Roger Lacey Stevens (March 12, 1910 – February 2, 1998) was an American theatrical producer, arts administrator, and real estate executive. He was the founding Chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1961) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1965).

Biography
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Stevens was educated at The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut.  He was about to enter Harvard University but his father's financial difficulties ended his plan.  He attended the University of Michigan for a year before dropping out.  He then worked on a Ford assembly line and at a gas station during the Depression.

In 1934, he joined a Detroit real estate firm. By 1937, before he was 30, his real estate work had made him a small fortune of about $50,000. He led a syndicate (along with Ben Tobin and Alfred R. Glancy Jr.) that bought the Empire State Building in 1951 for $51 million, then a titanic sum; he more than doubled his investment when he sold his interest in the building three years later.

In 1953, together with Alfred R. Glancy Jr., Ben Tobin, and H. Adams Ashforth, he founded Unico Properties to develop a 10-acre University of Washington site in central Seattle.

In politics, he made a mark as chairman of the Democratic Party's finance committee in 1956.

He produced more than 100 plays and musicals over his career, including West Side Story, Bus Stop, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In 1971, he received Special Tony Award for his body of work. He became known for introducing plays by such adventurous writers as Harold Pinter, Arthur Kopit and Tom Stoppard.

Stevens was the General Administrator of the Actors Studio as well as one of the producers of the Playwrights Company, a member of the board of the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA), and one of the members of a Broadway producing company he founded in 1953 with Robert Whitehead, and Robert Dowling. In 1961, he was asked by President John F. Kennedy to help establish a National Cultural Center, and became Chairman of Board of Trustees of what was eventually named the Kennedy Center from 1961 to 1988.

In 1965, he received an appointment from President Lyndon Johnson as first Chairman of the National Council on the Arts later named the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1986, Stevens was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

On January 13, 1988, Stevens was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. In 1988, he was also awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Personal life

Stevens was married to Christine Gesell Stevens, founder of the Animal Welfare Institute in 1951. He served as the organization's treasurer until his death in 1998. They had a daughter, Christabel.

He had his first heart attack in 1970. In 1993, he suffered strokes that left him partly paralyzed and deprived him of much of his speech.

Roger Stevens died of pneumonia on February 2, 1998, at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.  He was 87.

Stage productions
Broken Glass (1994) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
The Kentucky Cycle (1993) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
She Loves Me (1993) Tony Award nominee, Best Revival of a Musical
Shadowlands (1990) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Death of a Salesman (1984) Tony Award winner, Best Reproduction
On Your Toes (1983) Tony Award winner, Best Reproduction (Play or Musical)
Bedroom Farce (1979) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Deathtrap (1978) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Old Times (1971) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Indians (1969) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Half a Sixpence (1965) Tony Award nominee, Best Musical
Slow Dance On the Killing Ground (1964) Tony Award nominee, Best Producer of a Play
Strange Interlude (1963) Tony Award nominee, Best Producer of a Play
A Man for All Seasons (1962) Tony Award winner, Best Play and Best Producer of a Play
The Caretaker (1961) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
The Visit (1958) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
A Touch of the Poet (1958) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
West Side Story (1957) (by arrangement) Tony Award nominee, Best Musical
Time Remembered (1957) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
The Rope Dancers (1957) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Separate Tables (1956) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
The Waltz of the Toreadors (1956) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Bus Stop (1955) Tony Award nominee, Best Play
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) Tony Award nominee, Best Play

References

The American Presidency Project
Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts

External links

The Library of Congress exhibit
Public Leadership in the Arts Awards listing, 1998

1910 births
1998 deaths
Businesspeople from Detroit
People from Wallingford, Connecticut
American theatre managers and producers
Kennedy Center honorees
Choate Rosemary Hall alumni
University of Michigan alumni
20th-century American businesspeople
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Special Tony Award recipients

Roger L. Stevens


Peter Michael Stephan Hacker (born 15 July 1939) is a British philosopher.
His principal expertise is in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophical anthropology.  He is known for his detailed exegesis and interpretation of the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, his critique of cognitive neuroscience, and for his comprehensive studies of human nature.

Professional biography
Hacker studied philosophy, politics and economics at The Queen's College, Oxford, from 1960 to 1963. In 1963–65 he was senior scholar at St Antony's College, Oxford, where he began graduate work under the supervision of H. L. A. Hart. His D.Phil. thesis "Rules and Duties" was completed in 1966 during a junior research fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford.

Since 1966 Hacker has been a fellow of St John's College, Oxford, and a member of the Oxford University philosophy faculty. His visiting positions at other universities include Makerere College, Uganda (1968); Swarthmore College, US (1973 and 1986); University of Michigan, (1974); Milton C. Scott visiting professor at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada (1985); visiting fellow in humanities at University of Bologna, Italy (2009).
From 1985 to 1987 he was a British Academy Research Reader in the Humanities. In 1991–94 he was a Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow. Hacker retired from Oxford in 2006, and was appointed  to an emeritus research fellowship from 2006 to 2015, since when he has been an emeritus fellow. He was made an honorary fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford, in 2010. He was a part-time professor of philosophy at the University of Kent at Canterbury from 2013 to 2016. He was appointed to an honorary professorship at the Institute of Neurology at University College, London, for the period 2019–2024.

Hacker is Jewish by heritage.

Philosophical views
Hacker is one of the most important contemporary exponents of the linguistic-therapeutic approach to philosophy pioneered by Ludwig Wittgenstein. In this approach, the words and concepts used by the language community are taken as given, and the role of philosophy is to resolve or dissolve philosophical problems by giving an overview of the uses of these words and the structural relationships between these concepts. Philosophical inquiry is therefore very different from scientific inquiry, and Hacker maintains that: "philosophy is not a contribution to human knowledge, but to human understanding." He believes that empirical observation and research is a categorically distinct kind of activity from conceptual investigation and clarification, even though there is sometimes no sharp dividing line between the two. These are two different kinds of intellectual activity, which may be conducted by the same person (as in the case of Einstein) or by different people. This has led him into direct disagreement with "neuro-philosophers": neuroscientists or philosophers such as Antonio Damasio and Daniel Dennett who think that neuroscience can shed light on philosophical questions such as the nature of consciousness or the mind-body problem. Hacker argues that these are indeed problems, only not empirical ones. They are conceptual problems and puzzlements that are to be dissolved or resolved by logico-linguistic analysis. It follows that scientific inquiry (learning more facts about humans or the world) does not help to resolve them anymore than discoveries in physics can help to prove a mathematical theorem.
His 2003 book "Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience", co-authored with neuroscientist Max Bennett, contains an exposition of these views, and critiques of the ideas of many contemporary neuroscientists and philosophers, including Francis Crick, Antonio Damasio, Daniel Dennett, John Searle, and others.

Hacker in general finds many received components of current philosophy of mind to be incoherent.  He rejects mind-brain identity theories, as well as functionalism, eliminativism and other forms of reductionism.  He advocates methodological pluralism, denying that standard explanations of human conduct are causal, and insisting on the irreducibility of explanation in terms of reasons and goals.  He denies that psychological attributes can be intelligibly ascribed to the brain, insisting that they are ascribable only to the human being as a whole.  He has endeavoured to show that the puzzles and 'mysteries' of consciousness dissolve under careful analysis of the various forms of intransitive and transitive consciousness, and that so-called qualia are no more than a philosopher's fiction.

Since 2005 Hacker has completed an ambitious tetralogy on human nature. He conceives of this to be philosophical anthropology – a study of the conceptual forms and relations in terms of which we think about ourselves and our theoretical and practical powers. The first volume The Categorial Framework: a Study of Human Nature surveys the most general concepts: substance, causation, powers, agency, teleology and rationality, mind, body and person. The second, The Intellectual Powers: A Study of Human Nature investigates consciousness, intentionality and mastery of a language as marks of the mind. This is followed by detailed logico-grammatical studies of human cognitive and cogitative powers, ranging from perception through knowledge and belief to memory, thought and imagination. The third volume The Passions: a Study of Human Nature is dedicated to the study of the emotions, ranging from pride, shame, jealousy and anger to love, friendship, and sympathy. It draws extensively on literary, dramatic and poetic sources. The concluding volume The Moral Powers: a Study of Human Nature is concerned with good and evil; freedom, determinism, and responsibility; pleasure and happiness; finding meaning in life and the place of death in life. Hacker's methodology is connective analysis in which the wide range of conceptual and logical features of the relevant subjects is laid bare.

Hacker has frequently collaborated with fellow Oxford philosopher G. P. Baker, and Australian neuroscientist Max Bennett.

