Steinar Stokke (born 8 October 1955) is a Norwegian businessperson and former civil servant, with prominent positions in the health sector.

By education, he is a political scientist from the University of Oslo. In the 1980s and 1990s he pursued a career in the civil service. In 1988 he was acting subdirector, and was promoted to subdirector, in the Ministry of Finance. He later became acting head of department before being promoted to director in 1992. Another promotion to deputy under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Social Affairs followed in 1993, before he reached the highest-ranking position in the civil service, permanent under-secretary of state, in 1996.

In 1999 he left the civil service to become chief executive of the pharmaceutical wholesaler Apokjeden. He cited a wage of  in the civil service as one of the reasons, deeming is to be too low, and adding that "The public sector is struggling with a leader wage problem. Something must happen here if one wants to keep people". He chaired the board of the public real estate company Entra Eiendom from 2000. He also chaired the National Library of Norway from 2001, but stepped down to board member at the end of 2001. He also chaired Statistics Norway and was a board member of the eyeglass retailer Brilleland.

In December 2001 it was announced that Stokke would be the new chief executive of the new Southern Norway Regional Health Authority. He also became chair of five hospitals or health trusts in the Southern Norway Region; Rikshospitalet, Radiumhospitalet, Ringerike Hospital, Buskerud Hospital and Telemark Hospital. In May 2003 he stepped down from the boards of four of the five hospitals (except Rikshospitalet) as well as Statistics Norway, the National Library and Brilleland. The reason was a flawed project where patient diagnoses was to be coded in different ways to be eligible for public funding. In January 2004, the Southern Norway Regional Health Authority board chairman Oluf Arntsen tried to oust Stokke from the executive chair, following the "coding case" as well as roundhanded pension deals with company executives. Arntsen was supported by deputy chair Helen Bjørnøy and board member Ole Johan Sandvand, but was voted down by the rest of the board (Kaare Norum, Einfrid Halvorsen, Anne Mo Grimdalen, Terje Keyn, Morten Falkenberg and Svein Øverland). Arntsen subsequently had to resign, but in response, the Minister of Health Dagfinn Høybråten promptly relieved the entire board of their positions. An entirely new board was composed in early February, led by Erling Valvik, and after less than two weeks, Stokke resigned. He received a year's wage of about  and a one-off pension-in-advance of about . A new chief executive was not found until December 2004, when Bjørn Erikstein took over.

In the autumn, Stokke also left the chair of Entra Eiendom. Eventually he became involved in the venture Oslo Cancer Cluster together with Ansgar Gabrielsen, who had succeeded Dagfinn Høybråten as Minister of Health in June 2004 and served as such for one year. Stokke and Gabrielsen invested together with Terje Haugan and the Orkla Group in incorporating the Radium Hospital, the Cancer Registry of Norway and Ullern Secondary School into a giant project named Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park (OCCI). This incorporation became a reality, and the tearing down of the old Ullern Secondary School commenced in the summer of 2012. In addition to Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park, Steinar Stokke is a board member of Csam Health and Helse og Idrettsbygg; chair of Steinar Stokke Invest and both board member and managing director of Oslo Næringseiendom and Pharmacy Invest. He has also been a board member in Swedish Apotek Hjärtat. He resides in Asker.

References

1955 births
Living people
University of Oslo alumni
Norwegian civil servants
Norwegian businesspeople
Directors of government agencies of Norway

Steinar Stokke


Nucleus (plural: nuclei) means the center of something. It might mean:

Cell nucleus, which is the part that controls the cell, or the very center
Atomic nucleus, the center of an atom
Comet nucleus, the solid, central part of a comet
Nucleus (brain)

Nucleus


FFKMs (by ASTM 1418 standard) (equivalent to FFPMs by ISO/DIN 1629 standard) are perfluoroelastomeric compounds containing an even higher amount of fluorine than FKM fluoroelastomers.

They have improved resistance to high temperatures  and chemicals and even withstand environments where Oxygen-Plasma are present for many hours. Certain grades have a maximum continuous service temperature of . They are commonly used to make O-rings and gaskets that are used in applications that involve contact with hydrocarbons or highly corrosive fluids, or when a wide range of temperatures is encountered.

For vacuum applications, demanding very low contamination (out-gassing and particle emission) as well as high temperature operation (200–300 °C) for prolonged out-baking or processing times and where a copper or metal sealing is not possible or very inconvenient/expensive, a custom-made, clean-room manufactured, sealing such as Kalrez® 9100, SCVBR, Chemraz®, or Perlast can be used. After manufacturing, they are O-plasma vacuum cleaned (and/or vacuum baked) to reach out-gassing performance similar to Teflon while reaching vacuum leak tightness (permeability rates) similar to FKM (Viton) compounds. This combination of properties allows FFKM seals to reach well into UHV pressures without the use of metal sealing. However, they are significantly more expensive than standard FKM O-rings.

References

Organofluorides
Elastomers
Materials science
Fluoropolymers

FFKM


A product manager (PM) is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the product strategy behind a product (physical or digital), specify its functional requirements, and manage feature releases. Product managers coordinate work done by many other functions (like software engineers, data scientists, and product designers), and are ultimately responsible for product outcomes.

Definition
A product manager considers numerous factors such as the intended customer or user of a product, the products offered by the competition, and how well the product fits with the company's business model. The scope of a product manager varies greatly, some may manage one or more product lines and others (especially in large companies) may manage small components or features of a product.

In the financial services industry (banking, insurance etc.), product managers manage financial products (for example, credit card portfolios), their profit and loss, and also determine the business development strategy.

The term is often confused with other similar roles, such as:

Project manager: may perform all activities related to schedule and resource management
 Program Manager, sometimes known as Technical Program Manager (TPM): may perform activities related to schedule, resource, and cross-functional execution
 Product owner: a popular role in Agile development methodology, may perform all activities related to a self-encapsulated feature or feature set plan, development and releases
Product marketing manager: responsible for the outbound marketing activities of the product, not development and cross-functional execution

Product management in software development

The role of the product manager was originally created to manage the complexity of the product lines of a business, as well as to ensure that those products were profitable. Product managers can come from many different backgrounds, because their primary skills involve working well with customers and understanding the problems the product is intended to solve.

A product manager is responsible for orchestrating the various activities associated with ensuring that a product is delivered that meets users' needs. A software product manager's role varies as the software moves through its lifecycle; earlier in the development process the product manager meets the intended audience of the product to engage in requirements elicitation, whereas later in the lifecycle the product manager's primary focus may be in acceptance testing of the product. Throughout all the stages of the product development process, the product manager represents the needs of end-users, evaluates market trends and competition, and uses this information to determine what features to build.  For example, a product manager may decide a feature is needed because users are asking for it, or because the feature is needed to stay competitive. In order to facilitate this decision-making process the product manager may set out a vision for the product or a general framework for making product decisions. The product manager also ensures an atmosphere of cohesiveness and focused collaboration between all the members of the team, all in the interest of driving the product forward. Product managers are often thought of as sitting at the intersection of business, design, and technology.

Product owner in software development
Within an agile software development environment, product delivery responsibilities are taken on by a product owner, a project role that can be performed by a product or engineering manager to ensure successful implementation of tactical plans and requirements during the development stage of a product. While the product manager has a strategic and long-term perspective with a strong focus on the market success of a product, a product owner aims to maximize the business value of the product or increment created by an agile project which can include benefits within an organization and does not explicitly relate to a product's marketability. Therefore, a product owner focuses mainly on the development of a product and may limit their product owner responsibilities to the duration of a project. The product manager role, in contrast, requires a long-term perspective of the market and product line.

The day-to-day responsibilities of a product owner within an agile project include creating and prioritizing the product backlog, which is a list of things to be done by the development team, in order to maximize the business value created by the project. The product backlog is made up of user stories which are brief narrative descriptions of what a feature should do, including a checklist of items that are required to be in place in order for the feature to be considered done, called the acceptance criteria. The details of how the feature is developed are worked out by developers and designers. At the end of the development sprint, the product owner is responsible for verifying that the acceptance criteria have been met; only then is the work on the feature officially done.

Product manager career progression
Product managers often start their careers as engineers or specialists in other functions and eventually transition to product management. Product managers undergo a structured interview process, often a mix of case-based product strategy interviews, analytical interviews, and more traditional behavioral interviews. Increasingly, large technology companies are hiring and training young graduates directly through programs like the Google Associate Product Manager program or the Facebook Rotational Product Manager program.

Individual contributor product managers have no direct reports: they "lead through influence" in a cross-functional product team. As individuals grow in seniority, they eventually take on managing other PMs, under titles like Group Product Manager, Product Lead or Product Director. The Chief Product Officer (sometimes known as Head of Product or VP Product) is responsible for all product-related matters, including strategy, alignment, hiring, and management.

Because of the broad responsibilities, product management is often seen as a training ground to C-level leadership roles in technology companies.

Notable individuals
Notable individuals who have held the role of product manager include Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google), Marissa Mayer (former CEO of Yahoo!), Premal Shah (president of Kiva.org), Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) and Kevin Systrom (founder of Instagram).

See also
Product strategy
Product management
Product planning
Product marketing
Product requirements document
Program director
Collaborative Product Development
New product development
Marketing requirements document

References

Management occupations

Product manager


The 1940 Middleton and Prestwich by-election was held for the Middleton and Prestwich constituency on 22 May 1940, after the death of the sitting MP, Nairne Sandeman. It was held during World War II, and five of the largest political parties – Conservative, Labour, Liberal, National Labour and National Liberal agreed to an electoral pact not to contest any by-elections in seats held by any of the other parties.

