Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as a service (SaaS). They derive revenue by providing subscription plans for businesses and content creators. Vimeo provides its subscribers with tools for video creation, editing, and broadcasting, enterprise software solutions, as well as the means for video professionals to connect with clients and other professionals.  the site has 260 million users, with around 1.6 million subscribers to its services.

The site was initially built by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein in 2004 as a spin-off of CollegeHumor to share humor videos among colleagues, though put to the side to support the growing popularity of CollegeHumor. IAC acquired CollegeHumor and Vimeo in 2006, and after Google had acquired YouTube for over , IAC directed more effort into Vimeo to compete against YouTube, focusing on providing curated content and high-definition video to distinguish itself from other video sharing sites. Lodwick and Klein eventually left by 2009, and IAC implemented a more corporate-focused structure to build out Vimeo's services, with former CEO Anjali Sud having been in place since July 2017. IAC spun off Vimeo as a standalone public company in May 2021.

History

Initial growth from CollegeHumor (2004–2009)

Vimeo was founded in November 2004 by Connected Ventures, the parent company of the humor-based website CollegeHumor, as a side project of web developers Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein to share and tag short videos with their friends. The idea for a video-sharing site was inspired after CollegeHumor received a large number of views from a posted video clip of the October 2004 Saturday Night Live show that included Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-syncing incident. The name Vimeo was created by Lodwick as a play on the words video and me. As CollegeHumor was drawing in audiences, Vimeo was put to the side while Lodwick and Klein focused on supporting the main CollegeHumor site. Vimeo's user base grew only by a small amount during the next few years principally by word-of-mouth.

IAC, owned by Barry Diller, acquired a majority ownership of Connected Ventures in August 2006, as they were drawn by the success of CollegeHumor which was bringing around 6 million visitors a month at the time. In reviewing the assets of Connected Ventures, IAC discovered the Vimeo property; this came at the same time that Google had purchased YouTube for  in October 2006. By the start of 2007, IAC had directed Lodwick, Klein, and Andrew Pile to work on Vimeo full time and expand its capabilities. To differentiate themselves from YouTube and other video sharing sites that had appeared since Google's purchase, Vimeo was focused on the content creator with better upload tools, and better curation of content on the site rather than on popularity. By October 2007, Vimeo was the first video sharing site to offer high-definition content to users via Flash-based high-definition video playback. While IAC's acquisition of Connected Ventures helped to target Vimeo's direction, the corporate nature of IAC created issues with many of the original staff of CollegeHumor and Vimeo. Lodwick was planning to leave the company near the end of 2007, as he said that IAC's incorporation of business processes hampered their creativity, but was fired a few weeks before that point. Klein left the company in early 2008.

Developing high-definition content delivery (2009–2017)
Vimeo began rolling out a major redesign of its site in 2009 aimed to put the user's focus on the video, which ultimately was completed by January 2012. The new version was aimed to feature the video playback as the central focus of the design, contrasting with the numerous user interface elements that YouTube had within its layout at the time. From 2008 to 2014, Vimeo had blocked the hosting of video game-related videos as they typically were longer than their normal content and took much of the site's resources. Vimeo did allow machinima videos with a narrative structure. The ban was lifted by October 2014.

In December 2014, Vimeo introduced 4K support, though it would only allow downloading due to the low market penetration of 4K displays at the time. Streaming of 4K content launched the following year, along with adaptive bitrate streaming support. In March 2017, Vimeo introduced 360-degree video support, including support for virtual reality platforms and smartphones, stereoscopic video, and an online video series providing guidance on filming and producing 360-degree videos.

Support for high-dynamic-range video up to 8k was added in 2017, and AV1 encoding in June 2019.

Transition to a software provider (2016–2019)
Vimeo acquired VHX, a platform for premium over-the-top subscription video channels, in May 2016, subsequently offering this as a service to its sites customers. Vimeo acquired the existing service Livestream in September 2017 to bolster its associated staff and technology, eventually integrated its streaming technology as Vimeo Live, another service offering for its service subscribers as Vimeo OTT.

Around 2016, Vimeo had expressed its intentions to enter into the subscription video-on-demand market with its own original programming, with the intent of spending "tens of millions" on content to populate the service as to compete with services like Netflix. According to IAC CEO Joey Levin, some of the original programming would have been from content creators already on Vimeo, paid for their material to be used on the service, thus reducing their own costs in producing content in comparison to Netflix. However, by June 2017, Vimeo had scrapped this plan, recognizing that not only that they were far behind Netflix and others in this area but that they also had generally had far fewer potential viewers and that their ultimate goal, converting those viewers into customers of the site, would be difficult. To support this change of approach, Vimeo named Anjali Sud, a general manager and senior vice president who joined Vimeo in 2014, as its new CEO in July 2017. Sud knew they did not have the financial resources to compete with Netflix in terms of creating original content.

On this move, Vimeo decided to focus more heavily on supporting its content creators and customers, transitioning itself away from being simply a content-hosting or video-sharing website and move into the software as a service model. According to Sud, Vimeo saw that the demand for online video services had shifted away from Hollywood productions and media producers and was gaining more traction by large businesses, and just as Vimeo had originally drawn attention from indie filmmakers at its start, they saw an opportunity to help with smaller businesses needed video sharing capabilities but lacking the resources to develop those internally. The company introduced a number of tiers and services aimed for business use atop their existing services. Vimeo no longer considered itself a competitor to YouTube or other video-sharing sites, and instead called itself "the Switzerland for creators", according to Sud. Creators were allowed to copy and share their videos to any other video-sharing site as long as they continued to use Vimeo's video editing tools for preparing their creations. In early 2017, Vimeo released collaborative review tools for its users, allowing them to privately share to other users to get feedback tied to individual frames of the video, thus keeping the video creation workflow entirely within the Vimeo service.

Vimeo acquired Magisto, an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed video creation service with over 100 million users, in April 2019. While the deal's terms were not disclosed, the purchase was reportedly valued at $200 million. Through the acquisition, Magisto's staff were brought into Vimeo, and their existing userbase gained access to Vimeo's toolset. For Vimeo, they saw Magisto's technology helpful for smaller businesses that may not have the funds or skills to product professional videos and could be aided by Magisto's technology. By February 2020, Vimeo launched Vimeo Create, the integration of Magisto's tools into the Vimeo platform to let its users easy create videos guided by AI agents from stock video footage offered by Vimeo and the users' own sources.

Transition to a standalone public company (2020–present)
In November 2020, spurred by growth in Vimeo's services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, IAC raised  for Vimeo in anticipation of spinning off the subsidiary as its own company, giving Vimeo a  valuation. IAC formally announced plans to spin off Vimeo as a public-owned company in December 2020, with the process expected to close by the second quarter of 2021. Vimeo would become the 11th company spun-out from IAC following this.

Another round of investment in January 2021 brought an additional , raising its total valuation to an estimated . Vimeo's shareholders agreed to going public on May 14, 2021. The company was fully spun out as its own entity on May 25, 2021, and started trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol VMEO.

In November 2021, Vimeo acquired Wirewax, a suite of interactive video tools, and Wibbitz, an AI-based video creation platform. Vimeo demonstrated the incorporation of Wirewax's interactive tools through a new monthly "Video Matters" video series showing the best videos on the platform. That same November, the company also brought Vimeo Events which allowed users to schedule webinar-type experiences alongside other video content.

In March 2022, Vimeo announced that it would begin limiting bandwidth to all users to 2 terabytes per month, a rate they estimate would affect only 1% of all its users. Just prior to this change, users of Vimeo had reported they had been approached to purchase higher tier accounts, but Vimeo apologized for this approach, and felt it was better to set the flat bandwidth rate. Going over this rate would not affect any videos the user had on the service, and they would work with users to offer tiered options or to help transition off Vimeo to other services if that was their choice. In 2020 Vimeo also launched video chapters.

In January 2023, Vimeo laid off 11% of its employees. On 27 June 2023, Vimeo ended support for its smart TV apps on Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, and Roku TV. Vimeo encourages Android and iOS viewers to cast the Vimeo app to a smart TV instead. Paid Vimeo subscribers with an eligible plan can continue to create and update custom-branded Fire TV and Roku TV apps.

Corporate affairs

Leadership
After the departures of Lodwick and Klein, IAC brought in a more corporate structure to the company. By January 2009, Dae Mellencamp joined IAC as general manager of Vimeo. She served as CEO until March 19, 2012, when Kerry Trainor joined Vimeo as CEO.

Around 2016, several high-level executives announced their departure from Vimeo, including Trainor. IAC's CEO Joey Levin was named as interim CEO for Vimeo during its search for a new CEO. After a year-long search, IAC promoted then general manager Anjali Sud as the CEO.

In August 2023, Anjali Sud stepped down from the role. Adam Gross was appointed the interim CEO.