Works

Books
 Insight and Illusion: Wittgenstein on Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Experience (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972) ()
 Insight and Illusion – themes in the philosophy of Wittgenstein (extensively revised edition) (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986) ()
 Wittgenstein : Understanding and Meaning, Volume 1 of an analytical commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, Oxford, and Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1980)()()(), co-authored with G.P. Baker. It was extensively revised in 2009 and published in two parts by Wiley-Blackwell()().
 Frege : Logical Excavations, (Blackwell, Oxford, O.U.P., N.Y., 1984) () co-authored with G.P. Baker.
 Language, Sense and Nonsense, a critical investigation into modern theories of language (Blackwell, 1984) () co-authored with G.P. Baker.
 Scepticism, Rules and Language (Blackwell, 1984) () co-authored with G.P. Baker.
 Wittgenstein : Rules, Grammar, and Necessity – Volume 2 of an analytical commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, Oxford, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985) ()() co-authored with G.P. Baker. It was extensively revised in 2014 ()
 Appearance and Reality – a philosophical investigation into perception and perceptual qualities (Blackwell, 1987) ()
 Wittgenstein : Meaning and Mind, Volume 3 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, Oxford and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990) (). It was extensively revised in 2019 and published in two parts by Wiley-Blackwell ()().
 Wittgenstein: Mind and Will, Volume 4 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, 1996) ()
 Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell, Oxford, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996) ()
 Wittgenstein on Human Nature (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1997) ()
 Wittgenstein: Connections and Controversies (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2001) ()
 Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (Blackwell, Oxford, and Malden, Mass., 2003) (), co-authored with Max Bennett
 Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and Language (Columbia University Press, New York, 2007) (), co-authored with Max Bennett, D. Dennett, and J. Searle
 Human Nature: The Categorial Framework (Blackwell, 2007) ()
 History of Cognitive Neuroscience (Wiley, Blackwell, 2008) (), co-authored with Max Bennett
 The Intellectual Powers: A study of Human Nature (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2013)  pb. ed.
 Wittgenstein: Comparisons & Context (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013)
 The Passions: A study of Human Nature (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2017)
 Intellectual Entertainments: Eight Dialogues on Mind, Consciousness and Thought  (Anthem Press, London, 2020)
 The Moral Powers: a Study of Human Nature (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2020)

References

External links
 Peter Hacker's web page.
 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article3941128.ece

1939 births
20th-century English philosophers
21st-century English philosophers
Analytic philosophers
British consciousness researchers and theorists
English essayists
English male non-fiction writers
Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
Linguistic turn
Living people
Ordinary language philosophy
Philosophers of language
Philosophers of mind
Wittgensteinian philosophers

Peter Hacker


Kulada is a small village located near Bhanjanagar of Ganjam district in Odisha. It is located 108 km towards North from District Headquarters Chhatrapur. 159 km from State capital Bhubaneswar. Asika, Hinjilicut, Phulabani, Berhampur are the nearby Cities to Kulada. Odia is the native Language here.

Geography
It is situated to the north west of Ganjam District with a ruin fort, river Mahanadi flowing in the east and dense forest in the west side of the ruined fort. Bhanjanagar, Brahmapur etc. are the nearest towns / cities to Kullada village. It is surrounded by Belaguntha Tehsil towards East, Surada Tehsil towards South.

Demography
Legend speaks that during 12th century a Bhanja ruler had joined hands with a tribal leader KULA to be eradicating the foreign invasion. Seeing the danger from the tribe he stained the tribal leader KULA and on the same place, constructed a fort which was later known as Kulad / Kullargad. The original temple is at the top of the hill known as Upper Bagh Devi with 273 steps. Upendra Bhanja spent his term in meditation at this place.

Transportation
There is no railway station at Kullada. Berhampur is the nearest railway station located 90 km from Berhampur.

References

Villages in Ganjam district

Kulada, Ganjam


Jeremy John Irons (; born 19 September 1948) is an English actor and activist. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having won numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. He is one of the few actors who have achieved the "Triple Crown of Acting" having won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Awards for Film, Television and Theatre.

Irons received classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and started acting career on stage in 1969. He appeared in many West End theatre productions, including the Shakespeare plays The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and Richard II. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, receiving the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

His first major film role came in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in dramas such as Moonlighting (1982), Betrayal (1983), The Mission (1986), and Dead Ringers (1988), he received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune (1990). Other notable films include Kafka (1991), Damage (1992), M. Butterfly (1993), Die Hard with a Vengeance  (1995), Lolita (1997), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Appaloosa (2008), and Margin Call (2011). He voiced the role of Scar in Disney's The Lion King (1994) and played Alfred Pennyworth in the DC Extended Universe (2016–2023) series of films.

On television, Irons's break-out role came in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited (1981). He received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance for his performance in the  miniseries Elizabeth I (2005). He starred as Pope Alexander VI in the Showtime historical series The Borgias (2011–2013) and as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias in HBO's Watchmen (2019). In October 2011, he was named the Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Early life and education
Irons was born on 19 September 1948 in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, to Paul Dugan Irons, an accountant, and Barbara Anne Brereton Brymer (née Sharpe). Irons has a brother, Christopher (born 1943), and a sister, Felicity Anne (born 1944). He was educated at the independent Sherborne School in Dorset from 1962 to 1966. He was the drummer and harmonica player in a four-man school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom.

Acting career

1969–1980: Rise to prominence

Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and later became president of its fundraising appeal. He performed a number of plays, and busked on the streets of Bristol, before appearing on the London stage as John the Baptist and Judas opposite David Essex in Godspell, which opened at the Roundhouse on 17 November 1971 before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre playing a total of 1,128 performances.

Irons's television career began on British television in the early 1970s, including appearances on the children's series Play Away and as Franz Liszt in the BBC series Notorious Woman (1974). More significantly, he starred in the 13-part adaptation of H. E. Bates's novel Love for Lydia (1977) for London Weekend Television, and attracted attention for his key role as the pipe-smoking German student, a romantic pairing with Judi Dench, in Harold Pinter's screenplay adaptation of Aidan Higgins's novel Langrishe, Go Down (1978) for BBC Television. Irons has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company three times in 1976, 1986–1987 and 2010. After years of success in the West End in London, Irons made his New York debut in 1984 and won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing.

1981–1998: Career breakthrough and acclaim
The role which significantly raised his profile was Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1981). First broadcast on ITV, the show ranks among the most successful British television dramas, with Irons receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. which is frequently ranked among the greatest British television dramas as well as greatest literary adaptations. Brideshead reunited him with Anthony Andrews, with whom he had appeared in The Pallisers seven years earlier. Around the same time he starred in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman (also 1981) opposite Meryl Streep.

After these major successes, he played the leading role of an exiled Polish building contractor, working in the Twickenham area of southwest London, in Jerzy Skolimowski's independent film Moonlighting (1982). Irons made his film debut in Nijinsky in 1980. In addition to Moonlighting and The French Lieutenant's Woman, he appeared in the Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Mission in 1986 and in the dual role of twin gynaecologists in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers in 1988. Irons would later win Best Actor for Dead Ringers from the New York Film Critics Circle that year. On 23 March 1991, he hosted Saturday Night Live on NBC in the US, and appeared as Sherlock Holmes in the Sherlock Holmes' Surprise Party sketch.

Other films include Danny the Champion of the World (1989), Reversal of Fortune (1990), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Kafka (1991), Damage (1993), M. Butterfly (1993) working again with David Cronenberg, The House of the Spirits (1993) appearing again with Glenn Close and Meryl Streep. He lent his deep baritone voice as Scar in The Lion King (1994). Afterwards, he portrayed as Simon Gruber in Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), co-starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (1996), the 1997 remake of Lolita, and as the musketeer Aramis opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1998 film version of The Man in the Iron Mask.

1999–present: Established career
Other roles include the wicked wizard Profion in the film Dungeons and Dragons (2000) and Rupert Gould in Longitude (2000). He played the Über-Morlock in the film The Time Machine (2002). In 2004, Irons played the title character in The Merchant of Venice. In 2005, he appeared in the films Casanova opposite Heath Ledger, and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. He has co-starred with John Malkovich in two films, The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and Eragon (2006), though they didn't have any scenes together in the latter. In 2004 Irons played Severus Snape in the BBC's Comic Relief's Harry Potter parody, "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan".

In 2005, Irons won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role in the Channel 4-HBO mini-series, Elizabeth I, in which he starred opposite Helen Mirren (Queen Elizabeth I). A year later, he was one of the participants in the third series of the BBC documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? In 2008, he played Lord Havelock Vetinari in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, an adaptation for Sky One.

In 2006, Irons appeared with Laura Dern in David Lynch's Inland Empire. After an absence from the London stage for 18 years, in 2006 he co-starred with Patrick Malahide in Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation of Sándor Márai's novel Embers at the Duke of York's Theatre. He made his National Theatre debut playing former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1957–1963) in Never So Good, a new play by Howard Brenton which opened at the Lyttelton on 19 March 2008. In 2009, Irons appeared on Broadway opposite Joan Allen in the play Impressionism. The play ran through 10 May 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

In 2008, Irons co-starred with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen in Appaloosa, directed by Harris. On 6 November 2008, TV Guide reported Irons would star as photographer Alfred Stieglitz with Joan Allen as painter Georgia O'Keeffe, in a Lifetime Television biopic, Georgia O'Keeffe (2009). Irons also appeared in the documentary for Irish television channel TG4, Faoi Lán Cheoil, in which he is seen taking fiddle lessons from Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. In 2011, Irons appeared alongside Kevin Spacey in the thriller Margin Call. On 12 January 2011, Irons was a guest-star in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit called "Mask". He played Dr. Cap Jackson, a sex therapist. He reprised the role on an episode titled "Totem" that ran on 30 March 2011. Irons stars in the 2011 US premium cable network Showtime's series The Borgias, a highly fictionalised account of the Renaissance dynasty of that name. Directing him in The Merchant of Venice, Michael Radford states Irons "has such a magnetic quality on screen, and he has a kind of melancholy about him." In 2012, he starred and worked as executive producer of the environmental documentary film Trashed. He portrayed the mathematician G. H. Hardy in the 2015 film The Man Who Knew Infinity.

Irons played Alfred Pennyworth in Warner Bros.' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017) and the 2021 director's cut of the same film. On 8 November 2018, it was announced that Irons had been cast as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias in HBO's Watchmen series. The series debuted earning him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie nomination. In 2018, he played General Vladimir Korchnoi in Francis Lawrence's spy thriller film Red Sparrow, based on Jason Matthews's book of the same name. In 2021, Irons played Rodolfo Gucci in Ridley Scott's biographical crime drama film House of Gucci. In 2022, Irons played British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in the period spy thriller Munich – The Edge of War. The following year, he reprised the role of Alfred Pennyworth in The Flash and also returned to voice Scar in the Disney animated short Once Upon a Studio.

Other ventures

Audio
Irons has had extensive voice work in a range of different fields throughout his career. He read the audiobook recording of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (he had also appeared in the 1997 film version of the novel), and James and the Giant Peach by the children's author Roald Dahl.

In particular, he was praised for recording the poetry of T. S. Eliot for BBC Radio 4. Beginning in 2012 with The Waste Land, he went on to record Four Quartets in 2014, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock on the centenary of its publication in 2015, and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats in 2016. He finally completed recording the entire canon of T. S. Eliot which was broadcast over New Year's Day 2017. In 2020, Irons was one of 40 British voices to read three to four verses (broadcast daily) of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 150-verse 18th century poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

One of his best known film roles has turned out to be lending his distinctive voice to Scar in The Lion King (1994) serving as the main antagonist of the film. Irons has since provided voiceovers for three Disney World attractions. He narrated the Spaceship Earth ride, housed in the large geodesic globe at Epcot in Florida from October 1994 to July 2007. He was also the English narrator for the Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic at the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris. He voiced H. G. Wells in the English-language version of the former Disney attraction The Timekeeper. He also reprised his role as Scar in Fantasmic. He is also one of the readers in the 4x CD boxed set of The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, produced by Marc Sinden and sold in aid of the Royal Theatrical Fund.

He serves as the English-language version of the audio guide for Westminster Abbey in London. He voiced English soldier and WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon in The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century (1997), receiving the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance. Irons has served as voice-over in several big cat documentary films (multiple by National Geographic): Eye of the Leopard (2006), The Last Lions (2011), The Unlikely Leopard (2012), Game of Lions (2014), for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator, Jade Eyed Leopard (2020), Revealed: Ultimate Enemies (2022), and Revealed: Eternal Enemies (2022). Between 2009 and 2012 he narrated the French-produced documentary series about volcanoes, Life on Fire.

In 2008, two researchers, a linguist and a sound engineer, found "the perfect [male] voice" to be a combination of Irons's and Alan Rickman's voices based on a sample of 50 voices. Coincidentally, the two actors played brothers in the Die Hard series of films. Speaking at 200 words per minute and pausing for 1.2 seconds between sentences, Irons came very close to the ideal voice model, with the linguist Andrew Linn explaining why his "deep gravelly tones" inspired trust in listeners. As German villain Simon Gruber his recital of the English riddle "As I was going to St Ives" (from Die Hard with a Vengeance) appears in the 2014 book The Art of Communicating Eloquently. In 2017 he recited the spoken sections, most notably "Late Lament", for The Moody Blues' 50th Anniversary Tour of "Days Of Future Passed", and also appears on the video presentation.

Music
In 1985, Irons directed a music video for Carly Simon and her heavily promoted single, "Tired of Being Blonde", and in 1994, he had a cameo role in the video for Elastica's hit single "Connection".

Irons has contributed to other musical performances, recording William Walton's Façade with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale conducted by the composer, and in 1987 the songs from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, released on the Decca label. Irons sang segments of  "Be Prepared" in the film The Lion King.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Noël Coward's birth, Irons sang a selection of his songs at the 1999 Last Night of the Proms held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, ending with "London Pride", a patriotic song written in the spring of 1941 during the Blitz. In 2003, Irons played Fredrik Egerman in a New York revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, and two years later appeared as King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot at the Hollywood Bowl. He performed the Bob Dylan song "Make You Feel My Love" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars.

In 2009, Irons appeared on the Touchstone album Wintercoast, recording a narrative introduction to the album. Recording took place in New York City in February 2009 during rehearsals for his Broadway play Impressionism.

Political views and activism
At the 1991 Tony Awards, Irons was one of the few celebrities to wear the red ribbon to support the fight against AIDS. He was the first celebrity to wear it onscreen.

In 1998, Irons and his wife were named in the list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party, a year following its return to government with Tony Blair's victory in the 1997 general election, following eighteen years in opposition. He was also one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the 2015 general election.

In 2004, he publicly declared his support for the Countryside Alliance, referring to the 2004 Hunting Act as an "outrageous assault on civil liberties" and "one of the two most devastating parliamentary votes in the last century".

Irons is an outspoken critic of the death penalty and has supported the campaign by the human rights organisation Amnesty International UK to abolish capital punishment worldwide. Among his arguments, Irons states the death penalty "infringes on two fundamental human rights, the right to life, and no-one shall be subject to torture", adding that while the person accused of a crime "may have abused those rights, to advocate the same be done to them is to join them".

During a 2007 Q&A with The Guardian, Irons named Tony Blair as the living person he most admired; reasoning "For living so publicly with the knowledge that he's not perfect." He then named George W. Bush as the living person he most despised, stating "to hold his position he should have surrounded himself with more reliable people."

In 2009, Irons signed a petition in support of Polish film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.

In 2011, Irons was criticised in the British Medical Journal for his fundraising activities in support of the College of Medicine, an alternative medicine lobby group in the UK linked to King Charles.

In 2013, Irons caused controversy for an interview with the Huffington Post, in which he said he "doesn't have a strong feeling either way" on gay marriage but expressed fears that it could "debase marital law", suggesting it could be "manipulated" to allow fathers to avoid paying tax when passing on their estates to their sons, because he supposed "incest laws would not apply to men". He later clarified his comments, saying he was providing an example of a situation that could cause a "legal quagmire" under the laws that allow same-gender marriage, and that he had been "misinterpreted". He added that "some gay relationships are healthier than their heterosexual counterparts". He said in a BBC interview that he wished he had "buttoned his lip" before asking if its legalisation would see fathers marry sons.

He supports the legal availability of abortion, having said that he believes that "women should be allowed to make the decision". Irons also agreed with an abortion opponent and was quoted as saying that "the church is right to say it's a sin".

Philanthropy
He is the Patron of the Emergency Response Team Search and Rescue (ERTSAR), which is a United Nations–recognised life saving disaster response search and rescue team and registered charity. It is based in his home County of Oxfordshire, England.  He supports a number of other charities, including The Prison Phoenix Trust in England, and the London-based Evidence for Development, which seeks to improve the lives of the world's most needy people by preventing famines and delivering food aid, for both of which he is an active patron. In 2000, Irons received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Olivia de Havilland during the International Achievement Summit in London.

In 2010, Irons starred in a promotional video, for "The 1billionhungry project" – a worldwide drive to attract at least one million signatures to a petition calling on international leaders to move hunger to the top of the political agenda.

Irons was named Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2011. He provided the narration of the 2013 documentary (by Andrew Lauer) Sahaya Going Beyond about the work of the charity Sahaya International.

In November 2015, Irons supported the No Cold Homes campaign by the UK charity Turn2us. Irons was one of nearly thirty celebrities, who included Helen Mirren, Hugh Laurie and Ed Sheeran, to donate items of winter clothing to the campaign, with the proceeds used to help people in the UK struggling to keep their homes warm in winter.

Irons is a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company, which produces Shakespearean plays annually in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and a London-based drama school, The Associated Studios. Irons was bestowed an Honorary Life Membership by the University College Dublin Law Society in September 2008, in honour of his contribution to television, film, audio, music, and theatre. Also in 2008, Irons was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Southampton Solent University. On 20 July 2016, Irons was announced as the first Chancellor of Bath Spa University.

Personal life

Irons married Julie Hallam in 1969, but they divorced later that year. He married Irish actress Sinéad Cusack on 28 March 1978. They have two sons, Samuel "Sam" Irons (b. 1978), who works as a photographer, and who co-starred with his father in Danny, the Champion of the World, and Maximilian "Max" Irons (b. 1985), also an actor. Both of Irons's sons have appeared in films with their father. Irons's wife and children are Catholic; Irons has also been described as a practising Catholic and has stated:

He owns Kilcoe Castle near Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland, and had the castle painted a traditional ochre colour which was misreported as being 'pink'. He also has another Irish residence in The Liberties of Dublin, as well as a home in his birth town of Cowes, a detached house and barn in Watlington, Oxfordshire and a mews house  in Notting Hill, London.

In March 2016 Irons told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that he would refuse an invitation to the palace to accept a New Year Honour should it ever arrive: "I became an actor to be a rogue and a vagabond so I don't think it would be apt for the establishment to pull me in as one of their own, for I ain't."

In 2013 Irons said he was a smoker and an avid fan of cigars, naming Romeo y Julieta as his favourite brand. He said, "My curse is that I'm a cigarette smoker. I make my own cigarettes. So I have a tendency to inhale when I smoke a cigar. I have to keep reminding myself not to."

Acting credits

Awards and nominations
On 17 December 2017 he was awarded the XVI Europe Theatre Prize, in Rome. The Prize organisation stated:With Jeremy Irons, life and art have been mixed to the point of creating an inimitable style, as man and actor, which blends an air of freedom with the enviable capacity to enter into the spirit of the most varied productions, in theatre, cinema and television, without ever betraying himself or giving up his independence. In productions great and small, with an unflinching love for his profession, Jeremy Irons says of himself: "I became an actor to be a rogue and vagabond, so I don't think the establishment would be able to welcome me as one of its own – because I'm not." His versatility as an actor, as much at ease in Shakespeare as in a hit television series, comes from being part of a profession that he loves and in which he is loved.On that occasion he performed with Isabelle Huppert Correspondence 1944–1959 Readings from the epistles between Albert Camus and Maria Casares and a special creation of Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes, at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

References

External links

 Jeremy Irons – The Authoritative Website

 Jeremy Irons at the British Film Institute

 Jeremy Irons Profile by The Daily Telegraph (13 March 2008)

1948 births
Living people
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Annie Award winners
Audiobook narrators
Best Actor Academy Award winners
Best Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners
British people of Irish descent
British people of Scottish descent
César Honorary Award recipients
Cusack family (Ireland)
David di Donatello winners
English male film actors
English male Shakespearean actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
English male voice actors
English people of Irish descent
English people of Scottish descent
English Roman Catholics
FAO Goodwill ambassadors
Labour Party (UK) people
British political activists
Outstanding Narrator Primetime Emmy Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners
People educated at Sherborne School
People from Cowes
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Tony Award winners
People from Ballydehob

Jeremy Irons


WDSE-FM (103.3 MHz) is a 95,000-watt public radio station in Duluth, Minnesota, operated by the Duluth–Superior Area Educational Television Corporation, which primarily carries an adult alternative radio format but also has a number of programs focusing on jazz, blues, and other genres. It is part of Minnesota's Independent Public Radio network. Programming from national sources includes World Cafe and American Routes.

History
The station was founded by students at the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1957 as KUMD, a 10-watt AM station in the basement of what was then Washburn Hall dormitory on the old main campus in a residential neighborhood of Duluth. The first station manager was student Bruce Elving, and the first chief engineer was Douglas Hedin. Hedin also built the station's first transmitter. The station was closed down several times by the FCC in its early days due to out-of-compliance technical standards.

KUMD went through a series of changes and fits and starts in its early days, including station managers, due to the student-run nature of the college radio station. In 1962, stronger faculty advisors were appointed as the station converted to 250 watts FM as KUMD-FM. The dean of UMD's School of Humanities, R. Dale Miller, also became involved at this time and became a major supporter of expansion of the station. The last of these "stronger" advisors was Joe Zesbaugh, who helped professionalize the operation. Zesbaugh left in the summer of 1969 to run public television at Arizona State University. His short-term successor left under unclear circumstances, at which time student broadcasters regained control of the station. Station managers during this period included Michael (Mickey) Dean, Frank Noviello, Phil Glende, Dave Tuenge, and Tom Livingston. Programming matured dramatically, featuring locally produced public affairs programming, a news operation, and music including jazz, classical, folk, and other "alternative" music not otherwise available in the Duluth/Superior radio market. KUMD also experimented with live sportscasting during this time including several remote broadcasts of the University basketball games. these broadcasts were anchored by Eric Eskola, who subsequently worked as announcer for Duluth's CBS radio affiliate (KDAL) and eventually moved to WCCO radio in Minneapolis as its legislative and political reporter, and the co-host of Twin Cities Public Television's weekly Almanac public affairs program. KUMD's bedrock programming philosophy was to offer only programming that was not available on other Twin Ports radio stations. The station was almost totally staffed by student volunteers, who at the time often numbered around 100 at any given time. There were some part-time paid staff who led the volunteers and who were also students.

Livingston eventually convinced the university to take over a defunct commercial 100,000-watt station (WDTH) and to affiliate with National Public Radio. He also introduced the concept of listener support and began on-air fund drives to help fund the station's operations. The station became known as WDTH for several years before reclaiming its KUMD-FM call letters. Livingston served as the station manager for eight years. He was succeeded by Paul Schmitz, who was eventually succeeded (again) by Michael (Mickey) Dean, who was succeeded by Vicky Jacoba.

The station was sold to the Duluth–Superior Area Educational Television Corporation on December 1, 2021, for $175,000, and took the callsign WDSE-FM.

See also
KUOM (Radio K) – University of Minnesota Twin Cities station
KUMM (U90) – University of Minnesota Morris station

References

External links

Radio stations in Duluth, Minnesota
Independent Public Radio
Adult album alternative radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1957
1957 establishments in Minnesota

WDSE-FM


Zooidogamy is a type of plant reproduction in which male gametes (antherozoids) swim in a path of water to the female gametes (archegonium).  Zoidogamy is found in algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, and some gymnosperms (others use siphonogamy).  Zoidogamy relates to evolution, as it provides a pathway from wind-borne abiotic pollination and similar mechanisms to fluid-based mechanisms used in most animals.

References

Plant reproduction

Zoidogamy


Erik Postma (15 December 1953, Rotterdam - 25 September 2002, Middenbeemster) was a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 party.

In 1992 he was elected as city manager (gemeentesecretaris) of Budel.  After the municipal reorganization of North Brabant on 1 January 1997, Budel was incorporated along with the municipality Maarheeze in the new municipality Cranendonck, and Postma was made city manager.

In April 1998 Postma was appointed mayor of the northern Dutch municipality of Beemster.  During his mayoral term, he died suddenly of cardiac arrest in September 2002.  He was succeeded in his position by Harry Brinkman.

1953 births
2002 deaths
Democrats 66 politicians
Mayors in North Holland
People from Beemster
Politicians from Rotterdam

Erik Postma


Real or perceived threat in the environment, elicits stress response in animals, which disrupts the internal constant environment of the animal. There are different kinds of stressors that animals can be exposed to, and there are different kinds of stress responses that animals display as a result. Physiological changes that happen because of stress cause behavioural responses in animals. There are different types of behavioural responses: impairment of response inhibition and lack of motivation, changes in social, sexual, aggression and nurture behaviour in animals. The extent of the impact is dependent upon the type, and duration of the stress, as well as the past experiences of the animal. Behavioural responses to prolonged stress can also be transferred across generations.

Overview
Stress responses are any responses that an organism makes or goes through, in response to a stressor that is causing a stress. A stress in accordance to Walter Cannon (1871-1945), is any disturbance that imbalances the internal environment of an organism also known as homeostasis. There are two major types of stressors that cause stress to animals: abiotic stressors and biotic stressors. Abiotic stressors are any ecological, geological, or climatological changes, that causes stress to the animal such as increased temperatures, and natural disasters. Biotic stressors are living things-related complications that causes stress; these include dominance, pollution, infection  social pressures  and competition.

There are different types of stress responses in an animal in response to stressors: Physiological responses, Behavioural responses, Psychological responses, and/or Physical responses (fight or flight). The response depends on the choice the animal partakes in, when it is faced with danger that causes distress. Walter Canon (1871-1945), argues that there are two possible choices that an organism may choose when stress is encountered: fight or flight responses; the choice is based on careful evaluation of the situation that would derive a response.

Behavioural responses
Behavioural responses to stress, are evoked from some underlying complex physiological changes that arise consequently from stress. There are many different types of behavioural responses to stress:

 Impairment of response inhibition and lack of motivation

According to a study conducted by Mika and his colleagues, prolonged stress in rats causes response inhibition. It was evident through their experiment that stressed rats had inhibited premature responses (decreased timing of intervals to food), along with decreased intrinsic motivation to initiate a response. They link the decreased motivation to the stress-associated reduction in incentive motivation, as presented by another study conducted by Kleen and his colleagues. Decreased motivation was also seen in a study conducted by Beery and Kaufer, where they explained that stressed rodents are less likely to be motivated to interact with one another.
Change in social behaviours

A study conducted by Beery and Kaufer, revealed that social behaviours in rodents change in response to stress. They explain that social withdrawal and general reduction in social interaction after an exposure to a stressor are evident in rodents. They argue that this is due to the underlying physiological changes that the rodent goes through in response to stress. For instance, the changes that occur to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) hormonal axis, is directly related to the changes in social behaviour. Social avoidance is another consequence of stress that can be seen in rodents. Rodents are more likely to avoid dominant rats and avoid social interactions amongst each other after the exposure to a stressor.
 Sexual Behaviours

Sexual interests change in many species when exposed to stressors. For instance, stressed male and female rats express inhibited mating behaviour which is evident through the clear increase in the inhibitory hormone RF-amide. Another study suggests that masculine sexual behaviour in male rats is subject to changes in accordance to the type of stressors that the rats were subjected to. Female Zebra Finches mating choice is determined by the stressors that they are exposed to early in life, which remains consistent throughout adulthood. A study about stress effects on female songbird's response to sexual signal for mating, indicated that the response to this specific signal can be impaired if the female is exposed to developmental stress. Behavioural changes as a result from developmental stress impairs neural responses to sexual signal, which reduces mating:

Aggressive behaviours and Anti-predator responses

Stressed animals would choose to avoid a novel situation rather than confront it. Aggressive behaviour is associated with sex hormones, such as testosterone, and specific brain regions and systems such as the medial preoptic nucleus, prefrontal cortex-dependent response inhibition, and anterior hypothalamus. Stress negatively impacts sex hormones, which results in an imbalance and reduction in aggression related hormones and function. Also, chronic stress results in prefrontal cortex-dependent response inhibition. This results in reduction in aggression, thus promoting anti-predator responses.

