Bartolomeo Picchiatti (Ferrara, 1571 – Naples, 3 April 1643) was an Italian engineer and architect. A short street in the Soccavo area of the city is named after him.

Life
He moved to Naples in 1593, having been summoned by the architect  Domenico Fontana to be his assistant. He assisted Domenico and Giulio Cesare Fontana in the completion of works left incomplete by Giulio on his departure for Spain. He took charge of the excavating the Regi Lagni, planned by Fontana but only begun in the 17th century, before in 1634 the engineer Tommaso Alappio (? – ?, 23 August 1646) took over overall control whilst Picchiatti continued to direct the building site. In 1654 the Congregazione dei Nobili put Picchiatti in charge of designing and building the Palazzo Monte dei Poveri Vergognosi. Three years later he had a son, Francesco Antonio Picchiatti, who also became an architect and assisted his father in the last years of his life.

In 1620 Bartolomeo completed San Giorgio dei Genovesi and in 1621 designed the gateway to Palazzo di Sangro (constructed by Giuliano Finelli) and the small Santuario della Madonna dell'Arco. 1621 also saw him inherit the building site for San Carlo alle Mortelle - he also went on to design its college and thus became a trusted architect for the Barnabites. Following Giulio Cesare Fontana's death in 1627 he also took over as official engineer to the royal court, a post his son also later assumed. In 1632 he and  Cosimo Fanzago rebuilt Pozzuoli Cathedral in Rione Terra. In 1638 he worked on the church of Santi Apostoli, designing its elegant two-colour bell-tower. That year he also worked on the building of Santa Maria della Stella.

In 1641 he and his son jointly designed the Basilica of Sant'Agostino alla Zecca. He also restored Santa Maria Donnalbina at an unknown date. He died in 1643 and all his outstanding projects were assigned to Onofrio Antonio Gisolfi, who until 1656 took over the role of royal engineer.

References

Bibliography (in Italian)
 Francesco Domenico Moccia e Dante Caporali, NapoliGuida-Tra Luoghi e Monumenti della città storica, Clean, 2001
Aurelio De Rose, I Palazzi di Napoli. Storia, curiosità e aneddoti che si tramadano da secoli su questi straordinari testimoni della vita partenopea, Newton e Compton editori, Napoli, 2004.
 Napoli e Dintorni, TCI, 2007

Italian Baroque architects
16th-century Italian architects
17th-century Italian architects
16th-century Neapolitan people
17th-century Neapolitan people
Architects from Ferrara
1571 births
1643 deaths

Bartolomeo Picchiatti


Youssef Rahmeh military base ( Thouknat Yousif Rahme) is a Lebanese Army base under the jurisdiction of the North regional command (Bahjat Ghanem military base). Founded on May 1, 1980, the military base is the headquarters of the Skiing and Mountain Fighting School, located in the Cedar region near Bsharri.

It comprises a number of 50 bedrooms for the military personnel and one restaurant, in addition to an officers' club for the Lebanese military officers and their families.

Mission
The mission of the military base includes:
 Defending all the facilities located in the Youssef Rahmeh military base and supplying a reserve for the deployed forces on ground.
 Supplying food, lubricants and performing search and rescue operations.
 Accomplishing all required tasks for preserving the Cedar forest area, with future plans of planting 10,452 (similar to the country's km area) cedar tree in the forest surrounding the base.
 Rescuing, during periods of high alert, people caught in snow storms.

See also
 Lebanese Army Skiing and Mountain Fighting School
 Cedars of God

References

Lebanese Army bases

Youssef Rahmeh military base


The Brotherhood of Mutants, originally called the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, is a group of supervillains from Marvel Comics who fight against the X-Men. Their leader is the supervillain Magneto. Most members are mutant whose origin story involves being treated very badly by normal humans and who want revenge.

In the 2000 movie X-Men, Magneto tells the mutant-hating Robert Kelly "My dear Senator, we aren't here to kill you, we're here to welcome you to the Brotherhood of Mutants". Within that movie, Mystique, a naturally blue shape-shifter who is in love with Magneto, Sabretooth, who is strong and has fangs and Toad, a mutant with the powers of a toad.   In the sequel, X2, an X-Man named Pyro who can control fire leaves the X-Men to join Magneto and Mystique and they become the new Brotherhood of Mutants.

In the next movie X-Men:The Last Stand, Magneto frees a number of dangerous mutants captured by the government and makes them part of the new Brotherhood of Mutants. They include Juggernaut, who is very strong and cannot be stopped once he starts moving, Gemini who can clone himself and once robbed six banks at the same time, the Phoenix, a female X-Man once called Jean Grey a male mutant with the powers of a porcupine, a female mutant who can sense other mutants and what their powers are and Pyro.

In the movie X-Men:First Class, Erik Leshnerr convinces mutants who worked for the supervillain Sebastian Shaw to leave his army, the Hellfire Club and become the First Brotherhood of Mutants.

In X-Men:Days of Future Past, Magneto tells all the mutants in the world to "form a new Brotherhood of our kind" to take over from the humans.

Marvel Comics supervillains

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants


Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 2008 musical comedy-drama miniseries in three acts, produced exclusively for Internet distribution. Filmed and set in Los Angeles, the show tells the story of Dr. Horrible (played by Neil Patrick Harris), an aspiring supervillain; Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), his superheroic nemesis; and Penny (Felicia Day), a charity worker and their shared love interest.

The series was written by writer/director Joss Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon (a television writer) and Jed Whedon (a composer), and writer/actress Maurissa Tancharoen. The team wrote the musical during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike. Reception has been overwhelmingly positive. On October 31, 2008, Time magazine named it #15 in Time'''s Top 50 Inventions of 2008. It also won the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Online Sensation", and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. In the inaugural 2009 Streamy Awards for web television, Dr. Horrible won seven awards: Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series, Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series, Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series, Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series (Harris), Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Music. It also won a 2009 Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs.

PlotDr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog consists of three acts of approximately 14 minutes each. They were first released online in July 2008 as individual episodes, with two-day intervals between each release.

Act I
Dr. Horrible films an entry for his video blog, giving updates on his schemes and responding to various emails from his viewers. Asked about the "her" that he often mentions, he launches into a song about Penny, the girl he likes from the laundromat who only knows him as his civilian alter ego Billy. ("My Freeze Ray"). Horrible's roommate Moist brings him a letter from Bad Horse, the leader of the Evil League of Evil. The letter informs Dr. Horrible that his application for entry into the League will be evaluated based on his next heinous crime ("Bad Horse Chorus").

The following day, Horrible prepares to steal a case of wonderflonium for his time-stopping Freeze Ray by commandeering the courier van with a remote control device. Penny appears asking him to sign a petition to turn a condemned city building into a homeless shelter ("Caring Hands"). However, the remote requires his attention, and he appears uninterested in her and her cause. As Penny leaves, Horrible is conflicted, but opts to steal the wonderflonium instead of following.

Captain Hammer appears and smashes the remote control receiver, inadvertently causing the van to veer towards Penny. Hammer pushes her out of the way as Horrible regains control of the van and stops it, making it appear that Captain Hammer stopped the van with his bare hands. Hammer beats Dr. Horrible, but stops when Penny emerges to thank him; Horrible escapes with the wonderflonium as they serenade each other ("A Man's Gotta Do").

Act II
Dr. Horrible stalks Penny and Captain Hammer on their dates ("My Eyes"). At the laundromat, Penny befriends Horrible's Billy identity. Horrible reveals on his blog that his Freeze Ray has been completed, and that he plans to use it the next day. The following post reveals that he has failed, as Hammer and the LAPD watch his blog. Bad Horse reprimands Horrible for his failure, saying that the only way to be inducted now is to commit an assassination ("Bad Horse Chorus (Reprise)"). Horrible agonizes over whether he's ready to commit murder.

Billy chats with Penny over frozen yogurt about their problems ("Penny's Song"), but Billy panics when Captain Hammer drops by to visit. They feign ignorance on recognizing each other, but when Penny leaves them alone, Hammer reveals that he knows Billy is Dr. Horrible. Hammer taunts Dr. Horrible about his crush on Penny, making it clear that he only wants Penny so he can take her away from Horrible. Horrible resolves to kill Hammer to gain admission to the Evil League of Evil ("Brand New Day").

Act III
Under Penny's influence, Captain Hammer launches a crusade to help the homeless and clean up the city's structural issues. Waiting at the laundromat for an absent Billy, Penny ponders her relationship with Hammer while Dr. Horrible goes into seclusion to build a death ray ("So They Say"). At the opening for Penny's new homeless shelter, Captain Hammer makes a speech that degenerates into condescending self-praise ("Everyone's a Hero"). Penny, embarrassed and disillusioned, quietly tries to leave, but Horrible appears and renders Hammer motionless with his freeze ray. Dr. Horrible taunts the shocked crowd and reveals his completed death ray ("Slipping"), but hesitates before killing Hammer, fearing what Penny will think if she sees.

Hammer suddenly breaks free from his paralysis and punches Horrible across the room, damaging the death ray. He picks up the death ray and prepares to use it on Horrible, but the damaged device explodes and causes Hammer pain for the first time in his life. Wailing childishly, Hammer flees the scene. Horrible fears he has vanquished his nemesis without committing the murder required by the League, but then discovers Penny fatally impaled by shrapnel from the exploding death ray. She dies in Horrible's arms, saying deliriously that "Captain Hammer will save us."

Horrible realizes that Penny's death counts as the required murder, and that the infamous act has made him a true villain. Captain Hammer is last seen sobbing on a therapist's couch. Horrible attends a party to celebrate his induction into the League, taking his seat among other villains including Bad Horse (an actual horse). He declares his intention to subjugate the world, but is last shown out of costume as Billy, staring into his blog camera ("Everything You Ever").