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) had contested several recent by-elections, receiving very few votes. During the mid-1930s, the group had been able to organise sizeable demonstrations, but anti-fascist activity and the banning of political uniforms by the Public Order Act 1936 had hit the group hard. The BUF's main message was to call for immediate peace and a pact with the Axis powers; during the "phoney war" period this message had been received calmly. The British Union selected Frederick Haslam, who was 43 years old and working as an engineering designer. Haslam had served in France and Palestine during World War I and had won the Military Medal when fighting on the Somme. However, by the time that the Middleton and Prestwich campaign started, the British Army was fighting the Germans in Norway; on 9 May, the Germans invaded France through the Low Countries. The sudden escalation in the war made the BUF seem like fifth columnists, and the seizure of power in Norway by Vidkun Quisling was a matter of extreme concern because Quisling's career was superficially similar to that of Oswald Mosley. When Mosley spoke in Middleton and Prestwich, missiles were thrown at him and people tried to hit him. The British government was also preparing to make the BUF illegal under wartime powers, and arrested several Fascist activists in the run-up to the election.

Nairne Stewart Sandeman had held the seat for the Conservative Party since the 1923 general election, and had won more than 60% of the vote in the 1935 general election against a Labour Party challenge. The party chose Ernest Gates to contest the by-election. With only Fascist opposition, the election was expected to be an easy win for Gates, who won resoundingly, with 98.7% of the votes cast and a 97.4% majority: an all-time record for any contested UK parliamentary by-election, and the largest majority in any parliamentary election since East Kerry in the 1885 general election.

Result

References

F. W. S. Craig, Chronology of British Parliamentary By-elections, 1833–1987
Z. Yaakov Wise, Fascism in Manchester (Centre for Jewish Studies)

Middleton and Prestwich by-election
Middleton and Prestwich by-election
Middleton and Prestwich by-election, 1940
Elections in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Greater Manchester constituencies
By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Lancashire constituencies
Middleton and Prestwich by-election


Solar-powered calculators are hand-held electronic calculators powered by solar cells mounted on the device. They were introduced at the end of the 1970s.

Amorphous silicon has been used as a photovoltaic solar cell material for devices which require very little power, such as pocket calculators, because their lower performance compared to conventional crystalline silicon solar cells is more than offset by their lower cost and simplified deposition onto a substrate. The first solar-powered (non-scientific) calculators available in the late 1970s included the Royal Solar 1, the Sharp EL-8026, and the Teal Photon. Scientific solar-powered calculators appeared in 1982.

Solar calculators use liquid crystal displays, as they are power-efficient and capable of operating in the low-voltage range of 1.5–2 V. Some models also use a light pipe to converge light onto the solar cells. However, solar calculators may not work well in indoor conditions under ambient lighting if sufficient light is not available.

Anylite Technology is the name of a solar technology used by Texas Instruments since the 1980s in some calculators. They are intended to be able to function with less light than other solar calculators. This was essentially achieved by using relatively large photovoltaic solar cells. The use of Anylite technology in modern TI calculators is denoted by a lowercase "a" at the end of the model number (e.g. TI-30a). In older models, such as the TI-36 Solar, Anylite Solar is printed on the calculator.

As of the 2010s, some cheap calculators include a "dummy" solar panel, implying that they are solar-powered but they are actually powered only by battery.

References

Texas Instruments calculators
Applications of photovoltaics

Solar-powered calculator


Duke Mitchell (born Dominic Salvatore Miceli; May 9, 1926 – December 2, 1981) was an American film actor, slapstick comedian, crooner and independent film director of 1970s gangster movies starring himself. Mitchell often performed his nightclub act in and around Palm Springs, California, and anointed himself the "King of Palm Springs."

Early life and career

On May 9, 1926, Mitchell was born Dominic Salvatore Miceli in Farrell, Pennsylvania. In 1951, he teamed with comic Sammy Petrillo for a nightclub act. Mitchell's cabaret-style crooning and Petrillo's manic, rubber-faced clowning bore more than a passing resemblance to the popular team of Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, whom Mitchell and Petrillo physically resembled), which led to Lewis taking legal action.<ref name="NYTimes">Sammy Petrillo obituary, The New York Times, August 24, 2009; accessed July 2, 2017.</ref> The suit was later dismissed.

Movie producer Jack Broder intended to star Mitchell and Petrillo in a feature-length comedy. Petrillo later recalled his suspicion that Broder never really intended to make the film: Broder expected Paramount Pictures to pay him off, but when Paramount dropped the lawsuit, Broder had to follow through. The resulting film was Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, a jungle-themed comedy. Mitchell had a small appearance in the Martin and Lewis film Sailor Beware (1952).

After Mitchell and Petrillo parted ways, Mitchell stayed in show business, performing at nightclubs in New York, Las Vegas, Seattle, Palm Springs, Chicago (opening for his friend Lenny Bruce),  and The Cloisters, Crescendo and Coconut Grove in Los Angeles and began directing self-financed independent films such as Massacre Mafia Style (1974) and Gone with the Pope (1976), which have since developed a  cult following. In 1960, Mitchell provided the singing voice of Fred Flintstone for his friends William Hanna and Joseph Barbera on The Flintstones episodes "Hot Lips Hannigan" and "Girls' Night Out".

Mitchell was a regular on the scene in Palm Springs, California, where he started the fad and trend of "Sunday Brunches" with shows including Liza Minnelli, David Janssen, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and his son, guitarist/songwriter Jeffrey Mitchell,  who got his start at the Ranch Club brunches with his father, Doug McClure, James Drury, and a myriad  of stars including Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Vince Edwards, and acts from the world of show-biz. Stars would take the weekend plunge into the Palm Springs scene and join the brunch festivities on Sunday.

Several of Mitchell's projects originally weren't released, including his "Tribute to Durante" and his second feature film Gone with the Pope, which only existed as a work print when it was found in Mitchell's son Jeffrey Mitchell's garage by Grindhouse Releasing's Bob Murawski and Sage Stallone. Sage wanted to purchase Gone with the Pope from Jeffrey Mitchell and he did,  save for the musical rights,  as Mitchell's music is published out of London.  It was carefully restored and released theatrically in 2011 by Grindhouse Releasing, which has also restored and released Mitchell's Massacre Mafia Style, owned by Jeffrey Mitchell and Bob Murawski, on Blu-ray in 2015."Weekend Weirdness: Gone with the Pope", Slashfilm.com, November 15, 2009.

Personal life and death
Mitchell and his wife, Jo, had two children. On December 2, 1981, Mitchell died of lung cancer at the age of 55.

Filmography
Director
 Massacre Mafia Style (1974, re-released in 2010 by Grindhouse Releasing) (a.k.a. Like Father Like Son, a.k.a. The Executioner)
 Gone with the Pope (1976, released in 2010 by Grindhouse Releasing)

Actor
 Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952)
 Sailor Beware (1952) (uncredited)
 Crime in the Streets (1956) (uncredited)
 Baby Face Nelson (1957)
 Paradise Alley (1962)
 Massacre Mafia Style (1974)
 Gone with the Pope'' (1976)

References

External links

1926 births
1981 deaths
American male film actors
American crooners
Deaths from lung cancer in California
Liberty Records artists
People from Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Film directors from Pennsylvania
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
20th-century American male singers

Duke Mitchell


Roller burnishing is a surface finishing technique where hardened rollers cold work surface imperfections to reduce surface roughness. Roller burnishing differs from abrasive surface finishing techniques in that material is displaced rather than removed. The tooling typically consists of a hardened sphere or cylindrical roller. The tooling is pressed into the surface of the part while it is rotated (in some applications, the tools are rotated instead of the part). The burnishing tool rolls against the surface of the part at a constant speed, producing a very consistent finish across the part. A surface finish of less than Ra 0.1 µm is achievable with roller burnishing. A side effect is that the outer surface of the part is work hardened.

Roller burnishing is used in the production of some crankshafts. A dual roller (cylindrical) tool is moved into the thrust bearing journal of a crankshaft, while the crankshaft is spinning the tool is indexed (so each roller is perpendicular to the thrust surface while backing each other up) deforming the surfaces. So the diameters of each roller added together (compensated for elastic deformation) equals the finish dimension of the thrust bearing.

In deep hole machining, a roller burnishing tool is often combined with skiving knives on the same tool.  The skiving knives pass first, scraping the inside layer of metal, followed by the burnishing rollers, which cold work the tube to create a mirror surface finish.  Skive-burnishing is often used in hydraulic cylinder applications.  This process can happen on a deep hole drilling machine or a dedicated skiving machine.

See also
Crankshaft deep rolling
Burnishing (metal)

References
Experimental investigation of mild steel components by Roller Burnishing process and mechanical properties by Taguchi method. https://www.irjet.net/archives/V6/i2/IRJET-V6I2398.pdf

Metal forming

Roller burnishing


A naval ship is a military ship (or sometimes boat, depending on classification) used by a navy.

Types of ships
Aircraft carrierships that are mobile seaborne airfields. They were designed for the purpose of doing combat by Carrier-based aircraft. They do attacks against airborne, surface, sub-surface and shore targets.
Surface combatantbig, heavily armed surface ships. They are designed mostly to engage enemy forces on the high seas, including various types of battleship, battlecruiser, cruiser, destroyer,  frigate, and corvette.
Submarineself-propelled sjips that go underwater. They can be combatant, auxiliary, or research and development vehicles which have at least a slight combat ability.
Patrol combatantcombatants whose mission may extend beyond coastal duties and whose characteristics include adequate endurance and sea keeping providing a capability for operations exceeding 48 hours on the high seas without support.
Amphibious warfareships having organic capability for amphibious assault and which have characteristics enabling long duration operations on the high seas.
Combat logisticsships that have the capability to provide underway replenishment to fleet units.
Mine warfareships whose primary function is mine warfare on the high seas.
Coastal defenseships whose primary function is coastal patrol and interdiction.
Sealiftships that have the capability to provide direct material support to other deployed units operating far from home base.
Supportships, such as oilers, designed to operate in the open ocean in a variety of sea states to provide general support to either combatant forces or shore based establishments. (Includes smaller auxiliaries which, by the nature of their duties, leave inshore waters).
Service type craftnavy-subordinated craft (including non-self-propelled) designed to provide general support to either combatant forces or shore-based establishments.