 Prolonged stress reduces parental behaviour toward offspring

Prolonged stress alters parental behaviour toward offspring and promotes parental neglect. According to a study performed by Tilgar and associates, predation stress alters parents' behaviours such as the reduction in provisioning rates, which negatively impacts the offspring's performance. Oxytocin and vasopressin hormones are generally responsible for affiliative and pair-bonding behaviours in many species. Stress alters the level of both hormones resulting in an abnormal behaviour from parents towards offspring. For instance, levels of oxytocin decrease as a result of prolonged stress, which has been shown to reduce pair bonding behaviour and increase withdrawal behaviour. Also, prolactin is another important hormone that is associated with nurture by parents to offspring, and levels of this hormone can be altered as a result of stress. Reduced levels of prolactin as a result of stress decreases behaviours such as suckling, licking, and brooding.

Transgenerational behavioural response to stress
Behavioural response to stress can be transmitted from parents to offspring. When an offspring observes the expression of behaviour such as fear in response to a stress stimulus, the same response would be elicited in the offspring when the stimulus is presented. Using Rodent model, Debeik and associates illustrated that fear is transferred from mother to infant in response to a certain odour stimulus. They further proved that the neural activity, such as the basal amygdala activity of the offspring's brain, illustrated fear response. Therefore, parents' behavioural response to stress can be transgenerational and can be proven via neural activity.

References

Ethology

Behavioural responses to stress in animals


Ally Financial is a bank holding company organized in Delaware and headquartered at Ally Detroit Center in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online banking via a direct bank, corporate lending, vehicle insurance, mortgage loans, and other related financing services such as installment sale and lease agreements.

Ally is one of the largest car finance companies in the U.S., providing car financing and leasing for 4.5 million customers and originating 1.4 million car loans annually. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets and has 2.0 million depositors. The company has sold more than 5 million vehicles, including 336,000 vehicles sold in 2022 via its SmartAuction online marketplace for auto auctions, launched in 2000.

The company was known as GMAC, an acronym for General Motors Acceptance Corporation, until 2010.

History
The company was founded in 1919 by General Motors (GM) as the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) to provide financing to automotive customers. In 1939, the company founded Motors Insurance Corporation and entered the vehicle insurance market.

In 1985, while GM was under the leadership of Roger Smith, who sought to diversify the company, GMAC formed GMAC Mortgage and acquired Colonial Mortgage as well as the servicing arm of Norwest Mortgage, which included an $11 billion mortgage portfolio.

In 1991, the company was forced to write-off $275 million in bad debt as part of a $436 million loss suffered from fraud committed by John McNamara, who ran a Ponzi scheme.

In 1998, the company formed GMAC Real Estate. In 1999, GMAC Mortgage acquired Ditech. In 2000, the company formed GMAC Bank, a direct bank. In 2005, the company formed GMAC ResCap as a holding company for its mortgage operations.

In 2006, General Motors sold a 51% interest in GMAC to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. Also that year, GMAC sold a controlling interest of GMAC Commercial Holdings (its real estate division renamed Capmark) to Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Five Mile Capital Partners. GMAC Real Estate was sold to Brookfield Asset Management. In 2009, Capmark filed for bankruptcy and its North American loan origination and servicing business was acquired by Berkadia, a joint venture of Leucadia National and Berkshire Hathaway.

On December 24, 2008, the Federal Reserve accepted the company's application to become a bank holding company. In January 2009, the company closed Nuvell Financial Services, its subprime lending division.

As a result of losses in GMAC ResCap, the United States Department of the Treasury invested $17.2 billion in the company in 2008–2009. The Treasury sold its last stake in the company in 2014, recovering $19.6 billion from its $17.2 billion investment.

In April 2009 the bank announced plans to move its Charlotte office from Ballantyne to  on four floors of 440 South Church, with possible expansion later. At the time, the bank had 265 Charlotte employees in three business units.

In May 2009, GMAC Bank was rebranded as Ally Bank. In May 2010, GMAC re-branded itself as Ally Financial. In September 2010, the company sold its resort finance business to Centerbridge Partners. In 2012, the company sold its Canadian banking operations to Royal Bank of Canada for $3.8 billion. In April 2014, it became a public company via an initial public offering. In 2015, it moved its headquarters to One Detroit Center, which was subsequently renamed Ally Detroit Center. In June 2016, the company acquired TradeKing, a stockbrokerage, for $275 million, which was re-branded as Ally Invest.

In May 2016, Ally Bank re-entered the mortgage business with the launch of its direct-to-consumer offering called Ally Home. In April 2019, Ally Home partnered with Better.com to launch a digital mortgage platform.

In October 2019, Ally acquired Health Credit Services (HCS), a technology-focused patient financing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

On May 3, 2021, Ally began occupying 725,000 square feet at Ally Charlotte Center.

In December 2021, Ally acquired Fair Square Financial, a credit card company, for $750 million and rebranded it as Ally Credit Card.

In 2022, the Disability Equality Index (DEI) listed Ally as one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.

Sponsorships
The company sponsors the Miami International Auto Show, the Time Dealer of the Year award, and The Ally Challenge.

In 2019, Ally became the primary sponsor for seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson at Hendrick Motorsports, a sponsorship that runs through 2023. As GMAC, the company previously had primary sponsorships with Hendrick Motorsports from 1998 through 2007 with drivers Jack Sprague, Ricky Hendrick, Brian Vickers and Casey Mears, including Vickers' 2003 NASCAR Busch Series championship victory. Alex Bowman took over the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet in 2021 after Johnson transitioned from NASCAR to the IndyCar Series; before the season began, Ally also acquired the naming rights to the Cup Series' race at Nashville Superspeedway to name it the Ally 400.

Ally is also a sponsor of the National Women's Soccer League, NWSL Players Association and of a team in Major League Soccer, Charlotte FC.

In 2021, Ally continued to sponsor Jimmie Johnson in WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with his No.48 Cadillac DPi-V.R entry in IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup rounds alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Simon Pagenaud. Mike Rockenfeller joined the team for 2021 24 Hours of Daytona.

In 2022, Ally committed to reach equal spending in paid advertising across women's and men's sports programming over the next five years.

In 2022, DC Comics, Milestone Media, and Warner Bros. Discovery partnered with Ally and NASCAR to debut a sponsorship and new paint scheme, based on the DC superhero character Static, for Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the Hendrick Motorsports team, in support of DC's The Milestone Initiative program.

In February 2023, Ally became a league-wide sponsor for NASCAR, including becoming the official consumer bank of NASCAR and NASCAR-owned tracks. Ally also became an official sponsor of the North American Rocket League Championship Series, and later announced it would sponsor a women's esports tournament in support of its pledge to split its media spend 50/50 between men's and women's sports.

Legal issues

2013 discrimination settlement

In December 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and United States Department of Justice ordered the company to pay $80 million in consumer monetary damages and $18 million in civil penalties after determining that 235,000 minority borrowers paid higher interest rates for auto loans originated between April 2011 and December 2013 because of the company's discriminatory pricing system. The higher rates resulted from the company's specific policy of allowing dealers to charge, at their discretion, a "dealer markup" above Ally's established "buy rate" and then compensating dealers based on the markup. Ally provided an incentive for dealers to charge higher rates, in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

References

External links

1919 establishments in Michigan
American companies established in 1919
Banks established in 1919
Companies based in Detroit
Banks based in Michigan
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Financial services companies of the United States
Mortgage lenders of the United States
Online banks
2014 initial public offerings
Financial services companies established in 1919
Online brokerages

Ally Financial


'Ajam (Turkish: Acem) is the name of a maqam (musical mode) in Arabic, Turkish, and related systems of music. Ajam (عجم) in this usage means "Persian".

The maqam Ajam is constructed of two Ajam trichords with "whole step-whole step" pitch intervals and spacing similar to the 1-2-3 (or 5-6-7) scale degrees found in an equal-tempered Western major scale (although the Ajam trichord's third scale degree may be tuned just slightly flat of an equal-tempered third).  Because most uses of these Ajam trichords place the next (fourth) scale step a halfstep above the last (third) scale step of the Ajam trichord, the result is essentially the same as the "whole step—whole step—half step" tetrachord construction of the Western major scale, and thus the maqam Ajam sounds generally the same as the major scale in Western music.

On F (notated C in Turkish music), Ajam is known as Jaharkah (in Turkish: Çârgâh, see also Chahargah (mode)).

See also
 C major

External links
Ajam page from Maqam World

Modes (music)
Arabic music theory

Ajam (maqam)


Sassuolo (;  ) is an Italian town, comune, and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna.

Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some  southwest of Modena, the town is best known for being the centre of the Italian tile industry and for being the home town of Serie A side U.S. Sassuolo Calcio.

Etymology
The exact origin of the toponym Sassuolo is unclear. One theory is that it might derive from the abundant deposits of petroleum found in the area. This is because petroleum was anciently known as "stone oil" or "olio di sasso" in Italian, from which the composite word Sassuolo (sasso + olio) may have been created.

Another hypothesis is that the name derives from the Latin words saxum solum meaning "rocky soil". This last theory seems to have inspired both the coat of arms and the town's motto - sic ex murice gemmae - which is Latin for "thus from the rock, buds".

History
The territory was inhabited in ancient times by the pile-dwelling terramare civilization, then by an Eastern Ligurian tribe - the Friniates - during the Iron Age. The Celt Boii then settled this land around 400 BC, overlapping with the Friniates. The Boii were the most powerful and numerous Celtic tribe of Northern Italy, or Cisalpine Gaul, which they fiercely defended from the Romans.

Although the archeological evidence is scarce, it is hypothesized that a Roman castrum may have been built in the area because of its strategic position.

The first historical mention of the current settlement dates back to 980. In 1039 the town became part of the domains of Boniface of Canossa and was thus inherited by his daughter Matilda in 1076. In 1078, the consuls of Sassuolo swore loyalty to the commune of Modena. When Matilda died in 1115, the town became independent both from Tuscany and Modena.

In 1373, the city was given to the Este family at the request of the citizens themselves, in exchange for the right to extract water from the river Secchia. The town was then ruled by the Este family until 1499, when it became the capital of the homonymous signoria ruled by the house of Pio. In 1599 the signoria was directly annexed to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio of which it remained a possession until the Italian Unification.

From 1861 onwards, Sassuolo grew both in size and population.

During the Second World War, immediately after the Armistice of Cassibile was made public on 8 September 1943, Sassuolo was swiftly occupied by German troops. The occupation was met with strong resistance from the civilian population, until the town was liberated on 23 April 1945 (Saint George's Day) by the Brazilian Expeditionary Force.

Geography
Located in the central-western area of its province, at the border with Reggio Emilia, Sassuolo borders with the municipalities of Casalgrande (RE), Castellarano (RE), Fiorano Modenese, Formigine, Prignano sulla Secchia and Serramazzoni. It counts the hamlets (frazioni) of Montegibbio, Salvarola Terme and San Michele dei Mucchietti.

Main sights

 The Ducal palace of Sassuolo, designed by architect Bartolomeo Avanzini in 1634. In 1638–56 parts of the interior was frescoed by the French Baroque painter Jean Boulanger. Angelo Michele Colonna, Agostino Mitelli, Baldassare Bianchi and Giovanni Giacomo Monti were also invited by Boulanger to work on the palace decoration. Luca Colombi, Giovanni Lazzoni, Lattanzio Maschio, Guercino, Salvator Rosa, Ludovico Lana also contributed. At ground level is a large pool surrounded by ruins, called il Fontanazzo (broadly "the large fountain").
The church and convent of San Giuseppe.
The castle of Montegibbio, originally constructed in 920 and destroyed in 1325 and 1501, only to be then rebuilt in 1636.

Economy
The industrial growth of Sassuolo began in the 1950s.  Eighty percent of all Italian ceramic tiles are produced here, with more than 300 ceramic factories operating in the Sassuolo district (as Marazzi Group, Refin and Marca Corona,). The city is currently the centre of Italian tile industry and one of the most important tile producers in the world.

People
Pierangelo Bertoli (1942–2002), singer
Andrea Bertolini (born 1973), racing car driver
Caterina Caselli (born 1946), singer
Fabrizio Giovanardi (born 1966), racing car driver
Giuseppe Medici (1907–2000), politician
Andrea Montermini (born 1964), racing car driver
Leo Morandi (1923–2009), inventor, ceramist
Filippo "Nek" Neviani (born 1972), singer-songwriter
Graziano Pattuzzi (born 1955), politician
Camillo Ruini (born 1931), cardinal
Alessandro Conti (born 1980), singer, artist

Sport
Sassuolo is the home town of Serie A side U.S. Sassuolo Calcio; it also includes the stadium Stadio Enzo Ricci. However, the team no longer play games in the city, having moved first to Stadio Alberto Braglia in Modena which was Sassuolo's temporary home while playing in Serie B from 2008 and subsequently to Reggio Emilia at the renovated Stadio Città del Tricolore (formerly Stadio Giglio) in a venue-sharing agreement with Lega Pro Prima Divisione club Reggiana.
Upon their promotion to Serie A in 2013 U.S. Sassuolo Calcio; joined a select group of teams not belonging to a provincial capital city: Empoli, Legnano, Pro Patria, Carpi and Casale.

Volley Sassuolo is the local volleyball team.

The Memorial Argo Manfredini tennis tournament is played in the city.

Typical products
Sassolino – anise liqueur
Tiramolla - caramelized sugar exclusively sold during Holy Thursday

Twin towns
 Irsina, Italy
 Lucoli, Italy (since 2011)

References

External links

Visit Sassuolo Tourism Informations
City homepage
Sassuolo 2000
Sassuolo on-line

Cities and towns in Emilia-Romagna

Sassuolo


The Municipal Ethnographic Museum of Ioannina is a museum in Ioannina, Greece.

It is housed in the Aslan Pasha Mosque, also known as the Mosque of Ali Pasha, in the Ioannina Castle since 1933. The Mosque was built in 1618 and in 1993 it was renovated to its present form.

Its permanent exhibition includes pottery, pictures, and other traditional decorative items, as well as jewelry, textiles, hand-weapons, wood-carved pieces of furniture and several personal objects that belonged to historical personalities.

There are also early photographs and paintings related to the liberation of the city of Ioannina. Additionally the museum hosts exhibitions on historical topics as well as collections of art.

External links

www.about-ioannina.gr
www.ioannina-portal.gr
www.n-ioanninon.gr (in Greek, see Μουσεία)
www.ipeirorama.gr (in Greek)

Ethnographic museums in Greece
Museums in Ioannina


Bernard (between 1358 and 1364 – 11 June 1434) was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the early 15th century, co-ruling Brunswick with his younger brother Henry the Mild from 1400 to 1409, then as sole ruler of Brunswick from 1409 to 1428 and of Lüneburg from 1428 until his death in 1434. In the genealogy of the House of Welf, he is considered the first member of the Second House of Lüneburg.

Bernard was the second son of Magnus II, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg. After the death of his father in 1373, he and his brothers agreed with the Ascanian dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg to alternate rule in the Principality of Lüneburg. From 1375 on, Bernard took part in the government de jure, and from 1385 on de facto.

After his elder brother Frederick was murdered in 1400, Bernard and Henry the Mild began a revenge campaign against the Archbishopric of Mainz and the County of Waldeck, since the archbishop of Mainz was the suspected instigator of the murder plot and the Count of Waldeck performed the deed.

Bernard and Henry ruled the Principality of Brunswick together after Frederick's death; in a treaty of 1409, Bernard received sole rule over Brunswick. After a second treaty in 1428, Bernard switched to the Principality of Lüneburg.

Family
Bernard married Margaret, daughter of Wenceslaus, Elector of Saxony, in 1386. They had three children:
Otto (died 1446)
Frederick (died 1478)
Catherine (died 1429), married Casimir V, Duke of Pomerania

References
Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon, Appelhans 2006,
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 2, p. 416-418

14th-century births
1434 deaths
Princes of Lüneburg
Princes of Wolfenbüttel
Year of birth uncertain
Middle House of Lüneburg

Bernard I, Duke of Brunswick


Bottle variation is the degree to which different bottles, nominally of the same product, can have different taste, smell, etc.

There are many possible causes of bottle variation:
 variation in the contents prior to packaging
 variation in the packaging components
 variation in the product and packaging processes
 variation in storage, distribution, cold chain, etc.
 variation in the quantity of contents

Wine
Different bottles, nominally of the same wine, can taste and smell different.

One factor is found in the variable oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of cork stoppers, which translates to a degree of bottle variation.

Before the advent of inexpensive stainless steel tanks, it was not customary to blend all the wine together and bottle it at once, a process called assemblage. Instead, the winemaker would take his or her siphon from barrel to barrel and fill the bottles from a single barrel at a time. Some traditional and/or idiosyncratic wineries still do this, including Château Musar. Also, buyers and sellers of bulk wine typically do not have access to a multi-million litre tank, and so often the wine will vary depending on which tank it came from.

Bottle variation that increases over time typically comes from the packaging. Exposure to heat or light can cause a wine to mature more quickly or even make it taste "cooked". Bottles aged in the chilly cellars of Sweden's alcohol monopoly are famous for tasting younger than the same wine stored at a more typical 13 °C (55 °F). Finally, not all corks seal equally well, and a faulty cork will allow air into the bottle, oxidizing it prematurely. However, a corked wine would be described as a simple fault rather than bottle variation, even though the corked bottle would be clearly different from a non-corked example.

Sometimes, it is not clear what causes the variation. Bottles stored together their entire lives, with no obvious faults, can taste completely different. Thus there is a saying, "There are no great old wines, only great bottles."

See also
Aging of wine

References

 Yam, K. L., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 2009,

Footnotes

Wine terminology
Packaging

Bottle variation


Francis David "Frank" Castle Sr. is a fictional character portrayed by Jon Bernthal in television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)—based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name—commonly known by his alias, The Punisher. Introduced in the 2016 second season of Daredevil, Bernthal signed a deal to return for a spin-off series, The Punisher (2017–2019); his portrayal of the character has been positively received. Bernthal will again reprise his role as the Punisher in Daredevil: Born Again (2024).

Concept and creation

In October 2013, Marvel and Disney announced that Marvel Television and ABC Studios would provide Netflix with live-action series centered around the Marvel Comics characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage, leading up to a miniseries based on the Defenders. In June 2015, Marvel announced that Jon Bernthal had been cast as Frank Castle / Punisher for the second season of Daredevil. Steven DeKnight and the first-season's writers had discussed introducing the character in a post-credits scene during the first-season finale, but were unable to due to the way that Netflix then-began auto-playing the next episode during the credits of the current one. The scene would have seen Leland Owlsley escape rather than be killed by Wilson Fisk, only to be killed by Castle, whose face would not be revealed, but whose iconic skull insignia would have been featured. DeKnight felt that this "was the right decision. I think there's a better, more organic way to introduce him to the world." A spin-off series centered on Castle had entered development by January 2016. The series, The Punisher, was officially ordered that April, and the first season was released on Netflix in November 2017.

DeKnight said this version of Punisher would be "completely the Marvel version", as previous portrayals did not appear under the Marvel Studios / Marvel Television banner. He also felt Bernthal's Punisher would not be as "graphically violent" as in Punisher: War Zone.

Fictional character biography

Television series

In the second season of Daredevil, Matt Murdock / Daredevil first encounters Frank Castle when he targets some gangs in Hell's Kitchen, the killings for which he is dubbed "The Punisher" in the news media. After Frank is arrested, Karen Page investigates his past to find his motivation for the killings: his family having been gunned down in a carousel earlier in the year by members of the gang. After Daredevil helps Frank fake his death, he returns in the season finale to assist Daredevil by sniping the Hand ninjas attempting to kill him.

In the first season of The Punisher, Frank has retired from being the Punisher, working as a construction worker under the name "Pete Castiglione". After uncovering a larger conspiracy beyond what was done to him and his family linked to Frank's wartime experience with the CIA-affiliated "Cerberus Squad", Frank allies with ex-NSA analyst David "Micro" Lieberman to seek the truth.

In the second season of The Punisher, Frank Castle is drawn into the mystery surrounding the attempted murder of Amy Bendix where she is targeted by John Pilgrim under the orders of Anderson and Eliza Schwartz. At the same time, Frank's former best friend Billy Russo is slowly turned into the psychotic Jigsaw.

Appearances
Jon Bernthal portrays Frank Castle / Punisher in two Marvel Cinematic Universe Netflix television series, debuting as the character in the second season of Daredevil in 2016 in a supporting role, before starring as the character in the spin-off series The Punisher (2017–2019). He will return in the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again (2024).

Characterization
The Punisher season two showrunner Doug Petrie stated that Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver was an influence on the character, as well as current events, saying, "Taking lethal justice into your own hands in America in 2015 is tricky shit. We have not shied away from the rich complicated reality of Now. If you've got a gun and you're not the police you're going to incite strong feelings." Bernthal added that "This character has resonated with law enforcement and military ... and the best thing about him is that if he offends you, he just doesn't care." Bernthal studied all the previous portrayals of Punisher, saying, "once you devour and eat up as much as you can, my way is to make it as personal as possible". On how Castle resonates with him, Bernthal said, "He ain't got a fucking cape. He ain't got any superpowers. He's a fucking tortured, angry father and husband who's living in this unbelievable world of darkness and loss and torment." Bernthal added that there would be "a military component" in the series since Castle is "a soldier... [The series] will be somewhat centered on that". He also stated that "the character that was portrayed on Daredevil season two was sort of the origin tale of how this guy became the Punisher, why he put on the vest." Bernthal noted he "always want[ed] to preserve the essence of" Castle, who Bernthal described as "brutal", "damaged" and "tortured", by exploring "the pain and what's behind the violence and the reason why he's committing the violence" that is "utterly satisfying and addictive for him".

Drew Goddard felt that television was the best fit for the character, as the writers are "able to do things on the small screen that fit that character better than if we had to water him down for the movies." Petrie and Marco Ramirez talked about creating their version of the character following the film versions, with Ramirez saying, "even if you know the character, you've never seen him like this. That was the big thing we wanted. There are four movies, eight hours and four actors. We've seen this guy. We think we know who he is, but even we learned that he's so much more." Petrie said, "We hope to make people forget what they've seen before, whether they've loved it or not." In order to get in the correct mindset to portray Castle, Bernthal trained with military members, along with receiving weapon training. Bernthal also "had to put myself in as dark of place as possible" to connect with "the emptiness inside" Castle, and isolate himself, including walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to get to set "to shed any outside influence of joy." Rosario Dawson, who felt Matt Murdock behaved like the Punisher in Daredevil season one, felt it would "be really interesting to see how [the writers] differentiate" the two in the second season. Describing the character, Bernthal said, "As a man who put his [life] on the line and really went through the ultimate sacrifice for this country in his involvement in the military. He's a guy who brought the war home with him [in] the worst possible way. There are a lot of iterations of this character and in all of them it's a man who's gone through this unbelievable trauma and what's interesting about our take on him is how this trauma reshapes his own philosophy." Bernthal also talked about the character's 'superpowers', saying, "If I got one thing from the comics, I think, as far as superpowers... his superpower is his rage. His superpower is that he is not going to quit, and he is going to go forward no matter what. And that's as human and grounded a quality as I think as this sort of genre could have".

In other media
Stuntman Eric Linden, who worked on The Punisher as a stunt coordinator, second unit director and stunt double of Jon Bernthal, directed and played the lead role of the Punisher in the 2020 short fan film Skull: Punisher Reawakened, produced in association with FXitinPost.

Reception

Accolades

See also
 List of Daredevil (TV series) characters
 Characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

References

External links

American male characters in television
Daredevil (TV series)
Fictional characters from Manhattan
Fictional characters with post-traumatic stress disorder
Fictional gunfighters in television
Fictional marksmen and snipers
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional military captains
Fictional prison escapees
Fictional prisoners and detainees in the United States
Fictional sole survivors
Fictional torturers and interrogators
Fictional United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance personnel
Fictional vigilantes
Fictional War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) veterans
Marvel Cinematic Universe characters
Marvel Comics military personnel
Marvel Comics television characters
The Punisher (TV series)
Punisher characters
Superhero television characters
Television characters introduced in 2016

Frank Castle (Marvel Cinematic Universe)


The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial was dedicated on Friday, 6 February 2004. It is located on the southern approaches to the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, on Wendouree Parade and adjacent to Lake Wendouree.

Purpose
Now recognised nationally as the official National Prisoner of War Memorial,  the memorial honours more than 35,000 Australians who were held prisoner during the Boer War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War. It is a place of national honour, remembrance and healing for all Australians. The memorial takes visitors on a journey to a different time and place, where heroism, sacrifice and mateship were the defining characteristics of the prisoners of war.

Background
Between the 1950s and 1990s surviving prisoners of war from the Ballarat region met regularly and various plans for the establishment of a focal point for commemoration were periodically discussed. Throughout that time the Australian Federal Government had given periodic undertakings that a permanent monument would be eventually built in Canberra (the national capital). By the early 1980s, the Ballarat City Council granted a parcel of land adjacent to the city gardens to allow local veterans a place to establish a permanent focal point for the Ballarat POWs. By the mid-1990s the Australian Federal Government still had no plan for a permanent monument to be established in Canberra, thus the surviving POWs in Ballarat were prompted into action and began planning the building of a permanent memorial in their city to be largely privately funded and established with minimum government assistance.

With significant support from the Ballarat branch of the Returned and Services League (RSL) of Australia, a local sculptor, Peter Blizzard, was commissioned to design a concept for the memorial. The vision provided by the sculptor was for a monument far greater in scale and scope than that originally envisaged by the veterans. However, support for a significantly larger monument that would commemorate all Australian POWs was immediate. Funding was provided through lotteries, private donations, benevolent organisations (most notably Tattersall's), the City of Ballarat, local businesses, and finally the Federal and Victorian State Governments. Work commenced on the construction of the memorial in early 2003 with much of the labour and materials donated or provided at cost.

The Ballarat RSL, assisted by volunteers, worked for over 10 years to compile names to form the first national database of Australian prisoners of war. Prior to 2004, the Australian Federal Government and the Australian Defence Force held no complete central list, database, or consolidated record of its prisoners of war. Information was recorded only on individual personnel records held in Defence archives at the Central Army Records Office (CARO) in Melbourne. It is believed that there may be some names still missing, and the memorial has a postscript section allocated to enable further additions.

Design
Approximately  long, the memorial features a long pathway of light-grey basalt pavers cut to resemble railway sleepers, reminiscent of those used on the Thai–Burma Railway. To the southern side are two canted black polished granite walls with the names of all known Australian prisoners of war. They are listed alphabetically by war and no rank is acknowledged. The two walls are separated in the middle by a square pool of water that features six large basalt obelisks. These feature the names of the countries where Australian POWs were held. The obelisks centralised in the pool of water symbolise the Australian POWs being cut off and isolated from their homeland by the ocean. The sixth obelisk is deliberately toppled on its side and broken, symbolising "The Fallen".

To the northern flank of the memorial is a larger basalt obelisk that serves as the focal point and cenotaph of the memorial which is flanked by the flags of the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Australian National Flag, representing the Australian Army. At the western end of the memorial another stone wall is situated with cascading water and the words "LEST WE FORGET"; this marks the completion of the journey. The memorial is surrounded by plantings of native and jungle grasses as well as conifer and deciduous trees.

Gallery

References

External links

Australian military memorials
Buildings and structures in Ballarat
Monuments and memorials in Victoria (state)

Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial


was the 2nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.    Historians consider Emperor Suizei to be a legendary person,  and the name Suizei-tennō was created for him after his death by later generations.

No certain dates can be assigned to this emperor's life or reign.  The conventionally accepted names and sequence of the early emperors were not to be confirmed as "traditional" until the reign of Emperor Kammu, who was the 50th monarch of the Yamato dynasty.

The Gukanshō records that Suizei ruled from the palace of Takaoka-no-miya at Katsuragi in what will come to be known as Yamato province.

Traditional history
Suizei is almost certainly a legend. The Kojiki records only his name and genealogy. The  Nihonshoki includes Suizei as the earliest or first of .

The Gukanshō records that Suizei was one of the sons of Emperor Jimmu.

During reign of Emperor Suizei, the capital of Japan was at Kazuraki, Yamato.

Events of Suizei's life
The Kojiki includes a story about how Suizei attained the throne. His older brother supported Suizei because of his courage.

The absence of information about Suizei does not imply that no such person ever existed. Very little information is available for study prior to the reign of the 29th monarch, Emperor Kimmei (509?-571).

After his death
This emperor's official name after his death (his posthumous name) was regularized many centuries after the lifetime which was ascribed to Suizei.

The actual site of his grave is not known.   According to the Imperial Household Agency, this emperor is venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Nara.

Family tree

Related pages
 Emperor of Japan
 List of emperors of Japan
 Japanese imperial family tree

References

Emperors of Japan

Emperor Suizei


The State Law Building, at 50 Ann Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, contains offices of the Attorney-General of Queensland and other government organisations.

History
It was completed in 1977 as Comalco House and featured aluminium external cladding (as Comalco was an aluminium manufacturer). It was refurbished in 1993 when the aluminium cladding was removed. Both the original building and the refurbishment was designed by local firm Conrad Gargett & Partners.

Following its complete refurbishment in 1995, the State Law Building became an iconic feature of the city, widely referred to by locals and the media as "Gotham City", "Gotham Tower" or the "Batman Building", for its perceived resemblance to the architectural style of the fictional American city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.

Geography
The State Law Building is close to the Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law (which includes the Supreme Court of Queensland and the District Court of Queensland), as well as the Commonwealth Law Courts.

Photos of the State Law Building

References

Government buildings completed in 1977
Skyscraper office buildings in Brisbane
Ann Street, Brisbane

State Law Building


William H. Cole IV (born November 21, 1972) is an American politician who represented the 11th District on the Baltimore City Council.  He was first elected to a four-year term beginning in December 2007 and served until his appointment by the mayor in August 2014 as CEO and President of the Baltimore Development Corporation.

Early life
William H. Cole IV was born on November 21, 1972, in Havre de Grace, Maryland. He attended Loyola High School. He graduated with a B.A. in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1994. He graduated with a M.A. in legal and ethical studies from the University of Baltimore in 1996. Cole was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Lambda Honor Society.

Career and community service

Career history
 Delegate in the Maryland General Assembly, 4 years
 Special Assistant to Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, 6 years
 Elected Member, Democratic State Central Committee, 4 years
 Legislative Aide for former State Sen. Walter Baker, 2 years

Currently
 University of Baltimore
 Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement (2003–present)
 Adjunct Professor, Legal & Ethical Studies graduate program (2005–present)
 Councilman, 11th District, Baltimore City Council (2007–present)

Councilman Bill Cole began his career in government as an intern in the Maryland State Senate in 1994, then served two sessions as  a legislative aide to former State Senator Walter Baker. In 1996, he was hired by newly elected Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (MD-07) as Staff Assistant and later Special Assistant.  Cole managed one of three district offices, remaining on the Congressman's staff until 2003.

In 1998, Cole was elected to the Democratic State Central Committee and a few months later selected to fill the District 47 Maryland House of Delegates seat vacated by Judge Timothy D. Murphy.  The 2002 legislative redistricting process eliminated Baltimore's 47th Legislative District and Cole lost to three incumbents in the newly formed 46th Legislative District.
He was first elected to the Baltimore City Council in 2007, and re-elected in 2011 winning 75% of the vote.

City Council committees
Cole was first elected to the Baltimore City Council in 2007, and re-elected in 2011, winning 75% of the vote. During his first term he served on a number of committees:

 Chair, Executive Nominations
     Chair, Housing & Community Development Subcommittee
     Member, Taxation, Finance, & Economic Development (Former Chair/Former Vice-chair)
     Member, Land Use & Transportation
     Member, Education
     Special committee on Property Tax Reduction
     Special Committee on New Homeowners Tax Credit
     Chair, Maritime Industrial Zoning Overlay (MIZOD) Review

Currently, Cole serves as:

 Chair, Recreation and Parks
     Chair, Executive Appointments
     Vice-chair, Housing & Community Development Subcommittee
     Member, Public Safety
     Member, Taxation, Finance, & Economic Development
     Member, Budget and Appropriations
     Member, Health

In August 2014, Cole was appointed President and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Community service
Councilman Cole serves as a member of the board or volunteer with the following civic/service organizations:
 Director, Midtown Community Benefits District (2004–present)
 Director, Downtown Partnership & Downtown Management Authority (2007–present)
 Director, Visit Baltimore (2010–present)
 Director, Flag House & Star Spangled Banner Museum (2007–present)
 Board Member, Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics at the University of Baltimore (2003–present)
 Board Member, Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum and Sports Legends at Camden Yards (2009–present)
 Honorary Board Member, Fort McHenry Business Association (2010–present)
 Advisory Board Member: Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance (2008–present)
 Coach, South Baltimore Youth Soccer League (2006–present)
 Former President, Otterbein Community Association (2003–2006)
 Former Board Member, Patriots of Fort McHenry (2000–2004)

Personal life
Cole, his wife, Michelle and their three children (Caitlin, Chelsea, and Will) live in the Otterbein neighborhood where he served as president of the community association from 2003 to 2007. Their children attend Baltimore City Public Schools.

References and notes

External links
 Cole Website

1972 births
Living people
People from Havre de Grace, Maryland
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
University of Baltimore alumni
Baltimore City Council members

William H. Cole IV


Petr Zelenka (born 21 August 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech playwright and director of theatre and film. His films have been recognized at international festivals in Moscow and Rotterdam. In 2008, his film Karamazovi was the Czech Republic's official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

Career
An early notable work is a black comedy, Tales of Common Insanity (2004) (), which he directed at Dejvické divadlo. He received the Alfréd Radok Award for Best Play. The play was later staged in other Czech theatres as well as in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Germany. It was also published in English and translated to Russian.
For his film Mnâga – Happy End  he won the 1996 Findling Award at the Filmfestival Cottbus.

In 2005 Zelenka adapted the comedy as a film, released as Wrong Side Up, which won two movie festival awards in 2006 and was nominated for six other awards. His second most notable play is Teremin, inspired by the life of Russian inventor Léon Theremin.

His 2008 film, Karamazovi, was the Czech Republic's official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

His 2010 election advertisement "Přemluv bábu a dědu" caused controversy as critics believed it was offensive against elder people and "an imperfect copy of Sarah Silverman's stand-up video."

Filmography

References

External links
Short bio plus info about Tales of Common Insanity at divadlo.cz (in English)

20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights
Czech male dramatists and playwrights
Czech theatre directors
1967 births
Living people
Film directors from Prague
Writers from Prague

Petr Zelenka (director)


The Spittles is an area of coastal cliff in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. It is situated between the settlements of Lyme Regis to the west and Charmouth to the east. It forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site designated in 2001. The cliff contains layers of Blue Lias and clay; in wet seasons the clay causes the layers above to become saturated and hence landslips occur, exposing many fossils. Mary Anning famously found an Ichthyosaurus in the Spittles.

The Spittles also lies just to the west of another popular fossiling location along the Jurassic Coastline at Black Ven. The base of the Black Ven mudslide is one of the best places to find fossils along the Jurassic Coastline. The sea washes the fossils out of the mud and leaves them to be found amongst the shingle between the boulders.

It is possible to walk here from Lyme Regis, but care must be taken not to get cut off by the tide. The area is also prone to rock falls and mudslides, particularly during winter storms.

See also
Geology of Dorset

References

Geology of Dorset
Cliffs of England
Jurassic Coast
Lyme Regis

The Spittles