Sherry M. Thomas (born 1975) is an American novelist of young adult fantasy, historical romance, and contemporary romance. She has won multiple awards including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for Not Quite a Husband in 2010 and His at Night in 2011. Most best-of-romance lists include one of her titles.

In an article in The New York Times, romance author Sarah MacLean stated Thomas is known for her "lush style," and in USA Today romance author Madeline Hunter said she is "critically acclaimed as one of historical romance's best writers."

A native of China, Thomas emigrated to the United States at thirteen and learned English reading romance novels. She published her first novel in 2008, English-set Victorian romances, and in 2013, she branched into young adult fantasy. In 2014, she diverged from her traditional historical settings to publish a series set in Imperial China. Common themes in her work include unrequited love, love betrayal, and fate.

Biography

Early life

Thomas was born in 1975 in Qingdao, Shandong, China. Thomas recalls that her grandmother did the crossword puzzles in China's official English-language newspaper. In 1984, Thomas's mother went to the United States to study, financed by Thomas's paternal great aunt. Thomas remained in China until her grandmother died in 1988, and she emigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen. Her mother was in graduate school at Louisiana State University.

Thomas improved her English by reading science fiction and romance novels, including those by Rosemary Rogers. Thomas reportedly read Rogers' novel Sweet Savage Love using a Chinese-English dictionary. Thomas found English-language romance books interesting due to their departure from Chinese cultural understandings of courtship. "I was quite surprised later to discover that the hero and the heroine in a romance weren't required to hate each other for 600 pages running."

She received her BS in economics from Louisiana State University and earned her master's degree in accounting at University of Texas at Austin.

Personal life

She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and sons.

Writing career

Thomas stated that when she sold her first novel to Bantam in the summer of 2006, she had written five failed manuscripts in seven years. One of those was "Heart of Blade", which she later revamped into The Hidden Blade and My Beautiful Enemy. But in 2006, her first story to sell was "Schemes of Love" which was retitled as Private Arrangements. It took her ten months to write, and she found representation with Kristin Nelson with the Nelson Literary Agency. Nelson sold it in a preempt to Bantam twenty-five days after receiving the query from Thomas.

Though scheduled for a Fall 2007 release, Private Arrangements was published March 25, 2008. Publishers Weekly starred review called it "steamy and smart" and they named it the Best Book of 2008 as well as Best First Historical Romance of 2008. Romantic Times called it a "dazzling debut".

She followed with the release of Delicious that summer. Romantic Times made it a Top Pick and said it placed "her among the very finest of the next generation of authors." She published Not Quite a Husband in May 2009, which won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Historical Romance in 2010, her first RITA. Reviews were generally favorable, and Romantic Times named it as one of the Innovative Historical Romance nominees for 2009 and noted the "musical quality" of its prose.

In May 2010, His at Night was released. While it won the RITA Award, it received mixed reviews. USA Today praised it for its flawed heroine, whereas Publishers Weekly thought aspects felt contrived but that "when hero and heroine actually connect, the humorous, graceful writing transcends a creaky plot." Romantic Times named it a Top Pick with 4 1/2 stars.

Up until then, she had been releasing stand-alone historical romances with Bantam, but in 2012, she moved to Berkley, who launched her first series, the Fitzhugh trilogy. All three books were released in the same year, Beguiling the Beauty, Ravishing the Heiress, and Tempting the Bride. The latter earned the Romantic Times October Seal of Excellence. Thomas supplemented the trilogy with digital releases. Two were through her agency, The Bride of Larkspear (2012) and A Dance in Moonlight (2013), and the third self-published, Claiming the Duchess (2014).

Berkley published another stand-alone release, The Luckiest Lady in London in November 2013. The New York Times said "The Chinese-born Thomas is known for a lush style that demonstrates her love of her second language, and this novel edges into historical fiction with its transporting prose even as it delivers on heat and emotion and a well-earned happily ever after". It also received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, who named it one of the best romances of 2013, and USA Today felt it was "one of her strongest". Library Journal named it one of the top 10 romances of 2013, calling it "deeply insightful and exquisitely crafted."

In the fall of 2013, Thomas branched into writing young adult fantasy books, and Publishers Weekly said of The Burning Sky: "As expected, Thomas's romantic touch is sure, but she is just as adept with fantasy world-building, carrying the banners of Anne McCaffrey and Caroline Stevermer, among others, in a wonderfully satisfying magical saga".

Kirkus Reviews said The Burning Sky "bids fair to be the next big epic fantasy success", but said of The Perilous Sea: Themes of identity and memory, destiny and choice tie together the two stories, told in alternating chapters with ubiquitous cliffhangers. When the storylines finally intersect, the resolution is so abrupt as to be almost anticlimactic; but the dramatic, defiant conclusion will stoke anticipation for the next volume. With all the strengths and failings alike of the first book, only ever-so-much more so, this aims directly at its fans and will not likely pick up new ones.

USA Today felt that The Burning Sky was first and foremost a romance – "the steam, the chemistry and the passion are at the center" – with the fantasy secondary, and for that reason would be enjoyed best by romance fans, not hard-core fantasy fans. Young adult author Jodi Meadows named the main couple in this series as her top three favorite couples in a young adult book.

The release of The Hidden Blade and My Beautiful Enemy in the summer of 2014 marked a departure from her traditionally-set historical romances with these set in imperial China. In an interview on Kirkus, she revealed that she had written My Beautiful Enemy before she was published, intending it to be a series spanning twenty years. "That story stayed under my bed. Like most everything I wrote back then, the core idea was sound, but the execution was a hot mess," she said in an interview in USAToday. In 2013, she revised it into "a more intense romance. However, it was always intended to be an English version of a Chinese wuxia novel, with a heroic female spin."

It received mixed reviews, with NPR calling it "a bold new direction for Thomas, yet maintains the emotional intensity she is celebrated for". Kirkus Reviews felt the villain was its main weakness, but that its complex characters was its strength and called it "[a] thought-provoking exploration of gender roles in the East and West and in the historical romance genre. It's also a darn good read".

Library Journal named it one of the Top 10 romances of 2014, calling it, "a spellbinding, lyrically composed romantic adventure. Flashbacks to Chinese Turkestan add an exotic, mesmerizing touch". In its original starred review, it said With incisive character development, deft pacing, and lyrical, nearly poetic prose, Thomas transports readers between remote, breathtaking Chinese Turkestan and teeming late Victorian London. A gripping, mesmerizing romance that is one of Thomas's most unforgettable yet.

2015 marked another departure with her self-published release in April of a contemporary romance, The One in My Heart.

Thomas's views on writing

Thomas once discussed the challenges of writing in an historical setting other than Regency England: If I just said the Northwest Frontier of British India or Chinese Turkestan, most people would be drawing a blank. What kind of terrain are we dealing with? What kind of climate? What kind of people would the [hero and heroine] come across? So yes, more work is necessary to world-build, but only so that my readers would be able to visualize and understand the setting.

As far as her writing habits, she revealed that she is not the type who writes every day, and enjoys taking days off when she can. For The Hidden Blade she was on a tight deadline and only slept for two hours a day, several days in a row, so afterward in an interview she said, "not writing for at least a week or so seems like heaven!"

On the appeal of romance, she said it might be attributable to not just the "emotionally fulfilling reading experience" but also the escape to a different time and place. With historical romances particularly, she said, "I will also posit that since marriage was so final and divorce so difficult — and women's lives so much more restricted — the stakes around a romance were higher in Ye Olde Times."

While Rogers's novels acted as her gateway to the romance genre, it was reading Laura Kinsale and Judith Ivory that convinced her to set her historical romances in England: I fell in love with the turn-of-the-century setting ... I adore that it was a time of tremendous advances in scientific understanding and technological capability—in Private Arrangements, for example, there is an automobile—and yet people still lived under a formality that is exotic and almost incomprehensible to us here in 21st-century America. That formality sets off a wonderful tension for a writer to explore the sexual charge in a look, a word, a hand held a fraction too long.

When it comes to world building for historical romances, she points to several elements that can assist the writer with effectively setting the reader in another time: showing practices and habits we frown upon today; practices we find acceptable today that they frowned upon; showing the similarities; using the correct forms of address; and, showing the cost of living. But she cautions that above all, the story must work or the reader will not care about the details. She studies how authors like Laura Kinsale, Courtney Milan, Judith Ivory, Ariana Franklin, and Laurie R. King integrate historical world-building into their narratives.

Thomas has described herself as being drawn to reading and writing about characters who have more going on beneath the surface than is first apparent—what she calls the "I-didn't-know-that-about-you moment".

Writing style

Thomas's writing is often described as lyrical, lush, musical, graceful, rich, evocative, with unique metaphors and turns of phrase. Author Kiersten Hallie Krum asserted that Thomas, along with Joanna Bourne and Meredith Duran, make up the forefront of a new wave in historical romance fiction strong in lyrical prose. Her elegant turn of phrase lifts the storytelling to new heights. Her novels are a lexicon of delight. Her unique word choice is that one step to the left that eschews the boring in favor of the unexpected; "unsighted" rather than the mere "blind" or "a high castle wall of a smile," wholly original and yet instantly recognizable. The cadence of her sentences seduce a reader as surely as any romantic hero until you want to lay down on the nearest flat surface and simply succumb as her prose takes you, Calagon-like, away.

She also writes heroines who are deeply flawed as well as being unconventional, and will also break some of romance's rules. For instance, in Private Arrangements the hero and hero are estranged and take on other lovers.

Criticisms of her novels typically center on weak or contrived plot points, not on her prose.

Writing themes

One common theme that runs through many of her novels is of a couple whose love has been betrayed somehow in the past, and the novel starts years after that estrangement or betrayal. The events of the novel force them to recognize past faults and rekindle their love. Unrequited love has been a factor Tempting the Bride, Beguiling the Beauty, Not Quite a Husband, and Ravishing the Heiress.

