Martino Stanislao Luigi Gastaldon (April 8, 1861March 6, 1939) was an Italian composer, primarily of salon songs for solo voice and piano. However, he also composed instrumental music, two choral works, and four operas. Today, he is remembered almost exclusively for his 1881 song "Musica proibita" ("Forbidden Music"), still one of the most popular pieces of music in Italy. Gastaldon also wrote the lyrics for some of his songs, including "Musica proibita", under the pseudonym Flick-Flock. He was born in Turin and after a peripatetic childhood studied music there and in Florence. By 1900, he had settled permanently in Florence, where he died at the age of 77. In his later years he also worked as a voice teacher, music critic, and art dealer.

Life and career
Gastaldon was born in Turin on April 8, 1861 to Luigi Gastaldon and Luigia Grazioli. His father was an engineer from Lerino, a village near Torri di Quartesolo in the Veneto region of Italy. His mother was a Roman noblewoman who had married a wealthy land owner, Count Bernardo Genardini, at the age of 16. She met Luigi Gastaldon in 1854 when she was 23 and shortly thereafter abandoned her husband and four children to live with him. The family moved from one Italian city to another during Gastaldon's childhood and early youth while his father worked on a series of engineering projects. Part of his childhood was spent in San Vito Chietino in the Abruzzo region, where a street is now named for him and where his younger brother Guglielmo was born in 1864.

Gastaldon studied music with the Turinese composer Antonio Creonti and with Torquato Meliani, an organist at the Florence Cathedral, as well as studying literature at the University of Florence. He began composing songs at the age of 17, sometimes writing the lyrics himself under the pseudonym of "Flick-Flock". Although it is not known for sure why Gastaldon chose "Flick-Flock", Italian musicologist Maria Scaccetti suggests that it probably derived from the popular ballet, Flick und Flock by Peter Ludwig Hertel, which had been performed at La Scala in 1861. Music from the ballet arranged as a military march became the official fanfare of the 12th Regiment of the Bersaglieri corps, which had been based in Turin. Gastaldon was only 20 when the Florentine firm Venturini published his song "Musica proibita", which made his name as a composer and achieved an enduring popularity. Its success would also provide an entry to the most important salons in Italy, where many of his early songs were first performed. His musical fame preceded him when Gastaldon did his obligatory year of military service in 1883.  He was assigned to be one of the "professors" of the 24th Infantry Regiment band.

When his military service ended, Gastaldon returned to Rome, where his parents were living at the time. Over the next four years he continued composing songs and short pieces of instrumental music and started work on his first opera, Fatma. However, in 1888, when the music publisher Sonzogno announced a competition for one-act operas, Gastaldon decided to enter with Mala Pasqua!, a setting of Giovanni Verga's popular short story (and later play), Cavalleria rusticana. Another young composer, Pietro Mascagni, entered the same contest with his opera Cavalleria rusticana, also based on Verga's story. Gastaldon withdrew his work early in the competition when he received an offer from Sonzogno's rival, Ricordi, to publish it and arrange a premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. He expanded the opera to three acts, and Mala Pasqua! premiered on April 9, 1890 to modest success. Mascagni's opera eventually won the competition and premiered a month later on May 17 at the same theatre. Mascagni's work was an enormous success and completely eclipsed Gastaldon's. Nevertheless, he continued writing operas over the years, producing two one-act operas, Pater (1894) and Stellina (1905) and a three-act comic opera, Il Reuccio di Caprilana (1915). Like Mala Pasqua!, they premiered to moderate success but dropped almost immediately from the repertoire.

After the premiere of Mala Pasqua! in 1890, Gastaldon lived in Orvieto for a time, and then settled in Florence, where he was to spend the rest of his life. There, in addition to composing, he taught singing and worked as a music critic for the Florentine paper Nuovo Giornale, as well as writing a column "Scattola Armonica" ("Music Box") for the children's periodical Il giornalino della Domenica. His associates in Florence were a circle of free-thinking artists and literary figures who gathered at the Gambrinus Halle café in the Piazza Vittorio Emanauele (now called the Piazza della Repubblica). Gastaldon and his friends were out of sympathy with the rise of Italian Fascism in the 1920s, and he became increasingly marginalised. Finding it difficult to make a living solely from his music, in the final years of his life he also worked as an art dealer, buying and selling paintings by his friends in the Gambrinus Halle. He never married and lived alone in his house on Via Montanara. On March 6, 1939, Gastaldon suffered a heart attack while walking across the Piazza Vittorio Emmauele and died the same day at the age of 77. He is buried in the Misericordia di Antella Cemetery near Florence.

Works
During his lifetime, the vast majority of Gastaldon's works were published by two firms, Genasio Venturini in Florence (absorbed by Carisch & Jänichen in 1905) and Ricordi in Milan. Although several biographical entries, including that in Enciclopedia della musica published by Rizzoli-Ricordi, say that he composed more than 300 songs, Scaccetti suggests that while Gastaldon was prolific, the actual number may be considerably less than this. The work he is almost exclusively remembered for today is his song "Musica proibita".

"Musica proibita"
"Musica proibita" (Forbidden Music) is a song within a song. A young woman tells of a handsome young man ("un bel garzone") who sings a love song beneath her balcony every night. She longs to sing it herself to re-live the thrill she felt, but her mother has forbidden her. Knowing that her mother has left the house, she sings it, and then recalling the last time she heard him, she sings it again even more intensely. The young man's song begins:

Vorrei baciare i tuoi capelli neri,
Le labbra tue e gli occhi tuoi severi...

(I want to kiss your raven hair,
Your lips and your solemn eyes...)

A common misconception about the song's origin is that it is an aria from Gastaldon's opera, Mala Pasqua!, and the only surviving piece from the work. In fact, it is neither. It was published as a salon song for solo soprano and piano in 1881, nine years before Mala Pasqua! premiered. The Mala Pasqua! score (and the libretto) were published by Ricordi in 1890 and copies are held in several libraries in the United States and Europe. Dedicated to the Italian baritone Felice Giachetti, "Musica proibita" was Gastaldon's second published work, and the first of six songs for which he also wrote the lyrics using the pseudonym "Flick-Flock". Its success was enormous. Ten years later, a journalist writing in the Gazzetta musicale di Milano recalled how the song soon became a way for timid young lovers all over Italy to express their affection in words that were both uninhibited and emotionally moving. He went on:
What an invasion, what an inundation, how deafening it was back then! In every house, in every street, in every café, everyone wanted to kiss their raven hair, in every style and in every possible way of singing out of tune.

Shortly after its publication in Italy, "Musica proibita" was published in English as "Unspoken Words" (with a text by D'Arcy Jaxone) and in French as "La chanson défendue". It has since been arranged for every voice type as well as transcribed for flute and violin, violin solo, piano solo, guitar, mandolin, accordion, military band, and solo voice and orchestra. It was recorded in several different versions on early gramophone and cylinder recordings starting in 1900, and although the words express the thoughts of a young girl, "Musica proibita" became a staple of the tenor concert repertoire (sometimes with the text adjusted). Among the tenors who have recorded it over the years are Enrico Caruso in 1917, Beniamino Gigli in 1933, Richard Tauber in 1936, Aureliano Pertile, Mario Del Monaco, Mario Lanza in 1952 and 1959, Giuseppe di Stefano in 1961, Luciano Pavarotti in 1984, Placido Domingo, José Carreras (who also sang it in several Three Tenors concerts) in 1979 and 1993, Andrea Bocelli in 2002, and Christian Ketter in 2014. "Musica proibita" was also the inspiration, title, and theme song of a 1943 Italian film directed by Carlo Campogalliani and starring Tito Gobbi, a tortuous story of a noblewoman who opposes the marriage of her niece to the son of a famous baritone who had once been the noblewoman's "forbidden love".

Other songs
In 1882, Gastaldon wrote "Ti vorrei rapire" (I want to carry you away), a sequel to "Musica proibita" which is meant to be sung by the young man referred to in the original song. Like "Musica probita", the text was by "Flick-Flock". It had considerable success in its day and was recorded in 1910 by the Italian baritone Taurino Parvis for Columbia Records. A variation on the theme came in 1885 with Gastaldon's "Musica non probita!" (Music not forbidden!) composed to a text by the theatre critic and poet Luigi Bevacqua Lombardo. Two of Gastaldon's other early songs, "Amor non è peccato" (Love is not a sin) and "Fiori di sposa" (Bridal flowers) were set to texts by a poet identified only as "Faustina". The first of these was dedicated to Leonora Genina Mancini, daughter of the Italian statesman Pasquale Stanislao Mancini and the poet Laura Beatrice Mancini. Leonora's younger sister Flora ran a famous musical salon, and both sisters wrote poems that had been set by Gastaldon's contemporaries.

Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana, who wrote the libretto for Gastaldon's opera Mala Pasqua!, also wrote the text for his song "Perché tacete" (Why are you silent?). Other poets whose texts were set by Gastaldon included Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Olindo Guerrini (under the pseudonym Lorenzo Stecchetti), Emilio Praga, Armando Perotti, Annie Vivanti, Fausto Salvatori, and Domenico Milelli (under the pseudonym Conte di Lara). Of all his songs, Gastaldon's favourite was reportedly "Mamma", dedicated to the memory of his mother, with lyrics by the poet and playwright Giovanni Arrighi. It was recorded by Renato Zanelli for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1921. In a departure from his usual genre of songs for solo voice and piano, Gastaldon also wrote two choral pieces, "Viva il Re" and "Inno della Dante Alighieri". The patriotic anthem "Viva il Re" (Long Live the King) with text by Giosuè Carducci was published by Ricordi 1915. "Inno della Dante Alighieri" with text by Augusto Franchetti was written as an anthem for the Dante Alighieri Society. It was first performed on September 28, 1902 in the Piazza del Campo in Siena for the XIII Congress of the Società Dante Alighieri and published the following year by the Florentine firm of Bemporad & Figlio.