Product offerings and revenue structure
In contrast with other video-sharing sites, Vimeo does not use any advertising either on its pages or embedded in videos. Instead, Vimeo sells its services and products to content creators for revenue as a software as a service (SaaS) model. The site offers a free tier of service. , a free account is limited to two video uploads monthly and 25 total videos. Legacy free accounts have a weekly upload limit and, since 2018, a total storage limit. Paid subscriber tiers, first introduced in 2008, provide accounts with a larger upload allowance and greater storage capacity.

Starting around 2016, Vimeo has also shifted towards supporting businesses through its offerings. In September 2016 it introduced a Business tier plan to allow for intra-business collaboration as well as for businesses to host informational videos for their customers. With the acquisition of Livestream in 2017, Vimeo added another tier for Premium subscribers, offering unlimited uploads and streaming events through Vimeo Live. Vimeo launched Vimeo Enterprise, a set of tools designed for large organizations that allow users to manage and share live and on-demand video across workspaces, in August 2019. Vimeo established partnerships with Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Constant Contact marketing platforms to allow their clients to easily integrate Vimeo videos into mail and other promotional campaigns. Vimeo also partnered with TikTok to give TikTok commercial users access to Vimeo's editing tools for video content.

In addition to subscriptions, Vimeo has other revenue streams through additional services to its customers. Creators could sell access to individual videos since 2013, and later could offer subscription-based access in 2015, with Vimeo taking a 10% cut of the sales. Vimeo has offered a video on demand service since 2015, allowing its partners to sell Vimeo videos through their websites to their customers.  Via its VHX acquisition, Vimeo offers an over-the-top media service (OTT), Vimeo OTT, which Vimeo subscribers can use to create custom mobile apps to provide on-demand video to the app's subscribers, with Vimeo handling the subscriptions, billing, and content delivery. In 2018, the site launched Vimeo Stock to allow content creators to offer videos as stock footage to be used by others. Vimeo Create was introduced in 2020 to allow users to create videos with the help of artificial intelligence.

To further promote Vimeo as a home for professional video support, Vimeo opened a "For Hire" job marketplace in September 2019, allowing companies seeking professional video services to freely post job requests for the site's users to browse and respond to. Vimeo Record was launched in October 2020 to allow businesses to use recorded video messaging within their company or with their clients to aid in communications.

Customer size
By December 2013, Vimeo had attracted more than 100 million unique visitors per month, and more than 22 million registered users. At this time, fifteen percent of Vimeo's traffic came from mobile devices. As of February 2013, Vimeo accounted for 0.11% of all Internet bandwidth, following far behind its larger competitors, video sharing sites YouTube and Facebook. The community of Vimeo includes indie filmmakers and their fans. The Vimeo community has adopted the name "Vimeans", which references active members of the Vimeo community who engage with other users on a regular basis.

In 2019, enterprise customers were Vimeo's fastest-growing segment in terms of revenue according to Glenn Schiffman, IAC's Chief Financial Officer. CTO Mark Kornfilt said they had nearly 1 million subscribers as of April 2019, making up a majority of the firm's  annual revenue. This had grown to over 1.2 million by March 2020, and over  in annual revenue, The site had also obtained 175 million registered users by April 2020. and over 200 million by November 2020 attributed to increased use of Vimeo due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to going public, the company had about 1.6 million paying subscribers.

Events
Vimeo launched its Vimeo Festival and Awards program in 2010, and held subsequent events every eighteen months. The Festival allows video creators to submit their films for a small fee for consideration across multiple categories. Typically more than 5,000 videos are submitted, and these are narrowed to a field of 1,000 for select judge-panel to vote for winners across multiple categories. This culminates with a live awards presentation showing thewinning films in each category. Each category winner carries a cash prize and an overall best-in-show prize. Vimeo had established the Festival and Awards to help give video and filmmakers an opportunity to highlight their work on Vimeo's pages and gain potential work from clients.

In 2008, Vimeo launched its Staff Picks, highlighting videos in a special channel as picked by the company's employees as some of the best work by its users. This feature was expanded in 2016 to give special laurels to videos that the staff felt were "Best of the Month" and "Best of the Year", as well as adding Staff Pick Premiere for newly added videos to the Staff Picks channel. In 2020, Vimeo invited previous Staff Picks recipients to create videos about their favorite small business owners and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of its Stories in Place program.

Impacts in other countries
As of March 2021, Vimeo remains blocked in China.

Starting May 4, 2012, the site was blocked in India by some ISPs under orders from the Department of Telecommunications, without any stated reasons. Vimeo was blocked in India in December 2014, due to fears that the website was spreading ISIS propaganda through some of its user-made videos. However, on December 31, the site was unblocked in India.

On January 9, 2014, Vimeo is blocked in Turkey without clear reasons.

In May 2014, Tifatul Sembiring, Indonesia's then-Communications Minister, said on his personal Twitter account that video sharing site Vimeo would be banned. Citing Indonesia's anti-pornography law, passed in 2008, the minister said the site included displays of "nudity or nudity-like features".

Legal cases
In January 2019, the Commercial Court of Rome determined that Vimeo's video-hosting platform played an "active role" in copyright infringement and the posting of Italian television programs owned by media conglomerate Mediaset. After Vimeo declined to remove over 2,000 copyrighted videos at the request of Mediaset, the company was forced to pay $9,700,000 in penalties.

In 2009, Capitol Records/Universal Music Group sued Vimeo for copyright infringement based on user-uploaded videos, which Vimeo defended on the basis of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbor provisions under . Two rulings at the Southern District of New York in 2013 ruled primarily in favor of Vimeo, and the Second Circuit issued a Vimeo-favorable ruling in 2016. Back at the district court, Vimeo won another favorable ruling in May 2021.

In June 2019, California pastor James Domen, founder of the "ex-gay" ministry Church United, sued Vimeo after the website, in 2018, removed 89 of his videos for violating its content guidelines. The videos expressed opposition to homosexuality and advocated so-called "conversion therapy". A federal court dismissed Domen's suit in 2020, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal in 2021.

After its acquisition of Magisto, Vimeo was sued in September 2019 for violations of the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The class-action suit alleged that Vimeo, via Magisto's software, had automatically scanned and tracked specific individuals in the videos uploaded through the service, identifying their gender, age, and race, without prior consent as required by BIPA. Vimeo asserted that the technology only used machine learning to identify areas in videos that equated to human faces, and that "Determining whether an area represents a human face or a volleyball does not equate to 'facial recognition'." Vimeo also affirmed that they, via Magisto, "neither collects nor retains any facial information capable of recognizing an individual".   Vimeo lost a bid to force arbitration in 2020, and settled in 2022.

See also
 Comparison of video hosting services

References

Notes

External links

2004 establishments in New York City
2006 mergers and acquisitions
2021 initial public offerings
American entertainment websites
Internet properties established in 2004
Video hosting
Video on demand services
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Corporate spin-offs
Publicly traded companies based in New York City

Vimeo


The Tefifon is an audio playback format, developed and manufactured in Germany, that utilizes cartridges loaded with an endlessly looped reel of plastic tape. It is somewhat similar to the later 4-track and 8-track magnetic audio tape cartridges, but with grooves embossed on the tape, like a phonograph record. The grooves were embossed in a helical fashion across the width of the tape, in a manner similar to Dictaphone's Dictabelt format. The grooves are read with a stylus and amplified pickup in the player's transport. A Tefifon cartridge, known as a "Tefi", can hold up to four hours of music; therefore, most releases for the format are usually compilations of popular hits or dance music, operas, and operettas. Tefifon players were not sold by television and radio dealers in Germany, but rather sold directly by special sales outlets affiliated with Tefi (the manufacturer of the format).

History

1930s
The Tefifon format was developed by the German entrepreneur Dr. Karl Daniel and his "Tefi" company in 1936. A few years earlier, devices using phonographic grooved tape like the Tefifon were produced by Tefi for special purposes, like the military, and were designed for voice recording. Prior to the Tefifon's introduction, Tefi had introduced a device capable of recording and playback under the name "Tefiphon" (note the alternate spelling) and another device only capable of playback under the name "Teficord". Both use loose tape, unlike the cartridge-loaded tape of the Tefifon.

In 1937, a half-speed 9.5 CPS (3-3/4 IPS) format was developed for talking books for the blind in the early run-up to World War II. This was continued, albeit scaled back until vinyl disc technology could catch up in quality if not time, since the 4-hour Tefi cartridges recorded at 19 CPS (7-1/2 IPS) could carry 4 hours, the talking book could carry twice that, or eight hours.

With no way to get an eight-hour recording done all in one session with no mistakes, these extremely long programs were transcribed first onto 15-minute cartridges (30 minutes of Talking Book) and later 1-hour cartridges (2-hour Talking Book) and then assembled by playing them back in succession much as a long radio program is spread over many sides and assembled later on-air to sound as if the whole thing is live.

