett, husband of suffragist Millicent Fawcett, had been a member of the Privy Council, of which the Cabinet is the executive committee, more than a century before). The role of Education Secretary was a vital one in a government whose prime minister had in 1996 described his priorities as "education, education, education" and which had made reductions in school class sizes a pledge.

As Secretary of State, Blunkett pursued substantial reforms, ready to take on the teaching unions and determined to ensure basic standards of literacy and numeracy. He was rewarded with extra funding to cut class sizes, notably by abolishing the Assisted Places Scheme. Subsequently, there has since 1997 been a notable increase in literacy and numeracy, and there are 42,000 more teachers than in 1997, with doubled spending per pupil in frontline schools (and over 100,000 teaching assistants) through to 2010. A key pillar of Blunkett's work as Education Secretary was the introduction of Sure Start, a government programme which provides services for pre-school children and their families. It works to bring together early education, childcare, health and family support. In 2011, the government effectively started the abolition of Sure Start by lifting the ring fence on earmarked funding and cutting back drastically on the funds available.

Following the Dearing Report into higher education, Blunkett introduced the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 on 26 November 1997, which introduced university tuition fees. He also led the massive expansion in higher education. He provided large scale investment in universities in the UK and one study, covering up to the decade of 2013, showed that universities are now educating more than one-quarter more students than they did previously, and receiving double the income they did.

Whilst in this position, Blunkett also launched Learning and Skills Councils, created Job Centre Plus and had responsibility for the Equal Opportunities Commission, as well as establishing the Disability Rights Commission (as Home Secretary, he was also responsible for the Commission on Racial Equality; all three of these bodies were incorporated later into the Equality and Human Rights Commission).

In 1999, Blunkett proposed that sex education should not be pursued until children have left primary school at 11, reportedly arguing that childhood, the "age of innocence", should not be compromised by "graphic" sex education. In 2000, while attempting to cool opposition to the proposed abolition of the Local Government Act 1988's Section 28, he issued guidelines on the importance of 'family values' in teaching children sex education.

Blunkett introduced the teaching of citizenship in schools in 1999, arguing that "We want to ensure that there's a basis of traditional knowledge that's available to all children." Citizenship education provides pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding to become informed citizens, aware of their rights, duties and responsibilities.

Home Secretary
At the start of the Labour government's second term in 2001, Blunkett was promoted to Home Secretary, fulfilling an ambition of his. Some observers saw him a rival to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in succeeding Blair as Prime Minister.

Blunkett was almost immediately faced with September 11 attacks on the United States. He brought in new anti-terrorism measures, including detention without trial of suspect foreign nationals who could not be extradited or deported. It caused a backbench rebellion and provoked strong opposition in the House of Lords; Blunkett made concessions over incitement to religious hatred (later carried through by his successor) and to introduce a "sunset clause". He authorised MI5 to start collecting bulk telephone communications data on which telephone numbers called each other and when, authorised under a little understood general power under the Telecommunications Act 1984, instead of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which would have brought independent oversight and regulation. This was kept secret until announced by the then Home Secretary in 2015.

As Home Secretary, Blunkett was prepared to confront the judiciary and the police, with proposals for civilian community patrols and changes to police officers' pay and working conditions. More than 7,000 police demonstrated outside Parliament in 2002.

During his term in office, the large upsurge in asylum claims was reversed, the Sangatte refugee camp on French soil was closed, and refugees numbers subsequently dropped from 110,000 to less than 30,000. With an additional 15,000 police officers and 6,500 Community Support Officers by 2004, crime had reached an all-time low, with over a 40% drop from ten years earlier.

A controversial area for Blunkett was civil liberties, and he described civil libertarianism as "airy fairy". As Education Secretary, he had repeatedly expressed the intention that, were he to become Home Secretary, he would make the then-incumbent Jack Straw, who had been criticised for being hard-line, seem over-liberal. In 2006, Martin Narey, the former director general of the prison service, claimed that Blunkett had once told him to use the army and machine guns to deal with rioting prisoners. Blunkett has denied these allegations.

Blunkett radically overhauled 'Victorian' sex offences legislation in 2002, which modernised the sex offences laws dramatically in relation to same-sex and related issues by sweeping away the archaic laws governing homosexuality, while tightening protections against rapists, paedophiles and other sex offenders. The act closed a loophole that had allowed those accused of child rape to escape punishment by arguing the act was consensual, and a new offence of adult sexual activity with a child – which covers any sex act that takes place between an adult and a child under 16 – was introduced. It was supported by all major political parties in the UK.

In 2004, it emerged that Blunkett had directed Home Office civil servants to closely monitor and counter the findings of Migration Watch UK, which controversially included manipulating the timing of statistical releases to avoid criticism from the pressure group.

Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary on 15 December 2004, amidst allegations that he helped fast-track the renewal of a work permit for his ex-lover's nanny.