Luckiest Lady in London contains strong themes of how women in Victorian England are under immense pressure to meet high ideals that can have disastrous consequences. Some have noted that Thomas can craft a beautiful story using common themes, and in this book it was a poor girl marrying a wealthy man: "Thomas then adds great dialogue and human frailty, and creates entrancing stories that are completely addictive."

In The Elemental Trilogy, the books explore the concept of identity, fate, and free will.

Bibliography

Historical Romance

The Fitzhughs
0.5
1
2
2.5
3
3.5

Heart of Blade Duology
1.
2.

The London Trilogy
1.
2.
3.

The Marsdens

The Lady Sherlock Series
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Standalone Contemporary Romance

Young Adult Fantasy

The Elemental Trilogy
1.
2.
3.

Awards and reception

 2008: Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award First Historical Romance for Private Arrangements
 2008: Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2008 for Private Arrangements
 2010: Romance Writers of America, RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for Not Quite a Husband
 2011: Romance Writers of America, RITA Award for Best Historical Romance for His At Night
 2012: Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Innovative Historical Romance for Tempting the Bride
 2012: Library Journal Librarian's Best Romance Books of the Year for Tempting the Bride
 2013: Library Journal Top 10 Romances of the year for The Luckiest Lady in London
 2014: Library Journal Top 10 Romances of the year for My Beautiful Enemy

She has received starred reviews for several titles from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal and as of 2015, has finaled four times in RITA Award contest. Her books are often cited by other romance authors as their top favorites. Says Laura Griffin, "Sherry Thomas is one of my go-to historical romance authors because of her smart characters."

References

External links

21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
American writers of young adult literature
American romantic fiction writers
Living people
21st-century American women writers
Women romantic fiction writers
RITA Award winners
Writers from Austin, Texas
1975 births
Chinese emigrants to the United States
Chinese women novelists
Chinese novelists
21st-century Chinese writers
McCombs School of Business alumni
Louisiana State University alumni
Women writers of young adult literature
Novelists from Texas
Writers from Qingdao

Sherry Thomas


Stephen R. MacNamara (born April 15, 1953, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a former chief of staff to Florida's House Speaker, the Florida Senate President and the governor of the State of Florida. He has also been an associate vice president for academic affairs at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and director for the Claude Pepper Foundation.

In 1975, MacNamara received a BS in journalism from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a member of the Gamma Theta chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity.  In 1982, MacNamara received a JD from Florida State University.  During the 1999 legislative session, MacNamara served as the first professor in residence for the Florida House of Representatives.  MacNamara served as chief of staff for the Florida House under Speaker John Thrasher and has worked with members of the U.S. House of Representatives and served as a special assistant to a U.S. Senator. He was also a special assistant to the Florida Senate in 1982, primarily involved in reapportionment, and served for a short period in 1992 as the federal government's Florida expert in that area. MacNamara was appointed Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation under Governor Bob Martinez and succeeded Governor Lawton Chiles as the director of the Collins Center for Public Policy. He has worked with or for nine Florida governors and served for three years as the associate dean of the Florida State University College of Law.

MacNamara was the general counsel and media consultant to No Casinos, Inc., founding president of the Coalition for Family Safety and founding president of the Florida Association of Health Plans. For eight years, MacNamara also assisted the Miami Herald in its annual ranking of the Florida Legislature. He has been actively involved with numerous statewide campaigns over the years.

During the 1999 legislative session, MacNamara was asked to serve as the first "professor in residence" for the Florida House of Representatives and during the 2000 session served in the position of chief of staff for the Florida House under Speaker John Thrasher. Governor Jeb Bush appointed him to the position of chairman of the Governor's Ex-Offenders Task Force to investigate ways for former prisoners to reenter society and make recommendation for changes to the governor and the Florida Legislature. In July 2009, he was named one of the four finalists for the position of chancellor to the State University System.

MacNamara has been the Associate Vice President for academic affairs at Florida State University, past executive director of both the Claude Pepper Center and the Claude Pepper Foundation, and serves as corporate secretary to the Claude Pepper Foundation.

MacNamara is the only person in Florida history to serve as Chief of Staff to Florida's House Speaker, the Florida Senate President, and the Governor of the State of Florida.

References

 Exploring FSU's Past: A Public History Project, Fall 2006
FSU CCI Directory

1953 births
University of Florida alumni
Florida State University College of Law alumni
American academic administrators
Living people

Stephen MacNamara


A budenovka () is a distinctive type of hat, an archetypal part of the Communist military uniforms of the Russian Civil War following the Russian revolution (1917–1922) and later conflicts. Its official name was the "broadcloth helmet" (шлем суконный). Named after Red Army cavalry commander Semyon Budyonny, it was also known as the "frunzenka" after the Commissar Mikhail Frunze. It is a soft, woolen hat that covers the ears and neck. The cap features a peak and folded earflaps that can be buttoned under the chin.

History

The hat was created as part of a new uniform for the Russian army by Viktor Vasnetsov, a famous Russian painter, who was inspired by the Kievan Rus' helmet. The original name was bogatyrka (богатырка) – the helmet of a bogatyr – and was intended to inspire Russian troops by connecting them with the legendary heroes of Russian folklore.

As authorised in January 1919, the budenovka was intended as a winter headdress. Made of khaki cloth, the hat included flaps capable of being pulled down and fastened under the chin. The distinctive spike was created by a stiffened coil sewn into the crown and covered by khaki cloth. The initial model with the high tip was replaced with a more practical low-tip model in 1927. A summer version briefly existed, made from lighter cloth and lacking flaps.

The hat was not part of the Red Army uniform for long, for both political and practical reasons. Although it was relatively easy to produce, it required expensive wool, did not provide good cold-weather protection and could not be worn under a helmet. It was abandoned during the army reforms of the mid-1930s, and phasing-out started in 1935. Budenovkas were still in use during the Winter War of 1939, and the failure of Soviet equipment and gear led to the introduction of various improved winter uniforms. The Soviet army was to receive the garrison cap (called the "pilotka"), which would make the helmets more comfortable, and the outdoor ushanka, the latter being based on the Finnish turkislakki army fur caps. In the Red Army, Budenovka had mostly been replaced by the start of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, but some were still used by Soviet partisans.

The budenovka became part of history as Red Army cavalry men wearing budennovkas became an iconic cultural image from the Russian civil war, together with tachankas, the Nagant revolver or Mauser C96, Maxim gun and rebelling sailors with ammunition belts slung over their chests. Stylized budyonovkas were still popular children's headwear until the late 60s.

Myth of Imperial origins
Many apocryphal accounts claim that Bogatyrkas were meant to be a part of a new uniform, so they had already been produced during World War I, but were not officially adopted. Another version, quite popular in Russia, is that bogatyrkas were designed for a military parade as a part of a "historical" stylized uniform (which also included an overcoat with "designer" cross-pieces, which evoked those worn by the Streltsy in the 16th to 18th centuries, which also were used in the Red Army to a limited extent). Some Russian historians even speculate the parade in question was a supposed victory parade in Berlin. Some view the bogatyrkas as an evolution of the bashlyk conical hoods worn by the Russian military since the mid-19th century. In reality, the uniform was designed by the Soviet government expressly for the Red Army.

Gallery

See also
 Bashlyk

References

1910s fashion
20th-century fashion
Hats
Military history of Russia
Russian clothing
Russian inventions
Soviet military uniforms

Budenovka


NHL 95 (also known as NHL Hockey 95) is an ice hockey video game developed by Electronic Arts Canada. It was released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis. The team rosters and player attributes in the game reflect that of the 1994–95 season.

Reception

GamePro gave the Genesis version a perfect score and called it "the smoothest, most entertaining hockey title ever created", citing the ability to sign, trade, and release real NHL players, the ability to create one's own fantasy players, the advanced statistics tracking, the new injury animations, the realistic sounds, and "the unbelievably blazing speed of the game". They declared the SNES version to be "just average" due to the vastly inferior controls and sound effects as compared to the Genesis version, as well as the removal of content such as shootout mode, playoff mode, fake shots, and drop-passes. They were still less enthusiastic about the Game Boy version, saying that its impressive graphics and selection of modes are outweighed by the frustration generated by the limited two-button control. They also commented, "The sprites are large and detailed, but that creates another problem. The bigger the players, the less ice that fits on the tiny screen, so you almost need a map to find the net."

Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "A must for any serious hockey fan."

Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "EA shoots and scores again with the best NHL action anywhere, and possibly the only NHL action anywhere."

In 1995, Total! ranked the game 32nd on their Top 100 SNES Games. In the same year, Flux magazine rated the Sega Genesis version 9th in its Top 100 Video Games.  They lauded the game writing: "NHL '95 is not only the epitome of hockey carts, but also one of the most brilliantly engaging sports contests in gaming history."

References

External links

1994 video games
DOS games
EA Sports games
Electronic Arts games
Game Boy games
Game Gear games
High Score Productions games
Malibu Interactive games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
NHL (video game series)
Probe Software games
Sega Genesis games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Video games developed in Canada
Video games scored by Rob Hubbard
Video games scored by Russell Lieblich
Video games set in 1994
Video games set in 1995
Video games set in Canada
Video games set in the United States
Realtime Associates games
Visual Concepts games

NHL 95


Bethel is a locality and former settlement in South Australia, west of Kapunda. Its name means Place of God.

Bethel was settled by German-speaking people in around 1854 seeking to establish a Moravian Brethren community. From 1856 there was also a group of people of Wendish origin. They also spoke German. Some of these settlers initially worshipped with the Moravians, however a new church was built named Steinthal and many worshipped there instead. The Bethel congregation severed its links with the Moravians and called a Lutheran pastor in the 1890s. The Steinthal church closed and combined in 1906. The school was closed by the state government in 1917 along with many others that taught in German.

References

Towns in South Australia
Mid North (South Australia)

Bethel, South Australia


Richard Keith Call (October 24, 1792 – September 14, 1862) was an American attorney, politician, and slave owner who served as the 3rd and 5th territorial governor of Florida. Before that, he was elected to the Florida Territorial Council and as a delegate to the U.S. Congress from Florida. In the mid-1830s, he developed two plantations in Leon County, Florida, one of which was several thousand acres in size. In 1860 he held more than 120 slaves and was the third-largest slaveholder in the county.