1940s
The first Tefifon players and cartridges for home use came available in the German market towards the end of the 1940s, but could not compete with the popular phonographic disc format readily already available at the time. One reason was that well-known artists were committed exclusively by contract to major record companies, most of which had no interest in offering their artists' albums on Tefifon tapes. As a result, most Tefifon releases were of relatively unknown bands and artists. In addition, the Tefifon saw competition from phonographs equipped with record changers, some of which could allow for up to three hours of music without interruption.

1950s
The Tefifon was offered in the 1950s as a standalone device, but also in combination with various types of radios, including portable and home models. The chassis of the radio sets were often purchased ready-made from third parties, with a Tefifon playback transport being added to it as a finished product. The sound quality of Tefifon tapes is superior to 78 rpm records made of shellac, but is still less than that of 33 rpm LP records made of vinyl. In addition, the mechanical stress on the stylus and supporting cantilever is quite strong, so this wears out relatively quickly.

1960s
The last innovation of the Tefifon format was in 1961, with the introduction of stereo sound, but this was not commercially successful. Tefifon production at its main plant in Porz am Rhein was halted in 1965. Afterward, the rights to the name were acquired by the Neckermann mail-order company, which also took over the sale of existing Tefifon products. Even though the Tefifon was little-known outside of Germany, it was imported and sold in the United States for a very short time by Western Electric's Westrex division from 1963 to 1964 under the "Westrex" name.

Technical Details

Cartridges

Tefifon cartridges were made in 4 sizes:
 A `single' size which carried about four minutes of audio (A special adapter was needed to play these, the same as large hole 45-RPM records)
 A small size with 15 minutes of audio.
 A medium size, with an hour of audio.
 A large size, with 4 hours of audio.

The larger cartridge also had several differences from the smaller units. It featured a spring to assist in removing the tape for playback, and a plastic cover over the tape to protect it.  The cartridges also have a cardboard protective case.

Playback

A Tefifon cartridge would be inserted into the machine, with the reader tape around the turning knob. The machine would then be started. The tape would be read with a stylus, which moved across the grooves, in a manner similar to a phonograph record. However, the tape would be stored in a cartridge, like later magnetic tape systems. While there was no way of moving to a specific track, the stylus could be moved to a variety of positions on the tape.

Gallery

References

External links

More Info on the Tefifon by user Techmoan on YouTube: Part 1 Part 2

Audio storage
Discontinued media formats
History of sound recording

Tefifon


Milk chocolate is a type of chocolate. It contains cocoa, sugar, and milk. The term "milk chocolate" was first used in 1687, to describe a drink which came from Jamaica to London, but the milk chocolate bar did not exist until 1875, when inventor Daniel Peter mixed the ingredients together to make it.

Food ingredients
Chocolate

Milk chocolate


In order theory a better-quasi-ordering or bqo is a quasi-ordering that does not admit a certain type of bad array. Every better-quasi-ordering is a well-quasi-ordering.

Motivation

Though well-quasi-ordering is an appealing notion, many important infinitary operations do not preserve well-quasi-orderedness.
An example due to Richard Rado illustrates this.
In a 1965 paper Crispin Nash-Williams formulated the stronger notion of better-quasi-ordering in order to prove that the class of trees of height ω is well-quasi-ordered under the topological minor relation. Since then, many quasi-orderings have been proven to be well-quasi-orderings by proving them to be better-quasi-orderings. For instance, Richard Laver established Laver's theorem (previously a conjecture of Roland Fraïssé) by proving that the class of scattered linear order types is better-quasi-ordered. More recently, Carlos Martinez-Ranero has proven that, under the proper forcing axiom, the class of Aronszajn lines is better-quasi-ordered under the embeddability relation.

Definition

It is common in better-quasi-ordering theory to write  for the sequence  with the first term omitted. Write  for the set of finite, strictly increasing sequences with terms in , and define a relation  on  as follows:  if there is  such that  is a strict initial segment of  and . The relation  is not transitive.

A block  is an infinite subset of  that contains an initial segment of every
infinite subset of . For a quasi-order , a -pattern is a function from some block  into . A -pattern  is said to be bad if  for every pair  such that ; otherwise  is good. A quasi-ordering  is called a better-quasi-ordering if there is no bad -pattern.

In order to make this definition easier to work with, Nash-Williams defines a barrier to be a block whose elements are pairwise incomparable under the inclusion relation . A -array is a -pattern whose domain is a barrier. By observing that every block contains a barrier, one sees that  is a better-quasi-ordering if and only if there is no bad -array.

Simpson's alternative definition

Simpson introduced an alternative definition of better-quasi-ordering in terms of Borel functions , where , the set of infinite subsets of , is given the usual product topology.

Let  be a quasi-ordering and endow  with the discrete topology. A -array is a Borel function  for some infinite subset  of . A -array  is bad if  for every ;
 is good otherwise. The quasi-ordering  is a better-quasi-ordering if there is no bad -array in this sense.

Major theorems

Many major results in better-quasi-ordering theory are consequences of the Minimal Bad Array Lemma, which appears in Simpson's paper as follows. See also Laver's paper, where the Minimal Bad Array Lemma was first stated as a result. The technique was present in Nash-Williams' original 1965 paper.

Suppose  is a quasi-order. A partial ranking  of  is a well-founded partial ordering of  such that . For bad -arrays (in the sense of Simpson)  and , define:

We say a bad -array  is minimal bad (with respect to the partial ranking ) if there is no bad -array  such that .
The definitions of  and  depend on a partial ranking  of . The relation  is not the strict part of the relation .

Theorem (Minimal Bad Array Lemma). Let  be a quasi-order equipped with a partial ranking and suppose  is a bad -array. Then there is a minimal bad -array  such that .

See also

 Well-quasi-ordering
 Well-order

References

Binary relations
Order theory
Wellfoundedness

Better-quasi-ordering


James MacDonald (1857 – 21 May 1938) was a British trade unionist.

Born in Edinburgh, MacDonald trained as a tailor and moved to London in 1881.  He joined the Central Marylebone Democratic Association and the Manhood Suffrage League, but it was reading Friedrich Engels' articles in the Labour Standard that convinced him of socialism.  As a result, he joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), but left in 1885 to join the Socialist Union.  However, he rejoined the SDF in 1887.

In 1888, MacDonald worked with Lewis Lyons to unite both East End and West End tailors, which became the Amalgamated Society of Tailors.  He then founded a newspaper, Journeyman, and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

In 1891, MacDonald was elected to the executive of the London Trades Council, and in 1896 he became its secretary, a post he held until 1913.  Despite being based in London, he twice stood for Parliament in Dundee as an ILP candidate, failing to win a seat.  He also spent some time on the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and in 1893 successfully proposed an amendment requiring it to support only those Labour candidates who accepted the principle of collective ownership.

In 1898, MacDonald organised merger talks between the SDF and ILP, but these proved unsuccessful, the ILP withdrawing.  Increasingly radical, in 1900 he proposed a motion that the ILP should be an organisation of class war, but this was voted down.  He was also elected to the first Labour Representation Committee (LRC) as a representative of the SDF.  Some reports claimed that Ramsay MacDonald was elected Secretary of the LRC in part because he was confused with James, although Arthur Henderson strongly denied that this was the case.

MacDonald launched the London Trades and Labour Gazette in 1901, editing it until 1913.  Initially publishing it personally, it became the official journal of the London Trades Council in 1903.

In 1905, he left the Amalgamated Society of Tailors to found the London Society of Tailors and Tailoresses.  He later retired to Australia, but returned to the UK a few years before his death.

References

1857 births
1938 deaths
British trade union leaders
Social Democratic Federation members
Scottish Labour Party (1888) politicians

James MacDonald (trade unionist)


The National Convention was an assembly, meeting in France from September 21st, 1792 until October 26, 1795. This was the third assembly of the French Revolution. It came after the Legislative Assembly and founded the First Republic.
The first act of the National Convention was to get rid of the monarchy. The Legislative Assembly had decided that after Louis XVI was no longer king, a new government would need to create a French constitution. It was decided that all French men over the age of twenty-five would be able to vote, despite class. The winners of this election formed the National Convention. Men on the National Convention would be on the National Convention for a year, followed by another election.

The National convention became known as the most radical part of the French Revolution. It took land away from the Nobility and sold it to peasants. In the Reign of Terror it sent thousands of people to the guillotine for execution. in 1793 they voted to execute Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette.

References

French Revolution
1790s in Europe
1792
1793
1794 in France
1795

National Convention


Daniel Paladini (born November 11, 1984, in Northridge, California) is an American soccer player.