Stage works
Although, Mala Pasqua was the first of Gastaldon's operas to be performed, he had previously composed Fatma, an opera-ballet in four acts and a prologue with a libretto by Marco Praga. According to The Monthly Musical Record of 1887, it had been accepted for performance at La Scala and in 1888, the French periodical Le Ménestrel reported that it was nearly finished. However, it was never performed and does not appear to have been published. In 1891, after the premiere of Mala Pasqua!, he began work on what was to have been a three-act comedy loosely based on the Alexandre Dumas novel Twenty Years After. Initially called Rosa Minchon and then Mazzarinata, it too was never performed and was probably never finished. Although not an opera, and lasting only seven minutes, Gastaldon's Il sonetto di Dante, a setting of Dante's sonnet "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare", was written to be performed on stage by a tenor in the role of Dante, surrounded by scenery depicting 14th century Florence. According to the Revue Musicale de Lyon, it had little success despite the talent of Giuseppe Taccani, who sang the piece at its premiere.

Chronological list of performed stage works
Mala Pasqua! – opera in three acts; libretto by Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana based on Verga's short story, "Cavalleria rusticana"; premiered April 9, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome
Pater – opera in one act; libretto by Vittorio Bianchi based on François Coppée's play of the same name; premiered April 15, 1894 at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan
Stellina – opera in one act; libretto by Vittorio Bianchi; published 1896, premiered March 25, 1905 in a double bill with Pater at the Teatro Niccolini in Florence
Il sonetto di Dante – described as a visione scenica; text by Dante Alighieri from La Vita Nuova, "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare"; premiered November 17, 1906 at the Politeama Genovese in Genoa
Il Reuccio di Caprilana – operetta in three acts; libretto by Félicien Champsaur; premiered April 4, 1914 at the Teatro Balbo in Turin

Notes and references

Sources
Almanacco Italiano (1903). "Musica: S. Gastaldon". Roberto Bemporad & Figlio, p. 53
American Record Guide (1991). "Review: Italian baritones of the Acoustic era (Bongiovanni GB1043)". Volume 54, Issues 1-3, p. 158
Chiti, Roberto and Lancia, Enrico (2005). "Musica Proibita", Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film, Volume 1. Gremese Editore, pp. 229–230.
Gramophone (February 1934). "Review: Beniamino Gigli – Forbidden Music (Gastaldon) HMV DB1385", p. 37
Guerrini, Silvano (2007). Storia del Cimitero Misericordia di Antella. Venerabile Confraternita della Misericordia di Antella
La nuova fioritura (1915). "Fausto Villa". Renzo Streglio & Co., p. 105
Le Ménestrel (May 6, 1888). "Nouvelles Diverses: Étranger". Heugel, pp. 148–150
Limongi, Riccardo  (1999). Sensi unici ovvero la ghirlanda. Guida Editori.
Revue Musicale de Lyon (December 16, 1906). "Le Dante en musique" pp. 315–316
Rubboli, Daniele (March 1989). "Vorrei baciare i tuoi capelli neri...", L'Opera, pp. 70–71
Sartori, Claudio, ed. (1971). "Gastaldon, Stanislao" in Enciclopedia della musica, Volume 3. Rizzoli-Ricordi, p. 94
Sbrocchi, Vito (April 18, 2003). "Il compositore Gastaldon, celebre alla fine dell'Ottocento, trascorse l'infanzia a San Vito". Il Tempo
Scaccetti, Maria Paola (2002). "'La Musica Proibita' di Stanislao Gastaldon" in La romanza italiana da salotto, Francesco Sanvitale (ed.). EDT srl.
The Monthly Musical Record (1887). Volume 17. Augener & Co, p. 70

External links

  ("Musica proibita" and "Amor non è peccato")
Italian text and English translation of "Musica proibita" on The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Page. (Note that it contains at least one typographical error in the Italian text and the English translation is not completely idiomatic.)
Audio file of Enrico Caruso singing "Musica proibita" (1917) on the Internet Archive
Stanislao Gastaldon on WorldCat

Italian opera composers
Male opera composers
Italian classical composers
Italian male classical composers
1861 births
1939 deaths
Musicians from Turin

Stanislao Gastaldon


Opeka Arboretum is situated in the Vinica municipality, northern Croatia.

Located in a large park surrounding a manor, Opeka arboretum, with its 65 hectares, is the largest of the three arboreta existing today in Croatia (the others are Trsteno in southern Dalmatia and Lisičine near Voćin in western Slavonia).

The arboretum was founded in 1860 by the Count Marko Bombelles, who travelled a lot all over the world and brought back various exotic seeds and plants from his travels, expanding his garden and park all the time with exceptional care. The Opeka estate remained the ownership of Bombelles family until 1945.

The arboretum passed into Yugoslav state ownership in 1945 and was declared a natural rarity in 1947. Today it has been managed by the local Agricultural and veterinary school.

Gallery

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Arboreta in Croatia
Varaždin County
Tourist attractions in Varaždin County

Opeka Arboretum


Richard Welstead Croker (November 24, 1843 – April 29, 1922), known as "Boss Croker", was an Irish American political boss who was a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall. His control over the city was cemented with the 1897 election of Robert A. Van Wyck as the first mayor of all five boroughs. During his tenure as Grand Sachem, Boss Croker garnered a reputation for corruption and ruthlessness and was frequently the subject of investigations. As his power waned following the 1900 and 1901 elections, Croker resigned his position and returned to Ireland, where he spent the rest of his life.

Biography

Richard Croker was born in the townland of Ballyva, in the parish of Ardfield, six miles south of Clonakilty in County Cork on November 24, 1843, son of Eyre Coote Croker (1800–1881) and Frances Laura Welsted (1807–1894). He was taken to the United States by his parents when he was just two years old. They boarded the Henry Clay in Cobh, County Cork and headed for the land of opportunity.

There were significant differences between this family and the typical family leaving Ireland at that time. They were Protestant, and were not land tenants. Eyre Coote Croker owned an estate in Ardfield, in southwest Cork. Upon arrival in the United States, Eyre Coote Croker was without a profession, but he had a general knowledge of horses and soon became a veterinary surgeon. During the Civil War, he served in that same capacity under General Daniel Sickles.

Richard Croker was educated in New York public schools. Croker dropped out of school at age twelve or thirteen to become an apprentice machinist in the Harlem Railroad machine shops. Not long after, he became a valued member of the Fourth Avenue Tunnel Gang, a street gang that attacked teamsters and other workers that gathered around the Harlem line's freight depot. Croker eventually became the gang's leader. He joined one of the Volunteer Fire Departments in 1863, becoming an engineer of one of the engine companies. That was his gateway into public life. James O'Brien, a Tammany associate, took notice of Croker after Croker won a boxing match against Dick Lynch whereby Crocker knocked out all of Lynch's teeth. Croker became a member of Tammany Hall and active in its politics. In the 1860s, he was well known for being a "repeater" at elections, voting multiple times at the polls. He was an alderman from 1868 to 1870, Coroner of New York County, New York, from 1873 to 1876. Croker was charged with the murder of John McKenna, a lieutenant of James O'Brien, during a fight on election day of 1874 with O'Brien's rival political group. O'Brien was running for Congress against the Tammany-backed Abram S. Hewitt. John Kelly, the new Tammany Hall boss, attended the trial, and Croker was freed after the jury was undecided. Croker moved to Harrison, New York by 1880. He was appointed the New York City Fire Commissioner in 1883 and 1887 and city Chamberlain from 1889 to 1900.

After the death of John Kelly, Croker became the leader of Tammany Hall and for some time almost completely controlled that organization. As head of Tammany, Croker received bribe money from the owners of brothels, saloons and illegal gambling dens. Croker was chairman of Tammany's Finance Committee but received no salary for his position. Croker also became a partner in the real estate firm Meyer and Croker with Peter F. Meyer, from which he made substantial money. The money was often derived from sales under the control of the city through city judges. Other income came by way of gifts of stock from street railway and transit companies, for example. The city police were largely still under the control of Tammany Hall, and payoffs from vice protection operations also contributed to Tammany income. Croker survived Charles Henry Parkhurst's attacks on Tammany Hall's corruption and became a wealthy man. Several committees were established in the 1890s, largely at the behest of Thomas C. Platt and other Republicans, to investigate Tammany and Croker, including the 1890 Fassett Committee, the 1894 Lexow Committee, during which Croker left the United States for his European residences for three years, and the Mazet Investigation of 1899.

Croker's greatest political success was his bringing about the 1897 election of Robert A. Van Wyck as first mayor of the five-borough "greater" New York, and during Van Wyck's administration Croker is popularly supposed to have completely dominated the government of the city.

Croker was in the newspapers in 1899 after a disagreement with Jay Gould's son, George Gould, president of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company, when Gould refused Croker's attempt to attach compressed-air pipes to the Elevated company's structures. Croker owned many shares of the New York Auto-Truck Company, which would have benefited from the arrangement. In response to the refusal, Croker used Tammany influence to create new city laws requiring drip pans under structures in Manhattan at every street crossing and the requirement that the railroad run trains every five minutes with a $100 violation for every instance. Croker also held 2,500 shares of the American Ice Company, worth approximately $250,000, which came under scrutiny in 1900 when the company attempted to raise the price of ice in the city.

After Croker's failure to carry the city in the 1900 presidential election and the defeat of his mayoralty candidate, Edward M. Shepard in 1901, he resigned from his position of leadership in Tammany and was succeeded by Lewis Nixon. Croker departed the United States in 1905. An associate described Croker as having "[a] strong frame, a deep chest, a short neck and a pair of hard fists.... He speaks in monosyllables, [and] commands a vocabulary that appears to be limited to about three hundred words...."

Thoroughbred racing

Croker operated a stable of thoroughbred racehorses in the United States in partnership with Mike Dwyer. In January 1895, they sent a stable of horses to England under the care of trainer Hardy Campbell Jr. and jockey Willie Simms. Following a dispute, the partnership was dissolved in May but Croker continued to race in England.

In 1907, his horse Orby won Britain's most prestigious race, The Derby. Orby was ridden by American jockey John Reiff, whose brother Lester had won the race in 1901. Croker was also the breeder of Orby's son Grand Parade, who won the Derby in 1919.

Death
Croker returned to Ireland in 1905 and died on April 29, 1922, at Glencairn House, his home in Stillorgan outside Dublin.
His funeral, celebrated by South African bishop William Miller, drew some of Dublin's most eminent citizens; the pallbearers were Arthur Griffith, the President of Dáil Éireann; Laurence O'Neill, the Lord Mayor of Dublin; Oliver St. John Gogarty; Joseph MacDonagh; A.H. Flauley, of Chicago; and J.E. Tierney. Michael Collins, Chairman of the Provisional Government, was represented by Kevin O'Shiel; the Lord Lieutenant, Viscount FitzAlan, was represented by his under-secretary, James MacMahon.