Size

In weight (largest to smallest), modern naval ships are often put into different groups (called classes). The bigger ships in the list can also be classed as capital ships:
 Aircraft carrier
 Helicopter carrier
 Battleship
 Battlecruiser
 Heavy cruiser
 Light cruiser
 Destroyer
 Frigate
 Corvette
 Patrol boat
 Fast attack craft

References

Other websites

 *
Navy

Naval ship


Sulphur Mountain is a mountain in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains overlooking the town of Banff, Alberta, Canada.

The mountain was named in 1916 for the hot springs on its lower slopes.  George Dawson had referred to this landform as Terrace Mountain on his 1886 map of the area. Sanson's Peak was named in 1948 for Norman Bethune Sanson who diligently attended the observatory recording equipment atop Sulphur Mountain for nearly 30 years.

Recreation

Two hot springs have been commercially developed.  The lowest is the Cave and Basin National Historic Site and the highest is the Banff Upper Hot Springs.

A gondola on the eastern slope goes to the summit ridge which has an upper terminal containing three restaurants, a gift shop, and multiple observation decks. The summit ridge provides views both westward up and east down the Bow Valley. A boardwalk can be followed on the north side to the top of Sanson's Peak ().

The original, and more scenic, summit access is along an old fire road (Sanson Road) on the Southwest face of the mountain with a distance of 5.8 km from the Banff Sundance Canyon trail system near the Bow River.  Another 5.4 km switchback trail route exists under the gondola with trailhead access from the Banff Hot Springs parking lot near the gondola terminal.

Scientific importance

The mountain has been the site of two research facilities. In 1903, a meteorological observatory building was completed atop Sanson Peak. This building still exists and visitors can look through a window to see its interior complete with rustic furnishings. In the winter of 1956-57, the National Research Council built a small laboratory on Sanson's Peak in order to study cosmic rays as part of Canada's contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station remained in operation until 1978 and the building was removed in 1981. A plaque now marks the site's location.

The hot springs at the base of Sulphur Mountain are home to the endangered Banff Springs snail and the now-extinct Banff longnose dace.

References

External links

 Banff Gondola

Two-thousanders of Alberta
Alberta's Rockies
Mountains of Banff National Park

Sulphur Mountain (Alberta)


David Wilson (died 20 July 1998) was a convicted murderer and the second person to be executed by Saint Kitts and Nevis since it became a sovereign state in 1983.

In February 1996, Wilson and Clement Thomas were convicted of beating a security guard to death in 1994. Wilson was sentenced to death by the trial judge, and his appeal was rejected by the appeal court. After the appeal court's judgment, Governor-General Sir Cuthbert Sebastian signed Wilson's death warrant, and he was executed by hanging on 20 July 1998. It was the first execution in Saint Kitts and Nevis since 1985.

Wilson's execution was controversial because it was carried out before he was able to appeal his case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which is the supreme court for Saint Kitts and Nevis.

References
Hans Göran Franck, Klas Nyman, and William Schabas (2003). The Barbaric Punishment: Abolishing the Death Penalty (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers ) p. 118

External links
Amnesty International, "St Kitts and Nevis: First hanging in 13 years – a backward step for the Caribbean", press release, 1998-07-20, accessed 2008-08-08

1998 deaths
People executed by Saint Kitts and Nevis by hanging
Executed Saint Kitts and Nevis people
20th-century executions by Saint Kitts and Nevis
People executed for murder
People convicted of murder by Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis people convicted of murder
Year of birth missing

David Wilson (murderer)


Henri Troyat, born Levon Aslan Torossian or Lev Aslanovich Tarasov, (November 1, 1911 – March 2, 2007) was a French author, biographer, historian and novelist. Originally, his family was from Armenia.

He was born in Moscow. His family fled Russia, because they feared the coming revolution. After a long exile, the family  settled in Paris in 1920, where young Troyat was schooled and later earned a law degree.

He won his first literary award at the age of 24, "le prix du Roman populaire". At the age of 27 he was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt.

He  published more than 100 books, novels and biographies, among them those of Anton Chekhov, Catherine the Great, Rasputin, Ivan the Terrible and Leo Tolstoy. He was at his death the dean of the Académie française.

His best-known work is La neige en deuil, which was adapted as an English-language movie in 1956 under the title The Mountain.

References

Writers from Paris
Biographers
1911 births
2007 deaths
Members of the Académie française

Henri Troyat


Julie Mare Fernandez (born 20 April 1974 in Hampstead, London) is a British actress and model best known for her role as Brenda in the BBC comedy The Office.

Early life
Fernandez was born with osteogenesis imperfecta and uses a wheelchair. She was a student at Treloar School in Hampshire. Her father is Argentinean and her mother is English.

At the age of 14, Fernandez appeared on the popular BBC television series Jim'll Fix It. In October 2012, following a series of sexual abuse allegations made against the series' late host Jimmy Savile, Fernandez claimed that Savile had touched her inappropriately during the recording.

Career

Her acting career began in 1992 when she starred as Vanessa Lockhead in the short-lived BBC soap opera Eldorado. She went on to play Sean Maguire's girlfriend in BBC1 drama Dangerfield before landing the role of Brenda in The Office.

In 2004, Fernandez formed a television production company called The Wheelie Good Company and has spent the time since working on new programme ideas. The company was set up by Fernandez to improve the representation of disabled people in the media but no longer focus on disability-related material.

She appeared as a regular guest on the quiz show HeadJam.

Fernandez also runs an arts and craft small business in Cambridgeshire, Bee Crafty, specialising in patchwork and quilting.

Personal life

Fernandez is married to Andrew Elliott. She and her husband are foster parents.

Fernandez is a disability rights activist in the United Kingdom and has supported campaigns for the Disability Rights Commission and Scope. She set up The Disability Foundation, a British pan-disability charity boasting one of the largest disability information databases in the UK. In January 2003, she co-hosted the opening ceremony for the European Year of People with Disabilities in Athens.

References

External links

Website of Julie Fernandez's craft shop

Living people
1974 births
20th-century English actresses
20th-century English women
21st-century English actresses
21st-century English women
Actresses from London
English people of Argentine descent
English people with disabilities
English soap opera actresses
English television actresses
Television presenters with disabilities
Actors from Hampstead
People with osteogenesis imperfecta

Julie Fernandez


Cactus is an open-source, problem-solving environment designed for scientists and engineers. Its modular structure enables parallel computation across different architectures and collaborative code development between different groups. Cactus originated in the academic research community, where it was developed and used over many years by a large international collaboration of physicists and computational scientists.

The name Cactus comes from the design of a central core (or "flesh") which connects to application modules (or "thorns") through an extensible interface. Thorns can implement custom developed scientific or engineering applications, such as computational fluid dynamics. Other thorns from a standard computational toolkit provide a range of computational capabilities, such as parallel I/O, data distribution, or checkpointing.

Cactus runs on many architectures. Applications, developed on standard workstations or laptops, can be seamlessly run on clusters or supercomputers. Cactus provides easy access to many cutting-edge software technologies being developed in the academic research community, including the Globus Toolkit, HDF5 parallel file I/O, the PETSc scientific library, adaptive mesh refinement, web interfaces, and advanced visualization tools.

History

Cactus was originally developed at the AEI, and is now developed jointly at AEI, Cardiff University, and the Center for Computation & Technology at LSU.  There are several large packages built on Cactus, among others a general relativistic spacetime evolution code, an adaptive mesh refinement driver (Carpet), and a general relativistic hydrodynamics code (Whisky).

Staff with the LSU Center for Computation & Technology, who were part of the original group at AEI who created Cactus, celebrated the program's 10th birthday in April 2007.

See also
 Application framework
 Software framework
 Cactus the plant
 Embedded HTTP server
 Numerical relativity

References

External links
 www.cactuscode.org — the Cactus Framework homepage
 Center for Computation & Technology
 Numerical relativity group at the Albert Einstein Institute
 www.whiskycode.org Whisky — the EU Network GR Hydrodynamics code
 einsteintoolkit.org Einstein Toolkit

Integrated development environments

Cactus Framework


Geir Botnen (born 27 February 1959 in Kvam) is a Norwegian pianist. He focuses mainly on the works of Geirr Tveitt, but his repertoire also includes works by other composers.

Biography

During his 5 years studies at the Bergen Music Conservatory with professor Jiri Hlinka, he demonstrated remarkable talent, and was invited to perform with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1982 he was the first Norwegian pianist to take part in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Botnen has been a soloist with a number of symphony orchestras both in Norway and in the US, playing under acclaimed maestros like Alan Gilbert, Arvid Jansons, Dmitri Kitayenko and Edward Serov.

As a solo recitalist and chamber musician he has concertized in the UK, US, Canada, China, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In 1993 Botnen was chosen to perform  at the official opening of the Edvard Grieg Bicentennial Anniversary in Norway and on a tour of Asian capitals. Botnen is a regular guest at the Bergen International Festival and has performed at festivals in Norway and abroad, like Risør Chamber Music Fest, St. Magnus Festival Orkney Islands and others.