Career

Youth and college
Paladini was twice named an all-state selection as a high schooler at St. Francis High School in 2000 and 2001, and played club soccer for Real SoCal for many years. At Cal State Northridge he was a first team All-Big West selection in 2004 and 2005, and scored seven goals and added four assists in 2005 en route to Big West Conference midfielder of the year honors.

Professional
Paladini was signed to Los Angeles Galaxy's developmental roster in May 2006, having been the club's last selection of the second round (24th overall) of the 2006 MLS Supplemental Draft. He played for both Galaxy and C.D. Chivas USA's reserves during the 2006 season, and was a named substitute on several occasions for Galaxy, but never appeared for either first team, and was waived by the Galaxy at the end of the season.

Paladini played for the San Fernando Valley Quakes in the USL Premier Development League in 2007, scoring 3 goals in 14 appearances and helping the team reach the PDL playoffs, before being picked up by Chivas USA on March 26, 2008, and signed to the developmental roster for the 2008 season. He made his MLS debut on May 11, 2008, coming on as a 68th-minute substitute for Jesse Marsch in a 2–1 defeat to New England Revolution.

On February 9, 2009, Paladini joined Carolina RailHawks for the 2009 season. He went on to play a major part in Carolina's 2009 and 2010 campaigns, featuring in 57 games and scoring 10 goals while being named to the League's Best XI both years, as well as being named the club's MVP in 2009 and Offensive Player of the Year in 2010.

Paladini returned to Major League Soccer in 2011 when he signed with Chicago Fire on January 10, 2011. In his three years at the club Paladini featured in 58 league matches and scored 4 goals. On December 12, 2013, Paladini's rights were traded to Columbus Crew in exchange for a 4th round 2014 MLS SuperDraft pick.

On September 18, 2014, it was announced Paladini underwent a surgery for tibia and fibula fracture (as a result of a challenge during training session) and expected to be sidelined for at least four months.

Personal
Paladini was suspended from all MLS-related soccer activities on October 29, 2014, following allegations of a domestic dispute in which the police were called to his house.

Court reports released in January 2015 claim Paladini allegedly punched and kicked his fiancée Sarah Alexander. The complaint also alleged that Paladini pushed Alexander down, dragged her by the hair, and poured bleach over her head, and that Alexander was left with burns, bruises and a black eye as a result.

Paladini pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of domestic violence and was placed on probation for two years (suspended for six months) and fined $150 by Franklin County Municipal Court.

Honors

Individual
USSF D-2 Pro League Best XI (1): 2010

References

External links

1984 births
Living people
American people of Italian descent
American men's soccer players
Men's association football midfielders
Cal State Northridge Matadors men's soccer players
Chicago Fire FC players
Chivas USA players
Columbus Crew players
LA Galaxy draft picks
LA Galaxy players
Major League Soccer players
North Carolina FC players
People from Northridge, Los Angeles
San Fernando Valley Quakes players
Soccer players from California
USL First Division players
USL League Two players
USSF Division 2 Professional League players

Daniel Paladini


Charles James Patrick Mahon (17 March 1800 – 15 June 1891), known as the O'Gorman Mahon or James Patrick Mahon, was an Irish nationalist journalist, barrister, parliamentarian and international mercenary.

Personal life
Mahon, the eldest of four children, was born into a prominent Roman Catholic family in Ennis, County Clare. His father was Patrick Mahon of New Park, who took part in the Rebellion of 1798; his mother Barbara, a considerable heiress, was the only daughter of James O'Gorman of Ennis. Mahon studied at Clongowes Wood College, where he was one of the earliest pupils, and at Trinity College Dublin, where he took his BA in 1822 and his MA in law in 1832.  Until his father's death in 1821, he was sent an annual allowance of £500; afterward, he inherited half the family property, also becoming a magistrate for Clare. He soon adopted the title "the O'Gorman Mahon", O'Gorman being his mother's maiden name. This was in part intended to give the false impression that he was the head of the Mahon clan.

In 1830, Mahon married Christina, the daughter of John O'Brien of Dublin. She was an heiress and had property valued at £60,000 in her own right, which gave Mahon the resources to seek election to parliament. The couple spent little time together, and she died apart from him in Paris in 1877. They had one son, St John, who died in 1883.

Born in a time when duelling was relatively common in Ireland, Mahon later claimed to have instigated and fought thirteen duels; and in these, to have been injured in six but to have drawn blood in seven. These enhanced the tall, striking Mahon's dashing reputation.

Politics
In 1826, Mahon joined the newly formed Catholic Association. He encouraged fellow member Daniel O'Connell to stand for election at the 1828 Clare by-election. O'Connell's election, in which Mahon played a large role, persuaded the British Government to pass the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, which finalised the process of Catholic Emancipation and permitted Catholics to sit in the British Parliament.

As a result, when Mahon was elected for Clare at the 1830 general election, he was entitled to take his seat. However, during the election campaign he quarrelled with O'Connell, and after his election he was unseated for bribery. He was subsequently acquitted, and stood again at the 1831 election, but was defeated by two O'Connell-backed candidates, one of whom was his old schoolfriend Maurice O'Connell, Daniel O'Connell's son. Mahon gave up on politics, became deputy lieutenant of Clare, and captain of the local militia.

At the 1847 general election, Mahon was elected for Ennis, and declared himself a Whig in favour of Irish Repeal. However, he opposed the Young Irelanders, and narrowly lost his seat at the 1852 election.

After exploits abroad he returned to Ireland in 1871 and was a founding member of the Home Rule League. Nearly ruined by his ventures, he even ended up at the Old Bailey as a consequence of his dealings, but was acquitted. He was defeated in Ennis at the 1874 general election, and also at the Clare by-election in 1877. Finally, he won the 1879 Clare by-election, and held the seat at the 1880 general election.

He was a close associate of Charles Stewart Parnell, who he successfully nominated for the leadership of the League in 1880, but in 1885 was dropped as a party candidate because of his age and his tendency to vote with the Liberal Party in Parliament. He was also embroiled in a court case disputing the will of his son, St John Mahon, who died in 1884.

Parnell personally ensured Mahon was a candidate at the 1887 Carlow by-election, which he won at the age of 87 as a Nationalist. By this point, Mahon was the oldest MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He died at his home in South Kensington while still in office.

Mahon had served alongside William O'Shea as an MP, and the two were close friends. He introduced him and Katharine O'Shea, his wife, to Parnell. After Parnell was named in the O'Sheas' divorce case in 1890, Mahon split with Parnell, siding with the Irish National Federation. However, Parnell attended Mahon's funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery a few months later.

Travels
Mahon became a barrister in 1834, but the following year, he left for Paris. There he associated with Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, becoming a favourite at Louis-Philippe's court and working as a journalist. He travelled the world, spending time in both Africa, where he befriended Ferdinand de Lesseps, engineer of the Suez Canal, and South America, before returning to Ireland in 1846.

Following his defeat in the 1852 election, Mahon returned to Paris, then travelled on to St Petersburg, where he served in the Imperial Bodyguard. During this period, he journeyed through lands from Finland (where he hunted bear with the tsarevich) to Siberia. He then travelled across China, India and Arabia. His finances largely exhausted, he served as a mercenary in the Ottoman and Austrian armies before returning to England in 1858. Late that year, he left for South America, where he attempted to finance the construction of a canal through Central America. He investigated the disappearance of Commander Lionel Lambert, captain of the paddle sloop , on which Mahon had voyaged, and forced the Peruvian Government to instigate an investigation which revealed that Lambert had been murdered. He reported these findings to Lord Palmerston, a former Parliamentary colleague.

Mahon then returned to soldiery.  He served in a number of forces, often in honorary positions. In Uruguay he was appointed a general in the government forces during the Uruguayan Civil War. He also claimed to have commanded a Chilean fleet during the Chincha Islands War and to have served as a colonel in Pedro II of Brazil's army. Later legends claimed that he was made an archbishop while in Brazil.

When Mahon heard that the American Civil War had broken out, he went to fight for the Union. In 1866, he returned to Paris, where he was made a colonel in a regiment of chasseurs by Louis-Napoleon, but in 1877, he moved to Berlin, where he became a close associate of Otto von Bismarck. He was plagued by debts in this period, seeking money in speculative ventures, and in 1871 he returned to Ireland.