Blunkett thanked the Jewish community in 2005 for its "extraordinary support" when "things got difficult" in his personal and professional life, and said that "I won't let you down. I feel deeply honoured when friends from the Jewish community are prepared to welcome me. I feel like one of the family." While he was born a Methodist, his son with Kimberly Quinn attended a Jewish nursery, as Quinn has Jewish heritage. In 2005, he was presented with an honorary doctorate by Haifa University. He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

The accusations made against him in November 2004 formed part of an acrimonious public conflict playing out in the Family Court in respect of contested Contact and Responsibility Orders. Clarity about the circumstances and events leading up to and surrounding his departure emerged in the phone hacking trial of 2013/14. In 2011, Blunkett had negotiated a private £300,000 settlement with News International over the hacking of his phone. Details of the settlement were later revealed by The Observer. On 24 June 2014, Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World and Head of Communications for David Cameron, was found guilty of a charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemails.

Brief return to the cabinet

Following the 2005 general election, Blunkett was returned to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where he faced a growing pensions crisis.
Two weeks before the election, Blunkett took up a directorship in a company called DNA Bioscience and bought £15,000 of shares in the company. After sustained questions over a six-month period, Blunkett was asked on 31 October 2005 to explain why he had not consulted the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments regarding the directorship. Having placed the shares into an independent trust, he said that the trustees had agreed to dispose of the shares.

Blunkett's political opponents claimed that a conflict of interest was created by him having been director of and holding shares in a company proposing to bid for government contracts to provide paternity tests to the Child Support Agency (CSA), part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), of which he was Secretary of State. On 2 November, a scheduled appearance before a House of Commons Select Committee was cancelled at the last minute, and Blunkett was summoned to a meeting at 10 Downing Street. Later that morning, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed Blunkett had resigned at the meeting, stating that his position had become untenable. This became the main focus of discussion at the session of Prime Minister's Questions that afternoon, and Conservative leader Michael Howard described the event as 'the beginning of the final chapter of (Blair's) administration'.

Blunkett was later found not to have broken the ministerial code. On 25 November 2005, after he had resigned, Gus O'Donnell wrote to Blunkett confirming that there was no conflict of interest, no failure to declare either Blunkett's shareholding or brief business connection with the company. O'Donnell wrote: "The issue of shareholdings and trusts and the handling of private interests more generally is of course covered quite extensively in Section 5 of the Ministerial Code. There is no ban on a Minister, or his or her immediate family members, holding such interests but where they do the Minister must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to arise, between his or her public duties and such private interests. In terms of the handling of your interests, and those of your family, you followed correct procedure in notifying your Permanent Secretary of your interests. Neither the DWP nor the CSA were in any contractual relationship with DNA Bioscience, and the CSA's contract for biometric testing was not due to be renewed for some years."

O'Donnell also confirmed that the Advisory Committee on Ministerial Appointments, which had been the bone of contention up to the beginning of November 2005, was in fact voluntary. The code was changed in 2007 to make clear that references prior to taking business appointments shortly after leaving government was to be mandatory as part of the ministerial code.

Despite his resignation from the cabinet in November, Blunkett initially kept his ministerial accommodation in Belgravia, London, until he found new accommodation four months later. He also rents a cottage on the estate of Chatsworth House.

Backbenches
Blunkett is a Vice President of the Royal National Institute of Blind People and a vice president of the Alzheimer's Society, and has close links with a range of other charities (local to Sheffield and nationally) including those relating to substance abuse and breast cancer, and is a Patron of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (enei). He is also a patron of The Micro and Anophthalmic Children's Society, a charity for children born without eyes or with underdeveloped eyes. He is additionally a former Honorary Chair of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA-UK) Advisory Board and was, until March 2015, chairman of the not-for-profit International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA).

In October 2010, Blunkett proposed the creation of a Yorkshire Parliament, giving autonomy to the historic county with a similar funding formula to the Welsh Assembly's devolved budget, which would entitle Yorkshire to an annual budget of around £24 billion.

One of his main interests is volunteering and community service. In 2011, he published a pamphlet calling for a National Volunteer Programme, which received a wide range of support, particularly among third sector organisations. Since then, Blunkett has commenced putting together and becoming a founder of the Future For Youth Foundation, which sought to tackle high levels of unemployment in young people, and which concluded its work in the summer of 2015.

He was a key voice in the successful No to AV campaign in 2010–11, prior to the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, and in 2011 spoke out against the Coalition Government's proposed boundary changes.

In September 2012, he published In Defence of Politics Revisited, in which he set out a range of proposals to increase faith in, and improve the working of, democratic politics. He was later awarded status as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. In July 2013, Sheffield University announced Blunkett had become a visiting professor in the Department of Politics, in the world's first Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics.

He sits on the board of the National Citizen Service Trust, a voluntary community service programme for 16- and 17-year-olds. From 2013 to 2014, he chaired a parliamentary inquiry with the Charities Aid Foundation into how giving to charities could be boosted. This reported in June 2014, making recommendations ranging from the inclusion of a 'social action' section on UCAS forms to the creation of a post-careers advice service, for those who are retiring but wish to continue giving in their community. This led to the National Citizen Service Act coming into law in 2017.

Between June 2013 and May 2014, Blunkett led a review into local oversight of schools and the raising of standards for the leader Ed Miliband and the Shadow Education Secretary. The Blunkett Report was published in May 2014, and called for the creation of new independent Directors of School Standards to operate between local authorities. These directors would focus on bringing greater coherence to the process of school creation, raising standards and improving local accountability.

