"Paradise" is a song recorded by American singer Mya. A riddim-inspired tune, "Paradise" was written by Mya and songwriter Christopher T. Moore with production helmed by Chris "Riddim Fingaz" Garvey. Released October 31, 2008 on her label imprint Planet 9 with distribution via Manhattan Recordings, "Paradise" served as the lead and only single taken from the singer's fifth studio album Sugar & Spice.

Upon release, "Paradise" received underwhelming  mixed reception from contemporary music critics whom perceived the single was beneath the singer's talent. Critics aside, the single performed and charted moderately well in the Asian music market territory. Preceding the single's release, an accompanying music video was shot, filmed and directed by photographer Marc Baptiste followed.

Background
In search of new producers to contribute to her fifth studio album Sugar & Spice, while at a Guitar Center in Los Angeles buying equipment Mya met reggae producer Chris "Riddim Fingaz" Garvey's brother and got his phone number. Aware of his existence in reggae music and production skills, the singer reluctantly called him, collaborated, and produced "Paradise," a Riddim-inspired song. Of his contribution to Sugar & Spice Harrison commented, "Riddim Fingaz has a great presence and is a great talent. Played during a listening session, fans responded positively, and thus "Paradise" was chosen as the single.

Composition
"Paradise," is a Riddim-inspired song with a common runtime of three minutes and twenty-five seconds. Written by Mya and songwriter Christopher T. Moore, "Paradise" was recorded at The Shack studio in Negril, Jamaica. On top of writing the song's lyrics, the duo handled the song's vocal production as well. In addition to her songwriting and production duties, the singer was responsible for engineering "Paradise" too. Mixing and mastering duties was provided by Mike Mo at M.A.D studios in Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas.

Release and promotion
Issued as the lead single, Manhattan Recordings released "Paradise" October 31, 2008 on all digital platforms. In December, a remix version – adding an island edge – of "Paradise" featuring reggae artist Sean Paul was released. Another remix was issued as well, this version was produced by American record producer Ryan Leslie and appears on Sugar & Spice:The Perfect Edition.

To promote Sugar & Spice and "Paradise," Manhattan Recordings organized and arranged an album release party at Fever, a popular night club/music venue where Mya performed for the very first time in Japan. A 40 minute stage show; it featured four costumes changes, the singer was accompanied by four dancers and performed new material from Sugar & Spice as well as her past hits from discography.

Music video
Manhattan Recordings commissioned an accompanying music video for "Paradise." Directed by photographer Marc Baptiste, the music video was shot and filmed partly behind a black and white screen in New York City; during the video the singer is seen dancing closely with a male model and wearing a bikini in a transparent bathtub.

Chart performance
"Paradise" charted moderately in Asian territories. During the week of November 23, 2008, "Paradise" debuted on J-Wave's Tokio Hot 100 at number 66 as a new entry. Two weeks later, the week of December 7, 2008, it peaked at number thirty-five.

Track listing
Digital download/streaming
"Paradise" – 3:25

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Sugar & Spice.

Recording

 Recorded at The Shack (Negril, Jamaica)
 Mixed and Mastered at M.A.D Studios (Atlanta, Georgia) and (Houston, Texas)

Personnel

 Mya – songwriting, vocal production
 Christopher T. Moore – songwriting, vocal production
 Chris "Riddim Fingaz" Garvey – production
 Mike Mo – mixing, mastering

Release history

References

2008 singles
Mýa songs
Songs written by Mýa
2008 songs

Paradise (Mya song)


The Salamander () is a 1971 Swiss drama film directed by Alain Tanner. The film was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot
A young woman is accused of having shot her uncle, but she claims he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun. Two friends are commissioned to write a film script based on this incident. Each of them chooses an approach in accordance with his profession. The journalist interviews the young woman, yet her statements seem to be contradictory. The novelist invents fictitious explanations which seem plausible, but, when he gets to know the woman, she's very different from what he has imagined. In the end, both refrain from working on this film project.

Cast
 Bulle Ogier as Rosemonde
 Jean-Luc Bideau as Pierre
 Jacques Denis as Paul
 Véronique Alain as Suzanne
 Daniel Stuffel as the boss at the shoe shop
 Marblum Jequier as Paul's wife (as Marblum Jéquier)
 Marcel Vidal as Rosemonde's uncle
 Dominique Catton as Roger
 Violette Fleury as the mother of the boss at the shoe shop
 Mista Préchac as Rosemonde's mother

See also
 List of submissions to the 45th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
 List of Swiss submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

1971 films
1970s French-language films
1971 drama films
Swiss drama films
Swiss black-and-white films
Films directed by Alain Tanner
French-language Swiss films

The Salamander (1971 film)


Spectacle Lake is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Riverland on the northern side of the Murray River about  north-east of the Adelaide city centre and about  northwest of Loxton.  Its boundaries were created in August 1999 along with the selection of its name which was derived from the Spectacle Lakes, a lake system which is situated within the locality on the floodplain of the Murray River.  In 2014, a portion of Spectacle Lake was removed and added to the adjoining locality of Loveday to ensure the full extent of Nynes Island is within Loveday.  As of 2012, the land use within Spectacle Lake was divided between conservation and agriculture with the former being concerned with the floodplain.  Spectacle Lake is located within the federal division of Barker, the state electoral district of Chaffey and the unincorporated area of South Australia.

See also
Spectacle Lake (disambiguation)

References

Towns in South Australia
Places in the unincorporated areas of South Australia
Riverland

Spectacle Lake, South Australia


Alisport srl is an Italian aircraft manufacturer based in Cremella. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of light aircraft and sailplanes in the form of kits for amateur construction and ready-to-fly aircraft for the European Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight category, as well as aircraft propellers.

The company has three aviation divisions in a shared manufacturing facility, which produce the Silent line of sailplanes, microlight STOL aircraft and the Idrovario line of propellers. Alisport has multi-axis computer numerical control milling machines, composite curing ovens and environmentally-friendly paint booths.

The company produces the Alisport Yuma kit-built two seat STOL microlight aircraft and the line of Silent gliders and motorgliders. The Silent series are each available as unpowered sailplanes, fuel-injected piston-engine powered self-launching motorgliders or Lithium-ion battery electric-powered self-launching motorgliders.

Zenith Aircraft considers the Yuma an unauthorized copy of the Zenith STOL CH 701.

Aircraft

See also
 List of aircraft propeller manufacturers

References

External links

Aircraft manufacturers of Italy
Ultralight aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft
Glider aircraft

Alisport


Valerian Aleksandrovich Zorin (; 14 January 1902 – 14 January 1986) was a Soviet diplomat best remembered for his famous confrontation with Adlai Stevenson on 25 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Life and career
Zorin was born in Novocherkassk. After joining the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1922, Zorin held a managerial position in a Moscow city committee and the Central Committee of the Komsomol until 1932. In 1935, he graduated from the Communist Institute of Education (Высший коммунистический институт просвещения). From 1935 to 1941, Zorin worked on numerous Party assignments and as a teacher. From 1941 to 1944, he was employed at the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. From 1945 to 1947, Zorin was the Soviet ambassador to Czechoslovakia. In 1948, he helped to organise the Czechoslovak coup d'état. From 1947 to 1955 and again from 1956 to 1965, he was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. At the same time, he held other positions, including that of the permanent Soviet representative at the UN Security Council from 1952 to 1953. From 1955 to 1956, Zorin was the first Soviet ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. From 1956 to 1965, he again represented the Soviet Union at the UN Security Council, which led to his famous confrontation with Adlai Stevenson on 25 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Zorin released a controversial statement on the potential causes of the president's murder that dismissed beliefs that Kennedy had been killed by a leftist fanatic, Lee Harvey Oswald, and instead speculated that it might have been a result of Kennedy's progressive views concerning civil rights and the "scum" of the American South.

From 1965 to 1971, Zorin served as the Soviet ambassador to France. In 1971, he became an ambassador on special missions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. At the 22nd and 23rd Congress of the CPSU in 1961 and 1966, Zorin was elected to the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In popular culture
In the 1974 television play The Missiles of October, Zorin is portrayed by Will Kuluva.
In the 2000 film Thirteen Days, he is portrayed by Oleg Vidov.
In the 2013 television series, "Czech Century" (České století), he is portrayed by the opera singer Vladimír Koval.

References

1902 births
1986 deaths
People from Novocherkassk
Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Czechoslovakia
Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to France
Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to West Germany
Candidates of the Central Committee of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Members of the Central Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Members of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Permanent Representatives of the Soviet Union to the United Nations

Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery

Valerian Zorin


Helen Wai-Har Sham-Ho OAM () (born 9 September 1943) is a former Hong Kong-born Australian politician.