Botnen has been pivotal in the founding of and as  artistic director of the annual Norwegian Hardingtonar Festival, focusing on the music of composer Geirr Tveitt. Botnen, a direct descendant of famous fiddle makers Isak and Trond Botnen, early acquired an interest in Geirr Tveitt's music. His recordings of Tveitt's "Fifty Folk Tunes from Hardanger" as well as other piano-works, has been exceptionally well received by critics. His CD recordings include works by Tveitt, Grieg and chamber music.

External links

Norwegian classical pianists
1959 births
Living people
Musicians from Kvam
21st-century classical pianists

Geir Botnen


The Greenland wolf (taxonomic Latin: Canis lupus orion, Danish: grønlandsulv) is a subspecies of gray wolf that is native to Greenland. Historically, it was heavily persecuted, but today it is fully protected and about 90% of the wolf's range falls within the boundaries of the Northeast Greenland National Park.

A recent genomic study has shown that wolves of Ellesmere Island, Canada, likely should be included in the same subspecies, a view also supported by earlier morphological reviews. The entire population is very small, probably about 200 individuals but with significant uncertainty due to its very remote range.

Taxonomy and evolution
In 1935, the British zoologist Reginald Pocock attributed the subspecies name Canis lupus orion to a specimen from Cape York, northwest Greenland. He also attributed the name Canis lupus arctos (Arctic wolf) to a specimen from Melville Island in the nearby Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada. Both wolves are recognized as separate subspecies of Canis lupus in the taxonomic authority Mammal Species of the World in 2005.

The oldest wolf remains in Greenland date to 7,600 years ago, however they may have been there earlier because their main prey, the caribou, date to 8,900 years ago. Nowak proposed that during the Late Pleistocene two types of wolves evolved in the ice-free north of the Wisconsin glaciation, one in the Peary Land refugium in the far north of Greenland, the other in Alaska. Once the ice receded, the Peary Land wolves spread across Greenland and the Queen Elizabeth Islands. The Alaskan wolves spread to become the northern wolves referred to as Canis lupus arctos. Other wolves from south of the ice sheet would move north to interact with the northern wolves. Other authors have disagreed that the Greenland wolf is a separate subspecies of Canis lupus because of its close proximity to the range of the Arctic wolf. One author proposed that the Greenland wolf migrated from Canada by crossing the frozen sea ice between the two regions, and another has documented wolves on the ice when the Nares Strait froze.

In 2016, a study based on 582 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA indicated that Greenland wolves belong to one haplotype that had been previously found among other North American wolves, which indicates their female lineage originated from North America. In 2019, a study mapped the entire mitochondrial genome of the Greenland wolf and confirmed that it fell within Canis lupus.

In 2018, a whole genome study of most North American wolf populations identified three distinct populations in the high arctic, including one novel and highly distinct wolf population that inhabits both Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland. This had already been suggested in a morphological review in 1983, where wolves of the Queen Elizabeth Islands (the main island is Ellesmere) were placed in C. l. orion together with wolves of Greenland.

In 2021, the entire genome sequence of the Greenland wolf was mapped to aid further research.

Description
The Greenland wolf has been described as being small to medium in length, at  but extremely light in weight, at , however these measures were derived from only five specimens that were caught in northeast Greenland during the winter of 1906 and could be the result of under-nutrition. The average pack size of the wolves is 3.3; packs of four or more were rare. They are endangered due to their exceptionally low densities, smaller pack sizes, infrequent reproduction, and lower offspring production. The wolves of Greenland and Ellesmere Island prey on any easily obtainable species, with hare forming an important food source. The wolf has been documented preying on seal in both Greenland and the Queen Elizabeth Islands, and there are documented eye-witness accounts of muskox killings from the Queen Elizabeth islands and from Greenland where two muskox calves were killed by a wolf pair.

Population
Wolves have been fully protected in Greenland since 1988. In Greenland, about 90% of the wolf's range falls within the boundaries of the Northeast Greenland National Park, where the wolf population was estimated in 1998 to be 55 wolves due to lack of prey. However, in 1997, there was a decline in the wolf populations and their prey, muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) and Arctic hares (Lepus arcticus) across arctic Canada. This was due to harmful weather conditions during the summers for four years. The recovery of the wolf populations came after when summer weather conditions returned to normal. In 2018, it was estimated that the total population of the Greenland wolf was about 200, but with significant uncertainty due to its remote range. As expected from such a tiny population, genetics have shown that the Greenland wolf is quite inbred.

In east Greenland
In eastern Greenland between by 1899 and 1939, a small population of an estimated 38 wolves were poisoned to extinction.

The Greenland wolf population was not harvested by the Europeans prior to 1899. The decline and extermination of the wolf population was studied in east Greenland between 1899 and 1939. There the wolf population was located mainly in the central part of the range, which made them vulnerable to Danish and Norwegian hunters who exterminated that population with poison. Arctic wolves were considered lesser in terms of economic value by the hunters because of their low abundance, with the hunters trapping Arctic foxes for the fur trade. They sought to maximize profits by killing as many wolves as possible. Between 1899 and 1939, there were 252 sightings of the wolves or their tracks. Of 112 wolves that were sighted in the early winter, 31.3% were lone wolves, 23.2% were in pairs, and the rest stayed together in larger groups. Between 1920 and 1932, 35 wolves were killed in the core wolf range, forcing the population to decline rapidly to extinction.

Wolves could not recover during the years between 1939 and 1978 in east Greenland due to factors such as geography and limited resources. Prey was insufficient and a dispersal corridor was hidden at 79 degrees north, thus restricting access to east Greenland. In 1979, a wolf pair had arrived into the historical wolf range and during 1980 several wolf pairs were reported throughout eastern Greenland by military patrols. The migrating wolves began to repopulate the area and have established a new population of wolves. By 2011, they had re-established a population of 23 wolves through single and pairs of wolves following military dog-sled patrols from the northeast over distances of up to  to eastern Greenland.

References

Subspecies of Canis lupus
Mammals described in 1935
Mammals of Greenland

Greenland wolf


Reidar Sørensen (born 11 April 1956) is a Norwegian actor. He was born in Hemnesberget. He has worked at various theatres, including Trøndelag Teater, Det Norske Teatret, Riksteatret, Nordland Teater and Agder Teater. He was given the Amanda Award in 1989 for Himmelplaneten. He played the detective "Cato Isaksen" in several TV crime series based on novels by Unni Lindell. He has played in several drama films, including Byttinger from 1991, Ti kniver i hjertet from 1995, Brent av frost from 1997, and 1732 Høtten from 1998. He played the character "Gaston" in Torun Lian's film for young adults Ikke naken in 2004, and "Viktor" in Gunnar Vikene's film Trigger in 2006. He was assigned theatre director at Nordland Teater from 2008.

In 2010 he played the character "Jordan" in Bent Hamer's Home for Christmas.

References

External links

1956 births
Living people
Norwegian male film actors
Norwegian male stage actors
Norwegian theatre directors
People from Hemnes

Reidar Sørensen


Timothy Leonard Spall  (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. Spall gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. He is known for his collaborations with director Mike Leigh, acting in six of his films: Home Sweet Home (1982), Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014). He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in Secrets and Lies, and received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his portrayal of J. M. W. Turner in Mr. Turner. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.

He has appeared in many films, including Hamlet (1996), Still Crazy (1998), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Enchanted (2007), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), The Damned United (2009), The King's Speech (2010), Ginger and Rosa (2012), Denial (2016), The Party (2017), and Spencer (2021). He voiced Nick (a cynical, portly rat) in Chicken Run (2000). He also starred as Peter Pettigrew in five Harry Potter films, from Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) to Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010).

Spall gained prominence in the UK playing Barry Spencer Taylor in the ITV comedy drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983-2004). His other television work includes the documentary series Timothy Spall: ...at Sea (2010–2012) and the BBC Cold War drama Summer of Rockets (2019).

Early life
Spall, the third of four sons, was born on 27 February 1957 in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. (née Leonard), was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker. He trained at the National Youth Theatre and RADA, where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor in his year.

Career
Spall initially made his mark in theatre performing in productions for Birmingham Rep, including the UK premier of Arnold Wesker's The Merchant, and, later, the Royal Shakespeare Company, including The Merry Wives of Windsor, Three Sisters, Nicholas Nickleby and The Knight of the Burning Pestle. At The National Theatre Spall played the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw's St Joan

Following a film debut in Quadrophenia and wider TV exposure playing, as Wayne says, "the gormless radish" [awkward] Barry Taylor in all four series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Kevin in Outside Edge and Aubrey the appalling chef in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet, Spall has since appeared in the films Crusoe, Secrets & Lies, Shooting the Past, Topsy-Turvy, Vanilla Sky, Rock Star, All or Nothing, The Last Samurai, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and The King's Speech. He performed as Peter Pettigrew ("Wormtail") in the Harry Potter film series. In 1991 he guest starred in the series 5 Red Dwarf episode "Back to Reality". In 1993, Spall was a guest in the Scottish comedy series Rab C. Nesbitt.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours.

Spall performed lead vocals on the song "The Devil is an Englishman" from the Ken Russell film Gothic (1986), in which Spall portrayed John William Polidori. Spall played the starring role of Albert Pierrepoint in the 2005 film Pierrepoint, which was released as The Last Hangman in the United States. In the 2006 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Spall voiced Phil Collins' manager, Barry Mickelthwaite. In 2007, he starred as Nathaniel in Disney's Enchanted and Beadle Bamford in Tim Burton's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He also starred as Georgie Godwin in a one-off television drama The Fattest Man in Britain on ITV1 which aired on 20 December 2009. The drama also featured Bobby Ball, Frances Barber, Aisling Loftus and Jeremy Kyle.