In June 2014, Blunkett announced he would not be contesting the election in the following year, stating that he had realised he would not be returning to the frontbenches. In his letter he wrote: "it is clear that the leadership of the Party wish to see new faces in Ministerial office and a clear break with the past".

Later career
In 2013, Blunkett joined the advisory board of global wealth consultancy Oracle Capital Group, continuing in that role until 2017.

Blunkett became chair of the David Ross Education Trust, one of Britain's largest Multi-academy trusts, sponsored by Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross, in 2015. He resigned in 2017, along with several others members of the board, when the sponsor would not acknowledge or take action on major issues raised about governance procedures, and the blocking of an independent review initiated by Blunkett and the then Chief Executive Wendy Marshall.

Blunkett was appointed as Professor of Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield in June 2015. In 2017, he received an Honorary Doctorate for services to government and education from the University of Huddersfield.

Professor Robert D. Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University, speaking about David's time in the Home Office in a webinar in February 2021 said: "He was, at that time, THE most far-sighted communitarian on either side of the Atlantic that I met. We spent hours in his office – in his office at the Home Office – talking about what we could do... to bring people together, even in the face of crises that he saw before anybody else in the British political elite... David is a national treasure in the UK.

Blunkett fears that intelligence agencies in the UK and abroad may be reluctant to share information because Suella Braverman became home secretary again days after resigning due to a security breach. Blunkett said in the House of Lords: "Isn't it true there could be two really unfortunate outcomes to the reappointment of the current Home Secretary? One is that the security and intelligence services will be reluctant to provide the briefings and the openness needed. And the second is that other international security agencies will be reluctant to share with us if they are fearful that their information will be passed out of Government itself."

Writing, speaking, and television appearances

In October 2006, Blunkett's audio diaries were published in his book The Blunkett Tapes: My Life in the Bear Pit. The tapes detail his time as a cabinet minister until the present date, and provide insights into the workings of the Labour cabinet. They were recorded every week, and contain his view of what was happening in Cabinet at the time, alongside contemporary reflections and more recent thoughts on the events. He also published a light-hearted dog-oriented memoir called On a Clear Day, published by Michael O'Mara Books in 1995.

Blunkett has also co-authored a number of publications including Building from the Bottom (1982), published by the Fabian Society, and Democracy in Crisis (1987), published by Hogarth, which described the battle between local and central government in the Thatcher years. He has also contributed chapters to many books relating to politics and social policy and has also produced research papers with the University of Sheffield. Other publications include "Ladders Out of Poverty" in 2006 and "Mutual Action, Common Purpose" in 2009 (relating to the voluntary sector).

Outside politics, Blunkett enjoys a career as a popular conference and after-dinner speaker. His booking agency JLA states that his speech topics include "The Political Landscape, Overcoming Adversity, Social Responsibility and Diversity." Blunkett has also given lectures and contributed to debates at the Institute of Art and Ideas.

Blunkett has made many radio and television appearances. He took part in a celebrity version of Mastermind, where his specialist subject was Harry Potter. He finished last, scoring 11 points. He was featured on the Channel Five documentary series Banged Up in 2008. Blunkett also appeared as a celebrity chef, competing against Gordon Ramsay, on season 4 episode 4 of the British television series The F Word. In 2018, Blunkett featured on the University Challenge Christmas editions, representing Sheffield.

Personal life

Blunkett divorced his wife of 20 years, Ruth Mitchell, by whom he had three sons, in 1990. In 2004, the News of the World revealed a three-year affair with Kimberly Quinn, a married former publisher of The Spectator, and the disputed parentage of their then two-year-old child. After prolonged press speculation, DNA tests showed that Blunkett was the father. In 2005, The People newspaper launched a cycle of media speculation about Blunkett's alleged relationship with a young woman. The newspaper later apologised, admitting that the story was entirely false.

In January 2009, Blunkett announced that he was engaged to be married to Margaret Williams, a doctor in Sheffield. They married the same year.

Blunkett's guide dogs – Ruby, Teddy, Offa, Lucy, Sadie, Cosby, and Barley – became familiar characters in the House of Commons, usually sleeping at his feet on the floor of the chamber, inspiring occasional comments from Blunkett and his fellow MPs on both sides of the house. In one incident, Lucy (a cross between a black Labrador and a curly coat retriever) vomited during a speech by Conservative member David Willetts. On one occasion, his new guide dog led him to the Conservative Party benches.

Disability rights activists have been highly critical of Blunkett's passivity in relation to disability activism. In Times Higher Education, leading activist Paul Darke called Blunkett "in denial of his impairment as a valid and different experience".

In popular culture
Blunkett was portrayed by Phil Cornwell in The Comic Strip Presents''' 1992 film Red Nose of Courage. He was also portrayed in series 3 episode 1 ("Deadlier than the Male") of the ITV series Ultimate Force. Blunkett was introduced in the final scene as "The Home Secretary" with a shot of his feet and guide dog arriving to congratulate red troop on a successful operation. He was also parodied in the TV comedy Believe Nothing.