Early life and education
Richard Call was born to William and Helen Meade Walker Call and was the nephew of another Richard Call, a Revolutionary War hero.  Call was born in Pittsfield, Prince George County, Virginia. When Call was young, his father William and two of his brothers died. Shortly after 1800, his widowed mother brought her four surviving children and five slaves across the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky. She eventually settled on land owned by her brother Senator David Walker in Russellville, Kentucky, where Call spent most of his remaining childhood. Following the death of his mother in 1810, Call settled near another uncle in Tennessee in order to receive a formal education. In 1813 he left college to take part in the Creek War, which occurred during the period of the War of 1812 with Great Britain. Call was the uncle of Wilkinson Call, who much later became a U.S. Senator.

War and politics
Richard Call came favorably to the attention of General Andrew Jackson, a leader during the war. In 1814, Call was commissioned as a first lieutenant and went to Florida to serve as Jackson's personal aide. He returned with General Jackson in 1821 to establish the territorial government after the United States acquired Florida from Spain by the Adams-Onís Treaty. After resigning from the Army in 1822, Call decided to make Florida his home and opened a legal practice.

Call was a delegate to the 1856 Know Nothing convention in Philadelphia, but walked out over the North vs. South split over slavery (demanding that Section 12 in support of the Kansas-Nebraska act be restored).

Marriage and family
In 1824 Call married Mary Letitia Kirkman of Nashville. Her parents were enemies of Jackson and opposed the marriage. The young couple was married at General Jackson's home, the Hermitage. Of their several children born, two daughters: Ellen Call Long and Mary Call Brevard, survived to adulthood.

Florida
Call made the rest of his life in Florida. He was appointed as receiver in the land office, giving him insight into developing areas. He was elected to the Legislative Council of the territory and served as a Delegate to the U.S. Congress. In the 1830s, he bought and developed two plantations in Leon County. One had nearly 9,000 acres and the other, The Grove Plantation, was a square mile in northern Tallahassee.

On March 16, 1836, he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson as the governor of the territory. During his first term, as brigadier general of the territorial militia, he led forces in fighting the Seminole Indians, winning victories at the second and third Battles of Wahoo Swamp in the Seminole War. President Martin Van Buren replaced him as governor with Robert R. Reid on December 2, 1839, following a dispute with Federal authorities over their assistance during the war.

In the 1840 presidential campaign, Call crossed party lines to assist Whig William Henry Harrison, who won and appointed him again as governor of Florida. During this second term,  which began on March 19, 1841, Call moved the territory closer to statehood. He worked to minimize the financial problems that Florida suffered due to bank failures and a national business depression. He left office on August 11, 1844.

In 1845, Florida became a state and Call sought election as governor. His role in supporting the election of President Harrison caused him to lose.

Planter and slaveholder
During the 1830s, he had developed two plantations on land that he purchased in Leon County. Orchard Pond Plantation had more than 8,000 acres and was located north of Tallahassee. The Grove Plantation was located on Tallahassee's northern outskirts, where the Governor's Mansion was later constructed. By 1860, Call had more than 100 slaves at Orchard Pond Plantation and was the third-largest slaveholder in the county. He died at The Grove on September 14, 1862.

The Grove Plantation was purchased in 1942 by future Florida governor LeRoy Collins, and his wife Mary Call Darby Collins, a great-granddaughter of Richard Call. Collins later was elected for two terms as governor. Today the Call-Collins Mansion at the Grove is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Collinses sold the house and property to the state for use as a historic house museum.

Legacy
Several streets in Florida are named after Richard K. Call. Call Streets are in Tallahassee, Starke, Jacksonville, Hollywood, Orange City and High Springs.

The World War II Liberty ship  was named in his honor.

References

Morris, Allen and Joan Perry Morris, compilers. The Florida Handbook 2007–2008 31st Biennial Edition. p. 304.  Peninsula Publishing. Tallahassee. 2007.  Softcover  Hardcover

External links
Biographical Directory of the US Congress
Official Governor's portrait and biography from the State of Florida
Call Family and Brevard Family Papers, Florida Memory, State Library and Archives of Florida. This collection contains correspondence, writings, and other papers of Richard Keith Call and his family from 1788 to 1916.

Governors of Florida Territory
Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from Florida Territory
Members of the Florida Territorial Legislature
19th-century American politicians
1792 births
1862 deaths
United States Army personnel of the War of 1812
American military personnel of the Indian Wars
American people of the Seminole Wars
People of the Creek War
American planters
Florida Whigs
Florida Constitutional Unionists
Southern Unionists in the American Civil War
People from Russellville, Kentucky
People from Tallahassee, Florida
United States Army officers
Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves

Richard K. Call


Deus Ex is a series of role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technologies in a dystopian near-future setting, the series also includes references to real-world conspiracy theories, historical mythologies and philosophies, and provides a commentary on capitalist values and division in society. The first two games in the series were developed by Ion Storm, and subsequent entries were developed by Eidos-Montréal, following Ion Storm's closure. The Ion Storm games were published by Eidos Interactive, and all Eidos-Montréal media was published by Square Enix until 2022, when ownership was sold to Embracer Group.

The series consists of six games: Deus Ex (2000), Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003), Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011), Deus Ex: The Fall (2013),  Deus Ex Go (2016) and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016). The series has been generally well-received by critics and sold over 14 million units worldwide.

Series overview

Note: given the freedom of choice found within each game, the section below only gives the general outline of the world and the individual plotlines.

While each game has a distinct story, they are all set within the same world: an Earth of the future which has evolved into a dystopian cyberpunk society. In this setting, several organizations compete for overall control of the world. Several of the societies mentioned or shown are inspired by real-world and invented secret societies and conspiracy theories. The one constant through the series is the Illuminati, although FEMA, Majestic 12, and the Knights Templar are also featured. The main characters in the series possess artificially acquired superhuman abilities, referred to as "Augmentation."

Deus Ex takes place during 2052, while the world is facing a crisis caused by a mysterious nano-virus called the Gray Death. In the midst of the crisis, JC Denton, a nano-augmented rookie agent for the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO), is sent to eliminate terrorist cells, but ends up drawn into the various schemes of rival factions and secret societies, who are responsible for the epidemic. Once he arrives in Area 51, Denton has the choice between neutralizing technology and plunging the world into a second dark age, allying with the Illuminati, or merging with an advanced AI so as to impose a benevolent dictatorship. Invisible War takes place twenty years later, after a massive economic depression and period of war called the Collapse that was indicated by Denton's actions and a combination of possible events from the first game. The game's protagonist, Alex D, a clone of Denton, is drawn into a conflict between two seemingly opposing factions, and learns of conspiratorial factions which seek to drastically change the world, including JC Denton: Alex can perform missions for any of them, and eventually becomes able to choose which organization should rule the world.

Human Revolution is set in 2027, twenty-five years before the first title, where corporations have extended their influence past the reach of global governments and the development of bio-mechanical augmentation by a few elite and powerful companies threatens to destabilize society. The game follows Adam Jensen, the security chief for bio-tech company Sarif Industries. After a devastating attack on Sarif's headquarters which leaves him near-death, Adam is forced to undergo radical augmentation surgery, and he becomes embroiled both in the search for the attackers and the political and ethical repercussions of augmentation technology. The Fall is a parallel story, set after the spin-off novel Icarus Effect. It follows the story of Ben Saxon, an augmented former British SAS mercenary, who is on the run from his former employers, a group of augmented mercenaries that play a crucial part in the plot of Human Revolution. Mankind Divided is set in 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution in a world dealing with the consequences of the previous game's events. Regardless of the choice made by Adam at the end of Human Revolution, the Illuminati have twisted his message and augmented individuals are persecuted and feared. A disillusioned Adam works with an international taskforce (hinted to be a precursor to UNATCO in Deus Ex) designed to stop the rising wave of terrorism brought on by the disenfranchised and desperate augmented while working to uncover the perpetrators of the events that led to the current state of the world.

Gameplay
A unifying element across the series is the combination of gameplay styles from several different genres, including action role-playing, first-person shooter and stealth. Role-playing elements are mostly linked to augmenting the character in a specific way, spending skill points to create characters that can be focused either on stealth or combat, or a balance of the two. Player choice is a key feature of the series, with the actions of the player character affecting both the world around them and the way non-player characters (NPCs) react to the character: depending on which faction they belong to, NPCs might praise and be helpful, chastise, ignore, or even attack them. This emphasis on player choice is most evident in Invisible War, where players can choose the gender and skin color of the main character before starting, and have the option of running quests for and allying with four possible factions within the game.

Development history

The original Deus Ex was conceived by Warren Spector in 1994 under the working title Troubleshooter. The main drive behind Deus Ex was Spector's growing dislike for straight fantasy or science fiction video games, and the want to create something new and different. In an interview, he stated that he wanted to emulate the immersive playing styles of games like Ultima Underworld. Eventually, after being rejected by both Origin Systems (the company he was working with at the time) and Looking Glass Studios, Spector's project was picked up by Ion Storm. According to Spector, they asked him to "make the game of [his] dreams". The title Deus Ex was meant to both represent aspects of the plot in the game and to poke fun at the design techniques that were prevalent in the majority of games at the time. The game's influences included Suikoden, Half-Life and GoldenEye 007.

The second game in the series, Invisible War, was unveiled at E3 2002. The designers chose to allow the players to choose which gender their player character would be, an idea conceived for the original game. After the release of Invisible War, Ion Storm started pre-production for a Deus Ex prequel twice but neither came to fruition. This period saw both Harvey Smith, the main designer for Deus Ex, and Spector leaving Ion Storm in 2004, with the former citing health problems and the latter saying he wished to pursue his own projects. Later, because of restructuring at Eidos Interactive, Ion Storm was closed down the following year. A multiplayer-focused third game titled Deus Ex: Clan Wars was originally being made at Crystal Dynamics, but because of the commercial underperformance of  Invisible War, it was distanced from the Deus Ex series and renamed Project Snowblind.