In 1927, J. J. Walsh claimed that, just before his death, Croker had accepted the Provisional Government's invitation to stand in Dublin County in the imminent Irish election.

Family
Croker married twice; first, in 1873, to Elizabeth Fraser. They had several children.

He married Beulah Benson Edmondson in November 1914 when he was 71 years old. She was of American Indian descent, her tribal name being Ketaw Kaluntuchy.

Disputed will
Croker left an estate estimated to $3–5 million to his second wife, Beulah, disinheriting his estranged children. He had converted to Catholicism shortly before his death but this does not appear to have played a role in his disinheriting his children. A note in his handwriting, dated at Glencairn, November 15, 1919 read as follows:

Croker's other surviving children, Richard, Ethel, and Howard, unsuccessfully challenged the will in a celebrated probate lawsuit in the Court of King's Bench in Ireland. They claimed that their father in 1919 was of unsound mind and unduly influenced by his wife, and that the 1914 marriage was void as she was already married to one Guy R. Marone. A jury rejected all these allegations. The widow and children had related lawsuits in the United States.

References

Further reading

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1843 births
1922 deaths
19th-century Irish people
20th-century Irish people
People from Clonakilty
Leaders of Tammany Hall
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Owners of Epsom Derby winners
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Irish emigrants to the United States
American political bosses from New York (state)
American gangsters of Irish descent
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Coroners of New York County, New York
Politicians from County Cork

Richard Croker


Luník IX is a borough (city ward) in the city of Košice, Slovakia, in the Košice II district. It is located in the western-central part of the city, surrounded by the boroughs of Pereš, Myslava, Barca, Juh and Západ.

Luník IX houses the largest community of Romani people in Slovakia. It was originally built for 2,500 people. Estimates are that its population in 2021 is three times larger. Living standards are low. Services such as gas, water, and electricity are usually  cut off, because the majority of inhabitants are not paying rent or utilities fees.

Health standards are low:  diseases such as hepatitis, head lice, diarrhoea, scabies, and meningitis are common. Almost all people in the borough do not have a job. The borough has one elementary school and a kindergarten.

Luník IX is serviced by a bus line, which stops only on selected bus stops. Boarding the bus is only allowed through the front door. Due to frequent attacks of aggressive residents, bus drivers deployed on the line receive a hazard pay.

History
There was a Romani village which was close by, but it was demolished in 1979.  The Romani people were moved into Lunik IX. There was a  landfill nearby.  In the 1980s, about 2.000 people lived in Lunik IX, about half of them were Romani.  Over time, the non-Romani population moved away, with the Romani taking flats after their departure, and the borough turned into a Romani ghetto.

In 1995, the city council of Košice created a plan for the living conditions of dodgers, the maladjusted, and people from illegally occupied flats around Košice. They were to be moved into Luník IX, with "non-problematic" families being moved out if they requested it. The realization of this plan is on-going.

Statistics

 Area:
 Population: 6,411 (December 2017)
 Density of population: 6,000/km² (December 2017)
 District: Košice II
 Mayor: Marcel Šaňa (as of 2018 elections)

References

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Coordinates on Wikidata
Geography of Slovakia

Luník IX


Dabus is a warrior dance from the Malaysian state of Perak. This warrior dance, as such, is characteristically heroic, demanding performers to exhibits traits of intelligence, dexterity, heroism, and cheerfulness when performing. Dabus is one of the traditional dances of Perak that has survived some 300 years. There are conflicting theories on the origin of Dabus, with some historians claiming that it was brought over from Aceh, while other historians believe it to have been brought over from Baghdad during the 18th century.

Origins
The dance is believed to have originated as a pastime during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It may have been performed to train and prepare soldiers for religious battles, invoking spiritual power to perform their noble task and demonstrating their fearlessness and bravery in battle.

There are some opinions that dispute the entry of dabus dance into Perak. One opinion says that dabus is believed to have been brought directly to Perak by Ahmad Mahyuddin who is from Persia (Baghdad) around 1785. He was a student of the teacher Muhammad Abil Hassan al-Rifai. This dance began to develop in Pasir Panjang Laut, Sitiawan, Lumut, and also in Sungai Nipah Baroh and Sungai Balai Baroh, Teluk Intan, Perak.

The second opinion said dabus game was brought to Indonesia through Pasai in Aceh before developed to Pasir Panjang, Perak by  Nakhoda Lembang who studied Lembang Fakir Muhammad of India, who was also a pupil of the master Muhammad Abil Hassan al-Rifai. Another opinion says Ahmad Mahyuddin who studied with Muhammad Abil Hassan al-Rifai met with Nakhoda Lembang of Batu Bara, Aceh who studied with Fakir Muhammad of India in 1785, has been jointly developing the arts dabus to Perak in Pasir Panjang in early 1700.

Performance
Tarian Dabus is performed by singers and a troupe of dancers. The singers chant religious songs of praise, the chanting is accompanied by a rebana. Performances are usually presided over by a Khalifah.

See also

Malay dance

References

Dances of Malaysia
Malay dances

Dabus (dance)


Eo Jae-yeon (魚在淵, 1823–1871) was a Korean general that lived during the late Joseon Dynasty. He served as the inspector in the Hoeryong region in 1866 and led the army of Ganghwado Island against the United States military during the U.S. expedition to Korea in 1871.

Eo Jae-yeon was born in 1823. His father's name was Eo Yong-In. In 1841, at eighteen years of age, Eo Jae-yeon passed the military service examination, which was arranged at Ganghwado Island. In 1866,  Eo Jae-yeon and his troops were able to defend the Gwangsung camp from French troops invading Ganghwado Island during the French campaign against Korea (1866). He was then appointed the minister of Hoeryong, where, among other successes, he was able to suppress a band of marauders. He also constructed a market in Hoeryong and revitalized border trade with the Qing dynasty.

When the American Asiatic Rogers' Squadron arrived on the coast of the island in 1871, the royal council appointed Eo Jae-yeon to serve as the Commandant. He exerted himself in this duty, and he and his brother, Eo Jae-sun, were killed by U.S. Marines during the military action. He was posthumously appointed the Minister of War.
During the war, Eo Jae-yeon's flag, 'Sujagi' was taken by the American Squadron.

United States expedition to Korea
On May 16, 1871, five U.S. warships departed from Nagasaki, Japan to Ganghwado Island, carrying about 1,230 Marines and 85 cannons. The fundamental aim of the expedition was not full-scale war but gunboat diplomacy. About 240 Joseon soldiers were killed, 100 were drowned, and 20 were captured, whereas only three of the U.S. Marines were killed and ten were injured.

However, the U.S. forces could not achieve their original purpose of establishing a treaty for protection of the shipwrecked mariners, along with a possible trade treaty; and thus, they departed to the Chinese mainland.

During the United States expedition to Korea, Eo Jae-yeon had burned his bridges behind the Gwangsung camp with his six hundred troops. Eo had fought unsupported against the full-scale offensive by the United States. To defend against the United States' amphibious attack, Eo retaliated with cannon fire and fought to his death without retreating. The Marine who killed him, Private James Dougherty, was subsequently given the Medal of Honor. In the Maecheonyarok (), a book of Hwang-hyeon, there is a record that 'Eo  fought with his enemy using his sword. Even when Eo's sword broke, he kept fighting by throwing a lead bullet at the enemy. In the end, however, Eo Jae-yeon was stabbed to death by his enemy's spear and the enemy took Eo's head.' This record describes the desperate situation of the United States expedition to Korea.

Eo Jae-yeon's flag, the "Sujagi"

Believed to be constructed of hemp or cotton and measuring approximately 4.15m x 4.35m, the rank flag 'Sujagi' bearing the Chinese character for "commanding general" was captured as a war trophy in 1871 when American troops seized Ganghwa Island during the U.S. Expedition to Korea. Restored in 1913, the flag was returned to the South Korean Cultural Heritage Administration in 2007 on a 10-year loan from the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, which has had possession for over 130 years. The flag is currently housed at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul.

See also

 United States expedition to Korea
 Sujagi

References

External links

1823 births
1871 deaths
Korean admirals
Korean generals
Military history of Korea
19th-century Korean people
Korean military personnel killed in action
Korea–United States relations
Hamjong Eo clan

Eo Jae-yeon


The Assemblea Nacional Catalana (in English: Catalan National Assembly, ANC by its Catalan acronym) is an organization that seeks the political independence of Catalonia from Spain. It also promotes the independence of other Catalan-speaking regions, which are collectively known as the Catalan Countries (Països Catalans).

Its current president is Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol. Sànchez was imprisoned on 16 October 2017 for his role in pro-independence protests during the days before the Catalan referendum. In January 2015, it claimed more than 80,000 members, of whom 40,132 were full-paying members (fee paying) and 39,946 were signed up as volunteer collaborators. The ANC has 10 regional subdivisions which are represented on the national board as well as professional groups for various private sectors, and 37 foreign branches around the world.

History

The origin of the organization was the National Conference for the Catalan State (Conferència Nacional per l'Estat Propi), held on 30 April 2011 in Barcelona, in which 1,500 people participated. A Permanent Council and the interim secretariat were elected at this conference.

The formal incorporation as a civic association was held on 10 March 2012, at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. in which the statutes, internal workings, and road map to independence were approved. In April 2012, Carme Forcadell was chosen as president of the ANC, Carles Castellanos was elected vice president, Llorenç Sotorres was elected treasurer, and Jordi Martínez was elected secretary.

On 8 June 2013, the ANC held elections in which Carme Forcadell was re-elected president. Jaume Marfany was elected vice president, replacing Carles Castellanos. Jordi Martínez remained as secretary and Oriol Sallas replaced Llorenç Sotorres as treasurer.

In May 2015, Jordi Sanchez i Picanyol replaced Carme Forcadell as president of the ANC.

Campaigns and activity

The regional chapters of the ANC periodically organize a series of events in their respective areas with respect to the independence of Catalonia in preparation for the Catalan independence referendum in 2014.