Satirist Alistair Beaton wrote the television film A Very Social Secretary for Channel 4, which was broadcast in October 2005. Blunkett was played by Bernard Hill. Blunkett appears regularly both on news and magazine programmes, and he was the subject of an episode of The House I Grew Up In. In 2014, the grime MC Chronik released the track "Go Blunkett" on his critically acclaimed Rise of the Lengman album.

References

BibliographyBuilding from the Bottom (1982), published by the Fabian Society

 External links
David Blunkett MP official constituency blogWhat is Labour for?, John Lancaster, London Review of Books, 31 March 2005, review of the biography David Blunkett'' by Stephen Pollard
Advisory Committee on Business Appointments
"Ministerial conduct and guidance"
Disclosure of non-sale of shares

Resignation as Home Secretary
BBC News In Depth – Blunkett Resignation
Text of David Blunkett's resignation statement
Budd Report (fast-tracking of visa)
Mawer Report (inappropriate use of taxpayer-funded rail ticket)
British Home Secretary quits amid scandal

Paternity battle
"Blunkett 'did not father child'" – BBC News

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David Blunkett


Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek is an interactive dark ride attraction at Tokyo Disneyland. It is based on the 2001 Disney·Pixar film Monsters, Inc.

The attraction can be found at the entrance of Tomorrowland under the guise of the Monsters, Inc. scare factory from the film. Taking place after the events of the film, the factory's new slogan has been changed from "We Scare Because We Care" to "It's Laughter We're After", something that was later used in the film's sequel television series Monsters at Work.

Summary

Queue
The queue building's exterior and interior are intricately themed to replicate the Monsters, Inc factory building from the film. Various posters posted along the exterior of the factory inform guests about "Flashlight Tag," an upcoming activity that's fun for the whole family. Once inside the factory, an instructional video is presented to guests on the premise of flashlight tag, narrated by Mike Wazowski. After learning how to play, guests are sent into "security vehicles" that have been equipped with individual flashlights, and enter the inner sanctums of the factory.

Ride
Sulley has brought Boo back to Monstropolis in hopes that she will join in the flashlight festivities. Although it seems as if Boo is interested, she giggles naughtily, intending to go exploring rather than playing. Turning a corner, guests find that Randall Boggs has returned from the human world, determined to capture Boo to extract her screams, by the usage of a butterfly net. Randall's evil laugh echoes through the factory, and the vehicles turn to face a window overlooking all of Monstropolis at nightfall. Mike stands nearby at the switch of a power generator, that supposedly gives power to all of Monstropolis. Mike kicks the flashlight tag off by turning off the generator, causing the entire factory and the city to go dark.

Entering the locker room, the flashlights turn on, allowing guests to point them at various objects, activating different characters and objects to move. Several tiny monsters pop out of the lockers, while other objects simply pop out from underneath floor tiles and benches. Turning into the bathroom, Sulley can be seen searching for Boo with his flashlight, Boo's giggling is heard from an unseen location.

Randall can be found here hiding from Sulley whom he stands right behind. Pulling into the laugh floor, guests find several of M.I.'s top comedians joining in on the game, Sulley is found searching for Boo underneath tables. Mike can be found stuck in a jam between a hanging door and the arms of Smitty, trying to pull him back, while Needleman fiddles with the control panel. Leaving the laugh floor behind, guests pass Randall again whom the guests find hides behind a door, followed by a large crocodilian monster grasping a flashlight and laughing. Leaving the factory and entering the streets of Monstropolis, various monsters can be found searching the streets with flashlights, many hiding in objects such as mail boxes and television sets.

Boo is seen standing in the center of a dark alley, Randall mysteriously appears behind her with a net. However, Sulley pops out from a manhole beneath Boo, hoisting her into the air. Entering Harryhausen's sushi restaurant, guests find the octopus-like chef searching for Boo who can be found popping in and out of several different take-out boxes. Several odd fish can be found throughout the store, which also react to the flashlights. Preparing to leave the restaurant, Mike can be found with his girlfriend Celia, allowing guests to dunk her in water by using their flashlights to activate her tank. She falls in the water, and the vehicles head back into the streets.

After tagging several more monsters, Mike can be found being electrocuted by a large power source continuously, the veins in his eye is illuminating with each shock. Sulley appears up ahead, worried that he has lost Boo again. He calls her name out in fright, but she is nowhere in sight. Entering the factory again, guests find Boo playing with some garbage outside of a garbage compactor, unaware that Randall is directly behind her, raising his butterfly net.

Randall mutters to himself about his success, and when the power is suddenly returned to the factory, Mike emerges from a grate in the floor, knocking Randall backwards and sending him screaming into the garbage compactor which, as guests watch on, sends him on a conveyor belt, only to be run over by a spike-lined wheel, repeatedly getting his body pummeled by large iron poles, flattened and spun across another large wheel while changing skin colors, then, chopped up by a large wall-like contraption, and emerge from the compactor in the shape of a cube, much like several other compacted cubes of garbage around him. Randall's eyes spin in circles as he groans in pain.

Turning away from the garbage compactor, Mike, Sulley, and Boo can be found outside of Boo's door, saying goodbye. Leaving them behind, the vehicles pass a small monster that waves goodbye, Boo beneath him, also saying goodbye. Turning yet another corner, guests pass an interactive audio animatronic Roz who resides in a filing room. Roz interacts with guests, as she does at the end of Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!. Guests leave their ride vehicles and exit into the Monsters, Inc. Company Store, where they can view their photos that were taken during the ride but cannot be purchased.

See also
 Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, a similarly themed ride at Disney California Adventure

External links

Amusement rides introduced in 2009
Dark rides
Pixar in amusement parks
Tokyo Disneyland
Monsters, Inc.
Tomorrowland (Disney Parks)
Audio-Animatronic attractions
Amusement rides manufactured by Ride & Show Engineering, Inc.
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Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek


The United States Air Force's 219th Electronics Engineering and Radar Installation Squadron (219th EIS) is a communications infrastructure engineering Air National Guard squadron located at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The mission of the 219th EIS is to support the warfighter by engineering, installing and maintaining global C4 systems. It adds value to the country by responding to national, state and local emergencies.
The 219th Radar Section has been crucial during DoD projects involving the Air Force's Over the Horizon Backskatter Radar and Air Force Research Labs projects in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts.

Lineage
 Constituted as the 11th AACS Installation and Maintenance Squadron and allotted to the Air Force Reserves
 Activated on 18 June 1954
 Redesignated as 11th AACS Engineering and Installation Squadron on 15 July 1958
 Redesignated as 11th GEEIA Squadron on 1 January 1959
 Withdrawn from the Air Force Reserve, allotted to the Air National Guard, and redesignated 219th GEEIA Squadron on 1 October 1960
 Redesignated 219th Electronics Installation Squadron on 1 May 1970
 Redesignated 219th Engineering and Installation Squadron ca. 1 July 1981

Assignments
 2472d Air Reserve Flying Center, 18 June 1954
 2694th Air Reserve Center, 18 July 1958
 Oklahoma Air National Guard, 1 October 1960

Gaining Command
 Airways and Air Communications Service, 18 June 1954
 Ground Electronics Engineering and Installation Agency, 1 January 1959
 Air Force Communications Service (Later Air Force Communications Command), 1 May 1970
 Air Force Space Command, unknown

Stations
Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma 18 June 1954
 Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma, 1 October 1960
Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma, 1982 – Present)

References

External links

Military units and formations established in 1954
Squadrons of the United States Air National Guard
Military units and formations in Oklahoma


Prodigy (David Alleyne) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, and  Keron Grant, the character first appeared in New Mutants (vol. 2) #4 (October 2003). Prodigy is a student at the Xavier Institute. The character has also been a member of the X-Factor, the New X-Men, and the Young Avengers at various points in his history.

Publication history
David Alleyne debuted in New Mutants (vol. 2) #4 (October 2003), created by writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, and artist Keron Grant. He appeared in the 2017 America series. He appeared in the 2020 X-Factor series. He appeared in the 2021 Marvel's Voices: Pride anthology series. He appeared in the 2022 Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic anthology series.

Fictional character biography

Early life and moving to the Xavier Institute
David Alleyne is a naturally intelligent boy, who finds upon becoming a teenager that the answers to his exams and assignments begin appearing in his head whenever he is in the same room as his teachers. He realizes that he is a mutant with the ability to know anything that the people nearby know. Wanting to retain this knowledge, David becomes driven to study even harder. He takes college-level courses while finishing high school and drops subtle hints to his family about his powers, but they fail to realize he is a mutant until the campus anti-mutant group ousts him. Realizing he can no longer be a mutant in secrecy, David accepts an invitation from Danielle Moonstar to attend the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. His parents and sister are supportive of his decision.

At the school he befriends Wind Dancer, Wallflower and Wither. They are attacked by the Reavers, and afterwards Dani makes David roommates with one of these Reavers, Josh Foley. The tactic works, and David soon comes to regard Josh as a little brother. Along with his other friends at the school, they bring to Xavier Institute the homeless mutant Surge, who David acquires an immediate interest in.

David, Josh, Surge, Wind Dancer, Wallflower, and Wither are placed on Dani's squad of students, called "the New Mutants," and David is given the codename Prodigy. Not liking the idea that he is being groomed to be an X-Man, David declines to be the team leader, leaving the position to Wind Dancer. However, she quickly loses faith in her ability to lead. They compromise by becoming team co-leaders. Believing that he is a combat liability because the knowledge from his mutant power is transient, Prodigy learns from Emma Frost that he has a mental block that prevents him from permanently retaining knowledge. David experiences a telepathic illusion created by Dani and Emma of a possible future based on removing the block. In it, David excels by gaining the knowledge of the most important and intellectual individuals in the world, bringing a near-utopia to the globe, through genocide and the killing of his friends and the X-Men. The illusion ends with Surge, his wife, overloading her powers, killing them both to stop him. On seeing the illusion, he rejects having his mental blocks removed and begins to avoid Surge. However, she later confronts him, stating that what he saw was only an illusion of his worst fears, and David begins a relationship with her.