References

External links

Guide to the O'Gorman Mahon Papers 1824-1892 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

1800 births
1891 deaths
19th-century Irish writers
Burials at Glasnevin Cemetery
Home Rule League MPs
Irish journalists
Irish writers
Irish barristers
Irish Parliamentary Party MPs
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Carlow constituencies (1801–1922)
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Clare constituencies (1801–1922)
Irish mercenaries
Irish soldiers in the Austrian Army
Irish generals
Irish duellists
Politicians from County Clare
UK MPs 1830–1831
UK MPs 1847–1852
UK MPs 1874–1880
UK MPs 1880–1885
UK MPs 1886–1892
Whig (British political party) MPs for Irish constituencies
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
People educated at Clongowes Wood College
Irish expatriates in France
Irish expatriates in Bulgaria
Irish expatriates in Austria-Hungary
Irish expatriates in Germany
Irish expatriates in the United States
19th-century journalists
Male journalists
Irish Repeal Association MPs
Anti-Parnellite MPs
People from Ennis
19th-century Irish lawyers
Lawyers from County Clare

James Patrick Mahon


Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White—Another Bite @ the Apple is a 2009 computer-animated direct-to-video film and sequel to Happily N'Ever After released on DVD on March 24, 2009, which stars Helen Niedwick, Cam Clarke, Jim Sullivan, Kirk Thornton, Cindy Robinson, David Lodge, and Catherine Lavin. Mambo, Munk, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, the Fairy Godmother, and the Dwarves are the only characters to return from the first film.

None of the cast members and crew return for this film. Andy Dick is replaced by Jim Sullivan, Wallace Shawn is replaced by Kirk Thornton, and Michael McShane is replaced by David Lodge. Like its predecessor, the film received negative reviews.

Plot
Once upon a time, Snow White's parents, Queen Grace and the wise King Cole, are very kind to their citizens, as Queen Grace will go around helping any citizen in need. One day, Queen Grace suddenly falls ill and dies but before she does, she tells Snow White "The mirror only tells half the story. True beauty comes from helping others."

Since Queen Grace died when Snow White was young crying her eyes out, she never taught Snow White how to help the citizens. Since then, Snow White has turned into a misguided teenager who only likes to hang out with her friends Goldilocks, Little Bo Peep, and Little Red Riding Hood instead of helping the citizens. A prime example is when Snow White and her friends decide to go to a joust party instead of visiting an orphanage. That day, her father strictly tells her to return before morning and wear the royal robe. Instead, she takes it off and leaves it in the limo. She meets and falls in love with a handsome man. He doesn't return the feeling because of Snow White's behavior towards "riff raff" and his respect for Queen Grace.

When Snow White returns, her father is upset because she did not wear the robe (he found out on the newspaper). Snow White weeps and cries about him being unfair and runs to her room. Her father notices her misguided side and decides to find a wife like Queen Grace to show Snow White how to become a proper lady. His assistant goes to the Fairy Godmother for help, where she begins a marriage service.

Because of Mambo's mischief, the Scales of Good and Evil are tipped to extreme evil, causing Lady Vain to turn evil and Rumpelstiltskin to appear. Rumpelstiltskin (who seems to have become evil again due to the Scales) uses the Magic Mirror to turn Lady Vain's face into a replica of Queen Grace's face. She goes to the marriage service and King Cole accepts her, not knowing that Lady Vain is truly a horrible scheming witch who wants to rule the kingdom.

Snow White is a thorn in Lady Vain's side and she wants Snow White gone from the kingdom. Just then, an apple appears, due to the imbalance of the Scales. When given to Snow White, it will make her say the rudest things she had ever thought. Lady Vain has Rumpelstiltskin give Snow White a new make-over with a twist. They give her the evil apple and with the Magic Mirror, Snow White says the rudest things she had ever thought to the whole town including King Cole. Snow White wakes up not remembering what had happened or what she had said and decides to visit the town.

Because of the rude things she had said, Snow White is forced to leave and runs to the forest. She enters a familiar house, eats, and falls asleep on seven small beds. When she wakes up, she finds the Seven Dwarfs completely enraged with her coming inside without permission. One notices her to be Queen Grace's daughter, although her personality is not like her mother's. They convince Snow White to stay and plan to change her attitude to be just like her mother's. Snow White agrees to do whatever the Dwarfs tell her to do without questioning them or whining back. They go to help rebuild the Three Little Pigs' homes after being blown by the Big Bad Wolf. She also helps the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe to turn into the most beautiful woman ever. And she helps to babysit her children. Meanwhile, Lady Vain's wedding day is drawing closer.

During baby-sitting, Snow White sings to her children the same "Hush, Little Baby" lullaby that her mother used to sing to her when she was young and realizes that helping others makes her and them feel good. With that, she starts her own Snow White's Help Center.

Meanwhile, at the kingdom, everyone is excited to meet Lady Vain, whose wedding with King Cole will begin at midnight. She hires two bodyguards because she is "not used to being among the people"  Sir Peter, one of the bodyguards, finds out about Lady Vain's plan of getting rid of Snow White forever and runs to the woods to find her. He finds her reducing Pinocchio's nose and rebuilding Humpty Dumpty. At first, Snow White does not want to go, but she soon agrees.

They make it just in time, thanks to the help of Mambo and Munk, and enter the wedding. Without being noticed, Snow White goes in front of the altar and tells her father that if he wants to marry Lady Vain, it is his choice and not hers. Lady Vain, who is disgusted and doesn't want Snow White back, says that Snow White is still a horrible misguided teenager and has not changed at all. The citizens have come to save Snow White. Snow White even apologizes in front of everybody. Her father responds "I just want my daughter back" as the crowd awed and cried happily.

Angry that everybody accepts Snow White's apology and ruined the wedding, Lady Vain uses the Magic Mirror to zap Snow White. But the attack is reflected back to the mirror, breaking the spell of Lady Vain's beauty, making her ugly again and starts crying. Before the guards can take Lady Vain away, Snow White goes to her and tells her "You don't need the magic mirror to be beautiful." The Seven Dwarfs come to take her away instead. Snow White finally accepts the royal robe.

The film ends with Snow White, Peter, King Cole, and the townspeople dancing, and they all lived happily ever after.

Voice cast

Main voices
 Helen Niedwick as Snow White
 Cam Clarke as Peter, King Cole, Humpty Dumpty (credited as Kelly Brewster)
 Jim Sullivan as Mambo, Magic Mirror
 Kirk Thornton as Munk, Pinocchio
 Cindy Robinson as Lady Vain
 David Lodge as Rumpelstiltskin, Priest
 Catherine Lavin as Queen Grace, Fairy Godmother
 Doug Stone as McHugh
 Doug Erholtz as McDowner, Pied Piper, Simple Simon
 Lex Lang as Grimm
 Kate Higgins as Goldilocks, Lucy
 G.K. Bowes as Little Red Riding Hood, Little Bo Peep
 Jennie Fahn as Old Woman in the Shoe

Additional voices
 Todd Haberkorn as Jack
 Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Jill
 Michael Sinterniklaas as Hansel
 Cassandra Lee Morris as Gretel
 Laura Bailey as The Three Little Pigs, The Children in the Shoe

Release
Vanguard Animation had no involvement with Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White Another Bite @ the Apple. The film was instead produced by Kickstart Productions and Berlin Animation Film. The film sold 222,042 units making $2,488,134 in revenue.

Reception
Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White—Another Bite @ the Apple received worse reviews than its predecessor, criticizing its bad CGI animation, clichéd writing, annoying characters and lesser connection to the first film.

References

External links

2009 films
2009 animated films
2009 direct-to-video films
2009 fantasy films
English-language German films
American animated fantasy films
German animated fantasy films
2009 computer-animated films
Direct-to-video sequel films
Lionsgate animated films
Animated films based on Snow White
Lionsgate films
2000s American animated films
Animated films about witchcraft
Films directed by Boyd Kirkland
Animated films about royalty
Fairy tale parody films
American sequel films
German sequel films
Animated films based on fairy tales
2009 directorial debut films
2000s German films


Anthony Duane (–1747) was a Protestant Irish immigrant to New York who was the father of James Duane, later a congressman, Mayor of New York City, and U.S. judge.

Anthony Duane was born in County Galway c.1679 and joined the Royal Navy, becoming an officer. He first came to New York in 1698 where he met and courted Eva, the daughter of local merchant Dirck Benson. In 1702, Duane left the navy to marry Eva and settle in New York City, where he pursued a mercantile career. Before her death, they had two sons, Abraham and Cornelius.

Duane prospered and bought land for investment, rental, and future development. When Eva died, he remarried, this time to Altea Ketaltas (Hettletas), the daughter of a wealthy Dutch merchant family. The couple's only child was James. When Altea died in 1736, Duane married a third time in 1741, to a Margaret Riken (or Rycken), the widow of Thomas Lynch of Flushing, New York.

Anthony Duane died in 1747.

References

1679 births
1747 deaths
17th-century Irish people
18th-century Irish military personnel
Military personnel from County Galway
Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Military personnel from New York City
Duane family
Irish officers in the Royal Navy
Businesspeople from County Galway

Anthony Duane


Yara Abou Monsef (; born 31 May 1996) is a Lebanese model, actress, and social media personality. She is known as a content creator and women empowerment influencer. She started actively posting content on the social video sharing app, TikTok, in early 2019, where she quickly amassed a large following, Her TikTok account as of August 2020 has half million followers and counting ,

Career
Yara was born and raised in Ain Zebde.