2012

At the end of June, 2012, the so-called "March toward Independence" begun in Seu Vella (Lleida). After a series of festive, symbolic, and protest events, this march would culminate on 11 September with a massive march on Barcelona, with the slogan "Catalonia, new state in Europe". It was a historic day for the separatist camp, both for the number of people in attendance as well as the markedly pro-independence tone of the march, never before seen in such a well-attended event (estimates of the crowds range widely, from 600,000 people quoted by some media, statisticians such as Llorenç Badiella from the Autonomous University of Barcelona or the delegation of the Spanish government in Catalonia to 1.5 million according to Catalan public sources such as Barcelona's Municipal Police or Catalonia's Department of the Interior, with a maximum estimate of about 2 million according to the organizers)

Two days after the demonstration, the president of the ANC, Carme Forcadell, and four additional members of the group's board were officially received at the Catalan Government Palace by then president Artur Mas. During the meeting, they suggested to him that he called plebiscitary elections to the Parliament of Catalonia on independence and that he called for a referendum in 2014.

As a result of the demonstration, Mas called a snap election to the Catalan Parliament for 25 November 2012 and made clear in his speech in the inaugural session of the General Policy Debates that he was convinced that the Parliament that came out of the new elections would have as its mission the exercise of the right to self-determination of Catalonia.

2013

At the beginning of 2013, the ANC began a Fiscal Sovereignty campaign so that private citizens, businesses, and local institutions could pay taxes en masse to the Catalan Tax Agency. From May to July, 2013, they organized a crowdfunding campaign at totSuma in order to offer support to all the interested parties.

On 1 June 2013, the ANC began the "Sign a Vote for Independence" campaign, in which, through the right to petition, petitions were collected to ask the Catalan Parliament to exhaust all of the possible paths toward facilitating the celebration of a referendum for self-determination of Catalonia before 31 May 2014, and in the event that that attempt failed that the elected representatives of the people of Catalonia unilaterally declare the independence of Catalonia.

The Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural organized a concert, the Concert for Freedom, in Camp Nou on 29 June 2013 to show off mass support in favor of independence. Around 90,000 people attended the concert.

The Catalan Assembly also organized a human chain of about 400 km in length, known as the Catalan Way, that was held on the National Day of Catalonia (11 September) following the path of the old Via Augusta from La Jonquera (in the north of Catalonia) to Alcanar (in the south). It was inspired by the Baltic Way, which was organized by Baltic political movements seeking independence from the Soviet Union in 1989 and spanned the three Baltic states of Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, and Lithuanian SSR. Between 1.6 and 2 million citizens held their hands along these 400 km. After the demonstration, then Catalan President Artur Mas received Mrs. Forcadell at the Government Palace and committed to listen to the will of the people and to organising a consultation on the region's future.

2014

On 29 May 2014, the ANC, with other associations, presented at El Born, the campaign El País que Volem (The Country We Want), an open participative process for citizens whose goal is to collect their proposals about how should Catalonia be when it becomes an independent state.

The Catalan Assembly and Òmnium Cultural organized the 2014 edition of the demonstration of the Catalan national day in Barcelona. This demonstration formed a huge Catalan flag all along 11 kilometers between Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes and Diagonal avenue forming a big V for voluntat (will), as well as voting and victory. According to police there were 1.8 million and according to organizations 2.5 million people to demand for a poll on 9 November 2014.

On 14 September the Catalan Assembly gave to the parliament president, Núria de Gispert, nearly 750,000 signatures collected in the campaign "Sign a vote for independence", to ask Catalan government to declare independence if the 9 November poll could not be held.

2023
Of note was the abstention in Catalonia during the 2023 Spanish general election; at 34.58%, it was the highest of all the Autonomous Communities and the highest recorded there since 2011. As the majority Catalan pro-independence organization, the ANC promoted abstention as a form of protest, which was joined by other entities and organizations. Shortly thereafter, the ANC dissociated itself from the call for mass abstention of the pro-independence movement. In part due to a campaign led by the ANC encouraging pro-Catalan independence voters to boycott the election, pro-independence parties lost 46% of the votes they won in the previous election, materializing in the loss of 9 seats and the exit from the Congress of the anti-capitalists of the Popular Unity Candidacy.

Finances

The budget for 2015 was slightly over 5 million euros, from which 3.4 million were dedicated to various advertising campaigns. Following the detection of 1.5 million euro in unsubstantiated income, in 2015 the ANC reached a deal with the tax authorities to pay 172,000 euros in pending VAT plus a 44,000 euros tax penalty. In a separate piece, in November 2015 the ANC was found responsible of unauthorized use and deficient custody of personal data for its activities, resulting in a 240,000 euros sanction imposed by the Spanish agency responsible for data protection.

See also

Catalan Republic
Catalan Countries
Catalan nationalism
History of Catalonia
Catalan language
Anna Arqué i Solsona
Carles Castellanos i Llorenç

References

External links
Assemblea Nacional Catalana
Assemblea Nacional Catalana International

2011 establishments in Catalonia
Catalan independence movement
Cultural promotion organizations
Organizations established in 2011
Politics of Catalonia
Secessionist organizations in Europe
Separatism in Spain

Assemblea Nacional Catalana


The smoky mouse (Pseudomys fumeus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae native to southeastern Australia. It was first described in 1934 and its species name is Latin for "smoky". As its name suggests, it is a grey-furred mouse, darker grey above and paler smoky grey below. Mice from the Grampians are larger and a darker more slate-grey above. It has a black eye-ring and dark grey muzzle. The feet are light pink, and the ears a grey-pink. The tail is longer than the mouse's body, and is pink with a brownish stripe along the top. Mice from east of Melbourne average around 35 grams and have 107 mm long bodies with 116 mm long tails, while those from the Grampians are around 65 grams and have 122 mm long bodies with 132 mm long tails.

The smoky mouse is currently rated as "vulnerable" and appears to be declining in numbers in the wild. Its range is fragmented and it appears to be extinct in some areas such as the Otway Ranges (not seen since 1985) and Brindabella Ranges (not seen since 1987). It is found in the Grampians, East Gippsland and far southeastern New South Wales (including Kosciuszko and South East Forest National Parks and Buccleugh State Forest). There are fewer than 2500 individuals left in the wild and all extant populations appear to be in decline. Vegetation changes, as well as feral cats, foxes and dogs appear to be the main causes. There is an active recovery plan for the species, and there is active predator monitoring in the Yowaka and Waalimma sections of the South East Forest National Park.

In February 2020 it was reported that researchers from Charles Sturt University, found the death of nine smoky mice was from "severe lung disease" caused by smoke haze during the 2019–20 Australian bushfires that contained PM2.5 particles coming from bushfires 50 kilometres away. It was feared that the Kosciuszko National Park population had been extirpated as a result of the bushfires, but individuals were rediscovered in June 2020.

In other languages it has been called fausse souris fuligineuse (French), raton bastardo fumoso (Spanish), or koonoom (?).

References

Pseudomys
Mammals of New South Wales
Mammals of Victoria (state)
Rodents of Australia
Endangered fauna of Australia
Mammals described in 1934
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Smoky mouse


In clothing for men, a dickey (also dickie and dicky, and tuxedo front in the U.S.) is a type of shirtfront that is worn with black tie (tuxedo) and with white tie evening clothes. The dickey is usually attached to the shirt collar and then tucked into the waistcoat or cummerbund. Some dickey designs have a trouser-button tab, meant to secure the dickey-bottom to the waistband of the trousers, and so prevent the dickey from becoming untucked.

Originally called the detachable bosom, the dickey shirtfront, made of rigid plastic, was the fashion in shirts in the late 19th century; the dickey also was one of the first successful, commercial applications of celluloid. Like the detachable shirt collar, the dickey (a bosom-front for a dress shirt) was invented as a separate accessory for the shirt, which thus could be washed, starched, and pressed more readily than could be laundered if the dickey were an integral part of the shirt.

Among dandies, the use of a dickey is considered bad style in the wearing of traditional modes of black tie and white tie evening dress. Etymologically, the word "dickey" is from Cockney rhyming slang, wherein dicky dirt denotes a shirt. In 1850s Britain, office workers wore business suits, yet their low wages disallowed a work week's supply of laundered shirts, so they adopted the dickey as a practical extension of the sartorial life of a dress shirt at work.

Types

Celluloid (hard plastic)

Celluloid dickeys were popular for their waterproof and stain-resistant properties. Unlike traditional cloth shirt-fronts, they remained sleek, bright white, and did not wilt or wrinkle. Celluloid dickeys simulated the look of a formal shirt bib for day and evening wear. They were designed in a variety of patents, such as: rounded, flat-end, no restraints, a restraint tab at the end of the bib or side straps that tied at the wearer's back. For this reason, they were popular with entertainers, musicians, and other performers. Nevertheless, they were frequently maligned and spoofed for their stiffness, un-manageability, and tendency to pop out of place. "The flapping dickey", a famous Vaudeville cliché, involves a dickey which has been intentionally rigged to flap in a comical fashion. For example, in the Long-Haired Hare Looney Tunes cartoon, orchestra conductor Bugs Bunny conducts an arrogant opera singer and makes him hold a note so long that his dickey snaps out of his waistcoat and rolls up to his throat.

Cardboard
Cardboard dickeys were worn in theater and service professions to save money from using linen formal shirts for uniforms. Examples of professions that used cardboard dickeys include waiters, hotel managers, doormen, bellboys, limo drivers, and servants.

Cloth
Cloth dickeys simulate many different styles. Some often-seen examples include dress shirt front and collar, formal frilled shirt front (popular in the mid-seventies with powder blue tuxedos), and most commonly in modern times, false turtleneck sweater fronts. Cloth dickeys are also often used in marching band uniforms.

Hard plastic dickeys have long since gone out of manufacture and fashion, but cloth turtleneck-style dickeys are still sometimes seen.

Women's wear
The dickey, traditionally worn by men, made the transition to women's wear around 1943. While women may have worn dickeys before this time, ads in Vogue New York can be seen promoting dickeys in the February 1943 issue. Dickeys were said to "enliven your new suit or rejuvenate your old". Women's dickeys were made from cotton or rayon and embellished with embroidery, lace, jabots, and ruffles. They were priced between $2 and $3 at the time.

Patterns for women's dickeys can also be found dating to 1944, with Butterick's patterns providing eight variations on the dickey. While dickeys have gone in and out of style over time, they have made a resurgence in the fashion world, with the most recent one starting in 2015.