Power loss and the New X-Men
In the "Decimation" storyline following the events of House of M, David is one of the many mutants who loses his powers because of the Scarlet Witch. Planning to leave the school, David reveals that he built a "Danger Cave" to replace the destroyed Danger Room before he lost his powers. The facility allows his teammates to train by reliving former X-Men missions. David's parents and Cyclops decide that it would be safer for David to remain at the mansion since William Stryker is targeting depowered mutants as well. When Stryker attacks the mansion, David saves the Stepford Cuckoos and is wounded by one of the Purifiers. He joins the New X-Men later when they leave to fight the mutant-hunting future Sentinel, Nimrod. David proves useful to the team when he attacks the robot with the heavy artillery. After returning to the mansion, he is invited to join his girlfriend Surge in running the New X-Men squad, giving them free rein to add more members at their will.

In the "Quest for Magik" storyline, the demon Belasco senses Magik's returned presence due to her temporary revival during House of M, but cannot locate her and fails to magically revive her (instead creating the dark, soulless form of Illyana called Darkchilde, whom he banishes in disgust). Sensing her presence on the students at the Institute due to their involvement with her in the "House of M" reality, he incapacitated the X-Men and sucks the students into Limbo, including David, whose eyesight was healed to normal vision by Josh using his newly acquired medical expertise. Belasco interrogates David about her whereabouts, but since none of the students remember the House of M reality, he is confused and tells her that she is still dead. Enraged, Belasco kills David by ripping out his heart. Some of the students break free and attack Belasco, while Josh manages to immediately regrow David's heart with his powers, bringing him back to life. While the students battle against Belasco, David realizes that his weakness is telepathy, having put special helmets to block the telepathic powers of Stepford Cuckoos and Martha Johansson. David directs X-23 to free the Cuckoos, who launch a telepathic attack on Belasco. Though initially successful, the Cuckoos are forced out of Belasco's mind, but he is ultimately defeated by Pixie and Darkchilde. The students are later returned to Earth by Darkchilde, when she seals off all entrances to Limbo.

Regaining knowledge and skills
Prodigy and Surge's relationship comes to an end soon after. Learning of David's near-death experience in Limbo, Surge fears for his safety and attempts to force him to leave the school by kissing Hellion in front of him. David prepares to leave, but is confronted by the Cuckoos, who offer to remove his mental blocks as thanks for saving them during Stryker's attack, restoring all the past knowledge and skills he absorbed when he had his powers. Though he can no longer absorb other people's knowledge, he now possesses the collective knowledge and skills of every individual he absorbed before the onset of Decimation, including Beast's vast medical and technological expertise and the elite fighting skills of several of the X-Men. Using Krav Maga martial arts picked up from Wolverine and Shadowcat, he displays his newfound assets by besting Hellion in combat, fully aware that the kiss had just been a ploy.  He then breaks up with Surge and is appointed as a substitute instructor by Cyclops.

In the X-Men crossover event X-Men: Messiah Complex, the X-Men, the Marauders, Predator X, as well as the anti-mutant Purifiers all race to recover the first mutant child born since M-Day, who was kidnapped from her hometown. Thinking the Purifiers may have the baby, Surge leads the New X-Men in a mission against to attack the Purifiers' base and recover her. Prodigy declines participation and stays behind at the school, viewing the mission to be largely out of vengeance against the Purifiers for their murdered schoolmates than to truly locate the baby. While the New X-Men are away on their mission, the school is attacked by O*N*E Sentinels controlled by Cassandra Nova's nano-bots. Prodigy assists Beast in the hospital wing stabilizing the severely injured students and faculty. He later repairs Cerebro with the Cuckoos, who state that they find the structure of his brain fascinating.

Manifest Destiny & Utopia
After the events of Messiah Complex, the X-Men disband and later reform in San Francisco. Prodigy relocates with the X-Men to assist Beast in setting up Cerebro. He continues to work with the X-Men, though he is no longer on any active teams, instead running the new Danger Room and assisting the X-Men during the Skrull invasion and the take over of San Francisco by Norman Osborn and his Dark X-Men as well as joining the rest of the mutants to the Mutant island Utopia where he assists Cyclops keeping the island maintained. He is later seen in the field helping out Hellion and Surge deal with the resurrected Rusty Collins.

Second Coming
Cyclops leaves Prodigy in charge of surveillance of the island's resources after a barrage of attacks by Bastion. Beast and Prodigy access a dome placed over Utopia and San Francisco and come to the conclusion that the dome is able to send over hundreds of thousands of Nimrods over to kill the X-Men and remaining mutants, causing him to break down emotionally.

Schism and Regenesis
When a giant Sentinel attacks Utopia, Prodigy joins in the fight along with the other students to help destroy it. When Wolverine decides to leave Utopia and return to Westchester to reopen the school, Prodigy is among the younger X-Men who choose to stay at Utopia.

Young Avengers
Bitter and disillusioned at Cyclops' manipulation, David is later seen working at a superhuman call center, where he uses his knowledge to help various people solve superhuman crises. While employed there, he meets and befriends Tommy Shepherd, the former Young Avenger Speed. The two work together on a stakeout to catch a thief dressed as Patriot, but the plan goes awry when the criminal dissipates Tommy's body and then fades away. He joins the Young Avengers to help them find Speed and while stranded in another dimension with Hulkling, he kisses him. In issue #9 he reveals he is bisexual. After the main villain of the Vol was eliminated, he was talking to Patri-not and came up with a theory that he will become Patri-not in the future. During this he accidentally kisses the entity, allowing Tommy to reappear. Their relationship is later revisited in Lords Of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling, where they are seemingly together.

