James Lester Kern (born March 15, 1949) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. A three time American League All-Star (1977–1979), Kern went 13–5 with a 1.57 ERA and 29 saves out of the Texas Rangers' bullpen in  to finish fourth in American League Cy Young Award balloting.

Career

Cleveland Indians
In , Kern signed with the Cleveland Indians out of Midland High School in Midland, Michigan, at eighteen years old as a free agent with an overpowering fastball. He played six years in the minor leagues and winter ball seasons in Mexico, then missed the 1969 baseball season serving in the United States Marine Corps. In 1974 in AAA Oklahoma City of the American Association, he won the Allie Reynolds Award  as the best pitcher in the league with a 17–7 record, striking our 220 batters in 189 innings  and 19 strike outs in a nine inning game.  During the 1973 and 1974 minor league seasons Kern was 28–14, striking out a total of 402 batters in 355 innings. He had an even 47–47 record over six seasons as a starting pitcher in the Indians' farm system when he received a September call-up in . In his major league debut, he pitched a complete game in which he held the Baltimore Orioles to just one run. The Indians were, however, held scoreless by Orioles pitcher Mike Cuellar.

Kern had a 1.82 ERA as a reliever in  when he was moved into the starting rotation. He was 1–2 with a 4.79 ERA as a starter when the Indians traded Gaylord Perry to the Texas Rangers for Jim Bibby, Rick Waits, Jackie Brown and $100,000 on June 13. In order to make room on the major league roster for the two additional pitchers acquired, Kern was optioned to the triple A Oklahoma City 89ers. Recalled in late June, he strained a muscle in his shoulder in July and sat out the remainder of the season.

He returned to the Indians in  as a full-time reliever, making just two spot starts, and was 10–7 with a 2.37 ERA and fifteen saves. Kern and Dave LaRoche were named as the best relief in Indian history  after the 2016 season.  Early in the  season, the Indians traded closer LaRoche to the California Angels, opening the door for Kern to inherit the job. He was 2–3 with seven saves and a 2.84 ERA in his new job at the All-Star break and was named, along with teammate Dennis Eckersley, to his first All-Star squad, pitching a perfect inning, striking out two. For the season, he finished with a 10–7 record and fourth in the American League with eighteen saves. He was the Indians' sole representative at the  game in San Diego.

Texas Rangers
Kern and Larvell Blanks were traded to the Rangers for Bobby Bonds and Len Barker on October 3, 1978. He was dominant from the moment he arrived in Texas. He was 10–2 with a 1.48 ERA and sixteen saves at the  All-Star break to earn his third consecutive selection to the AL squad. Kern came into the game in the seventh inning with the American League leading 6–5, then gave up an eighth inning home run to the New York Mets' Lee Mazzilli, allowing the National League to tie the score. Mazzilli returned to the plate an inning later with the bases loaded and two outs. AL manager Bob Lemon pulled Kern in favor of New York Yankees ace Ron Guidry. Guidry walked Mazzilli, allowing the winning run to score, and giving Kern the loss.

Kern remained hot in the second half, going 3–3 with a 1.72 ERA and thirteen saves. His 29 saves for the season were second only to the Minnesota Twins' Mike Marshall and his 13 wins were the most by a reliever. He was selected The Sporting News and Rolaids Relief Man of the Year, as well as being named the right-handed pitcher on The Sporting News AL All-Star Team that season. Kern was named the American League pitcher of the month for May 1979 going 4–0 with four saves, striking out 31 in 14 games and posting a 0.61 ERA. He was 4th in the balloting for the Cy Young Award and 11th for the balloting of the Most Valuable Player Award while being named the Texas Ranger Pitcher of the Year. Kern pitched 143 innings over 71 games in 1979, both career highs.

Working in the first year of a 5-year contract in 1980, he tried to pitch through a hyper extended elbow sustained in spring training and then a neck injury during the season, going 3–11 with two saves and a 4.83 ERA in 38 games before going on the disabled list for the rest of the season in July.

Injuries sustained during the 1980 season limited Kern to just seven innings pitched in the first half of the strike shortened  season. However, he returned strong in the second half, going 1–2 with a 2.74 ERA and five saves in seventeen appearances. At the 1981 Winter meetings, he was traded to the New York Mets for Dan Boitano and Doug Flynn, however, before he could make an appearance with his new club, he was packaged with Greg Harris and Alex Treviño, and sent to the Cincinnati Reds for slugger George Foster.

Kern holds a number of all-time single season relief records for his 1979 season with the Texas Rangers including most wins out of the bullpen in a season with 13, the most inning pitched with 143 and the most strike outs with 136.  He also holds the lowest earned run average in the history of the Texas Rangers for a pitcher with 100 or more innings in a season (1.57 ERA) and the lowest career earned run average for a pitcher with 200 or more innings (2.59 ERA).  Kern also owns the second longest consecutive scoreless innings streak in Ranger history with 24 innings.  In three All-Star appearances, Kern pitched a total of 4 innings giving up two runs while striking out five.

Journeyman
Kern pitched respectably in Cincinnati, in 1982 going 3–5 with a 2.84 ERA and two saves, however, he was unhappy with the Reds' rule against facial hair, and asked to be traded. The Reds accommodated Kern's wish, and sent him to the Chicago White Sox for two minor leaguers. After finishing out the  season in Chicago, Kern made just one appearance in the second game of the  season before he was placed on the disabled list after tearing two tendons and a ligament and dislocating his elbow. Kern accused the White Sox of using him improperly by asking him to throw in a game after an injection, causing him to tear two tendons. He was operated on in April and sat the summer out on the disabled list.  The White Sox released him in March 1984 while he was still on the disabled list.

Decimated by injuries to their pitching staff, the Philadelphia Phillies signed Kern in June  while he was rehabilitating. Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates in extra innings, Kern gave up seven runs (six earned) in just one inning of work to take the loss in his first appearance in 14 months with his new team. He was released on July 27 to make room on the roster for Tug McGraw, who was returning from a shoulder injury. Kern signed a minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers shortly afterwards and was called up that September, appearing in six games without giving up a run.

He also appeared in five games with the Brewers early in the  season. He pitched three hitless innings in his first game of the season, but pitched poorly afterwards and was released on June 17 with a 6.55 ERA. The highlight of his 1985 season was when he pulled off an unassisted double play against the Seattle Mariners on May 6. He became the first pitcher to pull off this feat since Jim Umbarger in 1975.

Kern returned to the Cleveland Indians as a non-roster invitee to spring training in February . Kern made the opening day roster but on May 12, Kern suffered one of the worst outings of his career against the Texas Rangers. In a little over an inning pitched, Kern gave up eight runs (seven earned) to see his ERA balloon from 3.46 to 7.53. On his way off the field, frustrated Indians fans began throwing garbage on the field, just missing Kern with a bottle. Kern's response was, "I knew they couldn't hit me as they were one of my fans". Kern was released and retired on June 17.

Retirement
Kern is an outdoor enthusiast, and in 1987, he started the Emu Outfitting Company, which was named after his major league nickname, the "Amazing" Emu  in Arlington, Texas, an outdoor adventure company that books and operates hunting, fishing, and photographic trips in North and South America. From 1998 to 2014, he was general manager of the American offices of two peacock bass fishing operations in Brazil's Amazon and general manager of three fishing and hunting lodges in Southwestern Alaska.

Kern also did color commentary for college and Major League Baseball games for Fox Sports, Home Sports Entertainment, and Prime Sports. In 1994, he created and hosted Nolan Ryan's First Spring Turkey Hunt for Fox Sports.

In 2006, Kern was named as one of the greatest Texas Rangers pitchers of all time.

In 2013, FanGraphs named Kern as the best relief pitcher in baseball history over a given 4-year period of time in their January 25 article "Jim Kern's Four Incredible Seasons." From 1976 to 1979, he won 42 games and registered 75 saves out of the bullpen, and he averaged more than 100 innings per year and 1.88 innings pitched per game appearance.

References

External links

1949 births
Living people
American expatriate baseball players in Canada
American League All-Stars
Baseball players from Michigan
Chicago White Sox players
Cincinnati Reds players
Cleveland Indians players
El Paso Diablos players
Elmira Pioneers players
Gulf Coast Indians players
Major League Baseball pitchers
Milwaukee Brewers players
Oklahoma City 89ers players
People from Gladwin, Michigan
Philadelphia Phillies players
Reno Silver Sox players
Rock Hill Indians players
San Antonio Brewers players
Sumter Indians players
Texas Rangers players
Vancouver Canadians players
Wichita Aeros players

Jim Kern


Kakutani's theorem is a result in geometry named after Shizuo Kakutani.  It states that every convex body in 3-dimensional space has a circumscribed cube, i.e. a cube all of whose faces touch the body.  The result was further generalized by Yamabe and Yujobô to higher dimensions, and by Floyd to other circumscribed parallelepipeds.

References

.
.
.

Theorems in convex geometry

Kakutani's theorem (geometry)


The Schnütgen Museum (Museum Schnütgen in German) in Cologne is devoted to Christian religious art, mainly medieval, but some parts of the collection, such as its textiles and prints, extend from antiquity to the modern period.  In 1906, the collection of Alexander Schnütgen was donated to the city, and the collection has continued to expand, so that until the opening of a new building in 2010, only about 10% of its 13,000 items could be displayed. Now some 2,000 objects are on display in 1900 sq. metres of gallery space, with an additional 1300 sq. metres for special exhibitions.  Schnütgen (1843–1918) was a Catholic priest and theologian; according to the museum website "Up to now people tell stories about his zealous and sometimes crafty collection tactics".

Since 1956, the museum has occupied the large Romanesque church of St. Cäcilien, founded in 881 for noble canonesses, with the present building dating from 1130–60, with murals from about 1300.  An annex built by architect Karl Band was added in the 1950s, and new buildings (part of the Kulturquartier, "Culture quarter") opened in 2010. Highlights of the collection include a Romanesque tympanum from St Cecilia's itself, several large wooden crucifixes, including the 11th century Cross of St George's, as well as a large collection of early bronze ones, including the only other work generally attributed to Rainer of Huy apart from his Liège baptismal font.  The museum has a late Carolingian evangeliary of 860–880, and a single leaf from the English St Albans Psalter.  The "Comb of St Heribert" is a 9th-century ivory liturgical comb, and the "Harrach Diptych" a Carolingian ivory of about 810 (on loan from the Ludwig collection).  Ivories, stained glass, textiles including vestments, metalwork and paintings are all well represented.