Contemporary fashion
Recently, dickeys have been rising in popularity. In 2011, dickeys and menswear-inspired lingerie became popular as a break from minimalist and restrictive fashion at the time. At the same time, detachable collars and dickeys were showing up on the runway as Peter Pan collars. In 2013, the materials used for dickies was expanding from knits and cotton, to leather and silk. The 2014 fall winter season saw the dickey return as a winter accessory used to keep the neck warm. By 2015, contemporary designers, like Michael Kors, adopted the dickey in his resort line. In an interview with InStyle Magazine, Kors said the dickey was a way to add versatility to a look, without adding bulk.

The rise of the dickey in pop culture has also encouraged the rise in popularity. For example, on the TV series The Big Bang Theory, a dickey is worn by the character Howard Wolowitz, as well as in Dinner for Schmucks, where the character Therman Murch (played by Zach Galifianakis) wore an orange turtleneck dickey. Cousin Eddie (played by Randy Quaid) in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation wore a dark-green turtleneck dickey underneath an ivory sweater. The character Liz Lemon wore a "sweater" type dickey on the opening episode of season 6 on the TV series 30 Rock. The character Kent was wearing a dickey in the end scenes of the movie Real Genius.

A form of a dickey, often called a rabat or stock, is still commonplace in the attire of some Christian clergy. It is worn either over a clerical shirt or another shirt and under a jacket.

Cultural dress
The dickey is not just a facet of men's wear clothing, it is also used in certain types of cultural dress.

Armenia
Historically, Armenian dress consisted of layers, a result of the variability of the weather, with short and hot summers and long and cold winters. Layers could be switched out easily when changes in the weather occurred. One component of this layering was a dicky style shirt that was heavily embroidered to cover the chest if the woman's outer dress was low cut.

Greece
It is traditional for Greek widows to wear black to signify their mourning. Historically, widows in certain regions of Greece, specifically Peloponnese and Euboea, "wore a plain white chemise and an unembroidered sigouni with a black dickey, black headscarf and black apron."

Sámi People (Northern Europe, Western Russia)
Both men and women of the Sámi culture, particularly in the central and southern parts of the Sámi region, wear dickeys under certain tunic styles. The tunics often have a V-neck opening that the dicky is worn under. The dickeys are usually rectangular and are made from wool. Traditionally, women wear red wool while men wear blue. The dickey is usually decorated with reindeer skin around the edges and metallic thread and glass beads in the center. The purpose is for the dickey to be the focal point of the outfit.

See also
 Chemisette

References

History of clothing (Western fashion)
Formal wear
Tops (clothing)
Shirts

Dickey (garment)


Boca Chica is an area on the eastern portion of a subdelta peninsula of Cameron County, at the far south of the US State of Texas along the Gulf Coast. It is bordered by the Brownsville Ship Channel to the north, the Rio Grande and Mexico to the south, and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. The area extends about  east of the city of Brownsville.  The peninsula is served by Texas State Highway 4—also known as the Boca Chica Highway, or Boca Chica Boulevard within Brownsville city limits—which runs east-west, terminating at the Gulf and Boca Chica Beach.

The Boca Chica area has seen various developments over the course of its history. These include Mexican land grants, Mexican and American ranches, a battlefield of the American Civil War, a 1920s beach resort, and a state park (Boca Chica State Park); additionally, a small settlement named  Boca Chica Village existed in the area from 1960 to 2020. In recent years, the area has become more widely known due to being the site of Starbase, a major facility of aerospace company SpaceX for the development, manufacturing and testing of its rockets. Starbase is envisioned to one day serve as the primary launch and recovery facility for SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle.

Boca Chica means "small mouth of the river" in Spanish, as the Rio Grande's flow is modest, and in droughts, the mouth of the river may disappear altogether.

The making of the area of Boca Chica

Transportation across Boca Chica has been an important part of the history of the area. A land transportation route existed across Boca Chica in the 19th century, starting at the Mexican port of Brazos Santiago, north of Boca Chica, and heading inland to the Rio Grande Valley area that would later become Brownsville. The shallow-water sail port at Brazos Santiago was used by sailing ships that used Brazos Santiago Pass to enter the South Bay of Laguna Madre—a shallow, hypersaline, natural bay—from the Gulf to transit goods to the mainland north of the Rio Grande. Historical artifacts of human usage from those eras remained  illustrating road use during the Mexican–American War (circa 1846) and railroad use during the American Civil War. Two historical artifacts.  Cypress pilings from a circa 1846 floating bridge and the "Palmetto Pilings" from a circa-1865 railroad bridge were both yet extant in 2013. Both are located within  of the beach near the eastern terminus of Texas State Highway 4.

In the late 19th century, much of the arable land on the subdelta peninsula of Boca Chica was used for ranching. Historical ranches include Tulosa Ranch, Palmito Ranch, White's Ranch, and Cobb's Ranch. No historical Native American usage is known, and consultation with a number of tribes in 2013 identified no verbal record of native use of the area.

In 1904, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway was completed to Brownsville, which "opened the area to northern farmers who began to come to the area at the turn of the 20th century. They cleared the land, built irrigation systems and roads, and introduced large-scale truck farming and citrus farming. The new farming endeavors began a new period of prosperity around Brownsville."

The availability of cheap land in the area created a strong interest in land speculation. Special trains were dispatched to bring land speculators to the area and by the early 1920s as many as 200 people a day were coming to see the land.

One of the more notable land speculation ventures was the construction of the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica Beach. Advertised as being on the same latitude as Miami, the resort was built in the 1920s by Colonel Sam Robinson, who moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 1917. The resort had 20 daycabins available for rent, a bathhouse, and a ballroom. It was quite successful resort until 1933, when a hurricane destroyed most of the buildings. The remaining buildings were turned into a base for the US Coast Guard during World War II. As a result of the Great Depression and the hurricane damage, the owners of the property were not able to reopen the resort after the end of the war.

The devastating 1933 hurricane spurred the Works Progress Administration to take part in the dredging and construction of the Port of Brownsville, a venture that the city had been trying to complete since 1928. The port was officially opened in 1936.

During the years that the ship channel was under construction, a nationally known rocketplane entrepreneur, William Swan, disappeared over Boca Chica as he attempted a rocket-powered human flight in 1933. As part of a skydiving exhibition over the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica, he jumped out of an airplane in "an attempted manned rocket backpack flight. He disappeared into the clouds and was never seen again."  Swan had previously set records in 1931 with the first American rocket-powered aircraft flight over Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the "first air-launched rocketplane flight" in 1932.

The completion of the port and the dredging of the Brownsville Ship Channel created a new human-made northern boundary of the Boca Chica peninsula.  It cut the peninsula off from any land transport routes except from Brownsville to the east, which was also the transportation railhead for Boca Chica to the rest of the country.

American Civil War battlefield

The Battle of Palmito Ranch is considered by some as the final battle of the conclusion of the American Civil War. It was fought 12–13 May 1865, on the banks of the Rio Grande east of current Brownsville, Texas, and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago.

Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce since the beginning of 1865, but Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, newly assigned to command an all-black unit, and never having been in combat, ordered an attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown for unknown reasons. The Union attackers captured a few prisoners, but the following day, the attack was repulsed near Palmito Ranch by Colonel John Salmon Ford, and the battle resulted in a Union defeat. Union forces were surprised by artillery, said to have been supplied by the French Army occupying the nearby Mexican town of Matamoros.

Boca Chica Beach
Boca Chica Beach is part of the  Boca Chica tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The tract is a former Texas state park located in the Boca Chica Subdelta separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande. The park was acquired by the state of Texas and opened in May 1994. The state park land is now managed by the US federal government as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

The portion of the beach north of the current Texas State Highway 4—on what was historically Brazos Island, but is now connected to the mainland—was known as Del Mar Beach prior to the second half of the 20th century.  This area was the location of the successful Del Mar Resort in the 1920s and early 1930s, which had 20 daycabins for rent along with a bathhouse and a ballroom. Many of the resort buildings were destroyed by the 1933 hurricane. Although the owners partially rebuilt and continued to operate during the 1930s, the remaining buildings were turned into a base for the US Coast Guard during World War II. As a result of the Great Depression and hurricane damage, the owners did not reopen the resort after the end of the war.

An older map of Boca Chica shows the existence of a ship passage—Boca Chica Pass—from the Gulf into the South Bay of the Laguna Madre, several miles south of Brazos Santiago Pass, just north of the current SpaceX orbital launch site. This was from the time when Brazos Island, the duned area east of South Bay, was an island separated from the mainland. From 1846 to 1879, the King & Kennedy Steamboat service made calls at a landing in the South Bay. For sometime in the 1900s, a road bridge, called the Boca Chica Pass Bridge, went over the pass to connect the road from Brownsville to Brazos Island. Storm movement of sands and tidal flats, principally from the 1933 and 1967 hurricanes have closed off the pass and connected Brazos Island to the mainland, although water still exits the southeast end of South Bay and flows beside SH 4 into the Gulf under certain weather conditions, particularly extended days of southerly winds which build up the water level at the south end of the bay at high tide allowing limited flows of bay water back to the Gulf via the highway cut through the dunes.

Boca Chica Village

Boca Chica Village is the current name of a small unincorporated community in located on Texas State Highway 4, about  east of Brownsville. It was formed in 1967 under another name as a land development project, and a community of about 30 ranch-style houses was built before the settlement was devastated by Hurricane Beulah later that same year, which greatly affected the progress of the would-be town.

In 2014, the village and surrounding area were chosen by SpaceX as the location for the construction of a spaceflight build-and-launch facility.  Much of the SpaceX build facility is located on land that was previously a part of Boca Chica Village, while the SpaceX test and orbital launch facilities are located two miles further east, adjacent to Boca Chica Beach.

SpaceX Starbase

In 2012, SpaceX named the Boca Chica area as a possible location for the construction of their future private commercial launch site.
In August 2014, SpaceX announced that they had selected the area as the location for their South Texas Launch Site, and that their "control center" would actually be on land within the Boca Chica Village, while the launch complex would be located two miles to the east. Limited construction began that year, but more extensive construction activities did not begin until approximately 2018. By May 2018, the site was expected to be used exclusively for launches of the SpaceX second-generation fully-reusable launch vehicle (which was eventually named SpaceX Starship in late 2018), and the launch complex was no longer planned to become a third launch site for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.