Prodigy is featured in the 'Original Sins' five-issue limited series. Marvel Boy, Prodigy and Hulkling become involved in the plans by the Hood to siphon off cosmic knowledge endangering innocent people. There are multiple betrayals and back-tracking, as the heroes are convinced the knowledge driving the civilians mad could be safely converted into data that helps all of humanity.

It is shown later that Prodigy auditions to be the security expert at the new Stark Industries, though he loses the job to Ant-Man.

Prodigy enrolls in the extra-dimensional Sotomayor University. He develops a close friendship with the superhero America Chavez. He helps protect the university from multiple threats, external and internal. Prodigy makes his own friends, such as with the Sotomayor fraternity called 'The Betas' and an outside group of allies unofficially known as the 'Chavez Guerrillas'.

Dawn of X
After regaining his powers through the use of Krakoa's resurrection protocols, Prodigy has recently joined a new X-factor team, assembled to investigate suspicious mutant deaths before said resurrection protocols can be utilized on them. He and Forge take part in a automobilistic race with Krakoan organic technology. He also comforts Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) about the impossibility of resurrecting her half-god child with Asgardian Hrimhari. He also cameos with other mutants (Frenzy, Storm, Bling! and Nezhno) in T'Challa's line of defense of Wakanda against an invasion.

In the one-shot Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling, written by Chip Zdarsky and queer author Anthony Oliveira, around Empyre, Marvel's summer 2020 crossover event, Oliveira brings Prodigy and Speed into canon as a gay couple out, drinking with Hulkling, who describes that they "always have exactly one and a half drinks and start making out."

Powers and abilities
Prodigy has the telepathic ability to absorb and mimic the knowledge and skills from the minds of the people close to him. A side effect of his powers are self-imposed mental blocks, which prevents him from retaining the knowledge he absorbs, forgetting whatever he has learned after a short period of time. The power is completely involuntary. It absorbs only studied knowledge, not thoughts, short-term information, or awareness.

Since losing his powers, he maintains a high intellect, due to his extensive studying prior to coming to Xavier's. He creates a Danger Cave, a training room for the rest of his peers, and shows an extensive knowledge of the past missions of the X-Men. When the mental blocks in his mind are removed by the Stepford Cuckoos, David later regains access to all the skills and knowledge that he absorbed when he was still a mutant. He can recall the fighting abilities and scientific knowledge of many of the X-Men including Beast's medical knowledge, Forge's and Professor Xavier's expertise in various subjects, Wolverine and Kitty Pryde's martial arts, etc. He has since regained his powers without losing all of the above knowledge. Recently, owing to the Krakoa Resurrection Protocols, he has had his psychomimetic powers restored.

Additionally, Prodigy has displayed great competency as a leader. Both Cyclops and Danielle Moonstar have acknowledged his leadership skills.

Reception

Critical response
Stacie Rook of Screen Rant included David Alleyne in their "10 LGBTQ+ Marvel Heroes That Should Join The MCU" list. Chase Magnett of ComicBook.com included David Alleyne in their "8 More New Mutants We Want Back at Marvel Comics" list, saying, "He's a valuable new perspective with a very unique ability that any clever writer would relish utilizing in superhero adventures."

Other versions

House of M
An alternate version of David Alleyne  appears in the "House of M" universe. He was once more a member of the New Mutants. The New Mutants were a group of young mutants trained to be diplomats, and David graduated the valedictorian. Prodigy once more acts as the leader of the New Mutants (although in this case it's more unofficial). He leads the New Mutants in an attempt to save Nori's father. While initially conflicting with rival group the Hellions, the two groups would join after learning of tortures of humans. David, along with the rest of the surviving New Mutants and the Hellions, would later make their last stand against Sunfire and his army.

New X-Men
An alternate version of David Alleyne appears in the New X-Men storyline "Too Much Information." He asks Emma Frost and Danielle Moonstar to remove the mental blocks keeping him from retaining the knowledge he absorbs. Unknown to David at the time, it was an illusion created by Dani, which was enhanced by Emma Frost's telepathic abilities to show him what might happen if the blocks were removed.

In the illusion, David quickly surpasses all the teachers at the school, having permanently retained all the knowledge they possessed. David leaves the institute, telling Josh Foley (Elixir) that he would use Josh's healing power to heal every disease known to mankind for free. Three months later, David has gained the knowledge of Stephen Hawking, Tony Stark, Henry Kissinger, and many other prominent geniuses simply by passing near them. He announces at a press conference that he has cures for AIDS, cancer and every other known disease. He plans to distribute this cure across the entire country in a matter of weeks. However, these cures come at a high price, as Josh dies during the medical procedure that harvested the tissue from his body needed for the cures. David mourns his friend, but firmly believes that his unwilling sacrifice was just.