Human Revolution was announced in 2007 under the working title Deus Ex 3. The game's creation was handled by Eidos-Montréal and the developer's parent company Square Enix, whose Visual Works department created the CG movies for the game. The game became the first entry in the series to receive downloadable content in the form of The Missing Link, an extra episode designed to fill a narrative gap in the game.

The Fall was announced in 2013, for iPhone and iPad. Set within Human Revolutions timeframe, the game was created by the previous game's core team and a team from mobile phone developer N-Fusion.

Mankind Divided was announced in 2013 (untitled at the time) when Eidos-Montréal announced that they were working on a new title in the series for PC and next-gen platforms, and that it would be the first part of a larger, transmedia project called Deus Ex: Universe. It would be revealed in 2015 with its official name accompanied by an announcement trailer. In January 2017, it was reported that a planned sequel to Mankind Divided was cancelled.

Jason Schreier of Bloomberg News reported in November 2022 that Eidos-Montréal was in the "very very early" development stages of a new Deus Ex game.

Related media

CBS Films has acquired screen rights to Deus Ex, after Eidos was purchased by Square Enix. An announcement was made for a film adaptation of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in July 2012.

In 2015, Adrian Askarieh, producer of the Hitman films, stated that he hoped to oversee a shared universe of Square Enix films with Just Cause, Hitman, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Thief, but admitted that he does not have the rights to Tomb Raider. In May 2017, the Game Central reporters at Metro UK suggested that the shared universe was unlikely, pointing out that no progress had been made on any Just Cause, Deus Ex nor Thief films.

Human Revolution inspired a tie-in comic book, a spin-off novel, and action figures. Alongside the announcement of a next-gen entry in the franchise, Eidos-Montréal announced Deus Ex: Universe, a multimedial project involving video games across all platforms, books, graphic novels and other unspecified mediums.

Deus Ex Go is a mobile game for iOS and Android systems developed by Square Enix Montréal, released in 2016. It is a puzzle-based game in the same fashion as Square Enix Montréal's previous mobile titles, Hitman Go and Lara Croft Go.

Reception

Overall, the Deus Ex series has been generally well-received by critics, with the games' storylines and freedom of choice being the main point of praise.

The first game won multiple awards from various video game publications, and was lauded by critics at the time, although its graphics came in for some criticism.

Invisible War was also well received, but did not enjoy the success of its predecessor, with many elements of its gameplay and story being targets for criticism, but many praising its branching gameplay and the high level of paths the player could take through the story.

Human Revolution received high critical praise, with many reviewers praising the open-ended nature of the game and the weight of social interaction on the outcome of events.

The Fall was more mixed to negative, with praise going to the game's attempt to bring the Deus Ex universe to a portable platform, but many other aspects coming in for both praise and criticism. The PC version was criticized for being a bad mobile-to-computer port.

Sales
Sales as of September 2011:
Deus Ex: 1.1 million plus
Deus Ex: Invisible War: 1.2 million plus
Deus Ex: Human Revolution: 2.18 million

As of May 2022, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided have sold over 12 million units combined.

References

External links

Action role-playing video games
Cyberpunk video games
Cyberpunk
Postcyberpunk
Brain–computer interfacing in fiction
Video games about cyborgs
Video games adapted into comics
Cyborgs in fiction
Prosthetics in fiction
Transhumanism in fiction
Dystopian video games
First-person shooters
Video games about genetic engineering
Science fiction video games
Stealth video games
Works about conspiracy theories
Works about the Illuminati
Video game franchises introduced in 2000
Transhumanism in video games
Embracer Group franchises
Alternate history video games

Deus Ex


Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961. It was piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first flight with people of Project Mercury. The project had the objective of putting an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and returning him safely. Shepard's mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary goal of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and re-entry.

1961 in the United States
NASA
1960s in spaceflight

Mercury-Redstone 3


Cephalion () was a Roman historian of the time of Hadrian. He wrote a History of Assyria from the time of Ninus and Semiramis to that of Alexander the Great. It was written in the Ionic dialect, and was divided into nine books, called by the names of the Muses; and as in this he aped Herodotus, so he is reported to have aimed at resembling Homer by concealing his birthplace. Hadrian banished him to Sicily where this work was composed.

References

Ancient Roman historians
1st-century Romans

Cephalion (historian)


Stack Island, also known as Crow's Nest and Island No. 94, is located in Issaquena County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi River, near Lake Providence, Louisiana and nearly 200 miles north of New Orleans.

History
Beginning, in the late 1790s, the island became associated with river pirates and counterfeiting.  Outlaws associated with Stack Island include; Samuel Mason, Little Harpe, and father and son counterfeiters Philip and Peter Alston.

Island  No. 94, or Stack Island, or, as it is sometimes called, "Crow's Nest." 170 miles above Natchez, was notorious for many years as a den for the rendezvous of horse thieves, counterfeiters, robbers, and murderers. It was a small island in the middle of "Nine Mile Reach." From thence they would sally forth, stop passing boats, murder the crew, or, if this seemed impracticable, would buy their horses, slaves, flour, whisky, etc., and pay for them.

In 1809, the last major river pirate activity, on the Upper Mississippi River, came to an abrupt end, when a group of flatboatmen, meeting at the head of the "Nine Mile Reach," decided to make a raid on Stack Island and wipe out the river pirates. They attacked at night, a battle ensued, and two of the boatmen and several outlaws were killed. The attackers captured 19 other men, a 15-year-old boy and two women. The women and teenager were allowed to leave. The remaining outlaws are presumed to have been executed.

The floods of 1811 and 1813, along with the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes, all but swept away the island leaving only a low sandbar. From the 1820s-mid-1830s, John A. Murrell, the west Tennessee bandit, may have operated on the Mississippi River, not far from  Stack Island.

References

Rothert, Otto A.  The Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock.  Cleveland, 1924; rpt. 1996

River islands of Mississippi
Landforms of Issaquena County, Mississippi
Islands of the Mississippi River

Stack Island (Mississippi River)


3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt is a 1964 comedy film starring Mamie Van Doren and Tommy Noonan, who also directed and co-wrote the film.

Plot
An out of work Method actor is hired by a stripper, a male model, and a car salesman to listen to their problems and go see a psychiatrist on their behalf; the three "nuts" lack the funds to see the psychiatrist on their own, hence the request. The actor has to pretend that he alone has all the problems of the three who hired him. The psychiatrist is naturally intrigued and begins secretly recording her sessions with him.

Cast
 Mamie Van Doren as Saxie Symbol
 Tommy Noonan as himself
 Ziva Rodann as Dr. Myrna Von
 Paul Gilbert as Joe Lynch
 John Cronin as Bruce Bernard
 Howard Koch as Dr. Otis Salverson

Background
On the bonus material section of the film's DVD release, Mamie Van Doren said that this film was inspired by the success of the sex comedy Promises! Promises! which starred Jayne Mansfield and also Tommy Noonan. She said that she was approached to play the lead in Promises! Promises!, but turned it down. Once that film became a hit for Jayne Mansfield, Noonan wrote and directed this film, with Van Doren in mind for a lead role.

References

External links

1964 films
American comedy films
1964 comedy films
1960s English-language films
1960s American films

3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt


Jelle Taeke de Boer (February 26, 1908 – October 7, 1970) was a Dutch art collector born in Meppel, Drenthe. He grew up in a poor family, with his mother dying when he was four years old, and his father an alcoholic.

During the depression of the 1930s, Jelle was having trouble raising a family, yet found motivation in Vincent van Gogh as a role model. He eventually became nearly obsessed with him, collecting literature and eventually anything attributed to him. His mission in life was to find the nearly 800 pieces that could be traced back to Van Gogh. He quickly became an expert on the subject of the painter.

Authenticity

During their lives, famous impressionists like Vincent van Gogh, Manet, Monet and Cézanne, were ostracized and many times had to trade their artworks for some food or a night's lodging.  In this way many pieces have seemed to be lost forever.  In the case of Van Gogh, perhaps even hundreds.

By 1960 Jelle de Boer accumulated nearly 400 works, 100 of which he attributed to Van Gogh. A close friend recommended that he open his gallery to the public. On June 11, 1966, he opened the doors to what he called the "Galerie d'Art" in Amsterdam. Visitors had to buy the catalogue, with illustrations of 57 exhibits.

From that exposition JD Fogarty, an American lawyer, bought four paintings which were proven to be authentic master pieces. "The Bacchanale" from Puvis de Chavannes, "Dans le Foret" from Monticelli, "L'Homme a Table" from Toulouse-Lautrec and finally the top piece, the "Infanta Margarita" from Manet. Mr. Fogarty has since spent 35 years to have these examined and authenticated as the priceless copy made by Édouard Manet. In December 2003, the international acknowledgement of the Infanta painting was again substantiated by an article in the Journal of the American Institute for Art Restoration and Preservation.

Swiss confiscation
In July 1967, Jelle de Boer showed 200 of his best works in the Hofgalerie in Lucerne, Switzerland. The Swiss art establishment filed a complaint on suspicion of fraud.  After several weeks of headlines and television reports, the police decided to confiscate the entire collection. Hofgalerie's owner Anton Achermann was arrested and put in jail – in solitary confinement. All works were removed in order to be destroyed as fakes. Jelle de Boer was never allowed to see his collection again and he died of a heart attack in 1970, 62 years of age. Anton Achermann's business and his name had been ruined by his confinement, and he decided to spend the rest of his life fighting against injustice. Achermann succeeded in releasing approximately 180 works. 21 works were to remain in the Palace of Justice till June 2002.

Resources

Notes

External links
Official Home Page , at present not more than a front-page without further information
Documentary-film on Jelle Taeke de Boer

1908 births
1970 deaths
People from Meppel
Dutch art collectors

Jelle Taeke de Boer


Pathhead () is an area of Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland. Pathhead was an independent village before it was incorporated into the Royal burgh of Kirkcaldy.