In 2010, he portrayed Winston Churchill in the film The King's Speech for which as a member of the ensemble he was jointly awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Spall reprised the role at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

In 2012, Spall filmed Wasteland (known as The Rise in Britain), with actors Matthew Lewis and Vanessa Kirby. The Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, California, screened Wasteland in April 2013. Also in 2012 Spall played Charlie Morgan in the edgy film Comes a Bright Day.

In 2014, he won the Best Actor Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Mr. Turner, a biographical film on J. M. W. Turner directed by Mike Leigh. Spall has mentioned that this role is his personal favourite as it inspired him to take on painting. In 2016, Spall portrayed Holocaust denier David Irving in the film Denial, directed by Mick Jackson.

From 29 March to 14 May 2016, Spall played the title role of Davies in Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker, directed by Matthew Warchus at the Old Vic theatre in London opposite George MacKay and Daniel Mays.

In 2018 he played Terry Perkins, one of the robbers, in the ITV mini series Hatton Garden.

Spall went on to play Major Alistair Gregory in the acclaimed dramatic film Spencer (2021). He shared several psychologically charged scenes with Kristen Stewart who portrayed Princess Diana.

Personal life

Spall and his wife Shane have three children: Pascale (born 1976), Rafe (born 1983), who is also an actor, and Mercedes (born 1985). He lives in Forest Hill, South East London.

In 1996, Spall was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, but has since been in remission. He has said of his illness: I didn't know what made me ill but stress had something to do with it and the point is now to head off stress at the pass. It made me aware of things and become more selective. I am less worried about employment. I really do my homework so I am not getting stressed on the set because I don't know what I'm doing.

He is the owner of a Dutch barge, in which he and his wife sailed around the British Isles as part of a BBC Four TV series Timothy Spall: Back at Sea.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

 Amy Raphael, "Spall in the Family," (Interview of Timothy Spall and actor son Rafe) The Observer, 28 October 2007
 Stuart Jeffries, "I don't always play losers," The Guardian, 5 November 2007

1957 births
Living people
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
Alumni of RADA
Audiobook narrators
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor winners
English male film actors
English male Shakespearean actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
English male voice actors
European Film Award for Best Actor winners
Male actors from London
National Youth Theatre members
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
People from Battersea
Royal Shakespeare Company members

Timothy Spall


A joint sitting of parliament on Wednesday 16th September, 2020 passed The Surveying and Mapping (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The Surveying and Mapping (Amendment) Bill, 2020 is targeted at preventing the printing, displaying, dissemination of or use of an incorrect and unofficial map of Pakistan.

According to the Surveying and Mapping (Amendment) Bill, 2020

Amendment of section 16 (6): No one can print, display, disseminate, use or circulate incorrect and unofficial version of map of Pakistan or any part of Pakistan in hard or digital form. All individuals' firms, organizations or departments shall get their maps vetted and cleared from Survey of Pakistan before use, publication. dissemination or circulation.

Amendment of section 3 (3): Survey of Pakistan shall be technical department for all activities involving surveying, mapping, geographic information system or remote sensing and geospatial information technologies in the country.

Amendment of section 20 (vi): Any individual, firm, organization or department involved in printing, displaying, disseminating, using or circulating incorrect and unofficial version of map of Pakistan or any part of Pakistan in hard or digital form shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term which may extend up to five years or a fine of five million rupees or both.

References

Law of Pakistan
2020 in Pakistan

Surveying and Mapping (Amendment) Bill


Major Richard Arthur Rubinstein MC TD (29 August 1921 – 23 February 2005) was a British Army officer who earned the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre for organising guerrilla resistance in France and Burma.

Personal life
Rubinstein was born in Baker Street, London, the son of Florris (Newport) and Arthur Bernard Rubinstein, who was from Birmingham. His father was born to a Jewish family and his mother converted to Judaism. His father, a milliner, sent him to Hampstead's University College School. Already in the Territorial Army from the age of 16, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers as the war broke out. In 1941 he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a searchlight officer. After converting from Judaism to the Church of England, he married his wife Gay Garnsey, with whom he had been friends since their childhood, in 1943. Shortly after the wedding he volunteered for the Special Operations Executive, and began training in Peterborough before his first mission to France. Rubinstein was the grandfather of comedian Jolyon Rubinstein.

Career
He led the Special Operations Executive Jedburgh team that was parachuted safely, despite ground fire, into Brittany on the night of 6 August 1944, bearing five million francs for the French Resistance.

The following weeks were spent with the SAS and the Forces Français de L'Interieur helping to land gliders loaded with arms and hiding in an oyster farm between operations. The mission was a success, and resulted in most of the region being cleared of German forces by the end of the month.

The Jeds returned to France on 15 September parachuting into eastern France close to the Swiss border, there to gather intelligence on enemy movements and to help repel the German troops.

He was mentioned in dispatches, and awarded the Croix de Guerre.

In December 1944, he and two colleagues were parachuted into northern Burma to gather intelligence on Japanese supply lines and to stoke the resistance movement among the local Kachins, who were sympathetic to the Allied forces.

Again it would be a successful mission, with the guerilla groups organised by Rubinstein taking a heavy toll on the enemy. He had similar success in an operation in April 100 miles to the east. The 200 guerilla fighters he raised carried out ambushes on Japanese troops and captured weaponry. After two months, he led his team south to Toungoo to join forces holding back the Japanese advance on Siam.

After the war, in which he reached the rank of Major, Rubinstein stayed in the Territorial Army, transferring to the Parachute Regiment in 1950.

References

External links
 Imperial War Museum Interview

Royal Artillery officers
British Parachute Regiment officers
British Special Operations Executive personnel
British Army personnel of World War II
Recipients of the Military Cross
1921 births
2005 deaths
People educated at University College School
Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)

Richard Rubinstein


Pier Francesco Silvani (1620–1685) was an Italian architect and designer, active during the Baroque period, in Florence and other sites in Tuscany.

He was the son of the Sienese architect Gherardo Silvani. After the confiscation of goods decree in 1536, introduced by Cosimo I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Silvani was forced to pursue a modest commercial career. He had three sons, Silvano Silvani, Salvatore Silvani and Gherardo Silvani. Pier Francesco worked on San Gaetano and in the refurbishment of San Marco in Florence, as well as in collaboration with Giovanni Battista Foggini, the aisle and high altar for the Church of Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri in Pisa. He also added Baroque touches to Bernardo Buontalenti's garden behind the Palazzo Corsini, Florence.

References

Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de' Professori del Disegno, Da Cimabue in qua, Secolo V. dal 1610. al 1670. Distinto in Decennali ("Notice of the Professors of Design, from Cimabue to now, from 1610–1670"), p 528.

1620 births
1685 deaths
17th-century Italian architects
Architects from Florence
Italian Baroque architects

Pier Francesco Silvani


Daniel Neal (14 December 16784 April 1743) was an English historian.

Biography
Born in London, he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and at the universities of Utrecht and Leiden. In 1704 he became assistant minister, and in 1706 sole minister, of an independent congregation worshipping in Aldersgate Street, and afterwards in Jewin Street, London, where he remained almost until his death. He married Elizabeth Lardner (d. 1748), by whom he had one son, Nathanael, and two daughters.

In 1720 Neal published his History of New England, which obtained for its author the honorary degree of MA from Harvard College. He also undertook to assist Dr John Evans in writing a history of Nonconformity. Evans, however, died in 1730, and, making use of his papers for the period before 1640, Neal wrote the whole of the work himself.

This History of the Puritans deals with the time between the Protestant Reformation and 1689; the first volume appearing in 1732, and the fourth and last in 1738. The first volume was attacked in 1733 for unfairness and inaccuracy by Isaac Maddox, afterwards bishop of St Asaph and bishop of Worcester, to whom Neal replied in a pamphlet, A Review of the principal facts objected to in the first volume of the History of the Puritans; and the remaining volumes by Zachary Grey (1688–1766), to whom the author made no reply.

The History of the Puritans was edited, in five volumes, by Dr Joshua Toulmin (1740–1815), who added a life of Neal in 1797. This was reprinted in 1817, and an edition in two volumes was published in New York in 1844.

References

Additional Literature
 Bracy V. Hill II: Faithful Accounts? The Hampton Court Conference and The King James Bible in Early Eighteenth-Century Dissenting Histories. In: Reformation 16, 2011. S. 113–144. Online: <https://web.archive.org/web/20160518203311/http://essential.metapress.com/content/t524766nn78131p0/fulltext.pdf>
 Bracy V. Hill II: Suffering for their Consciences: The Depiction of Anabaptists and Baptists in the Eighteenth-Century Histories of Daniel Neal. In: Welsh Journal of Religious History 5, 2010. S. 84–113.  Reprint Online In "The Baptist History & Heritage" 9, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 39-67 : <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Suffering+for+their+consciences%3a+the+depiction+of+anabaptists+and...-a0393654230>
 Laird Okie: Daniel Neal and the "Puritan Revolution". In: Church History 55:4, 1986. S. 456–467.
 Laird Okie: Neal, Daniel (1678–1743). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Online: <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19817>
 John Seed: Dissenting Histories: Religious Division and The Politics of Memory in Eighteenth-Century England. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2008.
 Joshua Toulmin: Memoir of the Life of Daniel Neal, A.M.. In: Daniel Neal: The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists. Hrsg. von Joshua Toulmin, durchgesehen und annotiert von John O. Choules. Harper & Brothers, New York 1843.
 Walter Wilson: The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting Houses, in London, Westminster, and Southwark: Including the Lives of Their Ministers, from the Rise of Nonconformity to the Present Time: With an Appendix on the Origin, Progress, and Present State of Christianity in Britain. 4 Bände. W. Button, London 1814. Bes. Band III, S. 91ff.