Early life and education
Of Bao'an Hakka ancestry, Sham-Ho was born in Hong Kong. She migrated to Australia in 1961.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Social Work from the University of Sydney, graduating in 1967, and earned an LL.B. at Macquarie University.

Her first marriage produced two daughters; her second marriage was to Robert Ho on 15 December 1987. In 1982, she had joined the Epping Branch of the Liberal Party.

Political career
In 1988, she was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council for the Liberal Party. She was the first Chinese to be elected to an Australian parliament. She continued as a Liberal MLC until 1998, when she resigned from the party to sit as an independent. She retired before the 2003 election.

In 1992, she became one of the eminent Australians
serving on the original Foundation Council of
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.

Community service
Since her retirement she has been involved in various fund-raising activities in her local community.

References

1943 births
Australian monarchists
Australian people of Chinese descent
Hong Kong people of Hakka descent
People from Bao'an County
Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales
Living people
Macquarie Law School alumni
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
University of Sydney alumni
21st-century Australian politicians
Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
21st-century Australian women politicians
Australian politicians of Asian descent
Foreign born Australian politicians

Helen Sham-Ho


Nestled in the southwestern corner of France, Gascony is a region that beckons travellers with its rich heritage, stunning landscapes, and renowned culinary delights. Stretching from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Atlantic coast, Gascony captivates visitors with its old-world charm and laid-back atmosphere. In this article, we will delve into what Gascony truly is, exploring its history, culture, and attractions that make it a hidden gem for those seeking an authentic French experience.

Gascony boasts a history that dates back centuries, shaped by a blend of influences from the Celts, Romans, Visigoths, and Franks. It was once a powerful duchy and played a crucial role in medieval European politics. Gascony's strategic location, bridging the gap between France and Spain, made it a coveted prize for many rulers throughout history. Despite its turbulent past, Gascony has managed to preserve its unique identity and distinct cultural traditions.

One of the defining characteristics of Gascony is its warm and welcoming people. The Gascons, known for their friendly nature and relaxed way of life, take great pride in their regional heritage. The Gascon language, Occitan, still survives in pockets of the region, adding to the cultural richness and diversity. Visitors will find themselves immersed in a community that cherishes its traditions, from the lively festivals celebrating local cuisine and wine to the age-old rituals passed down through generations.

Speaking of cuisine, Gascony is a gastronomic paradise. Renowned for its hearty and flavoursome dishes, the region boasts a culinary heritage that is deeply rooted in its rural traditions. Gascon cuisine celebrates the use of locally sourced ingredients, particularly duck, foie gras, and Armagnac brandy. Cassoulet, a slow-cooked casserole of white beans, sausages, and duck confit, is a signature dish that epitomizes the region's rustic flavors. Food enthusiasts can explore bustling farmers' markets, sample artisanal cheeses, and savour the delicate flavours of renowned wines like Madeiran and Jurançon.

Beyond its delectable cuisine, Gascony offers breath taking landscapes that showcase the region's natural beauty. From rolling hills and vineyards to picturesque medieval towns and fortified villages, Gascony is a haven for those seeking tranquillity and a slower pace of life. The Pyrenees Mountains provide a majestic backdrop for outdoor enthusiasts, offering opportunities for hiking, skiing, and exploring charming mountain villages. The Atlantic coastline, dotted with pristine sandy beaches and charming seaside resorts, is perfect for those seeking sun, sea, and relaxation.

Gascony is also a haven for history and culture buffs. The region is home to numerous castles, churches, and historic sites that bear witness to its rich past. The picturesque town of Auch, with its magnificent Gothic cathedral and historic centre, is a must-visit. The fortified village of Larressingle, known as the "Carthage of the Gers," transports visitors back to medieval times. Additionally, Gascony is renowned for its connection to the musketeer legend, as the birthplace of the famous d'Artagnan, one of the legendary characters from Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Three Musketeers."

In conclusion, Gascony is a captivating region that offers a unique blend of history, culture, and natural beauty. Its warm and welcoming people, delectable cuisine, and stunning landscapes make it an ideal destination for travellers seeking an authentic French experience. Gascony invites visitors to immerse themselves in its rich heritage, savour its culinary delights, and embrace its laid-back way of life. Whether exploring medieval towns, indulging in hearty meals, or simply enjoying the tranquillity of the countryside, Gascony promises an unforgettable journey through the heart of southwestern France.

PS: Gascony, Discovering the Charms of a Picturesque French Region

Gascony


Trancers (also released as Future Cop) is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by Charles Band and starring Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, and Art LaFleur. It is the first film in the Trancers series. Thomerson plays Jack Deth, a Philip Marlowe-esque police detective from the 23rd century who travels to the 1980s to bring his old nemesis to justice. The film portrays a unique method of time travel: people can travel back in time by injecting themselves with a drug that allows them to take over the body of an ancestor.

Plot
Jack Deth is a retired police trooper in the 23rd century who has been called back into service to assist in hunting down Martin Whistler, a criminal mastermind who uses psychic powers to turn people into mindless "Trancers" and carry out his orders. Deth can identify a tranced individual by scanning them with a special bracelet. All trancers appear as normal humans at first, but once triggered, they become savage killers with twisted features.

Before he can be caught, Whistler escapes back in time using a drug-induced time-traveling technique. Whistler's consciousness travels down his ancestral bloodline, arrives in 1985, and takes over the body of a Los Angeles police detective named Weisling. Once Deth discovers what Whistler has done, he destroys Whistler's body—effectively leaving him trapped in the past with no vessel to return to—and chases after him through time the same way. Deth ends up in the body of one of his ancestors: a journalist named Phil Dethton.

With the help of Phil's date from the night before—a punk rock girl named Lena—Deth goes after Whistler, who has begun to "trance" other victims. Whistler plots to eliminate the future governing council members of Angel City (the future name of Los Angeles), who are being systematically wiped out of existence by Whistler's murder spree of their ancestors. Deth arrives too late to prevent most of the murders and can only safeguard Hap Ashby, a washed-up former pro baseball player, who is the ancestor of the last surviving council member, Chairman Ashe.

Deth is given some high-tech equipment, which is sent to him in the past: his sidearm (which contains two hidden vials of time drugs to send him and Whistler back to the future), and a "long-second" wristwatch, which temporarily slows time, stretching one second to 10. The watch has only enough power for one use, but he later receives another watch.

During the end fight with Whistler, one of the drug vials in Jack's gun breaks, leaving only one vial to get home. Jack is forced to make a choice: kill the innocent Weisling (who is possessed by the evil Whistler), or use the vial to send Whistler back to 2247, which would strand Jack in the present. Jack chooses to inject Weisling with the vial, saving the lieutenant's life but condemning Whistler to an eternity without a body to return to. Jack decides to remain with Lena in 1985, although observing him from the shadows is McNulty, his boss from the future, who has traveled down his own ancestral line, ending up in the body of a young girl.

Cast
 Tim Thomerson as Trooper Jack Deth / Phil Dethton
 Michael Stefani as Martin Whistler / Detective Weisling
 Helen Hunt as Leena
 Art LaFleur as Detective McNulty (as Art La Fleur)
 Biff Manard as Hap Ashby
 Richard Herd as Chairman Spencer
 Telma Hopkins as Ruthie Raines, The Engineer
 Anne Seymour as Chairman Margaret Ashe
 Peter Schrum as Santa Claus
 Alyson Croft as "Baby McNulty" (as Allyson Croft)
 Barbara Perry as Mrs. Santa Claus
 Richard Erdman as Drunken Wise Man
 Wiley Harker as Dapper Old Man
 Miguel Fernandes as Officer Lopez

Production
The idea of the film came from the producer's admiration of Humphrey Bogart's work.

In 2021, screenwriter Danny Bilson appeared on The Ghost of Hollywood, to discuss his and Paul DeMeo's work at Empire Pictures, with a focus on the making of Trancers.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 83% based on reviews from 6 critics.
Variety described it as having a similar premise to The Terminator but falling short of that film. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times instead called it "a textbook example of efficient, effective exploitation film making".

Neil Gaiman reviewed Trancers for Imagine magazine, and stated that it was "funny, comic-book, and fun, I enjoyed it immensely".

Creature Feature gave the movie two stars, finding the story a mess but noted that some of the sequels are better.