Eighteen years later, David has married former teammate Surge, been elected President of the United States, eliminated poverty, unemployment, and discrimination against mutants and has nearly created a worldwide government. The only major holdout is China, which he plans to bomb via teleportation. Noriko secretly shares this information with the X-Men in hopes that they can prevent a mass genocide. However, before they can act on this information, David sends them on a false mission to investigate a satellite that he causes to explode, killing them. Seeking a convenient scapegoat, he declares that the already outlaw Hellions are terrorist threats and blames them for killing the X-Men. The Hellions and reformed New Mutants join forces when many of the dark secrets of David's rise to power come to light. The combined groups (Hellion, Mercury, Tag, Rockslide, Wither, Wind Dancer, Icarus, Surge, and Wallflower) stage an assault on the White House, but David's security forces (XSE agents, Bishop, Storm, and Angel Salvadore) kill most of the heroes. In the end, Noriko confronts David in the Oval Office, then uses her powers to destroy the White House and everyone remaining in it.

Though an illusion, it had a lasting effect on how he viewed his powers.

X-Men: The End
An alternate version of David Alleyne briefly appears in X-Men: The End. He is an agent of the X.S.E. Along with Iceman, he interrogates Sage. Prodigy absorbs all the information she knows, and is deeply troubled with what he finds out. When joined by Val Cooper, he reveals that she is an impostor. She responds by transforming into a Warskrull, killing Prodigy shortly after.

References

External links
 Prodigy at Marvel Wiki

Comics characters introduced in 2003
African-American superheroes
Avengers (comics) characters
Fictional characters from Illinois
Marvel Comics telepaths
Marvel Comics martial artists
Marvel Comics mutants
Marvel Comics male superheroes
Fictional bisexual men
Marvel Comics LGBT superheroes
New Mutants
Characters created by Nunzio DeFilippis
Characters created by Christina Weir
Marvel Comics child superheroes
Teenage superheroes

Prodigy (David Alleyne)


Frank Ferko (born June 18, 1950) is an American composer.

Born in Barberton, Ohio, Ferko played piano from childhood, and worked as an organist and conductor in his teens. His first compositions were primarily liturgical in nature, with Lutheran composer Richard Wienhorst being an early influence. He attended Valparaiso University as an undergraduate, where he studied composition and counterpoint under Wienhorst and organ under Philip Gehring. Ferko took particular interest in early music and the compositional and theoretical output of Olivier Messiaen.

He received a bachelor's from Valparaiso in 1972 in piano and organ performance, and then took his master's at Syracuse University in music theory. There he studied theory under Howard Boatright and organ under Will Headlee, and wrote his thesis on one of the extended piano works of Messiaen. Following this, Ferko served as Director of Music at various midwestern churches before entering  Northwestern University. At Northwestern he first pursued a Ph.D. in music theory but shifted his attention to music composition which he studied under Alan Stout.  During his time at Northwestern he worked as a teaching assistant in the School of Music and also continued his work as a church musician. In 1982 he began working as a music librarian and continues to work as both a librarian and an archivist.  He currently works at the music library at the University of California, Berkeley.

As a composer, Ferko began receiving critical acclaim and commissions in the 1980s, including the Holtkamp Award from the American Guild of Organists in 1990 for the song cycle A Practical Program for Monks. In 1990-91 he composed a ten-movement cycle for organ based upon the visions of Hildegard von Bingen. It would be the first of several large-scale projects inspired by Hildegard, followed by The Hildegard Motets and Hildegard Triptych. Ferko premiered Stabat Mater in 1999, commissioned by His Majestie's Clerkes. He has also worked as composer-in-residence with the Dale Warland Singers. The European premiere of his choral works took place in April 2003 with a performance of his Stabat Mater by the VU-Kamerkoor, Amsterdam, on the occasion of which Ferko joined in rehearsals and held a public introduction to the piece.  In 2004 the VU-Kamerkoor commissioned "La remontée des cendres," an extended work for chorus, soloists and an ensemble of eight instruments, based on texts by Tahar Ben Jelloun.  The work received its premiere in The Netherlands, performed by the VU-Kamerkoor, conducted by Boudewijn Jansen in May 2005.

The music of Frank Ferko has been heard through public performance or radio broadcast in 30 countries on six continents.

Recordings
The Hildegard Organ Cycle (Arsis Audio, 1995)
Motets (Arsis Audio, 1995)
Stabat Mater (Cedille Records, 2000)
Hildegard Triptych (Hyperion Records, 2011)
Organ Music by Frank Ferko and Leo Sowerby (Cedille Records, 2021)
Night: Music for Choir and Cello (includes Motet for Passion Sunday and Lord, Let At Last Thine Angels Come) (Herald, 2007)
I Loved Lucy (includes Constellations for Flute/Alto Flute and Guitar) (Gasparo, 2000)

References
Thomas Oram, [ Frank Ferko] at Allmusic

External links
Composer's Website
Interview with Frank Ferko, April 20, 2000

American male classical composers
American classical composers
20th-century classical composers
Valparaiso University alumni
Living people
21st-century classical composers
1950 births
Singers from Ohio
People from Barberton, Ohio
Syracuse University alumni
Bienen School of Music alumni
American archivists
American librarians
Stanford University staff
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
Classical musicians from Ohio
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
Music librarians
Cedille Records artists

Frank Ferko