1678 births
1743 deaths
British historians
Historians of Puritanism
Burials at Bunhill Fields

Daniel Neal


Curiosity (from Latin , from  "careful, diligent, curious", akin to  "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and animals. Curiosity  all aspects of human development, from which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.

The term curiosity can also denote the behavior, characteristic, or emotion of being curious, in regard to the desire to gain knowledge or information. Curiosity as a behavior and emotion is the driving force behind human development, such as developments in science, language, and industry.

Causes

Many species display curiosity including apes, cats, and rodents. It is common to human beings at all ages from infancy through adulthood. Research has shown that curiosity is not a fixed attribute amongst humans but rather can be nurtured and developed.

Early definitions of curiosity call it a motivated desire for information. This motivational desire has been said to stem from a passion or an appetite for knowledge, information, and understanding.

Traditional ideas of curiosity have expanded to consider the difference between perceptual curiosity, as the innate exploratory behavior that is present in all animals, and epistemic curiosity, as the desire for knowledge that is specifically attributed to humans.

Daniel Berlyne recognized three classes of variables playing a role in evoking curiosity: psychophysical variables, ecological variables, and collative variables. Psychophysical variables correspond to physical intensity, ecological variables to motivational significance and task relevance. Collative variables involve a comparison between different stimuli or features, which may be actually perceived or which may be recalled from memory. Berlyne mentioned four collative variables: novelty, complexity, uncertainty, and conflict (though he suggested that all collative variables probably involve conflict). Additionally, he considered three variables supplementary to novelty: change, surprisingness, and incongruity. Finally, curiosity may not only be aroused by the perception of some stimulus associated with the aforementioned variables ("specific exploration"), but also by a lack of stimulation, out of "boredom" ("diversive exploration").

Curiosity-driven behavior
Curiosity-driven behavior is often defined as behavior through which knowledge is gained – a form of exploratory behavior. It therefore encompasses all behaviors that provide access to or increase sensory information. Berlyne divided curiosity-driven behavior into three categories: orienting responses, locomotor exploration, and investigatory responses or investigatory manipulation. Previously, Berlyne suggested that curiosity also includes verbal activities, such as asking questions, and symbolic activities, consisting of internally fueled mental processes such as thinking ("epistemic exploration").

Theories
Like other desires and need-states that take on an appetitive quality (e.g. food/hunger), curiosity is linked with exploratory behavior and experiences of reward. Curiosity can be described in terms of positive emotions and acquiring knowledge; when one's curiosity has been aroused it is considered inherently rewarding and pleasurable. Discovering new information may also be rewarding because it can help reduce undesirable states of uncertainty rather than stimulating interest. Theories have arisen in attempts to further understand this need to rectify states of uncertainty and the desire to participate in pleasurable experiences of exploratory behaviors.

Curiosity-drive theory
Curiosity-drive theory posits undesirable experiences of "uncertainty" and "ambiguity". The reduction of these unpleasant feelings is rewarding. This theory suggests that people desire coherence and understanding in their thought processes. When this coherence is disrupted by something that is unfamiliar, uncertain, or ambiguous, an individual's curiosity-drive causes them to collect information and knowledge of the unfamiliar to restore coherent thought processes. This theory suggests that curiosity is developed out of the desire to make sense of unfamiliar aspects of one's environment through exploratory behaviors. Once understanding of the unfamiliar has been achieved and coherence has been restored, these behaviors and desires subside.

Derivations of curiosity-drive theory differ on whether curiosity is a primary or secondary drive and if this curiosity-drive originates due to one's need to make sense of and regulate one's environment or if it is caused by an external stimulus. Causes can range from basic needs that need to be satisfied (e.g. hunger, thirst) to needs in fear-induced situations. Each of these derived theories state that whether the need is primary or secondary, curiosity develops from experiences that create a sensation of uncertainty or perceived unpleasantness. Curiosity then acts to dispel this uncertainty. By exhibiting curious and exploratory behavior, one is able to gain knowledge of the unfamiliar and thus reduce the state of uncertainty or unpleasantness. This theory, however, does not address the idea that curiosity can often be displayed even in the absence of new or unfamiliar situations. This type of exploratory behavior, too, is common in many species. A human toddler, if bored in his current situation devoid of arousing stimuli, will walk about until he finds something interesting. The observation of curiosity even in the absence of novel stimuli pinpoints one of the major shortcomings in the curiosity-drive model.

Optimal-arousal theory
Optimal-arousal theory developed out of the need to explain this desire to seek out opportunities to engage in exploratory behaviors without the presence of uncertain or ambiguous situations. Optimal-arousal suggests that one can be motivated to maintain a pleasurable sense of arousal through such exploratory behaviors.

When a stimulus is encountered that is associated with complexity, uncertainty, conflict, or novelty, this increases arousal above the optimal point, and exploratory behavior is employed to learn about that stimulus and thereby reduce arousal again. In contrast, if the environment is boring and lacks excitement, arousal is reduced below the optimal point and exploratory behavior is employed to increase information input and stimulation, and thereby increasing arousal again. This theory addresses both curiosity elicited by uncertain or unfamiliar situations and curiosity elicited in the absence of such situations.

Cognitive-consistency theory
Cognitive-consistency theories assume that "when two or more simultaneously active cognitive structures are logically inconsistent, arousal is increased, which activates processes with the expected consequence of increasing consistency and decreasing arousal." Similar to optimal-arousal theory, cognitive-consistency theory suggests that there is a tendency to maintain arousal at a preferred, or expected, level, but it also explicitly links the amount of arousal to the amount of experienced inconsistency between an expected situation and the actually perceived situation. When this inconsistency is small, exploratory behavior triggered by curiosity is employed to gather information with which expectancy can be updated through learning to match perception, thereby reducing inconsistency.

This approach associates curiosity with aggression and fear. If the inconsistency is larger, fear or aggressive behavior may be employed to alter the perception in order to make it match expectancy, depending on the size of the inconsistency as well as the specific context. Aggressive behavior alters perception by forcefully manipulating it into matching the expected situation, while fear prompts flight, which removes the inconsistent stimulus from the perceptual field and thus resolves the inconsistency.

Integration of the reward pathway into theory
Taking into account the shortcomings of both curiosity-drive and optimal-arousal theories, attempts have been made to integrate neurobiological aspects of reward, wanting, and pleasure into a more comprehensive theory for curiosity. Research suggests that desiring new information involves mesolimbic pathways of the brain that  dopamine activation. The use of these pathways, and dopamine activation, may be how the brain assigns value to new information and interprets this as reward. This theory from neurobiology can supplement curiosity-drive theory by explaining the motivation of exploratory behavior.

Role of neurological aspects and structures
Although curiosity is widely regarded, its root causes are largely empirically unknown. However, some studies have provided insight into the neurological mechanisms that make up what is known as the reward pathway which may influence characteristics associated with curiosity, such as learning, memory, and motivation. Due to the complex nature of curiosity, research that focuses on specific neural processes with these characteristics can help us understand of the phenomenon of curiosity as a whole. The following are descriptions of characteristics of curiosity and their links to neurological aspects that are essential in creating exploratory behaviors:

Motivation and reward

The drive to learn new information or perform some action may be prompted by the anticipation of reward. So what we learn about motivation and reward may help us to understand curiosity.

Reward is defined as the positive reinforcement of an action, reinforcement that encourages a particular behavior by means of the emotional sensations of relief, pleasure, and satisfaction that correlate with happiness. Many areas in the brain process reward and come together to form what is called the reward pathway. In this pathway many neurotransmitters play a role in the activation of the reward sensation, including dopamine, serotonin, and opioids.

Dopamine is linked to curiosity, as it assigns and retains reward values of information gained. Research suggests  and the stimulus is unfamiliar, compared to activation of dopamine when stimulus is familiar.

Nucleus accumbens
The nucleus accumbens is a formation of neurons that is important in reward pathway activation—such as the release of dopamine in investigating response to novel or exciting stimuli. The fast dopamine release observed during childhood and adolescence is important in development, as curiosity and exploratory behavior are the largest facilitators of learning during early years.

The sensation pleasure of "liking" can occur when opioids are released by the nucleus accumbens. This helps someone evaluate the unfamiliar situation or environment and attach value to the novel object. These processes of both wanting and liking play a role in activating the reward system of the brain, and perhaps in the stimulation of curious or information-seeking tendencies as well.

Caudate nucleus
The caudate nucleus is a region of the brain that is highly responsive to dopamine, and is another component of the reward pathway. Research suggests that the caudate nucleus anticipates the possibility of and reward of exploratory behavior and gathered information, thus contributing to factors of curiosity.

Anterior cortices
Regions of the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex  both conflict and arousal and, as such, seem to reinforce certain exploratory models of curiosity.

Cortisol
Cortisol is a chemical known for its role in stress regulation. However, cortisol may also be associated with curious or exploratory behavior. Studies suggesting a role of cortisol in curiosity support optimal arousal theory. They suggest the release of some cortisol, causing some stress, encourages curious behavior, while too much stress can initiate a "back away" response.

Attention
Attention is important to curiosity because it allows one to selectively focus and concentrate on particular stimuli in the surrounding environment. As there are limited cognitive and sensory resources to understand and evaluate stimuli, attention allows the brain to better focus on what it perceives to be the most important or relevant of these stimuli. Individuals tend to focus on stimuli that are particularly stimulating or engaging. The more attention a stimulus garners, the more frequent one's energy and focus will be directed towards that stimulus. This suggests an individual will focus on new or unfamiliar stimuli in an effort to better understand or make sense of the unknown, rather than on more familiar or repetitive stimuli.

Striatum
The striatum is a part of the brain that coordinates motivation with body movement.The striatum likely plays a role in attention and reward anticipation, both of which are important in provoking curiosity.