Alexander Schnütgen had organised influential exhibitions of his collection while it was still private, and from the 1970s the museum (using extra exhibition spaces) organized a series of landmark exhibitions of medieval art:

 Rhein und Maas (1972, Mosan art)
 Monumenta Annonis – Köln und Siegburg. Weltbild und Kunst im hohen Mittelalter (1975)
 Die Parler und der schöne Stil 1350–1400, Europäische Kunst unter den Luxemburgern (1978)
 Ornamenta Ecclesia – Kunst und Künstler der Romanik  (1985, Romanesque metalwork and other church art)
 Himmelslicht. Europäische Glasmalerei im Jahrhundert des Kölner Dombaus (1248–1349) (1998, stained glass).

The enormous catalogues for these exhibitions, some running to three volumes, remain important works of reference. Catalogues of the permanent collection of the museum are being published in several volumes. A touring exhibition in America of objects from the museum in 2000 also produced a catalogue in English.

Notes

References

Official website accessed October 07, 2016
Lasko, Peter, Ars Sacra, Penguin History of Art (now Yale), Penguin, 1972
Legner, Anton (ed). Ornamenta Ecclesiae, Kunst und Künstler der Romanik. Catalogue of an exhibition in the Schnütgen Museum, Köln, 1985. 3 vols.
Sacred Destinations accessed January 11, 2010
Boston College, Feature on exhibition that toured North America in 2000 accessed January 11, 2010

Further reading
Netzer, Nancy; Reinburg, Virginia, Fragmented devotion: medieval objects from the Schnütgen Museum, Cologne (catalogue of exhibition),  McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2000, , 9781892850010,

Museums in Cologne
Medieval art
Religious museums in Germany
Innenstadt, Cologne
Art museums and galleries in Germany

Schnütgen Museum


Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Romain (dates of birth and death unknown) was a French engineer and contributor to the Encyclopédie during the eighteenth century and the Age of Enlightenment.

Living in Martinique, in 1734 Le Romain drew up a topographic map of the island for the French government. In 1740 he was sent as an assistant engineer to improve the fortifications of the island of Grenada, where he was appointed chief engineer in 1748.

Le Romain provided nearly seventy articles on the Caribbean between volumes III and XVI of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert. More than half of his articles are short descriptions of production, animals, minerals and geography of the Caribbean islands. He provided more detail of the production of regional products such as indigo, sugar and foods derived from cassava. Le Romain also wrote the entry for 'negroes' which reflects the colonial prejudices against blacks, referring to them as "barbarians".

A competent naturalist, Le Romain's contributions gave Diderot and d'Alembert first-hand information on the Caribbean and thus an expanded view of the world for their Encyclopédie.

References

External links

 List of Le Romain's contributions to the Encyclopédie .

Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)
French engineers

Jean-Baptiste-Pierre le Romain


Manuc's Inn (, ) is the oldest operating hotel building in Bucharest, Romania. It also houses a popular restaurant, several bars, a coffee-house, and (facing the street) several stores and an extensive bar. Its massive, multiply balconied courtyard hosted many performances and fairs and was a popular place for Romanian Television crews to shoot folkloric performances. The hotel and restaurant were refurbished in 2007.

Location
The building is located at 62–64 strada Franceză (the street has been variously known in the past as Iuliu Maniu, 30 Decembrie, and Carol), across the street from the ruins of the Old Court (Curtea Veche). Although one side now faces a vast modern public square, Piața Unirii, there is no evidence of this in the courtyard or the inward-facing rooms.

History
The inn was built in 1808 as a khan, and originally owned by a wealthy and flamboyant Armenian entrepreneur, Emanuel Mârzaian, better known under his Turkish name Manuc Bei. By the middle of the 19th century, it was Bucharest's most important commercial complex, with 15 wholesalers, 23 retail stores, 107 rooms for offices or living, two receiving rooms, and a pub.

Although Manuc's Inn has been subject to repeated restorations — in 1848, 1863, 1966–1970, and 1991–1992, as well as the latest one in 2007 — its essential structure remained intact; of the three surviving 19th century inns in the Lipscani district, it is the only one currently in use as a hotel.

The inn was the site of the preliminary talks for the Treaty of Bucharest, which put an end to the 1806–1812 Russo-Turkish war. In 1842 it briefly housed Bucharest's town hall. Around 1880 a hall at the inn was used as a theatre, and was the site of the first Romanian operetta performance.

Before Romania entered World War I, in 1914–1916, the hall "Sala Dacia" hosted meetings of the Romanian pro-war party seeking to establish a Greater Romania by uniting with Transylvania and Bukovina; speakers included Nicolae Filipescu, Take Ionescu, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, and Octavian Goga.

The building was nationalized 19 February 1949. Ownership was restored to Prince Șerban-Constantin Cantacuzino in February 2007.

Gallery

See also
 Hanul cu Tei
 Casa Capșa
 Treaty of Bucharest

References

External links
 Hanul lui Manuc  Official site for the restaurant Manuc's Inn
  Hanul lui Manuc, official site of the former hotel operation. Archived 2007-01-16 on the Internet Archive.
 The courtyard on a winter day
Inns in Bucharest
Restaurants in Romania
Historic monuments in Bucharest
Buildings and structures of the Ottoman Empire
1808 establishments in Romania
Hotel buildings completed in 1808
Caravanserais
Lipscani
19th-century architecture in Romania

Manuc's Inn


In fishing, a gaff is a handheld pole with a sharp hook or sideway spike on the distal end, which is used to swing and stab into the body of a large fish like a pickaxe (ideally, the tip of the hook/spike is placed under the fish's backbone) and then pull the fish out of the water like using a pike pole. Fishing activities that are solely done with gaffs are known as gaffing.

Gaffs are used when the weight of the target fish exceeds the breaking strength of the fishing line or the fishing rod and thus typical angling retrieval would be problematic. Like spearfishing, gaffs cannot be used if it is intended to release the fish unharmed after capture, unless the fish is skillfully gaffed right in a non-vital part such as the lip, jaw or lower gill using a thin hook (though very difficult to perform and thus unlikely).

A flying gaff is a specialized type of gaff used for securing and controlling very large, feisty fish. The hook part of the gaff (the head) detaches when excessive force is used, somewhat like a harpoon's dart. The head is secured to the boat with a length of heavy rope or cable, allowing the fish to remain tethered and get fatigued out before eventually retrieved.

See also
 Spearfishing
 Snagging

Recreational fishing
Fishing equipment
Nautical terminology

Fishing gaff


Port Harcourt Pleasure Park is a public recreation park in Niger-Delta's oil rich garden city of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. It is strategically located along the major Aba Road, and flanked between the Army Barracks (a.k.a. Bori Camp) and Air Force base junction, on an expansive open land with 24-7-365 internal security.

The park is serving as both a tourist destination and a revenue generator for the state, operated by an international staff of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.
The park boasts a wide range of facilities for all ages including a 5-star Cinema and an International restaurant launched to complement the facilities at the park. With an excellent cleanliness record of all amenities maintained, the Park's natural and peaceful environment will give you the much fun, excitement and relaxation you desire.

Location
The Park is strategically located along the major Aba Road and flanked between the Army Barracks (Bori Camp) and Air Force base junction on an expansive open land with 24-7-365 internal security.

Overview
Julius Berger of Nigeria was awarded the contract to construct the park and started work in May 2016. The whole project was completed within 12 months of the commencement date.

On Friday, 26 May 2017, the Government of Rivers State commissioned and opened the Port Harcourt Pleasure Park for public use in a grand ceremony that attracted thousands of Riverians from all walks of life. Former governor, Peter Odili inaugurated the project, which was initiated, designed and constructed by the Nyesom Wike administration.

The one-year Park project was completed in May 2017 by the Nyesom Wike led Rivers State Government as part of projects to mark the 50 years of the creation of the state as well as keeping to his promise to the people to develop tourism and ensure it becomes a world centre of attraction.

After two years of its operation, precisely on 1 May 2019, the management of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc decided to take over complete operation of the Park by manning it with competent local and international staff tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the park meets up with the original mission of serving as both a tourist destination and a revenue generator for the state.

Entertainment
The Governor of Rivers State Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike who had earlier announced that a modern Cinema would be constructed to complement the facilities at the park, kept to his promise as he unveiled the newly constructed Pleasure Park 5-star Cinema on 11 September 2019 as part of celebrations to mark his 100-days in office. This Cinema known as Kada Cinemas is run by Kada Cinemas group.

In November 2019, the Park was nominated from top 10 to top 5 in the annual Nigeria Tourism Awards in two separate categories namely:
•	BEST TOURIST ATTRACTION in Nigeria
•	BEST FAMILY AMUSEMENT CENTRE in Nigeria

Other contenders in these prestigious awards included the following:

1.	ADO AWAYE HANGING LAKE
2.	IDANRE HILL
3.	LEKKI CONSERVATION CENTRE
4.	OLUMO ROCK
5.	YANKARI GAME RESERVE
6.	HI-IMPACT PLANET
7.	OMU RESORT
8.	RUFUS AND BEES
9.	UPBEAT CENTRE

It is worthy of mention that Port Harcourt Pleasure Park is home to the entertainment industry as renown Nollywood actors and top music artistes (local and international) come to use the park to shoot movies, music videos as well as premiere same at the Cinema. One such trended movie that was shot in Port Harcourt Pleasure Park and premiered in Kada Cinemas is UnRoyal starring Pete Edochie, Ik Ogbonna, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Ime Bishop Umoh (a.k.a. Okon Lagos), Linda Osifo and others.

The education sector also makes the park a destination for after-school fun, excitement and relaxation as many tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools as well as military schools bring their scholars for recreation and fitness.

Facilities

The park boasts a wide range of
facilities including an extensive children's playground, a miniature soccer field, 5 person paddle boats, each designed for drivers and 3 passengers and water steps.

The golf course consists of a series of holes characterized by their short length.