In Jan Blaeu's map of Scotland from the 17th century reference is made to the village of Peth-heed, present day Pathhead. With the Firth of Forth to the south, Kirkcaldy to the 'west', Dysart to the east, and Gallatown, Sinclairtown and Dunnikier to the north. According to Robert Brodie's Historical Sketches of Pathhead and Vicinity,
"Whatever time it may have begun to appear as a town, we know from good authority that in 1666 there were eighty houses in it. The estate had passed through a number of hands; but, notwithstanding, the feuers had evidently been increasing in numbers. In that year, John Watson, sen., went to law with the feuers for the purpose of depriving them of their privilege of taking stones and clay, fail and divet, from the whole muir of Dunnikier, which they had enjoyed since the year 1608."

The town houses the historic Ravenscraig Castle commissioned  by James II in 1460; many of the former premises of the Nairn's Linoleum Factories; and, the Manse in which both O. Douglas and John Buchan grew up. Historically, the village was a centre for nailmaking, Adam Smith's "very trifling manufacture" inspiring his division of labour principle from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). It looks out over the neglected Pathhead Sands, and industry today is centred on Hutchison's Flour Mill and the Forbo-Nairn Plant.

The historic centre of Pathhead is a trio of streets running parallel with the coast: Nether Street, Mid Street and what used to be Back Street, now Commercial Street. Water was supplied from wells at either end of Mid Street and vibrant commerce was centred on the Pathhead and Sinclairtown Reform Co-operative Society of present-day Branning Court, which was established in 1914.

Ecclesiastical life focuses on Pathhead Parish Church, a Dysart extension and in addition to the many extant churches, the village once hosted the now demolished Pathhead West, Millie Street Free Church, United Reform and the stately Loughborough Road Main Church.

Kirkcaldy YWCA has acquired the Pathhead Halls.

References

Areas of Kirkcaldy

Pathhead


Dallay is a French philatelic editor established in Paris. Dallay has published stamp catalogs since 2001.

The catalogs list postage stamps issued by France and other francophone areas:  metropolitan France, French overseas territories, French post in Andorra and Monaco. In late 2005, Dallay published a catalog for the French former colonial empire.

The catalogs provide detailed information about the stamps, such as, stamp designers' names, postal use at the time of issue, etc.

In 2004, Dallay was convicted by a court of justice of forgery and unfair competition for the use of Yvert numbering system which was first used in 1895.  In March 2005, after arbitration by the French Conseil de la Concurrence (Competition Commission), Yvert et Tellier began to license the right to print an index of Yvert stamp numbers at the back of competitors' catalogs. Dallay began using the index starting with the 2005-2006 edition.

References

Publishing companies of France
Philately of France
Stamp catalogs

Dallay


Modal analysis is the study of the dynamic properties of systems in the frequency domain. It consists of mechanically exciting a studied component in such a way to target the modeshapes of the structure, and recording the vibration data with a network of sensors. Examples would include measuring the vibration of a car's body when it is attached to a shaker, or the noise pattern in a room when excited by a loudspeaker.

Modern day experimental modal analysis systems are composed of 1) sensors such as transducers (typically accelerometers, load cells), or non contact via a Laser vibrometer, or stereophotogrammetric cameras 2) data acquisition system and an analog-to-digital converter front end (to digitize analog instrumentation signals) and 3) host PC (personal computer) to view the data and analyze it.

Classically this was done with a SIMO (single-input, multiple-output) approach, that is, one excitation point, and then the response is measured at many other points. In the past a hammer survey, using a fixed accelerometer and a roving hammer as excitation, gave a MISO (multiple-input, single-output) analysis, which is mathematically identical to SIMO, due to the principle of reciprocity. In recent years MIMO (multi-input, multiple-output)  have become more practical, where partial coherence analysis identifies which part of the response comes from which excitation source. Using multiple shakers leads to a uniform distribution of the energy over the entire structure and a better coherence in the measurement. A single shaker may not effectively excite all the modes of a structure.

Typical excitation signals can be classed as impulse, broadband, swept sine, chirp, and possibly others. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The analysis of the signals typically relies on Fourier analysis. The resulting transfer function will show one or more resonances, whose characteristic mass, frequency and damping ratio can be estimated from the measurements.

The animated display of the mode shape is very useful to NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) engineers.

The results can also be used to correlate with finite element analysis normal mode solutions.

Structures

In structural engineering, modal analysis uses the overall mass and stiffness of a structure to find the various periods at which it will naturally resonate.  These periods of vibration are very important to note in earthquake engineering, as it is imperative that a building's natural frequency does not match the frequency of expected earthquakes in the region in which the building is to be constructed. If a structure's natural frequency matches an earthquake's frequency, the structure may continue to resonate and experience structural damage.  Modal analysis is also important in structures such as bridges where the engineer should attempt to keep the natural frequencies away from the frequencies of people walking on the bridge.  This may not be possible and for this reasons when groups of people are to walk along a bridge, for example a group of soldiers, the recommendation is that they break their step to avoid possibly significant excitation frequencies.  Other natural excitation frequencies may exist and may excite a bridge's natural modes. Engineers tend to learn from such examples (at least in the short term) and more modern suspension bridges take account of the potential influence of wind through the shape of the deck, which might be designed in aerodynamic terms to pull the deck down against the support of the structure rather than allow it to lift.  Other aerodynamic loading issues are dealt with by minimizing the area of the structure projected to the oncoming wind and to reduce wind generated oscillations of, for example, the hangers in suspension bridges.

Although modal analysis is usually carried out by computers, it is possible to hand-calculate the period of vibration of any high-rise building through idealization as a fixed-ended cantilever with lumped masses.

Electrodynamics

The basic idea of a modal analysis in electrodynamics is the same as in mechanics. The application is to determine which electromagnetic wave modes can stand or propagate within conducting enclosures such as waveguides or resonators.

Superposition of modes

Once a set of modes has been calculated for a system, the response at any frequency (within certain bounds) to many inputs at many points with different time histories can be calculated by superimposing the result from each mode. This assumes the system is linear.

Reciprocity

If the response is measured at point B in direction x (for example), for an excitation at point A in direction y, then the transfer function (crudely Bx/Ay in the frequency domain) is identical to that which is obtained when the response at Ay is measured when excited at Bx. That is Bx/Ay=Ay/Bx. Again this assumes (and is a good test for) linearity. (Furthermore, this assumes restricted types of damping and restricted types of active feedback.)

Identification methods
Identification methods are the mathematical backbone of modal analysis. They allow, through linear algebra, specifically through least square methods to fit large amounts of data to find the modal constants (modal mass, modal stiffness modal damping) of the system. The methods are divided on the basis of the kind of system they aim to study in SDOF( single degree of freedom) methods and MDOF (multiple degree of freedom systems) methods and on the basis of the domain in which the data fitting takes place in time domain methods and frequency domain methods.

See also

Frequency analysis
Modal analysis using FEM
Modeshape
Eigenanalysis
Structural dynamics
Vibration
Modal testing
Seismic performance analysis

References

 D. J. Ewins: Modal Testing: Theory, Practice and Application
 Jimin He, Zhi-Fang Fu (2001). Modal Analysis, Butterworth-Heinemann. .

External links
Ewins - Modal Testing theory and practice
Free Excel sheets to estimate modal parameters
Modal Space In Our Own Little World - a tutorial by Peter Avitabile

Mechanical engineering
Earthquake engineering

Modal analysis


Jodie Alicia Williams (born 28 September 1993) is a British sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres, having begun her career concentrating on 100 and 200 metres. A prodigious junior, she is the 2009 World Youth Champion at 100 and 200 m, the 2010 World Junior Champion at 100 m, the 2011 European Junior Champion at 100 and 200 m, and the 2013 European U23 Champion at 200 m.

Williams had a five-year-long unbeaten streak of 151 races in the sprints, beginning with the start of her athletics career in 2005 and lasting until July 2010, when she was runner-up to Stormy Kendrick in the 200 m at the World Junior Championships. Williams is the British youth record holder over the 60 m, 100 m and 200 m. At the age of sixteen, she was the top-ranked British woman over 200 m in 2010.

After a difficult beginning to her senior career following injuries, in 2014 Williams won her first senior medals, representing England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games; a bronze in the 4 × 100 metres relay, and a silver in the 200 metres. Weeks later she repeated the silver medal for 200 metres at the 2014 European Championships, before winning her first senior gold medal as part of the Great Britain relay team that broke the British Record in the 4 × 100 metres relay. At the 2022 European Championships, she was also part of British 4 x 400 quartet than ran the second fastest time ever (3:21.74) by a British women's team.

Background
Williams was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire to an English father, Richard Williams, and an English mother of Trinidadian and Vincentian descent, Christine Williams. Both of her parents were county-level sprinters. Richard ran for Hertfordshire, while Christine ran for Sussex. She also has two siblings, her younger brother Ben and younger sister Hannah Williams.

Williams began to take athletics seriously when she was 13 years old.

Williams was educated at Heath Mount School and Queenswood School, Hertfordshire, before attending Dame Alice Owen's School, in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.

Williams has been described as the "sort of athlete every country is waiting for" by former UK Athletics Head Coach, Charles Van Commenee, and has also been praised by Allyson Felix, who stated "I think Jodie has great potential. She's young but she can still accomplish a lot of things".

2009 World Youth Champion
She took the England Athletics Under-20 Championships in 100 m, in a time of 11.48 s. She then went to Brixen, Italy for the World Youth Championships to take part in the 100 m and 200 m. In the 100 m semi-final, she set a world-leading time for a youth athlete of 11.40 s. In the event final she ran 0.01 s quicker to clinch her first world title, defeating Ashton Purvis and Alison Peter. In the 200 m final, she ran another youth world leading time of 23.08 s to clinch another gold medal, making her the first girl to achieve a 100/200 m sprint double at the competition.

2010 World Junior Championships
In 2010, Williams started off her season in strong form – at the Loughborough Games, she broke the 200 m British junior record when she ran 22.79 s, beating a strong field including senior Olympian Joice Maduaka. A week later, at the Bedford International Games, she broke the 100 m British junior record when she ran 11.24 s. After winning both the events at the England Athletics U20 Championships, she set off for the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, which were to be held in Moncton, Canada.