Precuneus
The precuneus is a region of the brain that is involved in attention, episodic memory, and visuospatial processing. There is a correlation between the amount of grey matter in the precuneus and levels of curious and exploratory behaviors. This suggests that precuneus density has an influence on levels of curiosity.

Memory and learning
Memory plays an important role in curiosity. Memory is how the brain stores and accesses stored information. If curiosity is the desire to seek out and understand unfamiliar or novel stimuli, memory helps determine if the stimulus is indeed unfamiliar. In order to determine if a stimulus is novel, an individual must remember if the stimulus has been encountered before.

Curiosity may also affect memory. Stimuli that are novel tend to capture more of our attention. Additionally, novel stimuli usually have a reward value associated with them, the anticipated reward of what learning that new information may bring. With stronger associations and more attention devoted to a stimulus, it is probable that the memory formed from that stimulus will be longer lasting and easier to recall, both of which facilitate better learning.

Hippocampus and the parahippocampal gyrus
The hippocampus is important in memory formation and recall and therefore in determining the novelty of various stimuli. Research suggests the hippocampus is involved in generating the motivation to explore for the purpose of learning.

The parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), an area of grey matter surrounding the hippocampus, has been implicated in the amplification of curiosity.

Amygdala
The amygdala is associated with emotional processing, particularly for the emotion of fear, as well as memory. It is important in processing emotional reactions towards novel or unexpected stimuli and the induction of exploratory behavior. This suggests a connection between curiosity levels and the amygdala. However, more research is needed on direct correlation.

Early development

Jean Piaget argued that babies and children constantly try to make sense of their reality and that this contributes to their intellectual development. According to Piaget, children develop hypotheses, conduct experiments, and then reassess their hypotheses depending on what they observe. Piaget was the first to closely document children's actions and interpret them as consistent, calculated efforts to test and learn about their environment.

There is no universally accepted definition for curiosity in children. Most research on curiosity focused on adults and used self-report measures that are inappropriate and inapplicable for studying children. Curiosity is mostly thought of as attributable to a mature person and is characterized in young children as a fledgling feature of their outlook on the world.

Exploratory behaviour is commonly observed in children and is associated with their curiosity development. Several studies of children's curiosity simply observe their interaction with novel and familiar toys.

Evidence suggests a relationship between the anxiety children might feel and their curiosity. One study found that  in 11-year-olds was  so children who exhibit more anxiety in classroom settings engage in less curious behaviour. Certain aspects of classroom learning may depend on curiosity, which can be affected by students' anxiety.

An aptitude for curiosity in adolescents may produce higher academic performance. One study revealed that, of 568 high school students, those who exhibited an aptitude for curiosity, in conjunction with motivation and creativity, showed a 33.1%  in math scores and 15.5%  in science scores when tested on a standardized academic exam.

Other measures of childhood curiosity used exploratory behaviour as a basis but differed on which parts of this behaviour to focus on. Some studies examined children's preference for complexity/the unknown as a basis for their curiosity measure; others relied on novelty preference as their basis.

Researchers also examined the relationship between a child's reaction to surprise and their curiosity. Children may be further motivated to learn when dealing with uncertainty. Their reactions to not having their expectations met may fuel their curiosity more than the introduction of a novel or complex object would.

Curiosity as a virtue
Curiosity has been of interest to philosophers. Curiosity has been recognised as an important intellectual (or "epistemic") virtue, due to the role that it plays in motivating people to acquire knowledge and understanding. It has also been considered an important moral virtue, as curiosity can help humans find meaning in their lives and to cultivate a sense of care about others and things in the world.  When curiosity in young people leads to knowledge-gathering it is widely seen as a positive.

Due to the importance of curiosity, people debate about whether contemporary societies effectively cultivate the right type of curiosity.

Some believe that children's curiosity is discouraged throughout the process of formal education: "Children are born scientists. From the first ball they send flying to the ant they watch carry a crumb, children use science's tools—enthusiasm, hypotheses, tests, conclusions—to uncover the world's mysteries. But somehow students seem to lose what once came naturally."

Impact from disease

Neurodegenerative diseases and psychological disorders can affect various characteristics of curiosity. For example Alzheimer's disease's effects on memory or depression affect motivation and reward. Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that degrades memory. Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by a lack of interest in one's environment and feelings of sadness or hopelessness. A lack of curiosity for novel stimuli might be a predictor for these and other illnesses.

Social Curiosity
Social curiosity is defined as a drive to understand one's environment as it relates to sociality with others. Such curiosity plays a role in one's ability to successfully navigate social interactions by perceiving and processing one's own behavior and the behavior of others. It also plays a role in helping one adapt to varying social situations.

Morbid curiosity

Morbid curiosity is focused on death, violence, or any other event that may cause harm physically or emotionally. It typically is described as having an addictive quality, associated with a need to understand or make sense of topics that surround harm, violence, or death. This can be attributed to one's need to relate unusual and often difficult circumstances to a primary emotion or experience of one's own, described as meta-emotions.

Interest in human curiosity about difficult circumstances dates back to Aristotle in his Poetics, in which he noted, "We enjoy and admire paintings of objects that in themselves would annoy or disgust us."

State and trait curiosity
Two types of curiosity are state and trait curiosity. State curiosity is external—wondering why things happen just for the sake of curiousness, for example wondering why most stores open at 8 a.m. Trait curiosity describes people who are interested in learning, for example by trying out a new sport or food, or traveling to an unfamiliar place. One can look at curiosity as the urge that draws people out of their comfort zones and fears as the agents that keep them within those zones.

Curiosity in artificial intelligence
AI agents can exhibit curiosity through intrinsic motivation. This can be improve the success of an AI agent at various tasks. In artificial intelligence, curiosity is typically defined quantitatively, as the uncertainty the agent has in predicting its own actions given its current state.

In 2019, a study trained AI agents to play video games, but they were rewarded only for . The agents reliably learned advantageous game behaviors based solely on the curiosity reward.

See also

References

Further reading

Interest (psychology)
Motivation
Problem solving skills
Psychological attitude
Virtue

Curiosity


{{DISPLAYTITLE:TNA Impact!'''s move to Monday nights}}

In March 2010, professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) moved their weekly television program, Impact!, from airing on Thursdays to airing Monday nights. In doing so, TNA placed Impact! in direct competition with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship program Monday Night Raw. It drew comparisons to the Monday Night Wars, in which defunct wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) program Nitro went head-to-head with Raw in a battle for higher Nielsen ratings each week from 1995 to 2001; this led Impact!s move to sometimes be called "The New Monday Night Wars". The move was spurred by the signing of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two central figures of the original Monday Night War. Unlike the ratings battle with WCW, TNA never gained traction against WWE, despite initially setting record high ratings for Impact!. Impact! returned to its Thursday night timeslot after declining ratings in May, less than two months after the move.

Background and first Monday Impact!
On October 27, 2009, Hulk Hogan announced that he and Eric Bischoff had signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in a press conference held at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. TNA President Dixie Carter stated "Our goal is to become the world's biggest professional wrestling company. Hulk defines professional wrestling and we look forward to partnering with him in a variety of ways as we continue to grow TNA globally."

During an appearance on Spike's presentation of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale on December 5, Hogan announced that Impact!, which normally aired on Thursdays, would go head to head with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Raw on Monday January 4 in a three-hour live broadcast on Spike. Hogan was a top talent in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which Bischoff was an executive of, when the company debuted a program in 1995, Nitro, to compete with Raw in a ratings battle called the Monday Night Wars.

WWE countered by announcing the return of Bret Hart, who had not appeared in WWE since the Montreal Screwjob in 1997. Leading up to the show, TNA President Dixie Carter stated that while Spike was not expecting Impact! to beat Raw in the ratings, it would be considered a success if they managed to at least maintain their usual Thursday night Impact! rating. Spike president Kevin Kay also announced there were plans to air Impact! on Mondays quarterly through 2010 and added that if the ratings proved successful on January 4, it could be moved to Monday nights permanently.

By signing with TNA, Bischoff and Hogan were paired with writer Vince Russo, whom they had conflicted with in WCW and had not worked with since they departed the company after Bash at the Beach 2000. According to Russo, the three met together and worked out their differences before the January 4 show.

The Monday night Impact! featured the returns of Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy, and the debuts of Ric Flair, Sean Morley, The Nasty Boys, Orlando Jordan and Bubba the Love Sponge in addition to Hogan and Bischoff. On Raw, Bret Hart confronted Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels for the first time in thirteen years.

The ratings showed that Raw came out on top, averaging 5.6 million viewers while Impact! averaged 2.2 million viewers. The show peaked with three million viewers for the Hulk Hogan segment but then the viewership declined towards the end of the show to near 2.2 million viewers, the replay on January 7, 2010, garnered a 0.9 rating thus giving TNA a combined viewership range of 3.5–4.5 million viewers. However, despite not beating Raw in the ratings, TNA managed to set a new record for Impact!, beating the previous one of 1.97 million viewers, and thus gaining the confidence of Spike representatives.

Move to Mondays

On March 8, 2010, Impact! moved to Monday nights at 9 pm EST to compete head-to-head with Raw. Eric Bischoff was once again competing on the opposite side of Vince McMahon's WWE and in an interview with Bubba the Love Sponge, he said that he believed "history is repeating itself". This new "war" began in much the same way as the original did; with TNA relying on established wrestlers, including former WWE talent, and with the company being led by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman responded to TNA's move by saying "We're not too concerned. We're in good shape."  Bischoff and Russo each stated that TNA were not focused on beating WWE in the ratings straight away, but rather gaining a significant share of their audience and growing TNA's own audience.