The park is also filled with various exercise machines ranging from simple walkers and massage machines to elliptical trainers. There is a parking lot, a jogging track, restaurants and a climbing tower. The list of current facilities are:

 5-star Movie Cinema (two viewing halls totaling 230 seating capacity and 1-VIP lounge with 23-seater VIP viewing hall)
 2 Restaurants (Lebanese/Italian)
 Climbing Tower
 Pedal Boats
 Mini Golf Course
 Playgrounds
 Fitness Equipment
 5-D Cinema
 9-D Cinema
 PS4 Games
 Water Steps
 Jogging Circuit
 Mini Soccer Field
 Gyroscope
 Bull Rodeo
 Carousel
 Paint Ball
 Shooting range
 Table Tennis
 Bouncy Castle
 King of Castle
 Trampoline
 Kids Boat ride
 Train ride
 Cart ride (Family off-road trip)
 Occulus game
 Virtual Reality games
 Virtual Reality Fitness room
 Other Facilities

The Governor of Rivers State Ezenwo Nyesom Wike who had earlier announced that a modern cinema would be constructed to complement the facilities at the park, kept to his promise as he unveiled the newly constructed Pleasure Park Cinema on 11 September 2019 as part of celebrations to mark his 100-days in office.

References

External links

2010s establishments in Rivers State
Parks in Port Harcourt
Urban public parks
Tourist attractions in Port Harcourt
2017 establishments in Nigeria
Nature parks in Nigeria

Port Harcourt Pleasure Park


Alexandria is browser based cross-platform library automation software used by thousands of libraries around the world, both public libraries and school libraries. These include the Houston Independent School District, Philadelphia Public Schools, and the Berkeley Unified School District.

History
COMPanion Corporation was founded in 1987 by company president Bill Schjelderup in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Version history
COMPanion Corp maintains different versions simultaneously, with the most recent and up-to-date version being Alexandria v7.15.3 with plans to release Alexandria v7.16.1 in the summer of 2016. Alexandria v7 was officially released on August 5, 2014. Alexandria v6 is still supported although active development has ceased, with the exception of maintenance updates.

Selected features
 Library management
 MARC cataloging
 Lexile integration
 Supports reading programs such as Accelerated Reader
 Due date and policy flexibility
 Thousands of flexible reports
 Z39.50 Support
 Integration with book vendors such as Bound To Stay Bound
 Web-based patron interface
 Access to third-party databases such as netTrekker

See also
 Integrated library system
 Library catalog

References

External links
 http://www.companioncorp.com
 http://www.goalexandria.com
 https://www.facebook.com/alexandrialibrarymanagement

Business software
Library automation

Alexandria (library software)


A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. When visual navigation aids such as lighthouses are obscured, foghorns provide an audible warning of rock outcrops, shoals, headlands, or other dangers to shipping.

Description
All foghorns use a vibrating column of air to create an audible tone, but the method of setting up this vibration differs. Some horns, such as the Daboll trumpet, used vibrating plates or metal reeds, a similar principle to a modern electric car horn. Others used air forced through holes in a rotating cylinder or disk, in the same manner as a siren. Semi-automatic operation of foghorns was achieved by using a clockwork mechanism (or "coder") to sequentially open the valves admitting air to the horns; each horn was given its own timing characteristics to help mariners identify them.

History

Early fog signals

Audible fog signals have been used in one form or another for hundreds of years, initially simply fog bells or gongs struck manually.

At some lighthouses, a small cannon was let off periodically to warn away ships, but this was labor-intensive and dangerous. In the United States, whistles were also used where a source of steam power was available, though Trinity House, the British lighthouse authority, did not employ them, preferring an explosive signal.

Throughout the 19th century efforts were made to automate the signalling process. Trinity House eventually developed a system (the "Signal, Fog, Mk I") for firing a gun-cotton charge electrically.  However, the charge had to be manually replaced after each signal. At Portland Bill, for example, which had a five-minute interval between fog-signals, this meant the horns had to be lowered, the two new charges inserted, and the horns raised again every five minutes during foggy periods.

Clockwork systems were also developed for striking bells. Stricken bells were developed throughout the 1800s with the use of a governor, including the use of a giant triangle of 4 ft long sides in Maine in 1837. Ships were required to carry bells, with an exemption for Turkish ships because Islam forbade the use of bells.

Captain James William Newton claimed to have been the inventor of the fog signalling technique using loud and low notes.

Mechanization

The first automated steam-powered foghorn was invented by Robert Foulis, a Scotsman who emigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Foulis is said to have heard his daughter playing the piano in the distance on a foggy night, and noticed the low notes were more audible than the higher notes: he then designed a device to produce a low-frequency sound, as well as a code system for use with it. Foulis repeatedly presented his concept to the Commissioners of Light Houses for the Bay of Fundy for installation on Partridge Island. While the Commissioners initially rejected Foulis's plan, one commissioner eventually encouraged Foulis to submit detailed plans to the Commission.  For reasons unknown, the plans were given to another Canadian engineer, T. T. Vernon Smith, who officially submitted them to the Commissioners as his own. The foghorn was constructed at Partridge Island in 1859 as the Vernon-Smith horn.  After protest by Foulis and a legislative inquiry, Foulis was credited as the true inventor, but he never patented or profited from his invention.

The development of fog signal technology continued apace at the end of the 19th century.  During the same period an inventor, Celadon Leeds Daboll, developed a coal-powered foghorn called the Daboll trumpet for the American lighthouse service, though it was not universally adopted. A few Daboll trumpets remained in use until the mid-20th century.

In the United Kingdom, experiments to develop more effective foghorns were carried out by John Tyndall and Lord Rayleigh, amongst others. The latter's ongoing research for Trinity House culminated in a design for a siren with a large trumpet designed to achieve maximum sound propagation (see reference for details of the Trials of Fog Signals), installed in Trevose Head Lighthouse, Cornwall in 1913. One reporter, after hearing a Brown steam-powered siren for the first time, described it as having "a screech like an army of panthers, weird and prolonged, gradually lowering in note until after half a minute it becomes the roar of a thousand mad bulls, with intermediate voices suggestive of the wail of a lost soul, the moan of a bottomless pit and the groan of a disabled elevator."

One of the first automated fog bells was the Stevens Automatic Bell Striker.

Some later fog bells were placed under water, particularly in especially dangerous areas, so that their sound (which would be a predictable code, such as the number "23") would be carried further and reverberate through the ship's hull.  For example, this technique was used at White Shoal Light (Michigan).  This was an earlier precursor to RACON.

Diaphone

From the early 20th century an improved device called the diaphone, originally invented as an organ stop by Robert Hope-Jones, and developed as a fog signal by John Northey of Toronto, became the standard foghorn apparatus for new installations. Diaphones were powered by compressed air and could emit extremely powerful low-frequency notes.

In 1982, the Dutch broadcaster VPRO aired a live foghorn concert on national radio composed by Marnie Bjornson, relaying the sound of the foghorns in Emden, Calais, Nieuwpoort, Scheveningen, Den Helder, Lelystad, Urk, Marken and Kornwerderzand, mixed with studio music by sound artist Alvin Curran.

Obsolescence

Since automation of lighthouses became common in the 1960s and 1970s, most older foghorn installations have been removed to avoid the need to run the complex machinery associated with them, and have been replaced with electrically powered diaphragm or compressed air horns. Activation is completely automated: a laser or photo beam is shot out to sea, and if the beam reflects back to the source (i.e. the laser beam is visible due to the fog), the sensor sends a signal to activate the foghorn. In many cases, modern navigational aids, including GPS, have rendered large, long-range foghorns completely unnecessary, according to the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities.

Railway fog signals

Fog signals have also been used on railway lines since the middle of the 19th century to indicate to warn of disabled trains, work parties, or other hazards on the line ahead. Small explosive detonators or torpedoes are placed on the track, and detonated by the pressure of the wheels of the oncoming train.

Study of foghorns
British writer Jennifer Lucy Allan was awarded a PhD by the University of the Arts London in 2019 for her thesis on Fog tropes : a social and cultural history of the foghorn and subsequently published a book: The Foghorn's Lament: the Disappearing Music of the Coast.

See also

 Siren (alarm)
 Air horn

References

Further reading

External links

 Listen to Golden Gate Bridge foghorn
 a list of foghorn clips from San Pedro, CA.- Foghorn 1 is a good example of a diaphone.
 Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, "Fog Signal Technology."
 Location of foghorns that can still be heard in UK
 BBC Radio 4 - The Foghorn: A Celebration
 Association of Lighthouse Keepers: archive clips of a variety of fog signal sounds from around the UK

Navigation
Canadian inventions
Navigational aids
Lighthouse fixtures
Sirens
Maritime signalling

Foghorn


The Global Reporting Initiative (known as GRI) is an international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments, and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights, and corruption.

Since its first draft guidelines were published in March 1999,  GRI's voluntary sustainability reporting framework has been adopted by multinational organizations, governments, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), NGOs, and industry groups. Over 10,000 companies from more than 100 countries use GRI.
According to the 26 October 2022 KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting, 78% of the world's biggest 250 companies by revenue (the G250) and 68% of the top 100 businesses in  58 countries (5,800 companies known as the N100) have adopted the GRI Standards for reporting. GRI is used as a reporting standard by a majority of the companies surveyed in all regions.

GRI thus provides the world's most widely used sustainability reporting standards.
Under increasing pressure from different stakeholder groups, such as governments, consumers and investors, to be more transparent about their environmental, economic, and social impacts, many companies publish a sustainability report, also known as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report.
GRI's framework for sustainability reporting helps companies identify, gather, and report this information in a clear and comparable manner.
Developed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the GRI Standards are the first global standards for sustainability reporting and are a free public good.

The GRI Standards have a modular structure, making them easier to update and adapt.
Three series of Standards support the reporting process.
The GRI Universal Standards apply to all organizations and cover core sustainability issues related to a company's impact on the economy, society, and the environment.
The GRI Sector Standards apply to specific sectors, particularly those with the highest environmental impact, such as fossil fuels.
The GRI Topic Standards list disclosures relevant to a particular topic area.
GRI Standards and reporting criteria are reviewed every three years by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), an independent body created by GRI.
The most recent of GRI's reporting frameworks are the revised Universal Standards, which were published in October 2021, and came into effect for reporting in January 2023.