Flight testing of the Starship second stage, with the newly designed Raptor rocket engine, began in 2019 and continued into 2021. With the village only a few miles from the test site, in August 2019, Cameron County officials—following requirements set by the US regulatory authority, the FAA—began to request village residents to stand outside their homes during any tests that involve loading of propellant fuel, due to perceived danger from shock-wave induced broken windows in the event of an explosion.  SpaceX had once planned an initial orbital test flight of the entire two-stage Starship system in 2022, contingent on approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Plans for a new city
As early as August 2020, SpaceX indicated it was looking to build a resort in South Texas with the intent to turn "Boca Chica into a '21st century Spaceport.

In March 2021, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk more formally announced plans to incorporate a new city in the area of Boca Chica to be called "Starbase, Texas". Starbase would include the existing Boca Chica Village, the SpaceX test site and launch site, and more of the surrounding Boca Chica area. Starbase is expected to include the land in Boca Chica Village proper—where both the legacy house community and the SpaceX build site are located—as well as the land where the SpaceX test site and launch site is located, and more since Starbase is to be a municipality "much larger than Boca Chica."

By April 2021, SpaceX was referring to the area as "Starbase" on their test flight webcasts, and Musk was openly encouraging people to move to "Starbase". and projected that the population could grow by several thousand people in the next several years.  Starbase had also become a common term for the area amongst SpaceX fans and followers.
As of April 2021, the company had not yet submitted the requisite paperwork to initiate the city formation process, and The Dallas Morning News reported that the "planning appears to be in the early stages".

See also
Bagdad, Tamaulipas — neighboring settlement across the border

References

History of Texas
Geography of Texas
Geography of Cameron County, Texas

Boca Chica (Texas)


Matato'a is a musical and dance group from Easter Island (Rapa Nui). It is one of the most famous bands from the island. Matato'a was founded in 1996 by Kevamatato'a Atan. It was in 1998 that they adopted the name of Matato'a, which means 'warrior' or 'guardian'. They played all over Chile in the same year. Mito Manutomatoma, a founding member, left the group in 1999 to play mainstream Chilean music.

The group, consisting largely of family members, uses traditional instruments, such as stones, horse jawbone, and bombo along with electric guitars and other modern elements to create a unique fusion sound.

Matato'a's principal motivation is to promote the ancestral traditions, the dances, the costumes, & body paintings of the Rapa Nui People. Performances are high-energy, with intensive indigenous cultural representation.

See also

Music of Easter Island

References

External links
 Official web site
 Sounds Across the Pacific | TO HEAR THE MUSIC WHEN IT COMES IS THE GIFT

Polynesian musicians
Easter Island people
Rapa Nui people
Chilean folk musical groups
Musical groups established in 1996
1996 establishments in Chile
1996 establishments in Oceania

Matato'a


The Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities (HCMUSSH;  ), or VNU-HCM University of Social Sciences and Humanities, is one of the member universities of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City system (VNU-HCM).

It holds the 158th position in the QS University Rankings for Asia (QS 2021). VNU-HCM is also ranked in top 101–150 on QS Top Under 50 (QS 2021), in top 301 - 500 among the 786 higher education institutions from 78 countries by QS GER 2022, in top 601 - 800 on World's Universities for Social Sciences (THE 2022) and in top 193 of the world on the QS Graduate Employability Ranking (QS GER 2022).

HCMUSSH was formerly known as the College of Letters, University of Saigon (). It is now the biggest research and training center in the field of social sciences and humanities in Southern Vietnam. In October 2021, HCMUSSH officially claimed their autonomy in the development strategy.

History

Establishment

After the 1954 Geneva Accords, the French Preparatory College of Letters, an affiliate member of  the University of Saigon, was founded in November 1955, marking the establishment of the university. On March 1, 1957, the College of Letters, University of Saigon was officially established.

In October 1975, there were various changes in objectives, curricula and programs. In April 1976, the College of Letters and the College of Science (which is now The University of Science) united, forming The University of Ho Chi Minh City. This was the biggest training and basic scientific research center in the South of Vietnam

The institution became the social sciences and humanities branch in The University of Ho Chi Minh City from 1976 to 1996. On March 30, 1996, under the Decision No. 1233/QĐ-BGD&ĐT of the Ministry of Education and Training, the College of Letters was separated from The University of Ho Chi Minh City, renamed University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Current status

The University of Social Sciences and Humanities has more than 890 faculty members and non-teaching staff. The percentage of the academic staff holding professorial titles or postgraduate degrees is 98.4%. There are more than 22,000 students enrolled in 28 undergraduate programs, 38 postgraduate programs and over 10 joint programs in collaboration with international partners.

The university is one of the two biggest institutions in the field of social sciences and humanities in Vietnam. The university is the pioneering institution in offering new academic programs to meet societal demands such as Vietnamese Studies, Oriental Studies, Anthropology, International Relations, Urban Studies, Spanish Linguistics and Literature, Italian Linguistics and Literature, and so on. In addition, the university is the leading institution nationwide in having over 300 registered international students — from Japan, South Korea, Laos, Cambodia, the United States, Singapore, Austria, Turkey, Thailand, and Australia — in degree programs and over 2,000 students enrolled in short-term courses.

The university has about 22,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in 28 undergraduate programs, 38 postgraduate programs and over 10 joint programs in collaboration with international partners.

Green University Program
Green University Program was launched on May 11, 2019. The program has 3 main stages (awareness - action - formation of green culture):
(1) awareness change to adapt to green lifestyle,
(2) environmental protection activities, such as waste sorting, landscape regenerating, reducing and saying 'no' to using single-use plastics, creating green living and studying environment,
(3) a green lifestyle culture with green lifestyle mindset.

Training

Lecturers
As of February 2021, there were 897 officers and lecturers. Amongst the 522 lecturers, there are 44 professors and assistant professors, 211 doctors, 271 masters. Those who have a doctoral degree account for 48% of the total number.

There are hundreds of international lecturers teaching at USSH, VNU - HCM.

Training work
There are several academic disciplines taught at USSH, VNU - HCM, including Behavioral and Social Sciences, Human Sciences, Journalism and Information, Educational Sciences and Teacher Training, Social Services, Trade and Management, Hotel Management, Tourism, Sports and Personal Services. Amongst 14,000 students and postgraduates, there are 12,000 regular students (including 266 foreign ones) and over 1700 postgraduates. USSH, VNU - HCM attracts thousands of foreign learners coming here as undergraduates (Vietnamese Studies, International Relations, English Linguistics, etc.) and postgraduates (Vietnamese studies, English Linguistics, Linguistics, History, etc.) to learn the Vietnamese language as well as culture, history, etc.

Statistics show that the number of international students at USSH, VNU - HCM keep increasing annually. Coming from 95 countries and territories, they are here to learn and research, especially about Vietnamese culture and language. Specifically, the number was 4.133 in 2015, 4718 in 2016, 5037 in 2017, and 5974 in the first 8 months of 2018. USSH, VNU - HCM has become the leading university in training foreign students and learners. A lot of politicians, diplomatic service officers, businesspeople, managers, etc. studied Vietnamese Studies, History, Literature, International Relations and English Linguistics, etc. at USSH, VNU - HCM.

There are 13 languages taught at the undergraduate  level, including English, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Indonesian, Arabic and Vietnamese (for foreigners).

Undergraduate programs
As of June 2021, there are 34 undergraduate academic disciplines, including:

(1) Religious Studies;

(2) Journalism;

(3) Multimedia Communication;

(4) Social Work;

(5) Urban Studies;

(6) Geography (Majors: Cartography – Remote Sensing & GIS, Demographic & Social Geography, Economic Geography – Regional Development, Environmental Geography);

(7) Oriental Studies (Majors: Arabic Studies, Australian Studies, Indian Studies, Indonesian Studies, Thai Studies);

(8) Education;

(9) Educational Management;

(10) Educational Psychology;

(11) Korean Studies (Majors: Korean Economy - Politics - Diplomacy);

(12) History (Majors: Archaeology, Vietnam History, History Of The Vietnamese Communist Party, World History);

(13) Anthropology (Majors: Development Anthropology, Social And Cultural Anthropology In The Anglo-Saxon System);

(14) International Relations;

(15) English Linguistics and Literature (Majors: Translation - Interpreting, English Linguistics And Language Teaching, American-British Culture And Literature);

(16) French Linguistics And Literature;

(17) German Linguistics And Literature;

(18) Spanish Linguistics And Literature;

(19) Russian Linguistics And Literature;

(20) Chinese Linguistics and Literature;

(21) Italian Linguistics and Literature;

(22) Japanese Studies;

(23) Psychology;

(24) Library And Information Sciences;

(25) Philosophy (Majors: Philosophy, Political Sciences, Religious Studies, Scientific Socialism);

(26) Cultural Studies;

(27) Literature (Majors: Sinology & Nom Studies, Literature, Playwriting);

(28) Linguistics;

(29) Vietnamese Studies;

(30) Sociology;

(31) Tourism (Majors: Tour Guide, Travel Management, Hotel - Restaurant - Resort Management);

(32) Archives;

(33) Information Management;

(34) Office Management.

Training programs:

There are 7 training programs, including: (1) English Linguistics and Literature; (2) International Relations; (3) Japanese Studies; (4) Journalism; (5) Tourism; (6) Chinese Linguistics and Literature; (7) German Linguistics and Literature.