On the March 8, 2010, Raw beat Impact! with a 3.4 rating which equated to approximately 5.1 million viewers, while Impact! did a 0.98 with 1.4 million viewers; the replay of the show on Thursdays did 1.0, getting TNA a combined audience of 2.7 million viewers. The following week, the March 15 episode of Impact! scored its lowest rating since November 2006 with a .84 rating. No quarter-hour segment of Impact! reached past the previous week's overall rating. The broadcast lost 15% of the audience it opened with, going from a .87 opening quarter-hour to a .72 in the A.J. Styles versus Jeff Hardy main event. Impact! averaged 1.1 million viewers, an overall decrease of 21.4% in viewership from the previous week. Raw scored a 3.71 rating and averaged 5.60 million viewers, an overall increase of 10% in viewership from the previous week. The broadcast's first hour was the most viewed first hour since August 24, 2009, while the second was the most viewed second hour since January 4, 2010. On March 22, six days before WrestleMania XXVI, Raw scored a 3.2 and Impact! scored a 0.86. Raws rating was down more than one million viewers, equating to about 20%. Ratings for Impact! had improved slightly over the last week as they promoted a Career vs. Career match between Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley.

The night after WrestleMania XXVI, Raw scored a 3.7 rating, up from last week, and Impact! scored a 0.62. Spike executives announced the April 5 live Impact! would air an hour earlier than Raw due to competition from an NCAA college basketball tournament. The April 5 episode of Raw lost 14% of their viewers with a 3.15 rating, while Impact! scored a 0.9 rating, their highest rating since the March 15 episode, gaining a 33% in total viewers as they aired Kurt Angle vs. Mr. Anderson in a ladder match. After better ratings for the April 5 episode of Impact!, TNA decided to start Impact! at the 8:00 p.m. ET time slot permanently. The April 12 episode of Raw made a comeback with a 3.24 rating, while the taped Impact! scored a 0.8 rating managing to keep most of their audience. Then on April 19, the night after TNA Lockdown, Raw scored a 3.05 rating, their lowest score in two years, while Impact! scored a 0.95 rating, their highest score since April 5 as they featured a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match between Rob Van Dam and A.J. Styles. On April 26, Raw aired the 2010 WWE draft, and scored a 3.3 rating, while Impact! lost 48% of their audience with a 0.5 rating.Impact! moved back to Thursday nights starting with the May 13 show. On the final battle between Raw and Impact!, Raw drew a 3.05 and Impact! drew a 0.8 rating gaining a 37.5% in total viewers. The replay ratings of most of Monday night episodes were sufficient for survival but showed that the average audience is some two million viewers that prefer to watch on Thursdays.

In a press release, Spike TV's Senior Vice President of Sports and Specials, Brian J. Diamond, said: "The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best time slot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men". In the same announcement, TNA president Dixie Carter was quoted as saying, "Our fans made it clear that they preferred the Thursday night time period. By moving to Thursdays, this is a win/win opportunity for both TNA and the fans. We are looking forward to delivering what the fans are asking for."

Reception and legacyVice described the move as one of many gambles TNA has taken during their history, but wrote that it "turned out disastrously." Impact! ratings dropped seven percent from 2009's 1.14 average, finishing 2010 at 1.06. WrestleView ascribed the drop to the "disastrous decision" to run opposite Raw. Although the move failed to boost ratings for TNA, James Caldwell of Pro Wrestling Torch attributed a six percent drop in Raw ratings (from 3.69 to 3.47) to competition from Impact! At the end of 2010, the "New Monday Night Wars" received the annual WrestleCrap Gooker Award, which honors the worst events in wrestling.

By July 2011, nearly all of the new talents brought in for Impact!s initial Monday launch had left the company, with the exceptions of Ric Flair (who left the following year) and Jeff Hardy (who left in 2017). Hulk Hogan departed TNA in October 2013. Eric Bischoff was sent home from TNA that same month and his contract expired in early 2014. When asked about positive memories from his time in TNA, Bischoff stated, "I don't have any."

In the tenth anniversary reprint of R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez's The Death of WCW, the authors compared the move to the original Monday Night Wars. They wrote that TNA did not have the audience that WCW did when they moved to initiate the Monday Night Wars, pointing out that WCW Saturday Night typically did better than WWE shows did in the weekend timeslots. Reynolds and Alvarez also wrote that TNA did not have the financial resources that WCW did and that WWE was not "asleep at the wheel" as they were in 1995.

WWE would not face direct ratings competition from a rival promotion again until the beginning of the "Wednesday Night Wars" on October 2, 2019, when All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debuted their weekly show, Dynamite, during the same timeslot as WWE NXT. Comicbook.com wrote that TNA's move to Monday night's "[serves] as somewhat of a cautionary tale to any companies bold enough to try and take on Vince McMahon." AEW executive Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks said that TNA failed to be different from WWE, telling Bleacher Report'' that: "You can't try to be them. The one thing TNA did wrong was try to be a lesser version of them. We can't be them because we're not competing with them. We have to be different and we have to listen to the fans."

References

Further reading

2010 in American television
History of professional wrestling
Mass media rivalries
Impact Wrestling
Spike (TV network)
WWE Raw
2010 in professional wrestling

TNA Impact!'s move to Monday nights


Deganwy, or Degannwy in Middle Welsh, is a small town and electoral ward on the Creuddyn Peninsula in Conwy County Borough, Wales.

It is a relatively small town most notable for Deganwy Castle, situated 110 m above the town. In the 6th century, it was fortified as the stronghold of Maelgwn Gwynedd, king of Gwynedd.

Nowadays, it is located in Conwy County Borough but historically it was located in Caernarfonshire.

The town currently has a population of 3,936.

The town has a railway station on the Llandudno Branch Line and the Conwy Valley line. Transport for Wales provide direct trains to Llandudno, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Chester, Manchester and Crewe.

Gallery

Towns in Conwy

Deganwy


Hickory Withe is an unincorporated community in Fayette County, Tennessee, United States, and is within the Memphis metropolitan area. For several years it functioned as an incorporated town, and was so treated at the 2000 census, at which time it had a population of 2,574.

Geography
Hickory Withe is located in western Fayette County at  (35.2236, -89.5819), within the postal code of the community of Eads, which is located in eastern Shelby County. It is bordered to the south and east by the town of Oakland. Tennessee State Route 196 passes through the community, leading north  to Gallaway and south  to U.S. Route 64 in the western part of Oakland. Via US 64, downtown Memphis is  to the west.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of , of which  was land and , or 0.38%, was water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,574 people, 980 households, and 803 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 1,016 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 82.32% White, 16.24% African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.04% from other races, and 1.09% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.24% of the population.

There were 980 households, out of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.1% were married couples living together, 6.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.0% were non-families. 14.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the town the population was spread out, with 20.5% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 33.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $57,292, and the median income for a family was $62,857. Males had a median income of $42,024 versus $28,550 for females. The per capita income for the town was $26,368. About 2.4% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 12.4% of those age 65 or over.

History

The community of Hickory Withe was settled in 1834 by families who moved from the region around Prosperity, South Carolina.

One of the first acts of these settlers was to form the congregation of Prosperity Presbyterian Church, which was founded on the fourth Sunday of December, 1834. This congregation united with another Presbyterian congregation, Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church, in 1907 to form Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church, which is still active today. That church, meeting in an historic property on Donelson Drive, is all that remains of what once was "Main Street" of Hickory Withe: Donelson Drive used to be home to a post office, a general store, a cotton gin, and a two-room school house, in addition to the church. The school facility was deeded to the Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church in 1974, and is maintained today; the remaining businesses and buildings have been removed, leaving only residences and the church.

Efforts to incorporate Hickory Withe led to revisions of Tennessee laws regarding incorporation and annexation. In the mid-1990s supporters of the idea of incorporating Hickory Withe went to Lieutenant Governor John S. Wilder, who was from nearby Braden and had represented the area in the Tennessee Senate since 1966, with the idea of sponsoring a bill which would allow Hickory Withe to incorporate, something which could not be accomplished under the then-existing law. Wilder learned that he could not introduce an act allowing only for the incorporation of Hickory Withe as this would be rejected by the courts as unconstitutional, so it was necessary for any act to help Hickory Withe to incorporate to be worded in a broad enough fashion to allow any similar area in Tennessee which also desired to incorporate to do so as well. The eventual bill which passed was drawn in such a way as to allow almost any previously-unincorporated area to incorporate, and several attempted to do so, including, famously, an apartment building near Elizabethton. The resulting legislation became known, somewhat derisively, as the "Tiny Towns Bill". Most of the towns which were set up, or were attempted to be set up under the act, seemed primarily to be efforts to prevent areas from being annexed by larger jurisdictions which charged property tax. The Tennessee Supreme Court struck down the new legislation on November 19, 1997, less than a year after it entered the books. Corrective legislation enacted since has required any new town being set up to have a property tax rate set as a condition of its incorporation (and that rate cannot be "zero"). Towns set up under the "Tiny Town" law, like Hickory Withe, were not automatically dissolved with the act's repeal, although some have subsequently taken this step.

Community character
Hickory Withe is predominantly semi-rural and agricultural. The primary agricultural product cultivated in and around the community is cotton. Horse farming is also a significant agricultural land use.

The community has seen more recent residential development as a result of the eastward expansion of the Memphis urban area and the completion of the Memphis outer beltway (now I-269) in nearby eastern Shelby County.

References

External links

 Hickory Withe Community Association
 Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church
 First Baptist Church of Hickory Withe

Unincorporated communities in Fayette County, Tennessee
Unincorporated communities in Tennessee
Memphis metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1834
Former municipalities in Tennessee
Populated places disestablished in 2004
1834 establishments in Tennessee

Hickory Withe, Tennessee