Thomerson preferred this film to the sequels finding it more visceral and character driven.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction found that while it is an action film, it has many science fiction ideas and an interesting punk look.

The Conway Daily Sun praised the film, especially Thomerson's and Hunt's performance.

James Cameron reportedly enjoyed the film and began recommending Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo for other projects.

Sequels
The film received a direct-to-video sequel in 1991, titled Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth. Additionally, Trancers: City of Lost Angels was shot in between the first and second films. The 20-minute short was a part of the unreleased 1988 anthology film Pulse Pounders, but was released separately on DVD in 2013. The film has since started a franchise of six main films.

References

External links

1984 independent films
1984 films
1980s science fiction action films
American science fiction action films
American Christmas films
American neo-noir films
Empire International Pictures films
Films directed by Charles Band
American independent films
Films about time travel
Fiction about mind control
Films set in 1985
Films set in the 23rd century
1980s Christmas films
American exploitation films
Trancers (film series)
1980s English-language films
1980s American films
Christmas science fiction films
Films about psychic powers
American police films
American zombie films

Trancers


The Blue Eyed Six were a group of six men, all of them coincidentally blue-eyed, who were arrested and indicted on first degree murder charges in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in 1879.

The Six were Charles Drews, Frank Stichler, Henry F. Wise, Josiah Hummel, Israel Brandt, and George Zechman. This group of friends and unsavory business associates conspired to murder their neighbor, Joseph Raber, for an insurance pay-off. Raber, age 65, lived in poverty with his housekeeper in a charcoal burner's hut in the Blue Mountain area of northern Lebanon County. Raber had no steady employment and depended mainly on the charity of his equally impoverished neighbors.

In early July 1878, four of the conspirators met at Brandt's hotel at St. Joseph Spring and agreed to insure Raber for a total of $8,000. The men told the insurance agent that they had agreed to take care of Raber for the rest of his life and wanted the policy to cover his eventual burial expenses. Several assessment-type life insurance policies were sold on Joseph Raber, with his cooperation, with the men named as the beneficiaries.

Later that year they enlisted two other men to drown Raber in Indiantown Creek. Without any evidence to the contrary, the coroner ruled the death accidental. Although the local citizenry suspected foul play, it wasn't until two months later, when Drews' son-in-law Joseph Peters reported to the constable that he was an eye-witness to the murder, that the six men were arrested and held over for trial.

Trial
In a highly unusual move, the Six were tried together. Due to this and, perhaps, to the fanciful nickname that the conspirators were given by the newspapers, the trial gained more than its share of attention. Reporters from throughout the east coast descended on the city of Lebanon, the county seat of Lebanon County, and the story was carried worldwide. The trial began on 18 April. The Commonwealth's main witness was Drews' son-in-law, but he was only one of thirty-six witnesses called by the prosecution.

The defense called twenty-two witnesses. The witnesses on both sides were mainly friends, neighbors, and family members who contradicted each other at every turn. It became evident that there were many people who knew of, or suspected, the plot before and after Raber's death, but who did not come forward for fear of mortal retaliation. At 3:30 p.m. on 24 April 1879, the fate of the Blue Eyed Six was left in the hands of the twelve men of the jury.

The wait was not long. Five hours later the courthouse bell rang out, announcing that they had reached their verdicts. The jury returned verdicts of guilty of first degree murder for all six of the defendants. Defense requested that the jury be polled, and so the word "Guilty" was uttered seventy-two times, once for each defendant from each juror.

The local newspaper noted that it was the first time in the recorded history of common law of the United States and England that six people were convicted of murder on a single indictment. On appeal, the judge awarded Zechman a new trial, based on the lack of direct evidence presented by the Commonwealth against him personally. He was acquitted in his second trial on essentially the same evidence. The other five defendants were sentenced to death by hanging.

Drews and Stichler, who had committed the crime, were hanged first. After all other appeals were exhausted, the accomplices Wise, Hummel, and Brandt were hanged the following year. The acquitted Zechman died of natural causes within the decade. Apart from the actual murder trial, the whole proceeding turned out to be an indictment of the murky business of assessment life insurance, which led to major changes in insurance law, particularly with regard to the practice of insuring people in whom one had no legal interest.

Misconceptions
The Blue Eyed Six are sometimes reported to have been hanged and to be buried in the cemetery at Moonshine United Zion Church (Moonshine is the name of the family who donated the land the church and cemetery occupy) near the village of Green Point at Indiantown Gap, near the site of the murder. In actuality, the hangings all took place at the county prison in Lebanon. Although Joseph Raber, the victim, is buried at Moonshine Church, the six conspirators were all buried separately by their families elsewhere in the county.

Brandt and Drews are buried side by side in the veteran's section of Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Lebanon. Hummel and Zechman are buried at Sattazahn Lutheran Church cemetery in Union Township, Lebanon County. Wise is buried at Evangelical United Brethren Church cemetery in the village of Green Point, Union Township, Lebanon County. Stichler is buried in the family plot on McLean Road, now within the bounds of Ft. Indiantown Gap.

Hummel was hanged May 13, 1880, along with Wise and Brandt. Zechman was acquitted and therefore escaped hanging. He was released from prison and died in 1887.

Blue Eyed Six in popular culture

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by the Blue Eyed Six moniker for his Sherlock Holmes short story, "The Red-Headed League" The story alludes to the matter through the criminals' use of a made-up millionaire from Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
The story of the Blue Eyed Six is recounted in a stage play, which plays locally in Pennsylvania, and in a documentary film of the same name, by Bruce and Brian Kreider.
Author/novelist Gary Ludwig speaks to groups about the infamous Lebanon County 19th century murder. Ludwig's four-part magazine series about the murder was published in 1979. The magazine articles were subsequently published in booklet form.

Notes

References

External links
The Raber Murder in Egle's History of the Counties of Dauphin and Lebanon
The Blue Eyed Six
Pennsylvania Historic Dramas official website
The Blue Eyed Six: Are These Murderers Still Roaming Moonshine Church?, Hauntingly Pennsylvania - Where History & Hauntings Meet

Crimes in Pennsylvania
Lebanon, Pennsylvania
Quantified groups of defendants
19th-century American trials

Blue Eyed Six


Michel Hazanavicius ( ; born 29 March 1967) is a French film director, screenwriter, editor, and producer. He is best known for his 2011 film, The Artist, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards. It also won him the Academy Award for Best Director. He also directed spy film parodies OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009).

Life and career
Hazanavicius was born in Paris. His family is Jewish, and originally from Lithuania. His grandparents were from both Poland and Lithuania and settled in France in the 1920s. Before directing films, Hazanavicius worked in television, beginning with the Canal+ channel, where he started as a director in 1988. He began directing commercials for companies such as Reebok and Bouygues Telecom, and then, in 1993, he made his first feature-length film, La Classe américaine, for television. The film, co-directed with Dominique Mézerette, consisted entirely of footage taken from various films produced by the Warner Bros. studio, re-edited and dubbed into French.  In 1997, Hazanavicius directed his first short film, Echec au capital, and followed it up with his first theatrically released feature, Mes amis, which starred his brother, actor Serge Hazanavicius.

Seven years later, Hazanavicius wrote and directed his second feature, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, a parody of 1960s spy movies and specifically of OSS 117, a popular character created by Jean Bruce in 1949. The $17.5 million film was a modest box office success, with $23 million worldwide receipts. A sequel, OSS 117: Lost in Rio, followed in 2009. Both films were later distributed in the United States by Music Box Films. The Artist, a black and white film without dialogue which takes place in Hollywood on the eve of sound film, screened in competition at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival. The Artist was later released to universal acclaim. On 24 January 2012 Hazanavicius received nominations for three Oscars: the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Hazanavicius said winning an Oscar would be "like dreaming of going to the moon – you don't really believe it could ever happen." Hazanavicius won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Artist, at the 84th Academy Awards. He was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2012 along with 175 other individuals.

He contributed a section to the omnibus film The Players (Les Infidèles) starring Jean Dujardin. He then announced that his next feature film would be a remake of the 1948 Fred Zinnemann film The Search. The film stars Berenice Bejo in the Montgomery Clift role as an NGO worker helping a little boy find his family in modern-day Chechnya and was produced by Thomas Langmann. Golden Globe Award actress winner Annette Bening also stars in the film.

Hazanavicius was in a relationship with film director Virginia Lovisone, and they have two daughters together, Simone and Fantine. He is married to Bérénice Bejo, who acted in his films OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, The Artist and The Search. Hazanavicius and Bejo have two children together: Lucien and Gloria.

Filmography

Awards

Frequent casting

See also
 List of accolades received by The Artist

References

External links

 Michel Hazanavicius at WN

1967 births
Living people
French film directors
Silent film directors
Best Directing Academy Award winners
Best Director César Award winners
Best Director BAFTA Award winners
Best Original Screenplay BAFTA Award winners
French people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
Independent Spirit Award for Best Director winners
Directors Guild of America Award winners
Best Director AACTA International Award winners

Michel Hazanavicius


Percy Haswell (April 30, 1871 – June 24, 1945), frequently billed as Miss Percy Haswell or  Mrs. George Fawcett to clarify her gender, was an American stage and film actress. Haswell was born in Austin, Texas, the daughter of George Tyler Haswell, a politician and businessman, and Caroline Dalton. She was educated in Washington, D.C., and while still a child she first appeared on the stage in March 1885. She appeared with the Lafayette Square Theatre in Washington and acted in New York City at Augustin Daly's Theatre. Her stage career also included appearances in Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Toronto and other locales, as well as New York, where she first appeared on Broadway in 1898, returning periodically through 1932.

On June 2, 1895, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, she married fellow actor George Fawcett. In 1901 at Baltimore she formed the Percy Haswell Stock Company but later took a secondary role to her husband, her company forming a constituent part of the George Fawcett Stock Company. For August of 1903, Haswell performed as the leading lady at Denver's Elitch Theatre in four weekly productions with leading man, Robert Drouet. In 1925, she directed the Broadway play, The Complex. She also appeared in two silent films in 1919 and one in 1929.

She died at age 74 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on June 14. 1945, the mother of one daughter.

Writer Fulton Oursler commented, in describing his infatuation with her, that she was "so blonde, so blue-eyed, with voice so throaty sweet. She was a lass from Austin, Texas, but to me she seemed to belong to some other world altogether. She was my first Rosalind, and Juliet, and Ophelia, and a dozen other heroines, sacred and profane."

References

External links

1899 portrait; Percy Haswell
Percy Haswell: North American Theatre Online (AlexanderStreet.com)

1871 births
1945 deaths
19th-century American actresses
American stage actresses
20th-century American actresses
American film actresses
American silent film actresses

Percy Haswell


Qasr al Hallabat is a toun in the Amman Govrenorate o north-wastren Jordan.  The toun is named efter the Umayyad castle locatit thare.  An aa locatit in the toun is the Qasr Hammam As Sarah.  It is locaedt north-east o the caipital o Amman.

Castle

The complex o Qasr al-Hallabat is locatit in Jordan's eastren desert. Oreeginally a Roman fortress biggit unner Emperor Caracalla tae pertect its indwallers frae Bedouin tribes, this site dates oe the seicont an third century AD, awtho thare is trace evidence o Nabatean presence at the site. It wis ane o mony on the Roman hghway, Via Nova Traiana, a route that connected Damascus tae Aqaba bi wey o Petra an Amman. Howsomever,, bi the aicht century, the Umayyad Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ordered for the Roman structures tae be demolished in order tae redevelop this military site an its neighboring territory tae acome ane o the grandest o aw Umayyad desert complexes.

Guided bi the extant plan, he incorporated a mosque (foond 15 meters frae the southeast o the main structur), a complicated watter seestem includin five cisterns an a considerably lairge watter reservoir, an a bathhouse. Furthermair, situated tae the wast o the palace remains an enclosed structur probably uised for agricultural purposes sic as cultivating olive trees an/or grapevines. While an earlier ane-layered ofuitprint o the agricultural structur still stands the day, three wall sections o the mosque, includin the mihrab in the southren wall, remain intact. The main palace is biggit o black basalt an limestone an haes a square floorplan wi touers at each corner. Grand in stature, the principal structures war faur enhanced wi decorative mosaics depicting an assortment o ainimals, detailed frescoes an heichly crafted stucco carvings. The site remains tae be completely restored.

Approximately 1400 meters east o the palace stands the remains o the mosque at Qusayr al-Hallabat. Small in scale, it measures 10.70 bi 11.80 meters an is biggit o layered limestone. Inside, twa arching rocks divide the mosque intae three sections. A roondit mauldin extends the perimeter o the space at the heicht o 2.10 meters. Similar tae Qusayr 'Amra an Qasr Hammam as Sarah, three tunnel vaults support the ruif o the structur. Encircling the mosque frae the north, wast, an east stood a 3.30-meter wide portico.

Freemit airtins

Satellite map at Maplandia.com
Search for Qasr al Hallabat in the MSN Encarta atlas
Archnet entry for Qasr al Hallabat and Qasr as Sarah
A history of the excavation of Qasr al Hallabat

References

Populatit places in the Amman Govrenorate
Umayyad pailaces

Qasr al-Hallabat


Grace Rogers Cooper (November 22, 1924 – November 25, 2004) was a Smithsonian Institution curator, U.S. textile expert and vexillogist, known primarily for her seminal work  Thirteen-Star Flags: Keys to Identification, published in 1973, which exposed a number of "antique" flags as modern replicas.

Biography
Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania,  she received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1946 from the University of Maryland, majoring in textiles. After postgraduate work in history and writing, Cooper began a long career with the Smithsonian Institution working with textiles. Cooper served as curator of the division of textiles from 1948 to 1976, and was
responsible for many exhibitions on textile history, including the 1964 opening show at the Smithsonian's new Museum of History and Technology (now known as the National Museum of American History).

In addition to Thirteen-Star Flags, Cooper also authored the 1968 work The Invention of the Sewing Machine, which was revised and expanded as The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Development in 1976. Appendix VII, "A Brief History of Cotton Thread," is of particular interest to those who study antique flags.

Cooper joined the North American Vexillological Association in 1979, serving as treasurer from 1980 to 1983 and president from 1983 to 1986. She was the Association's seventh president and first woman to serve in that position. Cooper also served as editor of the Association's newsletter, NAVA News, from 1987 to 1995; during her tenure, she "significantly raised the quality of NAVA News by publishing information about flag–related events in Canada and the United States." The Association honored her with its Whitney Smith Award, for an outstanding contribution to North American vexillology, in 1994.

Selected works
Cooper, Grace R. Thirteen-star Flags: Keys to Identification. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.
Cooper, Grace R. The Invention of the Sewing Machine. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution, 1968. Second edition 1976.
Cooper, Grace R. The Copp Family Textiles. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971.
Cooper, Grace R. The Scholfield Wool-Carding Machines. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1959.

References

External links

1924 births
2004 deaths
People from Sharon, Pennsylvania
American curators
American women curators
Smithsonian Institution people
Vexillologists
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women

Grace Rogers Cooper


Court Of Conscience is a concept developed by 17th-century European theology. The concept held that one's conscience would testify for or against one's actions in life after death. During life, the faculty of conscience was like, but not the same as, the voice of God. It drew on divine knowledge and precepts, and applied these laws in order to direct the individual toward right action and warn against wrong action.  After life, the function of conscience was that of a record—animated, if you will—that would speak to a divine tribunal, in judgment for or against you. Even if one's conscience was or seemed dormant (inactive, flawed, 'seared', asleep, etc.) during one's life—as was said to be the case in the worst of villains—it came fully to life with a perfect and true memory of all one's actions before God.

References

Judgment in Christianity

Court of Conscience (theology)


Cindy Sander (born Sandmeier 31 March 1978 in Creutzwald) is a French singer.

Biography
She has been married to Sébastien Braun since 1998 and is the mother of Enzo, born on 26 May 2006.

According to the singer, she tried to participate in the 2001 Eurovision with her unreleased track Mensonges, and again in 2006 with another song.

In 2008, the general public discovered her in the French television show Nouvelle Star on M6. She did not win, but then she saw her notability maintained by an Internet phenomenon and participated in several other programs for the French television. Her song "Papillon de lumière" reached number 14 on the French SNEP Singles Chart. During that same year, Cindy Sander participated in her own reality TV show called Bienvenue chez les Sander, in which she showed her daily life with her family.

Discography

Albums
 2007 : Plus fort que l'amour

Singles
 1989 : "Notre Mélodie" – duet with Tanguy Cordary (7")
 2000 : "Mensonges"
 2000 : "D'Amour" / "Papillon de nuit"
 2008 : "Papillon de lumière"
 2009 : "Le Secret de nous"

References

External links
 Official site

1978 births
French-language singers
Internet memes
People from Creutzwald
Living people
Nouvelle Star participants
Sander, Cindy
21st-century French singers
21st-century French women singers

Cindy Sander


Roger Graham Barry (13 November 1935 – 19 March 2018) was a British-born American geographer and climatologist.

He earned a doctorate from the University of Southampton in 1965 and began teaching at the University of Colorado three years later. While leading the National Snow and Ice Data Center from 1976 to 2008, Barry received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982, was granted a fellowship of the American Geophysical Union in 1999, and taught at Moscow State University  as a Fulbright Scholar in 2001. Before leaving Russia, Barry was named a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. In 2007, Barry was awarded a Founder's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. He retired in 2010, and died on 19 March 2018, aged 82.

References

1935 births
2018 deaths
Alumni of the University of Southampton
American climatologists
American geographers
British climatologists
British emigrants to the United States
British geographers
University of Colorado faculty
Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences
Fellows of the American Geophysical Union
Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Founder's Medal
Fulbright alumni

Roger G. Barry


James Rodger "J. R." House (born November 11, 1979) is an American former professional baseball catcher and current third base coach for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB).

A two-sport star in baseball and football in high school, House pursued a professional baseball career after being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 5th round of the 1999 amateur draft. House left baseball for one year in 2005 to try college football. He enrolled at West Virginia University and made the team as a backup quarterback, but returned to professional baseball after playing sparingly for the Mountaineers.

Early life
A top high school football player at Nitro, J.R. House set a national high school record with 10 touchdown passes in the 1998 West Virginia state championship game against Morgantown. He was the West Virginia high school football player of the year and also set a national record with 14,457 career passing yards. House is now fourth all-time behind Maty Mauk (18,932), Maty's older brother Ben Mauk (17,364) and Chris Leak (15,593). During his high school years, he spent fall semesters playing football at Nitro and spring semesters playing baseball at Seabreeze High School in Ormond Beach, Florida; he moved each winter with his father, who owns automobile dealerships in the Charleston and Daytona Beach areas. J.R House currently holds the West Virginia prep football records for Total Offensive Points in a Season (402 in 1998), Total Offensive Yards in a Season (5,763 in 1998, Total Offensive Yards in a Career (14,170 in 1995 - 1998), Pass Completions in a Game (43 in 1998 WV AAA Title Game), Pass Completions in a Season (425 in 1998), Pass Completions in a Career (1,103 in 1995 - 1998), Pass Attempts in a Season (610 in 1998), Pass Attempts in a Career (1,725 in 1995 - 1998), Passing Yards in a Game (594 in 1998 WV AAA Title Game), Passing Yards in a Season (5,526 in 1998), Passing Yards in a Career (14,457 in 1995 - 1998), Touchdown Passes in a Game (10 in 1998 WV AAA Title Game), Touchdown Passes in a Season (65 in 1998), Touchdown Passes in a Career (145 in 1995 - 1998).

Professional career

House got his pro career off to a good start by hitting over .300 combined in Rookie League and short-season class A in 1999. In 2000, he batted .348 with 23 homers, sharing the South Atlantic League MVP with Josh Hamilton.

House was plagued by illness and injuries during his time in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization. He missed a month of the 2000 season due to mononucleosis. In 2001, he was twice on the disabled list with bruised ribs. A year later, he had surgery three times - for an abdominal hernia, a torn muscle and Tommy John surgery. He was limited to 35 games in 2002 and 41 in 2003.

Despite the missed playing time in 2003,  House made his major league debut by appearing in one late-season game for Pittsburgh. After batting .288 in 92 AAA games in 2004, he made it back to the big leagues, getting into five games for the Pirates.

But after his sixth season in the Pirates' organization, House was not deemed a top prospect anymore by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had high hopes for other young catchers Ryan Doumit, Humberto Cota, Ronny Paulino and Neil Walker. Additionally, his throwing ability was limited in 2004 by an injured right arm, requiring rotator cuff surgery. He was subsequently released by the Pirates.

After his baseball career apparently ended, House enrolled at West Virginia University, where he was the third-string quarterback for one season. In 2005, House completed 2 of 4 passes for 38 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. He also had 2 rushes for 16 yards with a long of 13 yards and no touchdowns.

Deciding to return to baseball in 2006, House signed with the Houston Astros. Assigned to their Corpus Christi Hooks Class AA minor league team, he had two hitting streaks of over 15 games in the first two months of the year and by June 3 was leading the Texas League in batting average.

Soon thereafter, House moved up to the AAA Round Rock Express. On August 21, 2006, he played his last game with Round Rock and was called up to the majors. He saw action in four games for the Astros, going hitless in nine at-bats.

On November 14, 2006, House was signed by the Baltimore Orioles. House played for the Norfolk Tides, their AAA affiliate, for the first three months of the  baseball season. House was recalled by the Orioles on August 13, 2007.

House hit his first career home run off Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Jesse Litsch on August 18, 2007. House saw action in 19 games with Baltimore, batting .211 with three home runs. With the conclusion of the regular season, he was outrighted to the minor leagues on October 3. He declined the assignment and elected free agency on October 12.

House returned to the Astros' organization the next season, signing a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training on January 10, 2008. House did not make the Astros' 2008 opening day roster and on March 19, 2008 was sent back to the AAA Round Rock Express in the Pacific Coast League. He was brought up by the Astros on August 16 and appeared in three games, going hitless in three at-bats.

In 2010, House started the season with the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, playing in 16 games. On May 14, he was signed by the New York Mets. He reported to the Mets' Triple A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. He played in 67 games for the Bisons, batting .253 with four home runs and 29 runs batted in.

On February 9, 2011, he signed a contract with the Long Island Ducks.

House managed the Hillsboro Hops to the Northwest League championship in 2014. House spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons with the Class A Advanced Visalia Rawhide, earning California League Manager of the Year honors in 2015. He served as the field coordinator of instruction for the Arizona Diamondbacks in .  After the season was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as 3rd Base and catching coach.

References

External links

West Virginia University athletics profile

1979 births
Living people
Águilas Cibaeñas players
American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic
Altoona Curve players
American football quarterbacks
Baltimore Orioles players
Baseball players from West Virginia
Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players
Cincinnati Reds coaches
Corpus Christi Hooks players
Gulf Coast Pirates players
Hickory Crawdads players
Houston Astros players
Long Island Ducks players
Major League Baseball catchers
Major League Baseball third base coaches
Minor league baseball managers
Nashville Sounds players
Newark Bears players
Nitro High School alumni
Norfolk Tides players
Omaha Royals players
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Players of American football from West Virginia
Round Rock Express players
Seabreeze High School alumni
Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia
West Virginia Mountaineers football players
Williamsport Crosscutters players
Gigantes del Cibao players

J. R. House


SS Ben Jee was a steel-built coastal cargo vessel which was operated out of Ramsey, Isle of Man for the Ramsey Steamship Company;  ostensibly to Garston, Belfast and Whitehaven. Her name, Ben Jee, came from the Manx Gaelic term for Goddess. Ben Jee was constructed in Rotterdam (circa) 1920. Originally named the Jolly Basil she was registered in London until acquired by the Ramsey Steam Ship Company in the Spring of 1924.

Service life
Ben Jee entered service with the Ramsey Steam Ship Company under her original name in November 1924 under the command of Captain John Corlett. Capt. Corlett's previous command had been that of the Ben Blanche. Ben Jee was considered a well suited vessel for the company's operation, said to be well appointed throughout. She possessed two large hatchways which enabled an efficient loading and unloading operation.

Incidents
On Tuesday 14 April 1925, a crew member of the Ben Jee drowned in Youghal Harbour, County Cork. William Quirk was the Second Engineer on the vessel, and was going ashore in a small rowing boat with a fellow crew member, Harold Dawson, in order to post some letters. Quirk fell over the side and although Dawson tried to save him, he sank quickly. The body of William Quirk was recovered and returned to the Isle of Man.

Disposal
The Ben Jee was sold in 1933. She saw further service  as a molasses tanker with a number of companies under the names Athelrill and Molarill before being scrapped in 1959 at Georgetown, Guyana. In 1946 the Ramsey Steam Ship Company acquired another vessel which they subsequently named Ben Jee.

References

Merchant ships of the Isle of Man
1919 ships
Ferries of the Isle of Man
Merchant ships of the United Kingdom

SS Ben Jee


The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (stylised on-screen as simply The Water Horse) is a 2007 fantasy drama film directed by Jay Russell and written by Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on Dick King-Smith's children's novel The Water Horse. It stars Alex Etel as a young boy who discovers a mysterious egg and cares for what hatches out of it: a "water horse" (loosely based on the Celtic water horse) which later becomes the fabled Loch Ness Monster. The film also stars Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin and David Morrissey.

The film was produced by Revolution Studios and Walden Media, in collaboration with Beacon Pictures, and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Visual effects were completed by the New Zealand-based companies Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. The Water Horse was released in the United States on 25 December 2007 and in the United Kingdom on 8 February 2008.

Plot
In present-day Scotland, a couple of American tourists meet an old man who, upon request (after seeing the surgeon's photo), tells them about the Loch Ness Monster and why the photo is a fake.

In 1942 during World War II, a boy named Angus MacMorrow lives in the manor house of Lord Killin on Loch Ness with his mother Anne MacMorrow and his sister, Kirstie. Lewis Mowbray comes to work as a handyman there. Angus' father Charles, the former handyman, is a sailor in the Royal Navy, missing since his ship was sunk in the war a year ago; Angus is unable to accept that he won't return.

One day, while collecting seashells, Angus discovers a large, mysterious egg in the sand, and an unknown creature hatches, which he calls 'Crusoe' after Robinson Crusoe. He decides to keep the creature a secret, eventually telling his sister and Lewis. Lewis explains that it is a genderless "Water Horse" that lays one egg, then dies before it hatches.

Royal Artillery troops arrive at the house, commanded by Captain Thomas Hamilton – a friend of Lord Killin. An artillery battery is set up near the lake to defend against German U-boats while the troops set up on the grounds. Meanwhile, Lewis decides Crusoe is so big they have to free it in the loch.

Captain Hamilton proclaims Lewis to be a bad influence, and Angus' mother allows him to teach Angus some discipline. After a few days of training, he escapes, returning to the lake and a full-grown Crusoe, who gets Angus to ride on its back. After some time, it begins to dive. Angus protests diving, later enjoys himself and finally overcomes his phobia.

The next day, Captain Hamilton takes the MacMorrow family to a hill overlooking Loch Ness; Crusoe is almost hit by an exploding shell during a firing demonstration. Angus interrupts to save Crusoe from injury or death, enraging Hamilton and irritating his mother, who doesn't believe him. He is punished, having to be in his room at six every night for a month.

Two fishermen who had seen Crusoe, try to take a photo of the creature for fame and fortune. When they can't photograph the real thing due to the bombardment, they create an imitation. (The result is the real-life faked photo of The Loch Ness Monster known as "The Surgeon's Photo".) It interests a few soldiers, who go out to hunt it.

Sneaking out of his room with his sister's help, Angus visits the lake, calling for Crusoe. Crusoe rises, still in shock and fear from the earlier bombardment, nearly bites off Angus's hand before sinking back into the loch. Hamilton's dog Churchill, having smelled Crusoe from the shore, alerts the soldiers of its presence before being eaten by Crusoe. Crusoe then surprises the soldiers, capsizing their boat but not before one of them sends out an SOS to Hamilton, who thinks the Germans are attacking. At the loch, Angus calls out to Crusoe, who is attacking Strunk. In his attempt to calm Crusoe, Angus wades into the lake, slips and sinks.

Crusoe rescues Angus and Lewis revives him. When his mother arrives, she finally believes him when she sees Crusoe. The nearby artillery battery soon opens fire upon Crusoe, mistaking it for a German U-boat. Angus, Hamilton, Anne and Lewis lead Crusoe to safety at the net, who escapes into the sea.

At sunrise, Angus finally accepts his father is dead before they watch Crusoe go. It is implied that Anne is also ready to move on, having fallen in love with Lewis. Over the years, several people claim spotting it but Angus never sees Crusoe again while others say that it returns, seeking Angus.

The tourists thank the old storyteller and ask for his name, which he reveals to be Angus MacMorrow. Outside the pub, a mother calls out to her son William, who is walking down the beach. He spots a large 'rock', which has an iridescent blue shell just like Crusoe's, hinting that Crusoe has left a descendant behind to become the next Water Horse.

Cast
 Alex Etel as Angus MacMorrow
 Brian Cox as Older Angus MacMorrow
Louis Owen Collins as young Angus MacMorrow
 Emily Watson as Anne MacMorrow
 Ben Chaplin as Lewis Mowbray
 David Morrissey as Captain Thomas Hamilton
 Priyanka Xi as Kirstie MacMorrow
 Marshall Napier as Sgt. Strunk
 Joel Tobeck as Sgt. Walker
 Erroll Shand as Lt. Wormsley
 Craig Hall as Charles MacMorrow
 Geraldine Brophy as Gracie
 William Johnson as Clyde
 Ian Hancourt as Jimmy McGarry

Production
Director Jay Russell first read Dick King-Smith's book years before the film was actually made. "With the technology where it was at the time and the cost of that technology, we couldn't get it made then," said Russell. "Technology needed to catch up. It did, and it allowed us to do things I envisioned without it costing $300 million."

Location
Filming took place in 2006 in New Zealand, Scotland and at Miramar Studios in Wellington. Most of the film was shot in New Zealand, with Queenstown's Lake Wakatipu doubling for a Scottish Loch. The filmmakers found that some of the landscape and geography there was similar to Scotland. However Russell said, "There was no way I was going to make a movie about the Loch Ness monster and not shoot at least part of it in Scotland."

The scenes in and around the MacMorrow family's house were shot on the 100-year-old Ardkinglas Estate on the shores of Loch Fyne in Scotland. The owners of the estate continued to live in the house while the crew was filming there.

Visual effects
Visual effects on the film were handled by New Zealand visual effects specialists Weta Digital and Weta Workshop who mainly did Crusoe. Most of the roughly 600 effects shots in the film involved Crusoe. And many of those shots involved the creature (Crusoe) interacting with water, which, in terms of the history of computer graphics, has always been a particularly difficult substance to deal with.
In terms of the design of the creature, Weta Digital tried to not humanise him but instead based some of his expressions on real animals such as a dog. "We wanted to create something which seemed familiar, but was unique at the same time," said Russell. "As a result, Crusoe's face is a combination of a horse, a dog, an eagle and a giraffe." When creating his movements and body shape at various stages of growth, the animators referenced animals ranging from baby birds to seals to whales.

Soundtrack

The score was composed by James Newton Howard. Sinéad O'Connor contributed to the soundtrack with "Back Where You Belong".

Release
The Water Horse was formerly scheduled for two different release dates in North America: 21 September 2007 and 7 December 2007. No reason has been given as to why either date was dropped, but the film was released across 2,772 screens in the United States, Canada and Mexico on Christmas Day of 2007. The MPAA rated the film PG for some action and peril, mild language and brief smoking.

Many release dates ranging from January 2008 to April 2008 were set for worldwide audiences including the United Kingdom (8 February), France (13 February), Russia (6 March) and India (4 April).

Marketing
A promotional poster for the film, featuring silhouettes of Etel's character and Crusoe on the loch, was seen as early as June 2006 during the New York Licensing Show alongside promotional art for the Disney Fairies and Kung Fu Panda. Another poster that features Etel's character with Crusoe on the loch during the daytime was released in October 2007. Two teaser trailers were released in quick succession in June 2007.  The first was a teaser created specifically for the Rock Ness Music Festival on 9 and 10 June, but was leaked onto the internet and later pulled. A different trailer was released to Yahoo.com on 22 June 2007 and became the official teaser. Internet promotion includes several different official different websites in the English (with individual websites for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia), Spanish, French and Russian languages.  They were launched by Sony in early November 2007 and feature photos, video clips, a video blog, games and information on the film's plot and production. Another website was created by the film's production companies, asecretthisbig.com, and is dedicated to the examination of the Loch Ness Monster's existence in reality. Additionally, the film has a YouTube account which features the video blogs from the official website, as well as additional video content. Two sweepstakes were created for The Water Horse. The first, "See It To Believe It," awarded the winner with a family trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific.  The second, "Unloch the Legend" awarded the winner with a family trip to Scotland. A 15-meter "water screen" was used to project a moving image, with sound, of the Water Horse in Tokyo Bay.

Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews from critics. As of 2020, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 74% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 90 reviews with an average rating of 6.7/10, classifying the film as "fresh", reaching the consensus that "The Water Horse is a fine family film. It takes a classic tale and infuses it with extra imagination, sly humor, heart, and inventive special effects." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 71 out of 100, based on 24 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Pete Hammond of Maxim magazine gave the film 4 stars out of 5, saying "It's not only the perfect holiday movie, but perhaps the most wondrous film of its kind since E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial touched down." Hammond said the character Angus is "expertly played by Alex Etel," said the film was "skillfully directed by Jay Russell", and said the special effects were "stunning" and "rival the year's best." RogerEbert.com awarded the film three and a half stars out of four, complimenting the film's "real story about complex people" and the "first rate supporting performances" of Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin and Brian Cox.

Differences from reality
The film takes some liberties with Scottish geography:
 The opening shot is of Eilean Donan Castle which is on the west coast of Scotland, some  west of Loch Ness.
 A panning shot past Urquhart Castle (which  on the shore of Loch Ness) reveals some large islands in the loch, but Loch Ness contains no such islands.
 The film depicts Loch Ness as opening directly into the sea via a wide channel between high cliffs, making it a saltwater loch. Loch Ness is actually a freshwater loch with its surface some  above sea level and is about  miles from the sea: Also, the actual operation of the anti-submarine nets shown in the film owes little to reality.
 During scenes set underwater, the loch has fairly clear waters. In reality Loch Ness has very opaque waters, with visibility mostly being less than .

The film also has some chronological inconsistencies:
 The production of the "Surgeon's Photograph" of the monster is shown as part of the plot. The real "Surgeon's Photograph" was published in 1934, eight years before the film is set. In the film, the "Surgeon" is unable to catch a photo of the actual monster, and instead rigs up a fake monster for purposes of the photograph.
 Angus has a toy ship which is clearly seen as the SS United States. The real SS United States was built between 1950 and 1951 and first sailed in 1952, a decade after the events of the film.

Box office
The film was a moderate box office success and grossed about $9 million during its opening weekend. As of October 2010, the film has grossed a total of $103,071,443 worldwide due to gaining about $40.4 million in the United States and about $62.1 million in foreign countries, according to the website Box Office Mojo.

Home video
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 April 2008, with 646,841 units sold in the opening weekend for a total of $12,678,084. As of 2012, 1,611,757 units had been sold for a total of $30,598,707.

See also
 Loch Ness
 Loch Ness (1996)
 Magic in the Water (1995)
 Mee-Shee: The Water Giant (2005)

References

External links

 Interview with director Jay Russell about The Water Horse

2007 films
2000s fantasy drama films
American fantasy drama films
British fantasy drama films
New Zealand drama films
New Zealand fantasy films
2000s children's fantasy films
Columbia Pictures films
Films scored by James Newton Howard
Films based on children's books
Films directed by Jay Russell
Films set in Scotland
Films shot in New Zealand
Films with screenplays by Robert Nelson Jacobs
Films about cryptids
Loch Ness Monster in film
Revolution Studios films
Walden Media films
Beacon Pictures films
Films set in the 20th century
Films set in country houses
Films set on lakes
2007 drama films
Films produced by Barrie M. Osborne
Giant monster films
2000s monster movies
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
2000s British films
English-language fantasy drama films

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep


Andrew George Dillin is a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator and the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair in Stem Cell Research at the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkeley. His lab studies the loss of protein homeostasis in aging, particularly in Caenorhabditis elegans.

His lab specifically looks at the manipulation of stress response pathways, such as the heat shock response and the unfolded protein response of the mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum. In particular, his lab found a cell non-autonomous mitochondrial stress response that can be transmitted to distal cells.

References

External links
Lab Website

Living people
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
Howard Hughes Medical Investigators
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American biologists

Andrew Dillin


The 34th Simferopol Red Banner Order of Suvorov Motor Rifle Division named after S. Ordzhonikidze (Military Unit Number 45463) was a unit of the Soviet Ground Forces and later the Russian Ground Forces. It was converted from the 126th Motor Rifle Division (First Formation) in 1965 and disbanded in 2009.

History
It was formed by the order of the troops of the 11th Army of the Caucasian Front No. 193 of May 11, 1920 and the People's Navy Commissariat of the Azerbaijan SSR No. 48 of May 16, 1920. It was ordered to form as the "1st Consolidated Azerbaijan Workers' and Peasants Soviet Rifle Division". By a Prikaz of the NKO, No. 072 of 21 May 1936, the division became the 77th Azerbaijani Mountain Rifle Red Banner Division named for Sergei Ordzhonikidze. On 16 July 1940 it lost the Azerbaijani designation when the Red Army abolished national divisions. It was converted to the 77th Rifle Division in June 1942. It fought in Caucasus and Crimea and in the vicinity of Riga and Memel. With 51st Army of the Kurland Group (Leningrad Front) May 1945.

After a number of reorganizations (1957 onwards as 126 MRD), it became the 34th Motor Rifle Division in 1965. It spent the Cold War based at Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, in the Urals Military District. The division's structure in 1989-90 included the 341st Tank Regt, 105th, 276th, and 324th MRRs, and the 239th Artillery Regiment.

During the First Chechen War, soldiers from the 15th Guards Tank Division were detached to serve in Chechnya with the 276th and 324th Motor Rifle Regiments of the 34th Motor Rifle Division. As the 34th was a low-readiness division with few personnel (the 324th had only four personnel permanently assigned), both regiments had to draw on personnel from the entire Ural Military District before deploying to Chechnya.

Sergey Surovikin became the divisional commander after 2002. It then became the 28th Motor Rifle Brigade in the city, now named Yekaterinburg, in 2009. On May 30, 2016, the brigade was transferred to Klintsy, Bryansk Oblast and reorganized into the 488th Motor Rifle Regiment of the 144th Motor Rifle Division.

Notes

Bibliography
Michael Holm, 34th Motor Rifle Division

Motor rifle divisions of the Soviet Union
Military units and formations established in 1965
Military units and formations disestablished in 2009
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic

34th Motor Rifle Division


Pete Morelli (born ) is a former American football official, who officiated in the National Football League (NFL) until the 2018 NFL season. He is the president of Saint Mary's High School in Stockton, California. He wore uniform number 135.

As an official in the NFL, Morelli is known for working Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 as a field judge.

Personal
Pete Morelli is married to Cindy and has two sons, Matt and Dan.  Morelli currently lives in Stockton, California.

Officiating career

Early years
In 1971, aged 19, Morelli began officiating with his father and two uncles, Joe and Tony Morelli.  He started with the California Interscholastic Federation, working high school football games.  For his performance, he was assigned playoff and championship games.  He later progressed to the college level, officiating in the Big West Conference and Western Athletic Conference.  He was selected to work eleven playoff games, including the 1996 Liberty Bowl.

NFL career
 Morelli was hired by the NFL in 1997 as a back judge, then switched to field judge after the league swapped position titles in 1998, and was promoted to referee with the start of the 2003 NFL season following the retirements of Dick Hantak and Bob McElwee.

Morelli's 2018 NFL officiating crew consists of umpire Steve Woods, down judge Steve Stelljes, line judge Jeff Seeman, field judge Anthony Jeffries, side judge Boris Cheek, and back judge Keith Ferguson.

Morelli officiated the AFC divisional playoff game in January  2006 between the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers.  In the fourth quarter, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu intercepted a Peyton Manning pass and in the process he fumbled the ball, then recovered.  Colts head coach Tony Dungy challenged the call, and upon review on instant replay, Morelli overturned the ruling.  Following the game, Morelli said, "He was losing it while his other leg was still on the ground. Therefore, he did not complete the catch. And then he lost the ball." A day after the game, the NFL released a statement confirming that Polamalu made the interception, refuting the overturn call of Morelli.  Mike Pereira, then-the league's vice president of officiating, said, "[Polamalu] maintained possession long enough to establish a catch. Therefore, the replay review should have upheld the call on the field that it was a catch and fumble."

In November 2007, Morelli was the referee of a game between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens.  Towards the end of regulation, Browns placekicker Phil Dawson attempted a 51-yard field goal to tie the game and force an overtime period. The ball ricocheted off the left upright, broke the vertical plane of the crossbar, and bounced off the stanchion and back over the crossbar and onto the field.  Initially, field judge Jim Saracino and back judge Keith Ferguson signaled the kick was no good. After a five-minute discussion among the officials, Morelli announced over the public address system that he would "take a look at this play". Upon arriving at the instant review booth, Morelli was informed by replay assistant Howard Slavin through headphones that field goals are not reviewable. Ferguson "felt more strongly" that the ball had crossed through the goal posts and based on this, Morelli declared that the field goal was good. As a result of this incident, a rule change was passed during the ensuing offseason, making field goal attempts that bounce off the goal post reviewable under instant replay.