International programs
I. Bachelor Programs

1. Bachelor of Communication, major in journalism (2+2) collaborated with Deakin University, Australia (coordinated by Center for International Education)

2. Bachelor of Arts, major in International Relations (2+2) collaborated with Deakin University, Australia (coordinated by Center for International Education)

3. Bachelor of Science in English (2+2) collaborated with the University of Minnesota Crookston (coordinated by Center for International Education)

4. Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language (2+2) collaborated with Guangxi Normal University  (coordinated by Center for International Education)

5. Bachelor of Arts in Vietnamese Studies (2+2) collaborated with Busan University of Foreign Studies, South Korea (coordinated by Faculty of Vietnamese Studies)

6. Bachelor of Arts in Vietnamese Studies (2+2) collaborated with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea (coordinated by Faculty of Vietnamese Studies)

7. Bachelor of Arts in Vietnamese Studies (2+2) collaborated with Youngsan University of Foreign Studies, South Korea (coordinated by Faculty of Vietnamese Studies)

8. Bilingual French - Vietnamese program in Bachelor of Arts in Geography collaborated with French Universities (coordinated by the Faculty of Geography)

II. Master Programs

1. Master of Science in Media and Communications Management, collaborated with University of Stirling, the UK (coordinated by Center for International Education)

2. Master of Arts in linguistics with TESOL Concentration, collaborated with Benedictine University, the US (coordinated by Center for International Education)

Postgraduate programs
- 2 International programs: (1) Master of Science in Media and Communications (collaborated with Stirling University, the UK); (2) Master of Arts in linguistics with TESOL Concentration (collaborated with Benedictine University, the US).

- 18 Doctoral Degree programs: (1) Theoretical Linguistic; (2) Comparative Linguistics; (3) Vietnamese Literature; (4) Theory of Literature; (5) Vietnam History; (6) World History; (7) Ethnology; (8) Archeology; (9) Philosophy; (10) Cultural Studies; (11) Russian Linguistic and Literature; (12) Management of Natural and Environmental Resources; (13) Dialectical Materialism and History Materialism; (14) Sociology; (15) Educational Management; (16) Library And Information Sciences; (17) Vietnamese Studies; (18) Anthropology.

- 34 Master's degree programs: (1) Journalism; (2) Vietnam Literature; (3) Foreign Literature; (4) International Relations; (5) Vietnam History; (6) World History; (7) History Of The Vietnamese Communist Party; (8) Educational Management; (9) Russian Linguistics and Literature; (10) Management of Natural and Environmental Resources; (11) Library And Information Sciences; (12) Scientific Socialism; (13) TESOL Methodology; (14) Cultural Studies; (15) Ethnology; (16) Anthropology; (17) Linguistics; (18) Philosophy; (19) Archeology; (20) Sociology; (21) Asian Studies; (22) Vietnamese Studies; (23) Geography; (24) Urban Studies; (25) Archives; (26) French Linguistics and Literature; (27) Clinical Psychology; (28) Tourism; (29) Social Work; (30) Education; (31) Sinology & Nom Studies; (32) Korean Studies; (33) Theory of Literature; (34) Political Sciences.

Accreditation - Certificate of Appreciation
Accreditation

Certificate of Education Quality Accreditation in 2017
 Programs certified by ASEAN university network-quality assurance (AUN-QA):
 Master of Arts in Vietnamese Studies
 Bachelor of Arts in English Language & Linguistics
 Bachelor of Arts in Journalism
 Bachelor of Arts in Social Work
 Bachelor of Arts in History
USSH is preparing for a quality assessment at the institutional level under the AUN-QA standards.

Certificate of Appreciation
 Third Class Independence Medal
 First Class Labor Medal
 Third Class Labor Medal
 Prime Minister Commendation
 The government's emulation flag
 Certificate of Merit from Ministry of Education and Training
 Certificate of Merit from National University - Ho Chi Minh City

Organization

Offices
Administrative Affairs; Human Resources and Organization; Undergraduate Affairs; Student Affairs; Planning and Finance; Facilities and Equipment Management; Educational Inspectorate - Legality - Intellectual Property; External Relations and Research Affairs; Educational Testing and Quality Assurance; Communication and Enterprise Relations; Thu Duc Campus.

Faculty

 Journalism
 Spanish Linguistics and Literature
 Italian Linguistics and Literature
 Korean Studies
 Japanese Studies
 Social Work
 Physical Education
 Anthropology
 International Relations
 Cultural Studies
 Geography
 Oriental Studies
 Education
 History
 English Linguistics & Literature
 German Linguistics & Literature
 Russian Linguistics & Literature
 French Linguistics & Literature
 Chinese Linguistics & Literature
 Literature & Linguistics
 Linguistics
 Philosophy
 Communication and Information
 Library & Information Science
 Archives and Office Management
 Vietnamese Studies
 Sociology
 Psychology
 Urban Studies
 Tourism

Centers
The university has 14 centers: (1) Foreign Languages; (2) International Education; (3) Development, Career Orientation and Human Resources Development; (4) Korean Studies; (5) International Studies; (6) Religion and Ethics Studies; (7) Thai Center; (8) Rural Development Saemaul Undong; (9) Theoretical and Applied Culturology; (10) Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies; (11) ASEAN Human Resources; (12) Center for Admission Conselling and Student Support; (13) Center for Mental Health Research and Support; (14) Advisory Center for Publication and Project Development.

Library
The Library USSH was preceded by the Library University of Letters, part of the University of Saigon (officially established in 1955). In April 1977, the Library University of Letters and the Library University of Science merged into the Library University of Ho Chi Minh City to serve scientific research and training purposes. In March 1996, Library USSH was split from the Library University of Ho Chi Minh City

The library's mission is to provide materials in various fields of social sciences and humanities as well as to facilitate students and teachers in their training and research. It's responsible for organizing, managing, supplementing, collecting, and preserving various kinds of documents.

Campuses
USSH has 2 campuses: Main campus (in Dist 1) and Thu Duc campus:

The main campus is at 10-12 Dinh Tien Hoang Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1 with an area of 1.2 hectares. It is home to the president's and vice president's office, administrative offices, faculties, departments, and international centers. It also houses postgraduate students, foreign students and students in high-quality training programs.

Contact address: 10–12, Dinh Tien Hoang Str, Ben Nghe Ward, Dist 1, HCMC

Thu Duc campus, with an area of 23 hectares in Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc City, is part of the 700-hectare college town of the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City. This campus is reserved for students of higher education and is also the place for many functional zones such as lecture halls, classrooms, playgrounds, library, museum, stadium, etc.

Contact address: USSH, University Town of VNUHCMC, Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc city, HCMC

International linkages
USSH, VNU - HCM has partnered with nearly 400 institutions from 33 different countries and regions around the world.

 Long-term and short-term exchange programs for students and lecturers;
 International training and research programs;
 Undergraduate / postgraduate credit transfer systems and training programs in cooperation with other academic institutions and universities;
 International projects in the fields of education, entrepreneurship, climate change, etc.;
 International scientific conferences and seminars, as well as publications in cooperation with other research institutions and journals to study the fields of social sciences and humanities.

Over the years, the university's global network includes accredited institutions from the United States, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Spain, China, Thailand, India, Malaysia, etc.

List of USSH, VNU-HCM Rectors

Current Board of Rectors
Rector: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Thi Phuong Lan (from May 4, 2018)

Vice Rectors
 Dr. Phan Thanh Dinh, in charge of Planning and Finance, Facilities and Equipment Management
 Dr. Pham Tan Ha, in charge of Undergraduate Training and Postgraduate Training, Educational Testing and Quality Assurance
 Dr. Le Hoang Dung, in charge of Internationalization of Training Programs, Student Affairs, Internal Relations, External Relations and Research Affairs

Past Rectors
1955–1957 College of Letters

-   1955 Nguyen Dinh Hoa

-   1955–1960 Nguyen Huy Bao

-   1960–1963 Nguyen Dang Thuc

-   1963–1964 Bui Xuan Bao

-   1964 Nguyen Dang Thuc

-   1965–1975 Nguyen Khac Hoach

1976–1996 University of Ho Chi Minh City

-   1976–1981 Ly Hoa

-   1981–1988 Phan Huu Dat

-   1990–1996 Nguyen Ngoc Giao

1996–Present University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City

-   1996–1999 Nguyen Quang Dien

-   1999–2007 Ngo Van Le

-   2007–2018 Vo Van Sen

-   2018–present Ngo Thi Phuong Lan

Alumni
The university's notable alumni are some of Vietnam's leading politicians:
- Mr. Truong Tan Sang (President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 2011–2016 tenure),
- Ms. Truong My Hoa (Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 2022–2007 tenure),
- Ms. Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh (Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 9/2018–10/2018),
- Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, 2016-2021 tenure),
- Mr. Vo Van Thuong (Member of the Politburo, Standing member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee's Secretariat, Head of Central Propaganda Department of the CPV, 2016–2021 tenure).

Among the alumni of the university are prominent artists that have made significant contributions for Vietnam Art and Literature: Tran Long An (Musician), Vu Duc Sao Bien (Musician), Ton That Lap (Musician), Duc Huy (Musician), Duong Thuy (Author), Ho Trung Dung (Singer), Hari Won (Singer, Actress), Tran Ngoc Lan Khue (Beauty queen, Model), Hoai Anh (Presenter), Tan Tai (Presenter), Dinh Ngoc Diep (Actress), Ribi Sachi (Model, Actress), Orange (Singer), etc.

See also
 List of universities in Vietnam

Notes

Universities in Ho Chi Minh City
Universities and colleges established in 1955
1955 establishments in South Vietnam


Mario Agostino Rocca (born in Genoa, Italy, on 27 June 1956) is an Italian experimental physicist. His main contributions are on the experimental measurement of surface phonon spectra, conventional and acoustic surface plasmon dispersion, and gas surface interaction.

Career

Mario Rocca graduated in physics in 1981 at the University of Genoa. For his PhD studies, he moved to the Forschungzentrum Jülich and became Doctor Rerum Naturae at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH) in 1985 under the supervision of Harald Ibach with a thesis on surface phonon anomalies induced by adsorption of gases. He was a research staff member at the University of Genoa from 1984 to 1992, when he became associate professor. Since 2001, Rocca has been holding the position of full professor of Condensed matter physics. Between 2002 and 2005 he was Deputy Director of the Department of Physics of the University of Genoa. He is vice-chair of the Surface Science Division of the International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique, and Application (IUVSTA) and member of the scientific board of the Italian Union of Scientists for Disarmament. He was editor of Surface Science Reports until 2018, currently he is editor of Applied Surface Science and of Springer Series in Surface Science. He directs the International Summer School on Science Management for Scientists and Engineers. According to a PLOS Biology, Mario Rocca is among the 100.000 top-scientists of the world.

Selected publications

 Mario Rocca Low-energy EELS investigation of surface electronic excitation on metals, Surface Science Reports, 22 (1995), pp. 1-71.
 Diaconescu B. et al. Low energy acoustic plasmons at metal surfaces, Nature, 448 (2007), pp. 57-59.
 Vattuone L.et al. Bridging the structure gap: Chemistry of nanostructured surfaces at well-defined defects, Surface Science Reports, 63 (2008), pp. 101-168.

