Daniel Ohene Agyekum (born 10 March 1942) is a Ghanaian diplomat and politician who is member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who served as the former Ambassador to the United States of America during the John Evans Atta Mills government between 2009 and 2013. He has served as Regional Minister for Eastern, Ashanti and Greater Accra regions in the past. He also served as Minister of state in charge of Chieftaincy and State Protocol during the Jerry John Rawlings Government from 2000 to 2001.

Agyekum also held the Ashanti Regional Chairman position of the NDC from 2005 to 2008. He has been involved in the NDC's campaign activities since the parties inception in 1992 serving on several campaign teams especially in 2016, when he was appointed as a member of the National Campaign team and in 2018 when as appointed Campaign Manager for former President John Dramani Mahama's bid for and 2020 re-election respectively.

Early life and education
Agyekum was born March 10, 1942, at Juaso in the Ashanti Region of Ghana (then Gold Coast), which was then a British colony. He started his primary basic education at Juaso. Ohene Agyekum then moved to Achimota School where he attained his G.C.E. Ordinary Level in 1960 and Advanced level in 1962 respectively. In 1965, Agyekum earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Ghana, Legon and joined the Ghana Foreign Service coincidentally that same year.

In 1966, he obtained a post-graduate diploma in Public Administration at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration; as part of his diplomatic training, and he then furthered his education at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia where he earned an International Certificate in Diplomacy in 1970.

Diplomatic career
Agyekum joined Ghana Foreign Service in 1965 right after completing his bachelor's degree, In 1966, shortly after the coup that deposed President Kwame Nkrumah, Ohene Agyekum was sent to his home region of Ashanti to serve as a District Administrative Officer, a position he held until 1969. He subsequently received his first diplomatic posting to Tel Aviv, Israel, after six years of joining the Foreign service. He served there from 1971 to 1974. Agyekum was moved to the Ghana Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark where he also served from 1976 to 1981.

After serving in Cophenhagen he returned to Accra, Ghana in 1981 to serve as the deputy Director for the Middle East and Asia Divisions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs till 1982 when he was reassigned to serve as Advisor on International Relations for Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) within the period of Military rule under President Jerry John Rawlings.

Ambassador

Canada
He was appointed to serve as Ghana's High Commissioner (ambassador) to Canada in December 1986, a role that he served in for six years, until 1992. During his tenure in Ottawa as High Commissioner, Agyekum led Ghana's delegation in negotiations leading to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on the substances that deplete the Ozone Layer, held in September 1987 in Canada.

USA
Agyekum was appointed in October 2009 by President John Evans Atta Mills to serve as Ghana's Ambassador to USA with co-accreditation in Mexico, the Virgin Islands, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. He presented his letter of credentials to President Barack Obama at the White House on 24 February 2010, two months after assuming office on 7 December 2009. He was joined by his family during the occasion. Out of the fact he had served as ambassador to Canada previously in 1982 to 1992, the Ghanaian community in the US warmly welcomed his appointment.

He was as a member of the delegation which included then Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, that represented Ghana at the 18th Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Guadalajara, Mexico in October 2010, that helped Ghana to maintain its seat on the 48-member council. He later presented his letter of credentials also to Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the Ceremonial Hall of the National Palace in Mexican City on 20 January 2011 even though he had already been working in that capacity since his appointment and arrival at the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C.

Political career

Minister of state
Whilst serving at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Agyekum was moved to serve as advisor to the PNDC under Rawlings, after serving in that role he was subsequently appointed as Eastern Regional Secretary equivalent to Regional Minister from 1983 to 1986 in Rawlings administration.

Ohene Agyekum has been involved in Ghanaian politics since the 1990s, actively involved in the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was appointed to serve as the Ashanti Regional Secretary from April 1992 to December 1992 within which period, President Jerry John Rawlings who had ruled since taking over power through a coup in 1981 had enacted a new constitution and had restored multi-party politics since Hilla Limann became president in 1979. Within that period Jerry Rawlings had been elected president after an election had been held in December 1992.

Agyekum served as a minister of state in the Jerry Rawlings NDC Government, from 1993 to 1998 he served as the Ashanti Regional Minister. After a cabinet reshuffle he was moved to serve as Greater Accra Regional Minister. He served in that role from November 1998 to January 2000, when he was appointed Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs and State Protocol. He served till January 2000 when his party lost power and handed over to the NPP Government.

NDC Regional Chairman
Agyekum vied for the position of Ashanti Regional Chairman for the NDC from 2005 He won and served till 2009. He is recognized as being the head of the NDC team that helped in restructuring the party within the region that ensured victory for John Evans Atta Mills in the Presidential Elections in 2008 after the party had lost in both 2000 and 2004 elections to the New Patriotic Party (NPP). He was succeeded as Regional Chairman by Yaw Owusu Obimpeh in December 2009 who was the Regional Youth Organizer during his tenure.

Campaign activities
In the run off to the 2016 elections, he was selected as a member of the NDC's 15-member national campaign team along with people like Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Kofi Adams, Dan Abodakpi, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and Johnson Asiedu Nketia as chairman. He was seen campaigning for his party on platforms in different villages and town making references to that a vote for his opponents would mean a vote to draw Ghana back and a reoccurrence of what happened to Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s.

Campaign Manager

In September 2018, ahead of the 2020 Elections, Agyekum was appointed as Campaign Manager to lead 12-member campaign coordinating team for John Dramani Mahama's comeback bid to lead the NDC into Election 2020. Other notable people who also served on the team were James Agyenim Boateng, Elsie Esenam Appau-Klu, Priscilla Arhin, Sherry Ayitey and Nii Vandepuye Djangmah.

Personal life
Agyekum is married to Rose Ohene Agyekum and they have five children.

See also

 Ashanti Regional Minister
 Rawlings government

References

External links

 2009-2017 US Government Diplomatic List.pdf
 President Barack Obama Welcomes Ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum of the Republic of Ghana

Living people
National Democratic Congress (Ghana) politicians
Ambassadors of Ghana to the United States
High Commissioners of Ghana to Canada
Alumni of Achimota School
1942 births
Politicians from Ashanti Region
University of Ghana alumni
Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration alumni
Australian National University alumni

Daniel Ohene Agyekum


Fróði (; ; Middle High German: Vruote)  is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and his  Ynglinga saga,  Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottasöngr. A Danish king by this name also appears as a minor character in the Middle High German epic Rabenschlacht. The name is possibly an eponym for the god Freyr.

The Fróði of the Grottasöngr is said to be the father of Fridleif and the son of Skjöld in whose beer king Fjölnir drowned (according to Ynglinga saga). Snorri Sturluson here and in the Skáldskaparmál make this Fróði the contemporary of emperor Augustus and comments on the peacefulness of his reign, referred to as Fróði's Peace, suggesting a relationship to the birth of Christ. Though Icelandic sources make this Fróði a very early Danish king, in Gesta Danorum (Book 5), Saxo puts him late in his series of rulers, though including the chronological equation with Augustus and mentioning the birth of Christ.
The Fróði who, according to Ynglinga saga and Gesta Danorum, was the father of Halfdan. He would have lived in the 5th or 6th century. He appears to be the same king who later in the Ynglinga saga aided the Swedish king Ongenþeow in defeating the thrall Tunni. Because of this, Egil and his son Ottar (Ohthere) became tributaries to the Danish king.
Fróði the father of Ingjald, who in Beowulf is Froda the father of Ingeld and king of the Heathobards. The existence of the Heathobards has been forgotten in Norse texts and this Fróði there sometimes appears as the brother of Halfdan with the long hostility between Heathobards and Danes becoming a family feud between Halfdan and his brother Fróði. Fróði kills Halfdan and is himself slain by Halfdan's sons Helgi (Halga) and Hroar (Hrothgar). (In Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin summary to the lost Skjöldunga saga the names Fróði and Ingjald are interchanged. Saxo Grammaticus (Book 6) makes this Fróði instead to be a very late legendary king, the son of Fridleif son of Saxo's late peaceful Fróði. Saxo knows some of the story of this feud but nothing of any relationship to Halfdan. Instead Saxo relates how this Fróði was slain by Saxons and how, after a marriage alliance between his son Ingel and a Saxon princess to heal the feud, Ingel opened it again at the urging of an old warrior, just as the hero Beowulf prophesies of Ingjald in the poem Beowulf.
A legend from Ydre in the South Swedish highlands tells that a king known as Frode was killed by Urkon, the same cow that created Lake Sommen.

The form Fróði is still in use in Icelandic and Faroese and appears Latinized as Frotho or Frodo. This form of the name is used by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings for the main character. Alternative Anglicizations are Frode, Fródi, Fróthi and Frodhi. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish form is Frode. The meaning of the name is "clever, learned, wise".

The number of men with the name Frode in Scandinavia as of 2008: Norway (ca.) 11384, Denmark (ca.) 1413, Sweden (ca.) 307.

The Gesta Danorum describes six Frothos.

Frotho I
Frotho II
Frotho III
Frotho IV
Frotho V
Frotho VI

See also
Elgfróði

References

Mythological kings of Denmark
English heroic legends
Legendary Danish people
Scyldings
Characters in Beowulf

Fróði


Alfred Rudolph Waud ( ; October 2, 1828 – April 6, 1891) was an American artist and illustrator, born in London, England. He is most notable for the sketches he made as an artist correspondent during the American Civil War.

Early life

Waud was christened Alfred Robert Waud but used Rhudolph as a middle name while living in America. He was the eldest son of Alfred Waud Sr., born London 1796. Waud's mother was Mary (née) Fitz-John, born 1806 in Lougher, near Swansea, South Wales. Waud had four siblings: Mary Pricilla, born 1829, William born 1831, Julia, born 1834, and Josephine, born 1840; the last two sisters were both spinsters, but Mary Pricilla married Augustus Cory Scoles in London in 1862. Waud sailed from London aboard the sailing ship Hendrik Hudson in 1850 for New York. His brother William followed in 1855 aboard the sailing ship Hermann, also for New York. Waud was naturalized as an American citizen on January 10, 1870. He married Mary Gertrude Jewell from New York circa 1855 or 1856. They lived in Orange, New Jersey, where they raised their family.

Before immigration, Alfred Waud had entered the Government School of Design at Somerset House, London, with the intention of becoming a marine painter. This did not come to fruition, but as a student, he also worked as a painter of theatrical scenery. He intended to pursue that work in the United States, when he immigrated in 1850, seeking employment with actor and playwright John Brougham. In the 1850s, he worked variously as an illustrator for a Boston periodical, the Carpet-Bag, and provided illustrations for books such as Hunter's Panoramic Guide from Niagara to Quebec (1857).

Civil War years

The period during the American Civil War was a time when all images in a publication had to be hand drawn and engraved by skilled artists. Photography existed but there was no way to transfer a photograph to a printing plate since this was well before the advent of the halftone process for printing photographs. Photographic equipment was too cumbersome and exposure times were too slow to be used on the battlefield. An artist such as Waud would do detailed sketches in the field, which were then rushed by courier back to the main office of the newspaper they were working for. There a staff of engravers would use the sketches to create engravings on blocks of boxwood. Since the blocks were about 4 inches across they would have to be composited together to make one large illustration. The wood engraving was then copied via the electrotype process which produced a metal printing plate for publication.

In 1860, Alfred Waud became an illustrator or "special artist" (a full-time paid staff artist) for the New York Illustrated News. In April 1861, the newspaper assigned Waud to cover the Army of the Potomac, Virginia's main Union army. He first illustrated General Winfield Scott in Washington, D.C., and then entered the field to render the First Battle of Bull Run in July. Waud followed a Union expedition to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina the next month and witnessed the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries. That autumn, he sketched army activity in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Waud joined Harper's Weekly toward the end of 1861, continuing to cover the war. In 1864 Alfred's brother, William Waud (who up to that time had been working with "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper"), joined Alfred on the staff of Harper's and they worked together during the Petersburg Campaign.

Alfred Waud attended every battle of the Army of the Potomac between the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861 and the Siege of Petersburg in 1865.  Alfred was one of only two artists present at the Battle of Gettysburg. His depiction of Pickett's Charge is thought to be the only visual account by an eyewitness.

Post Civil War work
Waud continued to be a prolific illustrator, doing numerous illustrations for Harper's Weekly and other prominent publications, achieving his greatest fame in his post-War work.

Waud died in 1891 in Marietta, Georgia, while touring battlefields of the South.

Artwork

Collections
 Library of Congress

Notes

References
 David Meschutt. "Waud, Alfred R."; American National Biography Online (subscription only), October 2002 Update.
 Our Special Artist by Frederic E. Ray, The Viking Press, 1974

External links

 Bohemian Brigade — Alfred Rudolph Waud — "Our Special Artists" by Michael Farnsley, Bohemianbrigade.com
 AskArt.com - Alfred Rudolf Waud  (1828–1891).

 Alfred R. Waud Papers at The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC)
 Alfred Waud Sketchbook Number One (1847) via Louisiana Digital Library and THNOC

1828 births
1891 deaths
American magazine illustrators
English emigrants to the United States
Artists from London
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
19th-century war artists
American war artists
War correspondents of the American Civil War
Harper's Weekly artists

Alfred Waud


Marduk-apla-uṣur, inscribed dAMAR.UTU-A-ŠE[Š], or mdŠID-A-[x], meaning "O Marduk, protect the heir" was an 8th century BC Chaldean tribal leader who ruled as King of Babylon after the reign of Marduk-bēl-zēri. He is known only from three inscriptions and ruled during a period of chaos. He should not be confused with the Marduk-apla-uṣur who ruled Suḫi on the middle Euphrates and paid tribute to Salmānu-ašarēdu III a generation or so earlier.

Biography

His Assyrian contemporaries were probably Salmānu-ašarēdu IV (783 - 773 BC) and/or Ashur-dan III (773 - 755 BC) and the latter one is known to have campaigned in northern Babylonia on three occasions: 771 BC (against Gannanāti), 770 BC (against Marad) and 767 BC (against Gannanāti again). Into the vacuum created by the devastation, the southern Chaldeans were able to rise to power and he seems to have been the first member of the tribal group to have made pretensions to the Babylonian throne. His place in the sequence of kings is known from a Synchronistic King List fragment. His length of reign and dynastic affiliation are unknown, as he was recorded as belonging to a separate one from his predecessor and successor, but the Dynastic Chronicle records that "the dynasty of Chaldea was terminated. Its kingship was transferred to the Sealand," and, as his successor was Erība-Marduk, the archetypal ancestor figure of the later Chaldean monarchs, it is surmised his origins were with a different Chaldean group than that of Erība-Marduk's Bīt-Yakin tribe.

He is mentioned in a fragmentary Neo-Babylonian narrative text from Uruk ("The Crimes and Sacrileges of Nabu-šuma-iškun") which provides no further enlightenment about his time apart from a passing observation that "forced labor and corvée were imposed."

Inscriptions

References

8th-century BC Babylonian kings
Chaldean kings

Marduk-apla-usur


Eastbourne College is a British co-educational day and boarding school for children aged 13-18. It is on the south coast of England. The headmaster is called Simon Davies. The College was started by the Duke of Devonshire in 1867 and has been growing ever since. It is a charity.

Motto

Ex Oriente Salus
(Out of the East comes Hope/Health/Safety)

Chapel

The Chapel follows the religion of the Church of England. The College has a very good choir.

It also has a full-time Chaplain. Since he lives with his family in the middle of the College campus, he is always available. Pupils are always welcome to visit him about anything that is bothering them. Sometimes people go just to talk and enjoy a cup of tea.

Every Thursday evening there is a communion service followed by warm pizza in the Chaplain's flat at which all are welcome. There is also a Bible study group (The Connection) led by members of staff, which meets weekly throughout the year. At the beginning and end of each term there is a whole school service in All Saints' Church.

Sports

Sports are taken very seriously at Eastbourne College and in the past it has produced many successful teams. Old Eastbournians Will Green and Mark Lock once won the Premiership with the London Wasps.

At the College, one main sport is played each term.

However there are also other sports played, such as football, cross country, swimming, golf, tennis, squash, rowing, sailing & rugby fives.

Combined Cadet Force

The school has a CCF (Combined Cadet Force) which all of year ten must join, and some students choose to continue in the upper years. The CCF has Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force sections for the pupils to choose from.

Eastbourne College Houses

Day Houses
Craig (Boys)
Powell (Boys)
Reeves (Boys)
Blackwater (Girls)
Watt (Girls)

Boarding Houses
Gonville (Boys)
Pennell (Boys)
Wargrave (Boys)
Nugent (Girls)
School (Girls)

Notable Old Eastbournians

Aleister Crowley, occultist and mystic
Eddie Izzard, comedian
Mark Lock, rugby player
Adam Mynott, BBC journalist
Frederick Soddy, chemist and Nobel laureate
Hugo Southwell, rugby player
Edward Speleers, actor, played Eragon in the film Eragon, and is now starring in the ITV soap Echo Beach
Sir Christopher Leaver, former Lord Mayor of the City of London

Military
Major-General Hugh Prince
General Sir David Richards, Chief of the General Staff

Victoria Cross Holders
Two Old Eastbournians have won the Victoria Cross:
Tirah Campaign, India
Captain Henry Singleton Pennell VC. He was a Lieutenant when he performed the act for which he received the VC.
First World War
Group Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees VC OBE MC AFC RAF. He was a Major when he performed the act for which he received the VC.

Recognition
The Southern Railway used to use trains' names for publicity, and carrying pupils to boarding schools at the beginning and end of school terms was a big part of the traffic. One type of train was named after various English public schools. The fifteenth train of this type made, no. 914, was named Eastbourne after the college. Built at Eastleigh in October 1932, no. 914 was working until July 1961.

References

Other websites
School website

Eastbourne
Schools in England

Eastbourne College


TangataWhenua.com is an indigenous, Māori-run and Māori-operated online news and information site based in Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand. The name comes from the phrase Tangata Whenua, "People of the Land".

History
The site's origins are with a fortnightly web-based newsletter called RANGIKAINGA, developed in 2002 by Potaua & Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule while students at Waikato University. The newsletter's content provided relevant news, information and events targeted at a predominantly Māori audience. At the time there were no Māori-focused newsletters of this type.

At the end of the first year the company had a subscriber base of over 1400. The company was incorporated in 2003 and soon after the domain name TangataWhenua.com was officially registered. There are currently over 7000 subscribers.

In 2005, RANGIKAINGA received a commendation from the Human Rights Commission (New Zealand) for its positive contribution to race relations.  In 2006, RANGIKAINGA received an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) by the National Library of New Zealand - Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, confirming its place as a periodic serial.

Digital projects
In 2007, TangataWhenua.com began facilitating Stage 2 the Google Maori Project, recruiting the help the Māori Language Commission and volunteers to complete the translation of the search interface launched on 23 July 2008, with two Google staff members in attendance.

The website is now one of New Zealand's most popular Māori news and information web portals.

In early 2009, the company began developing digital communication strategies for Maori organisations, including web development projects for the Māori Party, Mana Movement, Te Arawa Group Holdings, Te Arawa River Iwi Trust, Tuhoe Waikaremoana Maori Trust Board—and the National Trust of the Fiji Islands.

Later in the same year, TangataWhenua.com worked with, acclaimed Maori filmmaker, Merata Mita to market and promote the then titled film, The Volcano, by Taika Waititi to Maori audiences online. That movie was later renamed Boy and went on to become the #1 New Zealand film of all time.

In 2011, the company put in a successful bid to Te Mangai Paho, the Maori Broadcasting Funding Agency, for their inaugural Digital Innovation Fund, to design a news reader app for the iPhone. It will be the first ever app developed of this type for a Maori-owned company.

Editorial stance
On domestic matters it is pro-Māori, supporting tino rangatiratanga, indigenous self-determination and development. In the past it has strongly disapproved of mainstream media coverage of Māori issues including the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy and the 2007 New Zealand anti-terror raids on Tuhoe.

References

Sources

 Tu Mai (March, 2006). "Technopreneurs, a sign of the times". Tu Mai Publishers, Auckland.

External links
 TangataWhenua.com
 DigitalMaori.com

New Zealand news websites
Māori organisations
Race relations in New Zealand
Internet properties established in 2003
Māori mass media

Tangatawhenua.com


The Christadelphian Isolation League (CIL) is a non-profit organisation run by the Christadelphians. The main object of the organisation is to look after the 'spiritual welfare' of baptised members of the denomination, and their children, who are distant from an ecclesia due to physical distance or illness. It is funded by donations from the Christadelphian community.

History and services
The League was formed in 1928 in the UK. For the first eight years of its existence it dealt only with baptised members from the UK, after which the overseas section was set up. As of 2007 it helps believers in over 100 countries with regional distributors around the globe. There are over 2000 exhortations sent out weekly as well as Bible study guides. Sometimes CIL material is translated into various languages. Since 1959 a newsletter has been produced, the most recent of which ran to 36 pages and contain lessons, poems and current event news. A Sunday School section of the league was started in 1930 (with its own newsletter Chatterbox), a Braille section in 1939 and a service for deaf believers in 2003. There are over 1,500 audio tapes in their library which are available, some of which are being transferred to compact disc to be made more accessible. Occasionally there are events organised specifically for Christadelphians in isolation to meet each other and also members who are not in isolation. In the UK the biggest of these events takes place once every four years in Birmingham, England and there are two annual events - the first, a weekend long event for young people at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire and the other an 11+ week long equivalent at Ringsfield Hall, Beccles, Suffolk (although this does not include dominantly young people in isolation, it gives primacy to them and acts in the CIL's name), run by the Youth Superintendent of CIL.

External links
Christadelphian Isolation League

Christadelphian organizations
Christian charities based in the United Kingdom
Christian organizations established in 1928

Christadelphian Isolation League


Mordechai Avida (1909–1986), born Mordechai Zlotnik, was a radio broadcaster of Kol Israel in its preliminary stages. He was the first one to broadcast from the new station. His voice starts the Recording of The Israeli Declaration of Independence with the words (in Hebrew): "Here is the Voice of Israel! Here is the Voice of Israel!". Mordechai Avida with his colleague Rita Persits broadcast the ceremony together.

External links
 The Voice of Israel 70th Anniversary

1909 births
1986 deaths
Israeli broadcasters

Mordechai Avida


La Hora Pico (English: Rush Hour) is a Mexican television sketch comedy show featured on the channel "Las Estrellas". It was broadcast from September 2000 to September 2007. The program starred comedians such as Consuelo Duval, Miguel Galvan, Adrian Uribe, Lorena de la Garza, Gustavo Munguia, Reynaldo Rossano, Javier Carranza "El Costeno", Ariel Manzano, and Ricardo Hill. Carla Estrada and Reynaldo Lopez participated in the production. At the beginning of its broadcast, it was hosted by Andres Garcia and Jaime Camil.

History
At the beginning of the series, the models Jazmin, Ivonne, and Sabelle were the first participants. In April 2001, Jazmin was replaced by Marian, who remained a model from April 2001 to the last episode in September 2007. Then, in early 2002, Sabelle was replaced by Sabrina. Ivonne, Marian, and Sabrina were the models from 2002 to early 2005. In early January 2005, as a result of Sabrina having to leave the country, Ivonne and Marian were the models from January to May 2005. In June, the show found another model, Paola, to take Sabrina's place. Ivonne, Marian, and Paola were the models from June 2005 until the last episode in September 2007. Before the start of each sketch, the models would appear dancing sexy in bikinis or other skimpy outfits (including angel, policewoman, nurse, and cheerleader costumes, etc.). The focus of their costumes was the extensive highlighting of cleavage. The models would also make cameo appearances in sketches, sometimes having lines. When the whole cast went to Acapulco for several episodes in season 3, the models appeared on the beach, dancing in full bikini wear.

Beginning in 2001, the program no longer had a set host and was replaced by familiar guests in each broadcast, including "Resortes", "India Maria", Silvia Pinal, Lucía Méndez, Héctor Suárez, María Victoria, Eugenio Derbez, Kuno Becker, among many other stars in the world of Cinema, Television, and Sport.

Originally, the show was transmitted by Canal de las Estrellas on Thursdays, taking place of the show "Picardía Mexicana" as part of Televisa's comedy bar. During the time that the show aired, it underwent many schedule changes: initially, it aired at 10:00 PM and later changed to 11:00 pm. In 2002, when the comedy bar titled "Nos Vemos a las 10" appeared, "La Hora Pico" was once again broadcast at 10:00 pm, being the only show to have remained on the comedy bar from 2002 to 2005. That same year, it began airing on Saturdays around 7:00 pm. Finally, in 2007, it was broadcast Friday nights at 8:00 pm.

La Hora Pico was formed from a series of sketches and gags from different kinds of humor, such as black humor, urban, white, double meanings, and puns. The sketches were prepared according to the characteristics of each of the guests, without the intent of ridiculing, offending, or mocking his person. Only comical situations were proposed in which the public enjoyed its star in another facet of their career.

All these elements resulted in an entertaining and humorous program for family nights. La Hora Pico addressed issues of universal and topical interest.

References
3. ^ IMDb.com. (2000, September 7). La Hora Pico. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380904/
Mexican comedy television series
2000 Mexican television series debuts
2007 Mexican television series endings

La hora pico


Traynor is a brand of bass amplifiers and guitar amplifiers, the first brand formed by Yorkville Sound. The Traynor brand, named for founder Peter Traynor, began in 1963 with the Dynabass bass amplifier, a rental product.  Traynor first became popular in Canada by providing less expensive versions of the circuits used in Marshall and Fender amplifiers of the time.  The revived brand now produces a wide range of electric, acoustic, and bass guitar amps.

History
In 1963 Traynor amps were designed by Peter Traynor, a music shop (Long & McQuade) repairman who had been customizing amplifiers as a way to save costs for the business.  Through experimentation and experience, Traynor developed a bass guitar amplifier that he called the Traynor Dynabass.  By the end of 1963, Traynor was selling the Dynabass amps along with matching 15-inch speaker cabinets, as well as Traynor portable columnar public address (PA) speakers based on a reference book of 1930s RCA commercial loudspeaker designs.  Soon a business partnership to sell these amps had formed between Traynor and Jack Long, the man who owned the music store that Traynor worked at.  The company was named Yorkville Sound.

In 1964, the Dynabass became the "Bass Master", model "YBA-1", and its associated 15-inch speaker cabinet became the "YS-15". The YBA-1 "Bass Master" circuit is very similar to the Fender Bassman, which in turn inspired the classic Marshall 1959 "Plexi" amplifier. The column loudspeakers were designated "YSC-1" and two additional models were created: the "YSC-2" with fewer, larger drivers to obtain more low-frequency bass extension and the "YSC-3" which was a cut-down version of the YSC-1 for customers who needed a smaller loudspeaker.

Starting in 1965 with the Traynor Hi-Tone, a 2x12  test guitar amp (of which only two were ever made) Pete Traynor began experimenting with guitar amp designs.  The YGA-1 (a 45 watt amp head) and the YGM-1 (a 1x12 20 watt tube combo) were the first products of this research.  Full production of these amps began in 1966, and the release of new models continued until the 70s.

In 1970, Traynor introduced the new Traynor logo (in the shape of a parallelogram) that was less prone to having the initial 'T' and final 'r' break off to become "rayno".  In 1976, Peter Traynor left Yorkville Sound, suffering from a bad back. The Traynor brand would be slowly phased out over the next 17 years until its reintroduction in 2000.

In 2011, Traynor products are manufactured in Pickering, Ontario.

Traynor products

In 2000, Yorkville Sound reintroduced the Traynor brand in with the YCV40 (Custom Valve) model. The brand has a wide product range including DynaGain solid state guitar amplifiers, International amplifiers, Bass Master bass amplifiers, Keyboard amplifiers and an acoustic guitar amplifier line.

Traynor International Guitar Amps

This line of solid state amplifiers are inexpensive foreign manufactured solid state amps, though the TVM10 is the sole battery-operated amplifier offered by Traynor.
 TSM10 – 10-watt, 5-inch
 TGM15 – 15-watt, 8-inch
 TGM20 – 20-watt, 7-inch
 TRM30 – 30-watt, 10-inch
 TRM40 – 40-watt, 2x8-inch (2 x 20 watts x 8 inch)
 TVM10 – 15-watt, 6-inch, battery-powered amplifier

Traynor Solid State Guitar Amplifiers

This line of solid state amplifiers with tube emulation provides analog-based amplification with special circuitry to emulate the compression and dynamics of vacuum tubes. They are equipped with Celestion speakers (except the discontinued DG-65R/D models).
DG10 – 10 Watt, Auxiliary Line Input, 8" Celestion Speaker
DG15 – 15 Watt, Auxiliary Line Input, 10" Celestion Speaker
DG15R – 15 Watt, Auxiliary Line Input, 10" Celestion Speaker
DG30D – 30 Watt, Auxiliary Line Input, 12" Celestion Speaker
DG60R – 65 Watt, Auxiliary Line Input, 12" Celestion 70/80 Speaker
DG-65R/D – 65 Watt, Auxiliary Line Input, Eminence Redcoat Governor 12-inch speaker (discontinued)

Traynor Tube Guitar Amplifiers

 YGM-3 Reissue – Reissue of 1970s YGM-3, with tremolo and hand-wired circuitry. 20 watt class 'A' amp.  2 x EL84s, 4 x 12AX7s, 12 inch Jensen speaker.
 Custom Valve 20 – 15 watt class 'A' amp.  2 x EL84s, 3 x 12AX7s, 12 inch Celestion speaker.
 Custom Valve 20WR – Same as Custom Valve 20 but with red tolex, cream grill cloth, headphone jack, DI output, and Celestion Greenback Speaker.
 Custom Valve 40 – 40 watt class AB amp.  2 x 5881s, 3 x 12AX7s, and Celestion 70/80 Speaker
 Custom Valve 40WR – Same as Custom Valve 40 but with red tolex, cream grill cloth, Celestion Vintage 30 speaker.
 Custom Valve 40T – Same as Custom Valve 40 but with 2 x 10 inch Celestion speakers.
 Custom Valve 50BLUE – Same as Custom Valve 50B but with blue tolex.
 Custom Valve 50B - 50 watt Class AB/PP. 2 x EL34 (BSTR), 3 x 12AX7 (WA). Two channels, Reverb Accutronix, 2 way Footswitch, 12' Celestion V30, Black tolex, Black grill cloth.
 Custom Special 50 – 50 watt class AB/15 watt class 'A' amp.  2 x 5881s, 3 x 12AX7s Channel Independent Tone Control, 12 inch Celestion speaker.
 Custom Valve 80 – 80 watt class AB amp.  4 x 5881s, 3 x 12AX7s, 2 x 12 inch Celestion 70/80 speakers
 Custom Valve 80Q – Same as Custom Valve 80, but with 4 x 10 inch Celestion speakers.
 Custom Special 90 – 90 watt class AB/20 watt class 'A' amp. 4 x 5881s, 3 x 12AX7s, Channel Independent Tone Control, 2 x 12 inch Celestion speaker.

Traynor Guitar Heads

 Custom Special 100H – Selectable 100-watt/30-watt output
 Custom Special 50H – Selectable 50-watt/15-watt output

Traynor Bass Amplifiers

 YBA 200-2 – A 200 watt bass head utilizing a quad of KT88's, 2 x 12AX7s and a 12AU7.
 YBA 300 - A 300 watt bass head utilizing 12 X 6L6GC's, 2 x 12AX7s and a 12AU7.
 DynaBass 400H – A 400 watt hybrid bass head with a solid state power amplifier, and selectable solid state or tube preamp with a 12AX7 tube.
 DynaBass 800H – An 800 watt version of the DynaBass 400H.

Traynor Guitar Extension Cabinets

 YCX12 – 40-watt, 1x12" Celestion speaker.
 YCX12WR – 40-watt, 1x12" Celestion speaker in Wine Red leatherette covering.
 YCX12BLUE – 40-watt, 1x12" Celestion speaker in Blue Nubtex covering.
 YCX212 – 160-watt, 2x12" Celestion speakers.
 YCS412 – 240-watt / Angled, 4x12" Celestion Vintage 30 speakers, with versatile 4 or 16 ohm operation, or 2x8ohm stereo operation.
 YCS412V – 300-watt / 4x12-inch Angled, 4x12" Celestion G12T-75 speakers, with versatile 4 or 16 ohm operation, or 2x8ohm stereo operation.

References

External links
 Traynor Amplifiers website

Canadian brands
Audio amplifier manufacturers
Guitar amplifier manufacturers
Audio equipment manufacturers of Canada

Traynor Amplifiers


Rear Admiral Lauren S. McCready (July 26, 1915 – November 15, 2007) was one of the builders and founders of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, "Kings Point."

He graduated from New York University in 1937 with a degree in mechanical engineering, soon after he received his marine engineers license. He continued to work as a ship's third engineer until 1940 when he entered the Maritime Officers Training School at Fort Trumbull. Shortly after graduation he joined the Washington, D.C. staff of the United States Maritime Commission as a Cadet Training Instructor.

In February 1942 he was assigned to partake in the acquisition and conversion of the Walter P. Chrysler estate on Long Island into the newly commissioned Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy. He was the first head of the Engineering Department, and created the Engineering Department virtually from scratch while overseeing the design and construction of Fulton Hall. Over a 29 year period he brought the Engineering Department its first accreditation, founded a nuclear engineering curriculum, led the officer training for the first nuclear-powered cargo ship, the NS Savannah, and earned his own Senior Nuclear Reactor Operator's License.  He retired from full-time teaching in 1970, but continued to teach as an adjunct until 1975.

In 1971, McCready was appointed the first director of the National Maritime Research Center at Kings Point, a department he helped establish. He served there for three years before retiring from federal service in 1975.

McCready is the recipient of the Department of Commerce Gold Medal and the Engineers of Distinction Award. In 1981 he was designated an honorary alumnus of the Academy, and in 1983 he was named professor emeritus. A major laboratory area in Fulton Hall bears McCready's name.

Admiral McCready was an honorary alumnus of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and recipient of an honorary doctorate.  Admiral McCready was exceptionally proud of the accomplishments of Kings Point graduates, and attended Homecoming every year, where his presentation "Kings Point: The Early Years" was a popular sell-out.  One of his most remarkable records was that he watched over 21,000 Kings Pointers receive their diplomas, participating in every commencement ceremony from the first class to cross a King Point campus stage in 1942 through 2005.

In 1973, after several travels to France, he wrote a thesis for the degree of Master of Science (History of Sciences) entitled "the Invention and Development of the Gnome Rotary aero engine - the work of Louis and Laurent Seguin". He was given by the Seguin family the first model of the Gnome engine, and gave it to the Smithsonian Institution (Washington) where it is exhibited.

Career accomplishments
Admiral McCready taught engineering at the Academy from 1941 to 1975.
 B.S.M.E., M.M.E., New York University
M.S., Polytechnic University
Licenses:
Chief Engineer of Steam Vessels, Unlimited Horsepower
First Assistant Engineer, Diesel Vessels, Unlimited Horsepower

References
 Wallischeck, CAPT Eric York. Assistant Superintendent, United States Merchant Marine Academy.  Official Notice of Death (November 19, 2007).
 New York Times. Obituary. (November 21, 2007).
 The invention and development of the Gnome rotary aero engine, the work of Louis and Laurent Seguin. (June,1973).

United States Merchant Marine Academy alumni
1915 births
2007 deaths
Department of Commerce Gold Medal

Lauren S. McCready


Union Presbyterian Church is a historic building located northwest of Stacyville in rural Mitchell County, Iowa, United States.  Early settlers to the area of German descent established the Presbyterian congregation in the late 1850s.  They initially worshiped in the homes of various church members before joining St. Peter's Lutheran Church in nearby Toeterville.  Doctrinal differences resulted and the Rev. Jacob Kolb reformed the Presbyterian congregation in 1873 or 1874.  Services were held in a schoolhouse until this church building was erected in 1888.  It is a small frame structure with Gothic-style elements, with extensive use of pressed tin on the interior.  A cemetery is located on the church grounds.  Services were held in German until 1918.  There was a steady decline in membership until the congregation was disbanded in 1975.   The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

References

Churches completed in 1888
Presbyterian churches in Iowa
Gothic Revival church buildings in Iowa
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
Churches in Mitchell County, Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Mitchell County, Iowa

Union Presbyterian Church (Stacyville, Iowa)


Steve Irwin (born July 18, 1982 in Carberry, Manitoba) is a Canadian curler from Brandon, Manitoba. He skips a team on the World Curling Tour.

Irwin, representing the Brandon Curling Club, is a three-time provincial curling club champion, having won in 2010, 2012 and 2013. As such, he represented Manitoba at the 2010 The Dominion Curling Club Championship, the 2012 The Dominion Curling Club Championship and the 2013 The Dominion Curling Club Championship. In 2010, he led his rink to a semi-final loss, after posting a 6-0 record. In 2012, his team was undefeated until losing to Alberta in the final. In 2013 he found less success, winning just one game in the championship.

On the World Curling Tour, Irwin played third for the Terry McNamee rink until forming his own team in 2013. The 2014 Safeway Championship was Irwin's first provincial championship as a skip after leaving the McNamee rink. At the provincial championships, he led his team all the way to the playoffs, where he lost in the 3 vs. 4 game.

Irwin's sister, Stacey is another competitive curler.

References

External links

Living people
1982 births
Curlers from Manitoba
People from Carberry, Manitoba
Canadian male curlers
Sportspeople from Brandon, Manitoba

Steve Irwin (curler)


Thomas Ewing Jr. (August 7, 1829 – January 21, 1896) was an attorney, the first chief justice of Kansas and leading free state advocate, Union Army general during the American Civil War, and two-term United States Congressman from Ohio, 1877–1881.  He narrowly lost the 1879 campaign for Ohio Governor.

Early life and career
Ewing was born in Lancaster, Ohio. His father, Thomas Ewing Sr., was a very successful lawyer and Whig politician at the national level. Although Ewing Sr. was an Irish Protestant, his wife, Maria Wills Boyle, converted the family to Catholicism. The younger Ewing was a foster brother of William Tecumseh Sherman and became his brother-in-law when Sherman married Ewing's sister, Eleanor "Ellen" Ewing Sherman. Two other brothers were also Civil War generals—Charles Ewing and Hugh Boyle Ewing. Thomas Ewing Jr.'s relationship with Sherman was close throughout their lives.

Thomas Ewing Jr. began his education at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He left Brown University to become private secretary to President Zachary Taylor from 1849 to 1850 (concurrent with his father's term in Taylor's Cabinet). He then studied and practiced law from 1852 to 1856 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Cincinnati Law School in 1855.

Ewing married Ellen Cox of Piqua, Ohio, on January 18, 1856. He moved to Leavenworth, Kansas in 1856, where he became a member of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention of 1858. He was a stockholder and leading advocate of a transcontinental railroad through his early ownership of the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad, which later was sold to other investors and became part of the Union Pacific Railroad.  A moderate on the issue of slavery, his efforts to defeat the Lecompton Constitution helped Kansas enter the Union as a free state but without the bloody fight against the federal government advocated by other free state men like James H. Lane and John Brown. He was a delegate from Kansas to the Peace Conference of 1861 and was elected the first chief justice of the new state of Kansas in 1861.

Civil War

Ewing resigned his judgeship in 1862 to enter the military. He recruited the 11th Kansas Infantry and was elected as its first colonel. His regiment fought in James G. Blunt's division in the battles of Old Fort Wayne, Cane Hill, and Prairie Grove.

Although he possessed no military experience before the civil war, Ewing was promoted to brigadier general on March 13, 1863, for his leadership at the Battle of Prairie Grove. He was given command of the District of the Border, which comprised Kansas and western Missouri. Ewing was responsible for General Order № 11, issued in retaliation for William Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, where 450 raiders shot and killed 150 men and boys. The order commanded that civilians with southern sympathies living in four Missouri counties be expelled, and if they did not leave voluntarily, they would be forced out by Union cavalry.  While this was part of an effort to suppress bushwhackers in the region it left a black mark on his legacy.

In September and October 1864, as deputy commander of the St. Louis district under William Rosecrans, Ewing played a major part in thwarting Sterling Price's invasion of Missouri by commanding a successful defense at Fort Davidson at Pilot Knob, Missouri. His command of 1500 heavily outnumbered soldiers (900 effectives) and a few black civilians fought off repeated attacks from a force of about 15,000 Confederates, buying additional time for the Union army to strengthen the defenses around St. Louis.  Instead of surrendering, Ewing and his men successfully eluded Price's force during the night and fought a fighting withdrawal to Rolla, Missouri.  On February 23, 1865, Ewing resigned to return to civilian life, tendering his resignation directly to his good friend, the President, a month before Lincoln's assassination. On February 24, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Ewing for appointment to the brevet rank of major general of volunteers to rank from March 13, 1865 and the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination on May 4, 1866.

Postbellum career
Although a staunch friend and ally of Abraham Lincoln, when Edwin Stanton engaged in a post-assassination flap with Ewing's brother-in-law William T. Sherman over final surrender terms to the Southern armies, Ewing agreed to represent two of John Ford's (of Ford's theater) employees in the Lincoln conspiracy trials. Through Orville Browning, Ewing's Washington law partner, Dr. Samuel Mudd's family also sought Ewing's legal help. Ewing also represented Samuel Arnold and Edmund Spangler during the trial. Ewing's efforts kept all three men from the gallows, but other conspirators were hanged.  For their roles in the assassination, Mudd, Arnold and Spangler were sentenced to federal prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas off Key West, Florida.

From 1865 to 1870, Ewing practiced law in Washington, D.C., helping southern interests with his influence in the Johnson Administration. The Ewing family was heavily involved in defending Andrew Johnson against radical impeachment efforts. He declined President Johnson's offers for him to become the Secretary of War during the Tenure in Office crisis. Ewing successfully lobbied the key vote against the impeachment of Andrew Johnson when he convinced his old comrade in arms, Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, to vote against impeachment.  Ewing also was successful in obtaining a pardon for Mudd at the end of Johnson's term.