History
The Global Reporting Initiative was developed in 1997 by the United States-based non-profits Ceres (formerly the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) and consulting agency Tellus Institute. Key individuals were Ceres President Bob Massie and Allen L. White of Tellus. Other influential thinkers who were board members of Ceres included Joan Bavaria of the Social Investment Forum (SIF), Alica Gravitz of Co-op America and Paul Freundlich of the US-based Fair Trade Foundation.  The initiative soon gained support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

GRI released an "exposure draft" version of the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in 1999, and the first full version in June 2000. Work immediately began on a  second version which was released at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002—where the organization and the guidelines were also referred to in the Plan of Implementation signed by all attending member states.

As early as 2001, GRI expressed its intention to institutionalize the organization with a headquarters in Europe.  In April 2002, GRI was inaugurated as an independent organization in a ceremony hosted at the UN headquarters in New York. Its mission was to provide "stewardship of the Guidelines through their continuous enhancement and dissemination (GRI 2000 Guidelines)."
Engineering consultancy DHV (now Royal HaskoningDHV) expressed a strong interest in the initiative following the publication of the draft guidelines, translating them into Dutch and holding its first seminar on disclosing and reporting on 7 December 1999. Influential figures in the Dutch adoption of GRI include Nancy Kamp-Roelands, Johan Piet and Piet Sprengers. DHV approached then-CEO Allen White and set up meetings with the Dutch government. By April 2002, GRI had decided to settle in  Amsterdam, Netherlands where it subsequently incorporated as a non-profit organization and a Collaborating Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme. Although the GRI is independent, it remains a collaborating center of UNEP and works in cooperation with the United Nations Global Compact.

GRI has managed to mobilize  extensive contributions of time, knowledge and funding from a wide variety of individuals and organizations. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described it as having a "unique contribution to make in fostering transparency and accountability of corporate activities beyond financial matters".
A key factor in GRI's success has been its global multi-stakeholder network, which grew from about 200 organizations and individuals in early 2000 to over 2000 members by early 2002. The network provided a platform for analysis and feedback on the Guidelines, enabling diverse stakeholders to actively engage in their creation and evolution.
The initial organizational structure of the GRI was highly efficient and communicated mostly electronically. It consisted of a secretariat, a steering committee, and multiple decentralized working groups. Input from the working groups led to the expansion of GRI's scope from environmental reporting to three categories of sustainability indicators: social performance
indicators, economic performance indicators and environmental performance and impacts.

The GRI system was created with the goals of standardizing practices for non-financial reporting, and empowering stakeholders at all levels with "access to standardized, comparable, and consistent environmental information akin to corporate financial reporting." The process of aligning and standardizing practices has continued through multiple versions, with some debate over definitions of materiality to be used in sustainability reporting and their implicatioins. The GRI and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) illustrate two major approaches to materiality, with differences that may cause confusion in interpreting information about "material sustainability issues".

Governance
The "GRI" refers to the global network of thousands of participants worldwide who create the reporting framework, use it in disclosing their sustainability performance, demand its use by organizations as the basis for information disclosure, or are actively engaged in improving the standard. Examples of good sustainability reporting practices include digitalization of supply-chain management, stakeholder relation mechanisms, and communication strategies that encourage conjoint two-way sense making and sense giving.

The governance structure for the permanent institution was approved on June 21, 2002.  The institutional side of the GRI, supporting the network, is made up of the following governance bodies: board of directors, stakeholder council, technical advisory committee, organizational stakeholders, and a secretariat. Diverse geographic and sector constituencies are represented in these governance bodies.

Reporting guidelines

Standards for guidelines
The GRI framework aims to enable third parties to assess environmental impact from the activities of the company and its supply chain.
The most recent of GRI's reporting frameworks are the revised Universal Standards, which were published in October 2021, and came into effect for reporting in January 2023.
The GRI Universal Standards apply to all organizations and cover core sustainability issues related to a company's impact on the economy, society, and the environment.
The GRI Sector Standards apply to specific sectors, particularly those with the highest environmental impact, such as Oil and Gas, Coal, and Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fishing.
The GRI Topic Standards list disclosures relevant to a particular topic area. Examples include Waste, Occupational Health and Safety, Biodiversity, Energy, Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

ESG metrics

Sustainability reporting aims to standardize and quantify the environmental, social and governance (ESG) costs and benefits, derived from the activities of the reporting companies.  Examples of ESG reporting  include quantified measures of   emissions, working and payment conditions, and financial transparency.

The development of GRI standards was influenced by policies in the fields of international labor practices and  environmental impact, which it, in turn has influenced. ISO 14010, ISO 14011, ISO 14012 and ISO 26000 set out a standard for assessing the environmental impact, while OHSAS 18001 laid down a health and safety risk management system. The International Labour Organization (ILO)'s eight core conventions outline specific groups or population that require special attention: women, children, migrant workers and their families, persons belonging to national or ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities. The reporting standards set by the GRI ESG assessment and reporting were developed based on principles set in OECD guidelines for Multinational corporations and UN Guiding Principles.

Accountability, adoption and registration
The Global Reporting Initiative is one example of a transformative shift in accountability systems to one based on a network of actors, observation of global public concerns, new problem framing and an ideological shift.
Initially GRI worked with a number of  Data Partners to collect and process information about GRI reporting and sustainability reporting in general and reporting trends in specific countries and regions. This information was added to GRI's Sustainability Disclosure Database.
In the United States, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland the official GRI data partner was the Governance & Accountability Institute.

In 2020 GRI decided to discontinue its publicly accessible sustainability disclosure database as of April 2021, due to the overhead of maintaining the collection.  The publicly available database had over 63,000 reports spanning nearly 20 years from hundreds of companies.

It is still possible to register GRI Standards-based reports and other published materials through the GRI Standards Report Registration System. Under Requirement 9 of GRI 1: Foundation 2021, notifying GRI of the use of the GRI standards is a mandatory step in reporting for associated organizations. Responsibility for the quality and verification of such reports  is the responsibility of the reporting organization and its stakeholders. While GRI no longer provides examples of reports, the reports of many organizations are available from company websites.

Under the 2021 guidelines, which are required for reporting as of January 2023, organizations may report either "in accordance" with GRI (more stringent) or "in reference" to GRI. Both options involve notification.

A key issue in the adoption of GRI Standards is that compliance is voluntary. Outcomes depend on the quality and type of information reported. Further, firms may  selectively disclose sustainability information. Research suggests that resources for sustainability reporting may be insufficient and staff undertrained in many companies. GRI attempts to address this by providing training.
In order to circumvent "greenwashing" or falsified reporting, a financial institution can conduct an independent audit of the investee or enter into a dialogue with the top management of a company in question.
Independent assurance of sustainability reports may be demanded by stakeholders, and  third-party assurance is standard practice for many large and mid-cap companies, though often expensive. Absence of assurance is associated with lower quality and credibility of sustainability reporting.

Related laws and standards

European Commission Directives
In December 2014, the European Commission, on behalf of the European Union, adopted the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) obliging large multinational corporations to provide non-financial disclosure to the markets. The law applies to public companies with more than 500 employees. Companies that would provide such a reporting would be required to report on environmental, social and employee-related, human rights, anti-corruption and bribery matters. Additionally, these large corporations would be required to describe their business model, outcomes and risks of the policies on the above topics, and the diversity policy applied for management and supervisory bodies. The reporting techniques were encouraged to rely on recognized frameworks such as GRI's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD Guidelines, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Tripartite Declarations.

Sustainability reporting requirements for companies were further expanded in the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which took effect on 5 January 2023. GRI was actively involved in the development of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) which were submitted to the European Commission by the Sustainability Reporting Board (SRB) of  the European Financial Reporting Advisory (EFRAG) as a step towards implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). GRI worked for interoperability between GRI's global Standards, which focus on impact materiality, and the ESRS' focus on double materiality. Double materiality requires public reporting of both sustainability factors affecting the financial materiality of the company and its outward materiality (how the company affects society and the environment).

International Sustainability Standards
As of 24 March 2022, GRI and the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) announced that they would collaborate to align the International Sustainability Standards Board ("ISSB")'s investor-focused Sustainability Disclosures Standards for the capital markets with the GRI's multi-stakeholder focused sustainability reporting standards. As of 6 June 2023, the ISSB issued its inaugural standards (IFRS S1 and IFRS S2) for sustainability-related disclosures in capital markets.

See also
 Integrated reporting
 Mervyn King (judge)
 Sustainability accounting
 Sustainability marketing
 Sustainability reporting
 The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency
 Triple bottom line
 UN Global Compact
 Multistakeholder governance

References

External links
 Official site

Economics of sustainability
Auditing
Social responsibility organizations
Sustainability metrics and indices

Global Reporting Initiative


Alma Andrea Meza Carmona (born 13 August 1994) is a Mexican model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe 2020. Since winning the title, she became the third Mexican woman to be crowned Miss Universe. Meza holds the record of the shortest completed reign in Miss Universe history to date.

She had previously been crowned Mexicana Universal 2020 and Miss Mexico 2017, and placed as the first runner-up at Miss World 2017.

Early life and education
Alma Andrea Meza Carmona was born on 13 August 1994 in Chihuahua City to parents Alma Carmona and Santiago Meza. She grew up in Chihuahua City as the eldest of three daughters, and is of partial Chinese descent. After completing secondary school, Meza enrolled in the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, where she studied software engineering. She graduated with her degree in 2017, and subsequently began working in Mexico as a software engineer in addition to her career as a model.

Pageantry

Miss Mexico 2017
Meza began her pageantry career in 2016, after she was selected to represent Chihuahua at Miss World Mexico 2016. This was the first edition of the pageant after the Nuestra Belleza México competition lost its license for Miss World. In the pageant, Meza advanced to the top sixteen, then the top ten, and ultimately the top five. After reaching the top five, Meza was one of the two contestants awarded a crown, being crowned as Miss Mexico 2017. Ana Girault, representing Mexico City, was crowned Miss Mexico 2016 and given the opportunity to represent Mexico at Miss World 2016, while Meza was given the opportunity to represent Mexico at Miss World 2017. Also, Meza won the sports challenge at the competition.

Miss World 2017

As the winner of Miss Mexico 2017, Meza represented Mexico at the 67th edition of Miss World 2017, held on 18 November 2017 at Sanya City Arena in Sanya, China. In the pre-pageant activities, Meza won group sixteen of the Head-to-Head Challenge, which gave her direct entry into the top forty. Additionally, she placed as the fourth runner-up in the talent competition.

During the finals of the competition, Meza advanced from the top forty into the top fifteen, top ten, and top five. After reaching the top five, Julia Morley announced Meza as the first runner-up behind the winner, Manushi Chhillar from India. In addition to her first runner-up finish, Meza was additionally crowned Miss World Americas, placing her within the 2017 Miss World Continental Queens of Beauty.

Mexicana Universal 2020
In 2020, Meza was crowned Mexicana Universal Chihuahua 2020, allowing her to represent Chihuahua at Mexicana Universal 2020. During pre-pageant activities, Meza won six challenges, including the sports challenge. The final was held on 29 November 2020 in Querétaro City. Meza advanced to the top fifteen and top ten, ultimately being crowned Mexicana Universal 2020.

Miss Universe 2020
As Mexicana Universal, Meza represented Mexico at the Miss Universe 2020 pageant. The final of the competition was held on May 16, 2021, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida, after being postponed from late 2020 to May 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meza advanced from the initial pool of 74 contestants to the top 21, then the top ten, and finally the top five, where she was crowned the winner by the outgoing titleholder Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa. Following her win, she became the third Mexican woman to win the crown, following Lupita Jones in 1991 and Ximena Navarrete in 2010.

With Meza's victory at Miss Universe 2020, this  marked Mexico's second consecutive year in the top 3 after Sofía Aragón, Mexicana Universal 2019, finished as the second runner-up at Miss Universe 2019. Meza also surpassed Brook Lee's record of being the oldest to win Miss Universe by winning at the age of 26 years and 276 days. This record was later broken during the Miss Universe 2022 competition when R'Bonney Gabriel won at the age of 28 years and 300 days.

In her capacity as Miss Universe, Meza traveled to various cities within the United States, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Israel, and her home country of Mexico.

After winning Miss Universe, Meza was succeeded as Mexicana Universal by Débora Hallal, who was appointed Mexicana Universal 2021.

On December 13, 2021, Meza crowned Harnaaz Sandhu of India as her successor at the Universe Dome, Eilat, Israel, marking the end of the shortest completed reign in Miss Universe history of 211 days.

References

External links

1994 births
Autonomous University of Chihuahua alumni
Living people
Mexican beauty pageant winners
Mexican female models
Mexicana Universal winners
Miss Universe winners
Miss Universe 2020 contestants
Miss World 2017 delegates
People from Chihuahua City
Software engineers

Andrea Meza


Chris Applebaum is a music video director from Los Angeles, California. His videos including Miley Cyrus' Party in the U.S.A., Usher's Dive, and Demi Lovato's Heart Attack. 30 of his videos have reached #1 on the MTV charts. Applebaum has also directed fitness videos, beauty product advertisements, and commercials for companies such as Skechers and Carl's Jr.

Life and career

Early life and college
Applebaum was born in 1970 in Los Angeles, California and studied film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. At Hampshire College, he met tour manager Asia Kai Linn in 1989, whom he married six years later.

While still in college, Applebaum began directing videos for independent rock bands. His first video was released in 1992 for Chicago band Material Issue's song Everything. When Applebaum was 19, MTV offered him an opportunity to join their On-Air Promos department in New York City.

Chris Applebaum signed with Satellite Films at the age of 21, becoming their youngest ever signed director, and directed over 250 films under this contract. In the 1990s, Applebaum founded a record label called Indi 500.

Career and influence
The 1995 video for Better Than Ezra's "Good", directed by Applebaum, brought him a higher level of recognition. In the coming years, he would direct Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom", a Carl's Jr. commercial featuring Paris Hilton, and advertisements for CoverGirl and Smirnoff. His Carl's Jr. commercial was dubbed by BDS Neilsen as the most aired TV commercial of all time.

In 2007, Applebaum's video for Rihanna's "Umbrella" was released. Applebaum later told Genius, "[Umbrella is] definitely the video that I'm the proudest of," and the video has yielded the highest sale rate of any music video on the iTunes store.

Applebaum's video for "Stacy's Mom" influenced a campaign for Apple's iPod, and his video for Semisonic's Closing Time is credited for inspiring aspects of Season 6 of The X-Files. Applebaum has won several awards, including the 2010 MUCH Best International Video for Party in the U.S.A., the 2007 VMA Video of the Year award for Umbrella, and the 2006 MUCH Best Video for a Female Artist for S.O.S.

Applebaum has also directed several other notable videos including "Party in the U.S.A.". The director claims that he now focuses on directing commercials rather than music videos.

See also
 List of music videos directed by Chris Applebaum

References

Living people
American music video directors
Entertainers from Los Angeles
Hampshire College alumni
1970 births

Chris Applebaum


WCIX (channel 49) is a television station licensed to Springfield, Illinois, United States, serving the Central Illinois region as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Champaign-licensed CBS affiliate WCIA (channel 3). Both stations share studios on South Neil Street/US 45 in downtown Champaign and also operate a sales office and news bureau on West Edwards Street near the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. WCIX's transmitter is located in Clear Lake Township.

Since WCIX's over-the-air signal cannot be seen in eastern parts of the market (including Champaign, Urbana, and Danville), it is simulcast in high definition on WCIA's second digital subchannel (UHF channel 34.2 or virtual channel 3.2) from a transmitter west of Seymour, Illinois. Nielsen Media Research treats WCIX and WCIA-DT2 as one station in local ratings books, using the identifier name WCIX+.

History
Before WCIA signed-on in 1953, it originally wanted to build its transmitter tower in White Heath, halfway between Champaign and Decatur. The tower would have been placed on some of the highest ground in Central Illinois. However, after construction began, then-ABC affiliate WTVP (channel 17, now WAND) filed an objection. Even though it was obvious that Champaign–Urbana and Springfield/Decatur would be considered a single market, WTVP owner Prairie Television claimed WCIA was trying to encroach on its territory. To avoid delays, that station moved its transmitter to its current location in Seymour. While the signal from the Seymour tower covered Decatur very well, it was barely viewable in Springfield until cable television arrived in the market in the early 1960s.

WCIA quickly established itself as the dominant station in the region despite its signal issues in the western half of the market. Eventually, then-owner Midwest Television decided to open a low-powered satellite relay of WCIA on UHF channel 49 to get better coverage in Springfield and the surrounding area. This relay launched in 1967 under the callsign W49AA. On February 4, 1985, Midwest Television upgraded channel 49 to a full-power station under new calls, WCFN. However, like its low-powered predecessor, WCFN was a straight simulcast of WCIA, even airing its commercials. WCFN's existence was only acknowledged in WCIA's legal station identifications.

In 2002, WCFN broke off from the simulcast to be the market's first full-time UPN affiliate. That network had previously been seen in off-hours on Pax outlet WPXU (channel 23, now WBUI) in Decatur. However, few viewers actually lost access to WCIA, given the extremely high penetration of cable and satellite in central Illinois.

The removal of CBS service from the station would be temporary with the launch of WCFN's digital transmitter, meaning that despite the conversion to UPN, WCFN's schedule could also air as a WCIA subchannel, with WCIA's main CBS channel able to be carried by WCFN. Accordingly, the main channel 49 schedule was added to WCIA-DT2 with channel 3's schedule airing on WCFN-DT2. WCIA's signal aired in full 1080i high definition, with the main WCFN schedule only seen in a reduced 480i standard definition over-the-air on both channels 49.1 and 3.2 as multiplexing of two high-definition signals was not yet possible. In September 2006, with ACME Communications's WBUI (then with executive connections with a former WB network executive) de facto taking The CW affiliation by default, WCFN joined MyNetworkTV instead in the wake of the WB/UPN merger.

In early 2007, Nexstar and the Illinois High School Association came to an agreement to carry coverage of IHSA tournaments in the market on channel 49. Central Illinois had previously been without an over-the-air flagship station for these kind of events. Also, from the 2010–11 NBA season to the 2019 Major League Baseball season, the station carried Chicago Bulls, Cubs, and White Sox games which aired in Chicago on WCIU and WLS-TV and were produced by WGN Sports. The station carried Indianapolis Colts preseason football games starting in 2011. Before 2011, WCFN featured Labor Day coverage of the US Open tennis tournament from CBS because of WCIA's commitment to air the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. In 2011, the tennis coverage shifted fully to WCIA since the telethon was limited to the night before Labor Day.

On August 29, 2011, the station's call sign was changed to WCIX—a call sign used on CBS owned-and-operated station WFOR-TV in Miami, Florida from 1967 to 1995, when that station changed from channel 6 to channel 4 and swapped with NBC's WTVJ. At that point, the station's logo was changed to resemble that of sister station KARZ-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas; which is also a MyNetworkTV affiliate associated with a big three network-affiliated station (in that case, NBC outlet KARK-TV).

In June 2015, Nexstar upgraded the transmitters of WCIA and WCIX to allow high definition multiplexing, so WCIX's main MyNetworkTV channel began to be carried on both stations in full 1080i 16:9 on both 49.1 and 3.2.

On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The deal—which would make Nexstar the largest television station operator by total number of stations upon its expected closure late in the third quarter of 2019—would result in WCIX and WCIA gaining additional sister stations in nearby markets including Chicago (independent station WGN-TV) and St. Louis (Fox affiliate KTVI and CW affiliate KPLR-TV). (Ownership conflicts existed in two existing Nexstar markets involving Nexstar's duopoly of CW affiliate WISH-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WNDY-TV (which were both sold to Circle City Broadcasting) and Tribune's duopoly of Fox affiliate WXIN and CBS affiliate WTTV/WTTK in Indianapolis and Nexstar's virtual triopoly of CBS affiliate WHBF-TV, CW affiliate KGCW and Fox-affiliated SSA partner KLJB and Tribune-owned ABC affiliate WQAD-TV (which was sold to Tegna) in the Quad Cities.) The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16 and was completed on September 19, 2019.

News operation
On April 7, 2005, WCIA began airing the market's first prime time newscast on WCFN. Known on-air as Primetime News at 9, the broadcast originated from the main studios in Champaign but was targeted specifically at a Springfield-based audience. The name was altered to myCFN News at 9 in September 2006 to reflect WCFN's affiliation change to MyNetworkTV.

There would not be any competition in the time slot until September 11, 2006, when rival ABC affiliates WICS/WICD began co-producing a nightly prime time newscast at 9 on Fox affiliates WRSP/WCCU. That program was based out of WICS' Springfield studios but, unlike WCFN's show, featured market-wide coverage (including contributions from WICD reporters based in Champaign). However, there was a separate weeknight weather forecast segment seen on WRSP and WCCU that was specifically geared towards the Springfield and Champaign areas, respectively.

Also in 2006, WCIA began airing an hour-long extension of its weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m. on WCFN. This originally included a simulcast of the 6 o'clock hour of The Morning Show from WCIA. At the end of the first hour, viewers were always reminded to flip the channel to WCFN which offers a local alternative to the national morning programs seen on the big three networks. In 2007, another hour was added to the show which can now be seen from 7 until 9.

In 2009, WCIA announced it would cancel myCFN News at 9 and launch a new sixty-minute newscast weeknights at 7 on WCFN beginning September 28. As a result, MyNetworkTV programming now airs out-of-pattern, via an hour tape delay, from 8 to 10 p.m. The broadcast would eventually be reduced to 30 minutes in length. On October 24, 2012, WCIA upgraded local news production to high definition level. However, WCIX's newscasts were initially seen over-the-air in a letterboxed format because its main channel only transmitted in 4:3 standard definition until it was upgraded to full HD in 2015. WRSP/WCCU added competition to the weekday morning news race on January 20, 2014, after WICS began producing a two-hour extension of its morning show on the Fox affiliates. In addition to WCIA's main facilities, it operates bureaus in Springfield (on West Edwards Street near the Illinois State Capitol) and Decatur (on North Water Street).

In September 2017, the station moved its newscast from 7 to 9 p.m.

Technical information

Subchannels
WCIX and WCIA broadcast two shared channels (MyNetworkTV on 49.1 and 3.2 and CBS on 49.2 and 3.1) and two unique diginets each. Also broadcast on the WCIX multiplex is a subchannel of WRSP-TV as part of the market's ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) hosting arrangement.

WCIX-DT1 and WCIA-DT2 both broadcast in 1080i, upscaled from MyNetworkTV's default 720p format.

Analog-to-digital conversion
WCIX (as WCFN) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 49, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to VHF channel 13, using virtual channel 49.

References

External links

MyNetworkTV affiliates
Ion Mystery affiliates
Laff (TV network) affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1967
Television stations in Illinois
Nexstar Media Group
1967 establishments in Illinois
Springfield, Illinois

WCIX


Stratification in water is the formation in a body of water of relatively distinct and stable layers by density. It occurs in all water bodies where there is stable density variation with depth. Stratification is a barrier to the vertical mixing of water, which affects the exchange of heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients. Wind-driven upwelling and downwelling of open water can induce mixing of different layers through the stratification, and force the rise of denser cold, nutrient-rich, or saline water and the sinking of lighter warm or fresher water, respectively. Layers are based on water density: denser water remains below less dense water in stable stratification in the absence of forced mixing.

Stratification occurs in several kinds of water bodies, such as oceans, lakes, estuaries, flooded caves, aquifers and some rivers.

Mechanism
The driving force in stratification is gravity, which sorts adjacent arbitrary volumes of water by local density, operating on them by buoyancy and weight. A volume of water of lower density than the surroundings will have a resultant buoyant force lifting it upwards, and a volume with higher density will be pulled down by the weight which will be greater than the resultant buoyant forces, following Archimedes' principle. Each volume will rise or sink until it has either mixed with its surroundings through turbulence and diffusion to match the density of the surroundings, reaches a depth where it has the same density as the surroundings, or reaches the top or bottom boundary of the body of water, and spreads out until the forces are balanced and the body of water reaches its lowest potential energy.

The density of water, which is defined as mass per unit of volume, is a function of temperature (), salinity () and pressure (), which is a function of depth and the density distribution of the overlaying water column, and is denoted as .

The dependence on pressure is not significant, since water is almost perfectly incompressible. An increase in the temperature of the water above 4°C causes expansion and the density will decrease. Water expands when it freezes, and a decrease in temperature below 4°C also causes expansion and a decrease in density. An increase in salinity, the mass of dissolved solids, will increase the density.

Density is the decisive factor in stratification. It is possible for a combination of temperature and salinity to result in a density that is less or more than the effect of either one in isolation, so it can happen that a layer of warmer saline water is layered between a colder fresher surface layer and a colder more saline deeper layer.

A pycnocline is a layer in a body of water where the change in density is relatively large compared to that of other layers. The thickness of the pycnoocline is not constant everywhere and depends on a variety of variables.

Just like a pycnocline is a layer with a large change in density with depth, similar layers can be defined for a large change in temperature, a thermocline, and salinity, a halocline. Since the density depends on both the temperature and the salinity, the pycno-, thermo-, and haloclines have a similar shape.

Mixing
Mixing is the breakdown of stratification. Once a body of water has reached a stable state of stratification, and no external forces or energy are applied, it will slowly mix by diffusion until homogeneous in density, temperature and composition, varying only due to minor effects of compressibility. This does not usually occur in nature, where there are a variety of external influences to maintain or disturb the equilibrium. Among these are heat input from the sun, which warms the upper volume, making it expand slightly and decreasing the density, so this tends to increase or stabilise stratification. Heat input from below, as occurs from tectonic plate spreading and vulcanism is a disturbing influence, causing heated water to rise, but these are usually local effects and small compared to the effects of wind, heat loss and evaporation from the free surface, and changes of direction of currents.

Wind has the effects of generating wind waves and wind currents, and increasing evaporation at the surface, which has a cooling effect and a concentrating effect on solutes, increasing salinity, both of which increase density. The movement of waves creates some shear in the water, which increases mixing in the surface water, as does the development of currents. Mass movement of water between latitudes is affected by coriolis forces, which impart motion across the current direction, and movement towards or away from a land mass or other topographic obstruction may leave a deficit or excess which lowers or raises the sea level locally, driving upwelling and downwelling to compensate. The major upwellings in the ocean are associated with the divergence of currents that bring deeper waters to the surface. There are at least five types of upwelling: coastal upwelling, large-scale wind-driven upwelling in the ocean interior, upwelling associated with eddies, topographically-associated upwelling, and broad-diffusive upwelling in the ocean interior. Downwelling also occurs in anti-cyclonic regions of the ocean where warm rings spin clockwise, causing surface convergence. When these surface waters converge, the surface water is pushed downwards. These mixing effects destabilise and reduce stratification.

By water body type

Oceans

Ocean stratification is the natural separation of an ocean's water into horizontal layers by density, and occurs in all ocean basins. Denser water is below lighter water, representing a stable stratification. The pycnocline is the layer where the rate of change in density is largest.

Ocean stratification is generally stable because warmer water is less dense than colder water, and most heating is from the sun, which directly affects only the surface layer. Stratification is reduced by mechanical mixing induced by wind, but reinforced by convection (warm water rising, cold water sinking). Stratified layers act as a barrier to the mixing of water, which impacts the exchange of heat, carbon, oxygen and other nutrients. The surface mixed layer is the uppermost layer in the ocean and is well mixed by mechanical (wind) and thermal (convection) effects.

Due to wind driven movement of surface water away from and towards land masses, upwelling and downwelling can occur, breaking through the stratification in those areas, where cold nutrient-rich water rises and warm water sinks, respectively, mixing surface and bottom waters.

The thickness of the thermocline is not constant everywhere and depends on a variety of variables.

Between 1960 and 2018, upper ocean stratification increased between 0.7-1.2% per decade due to climate change. This means that the differences in density of the layers in the oceans increase, leading to larger mixing barriers and other effects.  Global upper-ocean stratification has continued its increasing trend in 2022. The southern oceans (south of 30°S) experienced the strongest rate of stratification since 1960, followed by the Pacific, Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans. Increasing stratification is predominantly affected by changes in ocean temperature; salinity only plays a role locally.

Estuaries

An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.

The residence time of water in an estuary is dependent on the circulation within the estuary that is driven by density differences due to changes in salinity and temperature. Less dense freshwater floats over saline water and warmer water floats above colder water  for temperatures greater than 4°C. As a result, near-surface and near-bottom waters can have different trajectories, resulting in different residence times.

Vertical mixing determines how much the salinity and temperature will change from the top to the bottom, profoundly affecting water circulation.  Vertical mixing occurs at three levels: from the surface downward by wind forces, the bottom upward by turbulence generated at the interface between the estuarine and oceanic water masses, and internally by turbulent mixing caused by the water currents which are driven by the tides, wind, and river inflow.

Different types of estuarine circulation result from vertical mixing:

Salt wedge estuaries are characterized by a sharp density interface between the upper layer of freshwater and the bottom layer of saline water.  River water dominates in this system, and tidal effects have a small role in the circulation patterns.  The freshwater floats on top of the seawater and gradually thins as it moves seaward.  The denser seawater moves along the bottom up the estuary forming a wedge shaped layer and becoming thinner as it moves landward.  As a velocity difference develops between the two layers, shear forces generate internal waves at the interface, mixing the seawater upward with the freshwater. An example is the Mississippi estuary.

As tidal forcing increases, the control of river flow on the pattern of circulation in the estuary becomes less dominating.  Turbulent mixing induced by the current creates a moderately stratified condition.  Turbulent eddies mix the water column, creating a mass transfer of freshwater and seawater in both directions across the density boundary.  Therefore, the interface separating the upper and lower water masses is replaced with a water column with a gradual increase in salinity from surface to bottom.  A two layered flow still exists however, with the maximum salinity gradient at mid depth.  Partially stratified estuaries are typically shallow and wide, with a greater width to depth ratio than salt wedge estuaries. An example is the Thames.