Williams carried on her unbeaten run by winning the 100 m final in a time of 11.40 s to make it 149 races unbeaten. After the race she said "I thought if I got off to a good start I'd be in with a good chance and that's just what I did. I knew it was going be a close race and I wasn't quite sure I could come out and perform again, so it's obviously a huge relief and the pressure has lifted a bit."

The next day it was the 200 m. She came first in her heat and semi final. Williams was the fastest qualifier, but suffered her first defeat in her athletics career by coming second in the final to American Stormy Kendrick. In the 4 × 100 m relay the Great Britain team was eliminated due to a bad baton exchange between Williams and Rebekah Wilson.

2011 Indoor Season & Double European Junior Champion
In 2011, Williams became the youngest winner of the UK Indoor Championships over the 60 m, since 15-year-old Sonia Lannaman won in 1971. She ran a personal best of 7.24 s in a strong British field that included Bernice Wilson and Jeanette Kwakye. This led to an automatic qualification for the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris.

This has not been the first time that Williams had achieved a standard to make a senior Great Britain team, but this was the first time she had taken her place in the senior Great Britain team.

In Paris, Williams ran 7.21 s in the European Indoor Championships 60 m final, finishing fourth. She had missed out on a medal by 0.01 s, but despite this, she said she had "surprised herself".

At the European Athletics Junior Championships, Williams won the 100 m setting a new personal best and championship record of 11.18 s, breaking the previous record by 0.03 s. She explained "I've been training better than last year and my times in training have been better than last year so I knew I had 11.1 in me, I've just not had the right conditions until today."

Within 24 hours, she also won the 200 m in a season's best of 22.94 s – despite a strong headwind of −1.5 m/s to complete a sprint double, an unprecedented achievement for a British woman. To end the championships, she ran on the fourth leg of the 4 × 100 m relay to collect a bronze medal along with her teammates.

2012 Indoor Season & Missing the 2012 London Olympics
Williams ran a season's best time of 7.29 s and finished second behind Jeanette Kwakye at the Aviva UK Indoor Championships. She was subsequently chosen to run at the IAAF Indoor World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. Before the championships began, Williams stated that her aim was to make the semi-finals at the championships. In the heat, she came 3rd with a time of 7.40 s and in the semi-final she came 5th with a time of 7.32 s and did not advance to the final.

After the World Indoor Championships, Williams announced that she was to focus on getting selected for the 100 m at the London 2012 Games. She stated, "Now it's onwards and upwards for the Olympics. I'm really concentrating on the 100m because it's always been a dream of mine to do the 100m at the Olympics."

Throughout the summer season, Williams was struggling with a number of injuries. Before the Olympic Trials, she had only raced once, which was a time of 11.87 s (-1.3), well down on her personal best at the Watford Open Graded Meeting.

At the Aviva Olympic Trials & UK Championships, Williams won her heat in 11.70 s (0.2) and came 4th in her semi-final in 11.66 s (-0.6). She had qualified for the final but was clearly not fully fit and heavily taped up. Unfortunately, Williams pulled up at the 60 m mark and appeared to pull her hamstring. With that result and injury, Williams ended her 2012 season.

Speaking about her injury-plagued 2012 season, Williams stated, "I just had so much going on and my body just started to break down. If someone had asked me before what my worst setback was, I would have said coming second at the world juniors, but this was a proper setback. That was my first real setback year. It was hard, as I'd not been used to dealing with setbacks before." She added, "It was tough to sit back and watch it, to see other people [competing], and thinking I could have been there at the home Olympics, but then I told myself I'm 18 and there's hopefully plenty more Olympics ahead of me. It wasn't nice sitting at home, and it took me a while to get over that."

2013 European Under 23 Champion & World Championships
In the aftermath of the London Olympics, Williams said, "My confidence took a knock as I didn't compete to the standard I would have liked to. It's hard not to have your confidence knocked from that. But I've had to just learn from the mistakes and move on." Commenting that she is now free of education and able to train full-time, "I don't know how I did the last few years." Talking about her expectations for the 2013 season, she said, "This year it's about getting into the senior worlds and taking it slow," she says. "But long term, the goal's still the same: to be the best in the world."

In 2013, Williams did not compete during the indoor season, to presumably continue with her rehabilitation after the 2012 injuries. Her first race after the injury at the UK Olympic Trials was an unusual distance of 250 m, in which she posted a time of 30.33 s. A few weeks later, she competed over a 150 m at the Manchester Street Games alongside Olympic Champion Allyson Felix, she ended up with an overall time of 16.81 s (-0.2) and went through the 100 m mark in 11.32 s (-0.2).

On the domestic scene, Williams comfortably clinched a 100 m/200 m double at the England Athletics U23 Championships winning the 100m at 11.56 s (0.7) and the 200 m at 23.21 s (0.5). With that, she qualified for the European Under 23 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

In Tampere, Williams continued her comeback by winning her 100 m heat and semi-final in 11.49 s (-0.2) and 11.44 s (-0.3) respectively. In the final, she came 2nd in a time of 11.42 (-0.7) behind Dafne Schippers. In the 200 m, Williams won her heat in a time of 23.09 s (-0.9). In the final, Williams posted a quicker time of 22.92 s (-0.5) to claim a gold medal at the European U23 Championships and her 6th age-group international title.

2014 Commonwealth Games and European Championships
In 2014, Williams struggled throughout the indoor season. After qualifying for the final of the British Athletics 60 m indoor final, she fainted and had to pull out. She finished her indoor season, posting a best time of 7.32 s.

On 19 April, Williams competed at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational at Gainesville, Florida. Over the 100 m, she ran a time of 11.20 s (1.3). On the same day, she competed over the 200 m and ran a personal best time of 22.76 s (0.0). That result moved her up to joint 9th on the UK all-time list for 200 m.

In July 2014, Williams took part in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow as a competitor for England.  She won her first heat in 23.42, progressing to the semi-finals where she finished second in a time of 22.64 behind Blessing Okagbare which allowed her to qualify automatically for the final.  In the final, Williams won silver in a new PB of 22.50, her first senior medal. The time moved her to equal second on the UK all-time list, alongside Abi Oyepitan and behind Kathy Cook. The race was won by Okagbare with Williams' compatriot, Bianca Williams finishing in third.

Later on during the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Williams was drafted into the 4 × 100 m relay team to contest the final. The England team that consisted of Williams, Bianca Williams, Ashlee Nelson & Asha Philip ran a time of 43.10 s to win a bronze medal behind Jamaica and Nigeria.

In August 2014, Williams took part in the 2014 European Championships in Zurich. She won her heat in 22.88s, progressing to the semi-finals, where she also won in a time of 22.90s. In the final, placed in lane 4, Williams won a silver in a new PB of 22.46s, her second individual senior medal in as many weeks. The time took her to second on the UK all-time list, behind Kathy Cook. The race was won by Dafne Schippers with France's Myriam Soumare finishing in third.

British Championships
Jodie became British champion for the second time when winning the 200 metres event at the 2019 British Athletics Championships and her sister Hannah then won the same title at the 2020 British Athletics Championships.

Outside Athletics
Williams has been used on many advertising campaigns, most recently the National Portrait Gallery 'Road to 2012: Aiming High' exhibition also featured Williams amongst many other athletes.

Williams has come runner-up to Tom Daley twice (2009 & 2010) for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

Major competitive record

Personal bests

References

External links

1993 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Welwyn Garden City
English female sprinters
British female sprinters
Olympic female sprinters
Olympic athletes for Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain
World Youth Championships in Athletics winners
European Athletics Championships winners
European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners
British Athletics Championships winners
English sportspeople of Trinidad and Tobago descent
People educated at Heath Mount School

Jodie Williams


Rolf Thommessen (22 July 1879 – 9 December 1939) was a Norwegian journalist, newspaper editor and politician. He edited the newspaper Tidens Tegn from 1917 to 1938. He was a member of the Parliament of Norway from 1928 to 1930, representing the Liberal Left Party ().

Personal life
Rolf Thommessen was born in Kristiania as the son of newspaper editor Ola Thommessen (1851–1942) and his wife Helga Mathæa Clausen (1854–1931). He was a first cousin of Øystein Thommessen and a granduncle of musician Olav Anton Thommessen. He was married to Anne Dobloug, daughter of Mikkel Dobloug, between 1900 and 1938. He lived in Sandvika and Evje most of his life, and in Risør for a period before his death. He died in Oslo in 1939.

For some time he owned the sailing yacht Wyvern (launched in 1897), which he renamed Havfruen ("the mermaid").

Professional career

Art historian
Thommessen finished his secondary education in 1897. He then studied art history in Kristiania, under Lorentz Dietrichson, and at the British Museum and in Paris and Berlin. He worked as an art critic for the newspaper edited by his father, Verdens Gang, from 1901 to 1910. He received the dr.philos. degree from the University of Kristiania in 1908, with the thesis Kunstneren i den græske kunst, about Greek art. He issued several books on art history, and worked as an assistant at the Museum of History from 1908 to 1910 and as a research fellow at the university from 1909 to 1910.

Newspaper editor

When Thommessen's father founded the newspaper Tidens Tegn in 1910, Thommessen joined as editorial secretary, as co-editor from 1915, and took over as editor-in-chief from 1917. He edited the newspaper until 1938, and was also chairman of the board. Tidens Tegn was one of the largest newspapers in Norway in the 1920s, with many influential contributors. Due to the political developments, however, Tidens Tegn lost its popularity during the 1930s. In 1938 Thommessen was forced to resign as editor, and sell his shares.

Politics and organisations
Thommessen chaired Norsk Luftseiladsforening from 1925 to 1926, and was an important supporter of Roald Amundsen's polar expeditions. He was also a board member of the National Gallery of Norway from 1904 to 1908, and of the Norwegian Press Association from 1910 to 1918.

He was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1927, representing the constituency Akershus and the Liberal Left Party. He was vice mayor of Bærum from 1929 to 1931. From 1933 he chaired his party, but the Liberal Left Party soon faded away.