In 1870, he returned to his native Lancaster, Ohio, where he practiced for the next decade and attempted several business investments in railroads and telegraph companies. Ewing was a member of the Ohio state Constitutional Convention of 1873 – 74.

Congress
In 1876, he was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives and was re-elected in 1878, serving in the 45th and 46th Congresses from 1877 until 1881. He prepared the bill establishing a Bureau of Labor Statistics, opposed the presence of U.S. soldiers at election polling places, and favored the re-monetization of silver and the continuation of the use of Greenback currency, becoming one of the leading national spokesmen for the Greenback Party.

Campaign for governor
In 1879, Ewing was defeated for election for Governor of Ohio as the Democratic candidate in a close election. There is scholarly controversy whether the use of George Caleb Bingham's painting General Order № 11 in the anti-Ewing campaign made the difference in the election.

On March 3, 1881, Ewing closed his second term as representative in Congress and moved to New York to resume his law career. He never ran for office again.

Later career
Ewing was founder and first president of the Ohio Society of New York, a trustee of Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home (1874–78), and a trustee of Ohio University (1878–83). He served as Vice President of the Cincinnati Law School in 1881. Ewing made a notable address before the Marietta Centennial Convention of 1887, and one before the Kansas state bar association in 1890. He also contributed an article entitled "The Struggle for Freedom in Kansas" to The Cosmopolitan in May 1894. Brown University, by special vote in 1894, gave him the bachelor's degree dating back to the class of 1856. Georgetown College gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1870. Ewing was killed when struck by a New York City omnibus driver in 1896.  He is buried in the Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, New York.

See also

List of American Civil War generals (Union)
Bleeding Kansas
Battle of Pilot Knob
General Order No. 11 (1863)
Lawrence massacre

Notes

References

 Thomas Ewing Jr. Papers, Kansas State Historical Society
 Johnson, Rossiter (ed.), The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. 10 vols. Boston: The Biographical Society, 1904.

External links

 Retrieved on 2008-02-12

Ewing Family History Pages
Biography
 Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Research Site

1829 births
1896 deaths
People from Lancaster, Ohio
Brown University alumni
Politicians from Leavenworth, Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
American people of Irish descent
People of Kansas in the American Civil War
People of Ohio in the American Civil War
Ohio Constitutional Convention (1873)
Union Army generals
Ohio University trustees
Pedestrian road incident deaths
Road incident deaths in New York City
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio
Ohio Greenbacks
19th-century American politicians
People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Ewing family (politics and military)
Chief Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court
19th-century American judges

Thomas Ewing Jr.


To trade is to willingly give things or services and get other things or services in return. For example, a person giving a thing must find another person who wants to get that thing. The giver gets something back in return. A trade is sometimes also called an "exchange" or a "swap".

An early type of trade is barter. Barter was the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services. Barter involves trading things without using of money. Modern traders commonly buy and sell by the use of money. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade. Trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade.

Terms
The things that are given from one person to the other are called goods.

Services can also be part of a trade. One person can do a job or work for another, and get something in return in a trade.

Money can be given in return for a service or for a thing. If money is part of the trade, then the person who gives the money is buying, and the person who gets the money is selling.

A place where trading takes place is called a market.

When there is no money involved in the trade, the trade is called barter. If there is money involved in the trade, the trade is called a purchase. In the past, people would barter to get what they wanted, instead of buying goods and services.

Economics includes the study of trade.

Trade occurs not just between people, but also between large companies and even countries. Governments sometimes take some of the money or goods involved in a trade between countries. This is a type of tax called a tariff. Smugglers try to trade without paying tariffs.

Free trade between two countries is when there are small or no tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions on trade. When one country stops all trade with another country, it is called an embargo.

Types of trade

Domestic trade
Domestic trade is the exchange of goods within a country. Domestic trade is very important because it allows different types of goods to reach to all parts of the country. It makes the standard of living of the people of the country better. It helps an industry to grow by making sure that there are raw materials. Domestic trade may be divided into two. They are:

Wholesale
Wholesaling is the sale of goods to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional businesses. They can also be sold to other wholesalers. It is the sale of goods to anyone that is not a consumer. Wholesalers usually buy and sort goods in large numbers.

Retail
Retail is the process of selling goods or services to consumers through many means of distribution to earn a profit. The term "retailer" usually means where a person sells a small amount of good to many individuals, who are consumers.

International trade
International trade is the exchange of goods and services between different countries. International trade has existed throughout history. Some examples include Uttarapatha, Silk Road, Amber Road, scramble for Africa, Atlantic slave trade, and salt roads. When there is trade between two or more countries, factors like currency, government policies, economy, judicial system, laws, and markets affect trade.

International trade may be split up into three different types.

Import
An import is a good or service that was bought in one country but was produced in another country.

Export
An export is a good or service that was produced in one country but was sold to another country.

Entrepôt
An entrepôt is a port, city, or trading post where goods may be imported, stored or sold. These cities grew because of the growth of long-distance trade.

References

Trade


Fran Capo is an American motivational keynote speaker, comedienne, voice-over artist and author. She is the holder of 9 world records, most known as the Guinness Book of World Records Fastest Speaking woman, clocked at 603.32 wpm. She broke her 9th world record while on the Tedx stage when she did her 18-minute talk, then redid the entire talk in 59 seconds.

Biography
Fran Capo was born in Greenwich Village in New York City. She graduated from Queens College with a BA minor in Philosophy and Major in Media & Accounting. She had perfect attendance throughout all of high school and college, and also made Arista and Dean's List.

Capo was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records (1989), Ripley's Believe it or Not! (2006) the Book of Alternative Records (2006, 2019).  She is listed in the Guinness World Records as the fastest-talking female, having broken the record twice. Capo set the current record on June 5, 1990 at the Guinness Museum in Las Vegas, speaking at 603.32 wpm in 54.2 seconds. She first broke the record speaking 585 words-per-minute (wpm) on Larry King Live on March 5, 1986. Then rebroke the fast talking record at 603.32 wpm at the Guinness Museum in Las Vegas in front of Press with an adjucator present. She has toured the world with fellow world record holders to open Guinness museums in Chicago, NYC, Singapore and Korea. Capo also holds a record for highest elevation for a book signing, as the only author to do a book-signing on top of Mount Kilimanjaro. and the deepest book signing down by the wreck site of the Titanic. (Record Holders Republic). As an adventurer, Fran has run in one New York City Marathon- 2000. Driven race cars, done zero G, scaled a castle wall in Austria, bungee jumped, scuba dived with sharks, walked on hot coals, and eaten fire.

Capo has appeared on over 500 television and 4500 radio shows, including Entertainment Tonight, Larry King Live, Last Call with Carson Daly, Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart Show, the Fox News, Dog Eat Dog, Nick at Nite, "More than Human" the Discovery Channel and most recently on MTV's "What's my secret". She has co-hosted a TV show called, "Live it up! With Donna Drake Some of her 22 books include. "It Happened in New Jersey", "It Happened in Pennsylvania", "Myths and Mysteries of New York," "Myths and Mysteries of New Jersey".  Also the true comic crime novel, "Almost a Wise Guy" and her spiritual book which hit #11 on Amazon, "Hopeville:The city of Light." She also has written for international magazines, as well as writing a weekly blog and podcast called, Fran's World. During Covid, she did 52 episodes of Cuppa Capo on FB live.

In her capacity as a certified hypnotherapist, she created both a nighttime and morning Mindset Meditations for relaxation, positive energy, anxiety reduction, healing and peaceful sleep.

She also appeared as a contestant on a special world record holders edition of The Weakest Link in November 2002. Although, she was voted off in the first round, her humorous performance caught the eye of the producer and the very next day she was cast in "Dog eat Dog".  Currently she is listed in the pop culture app word genius as the definition of the word Loquacious.

Acting wise Capo has several movies and videos. Her music video's include, David Bowie's "Fashion" (her first video she appears 2:09 seconds in - a very funny story about how she got that appears in her stories section on her website.) She's also in Rick Springfield's Netflix documentary, "An Affair of the Heart." Movie wise, she's in the 22 time independent short film winner, "Father and Father" (2018), Sundance Grand Award winner, "Sunday" (1997), Z Dead End (2018), the animated film "Herbie and the Smushies" (2018) etc. As comic rapper "June East" (Mae West's long lost sister), she toured with LL Cool J and the Fat Boys with her song parady, "Rappin Mae" (Billboard Magazine 1986

Capo has also been a spokesperson for many companies including Masterfoods, Auntie Anne's pretzels, Chock full o'Nuts, Perdue chicken, Citibank, and Ripley's Believe it or Not!.

After her divorce, Capo raised her son, Spencer, as a single mother in New York, with family help.

See also
 John Moschitta Jr., former fastest male speaker
 Steve Woodmore, Former fastest speaker

References

External links

 Books by Fran Capo at WorldCat

Living people
American bloggers
American humorists
American motivational speakers
Women motivational speakers
American travel writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American comedians
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women writers
Queens College, City University of New York alumni
People from Greenwich Village
American women travel writers

Fran Capo


Hard Eight is the eighth novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter  Stephanie Plum. It was written in 2002.

Hard Eight revolves around a child custody bond, rather than a criminal bail bond, and marks the (sometimes repeated) departure of the series from Stephanie chasing bad guys to Stephanie being stalked by bad guys.  The ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth volumes likewise revolve around Stephanie having a stalker.

Plot
Stephanie is asked by her parents' next-door neighbor, Mabel Markowitz, to find her granddaughter, Evelyn and great-granddaughter, Annie, who have disappeared.  During a messy divorce with her ex-husband, Steven Soter, Evelyn was forced to post a child custody bond, and Mabel used her house as collateral.  If Evelyn is not found, then the bond company will foreclose on her house, and the money will be forfeited to Steven.  Mabel asks for Stephanie's help, since as a bounty hunter she is the closest thing Mabel knows to a detective.  Stephanie is unable to refuse, even though she is not a private investigator.

After interviewing Evelyn's bondsman, Les Sebring, and Steven Soter, Stephanie is baffled; Steven was domineering and abusive, and Evelyn had no friends or other family members she might go to in an emergency, and no one has any idea where she might have gone.  Steven seems to be less concerned about Annie's well-being than he is eager to get his hands on the bond money.

While snooping through Evelyn's apartment, Stephanie encounters her landlord, a local crime boss named Eddie Abruzzi.  He warns Stephanie that if she knows where Evelyn is, she should tell him, or else he will "declare war" and she will be "the enemy." Stephanie's mentor, Ranger Manoso, explains to her that Abruzzi is an avid wargamer, and tends to frame everything in quasi-military terms.

At the Plum home, a new crisis arises when Stephanie's "perfect" sister, Valerie, gets fired from her job at the bank.  Stephanie's mother turns to her in desperation, and Stephanie improvises, setting Valerie up with Albert Kloughn, Evelyn's hapless divorce lawyer.  Kloughn's practice has been slow in taking off, so he soon becomes attached to Stephanie, following her and Lula around in trying to apprehend fugitives and investigate Evelyn's whereabouts.

As she is trying to track down Evelyn, Stephanie is unnerved to realize that she is being stalked.  First, someone leaves a bag of wild snakes attached to her apartment door, then a large tarantula on the seat of her car.  Worse, men dressed in animal costumes are following her around.  An attack by one of the men destroys Stephanie's car, then a second.  When the men try to kidnap her, her mother sees them and impulsively runs over one with her car.

Finally, Stephanie comes home one night and finds Steven Soter on her living room couch, shot through the head.  The police investigate, and when she asks Joe Morelli how the body got into her apartment without any of her neighbors noticing, she is horrified by his answer: Soter's body was sawed in half at the waist, and the pieces were carried in with two large bags, then taped back together.

Stephanie realizes that Abruzzi is "conducting psychological warfare" against her, believing that she knows where Evelyn is.  Ranger asks around and finds out that Abruzzi is searching obsessively for his most prized possession: a medal that once belonged to Napoleon.  Abruzzi, besides being a wargamer, is an avid collector of military memorabilia, and believes the medal is a lucky talisman.  Ranger admits he doesn't know why Abruzzi would think Evelyn has the medal, but obviously he does.

Then Ranger informs her that he is collecting on her "debt" to him, and, since Stephanie is on a "break" from her relationship with Morelli, she consents to have sex with Ranger.

With Soter's death, the child custody bond is no longer necessary, and Mabel is relieved to be told that her house is safe, but Evelyn does not resurface.  Stephanie eventually tracks her to the airport, before she is about to leave for Miami with Annie.  Evelyn explains that Steven was in debt to Abruzzi, and was scared of him, but Abruzzi considered Steven a member of his "command", and so invited Steven and all of his "troops" with small children to Abruzzi's daughter's birthday party.  While she was there, Annie wandered into Abruzzi's office and palmed the medal, thinking it was a party favor.

Now that Evelyn is finally free of Steven, she has arranged to sell the medal to a collector in Miami for enough money to start a new life.  She knew Abruzzi was threatening Mabel, but she couldn't come out of hiding or go to the police, knowing that "the law moves too slowly for a guy like Abruzzi."  Stephanie, seeing how scared and desperate Evelyn is, lets her and Annie go.

When Stephanie returns to her apartment, Abruzzi's men appear in a van, holding Valerie at gunpoint, telling Stephanie to come with them or they'll kill her sister.  Stephanie complies, and Valerie is released.  Stephanie is brought to Abruzzi at a safe house, and he begins torturing her - searing her arm with a hot poker - for Evelyn's exact location in Miami, which she doesn't know.  Before he can do more, Valerie, who has followed them, jumps into the van and drives it through the wall of the house, allowing both her and Stephanie to escape.

Running home, Stephanie calls both Morelli and Ranger.  After listening to her story, Ranger excuses himself, and a short time later, Abruzzi is found dead in his car, with a note saying that he has killed himself over some recent business failures.  Stephanie is unnerved to know that Ranger has killed Abruzzi to keep her and Evelyn safe, but she and Morelli silently agree not to pursue it any further.

Car deaths
Honda CR-V - Fire bombed by a rabbit-costumed man
Honda CR-V - Doused with lighter fluid and lit up with a match
Ranger's truck - Set on fire when a package was thrown in the bed

FTAs
Andy Bender
Martin Paulson
Laura Minello

Notable events
The novel introduces Albert Kloughn, a struggling attorney and later Stephanie's brother-in-law.
Stephanie, on a "break" from her relationship with Joe Morelli, has sex with Ranger.

References

2002 American novels
Stephanie Plum books

Hard Eight (novel)


Andrew Bell (5 September 1803 – 27 September 1856) was a Presbyterian minister who was born in London, England, moved to Scotland and emigrated to Upper Canada with his family in 1817.

Bell and his family settled at Perth where his father was a minister. He studied under his father until 1823 and then pursued divinity courses in Scotland. He returned to Upper Canada in 1826, his formal studies not completed.

Bell had a successful career within the Presbyterian Church. However, some of his most important contributions to Canada came through his hobby, geology. He served on an advisory committee of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada where he helped shape the work of the Geological Survey of Canada and, more particularly, the work of William Edmond Logan, who had helped establish that body. His son, Robert Bell, became the director of the survey at a later date.

References
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Amateur geologists
Canadian Presbyterian ministers
Geological Survey of Canada
1803 births
1856 deaths

Andrew Bell (minister)


Land Grove Quarry, Mitcheldean () is a  geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, England, notified in 1974. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

The site is a working quarry, but with only small scale quarrying being undertaken.  This leaves good exposures as required by the designation.

Location and geology
The site is on the north edge of the Forest of Dean and provides extensive exposures in the Brownstones of the Old Red Sandstone late Lower Devonian period. The sequence of muds, silts, sandstones and conglomerates provides a contrast with the sandstone sequences in the Brownstones (higher) and the Red Marls (lower). The size of the rivers appears to have increased during the Lower Old Red Sandstone period in South Wales. The proportion of channel sands which have been preserved have increased. The quarry shows a sequence which provides an illustration of an intermediate stage.

The quarry is a location for significant research and published papers reference the exposures of the site. The fossil fish remains are also of significant importance being rare in rocks of this age in this location (Welsh Borders and South Wales).

References

SSSI Source
 Natural England SSSI information on the citation
 Natural England SSSI information on the Land Grove Quarry, Mitcheldean unit

External links
 Natural England (SSSI information)

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire
Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1974
Quarries in Gloucestershire
Mitcheldean

Land Grove Quarry, Mitcheldean


Osterby Man or the Osterby Head () is a bog body of which only the skull and hair survived. It was discovered in 1948 by peat cutters to the southeast of Osterby, Germany. The hair is tied in a Suebian knot. The head is at the State Archaeological Museum at Gottorf Castle in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein.

Discovery
The head was discovered on 26 May 1948 by Otto and Max Müller of Osterby, who were cutting peat on their father's land, at . It was found approximately  beneath the current ground level. The head was wrapped in fragments of a deerskin cape, which Max Müller noticed protruding from the peat. The find was reported to the museum in Schleswig; despite intensive searching by the brothers and others, no more of the body has been found.

Description and analysis
The skull was wrapped in fragments of a deerskin cape and had been damaged by being struck with a blunt object before it was sunk in the bog.

Anthropology
The skull had been broken into several pieces. The acids in the bog have decalcified the bone, which has shrunk somewhat and is dark brown. The hair and small sections of scalp are well preserved, but the skin and other soft tissues of the face have disappeared. There is a large wound on the left side of the head, which may have been fatal: the skull had been depressed by a blow with a blunt object over an area approximately  in diameter, and the bone of the left temple was shattered with splinters penetrating the brain area. The skull had also been deformed by the weight of the peat above it, but the facial area was generally well preserved. Skeletal evidence suggests a man 50 to 60 years of age. Hack marks on the second cervical vertebra show that the head was cut off. The skull was stabilised for exhibition by filling with gypsum.

The hair is thin and slightly wavy,  long. It has been coloured a reddish brown by the acids in the bog; microscopic analysis showed that it had been dark blond and that the man had had some white hairs. In a re-examination in 2005, isotopic analysis showed that at least during his last year of life, the man ate meat remarkably rarely, and did not eat seafood. Parasitological analysis of the hair showed no head lice, unusual for the time.

Hairstyle
The hair is unusually well preserved and is tied above the right temple in a Suebian knot. Tacitus describes this in Chapter 38 of his Germania as a characteristic of free men among the Germanic tribe of Suebi. The knot appears in several Roman depictions and on at least one other bog body, Dätgen Man (who wore his on the back of his head). Osterby has featured the Suebian knot on its coat of arms since 1998.

Skin cape
The skull was wrapped in fragments of a garment, measuring approximately , consisting of tanned pieces of leather sewn together. Microscopic analysis suggested on the basis of the hairs that they were from roe deer. The neck opening was lined with a strip of leather about  wide. All seams had been sewn with small stitches in catgut. Some appeared to be repairs. Textile archaeologists identified the garment as a skin cape; similar cloaks or capes have been found with other archaeological finds, including Elling Woman, Haraldskær Woman, Dröbnitz Girl, Kayhausen Boy and Jührdenerfeld Man.

Treatment
Peter Löhr performed the anthropological analysis, which determined that the skull had shrunk while immersed in the bog. For his doctoral dissertation, he performed experiments on it involving repeated soaking and drying and detailed measurements; in his view, soaking caused it to swell to almost its original dimensions. Löhr's data included markedly shrunk teeth and the complete lower jaw associated with the skull, which has a protruding chin. However, more recent analysis has shown that in his original preparation of the skull for exhibition, Karl Schlabow added an unrelated lower jaw.

Dating
The Suebian knot indicates the man died in the Late Iron Age or the Roman period, and radiocarbon dating likewise indicates a date between 75 and 130 CE; however, the hair sample used was taken from Alfred Dieck's private collection and may thus be unreliable.

Analysis
Other Iron Age bog bodies have also been beheaded; the body of Dätgen Man, who also had a Suebian knot, was found several metres from his head. The beheading together with the fractured skull indicates deliberate execution by multiple methods. It is impossible to determine whether Osterby Man was sunk in the bog as a judicial punishment or a sacrifice, or whether his body was also deposited in the bog; but it has been suggested that his relatively advanced age may indicate an honorable death.

See also
Stidsholt Woman

References

Further reading
Michael Gebühr. Moorleichen in Schleswig-Holstein. Verein zur Förderung des Archäologischen Landesmuseums e.V., Schloß Gottorf. Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2002,
Karl Schlabow. "Haartracht und Pelzschulterkragen der Moorleiche von Osterby". Offa 8 (1949) 3–7

75 deaths
130 deaths
1948 in Germany
1948 archaeological discoveries
Bog bodies
Deaths by decapitation
Germanic archaeological artifacts
Year of birth unknown

Osterby Man


Christian Larson is a Swedish film and music video director, editor and photographer.

Larson's work includes music videos for Sigur Rós, Seinabo Sey, Kylie Minogue and Icona Pop, as well as commercials and editorials for Cartier, Pepsi, H&M, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Beats by Dre, CDLP, L'Oreal and Agent Provocateur. In 2010 he made the documentary Take One that reached cult status in the electronic dance music world, dubbed »Spinal Tap for the acid house generation« by The Times UK. In 2012 he wrote and directed Valtari, a short film with music from the Icelandic band Sigur Rós and choreography from world-renowned choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkoui. The film received numerous nominations and was awarded a Swedish Grammy for Best Video at the 2013 Swedish Grammy Awards as well as Best Choreography at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards.

His first feature-length film Leave The World Behind was officially selected to the 2014 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. When officially released on iTunes, it went straight to number 1 in the worldwide documentary section.

Larson is also known for his collaborations as a film editor together with Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund on projects like the Emmy nominated HBO concert film On The Run featuring Beyoncé & Jay-Z and the music video Telephone featuring Lady Gaga.

In 2016, he co-founded the Swedish premium men's underwear brand CDLP. The brand has been featured in Esquire, GQ, Vogue, Man about Town, New York Times and How To Spend It – Financial Times, and is sold through some of the world's leading retailers, including Barneys New York, Selfridges London and Mr. Porter.

Filmography
"Leave The World Behind" (2014)
Valtari short film with music by Sigur Rós (2012)
"Take One - A documentary about Swedish House Mafia", EMI" (2011)

Commercials
 Pepsi - Black
 Cartier - Juste un Clou
 Lexus - Statement
 Mercedes-Benz - Burning Desire
 H&M - Back to school
 CDLP - Built to take off
 Agent Provocateur - Le Salon
 RFSU - Carefree

Videography
"Emergency" by Icona Pop (2015)
"On my way / Can't hold us down" by Axwell and Ingrosso (2015)
"Pistols At Dawn" by Seinabo Sey (2014)
"Timebomb" by Kylie Minogue (2012)
"Make Your Own Rhythm" by Florrie (2012)

References

 Nowness.com: "Christian Larson's Industrial Seduction for the Icelandic Outfit's New Album"

External links
 Christian Larson official web site
 Christian Larson represented by Serial Pictures

 Christian Larson official Instagram

Living people
Swedish film directors
Year of birth missing (living people)

Christian Larson (director)


Yvon Picotte (born October 27, 1941, in Louiseville, Quebec) is a politician from Quebec, Canada.

He was a five-term Liberal Member of the National Assembly, who represented the electoral district of Maskinongé from 1973 to 1994.  He also was in charge of several portfolios in the second cabinet of Premier Robert Bourassa, including tourism and agriculture.

From 2002 to 2008, Picotte was a supporter of the Action démocratique du Québec.  From 2004 to 2006, he served as President of that party.  In May 2006, he made embarrassing comments about PQ Leader André Boisclair.  Boisclair had decided not to run in a by-election for the district of Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques (in Montreal), the district where he lives and that is well known for its large gay population.  Accusing Boisclair of being a coward, Picotte jokingly said that the riding would fit Boisclair, who is openly gay, like a glove (comme un gant).  Many journalists criticized Picotte, saying his comment sounded homophobic.  Within days, Picotte apologized.

In October 2008, he announced that he would vote for local Liberal candidate and friend Jean-Paul Diamond in the next provincial election.

Picotte currently is the Director of Pavillon du Nouveau Point de vue, an addiction intervention center.

Footnotes

External links

1941 births
Living people
People from Louiseville
Quebec Liberal Party MNAs
Action démocratique du Québec politicians
Canadian political party presidents
French Quebecers

Yvon Picotte


Akuri is a spicy scrambled egg dish eaten in Parsi cuisine of India. Akuri is cooked until almost runny; the eggs are never overcooked. The main flavouring is fried onions and the spices used are ginger, coriander, chopped chilis, and black pepper. Akuri is traditionally eaten with pav or double roti (types of Indian bread).

A less common version of akuri is bharuchi akuri, which contains nuts and dry fruits like cashews, almonds and raisins in addition to the other spices. This dish supposedly originated from the city of Bharuch in Gujarat, hence the name.

Egg bhurji is a similar egg dish eaten in many parts of the Indian subcontinent. Connoisseurs of these Indian scrambled egg varieties would argue that egg bhurjee and  akuri are almost identical but distinct in taste.

References

Indian cuisine
Parsi cuisine
Indian egg dishes

Akuri


Erlistoun Station is a pastoral lease that has operated as a cattle station and more recently as a sheep station in Western Australia.

It is situated approximately  to the north of Laverton and  east of Leinster in the Goldfields-Esperance region. Borodale Creek runs through the property from Davis Pool on the northern boundary meandering through waterholes to Namendarra Lake on the southern boundary.

Erlistoun was known as a district in the area before the station was established. The lease was first taken up by Butcher and Uhr in 1904, originally on a block extending northward from Laverton for a distance of  with a width of . The company was initially running cattle at Erlistoun, 1,000 head of which they had overlanded down from the Kimberley.

The Emanuel brothers owned the property in 1911 when it was sold to Kalgoorlie-Boulder Firewood Company. At this time the property occupied an area of  and was still running cattle. In 1924 the property was estimated to be carrying 5,500 head of cattle. By 1925 the size of the property was estimated as being  and was stocked with 4,000 head of cattle. Sheep had been introduced to the property by this time and in 1926 it was stocked with 7,000 cattle and 5,000 sheep. Shearing the same year yielded 31 bales of wool per 1,000 sheep. Another 4,000 sheep were due to arrive at the station in late 1926.

Erlistoun was the initial location of the first feature-length film shot in Western Australia; scenes for the film Down Under, directed by Harry Southwell, were shot at the station in 1926.

The area received heavy rains in 1929 with Erlistoun recording over  in 24 hours and over  in total for the month. The normally dry creek ran for a length of over  through the property. In 1930, the property was running a flock of 13,000 sheep. In the same year the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Firewood company changed its name to the Erlistoun Pastoral Company; the directors were Alex Porter, J. McCalmont and E.H. Jolly.

In 2003 the property was being plagued by wild dogs attacking the sheep. Other properties in the area were similarly affected.

The area is popular amongst gold prospectors. Guest accommodation is available on Erlistoun in the shearers' quarters.

See also
List of ranches and stations
List of pastoral leases in Western Australia

References

Homesteads in Western Australia
Stations in Goldfields-Esperance

Erlistoun


Trygve Allister Diesen (Trig Diesen) (born 11 July 1967 in Norway) is a TV and  film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has mostly worked in Scandinavia and the US. He is partner in the Scandinavian production company tenk.tv.

Trygve Allister Diesen graduated from USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles.   He started his professional career as a journalist in Kristiansand, Norway.  Diesen has a comprehensive background in screenwriting and directing for film and TV, in Europe and the USA.  He has also translated plays for theaters.  In 2010, he was the first to be awarded a practice-based doctorate in directing from the Norwegian Film School, with the project "Being the Director - Maintaining your Vision While Swimming with Sharks", where he explored the nature of keeping a personal, artistic vision in a collective and commercial art form.

Diesen's second feature film,  Hold My Heart, was Norway's official submission for the 2003 Academy Awards, and was screened at festivals globally.  Diesen is also the creator of the Scandinavian thriller miniseries Torpedo. His first American film Red, starring Brian Cox and Tom Sizemore, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.

Diesen is the director and pilot  (conceptual) director on the Norwegian TV series Det tredje øyet/The Third Eye (2014). He directed two of the episodes of the ABC Networks US series The Assets (2014).

Filmography
Det tredje øyet/The Third Eye (2014)  - director, pilot director
The Assets  (2014)  -  director
Varg Veum - I mørket er alle ulver grå (2011)  - writer
Varg Veum - Svarte får (2010) - writer
Winter - Venaste Land (2008) TV miniseries - director
Red (2008) - director/producer
Torpedo, (2007) TV miniseries - writer/director
Drømmefangeren (2005) TV miniseries - director
Tyven tyven (2002) or Hold My Heart - writer/director
Mørkets øy (1997) or Island of Darkness - writer/director

References

External links

Trig Diesen homepage

Norwegian film directors
1967 births
Living people
Norwegian screenwriters
Place of birth missing (living people)
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni

Trygve Allister Diesen


"Cupid's Chokehold" is a song by the rap group Gym Class Heroes. It was released twice. The first time was in 2005. The second time was in 2007. The single became a hit song around 2007. It contains samples of the song "Breakfast in America" by the group Supertramp. Patrick Stump sings on it. The song reached #4 on US record charts. It reached #3 in the United Kingdom and Canada.

2005 songs

Cupid's Chokehold


The 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal, colloquially known as the Triple Six Fix, was a successful plot to rig The Daily Number, a three-digit game of the Pennsylvania Lottery. All of the balls in the three machines, except those numbered 4 and 6, were weighted, meaning that the drawing was almost sure to be a combination of those digits. The scheme was successful in that 666 (one of the eight combinations of 4s and 6s that the "fixers" were hoping for) was drawn on April 24, 1980; however, the unusual betting patterns alerted authorities to the crime. The chief conspirators were sent to prison, and most of the fraudulently acquired winnings were never paid out.

Planning

The plan was masterminded by Nick Perry (1916–2003), The Daily Numbers announcer. Perry was born Nicholas Pericles Katsafanas in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Peabody High School and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.  After serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Perry began a career as a radio broadcaster in Charleston, West Virginia, then entered television broadcasting on Pittsburgh's WDTV, the forerunner of KDKA-TV. Perry later moved over to rival WTAE-TV in 1958, as a staff announcer. Later, he became a news and weather reporter and was the host of local sports shows like Bowling for Dollars and Championship Bowling. In 1977, Perry became the host of the live nightly broadcast of the Pennsylvania Lottery, held in the studios of WTAE.

Perry first discussed his idea with Jack and Peter Maragos, two of his partners in a vending machine business. Once committed to the plan, Perry approached local Pittsburgh lettering expert and WTAE art director Joseph Bock about creating weighted ping-pong balls that were replicas of the official balls used in the lottery machines. The No. 4 and No. 6 balls were chosen as the lucky lighter balls.

Perry got access to the machines and ping-pong balls, which had been kept in a room at WTAE studios, through Edward Plevel, a lottery official. The room was locked with two keys; Perry had one, and Plevel had the other. Plevel left the machines and balls unguarded for several minutes on a few occasions. Perry also got WTAE stagehand Fred Luman to physically switch the original balls with the weighted ones twice: once before and once after the drawing. Bock then took the rigged balls back to his studio and burned them in a paint can a half-hour after the on-air drawing was done.