Morelli was the referee of the NFC Championship Game between the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints on January 24, 2010. Saints' Bobby McCray made a low blindside hit on Vikings quarterback Brett Favre that appeared to have violated the "Tom Brady Rule" in which defenders can't hit quarterbacks below the knees. Pereira later agreed that it was a missed call and a penalty flag should have been thrown. This, along with two other hits on Favre that did draw penalty flags from Morelli's crew, later became one of the many examples cited in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, in which the Saints were accused of operating a slush fund that paid out bonuses for in-game performance in violation of NFL rules.

Morelli was the referee for a prime-time NFC game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Carolina Panthers on October 12, 2017, both 4-1 leading into the match-up and battling for the NFC Conference lead. Morelli and his crew made history, penalizing the Eagles 10 times for 126 yards, while penalizing the Panthers one time for one yard. This was the first time in NFL history that one team had over 120 penalty yards while the other had less than 10.

Morelli's final NFL game as referee was the 2019 Pro Bowl in Orlando, Florida, along with Walt Coleman. They both retired after that game.

Awards
Morelli was inducted into the St. Mary's High School Hall of Fame in November 2007, where he is president. Morelli also received the Art McNally Award in 2015.

References

Living people
College football officials
National Football League officials
Saint Mary's Gaels baseball players

Baseball players from Stockton, California
Year of birth missing (living people)
American football people from California

Pete Morelli


Wunderlich refers to a series of vacuum tubes introduced in the early 1930s.  Wunderlichs were designed to be used as full-wave detectors in AM radio receivers.  However, because of their unusual design, they were rarely used in commercially manufactured receivers.  The tube is named for its inventor, Norman Wunderlich.

Structure
The Wunderlich tube is a twin medium-mu triode.  The tube has two identical control grids that operate in tandem with a common heater, indirectly heated cathode and plate.

Function
Typically, the two grids are connected to opposite ends of the center-tapped secondary of the final IF transformer.  The center tap of the secondary is then connected to ground through a parallel-connected resistor and capacitor circuit.  This causes the tube to act as a full-wave grid leak detector.  In some circuits, the center tap also provides AVC bias voltage to the converter and/or IF amplifier.  Some Wunderlichs, like the Wunderlich B, have a diode plate or a second grid that provide AVC bias voltage.

External links
Schematic of the Mission Bell model 19 car radio.  One of the few radios produced in the United States to use a Wunderlich detector (type 70).
 Radiomuseum.org discussion page about Wunderlich tubes.
 Vacuum Tubes Inc. article about Wunderlich tubes.

Analog circuits
Radio technology
Vacuum tubes

Wunderlich (vacuum tube)


Colin Campbell (1November 16869May 1757) was a Scottish merchant and entrepreneur who co-founded the Swedish East India Company and was Swedish King Fredrik I's first envoy to the Emperor of China.

Early life
He was born in November 1686 to John Campbell, a lawyer and prominent citizen of Edinburgh and his wife Elizabeth Campbell of Moy, Inverness-shire. They were related to the noble family of Clan Campbell of Cawdor, later prominent in the Peerage. Colin was the youngest of three brothers (following Archibald and Hugh) and all followed their father in becoming notaries, merchants and prominent citizens. Colin became a Burgess of Edinburgh in 1720, when the citation described him as "of London".

Ostend
In 1723, he lost a great deal of money and was left burdened in debt following the spectacular investments and subsequent financial collapse known as the South Sea Bubble. He vowed to repay all his debts, and did so before he died, but meanwhile had to flee from his debtors to Ostend in Belgium. This was then part of the Austrian Netherlands, where Campbell helped the Austrians in their attempts to set up an Austrian rival to the British East India Company. He stayed there until 1730, mostly as a supercargo, accompanying ships and managing sales. The Austrian scheme was not a success, largely because of British opposition, so he moved to Stockholm, in Sweden. The following year he moved to Gothenburg, Sweden's premier port, where other Scottish merchants had been long established.

Gothenburg
In Gothenburg, he entered into partnership with wealthy and well-connected Swedes. Henric König (1686–1736) was an import/export broker from Stockholm, from a family of German Hanseatic merchants, though now resident in Sweden. His brother, Christian (1678–1762) was secretary to the Chancellery Cabinet and through him Henric had contact with the King Fredrik I. Köning had been developing an East Indian trading scheme, along with Niclas Sahlgren, a merchant who had worked with the Dutch East India Company, and who had already been involved in a possible Swedish West India project. Campbell approached Sahlgren who invited him to Sweden.

Swedish East India Company
In April 1731, the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) approved the King's Charter giving the Swedish East India Company a monopoly of all Swedish trade with the "East Indies" (meaning any port east of the Cape of Good Hope ). The Company was expressly forbidden to trade in any areas under the control of other countries (for example Britain and the Netherlands) without their permission, and the "privileges" which the Charter gave them amounted to no more than "the common rights of nature and peoples" (as one commentator said) but the riches expected were signalled by the Company agreeing to pay the King about 25,000 silver dollars per voyage. And indeed the Company was successful, making the Directors (of which Campbell was one) very rich indeed. As only Swedes could be Directors of the Company, Campbell applied for naturalisation as a Swede (on 14June 1731), and was raised to the nobility, with a coat of arms recalling his Campbell ancestry and a motto of "Memento Deus dabit vela" (Remember that it is God who fills the sails).

First Voyage to Canton

Ship and crew
The first voyage of the Company was that of the Fredericus Rex Sueciae, which set sail from Gotheburg on 9February 1732. Colin Campbell was supercargo – carrying all the authority of the Company – to whom the First Captain, Georg Herman Trolle had to defer. There were a number of foreigners aboard the ship, including the Second Captain, George Kitchin, Mr Baron, Chief Mate and Hindric Bremer, Second Mate, the Chief Carpenter, Mr Brown, Jack, the ship's boy, and Daniel Campbell, James Moir and Gustav Ross, all assistants to Campbell, who was the First Supercargo. The Second, Third and Fourth Supercargos were Mr Graham (also called Brown), Charles Morford and John Pike.

Ambassador to China
Campbell also carried sea-passes and a passport which confirmed him as minister plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China, the Grand Mogul and other Asian princes – all issued in Dutch, in case they were stopped by that navy, which indeed they were. He never made contact with the Chinese Emperor or the Grand Mogul. He did though establish a long lasting and profitable connection between Sweden and Canton.

Voyage
The voyage lasted 550 days, with a stay of 120 days at Canton. In fact, the vast bulk of the Company's subsequent voyages went to Canton and only once or twice even approached the modern East Indies. She went by way of Norway, Cádiz and the Cape of Good Hope. Thence she went to St Paul, the Straits of Sunda and on to Canton, anchoring on 19 September 1732, six and a half months after leaving Sweden.

Dutch stop them
On the journey home, on 3February 1732, they were stopped in the Sunda Strait by seven Dutch ships, whose officers refused to recognise the passes, evacuated the ship, put aboard a contingent of Dutch soldiers and ordered it to sail to Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch. Only Colin Campbell was left aboard. At Batavia, the Governor General, Dirck van Cloon, examined Campbell's passes, apologised and allowed him to proceed on his journey, under escort, on 9 February. Campbell had kept a diary/account of the voyage, but had destroyed it at the approach of the Dutch, in case they would think he had been spying, and in case they found out any commercially sensitive information. Campbell had studiously declined to provide any information on his cargo. He reconstructed the diary mentally years later, and its manuscript was published in 1996.

Voyage home
They proceeded to Europe, stopping off at the island of Fernando de Noronha, off the coast of Brazil to replenish supplies and some recuperation from scurvy. On 7September 1733, the Fredericus RS was once more in Gotheburg, eighteen months after it had departed. Campbell immediately set out a catalogue of complaints against the Dutch. A first dividend of 25% was declared for the shareholders of the voyage, followed by a second dividend of 50%. A very prosperous voyage, despite the Dutch.

Success, riches and death
Over 20 subsequent voyages took place over the next 15 years, and Campbell grew rich, before paying off all his debts and dying in 1757.

References

Bibliography
 Cormack, Alexander, A. Colin Campbell 1686–1757. Merchant, Gothenburg, Sweden. His will – annotated. A Scoto-Swedish Study. Aberdeen 1960.

External links
  The Charter of  the Swedish East India Company

1686 births
1757 deaths
Businesspeople from Edinburgh
Burgesses in Scotland
Scottish merchants
Scottish lawyers
Ambassadors of Sweden to China
Scottish expatriates in Sweden
18th-century Scottish businesspeople
Swedish merchants
Swedish East India Company people
Diplomats from Edinburgh

Colin Campbell (Swedish East India Company)