He was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. A road in Evje in Bærum was named after him in 1949.

References

1879 births
1939 deaths
Writers from Oslo
Norwegian art historians
University of Oslo alumni
Norwegian newspaper editors
Members of the Storting
Free-minded Liberal Party politicians
20th-century Norwegian politicians
Bærum politicians

Rolf Thommessen


Algirdas Gediminas Šemeta (born 23 April 1962) is a Lithuanian economist and politician.

Biography
A native of Vilnius, Algirdas Šemeta graduated in 1985 from Vilnius University's Faculty of Economic Cybernetics and Finance with a degree as economist-mathematician. His previous position has been as Lithuania's Minister of Finance, which he fulfilled from December 2008 to June 2009, having already served in the post a decade earlier, from February 1997 to June 1999. Šemeta has minimal business experience in the private sector, his career to date has been concentrated in public office as a civil servant.

He was European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud from July 2009 till November 2014. Following his Commission nomination by center-right Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, Šemeta has affiliated himself with the European People's Party (EPP). Since December 2014 Šemeta is Business Ombudsman in Ukraine.

References

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1962 births
Homeland Union politicians
Lithuanian European Commissioners
Living people
Ministers of Finance of Lithuania
Vilnius University alumni
Ombudsmen in Ukraine

Algirdas Šemeta


Asiago is a mountain town in the Northern Italian alps and the birthplace of the world-famous Asiago cheese. The town is located on a plateau at an altitude of 3800 feet (1000 meters) and has a population of more than 6000 people. Asiago is also known as the site of a major battle during the first World War and is home to a war memorial and observatory. Its current economy is based on farming, dairy production and tourism. Roads connect Asiago to the cities of Verona, Venice and Trento and their international airports.

Geography
The town of Asiago is located at an altitude of 3280 feet (1,000 meters), and it covers an area of 1.8 square miles (2.95 Km2). Asiago is the largest city on its plateau. The land is flat with low hills, and it's surrounded by the Brenta and the Astico rivers. The land is covered by forests or it is used as pasture.
The temperature varies from 25 °F to 71 °F (-4C to 21C). The warmer season is between June and September with an average daily high temperature around 64 °F(18C). The cold season is from November to March, with an average daily high temperature below 43 °F(6C). Most of the snow falls between November and April with an average snow depth between 0.1 and 0.4 inches.

History

Foundation
Humans were present in the area since Paleolithic times. Inside of local caves, evidence of the presence of first settlers, such as weapons, stone tools and cave painting, have been documented.
In the following centuries, the plateau became the settlement for different peoples like Bavarians, Scandinavians and Cimbri. These different cultures have left their signs in the local language and traditions.
Asiago and the six other towns on the plateau formed an alliance and shared a common government between 1310 and 1807. The alliance was an autonomous state and an ally of the Republic of Venice. After 1807, Asiago became part of the Republic of Venice and then of the Italian kingdom.

World War I
During World War I (1915-1918), the plateau was the place of many battles between the Austro-Hungarians and Italians.
The deadliest battle took place on the 15th of May 1916 and lasted for two weeks. For the first time on the Italian front, the Austro-Hungarian army used toxic gas. The battle caused the deaths of 15,000 Italian and 10,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers. The civilian population of Asiago was evacuated and the town was destroyed as the result of heavy bombing. After the end of the war, some of the original population returned to Asiago and rebuilt the town.
The famous American writer Ernest Hemingway spent time in Asiago during the first World War as an ambulance driver. In 1922, he wrote a poem inspired by this experience and called "Arsiero, Asiago".

Economy
The traditional economy was based on farming and on the use of other natural resources taken from the forest. More recently this has been replaced by the year-round tourism industry and by small manufacturing and food processing factories.

Asiago offers many outdoor activities such as hiking and skiing. There are 500 km of ski slopes and 260 km of biking trails (the Plateau Grand Tour). Many tourists are also attracted by the opportunity to taste local foods and visit historical sites from the first World War. Since 2003, the number of tourists has been decreasing every year. In 2015, 174,139 tourists visited Asiago.

Asiago cheese
Asiago is the birthplace and the place of production of Asiago cheese. Production dates back to the 11th century. During the first World War the method of production was changed in order to feed the growing number of soldiers present on the plateau. This led to the development of the modern version of Asiago cheese, which is now popular around the world. The town of Asiago is the fifth major site of cheese production in Italy, exporting primarily to Switzerland and the United States. The production and origin of Asiago cheese are established under European union rules and guaranteed by a P.D.O. (protected designation of origin) label.

Population
In 2016, the population of Asiago was 6,426. Following a common trend in Italian mountain communities, the population has decreased in number and has become older in age in the last few decades.

Transportation
Asiago is connected by road to the cities of Vicenza, Trento and Bassano. Regular bus services connect Asiago to near towns and cities. The closest international airports are the ones of Verona and Venice. Asiago is also the site of a small airfield, which is a popular destination for flying in from Northern Italy, Southern Germany and Southern Austria.

Places of interest
The observatory of Asiago is home to the largest optical telescope in Italy, and it is operated by the University of Padua. It was built in 1942, and it's located at an altitude of 3428 feet (1.045 meters).

The Asiago War Memorial is a monument containing the bones of about 60,000 Italian and Austrian-Hungarian soldiers who died on the plateau during World War I. It was built in 1936 and opened by Mussolini in 1937. It is still an important national crypt and the place of official national celebrations.

The town hall was rebuilt in 1929 after it was destroyed during the first World War. It is made of white and red marble and decorated with Murano glass and mosaic. Its tower houses a 1600 kg bell that is 139 cm in diameter.

Forte Interrotto is a fort overlooking the town. It was built in 1887 at an altitude of 4566 feet and was originally used as military barracks. During the first World War, it became a fortress and was occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces on the 22th of May 1916. Its ruins are now a popular hiking destination.

References

Towns in Vicenza

Asiago


William James "Buster" Hoover (April 12, 1863 – April 16, 1924) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball. He played for the Philadelphia Keystones, Philadelphia Quakers, Baltimore Orioles, and Cincinnati Reds between 1884 and 1892. Described as a "long legged heavy hitter", Hoover was among his league's leaders in several offensive statistics during his 12-year professional baseball career. In 127 career major league games, Hoover had a batting average of .288. He stood  and weighed .

Career
Hoover was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1863. He started his baseball career in 1883, playing for the Reading Actives and Wilmington Quicksteps of the Interstate Association.

The following season, Hoover joined the Union Association's Philadelphia Keystones and made his major league debut on April 17, 1884. The Keystones played 67 games, and Hoover appeared in 63 of them, mostly in left field. Hoover was one of the best players in the Union Association that year. He hit .364 to finish second in the league batting race and also ranked third in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. However, he was the only player on the Keystones "who was any offensive threat". The team folded in August, before the end of the season. Hoover then signed with the National League's Philadelphia Quakers. In 10 games with them, he batted .190.

Hoover played for the Eastern League's Washington Nationals in 1885. In 1886, he played 42 games for the Wilkes-Barre club in the Pennsylvania State Association and 40 games for the American Association's Baltimore Orioles. With Wilkes-Barre, he played well, batting .331 with seven home runs and 52 runs scored. He also led the league with a .589 slugging percentage. With the Orioles, he hit just .217.

Hoover spent the entire 1887 season in Wilkes-Barre. Again, he dominated the Pennsylvania State Association, hitting .448 and leading the entire league in both hits (90) and total bases (134).

In 1888, he began the season with the Philadelphia Quakers of the National League but did not appear in any games. After he was released, one newspaper account noted: "'Buster' Hoover, the long legged heavy hitter that Harry Wright expected so much of early in the season, is now with the Albany club." Hoover bounced around the minor leagues over the next few seasons. He played for the International Association's Albany Governors in 1888, the International League's Toronto Canucks in 1889, and the Western Association's Kansas City Blues in 1890 and 1891.

In late 1892, Hoover received his final shot in the majors with the Cincinnati Reds. He lasted 14 games and batted .176. In 1893, Hoover batted .322 in the Southern Association. He ended his professional baseball career in 1894 in the Eastern League.

Hoover died in Jersey City, New Jersey, at the age of 61.

References

External links

1863 births
1924 deaths
Major League Baseball outfielders
Philadelphia Keystones players
Philadelphia Quakers players
Baltimore Orioles (AA) players
Cincinnati Reds players
Minor league baseball managers
Reading Actives players
Wilmington Quicksteps (minor league) players
Washington Nationals (minor league) players
Wilkes-Barre (minor league baseball) players
Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons players
Albany Governors players
Toronto Canucks players
Kansas City Blues (baseball) players
Rochester Flour Cities players
Providence Grays (minor league) players
Augusta Electricians players
Birmingham Grays players
Birmingham Blues players
Birmingham Pensacola players
Albany Senators players
Troy Washerwomen players
Scranton Indians players
Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players
19th-century baseball players
Baseball players from Philadelphia

Buster Hoover


David Scully (born 7 August 1965) is an English rugby union former player who was part of the England 7's squad that won the 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens in which he won the 'moment of the tournament' for a crunching tackle on Fijian Mesake Rasari.

Playing career
Dave Scully started his career at his local club of Wheatley Hills before joining Wakefield RFC in 1986.
It was at Wakefield that he came to prominence, playing for Yorkshire, North of England (captaining them against the All Blacks in 1993), Barbarians, England B and England 7's. However, he never played for the full England side.

He left Wakefield in 1998 to join Rotherham before moving onto Otley, then Doncaster and Sheffield Tigers. His current club is Wheatley Hills.

He has made over 350 league appearances  and is in a small group of players to score 100 league tries.

Scully is a full-time fire fighter.

References

External links
 Scully joins 100 try club
 350 league appearances
 Doncaster Knights squad
 Scully joins Sheffield Tigers

1965 births
Living people
Rugby union players from Doncaster
Barbarian F.C. players
English rugby union players
Rotherham Titans players
Wakefield RFC players
England international rugby sevens players

Dave Scully


The Hall Cycle and Plating company was a maker of Cycle cars in Waco, Texas from 1914-1915.

History

In 1914, a man named John B. Fisher designed a cyclecar for the Hall Cycle and Plating Company. It had an underslung frame. Lawrence Hall, president of the company, did a test run from Waco to Dallas, covering 104 miles while consuming only 2.5 gallons of gasoline. The cyclecar had a 4-cylinder, 18 hp engine(the prototype only had a two-cylinder engine) with a 100" wheelbase. The company reorganized in 1915 as the Hall Motor car Company. Production ended in 1915, and Lawrence Hall moved to Los Angeles.

References

Cyclecars
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States
Manufacturing companies based in Texas
Companies based in Waco, Texas
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1914
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1915
1914 establishments in Texas
1915 disestablishments in Texas
Defunct companies based in Texas

Hall (cyclecar)


Road safety is safety in using roads. Most years, traffic collisions kill about a million people worldwide. There are ways to make this less common, so roads will be safer for motor traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. It involves rules such as speed limits and those about drinking and driving, and control systems such as traffic lights and crossings. These are used to increase safety and reduce the chance of accidents.

References

Road transport
Safety

Road traffic safety


Herbert Busemann (12 May 1905 – 3 February 1994) was a German-American mathematician specializing in convex and differential geometry.  He is the author of Busemann's theorem in Euclidean geometry and geometric tomography.  He was a member of the Royal Danish Academy and a winner of the Lobachevsky Medal (1985), the first American mathematician to receive it.  He was also a Fulbright scholar in New Zealand in 1952.

Biography
Herbert Busemann was born in Berlin to a well-to-do family.  His father, Alfred Busemann, was a director of Krupp, where Busemann also worked for several years.  He studied at University of Munich, Paris, and Rome. He defended his dissertation in University of Göttingen in 1931, where his advisor was Richard Courant. He remained in Göttingen as an assistant until 1933, when he escaped Nazi Germany to Copenhagen (he had a Jewish grandfather).  He worked at the University of Copenhagen until 1936, when he left to the United States. There, he got married in 1939 and naturalized in 1943.  He had temporary positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Johns Hopkins University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Smith College, and eventually became a professor in 1947 at University of Southern California.  He advanced to a distinguished professor in 1964, and continued working at USC until his retirement in 1970.  Over the course of his work at USC, he supervised over 10 Ph.D. students.

He is the author of six monographs, two of which were translated into Russian.
He received Lobachevsky Medal  in 1985 for his book The geometry of geodesics.

Busemann was also an active mathematical citizen.  At different times, he was the president of the California chapter of Mathematical Association of America, and a member of the council of the American Mathematical Society.

Busemann was also an accomplished linguist; he was able to read and speak in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Danish.  He could also read Arabic, Latin, Greek and Swedish. He translated a number of papers and monograph, most notably from Russian, a rare language at the time.  He was also an accomplished artist and had several public exhibitions of his Hard-edge paintings].  He died in Santa Ynez, California on February 3, 1994, at the age of 88.

Busemann's Selected papers are now available in two volumes (908 and 842 pages), with introductory biographical material and commentaries on his work, and published by edited by Athanase Papadopoulos, Springer Verlag, 2018.

Books
 Herbert Busemann, Selected Works, (Athanase Papadopoulos, ed.) Volume I, , XXXII, 908 p., Springer International Publishing, 2018.
 Herbert Busemann, Selected Works, (Athanase Papadopoulos, ed.) Volume II, , XXXV, 842 p., Springer International Publishing, 2018.
 Introduction to algebraic manifolds, Princeton University Press, 1939.
 with Paul J. Kelly: Projective geometry and projective metrics, Academic Press, 1953, Dover 2006.
 Convex Surfaces, Interscience 1958, Dover, 2008.
 Geometry of Geodesics, Academic Press 1955, Dover, 2005.
 Metric methods in Finsler spaces and in the foundations of geometry, Princeton University Press, Oxford University Press, 1942.
 with Bhalchandra Phadke: Spaces with distinguished geodesics, Dekker, 1987.
 Recent synthetic differential geometry, Springer 1970.

See also
 Blaschke–Busemann measure
 Busemann function
 Busemann–Petty problem
 Busemann -space
 Geodesic bicombing

Notes

References
 Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze, Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany: Individual Fates and Global Impact, p. 107, Princeton University Press, 2009.
 Richard J. Gardner, Geometric tomography, p. 309, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
 "Professor as SC plans study in New Zealand", Los Angeles Times, 6 January 1952, p. 22.
 "Professors write Geometry Textbook", Los Angeles Times 10 August 1953, p. 1.
 "Herbert Busemann, Oil Paintings", Los Angeles Times, 18 January 1976, p. M59.
 Lee Dembart, "An Unsung Geometer Keeps to His Own Plane", Los Angeles Times, 14 July 1985, p. H3.
  "Herbert Busemann; USC Emeritus Professor of Mathematics", Los Angeles Times, 19 March 1994, p. 24.
  Athanase Papadopoulos, "Herbert Busemann", Notices of the AMS, vol. 65, No. 3, March 2018, p. 936-938.

External links

 Herbert Busemann's biography (in Spanish).

20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century German mathematicians
Differential geometers
University of Southern California faculty
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
University of Paris alumni
1905 births
1994 deaths
German expatriates in France
German expatriates in Italy

Herbert Busemann


On the Spot is a 1930 Chicago-set play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. Wallace was inspired by a visit to the United States and, in particular, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Known as a prolific author, he reportedly dictated the manuscript for the play in just four days. It was his greatest theatrical success.

It lasted for 342 performances on its original West End run. Beginning at Wyndham's Theatre, it later transferred to the Cambridge Theatre. The lead role of a Capone-like gangster Tony Perelli was played by Charles Laughton with Emlyn Williams as his henchman and Gillian Lind playing Perelli's Chinese mistress. Other cast members included Roy Emerton, Carol Reed, Dennis Wyndham and Gladys Frazin.

It transferred to America in October 1930 and ran for 167 performances at the Forrest Theatre in New York. In 1931, Wallace novelised the play using the same title.

Adaptation
It was adapted as an American film Dangerous to Know (1938). Directed by Robert Florey for Paramount Pictures it starred Anna May Wong and Akim Tamiroff. The play was adapted for radio by Raymond Raikes, and broadcast on BBC Radio 4, on 27 March 1976, with Peter Woodthorpe as Tony Perelli and Denise Bryer as Minn Lee.

References

Bibliography
 Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
 Kabatchnik, Amnon. Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and Detection : an Annotated Repertoire. Rowman & Littlefield, 2012.
 Wearing, J. P. The London Stage 1930–1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.

1930 plays
British plays adapted into films
Plays by Edgar Wallace
Plays about organized crime
Plays set in Chicago
West End plays

On the Spot (play)


Agde (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in Southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi.

Location

Agde is located on the Hérault river,  from the Mediterranean Sea, and  from Paris. The Canal du Midi connects to the Hérault river at the Agde Round Lock ("L'Écluse Ronde d'Agde") just north of Agde, and the Hérault flows into the Mediterranean at Le Grau d'Agde. Agde station has high speed rail connections to Paris and Perpignan, and regional services to Narbonne, Montpellier and Avignon.

History

Foundation

Agde (525 BCE) is one of the oldest towns in France, after Béziers (575 BCE) and Marseille (600 BCE).
Agde (Agathe Tyche, "good fortune") was a 5th-century BCE Greek colony settled by Phocaeans from Massilia. The Greek name was Agathe (). The symbol of the city, the bronze Ephebe of Agde, of the 4th century BCE, recovered from the fluvial sands of the Hérault, was joined in December 2001 by two Early Imperial Roman bronzes, of a child and of Eros, which had possibly been on their way to a villa in Gallia Narbonensis when they were lost in a shipwreck.

Development

In the history of Roman Catholicism in France, the Council of Agde was held 10 September 506 at Agde, under the presidency of Caesarius of Arles. It was attended by thirty-five bishops, and its forty-seven genuine canons dealt "with ecclesiastical discipline". One of its canons (the seventh), forbidding ecclesiastics to sell or alienate the property of the church from which they derived their living, seems to be the earliest mention of the later system of benefices.

Population

Agde's inhabitants are called Agathois.

Architecture

Agde is known for the distinctive black basalt used in local buildings such as the cathedral of Saint Stephen, built in the 12th century to replace a 9th-century Carolingian edifice built on the foundations of a fifth-century Roman church.

Bishop Guillaume fortified the cathedral's precincts and provided it with a 35-metre donjon (keep). The Romanesque cloister of the cathedral was demolished in 1857.

Jewish community
It is assumed that a Jewish community was established in the town around the sixth century AD. During the council of Agde, assembled by the Catholic church in 506 AD, Christian laymen and ecclesiastics were prohibited from eating with Jews or hosting them. This prohibition suggests that the town Jews held good relations with their town neighbours. It is also assumed that the Jewish community was never large, since it did not own a cemetery and buried their dead in Béziers, three miles away.

The Jewish name of the city was Agdi, or Akdi (אגדי). During World War II, about two thousand Jews from Germany and Austria were sent to a labour camp near the town; most were deported on 24 August 1942.

Sport and leisure

Agde has a football club RCO Agde who play at the Stade Louis Sanguin. They currently play in the Championnat de France amateur 2.

Agde also has a rugby club, Rugby Olympique Agathois (ROA), who play in the French Federale 1 competition.

Twin towns - sister cities

See also
 Cap d'Agde, the seaside resort of Agde
 Ancient Diocese of Agde
List of traditional Greek place names
Communes of the Hérault department

References

External links

 Agde (official site)
 Agde has one of the biggest naturist centres of Europe
 Richard Stillwell, ed. Princeton Encyclopædia of Classical Sites, 1976: "Agatha (Agde) Hérault, France"
 Recent undersea find of bronzes

Communes of Hérault
Massalian colonies
Judaism in France
Languedoc
Hérault communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia
Phocaean colonies

Agde