Soundtrack

The musical contains 14 songs, including credits and reprises, but at the time of broadcast the song titles were not identified. The soundtrack was released through the iTunes Store on September 1, 2008 and was released on CD in the US on December 15, 2008.Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack made the top 40 Album list on release, despite being a digital exclusive only available on iTunes.

Musical numbers
Act I
"Dr. Horrible Theme" – Instrumental
"My Freeze Ray" – Dr. Horrible
"Bad Horse Chorus" – Bad Horse Chorus
"Caring Hands" – Penny
"A Man's Gotta Do" – Dr. Horrible, Penny & Captain Hammer

Act II
"Dr. Horrible Theme" – Instrumental
"My Eyes" – Dr. Horrible & Penny
"Bad Horse Chorus (Reprise)" – Bad Horse Chorus
"Penny's Song" – Penny
"Brand New Day" – Dr. Horrible

Act III
"Dr. Horrible Theme" – Instrumental
"So They Say" – Movers, Captain Hammer Groupies, Penny, Captain Hammer, News Anchors & Dr. Horrible
"Everyone's a Hero" – Captain Hammer & Groupies
"Slipping" – Dr. Horrible
"Everything You Ever/Finale" – Dr. Horrible & Groupies
"End Credits" – Instrumental

Cast

 Neil Patrick Harris as Billy/Dr. Horrible: An aspiring supervillain of the mad scientist variety with the catchphrase "I've got a Ph.D. in Horribleness". He desires to become a member of Bad Horse's Evil League of Evil and use his inventions to take over the world and enact social change for the betterment of humanity. His socio-political beliefs include the paradoxical idea of autocratic anarchy: "The world is a mess, and I just... need to rule it". As Billy, he struggles to make a romantic connection with Penny.
 Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer: Dr. Horrible's archenemy, a superhero who possesses super-human strength and near-invulnerability. Hammer is self-centered and enjoys harassing Dr. Horrible even when the situation does not warrant it.
 Felicia Day as Penny: Dr. Horrible's love interest. Rising above a troubled past, she is idealistic, generous, and volunteers at a homeless shelter.
 Simon Helberg as Moist: Dr. Horrible's friend and sidekick, who has the underwhelming ability to dampen things. Dr. Horrible calls him "my evil moisture buddy".

Several colleagues of Joss Whedon have cameo roles in the series. Marti Noxon, an executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrays a newsreader alongside Buffy and Angel writer David Fury. Buffy and Angel writers Doug Petrie and Drew Goddard cameo as supervillains Professor Normal and Fake Thomas Jefferson, respectively. Jed, Joss, and Zack Whedon all provide the singing voices of Bad Horse Chorus. Zack also plays the man who rolls the gurney with Penny on it out of frame, and Jed Whedon also appears as the supervillain Dead Bowie, while Maurissa Tancharoen, Steve Berg, and Stacy Shirk play superhero/supervillain groupies; Tancharoen also performs the background voice on "Everything You Ever".

Production
Joss Whedon funded the project himself (at just over $200,000) and enjoyed the independence of acting as his own studio. "Freedom is glorious," he comments. "And the fact is, I've had very good relationships with studios, and I've worked with a lot of smart executives. But there is a difference when you can just go ahead and do something." As a web show, there were fewer constraints imposed on the project, and Whedon had the "freedom to just let the dictates of the story say how long it's gonna be. We didn't have to cram everything in—there is a lot in there—but we put in the amount of story that we wanted to and let the time work around that. We aimed for thirty minutes, we came out at forty two, and that's not a problem." Some of the music was influenced by Stephen Sondheim.

The production of the DVD included a contest, announced at Comic-Con, in which fans submitted a three-minute video explaining why they should be inducted into the Evil League of Evil. Ten winning submissions have been added to the DVD release.

Recording locations
The songs were recorded in a small studio set up in Joss Whedon's loft. Dr. Horrible was shot in Los Angeles, with five locations on one soundstage, and one day of filming at the Universal Studios backlot street set, including the scenes of the van heist, and the giant Dr. Horrible crushing people beneath his feet. Dr. Horrible's home, used for blogging scenes as well as the final party scene, is the house featured in the "Mad Scientist House" episode of Monster House.

Distribution
Whedon has said that the plan was to find a venue for the series that would enable it to earn its money back and pay the crew. This plan was to release the show onto the Internet, with an iTunes release to follow. If the Internet and iTunes releases were successful enough, Whedon planned to greenlight an official DVD, which would include some "amazing extras".

The musical's fansite launched in March 2008 (despite the official site containing nothing more than a poster at the time) and was the first place to publicly release the teaser trailer three months later on June 25, 2008.

Online
The episodes first aired at the Official Dr. Horrible website, hosted on Hulu, accessible internationally (unusual for the US-based service whose videos are typically not accessible to Internet users who reside outside the US) and free to watch (ad-supported). Act I premiered on Tuesday, July 15, 2008; Act II followed two days later on July 17; and Act III surfaced on July 19. The episodes were taken offline on July 20 as planned, but became available again on July 28. The show was later (date unknown) restricted to the United States only.

On October 10, 2009, all three acts were made available via iTunes for the UK and Australia. The film is also available from Amazon Video on Demand. On November 29, 2009, all three acts, both separate and together, were taken off Hulu. On February 22, 2010, the full feature became available to stream on Netflix, with all three episodes appearing sequentially. On March 20, 2014, it was removed from Netflix.

DVD and Blu-ray
On November 28, 2008, the Official Dr. Horrible website announced that pre-orders were being taken for the DVD. The following day Tubefilter reported that pre-orders of the Dr. Horrible DVD were "booming".

The DVD was released exclusively at Amazon.com on December 19, 2008, in the United States and on January 13, 2009, in Canada at Amazon.ca.

The DVD is region free. During pre-ordering the Amazon page stated the discs would be manufactured on demand using recordable media. Although some customers report receiving DVD-R discs (identified by a purple data-side), most are receiving pressed discs.

On June 2, 2009, a new release of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was produced by New Video Group, which included the same materials as the Amazon DVD but was distributed through regular retail outlets. A Blu-ray version was released on May 25, 2010, from New Video Group.

Special features on the DVD and Blu-ray include Commentary! The Musical; commentary by the cast and creators; behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of the movie and the music; the top 10 Evil League of Evil application videos from fans; and four easter eggs.

Commentary! The Musical
The DVD and Blu-ray versions of Dr. Horrible include as an extra Commentary! The Musical, a commentary track comprising entirely new songs performed by the cast and crew, thus creating another whole musical on its own. The actors and writers sing various songs both as solos and with the entire company, playing versions of themselves. Commentary! is partly self-referential, and one of the co-creators, Zack Whedon, self-referentially comments that one song "wasn't even about the movie, it was about itself", which he claims is "like breaking the ninth wall". As of January 8, 2010, Commentary! The Musical has been for sale on the iTunes Music Store.

Musical numbers
"Commentary!" – Company
"Strike" – Company
"Ten-Dollar Solo" – Stacy Shirk (as Groupie #2), Neil Patrick Harris
"Better (Than Neil)" – Nathan Fillion
"It's All About the Art" – Felicia Day
"Zack's Flavor" – Zack Whedon, female backups, Joss Whedon
"Nobody Wants To Be Moist" – Simon Helberg (as Moist)
"Ninja Ropes" – Jed Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion
"All About Me" – Extras
"Nobody's Asian in the Movies" – Maurissa Tancharoen
"Heart (Broken)" – Joss Whedon, backups (Jed Whedon, Zack Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen)
"Neil's Turn" – Neil Patrick Harris
"Commentary! (Reprise)" – Company
"Steve's Song" – Steve Berg

Profits
All proceeds from iTunes and DVD sales were dedicated to paying the cast and crew, who were not compensated at the time of production. In November 2008, Joss Whedon blogged about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and stated that due to its success they had been able to pay the crew and the bills. Later, in 2012, Joss Whedon said during an interview with Forbes that "with the movie and the soundtrack and everything we've been able to do with it, we made over $3 million with it".

Television broadcast
The three-part series made its television broadcast debut on October 9, 2012, airing at 9:00 pm on The CW. It was edited to fit the 42 minutes needed for a one-hour time slot.

Comic books

Tie-in comic books for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog have been released by Dark Horse Comics. The first three were through its online comics anthology Dark Horse Presents, the fourth was a special release as part of the "One Shot Wonders" series. All four were written by Zack Whedon.

 "Captain Hammer: Be Like Me!" was released in issue #12 and featured art by Eric Canete.
 "Moist: Humidity Rising" was released in issue #17 with art by Farel Dalrymple.
 "Penny: Keep Your Head Up" appears in issue #23 with art by Jim Rugg.
 "Dr. Horrible" was released as a special one-shot comic, detailing Dr. Horrible's origin story, with art by Joëlle Jones.

All four stories were collected in Dr. Horrible, and Other Horrible Stories by Dark Horse Comics, in September 2010 (). The collection also features an additional story about the Evil League of Evil.

In November 2018, a new comic was released written by Joss Whedon titled Dr. Horrible: Best Friends Forever with art by Jose Maria Beroy and Sara Soler. The comic was the first story to be set after the events of the musical itself.

Book
On March 29, 2011, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Book () was published by Titan Books. The book contains essays by Whedon, Fillion, Harris, Day, and Helberg; the complete shooting script; the script for Commentary: The Musical; and piano/vocal sheet music for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Stage events
On August 29, 2008, the first authorized sing-along version of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was hosted at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia, with showings reaching standing-room-only capacity. Felicia Day attended one of the showings.

Stage productions of the show have become very popular at colleges and high schools.

In October 2010, Ireland, an official production of the musical was performed in Trinity College Dublin by the college's drama society; The DU Players. The show took place from October 25–29, 2010. In November 2010, Cult Classic Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland, performed the first official UK production of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

In January 2011, Balagan Theatre performed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog at the ACT Theatre's Allen Theatre in Seattle. The production was reviewed by Broadway World. A televised performance of a concert version of "Freeze Ray" can also be viewed. In 2011, all rights to perform Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog or Commentary! The Musical were no longer being granted by the creators.

Reception

Critical response

In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Robert Lloyd writes: "It is a sweet, rather sad piece that — like the songs, by Whedon and his brother Jed, which are at once mock-heroic and actually heroic, mock-moving and moving in fact — works both as parody and as a drama."

Awards
2009 Streamy Awards
Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series
Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web SeriesNeil Patrick Harris
Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series

2009 Hugo Awards
 Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

2009 People's Choice Awards
Best Internet Phenomenon Award

2009 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards
Outstanding Special ClassShort-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs

During the broadcast of the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, which was hosted by Harris, a speech by representatives of Ernst & Young was "interrupted" by a sketch featuring Harris as Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, with cameos by Felicia Day and Simon Helberg.

Nominations
2008 Constellation Awards
 Best Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series of 2008
 Best Male Performance in a 2008 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series (Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible)

Controversy
Fans of internet personality Doctor Steel, who had been performing under the name since 1999, noted similarities between Doctor Steel and Dr. Horrible, attracting the attention of national media. Dr. Horrible co-writer Maurissa Tancharoen responded, "All we have to say on the subject is we've never heard of Dr. Steel before... There's room for everyone in this party."

Unproduced sequel
Since the series' release in 2008, there have been rumors of a sequel; however, it remains one of Joss Whedon's unrealized projects. In 2009, Joss Whedon announced at San Diego Comic-Con that a sequel was in the works and that it might be presented as either another web series or as a feature film. Nathan Fillion also said that he knew the title of the sequel, but was unwilling to reveal it at the time.

In an April 2011 interview in The New York Times, Whedon said "We've got several songs near completion and we've got a very specific structure," and that the cast of Dr. Horrible have sung the songs at casual gatherings.

While promoting Marvel Studios' The Avengers in March 2012, Whedon said he and the writers involved in Dr. Horrible would be working on writing the script during the 2012 summer. At the San Diego Comic-Con in July, Whedon announced that he planned to shoot Dr. Horrible 2 by spring 2013. However, due to his commitment on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon told E! News in an April 2013 interview that production on the sequel would be delayed.

In April 2015, Whedon stated in an update that "I was starting to feel like, I don't know if that's [possible]. Everybody's so busy, and we've all changed. I saw Neil do Hedwig [on Broadway], and went backstage, and the first thing he said was, 'When are we doing a sequel?!' I'm like, OK! Maybe that's still on! So it'll be interesting to see when we come up for air on it. Not sure. But god knows, we have the people. We have the technology. We can rebuild it."

In March 2019, Harris, while promoting the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events, expressed his doubts on if a sequel to Dr. Horrible'' would ever happen stating "I have no information. I haven't seen Joss in ages and everyone's wonderfully busy with other things. So, unless the writers want to strike again, which is when we did the first one, I'm not sure when it would ever happen." Harris goes on to address his current age with "I'm no spring chicken. So, at a certain point, Dr. Horrible isn't Billy the Internet geeky kid anymore. I'm a grown man. So they'll probably have to cast Nick Jonas in it."

References

External links

2008 comedy films
2008 films
2000s musical films
2008 web series debuts
2008 web series endings
2000s superhero comedy films
American superhero films
Supervillain films
American comedy web series
Films directed by Joss Whedon
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form-winning works
Hugo Award-winning television series
Science fiction musical films
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films with screenplays by Joss Whedon
Superhero web series
2000s American films

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog


Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, Glasgow City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire (The former Strathclyde local government region) between 1975 and 2013. The Police Authority contained members from each of these authorities.

Strathclyde Police had the largest numbers of staff and served the largest population and the second largest area of the eight former Scottish police forces, after the Northern Constabulary.

An Act of the Scottish Parliament, the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, created a single Police Service of Scotland—known as Police Scotland—with effect from 1 April 2013. This act merged the eight regional police forces in Scotland (including Strathclyde Police), together with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, into a single service covering the whole of Scotland.

The force was portrayed in the television series Taggart.

History
The force was created on 16 May 1975 as part of the restructuring of local government in Scotland. The police area matched the boundaries of the new Strathclyde Regional Council, which was broken up on 1 April 1996. It was formed from, either in whole or in part:
 City of Glasgow Police
 Paisley Burgh Police
 Lanarkshire Constabulary
 Renfrew & Bute Constabulary
 Dunbartonshire Constabulary
 Argyll County Police
 Ayrshire Constabulary
 small portion of Stirling and Clackmannan Police

Organisation

The Force was commanded by a Chief Constable, who as of 2012 was supported by a Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) and 3 Assistant Chief Constables (ACC).

From 23 October 2007 until abolition, the Force was organised into 8 Territorial Divisions (designated A,B,G,K,L,N,Q & U Divisions), a Headquarters Division (H), a Support Services Division (V) and a Road Policing Division (T). The Territorial Divisions were commanded by a Chief Superintendent supported by 2 Superintendents who held various portfolios. These Divisions were further sub-divided into a number of Sub Divisions, which may have been further split into areas commanded by an Area Commander (A.C.) of Chief Inspector rank. There were 33 Area Commands within the Force.

Territorial Divisions
A Division – Glasgow Central and West
Glasgow Central
Glasgow West
Drumchapel
B Division – Glasgow North East and East Dunbartonshire
Baird Street
London Road
Maryhill and Saracen
Shettleston, Easterhouse and Baillieston
G Division – Glasgow South and East Renfrewshire
Cathcart
East Renfrewshire
Govan
New Gorbals
Pollok
K Division – Renfrewshire and Inverclyde
Inverclyde
Johnstone and Renfrew
Paisley
L Division – Argyll, Bute and West Dunbartonshire
Argyll and Bute
Clydebank, Dumbarton and Helensburgh
N Division – North Lanarkshire
Bellshill
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth
Monklands
Motherwell and Wishaw
Q Division – South Lanarkshire
Clydesdale
East Kilbride and Strathaven
Hamilton
Rutherglen and Cambuslang
U Division – Ayrshire
East Ayrshire
North Ayrshire
South Ayrshire

In 2005, Strathclyde Police established its groundbreaking Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). The unit was set up to bring together communities and agencies to tackle the root causes of violence. The work of the VRU has now been extended throughout the whole of Scotland.

Uniform and Equipment

From the formation of Strathclyde Police in 1975, uniform was similar to the uniform previously used by the antecedent City of Glasgow Police, albeit with white shirts instead of blue shirts. This was an open-necked tunic and trousers, white shirt and black tie. The tunic was phased out by 1995 in favour of a blue woollen NATO-style pullover and utility belt which was introduced a few years earlier. Headgear consisted of a peaked cap for males or a round reinforced bowler style for females. Both types of hat featured Sillitoe tartan design and the standard Scottish Police cap badge in metal for Constables and Sergeants or embroidered for Inspectors and above. The caps of the Roads Policing Unit also had a white cover. Footwear was not prescribed except for those in a few specialist roles such as Public Order.

Stab vests were introduced in the early 2000s and the NATO jumpers were changed to black around the same time.

A trial uniform was trialed in K division in February 2002; a light blue shirt worn with or without a tie with body armour worn on top. Cargo trousers and fleeces were introduced at this time.

This uniform proved unpopular and was changed again in 2003, replacing shirts and ties altogether with a black short sleeved Under Armour-style 'wicking' T-shirt with 'POLICE' (or 'STRATHCLYDE POLICE' on early shirts) displayed in white on both sleeves. Headgear and epaulettes showing Divisional identifier number and rank insignia were unchanged from previous uniforms. Cargo trousers continued to be issued until 2008, after which trousers came without cargo pockets due to the introduction of new body armour with pockets.

A stab vest was worn over the T-shirt top on all operational duties. The stab vests that were issued until 2008 looked like a sleeveless NATO jumper and were supplied by Highmark. New stab vests were issued from 2000 that featured blue and white chequered reflective bands across the front and back, force insignia sewn on the left breast, and a blue and white reflective (or occasionally black and white embroidered) 'POLICE' patch sewn onto the back. There were several attachments for handcuffs and other equipment. A black fleece with the Strathclyde Police logo was worn over body armour before November 2009, when they were replaced by microfleeces. There is also a fluorescent 'bomber style' jacket with similar reflective markings to the stab vests, which they were normally worn over. Also issued were black waterproof trousers and black (Constables and Sergeants) or brown (Inspectors and above) leather gloves.

Personal equipment consisted of a Police duty belt holding handcuffs (Hiatts Speedcuffs or TCH-840 Rigid Handcuffs), a 21" Autolock baton with a Hindi cap (Mounted Unit officers were supplied with the longer 26" Autolock batons) and CS Spray. Also carried were a small first aid kit, torch, leg restraints, keys, utility pouch etc. Motorola MTH800 radio handsets, connected to the UK's Airwave TETRA radio network, were issued to officers when on duty.

This style of uniform was later adopted by all police forces in Scotland, with slight insignia variations, and subsequently by Police Scotland.

The Strathclyde Police Air Support Unit operated Scotland's only police helicopter; a Eurocopter EC 135T2+ (G-SPAO) based at the Glasgow City Heliport. This helicopter was painted in PSDB highly conspicuous colours of dark blue and yellow. The aircraft was supplied on a contract basis by Bond Air Services.

Headquarters

The Strathclyde Police Headquarters were located at Pitt Street in Blythswood Hill, Glasgow. The building was originally erected in 1934 as Glasgow and West of Scotland Commercial College, later the Scottish College of Commerce. In 1964 the Scottish College of Commerce combined with the Royal College of Science and Technology to form the University of Strathclyde. There were plans in place before dissolution to relocate the HQ to Dalmarnock on the outskirts of Glasgow.

The Pitt Street headquarters of Strathclyde Police were demolished in early 2019.

Chief Constables
 1975–1977 : Sir David McNee (knighted in 1978 New Year Honours)
 1977–1985 : Sir Patrick Hamill
 1985–1991 : (Sir) Andrew Kirkpatrick Sloan (knighted 1991 New Year Honours)
 1991–1995 : (Sir) Leslie Sharpe (knighted 1996 New Year Honours)
 1996–2001 : (Sir) John Orr
 2001–2007 : (Sir) William Rae
 2007–2012 : (Sir) Stephen House
 2012-2013 : Campbell Corrigan

Achievements
Between 2009 and 2010, Strathclyde Police focussed their resources on certain strategic areas:

Violence, Disorder and Antisocial Behaviour (including Domestic abuse)
Murder reduced by 26%, attempted murder reduced by 15% and 45,000 fixed penalty notices for disorder were issued.

Serious and Organised Crime
134 members of serious organised crime groups were arrested, 82 firearms were recovered and £294,955 was seized from organised crime groups.

Drugs
15,000 drug seizures of Class A and B drugs took place and 2,500 kg worth of drugs including amphetamines, cocaine and heroin were seized and destroyed.

Terrorism
The UK as a whole remains at a heightened state of alert with regards to terrorism following continuing threats from terrorist groups Al-Qaida, dissident IRA groups and domestic extremist groups. Strathclyde Police dealt with a terrorist incident in 2007 at Glasgow Airport which resulted in five members of the public being injured and the perpetrator himself dying later at hospital.

Strathclyde Police Pipe Band

Through replacing the City of Glasgow Police, Strathclyde Police inherited a competitive pipe band. This band drew on pipers and drummers from 5 other adjoining forces with existing pipe bands, and under the direction of Pipe Major Ian MacLellan BEM, became the most successful competing pipe band in history, having won 12 World Pipe Band Championships in the premier grade. The band was notable for having senior leadership directly employed by the police force, with former pipe sergeant John Wilson having commanded a division of Strathcylde's police force not long after retiring from pipe band competition. Although Strathclyde Police was disbanded in 2013, the band still competed as the Greater Glasgow Police Scotland Pipe Band until 2021.

References

Organisations based in Glasgow
Defunct police forces of Scotland
Argyll and Bute
West Dunbartonshire
East Dunbartonshire
Glasgow
Inverclyde
Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire
North Lanarkshire
South Lanarkshire
East Ayrshire
North Ayrshire
South Ayrshire
1975 establishments in Scotland
Government agencies established in 1975
2013 disestablishments in Scotland
Government agencies disestablished in 2013

Strathclyde Police


Windsor Station is a former railway station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It used to be the city's Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) station, and served as the headquarters of CPR from 1889 to 1996. It is bordered by Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal to the north, Peel Street to the east, Saint Antoine Street to the south and the Bell Centre to the west.

Windsor Station was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1975, and was designated a Heritage Railway Station in 1990, and a provincial historic monument in 2009.

The walls are gray limestone from a quarry in Montreal. Outside, the columns reach up to  wide.

History

In 1887, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) began to build a railway station in Montreal, which would serve as its headquarters, three years after the completion of the Dalhousie Station in 1884. The Windsor Station project was entrusted to New York City architect Bruce Price, who chose a Romanesque Revival style for the building. Price had to submit four versions of his plans to satisfy the treasurer of CPR, before the project was accepted. It was constructed at a cost of $300,000 CAD,  and the first trains departed February 4, 1889. It was known as the Windsor Street Station, named for the street on which it was located, Windsor Street (today Peel Street).

It was expanded for the first time from 1900 to 1903, and again from 1910 to 1913 by Canadian architects. The third expansion, in 1916, included a fifteen-storey tower which dramatically altered Montreal's skyline. The project was entrusted to the firm of brothers Edward and William Maxwell.

Windsor Station formed an integral component of Dominion Square as a diffuser of passenger traffic and as a central terminus for other modes of transportation. The building skirted Windsor Street (today Peel Street) and Osborne Street (today Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal) between Donegani (located halfway between Osborne Street and Saint Antoine Street). The building had four floors up to Osborne Street and five floors at street-level on Donegani Street because of the slope of the terrain.

In July 1970, CPR announced its plans to demolish Windsor Station and build a 60-storey office building on the site. The building, which was going to cost C$250 million, was to be designed by the same architects as New York City's World Trade Center. After several delays the project was abandoned.

Via Rail was created in 1978 and took over the responsibility for operating intercity passenger trains of both Canadian National CN and CPR. During Via's first months there was no operational change for CPR or CN trains, as they used their respective crews, routes, equipment and stations. However, by the summer of 1979, the integration process began, and most of Via's former CP trains that used Windsor Station were consolidated at CN's Central Station, including CP's former transcontinental passenger services such as The Atlantic Limited and The Canadian, both of which were also renamed to be bilingually appropriate. Via Dayliners (Budd Rail Diesel Cars) operating between Windsor Station and St. Sacrement station in Quebec City via the CP route north of the St. Lawrence River continued to use Windsor Station until 1984. Amtrak's daily Montreal-New York City train (the Adirondack) continued to use Windsor Station until 1986. Both the dayliners and the Adirondack were switched to Central Station. Local services to Ottawa via Montebello and to Mont-Laurier, both of which had been transferred from CPR to Via, continued to use Windsor Station until they were cancelled in 1981.

After intercity passenger service was removed, Windsor Station continued to be a commuter rail terminal for the STCUM's (now the RTM's) Montréal/Dorion-Rigaud suburban train (now Vaudreuil-Hudson line). In 1999, service to Blainville (now Saint-Jérôme line) was added, and in 2001, service to Delson (now Candiac line).

In 1993, construction began on the Molson Centre (now Bell Centre), a hockey arena to replace the Montreal Forum. The arena site was located immediately west of Windsor Station on the trackage which served the station platforms, resulting in the historic station being severed from the rail network. The Molson Centre opened its doors on March 16, 1996, and the new Lucien-L'Allier Station was opened at the western end of the arena structure to replace the now-closed suburban train terminal at Windsor Station. Until 2001, the new train station was called Terminus Windsor, but this was changed to reduce confusion with the original station building and to indicate a link to the Lucien-L'Allier metro (subway) station which is below the station building. It is still possible to walk through the Bell Centre to connect with Windsor Station and the Lucien L'Allier metro station.

Windsor Station, and now Lucien-L'Allier Station (known in French as 'Terminus Lucien-L'Allier'), are at the eastern end of CPR's Westmount Subdivision. It served as CP's downtown west end train terminus. Its counterpart downtown east end terminus was Place Viger.

Windsor Station also housed the headquarters of CPR and its parent company Canadian Pacific Limited until, after a corporate restructuring in the mid-1990s, the railway abandoned or sold most of its trackage east of Montreal and focused its activities in Western Canada. In 1996, CP moved its headquarters to Gulf Canada Square in Calgary.

Today

Since 1993, the structure is no longer connected to the rail network. It was sold by CP to Cadillac Fairview in 2009 (thus removing it from the jurisdiction of the Heritage Railway Stations Act; consequently, it was classified as a provincial heritage site that same year).

Also located in the station is the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration.

The rest of Windsor Station has been redeveloped into an office complex and houses some restaurants and cafés. The interior concourse, which is open to the public, can be rented for private and public events. The lower floor is part of the RÉSO and connects the Bonaventure metro station with the Lucien-L'Allier commuter rail station as well as the Bell Centre. The 13 terminal tracks running into Windsor Station and the overhead canopy have been removed, and replaced by a public square.

See also
 Angel of Victory, a statue in the station
 Drury's
 The Adirondack, The last intercity train to use this station

References

External links

 Cadillac Fairview | Property: Gare Windsor (official website)

Canadian Pacific Railway stations in Quebec
Railway stations in Montreal
Railway stations in Canada opened in 1889
Designated heritage railway stations in Quebec
Landmarks in Montreal
Disused railway stations in Canada
Romanesque Revival architecture in Canada
National Historic Sites in Quebec
Heritage buildings of Quebec
Railway stations closed in 1993
Downtown Montreal
Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Canada
Former New York Central Railroad stations
Former Amtrak stations in Canada
Cadillac Fairview
Bruce Price buildings
Former Delaware and Hudson Railway stations

Windsor Station (Montreal)


Discards are the portion of a catch of fish which is not retained on board during commercial fishing operations and is returned, often dead or dying, to the sea. The practice of discarding is driven by economic and political factors; fish which are discarded are often unmarketable species, individuals which are below minimum landing sizes and catches of species which fishers are not allowed to land, for instance due to quota restrictions. Discards form part of the bycatch of a fishing operation, although bycatch includes marketable species caught unintentionally. Discarding can be highly variable in time and space as a consequence of changing economic, sociological, environmental and biological factors.

Discarding patterns are influenced by catch compositions, which in turn are determined by environmental factors, such as recruitment of small fish into the fishery, and social factors, such as quota regulation, choice of fishing gear and fishers' behaviour. There have been numerous studies on the scale of discarding. In the North Sea the total annual quantity of discards has been estimated at 800,000–950,000 tonnes, or the equivalent of one-third of the total weight landed annually and one-tenth of the estimated total biomass of fish in the North Sea.

Impacts
Discarding affects the environment in two ways; firstly, through increased mortality to target and non-target species, particularly at juvenile life-history stages, and secondly, through alteration of food webs by supplying increased levels of food to scavenging organisms on the sea floor, and to seabirds. The survival of discarded fish and invertebrates is variable and depends on species and fishing gear used. For example, species such as the Pacific halibut caught in longline fisheries in the Bering Sea, or lesser-spotted dogfish in beam trawls in the English Channel have survival rates of between 88 and 98 per cent. Survival rates of roundfish discards are significantly lower, and this mortality is included in most International Council for the Exploration of the Sea stock assessments. Crustaceans are thought to be more hardy, though survival of crustaceans is variable; for instance, a survival rate of 25 per cent is assumed for the Norway lobster, whilst survival rates of almost 100 per cent have been demonstrated for the hermit crab, Pagurus bernhardus.

Discard policies
The idea of banning discards is that since the fish that are discarded have a negligible chance of survival, it is better from a management perspective that they are included in the fishing induced mortality figures on which allowable catch estimates are based.

Norway

The Norwegian Government introduced a ban on the discarding of some commercial species of fish in 1987. The initiative in Norway has been coupled with a comprehensive programme of monitoring and surveillance and a system whereby areas can be opened and closed when bycatch rates become excessive. The Norwegian system of attempting to reduce mortality of illegal fish is based on reducing their capture rather than reducing landing of "illegal" specimens.

There has been no monitoring of the discard ban to evaluate its effectiveness, but retrospective studies have indirectly quantified the success of the ban through improvements in stock status and economic performance of fish stocks managed in Norwegian waters.

Canada
Canada has also instituted a ban on discarding at sea in its Atlantic groundfish fishery that makes it illegal to return to the water any groundfish except those specifically authorised and those caught in cod traps. Authorised release is only considered for species that are known to have high survival rates on release, or where there is no practical or nutritional use for a particular species. In addition to the banning of discards, larger vessels are required to carry observers, which would imply that there are now no illegal discards on these vessels.

Iceland
The introduction by the Icelandic Government of an individual transferable quota (ITQ) system of fisheries management across virtually all its major fisheries was followed by the introduction of a ban of at-sea discarding of catch. The Icelandic regulations require the retention of most fish for which quotas have been set or species for which a market exists. Since it is compulsory to land smaller fish, but the government does not wish to encourage their capture, there are upper limits on the percentage weight of fish that can be landed below minimum landing size.
Both Greenland and the Faroe Islands have introduced similar regulations.

New Zealand
The quota management system in place in New Zealand makes the discarding of most species of fish illegal. The ITQ system in New Zealand is a complex system, and when fish are landed by a fisher without quota for a particular species, they have the option to buy quota from another fisher, or the value of the overrun catch be surrendered to the state. In many cases the fishers find it easier to discard the fish at sea than go through the complex system of landing the fish and then making it legal.
There was a measurable increase in discarding immediately following the introduction of the ITQ system, despite the fact that fishers were offered 10 per cent of the market price for fish landed outside quota. In an attempt to address this change, the New Zealand Government increased the percentage of market price paid to 50 per cent. The balance between offering an incentive to land discarded fish and the disincentive to catch fish over or outside quota limits is clearly a fine one, and dependent on the financial reward or penalty attached.

European Union
EU legislation currently states that there are total allowable catches for each species, which are sub-divided between European Union member states, the intention of which is to conserve fish stocks. The individual countries then use this figure as a basis for quota allocation to individual fishers or fishers organisations. The quota rules however require that any fish which is caught outside quota allowances or below minimum landing size be discarded and that it is an offence for a fishing vessel to be carrying on board any fish for which it does not have a valid quota or which is outside regulated size limits. This is an example of discarding practice being driven by political considerations. Years after difficult negotiations between stakeholders and member states, the EU updated the Common Fisheries Policy and included in Article 15 the Landing Obligation (Discard ban). Until 2019 the law will be implemented progressively. The Landing Obligation does not allow the fisher to land bycatches, it is the obligation to do so. All species subject to a regulation, like catch quotas or minimum sizes, have to be landed. However, these landings are not feasible for direct human consumption and are therefore expected to be used in the fish meal industry. The reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is based on regulation formats in Norway and Iceland.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a celebrity chef, led a campaign against this with a TV show called Hugh's Fish Fight, which successfully lobbied for a change in EU law to reduce the discards from thrown back fish in sea fishery.

See also

Bycatch
High grading

Notes

References
 Kelleher, Kieran (2005) Discards in the world's marine fisheries. An update. FAO fisheries technical paper 470.

Environmental impact of fishing

Discards


James Harvey Insole JP (30 April 1821 – 20 January 1901) was an English businessman who consolidated and developed the extensive South Wales coal mining and shipping business begun by his father George Insole.

Insole became a partner in his father's business in 1842. They leased and revived the Cymmer (lower Rhondda Valley) bituminous coal pits in 1844 and developed their coastal and international markets together. When his father died in 1851, Insole took sole control of the company. Disaster struck in 1856 when an underground explosion of gas at the Cymmer mine resulted in a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country". In 1862 Insole purchased the Abergorki mine in the upper Rhondda Valley. His company continued to develop the rich steam coal seams of the Rhondda and by the end of that century was one of the main exporters of South Wales steam coal. The company operated until 1940.

Insole also played a significant role in the development of Cardiff, Wales, as a coal shipping port, especially in connection with improving the means of loading coal ships and the construction of the new dock at Penarth which opened in 1865.

Among other civic roles, as a justice of the peace Insole served as magistrate for both Cardiff and Glamorgan. He was also the inaugural president of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce and he and his company made significant contributions to public causes including education and health.

Insole's modern legacy survives in his Victorian mansion Ely Court in Llandaff, Wales, now a community resource known as Insole Court which is used for a wide range of activities and events.

Early life
James Harvey Insole was born on 30 April 1821 in Worcester, Worcestershire, and was baptised at St Helen's Church, Worcester, on 2 May 1821. He was the second child and eldest son of the six children of George Insole and Mary Insole (née Finch). During Insole's early childhood his father was a carpenter in Worcester and the family was associated with the Angel Street Independent (Congregational) Meeting House. In 1828 the family moved to Cardiff where Insole's father began building his South Wales coal mining and shipping business. Insole attended schools in Cardiff and Melksham, Wiltshire.

When Insole came of age in 1842 he received a bequest from his father's uncle, a wealthy saddler's ironmonger in Birmingham. In 1843 Insole married Mary Ann Jones in Edgbaston. She was the daughter of his father's uncle's business partner. They had three children, two sons and a daughter. The family lived in Crockherbtown, Cardiff, next door to Insole's parents, until 1852.

Coal producer
In 1842 Insole's father brought him into partnership as George Insole & Son, colliery proprietors and coal shippers. At that time they were working the steam coal seam at the Maesmawr pit (Llantwit Fardre), but the seam was reaching exhaustion. They then leased and revived bituminous coal pits at Cymmer (Lower Rhondda Valley) in 1844, and in 1848 opened 36 coking ovens to supply the Taff Vale Railway Company.

Insole had also suggested that the Taff Vale Railway Company negotiate with Lord Bute to erect coal staiths on the Cardiff Bute Dock (West). In 1848, when the first coal tip was ready, the Insoles became the first to load a ship at Cardiff by "mechanical appliances".

Up to 1847 the Insoles mainly supplied the coastal markets of the Bristol Channel (Bristol, Gloucester), the Cornish ports (St. Ives, Penzance, Fowey), and the Irish markets (Limerick, Dublin, Youghal, Waterford, Cork) with steam coal. Subsequently, they supplied the French markets, first Brest and Nantes, then Calais, Marseilles, and Corsica. In 1849 they sent coal shipments to the Mediterranean, the Near East (Alexandria, Constantinople, Beirut, Smyrna), to South America (Montevideo, Rio Grande, Rio de Janeiro), and as far as Chile and Singapore.

Insole took sole control of the business on his father's death in 1851. Aged twenty-nine, he was "a typical thrustful Victorian entrepreneur" and in that year he sank the Upper Cymmer Colliery, followed by the New Cymmer Colliery in 1855.

Cymmer disaster

The Crimean War made 1855 a boom year for coal and Insole began intensive excavation of his Cymmer Old Pit. In the early morning of 15 July 1856 an underground explosion of gas resulted in the deaths of 114 men and boys (thirty-four under the age of sixteen and fifteen under the age of twelve). It was described as a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country". The local communities were also devastated by the disaster as almost all the working-age men and boys perished and thirty-five widows and ninety-two children, as well as other dependent relatives, were suddenly left without any immediate means of support.

The ensuing coroner's inquest determined the cause of the deaths to have been "the post-explosion effects of afterdamp or methane poisoning". The evidence indicated that the explosion was due to defective mine ventilation and the use of naked flames underground, despite warnings from HM Inspector of Mines, Herbert Francis Mackworth, who stated that "the explosion arose from the persons in charge of the pit neglecting the commonest precautions for the safety of the men and the safe working of the colliery".

Insole stated that he took "no part in the management", knew nothing of the duties of firemen or the problems of ventilation, did not refuse expenditure for safety, and could not recall having been sent any official documentation on mine safety. Insole was dismissed from the enquiry and, after further legal proceedings, he and his mine officials were exonerated from all blame. The apparent contradiction in Insole's evidence given at the inquest and the later assizes was criticised. At the inquest, Insole claimed his mine manager was "intrusted with the entire control" as he was "one of the most competent mining engineers in this district". Insole walked free but his manager was charged with manslaughter. At the assizes, in support of his manager and when his own "personal liberty [was] no longer at stake", Insole then claimed the man was "not a person skilled as an underground man or engineer", and his manager was acquitted.

Welsh historian E. D. Lewis' analysis of the disaster concludes:

Insole, described in The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian as "the greatest sufferer in a pecuniary sense", contributed £500 (approximately ) to the Relief Appeal Fund "in aid of the widows and orphans, and dependent relatives of the deceased" and undertook to meet the cost of the thirty graves opened at the Cymmer Chapel.

Post 1856
The Cymmer Old Pit continued in operation until 1939. To ensure his supply of steam coal, in 1862 Insole purchased the Abergorki Level at the top of the Rhondda Valley. In 1865 the Penarth Harbour, Dock and Railway Company, of which Insole was one of the original directors, opened the new dock at Penarth in competition with the congested Bute Docks. The Cymmer mine was deepened in 1875–1877 to reach four rich seams of steam coal. By the end of the century Insole's company was again one of the chief exporters of South Wales steam coal. The company remained in business until 1940. Although still maintaining an interest in the industry, Insole had effectively retired from direct involvement in his company by 1875.

Gentrification

Insole used his wealth to obtain social status. Following the death of his father in 1851 Insole moved his family two miles out of Cardiff to the healthier and increasingly fashionable city village of Llandaff. In 1855 building started on Ely Court, a three-storey twin-gabled villa set in a large garden and approached by an imposing carriage drive. Over the next twenty-five years Insole acquired much of the surrounding land to create an extensive park. In the 1870s the house was extended and embellished in the neo-Gothic style that had been employed by William Burges to transform Cardiff Castle for Lord Bute.

Insole already owned several estates in Glamorganshire as well as land in Cardiff when he set out to build a land-owning dynasty. In 1872, then semi-retired, he acquired armorial bearings from the College of Heralds. Three years later, he purchased the 7,291 acre Luxborough estate in Somerset, including the "picturesque and commodious shooting box", Chargot House (or Lodge), numerous farms and cottages, and "thriving woods and plantations, together with a large tract of moor". Insole was then able to style himself as "Lord of the Manors of Luxborough and Withiel Florey". In 1878 he was listed in Kelly's Handbook to the Upper Ten Thousand.

Insole regularly entered plants he and his gardeners had cultivated in horticultural shows, competing successfully against other local gentlemen and their gardeners. He devoted over forty years to:

In 1882 Ely Court was described as "the leading residence in the locality".

Insole also collected paintings and objets d'art. In 1881 several of his bronzes, silver items and paintings were exhibited at the Cardiff Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition.

Philanthropy
Insole and his company's names were to be found in published lists of subscribers to good causes. In 1882 he announced a subscription of £1,000 for the proposed University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff and provided a £25 per annum scholarship for a Cardiff student to pursue further studies. In 1883 a ward at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary was renamed the Insole Ward in recognition of his donation of £1,000. In 1890 Insole's company announced a £250 contribution over five years towards the funding and maintenance of the new University College engineering department and from 1892 the J. H. Insole scholarship provided £25 per annum for three years to support a University College student of mining.

Although he was associated with the Congregational Church as a boy and in later life financed Nonconformist building projects, as an adult Insole was a noted churchman and his tenants knew him as a generous patron of the parish church at Withiel Florey, of which he held the advowson.

Other activities
Civic and other roles: Cardiff street commissioner (1848); justice of the peace and magistrate for Cardiff (1856); land tax commissioner for Glamorgan (1856/1857); vice consul to Spain at Cardiff (1858); inaugural president of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce (1866); magistrate for Glamorgan (1867); member of the Pall Mall Club.

Company directorships: Penarth Harbour, Dock and Railway Company; Ely Valley Railway Company; Patent Fuel Works; Cardiff Hotel Company; Cardiff Baths Company.

Remarriage, death, and legacy

Insole was widowed in 1882. In 1890 he married Marian Louisa Carey (née Eagle), the widowed daughter of his former Dublin agent and sister-in-law of his eldest son who lived nearby in his Pencisely House mansion.

Insole died on 20 January 1901, aged 79, at his residence Ely Court, Llandaff, and was buried at the Llandaff Cathedral burial grounds on 24 January 1901. His estate was valued at £245,388 (approximately ).

Insole's death was overshadowed by the death of Queen Victoria two days later, but his numerous obituaries praised his contributions to the South Wales coal industry and the development of Cardiff as a shipping port (the loss to the horticultural world also being noted). and his funeral was attended by many Cardiff dignitaries and businessmen.

Insole's profits were underpinned by the harsh and dangerous working conditions imposed on miners, and these caused the devastating effects of the 1856 Cymmer disaster.

Insole's dynastic land-owning vision came to nought when the Luxborough estate was sold in 1920. The Insole coal company closed in 1940 amidst the general decline of the South Wales coal industry. Ely Court (now Insole Court) passed from family hands in 1932 and eventually fell into disrepair. However, after significant restoration, in 2017 the mansion was reopened to visitors for a wide range of community activities and events, and the gardens that Insole so loved are now a municipal park for public use.

Selected histories
The following accounts include Insole's role in the development of the South Wales coal industry, although each is unreliable in various details, especially regarding his father's origins and early years as a merchant in Cardiff.
 Contemporary Portraits: Men and Women of South Wales and Monmouthshire; Cardiff Section. Cardiff: Western Mail. 1896. p. xxii.
 Lewis, E. D. (1959). The Rhondda Valleys. London: Phoenix House.
 Lewis, E. D. (1976). "Pioneers of the Cardiff Coal Trade", Glamorgan Historian. 11: 22–52.
 Watson, Richard C. (1997). Rhondda Coal, Cardiff Gold: The Insoles of Llandaff, Coal Owners and Shippers. Cardiff: Merton Priory Press.

References

External links
 Dictionary of Welsh Biography: James Harvey Insole
 Family of James Harvey Insole (1821–1901)
 Ely Court, Llandaff,  1880 (north front|south front); nearby Pencisely House
 Works by or about James Harvey Insole at Internet Archive
 Works by or about James Harvey Insole at The National Library of Wales (Welsh Journals)
 Welsh Coal Mines
 Penarth Dock, South Wales

1821 births
1901 deaths
19th-century British businesspeople
British mining businesspeople
British businesspeople in the coal industry
History of the Vale of Glamorgan
Business people from Worcester, England
Businesspeople from Cardiff
People from Llandaff
19th-century Welsh businesspeople

James Harvey Insole


Bhakkar Tehsil (Urdu/Seraiki/Punjabi: تحصیل بکھر) is an administrative subdivision, (tehsil), of Bhakkar District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The town of Bhakkar is the headquarters of the tehsil.

Administration
The tehsil of Bhakkar is subdivided into 17 Union Councils.

History
During British rule Bhakkar (larger in area today) was a tehsil of Mianwali District. The population according to the 1901 census was 125,803, compared with 119,219 in 1891. The 1901 census revealed that the tehsil contained the town of Bhakkar (population, 5,312) and 196 villages. The land revenue and cesses amounted in 1903-4 to 1.7 lakhs.

In 1982 the tehsil of Bhakkar was split from Mianwali and became the current district of Bhakkar, this district has been subdivided into four tehsils one of which is the current tehsil of Bhakkar.

References

Tehsils of Punjab (Pakistan)
Bhakkar District

Bhakkar Tehsil


Christopher Edward Rudd, is a Canadian-born immunologist-biochemist. He is currently Professor of Medicine at the Universite de Montreal and Director, Immunology-Oncology at the Centre de Recherche Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (CR-HMR).

Early life and education
Christopher Rudd, Ph.D., D.Sc., FRSB, FRCPath, FMedSci, FRSC was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 2, 1963. He was educated at the Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School and at McGill University in Montreal, received an M.Sc. degree from the Universite d'Ottawa, Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from University College, London and an MA from the University of Cambridge. He has held professorship positions at Harvard Medical School (1989-2002), Imperial College London (2000-2005), was a Principal Investigator at the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute (1988-2002) and the Professor of Molecular Immunology at the University of Cambridge (2005-2016).

Research
Rudd is credited with having had a major impact on the understanding of the intracellular signals that control T-cell immunity.  Rudd was the first to discover that intracellular protein kinases interact with surface receptors to generate an intracellular protein-tyrosine phosphorylation cascade, by identifying the interaction of T-cell co-receptors CD4 (also the receptor for the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1) and CD8 on T-cells with protein-tyrosine kinase p56lck. His discovery provided the first example of a role for members of the proto-oncogene pp60src kinase family in normal cell signaling. Other receptors were later found to use src-related kinases to regulate cell growth. In terms of immunology, the CD4- and CD8-p56lck complexes are now widely accepted as the initiators of the T cell activation, leading to the recruitment of a second tyrosine kinase ZAP-70 that control the ability of T-cells to respond to foreign pathogens, foreign transplants and cancer cell neo-antigens.

Rudd also uncovered signaling mechanisms by which co-receptors CD28, CTLA-4 and ICOS1 modulate T-cell responses. By showing that CTLA-4 activates T-cell motility and migration, he proposed the 'reverse-stop signal model' to account for CTLA-4 inhibition of T-cell responses to antigen. His research also showed that a mutant form of the immune cell adapter protein termed ADAP, identified in his lab, blocks the infection of T-cells by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1). Further, his lab has pioneered the use of small molecule inhibitors (SMIs) of the kinase glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) to down-regulate the inhibitory co-receptor programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) in cancer immunotherapy.

Rudd's work has had important clinical outcomes as it laid the foundation for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cancer therapy that has been pioneered by Zelig Eshhar (Israel) and Carl June (USA). T cells transduced with chimeric receptors to recognize and kill cancer cells have employed immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) (a target of p56lck), as well as CD28 signaling motifs that were identified by Rudd's lab.

Recognition
Rudd has received awards including the Cancer Research Institute/Benjamin Jacobson Family Investigator Award (New York), Claudia Adams Barr Research Award (Boston) and was a Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America and a Principal Research Fellow (PRF) of the Wellcome Trust. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci). Over the years, Rudd has trained many graduate students at Ph.D. level, some of whom hold prestigious academic positions in different parts of the world.

His nomination as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2002 reads:

Publications
Rudd CE, Trevillyan JM, Wong LL, Dasgupta JD, Schlossman SF. (1998) The CD4 receptor is complexed to a T-cell specific tyrosine kinase (pp58) in detergent lysates from human T lymphocytes.  Proc Nat'l Acad Sci USA. 85, 5190–94.
Barber, EK, Dasgutpa JD, Schlossman SF, Trevillyan JM, Rudd CE. (1989) The CD4 and CD8 antigens are coupled to a protein-tyrosine kinase (p56lck) that phosphorylates the CD3 complex. Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 86, 3277–81.
Rudd CE.  CD4, CD8 and the TcR/CD3 Complex: a novel class of protein tyrosine kinase receptor (1990) Immunology Today, 11, 400-406
Schneider H, Downey J, Smith A, Zinselmeyer BH, Rush C, Brewer JM, Wei B, Hogg N, G Garside P, Rudd CE. (2006) Reversal of the TCR stop signal by CTLA-4. Science. 313,1972-5.
Wei B, Han L, Abbink TEM, Elisabetta G, Lim D, Thaker R, Gao W, Wang J, Lever A, Jolly C, Wang H, Rudd CE  (2013) Immune adaptor ADAP in T cells regulates HIV-1 transcription and cell-cell viral spread via different co-receptors. Retrovirol. 10 (1):101.

References

Canadian immunologists
Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellows
Academics of the University of Cambridge
Harvard Medical School faculty
McGill University alumni
Physicians from Toronto
Living people
1963 births

Christopher E. Rudd


Moisés Alberto Muñoz Rodríguez (born 1 February 1980) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Muñoz began his career in 1999 with Monarcas Morelia, playing in over 200 matches for the club, before eventually moving to Atlante in 2010. In 2011, he was sold to Club América, with whom he won two league titles and two CONCACAF Champions League titles. He also had loan stints with Chiapas and Puebla before retiring in 2018.

He has also been called up to the Mexico national team, making his debut in 2004 and was a part of the national team which finished in fourth place at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup.

In June 2012, Muñoz was involved in a car accident while driving from  Morelia.

Early life
Muñoz was born in Aguililla, Michoacán, on 1 February 1980. Muñoz speaks English fluently, having been educated in Northern California during his formative years, attending elementary school and junior high school in Redwood City as an undocumented child of migrant workers. He never legalized his status in the United States, but his parents have U.S. resident status and live in San Jose. He returned to Mexico before high school and by age 19 was playing for his hometown club in Morelia.

Club career

Morelia

Moisés Muñoz made his league debut with Monarcas Morelia on 19 September 1999 against Pachuca. Muñoz initially was used as back-up for Ángel Comizzo. Morelia won the Invierno 2000 league tournament, achieving their first league title against Toluca, with Muñoz failing to appear in a match. Muñoz did not become a regular starter until the Apertura 2002 season, the same season Morelia advanced to the league final against Toluca, which they lost 4–2 on aggregate. The following season he helped Morelia advance to its second straight league final but lost to Monterrey. A native of the city of Morelia, he became a mainstay in the team, with his eleven years at the club one of the longest for a goalkeeper in the league. He played in 282 matches before being transferred to Atlante in the 2010 Draft.

Atlante
For the Apertura 2010 tournament, Muñoz joined Atlante in a trade for Argentine goalkeeper Federico Vilar. He would go on to be a permanent fixture for the club until his departure in 2011, making 53 league appearances.

América

On 25 November 2011, Muñoz joined Club América. In his debut tournament with the club – the Clausura 2012 – he started in 21 games and played in 90 minutes in 20 of them; he was subbed off in the second half of the league match against Atlas.

In May 2013, Muñoz played his first league final with América, conceding the only goal in the 0–1 first-leg loss to Cruz Azul. His performance in the second-leg at the Estadio Azteca on 26 May helped América achieve a dramatic comeback after losing 0–1, 0–2 on aggregate, to tie the match 1–1 in the 88th minute with a goal from captain Aquivaldo Mosquera. In the 92nd minute, with seconds left of injury time, Muñoz scored a diving header off an Osvaldo Martínez corner, which deflected off Cruz Azul defender Alejandro Castro, to send the game into extra-time, and subsequently to a penalty shoot-out. He saved Javier Orozco's penalty kick, and América would go on to win the shoot-out 4–2 and win their eleventh league title. Muñoz's performance was praised by various media outlets.

On 1 October 2016, Muñoz played his 500th league game in a 1–1 draw against Monterrey.

International career
Muñoz's first international cap for Mexico was in a friendly match against Ecuador on 27 October 2004. Muñoz was the second-choice goalkeeper at both the 2004 Copa América and the 2005 Confederations Cup. Muñoz was the starting goalkeeper during the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Coach Ricardo La Volpe included him in the preliminary squad for the 2006 World Cup, but he did not make the final 23-man list. Muñoz had also been called up as a backup goalkeeper by Hugo Sánchez and Sven-Göran Eriksson.

Five years after his last call up and eight years after his last cap, Muñoz was selected by coach José Manuel de la Torre to Mexico's 2013 Gold Cup squad. On 14 July 2013, he was the starting goalkeeper for Mexico's final group stage match against Martinique, which Mexico won 3–1. During the match, Muñoz failed to save a penalty-kick from Kévin Parsemain.

Later that year, after Miguel Herrera took over as national team coach, Muñoz was named the starting goalkeeper for the 2014 World Cup qualification playoff matches against New Zealand. He played in both matches as Mexico won the playoff 9–3 on aggregate. He did not make the final 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup.

In June 2015 Muñoz was named in Mexico's squad participating in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, being handed the number 1 jersey, instead of the number 23 he traditionally wears (which was instead given to José Juan Vázquez).

In October 2015, Muñoz was named in Mexico's squad for the 2015 CONCACAF Cup.

Outside football

Personal life
Muñoz is the cousin of fellow goalkeeper Carlos Felipe Rodríguez. And also is the brother of the professional football player, José Roberto Muñoz.

Muñoz has stated that had he not decided on playing professional football he would have played basketball or American football.

On 3 June 2012, while driving his Honda Odyssey through the highway that connects Mexico City with Guadalajara, Muñoz lost control of his vehicle and flipped it on to its roof. He was heading to Morelia, Michoacán at around 7:00 p.m. with his wife Verónica (née Castro Alfaro) and two kids, Héctor and Zafiro. All of them were taken to Ángeles del Pedregal hospital by helicopter – the same hospital where Salvador Cabañas, a former Club América player, was treated after being shot in the head. Apparently, the harsh rainfall in the area caused Muñoz to lose control of his vehicle. Moreover, according to reports by the Mexican Red Cross, Muñoz suffered from traumatic brain injury but was "stable and conscious." Originally, it was reported that Muñoz's health condition was serious, but had improved as he received medical attention. It was later stated that his head wound was not life-threatening, nor would it affect his playing career. Muñoz only suffered a head wound and never lost consciousness of what had happened. He later revealed that he had suffered a broken finger. In an interview Moi said, "If God kept me alive, it's because I will do something big. Then in Clausura 2013 Final against La Maquina he scored the tying goal.

Miguel Herrera, manager of Club América, stated in a press conference what Muñoz had personally told him:

Media
In 2015, Muñoz made an appearance on the Mexican telenovela La vecina.

Muñoz was an analyst for Fox Sports during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Career statistics

International

Honours
Morelia
Mexican Primera División: Invierno 2000

América
Liga MX: Clausura 2013, Apertura 2014
CONCACAF Champions League: 2014–15, 2015–16

Mexico
CONCACAF Gold Cup: 2015
CONCACAF Cup: 2015

Notes

References

External links

1980 births
Living people
Mexico men's international footballers
2004 Copa América players
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players
2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup players
2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup players
2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup players
Liga MX players
Atlético Morelia players
Atlante F.C. footballers
Chiapas F.C. footballers
Footballers from Michoacán
Men's association football goalkeepers
Club América footballers
CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players
Mexican men's footballers

Moisés Muñoz


Victoria Riskin (born November 18, 1945) is an American author, psychologist, television writer and producer, and human rights activist.

Early life
Riskin was born in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, the daughter of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Riskin, whose films include It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and Lost Horizon (1937), and actress Fay Wray, famous for her role as Ann Darrow in King Kong (1933). Riskin is the author of a memoir and dual biography, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir, released by Pantheon in February 2019 and nominated "Best Biography" for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize that same year.

Raised on the west side of Los Angeles, Riskin attended public schools, Stephens College in Missouri, The Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, France, and graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a BA in the Humanities. She received an MA from Antioch University and Ph.D. from USC, both degrees in psychology.

Career
During her early career, she established a private practice as a psychotherapist and also specialized in forensic psychology. In 1990, she produced a movie-for-television with her husband, multi-Emmy award-winning writer-producer David W. Rintels. The Last Best Year was based on her personal experience with a patient dying of cancer and starred Mary Tyler Moore playing Riskin and Bernadette Peters as the patient. John O'Connor, television reviewer for The New York Times said, "What takes place here is that rare occurrence in films of any sort – a female bonding … Ms. Moore and Ms. Peters give marvelously restrained and touching performances."

After The Last Best Year, Riskin transitioned to full-time writing and producing in 1992, working primarily with her husband on made-for-television films, and writing for NBC, CBS and USA networks. Her producing credits include: A Town Torn Apart (1992) starring Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, about an innovative high school principal; World War II: When Lions Roared (1994) about the relationship between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, starring John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine; My Antonia (1995), from Willa Cather's classic novel, which Riskin both wrote and produced, with Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint; The Member of the Wedding (1997) based on Carson McCullers' novel, with Anna Paquin and Alfre Woodard.

Civic engagement and activism
Riskin has been dedicated to non-profit work and activism on behalf of human rights, education, her union (Writers Guild of America, West) and more recently, public radio. She served on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for twelve years, traveled widely with the organization, and was a founding member of Human Rights Watch in Southern California, helping to build chapters in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. For eight years, she chaired the Hellman-Hammett Prize Committee established by the estate of Lillian Hellman and administered by HRW, a fund to writers around the world who were victims of political persecution.

In 2001, Riskin was the first woman in 50 years elected President of the Writers Guild of America, West  – Mary C McCall Jr had been WGA president 1942-44 and 1951-52. She was dedicated to eliminating the "Film By," credit given to directors implying their sole authorship of films. She argued before the FCC in Washington against media consolidation and in Hollywood on behalf of improved representation and creative rights for animation writers. She also served as a Trustee and Chair of the Writers and Producers Pension and Health Fund. She was reelected President of the union by a significant margin in 2003, but stepped down early in 2004 over a controversy about Guild rules on eligibility to run for office.

From to 2009 to 2016 Riskin chaired the Board of Trustees of Antioch University Santa Barbara, expanding the campus' footprint and visibility in the community. She also played a seminal role in bringing NPR station KCRW to the Central Coast, serves on the Board of Directors of KCRW, and co-chairs the KCRW Advisory Board in Santa Barbara.

Personal life

Riskin is married to television, film, and stage writer and producer, David W. Rintels. They live in Santa Barbara and Martha's Vineyard. Riskin's older brother, Robert Jr. is the owner of the legendary McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.

Awards
The Last Best Year – The Christopher Award (1991)†; The American Psychological Association Award for Excellence in Television.
A Town Torn Apart – The Christopher Award (1992)
My Antonia – New York Festivals – Outstanding achievement in Made-for-Television; World Media Awards Silver Medal – Screenwriting; The Christopher Award (1995)
World War II: When Lions Roared – The Producer Guild of America Norman Felton Television Producer of the Year Award, for the "Best Single Program."
Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir – nominated "Best Biography" Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2019

†The Christopher Awards were created in 1949 to celebrate writers, producers, directors, authors, and illustrators whose work "affirms the highest values of the human spirit."

Honors
Chairman's Award by The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors for her leadership role in the Creative Community's fight against media concentration, 2002.
Justice Rose Bird Person of Courage Award by Death Penalty Focus, 2006.
The Horace Mann Alumna of the Year Award by Antioch University Los Angeles.
The Human Rights-Defender of the First Amendment Award by the ACLU of Southern California.
The Writers Guild of America West in 2009 Valentine Davies Award in recognition of contributions to the entertainment industry and community at large, "which have brought dignity and honor to writers everywhere."
California State Assemblyman Das Williams honored her as Santa Barbara California Woman of the Year in 2012.
State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, honored her as a Woman of the Year in 2014.

References

1945 births
Living people
American human rights activists
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Women human rights activists
American television writers
American women psychologists
21st-century American psychologists
American women screenwriters
Antioch University alumni
Human Rights Watch people
Screenwriters from California
People from Bel Air, Los Angeles
University of Southern California alumni
Women presidents of organizations
American women television writers
21st-century American women
20th-century American psychologists

Victoria Riskin


The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply the Atari 5200, was a video game console which came out in 1982.  It was made by Atari Inc. and was meant as a replacement to the popular Atari 2600.  Atari wanted the 5200 to compete with the Intellivision, but it competed more closely with the ColecoVision.

The 5200 was based on Atari Inc.'s 400/800 computers.  Even though the internal hardware was almost identical, the code in the software was not.  Design mistakes meant that the 5200 had problems with its use.  These problems made it a market failure.

Hardware

The game's Atari 400-based design made for a design which Atari Inc. could quickly build and sell.

While it was being designed, the Atari 5200 called the "Atari Video System X - Advanced Video Computer System."  Atari protected the design with a codename, "Pam," after a female employee at Atari.  A rumor said that "Pam" or "PAM" actually stood for "Personal Arcade Machine."  This was because most games for the system were based on existing arcade games. Actual working Atari Video System X machines, whose hardware is 100% identical to the Atari 5200 do exist, but they are extremely rare.

The first 1982 release had four controller ports, where nearly all other systems of the day had only two. The 5200 also featured a very special new controller with an analog joystick, numeric keypad, two fire buttons on both sides of the controller and game function keys for Start, Pause, and Reset. Another special thing was the first automatic TV switchbox.  Older game systems which attached to a television's antenna leads required the user to slide a switch on the adapter by hand. This RF box was also where the game's power supply connected in a unique dual power/television signal setup similar to the RCA Studio II's. A single cable coming out of the 5200 plugged into the switch box and was used for both electricity and the television signal.

The 1983 version of the Atari 5200 has two controller ports instead of four.  Atari changed back to the a simpler separate power supply and manual RF switch. It also had changes in the cartridge port to allow for the Atari 2600 adapter released that year. While the adapter was only made to work on the two-port version, modifications can be made to the four-port to make it compatible. In fact, towards the end of the four-port model's production run, there were a limited number of consoles produced which included these modifications. These consoles can be identified by an asterisk in their serial number.

Controllers
The prototypes used to design the controller's electrical systems used a so-called "yoke and gimbal" taken from a radio control system used to fly model airplanes. This simple design gave very nice control and was highly reliable. The actual controllers sold with the game were quite different and a great disappointment to the development teams. The design of the analog joystick, which used a weak rubber boot rather than springs to center the stick, caused many joysticks to have no ability to center.  Another major flaw of the controllers was that the design did not provide smooth control through the travel of the stick. This made controlling games awkward. The controllers did, however, include a pause button.  This was a novelty at the time, but would become standard on almost all future game systems. Replacement joysticks were also released by other manufacturers.

Atari Inc. released the Pro-Line Trak-Ball controller for the system, which was used for titles such as Centipede or Defender.  A paddle controller and an updated self-centering version of the original controller were also being worked on, but never made it to market.

In the web-video-game review show, James Rolfe's The Angry Video Game Nerd, Rolfe's character is shown as being very frustrated with trying to use the controllers and Pro-Line Trak Ball as neither of them work properly. Other instances of web game review shows disliking the controller are on shows such as Mark Bussler's Classic Game Room, where the host is shown stating that the Atari 5200 controllers are the worst game console controllers of all time.

The controller was ranked the 10th worst video game controller by IGN editor Craig Harris.

Inside differences between the 5200 and the 400/800
Although the Atari 5200's insides were very much like that of the 400/800 home computers, the differences were enough so that games designed for one would not run directly on the other.

One of the most obvious differences was the 5200's lack of a keyboard. However, there were several others:
 The 400/800's 10 KB operating system was replaced with a simpler 2 KB BIOS, of which 1 KB is the built-in character set.
 A number of important registers, such as those of the GTIA and POKEY chips appear at different memory locations.
 The purpose of some registers changed slightly on the 5200.
 The 5200's analog joysticks required different input handling to the traditional digital joystick input on the 400/800. (However, the 5200 reassigned/rewired two of the 400/800's existing analog paddle registers for each bi-directional analog joystick input).

Atari Corp.'s later XE Games System revisited the idea of a console based on the 400/800 hardware. However, as this was essentially just a 65XE computer with a keyboard which could be removed, it was able to run most of the home computer titles directly.

Market failure

The Atari 5200 could not run software for the still-popular Atari 2600.  An adapter was later released in 1983 allowing it to play all Atari 2600 games, using the more reliable controllers from the 2600.

Another problem was the lack of attention that Atari Inc. gave to the console; most of its attention went to the older Atari 2600. It faced an uphill battle competing with the ColecoVision's head start and a video game market which was beginning to fade.

At one point, Atari Inc. planned on developing a smaller, less expensive version of the Atari 5200 which would have gotten rid of the controller storage bin. Code-named the "Atari 5100" (a.k.a. "Atari 5200 Jr."), only a few fully-working prototype Atari 5100s were made before the project was canceled.

On May 21, 1984, during a press conference at which the Atari 7800 was introduced, company executives revealed that the 5200 had been discontinued.  Total sales of the 5200 were reportedly in excess of 1 million units.

Technical design

Note:  These descriptions are very technical.  They are meant to be understood by people with lots of computer experience.
CPU: Custom MOS 6502C @ 1.79 MHz (not a 65c02).
Support hardware: 2 custom VLSI chips
Maximum screen resolution: 320×192 resolution, 16 (out of 256) on-screen colors per scan line. The color palette can be changed at every scan line using ANTIC display list interrupts, allowing all 256 colors to be displayed at once.
Graphics: ANTIC and GTIA
Sound: 4-channel sound via the POKEY chip which also handles keyboard scanning, serial I/O, high resolution interrupt capable timers (single cycle accurate), and random number generation
RAM: 16 KB
ROM: 32 KB ROM window for standard game cartridges, expandable using bank switching techniques. *2 KB on-board BIOS for system startup and interrupt routing
Size of the 5200: 13" x 15" x 4.25"

First titles
Super Breakout
Galaxian
Space Invaders
Asteroids (Prototype)

References

Other websites
AtariAge – Comprehensive Atari 5200 database and information

Video game consoles
Atari hardware

Atari 5200