Drawing
Perry was the host of The Daily Number on April 24, 1980, when the drawing produced the number "666" for a then-record payout of $3.5 million ($ today) — including $1.18 million ($ today) that went to eight people in on the scam, while six million Pennsylvanians watched that night never knowing that the fix was in.

Lottery authorities and local bookmakers became suspicious when they noticed that a large number of tickets were purchased for the eight possible combinations, and a handful of players came forward to claim approximately $1.18 million ($ today) of the then-record $3.5 million payout ($ today).

On the date of the drawing, the Maragos brothers traveled around Pennsylvania buying large quantities of tickets containing the eight possible numbers.  The investigation was broken open when an anonymous tip led to a bar near Philadelphia where the brothers had bought a large number of lottery tickets.  An employee remembered the brothers coming into the bar with a platinum-blonde woman and laying down a large amount of cash to buy lottery tickets, all on the eight specific numbers.  The employee recalled that while he printed the tickets, one of the brothers made a pay phone call, spoke in a foreign language, and held up the phone so the listener could hear the lottery machine printing the tickets.

Investigators pulled the phone records and traced the call to the WTAE-TV announcer's booth in the studio where the drawing was done.  This strongly implicated Perry, and Maragos confirmed under questioning that the conversation had been with Perry (in Greek).  Further investigation and questioning of the Maragos brothers eventually implicated the rest of the conspirators.  William Moran of Fairmont, West Virginia, organized the out-of-state buying of additional lottery tickets for a numbers-running scam.

It was later revealed that the Maragos brothers also placed bets on the eight numbers with local bookmakers who had illegal numbers games that used the lottery drawing as the winning result.  The brothers also told friends and family which numbers to play.  All of this may have contributed to the conspiracy's downfall, with the greater influx of slanted bets.

Aftermath
A grand jury was assembled and charges were leveled against all seven men. Plevel was convicted and spent two years in prison. Bock, Luman, and Moran pleaded guilty in exchange for lighter sentences.  The Maragos brothers avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Perry. Much of the $1.8 million ($ today) was recovered from the Maragos brothers, as were numerous lottery tickets.

Perry was convicted of criminal conspiracy, criminal mischief, theft by deception, rigging a publicly exhibited contest and perjury on May 20, 1981. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. He served two years at State Correctional Institution – Camp Hill and spent another year at a halfway house in the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Perry remained on parole until March 1989.  He held a number of jobs after prison including an unsuccessful attempt to return to broadcasting in the late 1980s. Perry died in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on April 22, 2003, having never admitted to any role in the plot.

After the scandal, the Pennsylvania Lottery and other drawings began taking greater precautions to guard against rigging. The drawings for the Lottery were moved from WTAE to WHP-TV in the state capital of Harrisburg on June 29, 1981, on orders of Governor Dick Thornburgh who made the announcement on June 10, 1981, along with the addition of a "security chief" and background checks on all staff related to the drawings. The Pittsburgh market broadcasting rights were given to KDKA-TV in 1981 as well. In Harrisburg, despite the drawings now being held at PBS affiliate WITF-TV, they air locally on rival station WGAL, which has been a sister station to WTAE since it was acquired by Hearst from Pulitzer in 1999. It was not until July 1, 2009, that the Lottery resumed airing on WTAE, where the drawings remained until July 1, 2015, when WPXI took over.

In popular culture

The 2000 film Lucky Numbers, starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow, was loosely based on Perry's story.

In 2006, Game Show Network aired a documentary in their Anything to Win series about the scandal, complete with anecdotes from former WTAE and KDKA news anchor Don Cannon. The 2013 episode "The Good, the Bad, & the Baby" from Castles sixth season is loosely based on the scandal. In 2011, a season 2 episode of Mysteries at the Museum briefly features the story.

Case photographs, artifacts, and information can be viewed at the Pennsylvania State Police Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

See also

 Hot Lotto fraud scandal
 666 (number)

References

External links
"Putting in the fix" by Jason Togyer
"The Devil Made Him Do It and Left Me There, Comfortable" by Steve May (The New Yinzer)
New York Times article from 1981

Lotteries in the United States
Fraud in the United States
Crimes in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Lottery scandal
1980 in Pennsylvania
Lottery fraud

1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal


Sender Zehlendorf or Zehlendorf (radio) transmission facility was a radio transmission facility which was in service since 1936, when a short wave transmitter was built on the occasion of the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics in Zehlendorf (a village near Oranienburg) as part of the establishment of permanent radio services. This Zehlendorf site, which until the end of World War II was referred to as the Rehmate Radio Transmission Centre (), had 26 different antennas at the time (that is, before and at the end of World War II).

In 2017 the last antenna at the site was demolished by controlled implosion, ending the era of the transmission towers in Zehlendorf.

History

In 1945, most of the Rehmate Radio Transmission Centre was dismantled by the Soviet occupying forces as reparation, who left only three wooden radio masts. Two of these wooden masts supplied the building material for a 100-metre-tall transmission tower built at Golm in 1948, which was used until 1979.

In 1952 it was decided to build at the location of the former radio transmission center Rehmate the central long wave transmitter of the GDR. For this between 1956 and 1958 a triangle plane aerial, which was hung up on three 150 metres high guyed masts of lattice steel, which were insulated against ground, was built. A second transmitting antenna, which would become the main antenna, was built between 1960 and 1962. It consisted of a , lattice steel framework mast, at which a conical cage aerial was mounted, making it the tallest structure in Europe between 1962 and 1964. With this antenna a transmitting power of 750 kilowatts in the long-wave range on a frequency, which was reduced in course of the time gradually for the reduction by interference from 185 kHz to 177 kHz, was possible. The maximum transmitting power, which was possible over the triangle plane aerial, was 500 kilowatts.

On 18 May 1978 the main mast collapsed after a collision with a Russian airplane of the type Mig-21. After the cause of the collapse was certain, the Soviet Union promised to supply a new mast and to rebuild the mast. In order not to stop the progress of the construction work by the stricter German safety regulations, for the duration of the construction work the area in the radius of 300 metres was explained as Soviet exclave. In August 1979 the new mast with a height of 359.7 metres was finished.

In 1990 the plant was taken over by the Deutsche Telekom AG. At first it was planned to shut down the facility: so the cage aerial at the  main mast was dismantled and the transmitting power of the long wave transmitter was reduced occasionally to 100 kilowatts. In the second half of the 1990s a reorientation occurred. The long wave transmitter was modernized and the main antenna tower received a new cage aerial. Also the transmitting power of the long wave transmitter was increased again to 500 kW. In the year 2000 a , guyed, grounded mast of lattice steel carrying a cage aerial for medium wave was built. This  took over the function of the former Transmitter Berlin-Koepenick and served apart from the spreading of the program of MEGARADIO also for transmitting of programs of the Voice of Russia, partly in the Simulcast mode.

The long wave transmitter changed over on 29 August 2005 as first German large transmitter to Digital Radio Mondiale. The long wave transmitter ceased operation on December 31, 2014 as part of the general shutdown in Germany of AM radio services to the public. The mast continued to support VHF radio antennas providing FM broadcast services.

The triangle plane antenna masts (3 of them, 150 meters high each) were demolished in 2007, with the antenna itself having been taken out of service in 2003.

In 2015, the 129-meter mast was demolished; transmission from it had ceased in 2014.

The last mast (the highest, main mast of 359.7 meters height) at the site was demolished in 2017, and radio operations at the site ended.

See also
 List of masts
 List of catastrophic collapses of broadcast masts and towers

References

External links

http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b45305
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b45648
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b45649
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=55087

Radio masts and towers in Germany
Oranienburg
Buildings and structures in Oberhavel
1936 establishments in Germany
Towers completed in 1936
2017 disestablishments in Germany

Sender Zehlendorf


Duros de harina (also known as pasta para duros, duritos, durros, pasta para durito, chicharrones, churritos, Mexican wagon wheels or pin wheels) are a popular Mexican snack food made of puffed wheat, often flavored with chili and lemon.

When cooked, duros have a light, airy consistency similar to chicharrones. Although both foods contain comparable amounts of fat, chicharrones contain more protein while duros are mainly carbohydrates, as they consist of wheat flour, with added corn starch, salt and baking soda to aid even expansion during cooking.

Duros are sometimes sold by street vendors and can also be purchased in their uncooked pasta-like form at many Mexican grocery stores; they are commonly made in 1-inch-square pieces and round wagon wheel shapes, but they also come in many various sizes of strips and squares.

Preparation
Duros may be microwaved, but the best results are achieved when they are deep fried. Ready-to-make duros are often sold in supermarkets, and simply require being fried in oil. They are typically seen served by street vendors in a plastic bag and topped with salsa and chili, lime, salt, or with hot sauce and lemon juice that is sprayed into the bag, then finished with chili powder.

See also

 Chicharrones
 Prawn cracker

References

Deep fried foods
Mexican cuisine
Snack foods
Wheat dishes

Duros (food)


Wailua Falls is a waterfall on the island of Kauai, part of the US state of Hawaii. The 173 foot (52.7 m)  falls are located on the South Fork Wailua River near Lihue. The waterfall is prominently featured on the opening credits of the television series Fantasy Island.

There are paths to the bottom of the falls, but it can be muddy and slippery. The "trail" further from the parking lot is less steep than the closer one. In ancient times, Hawaiian men would jump from the top of the falls to prove their manhood. Some people still leap off the top of the falls, though it is dangerous and illegal. In 2016, a man jumped from the falls and was knocked unconscious but narrowly avoided death when someone swam out into the pool to save him. The pool is great for swimming, but there are swift currents close to the waterfall. There is another waterfall nearby named 'Opaeka'a Falls.

See also

 ʻŌpaekaʻa Falls

References

Waterfalls of Kauai

Wailua Falls


The Passerelle, also known as the Luxembourg Viaduct, is a viaduct in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg.  Nowadays it runs from the south into the city centre, Ville Haute, carrying road traffic across the Pétrusse valley and connecting Avenue de la Gare to Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It is 290 m long, with 24 arches, and 45 m above the valley floor.

It is also known as the Old Bridge (, , ) by people from Luxembourg City.  The 'new bridge' in this comparison is the Adolphe Bridge, which was built between 1900 and 1903.

The Passerelle was built between 1859 and 1861 to connect the city centre with Luxembourg's new railway station, which was located away from the city centre so as to not detract from the defensive capabilities of the city's fortress. It was conceived by the engineers Achille N. Grenier and Auguste Letellier, and built by the British company Waring Brothers.

See also
History of rail transport in Luxembourg

External links

Bridges in Luxembourg City
Bridges completed in 1861
1861 establishments in Luxembourg

Passerelle (Luxembourg)