She speaks three languages fluently: English, French, and Arabic.

She was elected as the second runner-up in Miss Lebanon 2018 as her quick wit and educated answers earned her the respect of the Lebanese as a woman of intellect.

Yara is a World Vision Organization volunteer, youth leader, and tourist guide in Ain Zebde with the Nature Conservation Center-American University of Beirut.

She is an excellent orator and she shares a passion for acting and singing. She started actively posting content on the social video sharing app, TikTok, in early 2020.

Personal life
She has completed a bachelor's degree in biology and a Master's degree in animal biology at the Lebanese University (2014-2018) and has graduated as a double diplomate in Bio-Health engineering and Molecular diagnostics at the Grenoble Alpes University and the Lebanese University (2018-2019).

Yara was born in Lebanon to a Lebanese father, Ahmad Abou Monsef, and a Lebanese mother, Micheline Kiwan. She has three siblings, two sisters and one brother. She moved to Beirut when she was 18 years old. Most of her family members are living abroad, She likes old music, the Rahbani brothers and fairouz mainly.

Hobbies
Reading- horseback riding-singing- Playing Guitar

Management
Echo, a sister company of Watary Digital.

Other websites
 TikTok
 Instagram
 Facebook

1996 births
Living people
Lebanese people

Yara Bou Monsef


A puzzle globe (also called jigsaw globe, globe puzzle, puzzle ball, puzzle sphere or spherical puzzle) is a spherical assembly of puzzle pieces that, when put together, form a complete sphere or globe. Puzzle globes will generally have a one-piece spherical substrate that supports the puzzle pieces as they are laid in place. In some puzzle globes the substrate is steel and the puzzle pieces are magnetic, the magnetic attraction keeping pieces on the lower portion of the sphere from falling off.

Like a two-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, a globe puzzle is often made of cardboard and the assembled pieces form a single layer. Most globe puzzles have designs representing spherical shapes such as the Earth, the Moon, or historical globes of the Earth.

The logo of Wikipedia is a puzzle globe depicting glyphs from many different writing systems.

A jigsaw puzzle globe from the 1870s is in the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and is a copy of an earlier one made in Germany.

See also
 Tetrisphere

References

Tiling puzzles
Mechanical puzzles
Globes
Jigsaw puzzles

Puzzle globe


Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, and a prominent liberal political and social theorist of the Victorian era.

Works
Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution. He saw evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies.

Spencer never married; he remained a bachelor. He contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, politics, philosophy, biology, sociology, and psychology.

Like Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, he read Malthus' Essay on the principle of population, and was deeply impressed by its argument. Malthus said that sooner or later population growth gets checked by famine and disease, and there are then many deaths. So, he was prepared for Darwin's idea of natural selection, which he preferred to call "survival of the fittest". He did this in  Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.
"This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life."

Spencer's term does strongly suggest natural selection, yet as he extended evolution into realms of sociology and ethics, Spencer made use of Lamarckism rather than natural selection, so it seems he was not a Darwinian after all. Others took up his social ideas, and drew the conclusion that it was useless to try and help the poor, and that competition without limits was the way society should go. Darwin himself did not accept these ideas, but they were quite widespread in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century.

References

1820 births
1903 deaths
19th-century English philosophers
British feminists
Libertarians

Herbert Spencer


All About George is a family sitcom which follows the extended family of George Kinsey (Rik Mayall). The show includes five generations, from George's grandmother (Edna Doré) to his first granddaughter, Jasmine. Only one series was made and aired in 2005.

Characters

George Kinsey - (Rik Mayall) The main character of the program. We follow his life including the ups and downs of having 4 children, an annoying younger brother, a granddaughter, a grandmother and a father who is also his boss. Father to Laura, Amy and Ben.

Anne 'Annie' Kinsey (née McAlister) - (Julia Ford) Wife of George Kinsey and mother to Russell and Ben.

Gordon Kinsey - (Jack Shepherd) George's and Dave's father and Boss, husband to Kate and Lilly's only son. He runs the family business - Kinsey and Sons - who are contractors.

Kate Kinsey - (Gemma Jones) Wife to Gordon and mother to George and Dave.

Lilly Kinsey - (Edna Doré) The eldest in the family tree - Gordon's Mother.

Evelyn Kinsey -  (Penny Downie) George's first wife and mother to both Laura and Amy.

Laura Kinsey - George's and his first wife, Evelyn's eldest daughter. She is also mother to Jasmine.

Amy Kinsey - George's and his first wife, Evelyn's youngest daughter.

Russell Kinsey - Annie's eldest son.

Ben Kinsey - George's and Annie's youngest and only child together.

External links

British comedy television shows
ITV comedy
2005 British television series debuts
2005 British television series endings
2000s British sitcoms

All About George


The western pygmy possum (Cercartetus concinnus), also known as the southwestern pygmy possum or the mundarda, is a small marsupial found in Australia.  Genetic studies indicate its closest relative is probably the eastern pygmy possum, from which its ancestors diverged around eight million years ago.

Taxonomy
John Gould provided the first description of Cercartetus concinnus, which was read before the Zoological Society of London and published in 1845. Gould assigned the new species to the genus Dromicia, recognising an affinity with a previously described species found in Tasmania. The animal was also described in the same year as Phalangista (Dromicia) neillii by G. R. Waterhouse, recognised as a synonym of the species.

Description
The western pygmy possum is unusual in Cercartetus, as, unlike its grey relatives, the fur over most of its body is a bright cinnamon colour. It has pure white underparts, which also distinguishes it from its relatives, and has a thin ring of dark brown fur in front of the eyes. It possesses long and rounded flesh-coloured ears, large and black protruding eyes. The muzzle is only sparsely covered in hair, showing the pink colour at the bare parts.  The species has long whiskers. The prehensile tail is long and covered with fine scales, rather than fur, and not enlarged at the base. The hind feet have opposable first digits, while all four feet have broad pads at the tips of the toes.

Although small compared with most other possums, it is one of the larger pygmy possums, with adults ranging from 70–100 millimetres in head-body length with a tail 70–90 mm long. Adult weight ranges from 8 to 18 grams. The female has a well-developed pouch, opening to the front, containing six teats. At up to 12 mm in length, the tongue is unusually large for such a small animal.

Distribution and habitat
This possum is vulnerable due to habitat loss and lack of food. The distribution range includes Southwest Australia, on the south coast and the wheatbelt, and areas of South Australia, Kangaroo Island, and Victoria south to Edenhope. It is also found in far southwestern New South Wales, where it is listed as endangered. It inhabits semi-arid woodland, shrubland, and heath, dominated by plants such as Callistemon (bottlebrushes), melaleuca, banksia, and grevillea. Although there had been previously thought to be two subspecies, separated in distribution by the Nullarbor Plain, genetic studies have not revealed any significant difference between the eastern and western populations. Furthermore, while the species is no longer native to the area, fossils from the Nullarbor Plain region are known.

Behaviour and diet
The western pygmy possum is solitary and nocturnal. During the day, they shelter in tree hollows or other natural crevices, birds' nests, or dense vegetation. At night, they travel in search of food or mates, typically moving around  each day, and they may migrate to different areas over the course of a year, depending on local plant resources. They spend most of their time in the trees, using their grasping paws and prehensile tails to grip onto branches, grasp nest materials, and open flowers to access nectar. They have been described as making a rapid chattering noise.

It feeds primarily on nectar and pollen, especially from plants such as melaleuca and eucalyptus, and may play a role in the pollination. It also supplements its diet with insects. Native predators include quolls, snakes, and owls, although in modern times, the animal also falls prey to introduced carnivores such as red foxes and domestic cats.

Western pygmy possums have the ability to enter torpor during inclement or cold weather, enabling them to conserve energy and food reserves. During bouts of torpor, which may last for up to seven days at a time, body temperature falls to within one degree Celsius of ambient, and oxygen consumption to just 1% of normal. They sleep on their fronts, with their ears folded over their eyes, and their long tails coiled beneath their bodies. Compared with other mammals of similar size, they rouse from torpor unusually quickly.

Reproduction
Western pygmy possums can breed throughout the year, although they do so more commonly in the spring, and give birth to litters of four to six young. The mother often carries more than six embryos at a time in her womb, but because she has only six teats, and marsupial young remain attached to an individual teat for much of their early lives, six is the maximum number she is able to rear. Unusually, however, the mother may give birth just two days after weaning a previous litter, with her teats dramatically changing in size to accommodate the smaller young, and the mammary glands reverting to production of colostrum.

The young are still blind when they leave the pouch at around 25 days of age; they initially remain within the nest, and are fully weaned at around 50 days. Females reach sexual maturity at 12 to 15 months old.

Conservation
The species is currently classified as Least Concern by the IUCN. However, several Australian states (New South Wales and South Australia) and individual parks and conservation regions have nationally listed it as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered due to the pressure from vegetation clearing, the reduction of food sources (overgrazing of livestock), fire regimes, and introduced predators such as the red fox and feral cats.

References

External links
Western Wildlife including photo
Images: skulls (including C. concinnus) on Museum Victoria website
Images: Australian mammal images (including C. concinnus) on Museum Victoria website

Possums
Marsupials of Australia
Endemic fauna of Australia
Mammals of Western Australia
Mammals of South Australia
Mammals of New South Wales
Mammals of Victoria (state)
Mammals described in 1845
Taxa named by John Gould

Western pygmy possum


Among Giants is a 1998 British film directed by Sam Miller and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is set in Yorkshire, and stars Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Griffiths and James Thornton. The plot came about after Beaufoy was refused permission to make a documentary on electricity pylon painters in Pembrokeshire, and converted the idea into fiction. The script predates that of The Full Monty, but only found a producer in the wake of the earlier film's success.

The practicalities of shooting atop electricity pylons, not to mention insurance difficulties, meant that a safer mock-up pylon was made for the actors. This proved unconvincing: Postlethwaite remarked that "I don't believe we are up there, and if you don't sell that shot you don't sell the rest of the pylons," and so some material was re-shot on real pylons after training from Electricity Board climbing experts.

Around the time of the film's release, the Bedford van converted for use as a camper van—dubbed "the shagging wagon" in the film—was stolen and burnt out in Sheffield.

Plot
Ray (played by Pete Postlethwaite) is a middle-aged Sheffield father of two, down on his luck. Separated from his wife, his life revolves around his close friendship with his much younger flatmate Steve (James Thornton) and a passion for climbing.

One summer, the pair and their loose gang of workers gain illicit, cash-in-hand employment painting the electricity pylons of the Yorkshire Moors. Their deadline is tight and their terms of employment precarious, but both are grateful for money and the opportunity to climb daily.

The pattern of life is interrupted by the arrival of footloose Australian backpacker Gerry (Rachel Griffiths). Attractive, and a talented climber, she and Ray fall in love and become a couple despite Steve's apparent interest.

Ray harbours some reluctance at Gerry's wild ways, but manages to overcome these to propose marriage. Gerry too is doubtful that her wandering days are over, and wonders if she can live the staid existence on offer, despite her love for Ray. Things come to a head when she and Steve, both clearly affected by the backpacking bug, are caught drinking vodka atop a tall pylon.

Abseiling recklessly to face an angry Ray, she and Steve are fired on the spot.

In a confrontation, Gerry tells Ray that she cannot commit to the relationship, nor be tied down. Meanwhile, Ray's friendship with an increasingly jealous Steve is also in trouble, and the younger man moves out of the flat, planning his own travels to India. He and Gerry have a brief sexual encounter, but back out when they recognise the wrongs of their actions.

Gerry waits on Ray's doorstep, hoping for some form of reconciliation, but is rejected. Upset, and undertaking a solo rock climb, she falls and is hospitalised with serious injuries. As Ray is being told this by an emotional Steve, the pylons are electrified as Ray's gang are still at work, and the crew are lucky to escape without electrocution.

This heralds the end of the summer's work, and their elusive paymaster Derek, the electricity company official, arrives on the scene. He is apologetic at the mistake, but cannot say when the workers will receive their pay.

The film ends on an uncertain note, with Steve departing for India, a recovered Gerry deciding to return to Australia, and Ray left standing on the Moors contemplating his scant options.

Cast
Pete Postlethwaite as Ray
Rachel Griffiths as Gerry
James Thornton as Steve
Lennie James as Shovel
Andy Serkis as Bob
Rob Jarvis as Weasel
Alan Williams as Frank
Amanda Burns as line dancer

Reception

Film critic Roger Ebert praised the film with a positive review and three stars, particularly pleased by the performances of Postlethwaite and Griffiths—"when you look at them, you always know how their characters are feeling"—and writing that the film was "thick with atmosphere."

David Stratton of Variety was less complimentary, writing that the film was not "in the same league" as The Full Monty, was predictable, and despite the efforts of the cast, suffered from "less attractive characters, and a rather dull plot."

References

External links

 Among Giants at the British Film Institute

1998 films
1998 drama films
British drama films
Films set in Sheffield
Fox Searchlight Pictures films
Films with screenplays by Simon Beaufoy
1998 directorial debut films
Films directed by Sam Miller
1990s English-language films
1990s British films
English-language drama films

Among Giants


Roy Lane (c. 1935 – 14 October 2009) was a British racing driver. He is best known for his great success in hillclimbing, having won the British Hillclimb Championship on four occasions (1975, 1976, 1992, and 1996) in a career spanning more than three decades. Lane won 90 individual rounds of the championship, a record equaled by Martin Groves in July 2009.

Lane still holds the course record at Curborough sprint track; 26.84 secs  in his Pilbeam MP58-09 4 litre DFL since 21 April 1996, where he was almost invincible. In the 1990s, his partnership with the Pilbeam constructor was one of the most successful in the sport.

The back problems which troubled Lane for many years kept his appearances to a minimum in recent seasons, although he still competed on occasion, and continued to be competitive in sprinting. He made a full return to hillclimbing in 2006, at the wheel of a Porsche 911.

Lane was formerly chief instructor at the Prescott Hillclimb Drivers School.

Roy Lane died of peritonitis on 14 October 2009.

References

British hillclimb drivers
2009 deaths
1935 births
Deaths from peritonitis
Brighton Speed Trials people

Roy Lane


Hamstringing is a method of crippling a person or animal so that they cannot walk properly by severing the hamstring tendons in the thigh of the individual. It is used as a method of torture, or to incapacitate the victim.

Use
Hamstringing is used primarily to incapacitate a human or animal and render them incapable of effective movement. The severing of the hamstring muscles results not only in the crippling of the leg, but also in pain.

Method
In humans, the hamstring extends between the hip and knee joints. The hamstring muscle group is made up of the biceps femoris, semitendinosus muscle, and the semimembranosus. It facilitates both the flexing of the knee and hip extension, making it a vital contributor to normal leg-movement.  By severing these muscles or the tendons involved in this process, normal leg-movement is disrupted. In addition to sustaining massive bleeding, the injured leg becomes useless and the victim is rendered  lame. The severing of the hamstring is usually accomplished through use of a blade such as a knife or sword.

Medical treatment
Due to a lack of research in the field of critical hamstring injuries, current injury-management practice is quite limited. Management of the injury is based solely "on clinical experience, anecdotal evidence and the knowledge of the biological basis of tissue repair".  These injuries are difficult to control or repair, leading often to permanent injury or even death by blood loss.

Historical usage

Sources from late antiquity indicate that hamstringing was commonly used to incapacitate combatants, prisoners and runaway slaves. The French Code Noir (1685) prescribed hamstringing as the punishment for slaves caught escaping for a second time.

Use as metaphor
Literally, to "hamstring" an individual is to sever the tissues of their hamstring. As a metaphor, to be "hamstrung" suggests being limited, by external imposition or not, in a way that prevents full freedom of movement or utilization of resources.

Biblical reference

Rendering chariot-horses lame by hamstringing is mentioned in the Book of Joshua in the Bible  (the King James Version uses the term "", from an old spelling of  hock). In times of war, hamstringing an enemy's horses prevented the horses from being used in fighting.

References

Torture
Hamstring

Hamstringing


Paradies Lagardère (formerly The Paradies Shops, Inc.) operates stores in airports, hotels, and other locations throughout the United States and Canada. Locations include specialty stores, restaurants and bookstores. The company was founded in 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia.

History
The Paradies Shops was founded by brothers Jim and Dan Paradies in 1960. Their first store was a toy shop at the then-Atlanta Municipal Airport that was an immediate success, and North American airport retail was born. Since 1960, Paradies has expanded to over 1035 stores in 103 airports.
The company runs stores under brands ranging from The New York Times to different American collegiate athletic conferences as well as brands such as Brooks Brothers, Corsa, Spanx, iStore, Swarovski, Pandora, Dylan's Candy and many more. Paradies Lagardere also operates multiple fine dining food & beverage concepts within the airports.  The company was acquired by Lagardère Group, a French company, in October 2015. Since acquisition it has grown 70% and currently employs over 6000 people. Now known as Paradies Lagardère, the company comprises all of the stores formerly under The Paradies Shops and LS Retail names. In 2018, Airport Revenue News named Paradies "Best Overall Retailer" for the 23rd consecutive year.

History:
 1852: Louis Hachette opened the first railway Bookstore, Bibliothèques de Gare, and the travel retail industry is born.
 1881: Hatchette developed the distribution network Messageries Hachette, and becomes the supplier to over 80,000 press outlets across France.
 1945: Hachette launched the renowned Elle Magazine.
 1960: Jim and Dan Paradies open the first Paradies Shop in Atlanta Municipal Airport.
 1986: Hachette acquired Curtis Circulation in the US, a leader in the magazine distribution market. In 1990: Hachette acquires Eastern Lobby Shops, a U.S. news and convenience retail company.
 1992: PGA TOUR and Paradies sign an agreement for the first airport retail brand partnership.
 1995: Hachette acquires The UCS Group, Canada's largest press retailer.
 1996: Coca-Cola names Paradies its official retailer for Summer Olympic games in Atlanta.
 2000: Canada's UCS Group merges with America's Eastern Lobby Shops and gives birth to HDS Retail North America.
 2007: Paradies launches its Food and Beverage Division.
 2008: HDS Retail acquires a majority interest in the Phoenix-based Delstar Companies Inc., and the San Antonio-based airport retailer, News & Gift Shops International.
 2011: HDS Retail North America becomes LS travel retail North America, to align with the corporate branding of Lagardère Services' travel retail division.
 2014: LS travel retail North America sells its Canadian urban retail locations to Gateway Newstands. The sale allows LS travel retail to focus on its core strategy – operating in travel environments.
 2015: Airport Revenue News names Paradies "Best Overall Retailer" for the 20th consecutive year.
 2015: Lagardère Travel Retail Acquires Paradies and merges it with LS travel retail North America to create the new market leader for airport concessions.
 2018: Paradies Lagardere acquires Hojeij Branded Foods (HBF)

References

External links
ParadiesLagardère.com (Company website)

Retail companies of the United States
Companies based in Atlanta
1960 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Lagardère Group
American companies established in 1960

Paradies Lagardère


Wu Chinese (, ), China ke ek khaas bhasa hae. Iske   Zhejiang province,  Shanghae, southern Jiangsu province, aur Anhui, Jiangxi, aur Fujian provinces ke kuchh hissa me baat karaa jaawe hae.

References

 Yan, M.M. (2006). Introduction to Chinese Dialectology. Munich: Lincom Europa

Bahaari jorr

Resources on Wu dialects
 glossika.com
 Shanghaenese Wu Dictionary – Search in Mandarin, IPA, or
 Classification of Wu Dialects – By James Campbell
 Tones in Wu Dialects – Compiled by James Campbell
 Linguistic Forum of Wu Chinese() –
A BBS set up in 2004, in which topics such as phonology, grammar, orthography and romanization of Wu Chinese are widely talked about.  The cultural and linguistic diversity within China is also a significant concerning of this forum.
 Wu Chinese Online Association () –
A website aimed at modernization of Wu Chinese, including basics of Wu, Wu romanization scheme, pronunciation dictionaries of different dialects, Wu input method development, Wu research literatures, written Wu experiment, Wu orthography, a discussion forum etc.
 "The elegant language in Jiangnan area" () –
Excellent reference on Wu Chinese, including tones of the sub-dialects.

Articles
 Globalization, National Culture and the Search for Identity: A Chinese Dilemma (1st Quarter of 2006, Media Development)  – A comprehensive article, written by Wu Mei and Guo Zhenzhi of World Association for Christian Communication, related to the struggle for national cultural unity by current Chinese Communist national government while desperately fighting for preservation on Chinese regional cultures that have been the precious roots of all Han Chinese people (including Hangzhou Wu dialect). Excellent for anyone doing research on Chinese language linguistic, anthropology on Chinese culture, international business, foreign languages, global studies, and translation/interpretation.
 Modernisation a Threat to Dialects in China  – An excellent article originally from Straits Times Interactive through YTL Community website, it provides an insight of Chinese dialects, both major and minor, losing their speakers to Standard Mandarin due to greater mobility and interaction. Excellent for anyone doing research on Chinese language linguistic, anthropology on Chinese culture, international business, foreign languages, global studies, and translation/interpretation.
 Middlebury Expands Study Abroad Horizons  – An excellent article including a section on future exchange programs in learning Chinese language in Hangzhou (plus colorful, positive impression on the Hangzhou dialect, too). Requires registration of online account before viewing.
 Mind your language (from The Standard, Hong Kong) – This newspaper article provides a deep insight on the danger of decline in the usage of dialects, including Wu dialects, other than the rising star of Standard Mandarin. It also mentions an exception where some grassroots' organizations and, sometimes, larger institutions, are the force behind the preservation of their dialects. Another excellent article for research on Chinese language linguistics, anthropology on Chinese culture, international business, foreign languages, global studies, and translation/interpretation.
 China: Dialect use on TV worries Beijing (originally from Straits Times Interactive, Singapore and posted on AsiaMedia Media News Daily from UCLA) – Article on the use of dialects other than standard Mandarin in China where strict media censorship is high.
 Standard or Local Chinese – TV Programs in Dialect (from Radio86.co.uk) – Another article on the use of dialects other than standard Mandarin in China.

Bhasa
China ke bhasa

Wu Chinese


Cultural and Scientific Treasuries is a 13-part Iranian television documentary series by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh. In this series, precious Iranian handwritten manuscripts are analysed in each episode according to their subjects such as astronomy, history, politics, economy, medicine, religion, Koran, calligraphy, painting, miniature, travel literature and illumination.

Technical specifications and film crew

Betacam SP, 13 parts, each 15 min, Documentary, Iran, 1996
Researcher, script writer and director: Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Producer: Javad Najmeddin (Aftab TV, USA)

Iranian television series
1990s Iranian television series
1996 Iranian television series debuts

Cultural and Scientific Treasuries


Title Bout Championship Boxing, abbreviated as TBCB, is a text-based boxing simulation that offers historical and fictional play, as well as the ability to forecast upcoming bouts. It is based on the popular 1979 tabletop game of the same name, which was created by Jim and Tom Trunzo.

History

"There really wasn't a decent representation of our favourite sport, pro boxing," Jim Trunzo recalls of the decision he and his brother made in the late 1970s to create a game in which players flipped cards to simulate a fight, rather than use the dice or spinners that were prevalent in sports simulations of that era.

The Trunzos self-published the game, with help from Jim Barnes, who had founded the Statis-Pro line of sports simulation games. Barnes had developed what he called a "Fast Action Deck" to simulate the action and had given the Trunzo brothers his blessing to use the same concept in their game.

After the self-published version of Title Bout Championship Boxing barely made its money back, the Trunzos secured a deal with Avalon Hil, which had purchased Statis-Pro and wanted to compete with APBA and Strat-o-matic in the sports simulation space. Avalon Hill had also arranged a marketing partnership with Sports Illustrated to boost its credibility.

Title Bout: The Game of Professional Boxing sold well but was eventually discontinued as gamers moved away from tabletop sports games to computer ones. The Trunzo brothers did not retain the name of their game, but they had the rights to the rest of it and released TKO Boxing for DOS through Lance Haffner Games in 1990. They later published another tabletop game, APBA Boxing, that used dice, and in 2001 Comp-U-Sport brought the game back to the digital realm with Title Fight 2001.

The Trunzos eventually sold the game to OOTP Developments, publishers of Out of the Park Baseball and Franchise Hockey Manager. OOTP released Title Bout Championship Boxing 2 in 2005 and version 2.5 in 2008. In 2013, OOTP sold the game to P.I.S.D. Ltd, which released Title Bout Championship Boxing 2013 in June of that year. Based on comments in the Title Bout community, the initial PISD version was a failed product and fans of the game are still waiting for an update some eight years later.

Gameplay
Title Bout Championship Boxing displays a boxing ring with fighters who trade blows, an immersive blow-by-blow text, a crowd that cheers, and ring card girls who flash up between rounds. The game features over 6,660 boxers past and present and in every weight class, allowing players to not only recreate historical fights but also stage bouts that could never have happened, such as Muhammad Ali taking on Mike Tyson in the prime of their careers, Floyd Mayweather battling the legendary Joe Gans, or Sam Langford trading punches with Marvin Hagler. The game's database is updated on a regular basis, allowing players to also forecast upcoming fights. Acting as promoter you stage fights between all the leading contenders, no exceptions.

Bouts can be simulated once or multiple times, allowing the player to discard outlier events and see how a fight will likely unfold. Players can also set up tournaments and peruse statistics that are tracked fight-by-fight as well as round-by-round, allowing them to see, for example, how many knock-outs have happened in a specific round. Win–loss records can be imported or they can start from 0–0 so all boxers in the game build unique histories.

Title Bout Championship Boxing also has many customisation options, including the ability to import boxer images and add new fighters to the game.

References

External links

 P.I.S.D. website

2013 video games
Boxing video games
MacOS games
Sports management video games
Windows games
Linux games
Video games developed in the United Kingdom

Title Bout Championship Boxing