In vertically homogeneous estuaries, tidal flow is greater relative to river discharge, resulting in a well mixed water column and the disappearance of the vertical salinity gradient.  The freshwater-seawater boundary is eliminated due to the intense turbulent mixing and eddy effects.  The width to depth ratio of vertically homogeneous estuaries is large, with the limited depth creating enough vertical shearing on the seafloor to mix the water column completely.  If tidal currents at the mouth of an estuary are strong enough to create turbulent mixing, vertically homogeneous conditions often develop.

Fjords are usually examples of highly stratified estuaries; they are basins with sills and have freshwater inflow that greatly exceeds evaporation.  Oceanic water is imported in an intermediate layer and mixes with the freshwater.  The resulting brackish water is then exported into the surface layer.  A slow import of seawater may flow over the sill and sink to the bottom of the fjord (deep layer), where the water remains stagnant until flushed by an occasional storm.

Inverse estuaries occur in dry climates where evaporation greatly exceeds the inflow of freshwater.  A salinity maximum zone is formed, and both riverine and oceanic water flow close to the surface towards this zone.  This water is pushed downward and spreads along the bottom in both the seaward and landward direction.  The maximum salinity can reach extremely high values and the residence time can be several months.  In these systems, the salinity maximum zone acts like a plug, inhibiting the mixing of estuarine and oceanic waters so that freshwater does not reach the ocean.  The high salinity water sinks seaward and exits the estuary.

Lakes

Lake stratification, generally a form of thermal stratification caused by density variations due to water temperature, is the formation of separate and distinct layers of water during warm weather, and sometimes when frozen over. Typically stratified lakes show three distinct layers, the epilimnion comprising the top warm layer, the thermocline (or metalimnion): the middle layer, which may change depth throughout the day, and the colder hypolimnion extending to the floor of the lake.

The thermal stratification of lakes is a vertical isolation of parts of the water body from mixing caused by variation in the temperature at different depths in the lake, and is due to the density of water varying with temperature. Cold water is denser than warm water of the same salinity, and the epilimnion generally consists of water that is not as dense as the water in the hypolimnion. However, the temperature of maximum density for freshwater is 4 °C. In temperate regions where lake water warms up and cools through the seasons, a cyclical pattern of overturn occurs that is repeated from year to year as the water at the top of the lake cools and sinks (see stable and unstable stratification). For example, in dimictic lakes the lake water turns over during the spring and the fall. This process occurs more slowly in deeper water and as a result, a thermal bar may form. If the stratification of water lasts for extended periods, the lake is meromictic.

In shallow lakes, stratification into epilimnion, metalimnion, and hypolimnion often does not occur, as wind or cooling causes regular mixing throughout the year. These lakes are called polymictic. There is not a fixed depth that separates polymictic and stratifying lakes, as apart from depth, this is also influenced by turbidity, lake surface area, and climate.
The lake mixing regime (e.g. polymictic, dimictic, meromictic) describes the yearly patterns of lake stratification that occur in most years. However, short-term events can influence lake stratification as well. Heat waves can cause periods of stratification in otherwise mixed, shallow lakes, while mixing events, such as storms or large river discharge, can break down stratification. Recent research suggests that seasonally ice-covered dimictic lakes may be described as "cryostratified" or "cryomictic" according to their wintertime stratification regimes. Cryostratified lakes exhibit inverse stratification near the ice surface and have depth-averaged temperatures near 4 °C, while cryomictic lakes have no under-ice thermocline and have depth-averaged winter temperatures closer to 0 °C.

Anchialine systems

An anchialine system is a landlocked body of water with a subterranean connection to the ocean. Depending on its formation, these systems can exist in one of two primary forms: pools or caves. The primary differentiating characteristics between pools and caves is the availability of light; cave systems are generally aphotic while pools are euphotic. The difference in light availability has a large influence on the biology of a given system. Anchialine systems are a feature of coastal aquifers which are density stratified, with water near the surface being fresh or brackish, and saline water intruding from the coast at depth. Depending on the site, it is sometimes possible to access the deeper saline water directly in the anchialine pool, or sometimes it may be accessible by cave diving.

Anchialine systems are extremely common worldwide especially along neotropical coastlines where the geology and aquifer systems are relatively young, and there is minimal soil development. Such conditions occur notably where the bedrock is limestone or recently formed volcanic lava. Many anchialine systems are found on the coastlines of the island of Hawaii, the Yucatán Peninsula, South Australia, the Canary Islands, Christmas Island, and other karst and volcanic systems.

Karst caves which drain into the sea may have a halocline separating the fresh water from the seawater underneath which can be visible even when both layers are clear due to the difference in refractive indices.

References

Hydrology

Stratification (water)


Balaputradewa was the maharaja of Srivijaya in the 9th century CE as well as the former head of the Sailendra dynasty. He was the youngest son of the preceding Sailendran maharaja, Samaratunga, through marriage with Dewi Tara who was in turn the daughter of another maharaja, Dharmasetu of Srivijaya.

Early life
Samaratunga died when Balaputra was a boy. As a young heir to the throne, his authority in Central Java was frequently challenged by local landlords. An extended family member by the name of Garung forced Balaputra to accept his tutorship. Garung was part of the Sanjaya dynasty and was related to Balaputra through marriage of Garung's son, Rakai Pikatan to Pramodhawardhani, Balaputra's sister. During the regency of Garung, the Javanese political landscape was relatively peaceful. The regency ended in 832 when Garung disappeared.

Sri Maharaja of Suvarnadvipa, King of Srivijaya
Around 852, Rakai Pikatan of Sanjaya began garnering influence from the local nobles. This worried Balaputra and he tried to suppress Rakai Pikatan in order to regain control. His effort failed miserably however, due to his inexperience. The Sailendras were eventually forced to leave Java for Palembang, the seat of Srivijaya as well as the home of Balaputra's mother, Tara. Balaputra's defeat by Jatiningrat (Pikatan) was recorded in the Shivagrha inscription that recorded that Balaputra had constructed a fortress made of hundreds of heaped stones for his refuge. With the retreat, Central Java fell into the hands of Sanjaya, ending the Sailendra's rule over the area. The Sanjayas later founded the Mataram Kingdom and continued to rule Java until Srivijaya reasserted its dominance over the island in the 11th century.

Soon after he left Java, Balaputra became the ruler of Srivijaya. While the record on Balaputra is scarce, it is known through the Nalanda inscription that he ordered the construction of a Buddhist monastery in Nalanda, India. He also sent an ambassador to China.

References

Shailendra dynasty
Srivijaya
Indonesian Buddhist monarchs
9th-century Indonesian people

Balaputra


Egodahage George Wilfred Alwis Samarakoon (13 January 1911 – 2 April 1962) known as Ananda Samarakoon was a Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) composer and musician. He composed the Sri Lankan national anthem "Namo Namo Matha" and is considered the father of artistic Sinhala music and founder of the modern Sri Lankan Sinhala Geeta Sahitya (Song Literature). He committed suicide in 1962.

Early life and education
Born on 13 January 1911 as Egodahage George Wilfred Alwis Samarakoon, to Samuel Samarakoon, Chief Clerk to British-owned Maturata Plantations and Dominga Peries in Watareka, Padukka. He was the second of four sons in a Christian family. Samarakoon received his primary education at Wewala School and thereafter attended CMS Sri Jayawardenepura College (Christian College, Kotte). His Sinhala Guru was Pandit D.C.P. Gamalathge. Later he served his Alma mater as a teacher of Music and Art.  Samarakoon left for the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan in India to study art and music. After six months he abandoned his studies and returned to Ceylon, and changed his name to Ananda Samarakoon, embracing Buddhism. Then he served as the music teacher of Mahinda College, Galle from 1938 to 1942.

Career

Composer
In 1937, the popular music of Sri Lanka consisted of songs derived from the North Indian Ragadhari music. These songs lyrics often contained meaningless phrases with little or no literary merit. Samarakone set out to create a form of a music that can be classified as Sri Lanka's own and came out with the song  Ennada Menike (එන්නද මැණිකේ)  (1940) that paved the foundation for the artistic Sinhala music. In 1940, he composed Namo Namo Mata to instill patriotism and love for one's country, in his students at Mahinda College.It was first sung by little Mahindians at the prestigious Olcott Hall. That song was later selected as the National anthem of Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan government.

The love themed song Endada Menike unfolds in the form of a dialogue between a young village boy and a girl. Poetic and beautifully rustic, it became a success and Samarakone followed it with a string of successful songs in the early to mid-1940s, the period considered his golden age. Among his best known works are:
Podimal Etano (පොඩීමල් එතනෝ)
Vilay Malak Pipila
Poson Pohoda
Asay madura
Sunila Guvanay
Punchi Suda
Nilvala Gangay
Sumano
Pudamu Kusum
Siri Saru Saara Ketay

Painter
In 1945, Samarakoon's only son died at the age of five, and the grieving Samarakoon left Sri Lanka for India where he pursued a painting career and held eleven art exhibitions there. Though his painting were critically acclaimed, he returned to music in 1951 back in Sri Lanka.

National anthem
One of Samarakoon's early compositions, Namo Namo Mata was nominated as the national anthem and was officially adopted as the national anthem of Ceylon on 22 November 1951, from a committee headed by Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne. Critics attacked Namo Namo Mata, particularly the "Gana" significance of the introductory words (Namo Namo Matha) which designate disease and ill luck to the political leaders of the country. Samarakone who has completed Ghana Shasthra studies in India, clearly stated the ones who were asking to change the lyrics, that he is the only one to complete Ghana Shastra studies in India and that he would knows if there is any mistake or not. But after some days, he was asked to visit the SL broadcasting cooperation and had made to listen to his song which had been changed without his knowledge and consent.

Death
On 5 April 1962, at the age of 51, Samarakoon committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping tablets.

References

1911 births
1962 suicides
Drug-related suicides in Sri Lanka
National anthem writers
Converts to Buddhism from Christianity
Sri Lankan Buddhists
Visva-Bharati University alumni
Sri Lankan composers
20th-century Sri Lankan painters
Sinhalese singers
20th-century Sri Lankan male singers
Faculty of Mahinda College, Galle
Buddhist artists
1962 deaths

Ananda Samarakoon


Christiane Noll (born October 5, 1968) is an American actress and singer known for her work in musicals and on the concert stage. She originated the role of Emma Carew in Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde, and had roles in Urinetown, Ragtime, and Dear Evan Hansen.

Life and career
Noll was born in New York City and raised in Leonia, New Jersey, where she attended Leonia High School. She is the daughter of conductor and Emmy Award-winning Music Supervisor for CBS, the late Ron Noll, and soprano Sara-Ann Noll.  She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. In 2006, Noll married actor Jamie LaVerdiere, who appeared in the Broadway production of the musical The Pirate Queen in 2007. The couple's first child, a girl, was born in February 2009. Noll has established the Charlotte Black Memorial Fund as an endowed award at Carnegie Mellon University.

Stage work
Noll created the role of Emma in the Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde in 1997 after playing the role in out-of-town tryouts. She also appeared on Broadway in the revue, It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues (1999). Noll earned good notices for her performances as Kathie in The Student Prince in 2000 at the Paper Mill Playhouse and Marianne in City Center Encores! The New Moon (2003). Noll received an Ovation Award for her role as Hope Cladwell in the National Tour of Urinetown (2004). She also created the roles of Vanna Vane in The Mambo Kings musical (2005), Jane Smart in the American premier of The Witches of Eastwick at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia (2007), Elizabeth Lavenza in the rock musical Frankenstein - A New Musical (2007 off-Broadway, 37 Arts) and Jordan in The Piper at the NY Music Theatre Festival (2007). Noll appeared as Ruth in 2008 in Ace at the Signature Theatre in Arlington. In 2010 Noll was seen on Broadway as Mother in the revival of Ragtime at the Neil Simon Theatre for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

Noll has starred in the national tours of Grease, as Sandy, Miss Saigon, as Ellen, and City of Angels, as Mallory/Avril, as well as a tour of Australia and Thailand as Nellie in South Pacific. She performed with Plácido Domingo in the Washington National Opera's The Merry Widow as Valencienne at The Kennedy Center (2005). Other stage credits include Mabel in Mack & Mabel (for which she won a 2004 Connecticut Critics Circle Award), Genvieve in The Baker's Wife (2002), Lizzie in Lizzie Borden (2001 at Goodspeed Opera House), The Baker's Wife in Into the Woods (2005), Carrie in Carousel, Laura in A Fine & Private Place, (2006 off-Broadway York Theater), Woman 2 in Little by Little, (1999 off-Broadway York Theater), and Mabel in Eugene Opera's The Pirates of Penzance (2006).  Regional theatre productions include Oliver!, All Night Strut, Cinderella, Annie, 42nd Street, My Fair Lady, Sweeney Todd, and Little Shop of Horrors (American Music Theatre of San Jose (2008)). She played Mother in Ragtime at the Kennedy Center (2009) winning a 2010 Helen Hayes Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Noll was part of the first national touring company for Dear Evan Hansen, playing the role of Cynthia Murphy. She later took over the same role in the Broadway company in October of 2019, and resumed (along with the rest of the company) in December 2021 after the COVID-19 Broadway hiatus. Her run in the show ended on July 17 2022, but she returned to cover the role in the beginning of September 2022 when Ann Sanders fell ill.

Noll is heard on concept albums for a new musical, The New Picasso, which was released in January 2008, and Dracula, released in 2006.

Concert, cabaret and recording work

Noll frequently performs Broadway favorites in concert and has been a guest soloist as part of Bravo Broadway with the National Symphony and Marvin Hamlisch, The Cincinnati Pops, The Columbus Symphony Orchestra, The Jerusalem Symphony, The Philadelphia Pops and Peter Nero, and has sung with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, The Harrisburg Symphony, The San Francisco Symphony, and the Sinfonica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson, in his last New York Pops performance, as part of 3 Broadway Divas.

Noll also performs a solo cabaret show and has been a featured member of the Broadway Inspirational Voices Gospel Choir.

Noll appeared as Sister Margaretta in the 2013 NBC broadcast of The Sound of Music Live!.

Noll has released four solo CD's, Christiane Noll - A Broadway Love Story (1998), The Ira Gershwin Album (2001), Live at the Westbank Café (2003) and Christiane Noll - My Personal Property (2008). She supplied the singing-voice of Anna in the Warner Bros. animated feature The King and I (1999). Some of her numerous recordings are Jekyll & Hyde (1997), The King & I (1999, Sony Classics), Little by Little (1999), A Christmas Survival Guide (2000), What's a Nice Girl Like You..., Z: The Masked Musical (2000), Bravo Broadway 2, The Three Broadway Divas (with two fellow Divas - Jan Horvath and Debbie Gravitte), Far from the Madding Crowd (2000), The New Moon (2003), Neo: A Celebration of Emerging Talent in Musical Theatre, Benefiting the York Theatre Company (2005), and albums of the music of Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon, Scott Alan and Stephen Schwartz, among others.

Discography
 Jekyll & Hyde (1997)
 Christiane Noll - A Broadway Love Story (1998)
 The King and I (1999)
 Little by Little (1999)
 A Christmas Survival Guide (2000)
 Far from the Madding Crowd (2000)
 Z: The Masked Musical (2000) The Ira Gershwin Album (2001)
 Live at the Westbank Café (2003)
 The New Moon (2003)
  Neo: A Celebration of Emerging Talent in Musical Theatre, Benefiting the York Theatre Company (2005)
 Christiane Noll - My Personal Property (2008)
 Frankenstein - A New Musical (2008)
 What I Wanna Be When I Grow Up by Scott Alan (2010) -- sings the song I Remember Scott Alan - Live (2012) -- sings the song Again''

References

External links

Noll's official website
2006 NY Times review of Noll's performance
Detailed review of a Noll album
Listing of available Noll albums
Bravo Broadway's website

American musical theatre actresses
American sopranos
Leonia High School alumni
People from Leonia, New Jersey
Actresses from New York City
Living people
1968 births
21st-century American women

Christiane Noll


Xavier Gonzalez (1898–1993) was an American artist. He was born in Almeria, Spain. He lived in Argentina and Mexico for some time, and was planning on becoming an engineer in a gold mine. In 1925, he immigrated to the United States.

Education
Gonzalez began his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1921 to 1923, and his uncle, José Arpa, studied with him there. He also studied at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City, as well as in Paris and in the Far East. In 1931, Gonzalez became a US citizen, and in 1935, he married fellow artist Ethel Edwards (1914–1999), who was seventeen years his junior and also his student at Newcomb College. He often worked and studied with fellow artist Julius Woeltz, who was the best man at his wedding. Gonzales commandeered the canteen wall at Newcomb for the use of his art students.

Works
Gonzalez's works have been displayed throughout the United States, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was also well known in Paris, Venice, Brussels and Tokyo. He taught art at Tulane University, the Brooklyn Museum, Case Western Reserve University, and the Newcomb Memorial School of Art, and was the director of the art school at Sul Ross State Teachers College in Alpine, Texas. In 1953, he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, then became a full Academician in 1955. He illustrated a children's book called "He Who Saw Everything, The Epic of Gilgamesh" by Anita Feagles (1966).

Gonzalez died of leukemia in 1993, at the age of 94, at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York City.

Murals
Covington, Louisiana,  Tung Oil Industry,  1939, oil on canvas
Hammond, Louisiana, Strawberry Farming, 1937, oil on canvas
Huntsville, Alabama, Tennessee Valley Authority,  Federal Courthouse, oil on canvas
Kilgore, Texas, Pioneer Saga, 1941,  oil on canvas
 Kilgore, Texas, Drilling for Oil, 1941, oil on canvas
 Kilgore, Texas, Music of Plains, 1941. oil on canvas
 Kilgore, Texas, Contemporary Youth, 1941. oil on canvas

His wife, Ethel Edwards painted 2 murals; one titled Life on the Lake in 1942 at the Lake Providence, Louisiana post office  and the other, titled Afternoon on a Texas Ranch, completed in 1941 at the Lampasas, Texas post office.

References

External links

AskART
artnet
United States Bureau of Reclamation
NYtimes.com

1898 births
1993 deaths
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Spanish emigrants to the United States
People from Almería
School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni
Tulane University faculty
Case Western Reserve University faculty
Sul Ross State University faculty
Deaths from leukemia
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
20th-century American male artists
Spanish expatriates in Argentina
Spanish expatriates in Mexico
Section of Painting and Sculpture artists

Xavier Gonzalez


DVD Player is an app developed by Microsoft that plays DVD-Video on Microsoft Windows. DVD Player was introduced in Windows 98, and was included in Windows ME and Windows 2000 before removal from Windows XP and beyond in favor of "CD/DVD playback functionality" in Windows Media Player. After Windows XP, DVD playback was built into other apps such as Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center instead. Following the discontinuation of Media Center in Windows 10 and the removal of DVD codecs from Windows 8, DVD Player was reintroduced to Windows 10 as an app available from Microsoft Store.

Windows 98, 2000, and ME versions

When the DVD Player is launched, it searches all local drives in alphabetical order from C:, looking for a Video_TS folder. When this folder is located, the data file within it is loaded, and video streaming begins. If this folder exists on a drive that comes before the DVD drive, the player will try to play the data in the first folder it finds.

In Windows 98 and Windows 2000, DVD Player only plays DVDs if a hardware-based MPEG decoder is present. In Windows ME, DVD Player supports software-based MPEG decoders.

DVD Player was dropped in Windows XP in favor of the DVD functionality introduced into Windows Media Player. While the DVDPlay executable still resides in %Windir%\system32, it simply executes Windows Media Player. On Windows 8, Windows Media Center and DVD playback support were relegated to a premium add-on for Windows 8 Pro, citing the costs of licensing the decoders and the market moving away from DVD-Video.

Windows 10 version

Windows DVD Player was made available for Windows 10 on desktop computers to provide DVD playback functionality. When launched, it searches for movie files in the disc drive. It can also be picked as an option in the AutoPlay dialog when a disc is inserted. However, if the disc is switched, the app needs to restart. It is available as a paid app through Microsoft Store, although it is distributed at no charge to those who had upgraded from an installation of Windows 7 or Windows 8 that included Windows Media Center.

References

External links

 Windows DVD Player on Microsoft Store

Microsoft software
Microsoft Windows multimedia technology
Windows media players
Universal Windows Platform apps

DVD Player (Windows)