References

1956 births
Living people
20th-century  Italian  physicists
21st-century  Italian  physicists
Experimental physicists
Italian expatriates in Germany
University of Genoa alumni
RWTH Aachen University alumni
Academic staff of the University of Genoa
20th-century Italian male writers
Scientists from Genoa
Academic journal editors

Mario Rocca


Napoleone Ferrara (born 26 July 1956, Catania), is an Italian-American molecular biologist who joined University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center in 2013 after a career in Northern California at the biotechnology giant Genentech, where he pioneered the development of new treatments for angiogenic diseases such as cancer, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and diabetic retinopathy. At Genentech, he discovered VEGF—and made the first anti-VEGF antibody—which suppresses growth of a variety of tumors. These findings helped lead to development of the first clinically available angiogenesis inhibitor, bevacizumab (Avastin), which prevents the growth of new blood vessels into a solid tumor and which has become part of standard treatment for a variety of cancers. Ferrara's work led also to the development of ranibizumab (Lucentis), a drug that is highly effective at preventing vision loss in intraocular neovascular disorders.

Education
Ferrara received his medical degree from the University of Catania, Italy, in 1981, and joined Genentech in 1988. He did his postdoctoral research at University of California, San Francisco.

Current research
At UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Ferrara, a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2006, serves as Senior Deputy Director for Basic Science and is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology in the UC San Diego School of Medicine, where he will continue cancer drug research targeting angiogenesis. He is presently focusing on investigating mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis alternative to VEGF, in particular the role of factors produced by myeloid cells and fibroblasts in mediating resistance to VEGF inhibitors.

Selected honors and awards
For his VEGF discovery, he won a Lasker Award in 2010. In 2013, he was awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work. He has received numerous other awards, including the General Motors Cancer Research Award (2006), the ASCO Science of Oncology Award (2007), the Pezcoller Foundation/AACR International Award (2009), the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research (2011), and The Economist's Innovation Award for bioscience in 2012. Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande in 2005.

In September 2014, Ferrara was awarded the António Champalimaud Vision Award, awarded by the Champalimaud Foundation.

2023, Keio Medical Science Prize.

References

1956 births
Living people
Italian molecular biologists
Genentech people
University of California, San Diego faculty
Winners of The Economist innovation awards
Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award
University of California, San Francisco alumni
Scientists from Sicily
Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Napoleone Ferrara


United States Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan with its eight branch clinics are US Navy medical treatment facilities catering to the medical needs of eligible Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Airmen, family members, U.S. government employees, retired military service members and other eligible beneficiaries of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces on mainland Japan, Korea and Diego Garcia. The core hospital is located on board Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka with branch clinics serving Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, Commander Fleet Activities Chinhae Korea, Naval Support Activity Diego Garcia, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and Commander Fleet Activities Sasebo.

U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka staff is composed of active duty service members, U.S. Civil Servants (USCS), contract employees and Japan Master Labor Contract (MLC) employees.

History
The core hospital (headquarters of U.S. Naval Hospital, Yokosuka) is located on the grounds of the original hospital compound built in 1881 for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Earthquake and fire destroyed those buildings in 1923. The Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt the hospital in February 1931 as a medical center and training school. At the end of World War II, American Occupational Forces used the facility as a 250-bed hospital dispensary. On September 11, 1950, at the beginning of the Korean War, the hospital was established.

The command received its first Navy Unit Commendation for treatment of over 5,800 casualties from the Korean War. A second Navy Unit Commendation was awarded for services rendered during the Vietnam War. In 1973, the base was revitalized with the arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Midway and the start of the Overseas Family Residency Program. Due to the increased importance of the Middle East and Far East theatres, a new hospital facility was built in 1980 and opened on February 10, 1981.

Shortly before the hospital opened, the command received a Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal for support provided to burn patients from the Marine Corps Training Camp, Camp Fuji, Japan, in October 1979. A second Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal was awarded for superb medical support provided between July 1986 and July 1988. A third Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal was awarded in July 1994 for support provided to victims of an explosion and fire aboard USS Midway in 1990 and victims of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Republic of Philippines in 1991.

In 1999, the Navy Medicine Inspector General recognized USNH Yokosuka as a benchmark command in customer relations and marketing. USNH Yokosuka opened a joint Wellness Center at the Fleet Recreation Center in Yokosuka and the world's first Women, Infants and Children Overseas Office in 2001.

After September 11, 2001 the command reengineered operational readiness training. Throughout 2002, the command strengthened force health protection for the Forward-Deployed Naval Forces and those who support them while simultaneously improving Family Centered Care. In 2003 the command opened a Stork's Nest to assist pregnant women and their families throughout mainland Japan. USNH Yokosuka provided support to USS Kitty Hawk's medical department during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In addition to eligible beneficiaries, U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka continues to support Overseas Contingency Operations and humanitarian missions worldwide.

Capabilities and Services
U.S. Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, provides a comprehensive range of emergency, outpatient and inpatient care services to about 43,000 active duty personnel and authorized beneficiaries. With its regional Educational and Developmental Intervention Services (EDIS), USNH Yokosuka provides care to children with special needs at every military base in mainland Japan.

Notable personnel
John S. Meyer, physician

References

 Naval Hospital core site, "History, Mission, and Command" Sept. 10, 2010.

External links

Hospital buildings completed in 1881
Government buildings completed in 1881
Hospital buildings completed in 1931
Government buildings completed in 1931
Hospital buildings completed in 1980
Government buildings completed in 1980
United States military hospitals
Medical installations of the United States Navy
Hospitals established in 1881
1881 establishments in Japan

Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan


Helen Smith Shoemaker (March 16, 1903 - January 29, 1993) was an American author, sculptor and Episcopalian church leader, and co-founder of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer.

Biography
She was born in New York City on March 16, 1903 to Howard Alexander Smith, a U.S. senator from New Jersey from 1944 to 1958, and Helen Babcock Dominick.

Helen Smith was educated privately and then studied art in New York City. She attended schools in Colorado, Princeton, New Jersey, and Florence, Italy. She also studied art in Paris and New York. In the 1920s in New York, she was attracted to the First Century Christian Fellowship founded by Frank Buchman, that would later become the Oxford Group in 1928, and the Moral Re-Armament movement (MRA) in 1938.

She worked and resided with a First Century Christian Fellowship group at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, and there met the Rev. Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, (Samuel Moor Shoemaker), who was rector. After their marriage, she sought to help her clergyman husband by a ministry of hospitality and entertaining. She was a founder of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer, an international prayer movement, consisting of small groups of people meeting in church basements and homes to pray for soldiers during World War II.

It expanded in 1958 into a nationwide organization whose mission is to intercede continually for the national church and beyond, following the Anglican Cycle of Prayer. After the death of her husband, she wrote a memoir of him, I Stand By the Door: The Life of Sam Shoemaker (1967). She published a number of books on prayer, including Prayer and You (1948), and The Secret Effect of Prayer (1967).

The family moved to Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh in 1952 and retired to a home in the Greenspring Valley of Baltimore County in 1962. Mr. Shoemaker died in 1963.

Mrs. Shoemaker, along with Polly Wiley of Pound, New York, began organizing the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer in the 1940s. The organization is now based in Orlando, Florida. She was the keynote speaker at U.S. President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Prayer Breakfast in 1962 and represented the Episcopal Church at the First Evangelical Congress in Switzerland at the invitation of evangelist Billy Graham.  A lifelong champion of the lay ministry and the role of women in the church, Mrs. Shoemaker also supported civil rights.

She died in Brooklandville, Maryland on January 29, 1993 at age 89.

Sculptures

In her early 70s, Mrs. Shoemaker began sculpting again. She created a series of bronze statues of Archangels, a head of Christ and several other works now owned by churches and other religious organizations.

Shoemaker created a set of four Archangels consisting of Archangel Michael, Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Uriel and Archangel Raphael.

The bronze Archangels were manufactured under private contract and were delivered with a 40-page booklet on The Archangels.

Every Archangel made by Shoemaker was done by her employing the process of  Lost-wax casting, each statue therefore had unique and slight differences.

No complete set of the four bronze Archangels is known to exist.

References

External links
Helen Smith Shoemaker at World Catalogue
Bibliographic directory from Project Canterbury

1903 births
1993 deaths
Writers from New York City
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American Episcopalians

Helen Smith Shoemaker


Ambient occlusion is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to estimate how light behaves more accurately. Inner crevices of objects (or space where two objects are close to each other) have less light and appear darker (have more shadow).

Imagine being inside a matte world with even light; the surface color is exactly the same everywhere, so you shouldn't be able to see any corners or edges; because of the described effect, you can.

Computer graphics

Ambient occlusion


Grugan Township is a township in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 48 at the 2020 census.

History
The township was formed in 1851, and was taken from territory in Colebrook Township and Chapman Township. The township is divided into two nearly equal parts by the West Branch Susquehanna River. The township is named for the descendants of Charles Grogan, later written as "Grugan", an Irish immigrant and American Revolution veteran from Lancaster County. Charles froze to death in the Buffalo Valley Region during the winter of 1790–1791, and his sons, James and Alexander Grugan, later reared large families in what became Grugan Township. The earliest known settlers of the region were John Baker Atkin and James Burney. The first school in Grugan Township was opened in 1830.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which  is land and , or 1.60%, is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 52 people, 26 households, and 17 families residing in the township. The population density was 0.8 people per square mile (0.3/km). There were 144 housing units at an average density of 2.1/sq mi (0.8/km). The racial makeup of the township was 98.08% White and 1.92% Native American.

There were 26 households, out of which 7.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.4% were married couples living together, and 34.6% were non-families. 34.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.53.

In the township the population was spread out, with 11.5% under the age of 18, 19.2% from 25 to 44, 44.2% from 45 to 64, and 25.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 56 years. For every 100 females, there were 108.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 119.0 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $35,625, with the median income for a family was $37,500. Males had a median income of $38,750 versus $0 for females. The per capita income for the township was $20,086. There were no families and 5.6% of the population living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and none of those over 64.

References

External links

Populated places established in 1785
Townships in Clinton County, Pennsylvania
Townships in Pennsylvania

Grugan Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania