Meander Creek Reservoir is a lake located along Meander Creek in Mahoning County and Trumbull County near Austintown, Ohio. The Meander Creek Reservoir is owned by the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District MVSD and is the largest provider of clean and safe drinking water of Mahoning and Trumbull County Ohio.

In 1920, a petitioning effort began in the Mahoning Valley, an area consisting of cities such as Youngstown and Niles, Ohio for the formation of Water district. It was hoped that all the Mahoning Valley communities would unite, but there were too many obstacles. It settled on Youngstown and Niles as the two members of the future Water District in 1925.

The district bought its first piece of land in 1927 from Josiah Kirkpatrick, who changed his name to Kirk. Kirk Road in Austintown, Ohio was named after him.

Although, many water sources had been considered, including Lake Erie, it was decided to build a Mineral Ridge (Weathersfield Township),Ohio Dam on Meander Creek to create the reservoir with a purification plant. The total cost was nearly $9.2 million.

Construction was started in 1929 and continued through 1932 when the MVSD opened for business. In 1944, McDonald village was added as the third member.

The Auditor of State of Ohio has issued their Profile of the District in a recent Audit report, 2017.

The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District ("the District") was formed in 1926 and began supplying water in 1932. The District provides quality water to the member cities – the City of Youngstown and the City of Niles; and by special contract to the Village of McDonald. The members serve surrounding areas such as Girard, Canfield, Mineral Ridge, Lordstown and portions of 10 other townships.

The District is a political subdivision of the State of Ohio established under the authority of the Sanitary Act of Ohio and governed by the Ohio Revised Code Chapter 6115.

A Court of Jurisdiction that includes the Trumbull and Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas and a Board of Directors that is appointed by the member cities oversees the District.

The District's Board of Directors consists of four members, two from the City of Youngstown and two from the City of Niles. The Sanitary District Act empowers the District to provide water supply, treatment, transmission feeder systems and storage reservoirs, but not distribution.

The District utilizes a five-year forecast as the original document from which to form succeeding year's operating and debt budget. After updating the forecast for changes in revenue and expense assumptions, department heads will operate from the established budget which is prepared and approved by the Board of Directors prior to July 1 of each fiscal year. The line item budgets are reviewed periodically to ensure management becomes aware of any significant changes during the fiscal year.

Local Economy:

The District's water supply comes from the Meander Creek Reservoir. The Reservoir is seven miles long, covers 2,010 acres with 40 miles of shoreline, and has a capacity of 11 billion gallons. District owned land includes 5,500 acres enclosed by 35 miles of fence. The land is reforested with 4 million evergreens and serves as an unofficial fish and game refuge with no public access permitted.

The District's current capacity is 60 million gallons per day and for recent years the average pumping per day over a fiscal year has been 21.5 million gallons per day. The District's water supply is treated using state of the art settling technology and equipment to deliver, pure, safe, clear, sparkling, soft, potable water to its member cities Youngstown, Niles and the Village of McDonald. These member cities will distribute treated water to many surrounding towns, cities, and villages in the Mahoning Valley which total approximately 225,000 end users.

The Board's overall hiring policy is to maintain the proper staffing levels to ensure continued operations for the delivery of services to the District's member municipalities and onto the communities they serve. In the prior fiscal year, the Board rehired a former professional engineer to temporarily reassume the position of the District's Chief Engineer.

In January 2017, the Chief Engineer tendered his resignation. This left the Board in a difficult situation as this position also held an Ohio EPA Class IV water supply license which is an essential requirement for this facility.

The Board utilized existing provisions in the law to bring on board the firm MS Consultants, Inc., to fill the position of Chief Engineer until such time that the Board could find an individual to fill this position. The Board began its search for a qualified individual utilizing a firm that specializes in finding people who hold the credentials required for the position of Chief Engineer.

At the present time the Board is interviewing prospective candidates for this important position. Additionally in this fiscal year the position of Plant Operations Manager was abolished as the need for this position was determined by the Board as non-essential.

The District's hourly employees are represented by AFSCME Local 1649. The Union and the Board of Directors came to agreement on the CBA in August 2016 and this agreement will be in place through June 30, 2019.

The District has implemented a plant wide Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The SCADA system will automate some functions of the water purification process that are currently performed manually by District employees. After fiscal year end 2016, the District's management put additional effort into completing that part of SCADA that was envisioned to have remote control of certain pumping processes.

The Board had made the decision to abolish certain job positions that have been directly affected by the implementation of the SCADA system and did so in January 2017. The Board then created four new positions called Utility/Operators that do a similar job that was required previously but will have additional job duties and requirements that the abolished positions were not required to do.

Discussions were held with Union officials and those employees directly affected by the positions that were abolished. These employees were then offered those positions or another position to remain employed at the District. All the affected employees chose the positions offered by the Board. These new positions are working well in the operation of our plant.

The Board annually advertises for bids on chemicals that are needed in the purification process. The District will continue to have concerns with costs for the purification process as the high cost for energy drives the overall cost for chemicals. The unpredictability of prices for chemicals as well as our other variable costs such as electricity, natural gas heat and sludge removal will continue to remain an area of concern for District management. As is the case in most years some chemical costs come in higher than the year before with some coming in a little lower.

Overall though, the cost of chemicals to treat water has increased in the fiscal year 2017 but was affected by the addition of certain chemicals to address raw water conditions not usually seen at our facility as well as adding a chemical that improves safety in the distribution system of the District to its member cities, which also adds benefit to each City's own distribution system.

As mentioned in previous reports, oil and gas exploration (fracking) in our area may have contributed to our ability to enter into variable contracts to provide gas and electricity. The last several fiscal years have provided us with substantial savings to budget on these variable expenses. It remains to be seen whether or not this market will affect this part of our operation in the future.

The MVSD is now, though, enjoying the positive aspects of market forces in this industry. Budgeting for energy costs will continue to present management with a more complex set of factors to determine energy costs for producing potable water.

The constantly changing conditions of the Meander Reservoir have always contributed to some uncertainty regarding the needs of treatment. The types and volume of chemicals needed to produce potable water each and every year requires much analysis and a good bit of luck, and as mentioned previously in this report the District had to implement changes to its treatment process as was necessary because of raw water conditions.

The Ohio Revised Code section 6115.01 through 6115.79 provides the orderly mechanism for the District to establish and receive the revenue stream that will provide for daily operating needs and maintaining the facility's buildings and process equipment through capital improvements.

The Board and management review and update the five-year operating and capital improvement forecast to determine the revenue stream necessary to maintain operations and capital improvement projects deemed essential to maintain our plant going forward in the near future and beyond.

The implementation and ongoing use and modification of our five year financial model has been the essential tool to provide non-biased legitimate and useful information to all stakeholders and receive a most important positive feedback and acceptance from those decision makers.

The Mahoning Valley population in the service area which the District has provided potable water for 85 years has become significantly smaller. The belief of all stakeholders that the District water plant be maintained at a level of excellence in all areas of production and management will provide serious and meaningful deliberations in all years going forward.

The reservoir's south end continues as a little river going southward. The reservoir is managed by the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District. Hunting, boating and fishing are prohibited. Most of the reservoir is located in Austintown Township in Mahoning County or in Weathersfield Township in Trumbull County.

Reference:
The dam creating the reservoir, Mineral Ridge Dam, is an earthen dam built in 1932.  It is 60 feet high, 3480 feet long at its crest, impounds a maximum capacity of 62,000 acre-feet, and is owned and operated by the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

References

External links
 The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District

Bodies of water of Mahoning County, Ohio
Bodies of water of Trumbull County, Ohio
Reservoirs in Ohio
Dams in Ohio
United States local public utility dams
Earth-filled dams

Meander Creek Reservoir


Gemünden am Main (officially Gemünden a.Main) is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg. Gemünden has around 10,000 inhabitants.

Geography

Location
Gemünden is located in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, on the Main, around 40 km downriver from Würzburg. Within the town, the River Sinn flows into the Franconian Saale, which itself then discharges into the Main. The Main river changes its direction at Gemünden, from northwest to west, marking the northeastern end of the Mainviereck ("Main Square") near Lohr am Main.

Gemünden lies on the Birkenhainer Strasse, an ancient trade road from Lower Franconia to today's Frankfurt Rhine Main Region.

Subdivisions
Gemünden's Stadtteile are Adelsberg, Aschenroth, Harrbach, Hofstetten, Hohenroth, Kleinwernfeld, Langenprozelten, Neutzenbrunn, Reichenbuch, Schaippach, Schönau, Seifriedsburg, Wernfeld and Massenbuch.

History

The local Schönau monastery () was founded in 1189 by Philipp von Thüngen. A Conventual Franciscan monastery since 1699, the monks' main job was to take care of the monastery and pilgrimage church.

The town, which likely had grown out of an early fishing village at the confluence of the three rivers, had its first documentary mention in 1243 in an agreement between Prince-Bishop of Würzburg  and Countess Adelheid of Rieneck. According to the agreement, two thirds of the castle and half of the settlement were subject to the Hochstift (or secular authority) of the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg. This followed attempts by the Counts of Rieneck to expand their territory to the south. At that point, Gemünden had already been awarded the status of town by the Rieneck counts.

The castle above the town, the Scherenburg, had been built by the Rienecks to control the shipping on the Main and the eastern terminus of the Birkenhainer Strasse, an important trade route in the Middle Ages.

The first reference to Gemünden as an oppidum (town) was in a document from 1319. In 1377, Würzburg took control of the whole town but in 1405 the Hochstift Würzburg sold the town to the Counts of Rieneck, reserving a right to buy it back. In 1466, Rudolf von Scherenberg made use of this and returned the town to Würzburg. Under Scherenberg's rule, Gemünden experienced a period of prosperity. The castle was named after him. Besides fishing, winegrowing also was an important source of income.

During the German Peasants' War and the Thirty Years' War the town was spared from significant damage. The town hall was built between 1585 and 1596. The castle became disused and started to fall into ruin in the 18th century.

The Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg was eventually annexed by Bavaria in 1802. Gemünden became a Bavarian district seat (Kreisstadt); a railway link followed in 1854, Ludwig's Western Railway, nowadays the Main–Spessart railway. Gemünden became a railway hub. In 1872 came the opening of the Flieden–Gemünden line, in 1879 the Gemünden–Schweinfurt line and in 1884 the Gemünden – Hammelburg line.

During the time of the National Socialist régime, the Jewish community's synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht (9 November 1938) by SA men. During the Second World War, many Soviet prisoners of war had to perform forced labour in operations that were important to the war effort.

Owing to the town's strategically important location as a railway hub, two thirds of it was destroyed by Allied bombing raids and fighting towards the end of the Second World War. In the final days of the war, in April 1945, the railway junction was the subject of fierce fighting which lasted for six days.

Post-war, the railway was rebuilt and Gemünden once again became an important junction. In 1964, Deutsche Bundesbahn employed 1,200 people in Gemünden.

In 1972, the Gemünden am Main district was abolished. With the amalgamation of nine municipalities with 14 Ortsteile between 1971 and 1978, the municipal territory increased sevenfold.

Arts and culture

Museums
Film-Photo-Ton ("Film-Photo-Sound") Museum in the Huttenschloss in Gemünden

Regular events
There are the Scherenburgfestspiele (festival) in July and August in the inner courtyard at the Scherenburg ruins. This is run by Festspielverein der Stadt Gemünden e.V..

Heimatfest is a local festival held every year on the fairgrounds on the opposite side of the  Franconian Saale from the town's pedestrian precinct. It is always held during the summer months (usually either in June or July). It is very much a scaled-down version of the Oktoberfest (held at the end of September every year in Munich) with a beer tent, rides, and games. It is always one week in length (from Saturday to the following Sunday) concluding in a fireworks display from the Scherenburg castle ruins.

Gemünden was well known as the venue for the heavy metal festival "Up From The Ground". However, the festival was last held in 2007, and owing to a number of factors, including fears for safety and poor service access at the venue, the promoters have no plans to continue the festival in Gemünden.

Attractions
Over Gemünden's town centre rise the ruins of Scherenburg, a castle also known as Schloss Scherenberg, which once belonged to the Counts of Rieneck. Farther up the hill are found the ruins of the Slorburg, another castle.

The Elias Hügel Column from 1740 was built based on the design of the mostly destroyed original in Kaisersteinbruch. The master mason was Friedrich Opferkuh and the sculptor was Ferenc Gyurcsek. It also stands as a token of good collaboration between the Gemünden am Main Historical Society and the Kaisersteinbruch Museum and Cultural Club.

A plaque recalls the old synagogue that was heavily damaged on Kristallnacht (9 November 1938) and torn down in 1945. A memorial to those Soviet prisoners who lost their lives during forced labour, can be found in the direction of Rieneck. There is also a war cemetery, inaugurated in 1957.

At the far south of the municipal territory is the Ruine Schönrain, the ruins of a former priory and castle. Beneath the ruins, the  railway tunnel enters the hill.

Sports
 WWC White Water Company Gemünden am Main e.V.: canoe sport club with focus on whitewater canoeing and recreational sport
 FV Gemünden/Seifriedsburg: football club

Governance

Town twinning
  Duiven, Gelderland, Netherlands
  Nals, South Tyrol, Italy
  Zella-Mehlis, Thuringia

Coat of arms
The town's arms might be described thus: Azure a castle argent with wall embattled flanked by towers, rising behind the wall a greater tower, itself with two flanking turrets braced underneath against the tower, in the wall a gate Or, the leaves open showing a portcullis raised of the same, the opening sable, all tower and turret roofs and tops of merlons gules, all roofs conical, and on top of each a roundle of the third.

Infrastructure

Transport

Gemünden station is an important railway junction. The North-South railway from Fulda to Würzburg forms a junction here with the east-west line from Aschaffenburg to Würzburg. West of town, the newly built Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway crosses the Main on the Gemünden Main Valley Bridge. Furthermore, the Franconian Saale Valley Railway (Fränkische Saaletalbahn) branches off at Gemünden, running to the spa town of Bad Kissingen. Gemünden is an important goods handling hub, and also running here are the Deutsche Bahn's Regionalbahn trains linking Gemünden with Würzburg and Aschaffenburg.

Gemünden lies on Bundesstraße 26.

Notable people
  (b. 2 December 1664; d. 14 September 1719), master stonemason
  (b. 17 June 1681; d. 22 August 1755), Imperial Baroque court master stonemason and churchbuilder
  (b. 29 August 1884; d. 15 July 1951 in Bad Liebenstein), German jurist, writer and publisher, cofounder and managing director of the Karl-May-Verlag (publishing house).
  (b. 9 June 1923; d. 11 July 2008), painter
  (b. 1929, d. 2006), writer
 Hans Michelbach (b. 1949), CSU politician
Andreas Kümmert (b. 1986), German singer, selected Eurovision participant, but turned down the offer.

Further reading
 Anneliese Lussert and Olga Knoblach-Wolff: Dir sing ich Gemünden mein Lied by Hofmann, G H 1982.
 Olga Knoblach-Wolff: Gemündener Türen und Tore. Impressionen und Erinnerungen in Bild und Wort. Accompanying historical commentary by Erhard Schenk.

References

External links

Main-Spessart
Towns in Bavaria
Populated places on the Main basin
Populated riverside places in Germany

Gemünden am Main


The Battle of Dujaila () was fought on 8 March 1916, between British and Ottoman forces during the First World War. The Ottoman forces, led by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz were besieging Kut, when the Anglo-Indian relief force, led by Lieutenant-General Fenton Aylmer, attempted to relieve the city. The attempt failed, and Aylmer lost 3,500 men.

Background
Throughout most of 1915, the Anglo-Indian expedition, designated Indian Expeditionary Force D, had advanced up both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Originally dispatched to capture the Shatt al Arab and Basra, to protect the British oilfields in Iran, Force "D"'s mission in Mesopotamia expanded gradually as local commanders saw a chance for victories which would burnish the British Empire's prestige in the Muslim world. At the battles of Qurna, Nasiriyeh, and Es Sinn, Force "D" defeated elements of the Ottoman Sixth Army. After the Battle of Es Sinn, the Anglo-Indian force controlled the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through much of what is now southern Iraq. Sensing that Baghdad was within their grasp, the commander of Force "D", supported by the Commander in Chief, India, in Simla, argued for permission to launch a final offensive to capture it. The situation looked promising. The nearest Ottoman reserves, according to British intelligence, were  distant in the Caucasus or  away at Aleppo in Syria. All that blocked the way to Baghdad were two demoralized, defeated divisions.

In London, the India Office was staunchly opposed to a further advance. Secretary of State for India, Austen Chamberlain was concerned that even if Baghdad could be captured, it would only be lost again because no other troops were available to reinforce Force "D". Eventually, the question of a further advance was taken up by Asquith's War Cabinet. Despite warnings from the Imperial General Staff, the decision to advance was given.

During the second half of 1915, Force "D" had only one division, the 6th (Poona) Division under Major-General Charles V.F. Townshend, available for offensive operations. Eventually, the question of a further advance was taken up by Asquith's War Cabinet. Despite warnings from the Imperial General Staff, the decision to advance was given.  Although tactically successful at the Battle of Ctesiphon, it proved to be a Pyrrhic victory. The Poona Division retreated to Kut.

The Ottoman Sixth Army, reinforced, pursued and laid siege to the town after attempts to storm the Anglo-Indian positions failed. Failing to take the town by storm, the Ottoman Sixth Army had adopted a passive siege, preferring to starve the Kut defenders into submission. The survival of the garrison became dependent on its food supply. Originally, forecast to be exhausted by the middle of February 1916, additional food stocks had been discovered in the town at the end of January 1916, which would extend the defender's rations until the middle of April 1916.

With the Poona Division under siege, the high commands in London and Simla began scrambling to put together a relief force. Lieutenant-General Fenton Aylmer was appointed to command the relief expedition, designated as the Tigris Corps. Originally intended to be made up of the 3rd (Lahore) Division and 7th (Meerut) Division as well as replacements intended for the besieged Poona Division. The Tigris Corps' first drive to relieve Townshend and the Kut garrison ground to a halt at the Battle of Hanna on 21 January 1916.

Prelude

Following the setbacks at the Hanna on 21 January 1916, Lieutenant-General Aylmer's Tigris Corps spent the month of February refitting and collecting reinforcements. Despite the pause, the Tigris Corps was still unable to be brought back up to full strength. The 13th (Western) Division had been dispatched as reinforcements from Egypt where it was being brought back to strength following its evacuation from Gallipoli. However, by the end of February, only the 13th Division's first battalions had reached the theatre, and only two of those had been transported up river by end of February.

The British position at Kut was becoming more desperate. Food stocks were estimated to last only until the middle of April, even with the discovery of an additional store of grain in late January. Additionally, there was the concern that time was running out in another way: the weather. Based on the known weather patterns of  the region, the latest that the Anglo-Indian Tigris Corps could expect favourable weather to hold was the middle of March. After that, the spring thaw would be in full swing. Combined with the coming rainy season, it would turn the areas along the banks of the Tigris into a flooded quagmire.

Many of battalions of the Tigris Corps remained understrength at the end of March 1916. The problem was particularly acute with the British battalions and the British officers of the Indian Army units. To deal with this, survivors of several units were amalgamated into battalions which approached full strength. Furthermore, replacement drafts meant for units besieged in Kut were formed into provisional units. These provisional units included the Highland Battalion (survivors of 2nd Black Watch and 1st Seaforth Highlanders), Norsets (replacement drafts for 2nd Norfolk and 2nd Dorset regiments in Kut), Composite Dogra Battalion (37th Dogras and 41st Dogras) and the Composite Territorials (remnants of 1/5th Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and 1/4th Hampshire).

In 1916, there were virtually no paved roads in Mesopotamia between Baghdad and Basra. No rail road had been constructed to connect to the cities. Beyond the port of Basra, transport options were limited to animal power, along unpaved tracks near the river, or river craft. Both required adequate water to operate effectively. Although the Tigris was broad, during much of the year it was so shallow that many ships could not navigate it. Going out further from the track along the Tigris, there were marshlands which would flood, especially during the Spring thaw. This left the river as the primary means of long distance transport. Despite the fact that the river was the primary means of transporting men and supplies in theater, the British had insufficient river craft to adequately meet the Tigris Corps' supply needs.

Given the strength of the Ottoman defences at the Hanna, the Anglo-Indian forces needed to find a way around them. On the left bank of the Tigris, this would mean swinging wide around the Ottoman defenses and marching at least 30 miles through the desert. Then, relying on Shatt al-Hayy for their communications, the force would break through the Ottoman lines and link up with the Kut garrison. The other option was to continue along Tigris River, but switching to the right bank. However, this would mean having to break through the Ottoman defenses at Dujaila.

Unwilling to leave the Tigris, which provided the British forces with an easy line of communication to Basra, Lieutenant-General Aylmer made the decision to attempt an advance along the right bank. Like the left bank, the terrain was mostly featureless and devoid of cover. The Ottoman units, with their German advisers, had become adept at camouflaging their positions, making it hard for the British and Indian units to fix them properly. What was known was that Ottomans were in the process of constructing a redoubt at Dujaila. Since there was no way to cover a move across the river and through the Dujaila position, Aylmer and his staff put together a plan that called for a night assault by the majority of his force while a detachment would remain behind on the left bank as a diversion.

However, prior to putting the plan into effect, Aylmer had to get approval of the new commander of I.E.F. D, Lieutenant-General Sir Percy Lake. After the Battle of the Hanna, General Lake had begun to lose faith in Aylmer's abilities as commander of the Tigris Corps. In order to exert greater control over the coming battle, he had replaced Aylmer's chief of staff with his own man, Major-General George Gorringe.

Not only did Lake lack faith in Aylmer's abilities, Aylmer himself had lost confidence in the abilities of his subordinates. Of his two divisional commanders, Major-General Henry D'Urban Kearny, GOC 3rd (Lahore) Division, and Major-General Sir George Younghusband, GOC 7th (Meerut) Division, neither were detailed to the principal commander for the planned operation. Major-General D'Urban Keary would be assigned to command one of the three columns, the other two being commanded by Major-General George Kemball, one of his brigade commanders. Aylmer made his decision claiming that Kemball was a more energetic commander. Major-General Younghusband, who had been the chief proponent of a desert march to outflank the Ottoman lines entirely, was assigned to command the diversion force on the left bank.

Like the British, the Ottoman Sixth Army was also stretched to the limit of logistical support. The lack of any sort of industrial infrastructure (i.e. paved road capable of military transport or railways) made it exceedingly difficult for the Sixth Army to be rapidly reinforced. What the Ottoman army did have going in its favor was time. They had recognized that for the time, they were at the extent of their supply line from Baghdad.

The Ottomans, who had become adept at trench warfare during their victory at Gallipoli, had put their experience to good use. The Ottoman Sixth Army had invested Townshend's position with an elaborate trench network since December 1915. Downriver, the Field Marshal von der Goltz and his senior Ottoman commander, Khalil Pasha, erected a series of well sited defensive positions at the Hanna and the Sanniyat on the left bank of the river and the Dujaila along the right bank. Because Townshend had adopted a passive defensive stance, even more so since losing his ability to cross the river with the destruction of the pontoon bridge from Kut to the Woolpress village, his Ottoman army counterpart had been able to shift more and more of his troops south. In all, the Ottoman Sixth Army could muster approximately 25,000 men, 1,200 cavalry, and 80 artillery pieces. With Townshend's passivity, Field Marshal Von Der Goltz was able to move the bulk of his forces south, leaving only about 2,000 men to maintain the siege itself. On the left bank, the 52nd, 38th, and part of 35th Ottoman Divisions continued to occupy the Hanna line. 8,500 men, 1,500 cavalry and 32 artillery pieces of the 2nd and 35th Ottoman Divisions defended the right bank of the Tigris at the Dujaila position.

Realizing that the British might try to break the siege by advancing on the right bank, the Ottoman commander ordered the construction of the Dujaila redoubt. Aylmer later testified he chose to attack on the right bank because although the redoubt was sited atop the Dujaila depression, construction had only begun a few days after the Hanna battle in January 1916. By the time of the assault, the Ottomans had significantly improved the position, complete with a glacis estimated to be 25 feet high in some places.

Battle

Aylmer's plan split his force into three columns (A, B, and C). Columns A and B were grouped together and placed under the command of Major-General Kemball. Column C, under the command of Major-General Kearny, would be the reserve force. On the night of 7 March 1916, the entire force began crossing the river in preparation for the night march to the Dujualia redoubt. Lacking any real terrain features to help with the night time navigation, each column would have navigate by compass, checking their progress by counting steps, bicycle tachometers, and walking sticks.

In the darkness, things started to go wrong. Columns A and B became separated, losing contact with each other, slowing the advance as they tried to find each other in the dark. The artillery became lost and was almost an hour and a half late reaching their assigned positions.

Despite the two-hour delay, the assault elements of Column A and B were in position just before dawn on 8 March 1916. The lead elements of 26th Punjabis (part of 36th Indian Brigade attached to Column A) pushed forward, entering the Dujalia position to find them occupied only by a few unsuspecting soldiers. The news was reported back to Kemball that surprise had been achieved.

However, despite achieving total surprise, Kemball ordered his units to wait until the pre-planned H-Hour for the assault. He even ordered the Punjabis to withdraw from the Ottoman positions. Three hours would pass before Kemball would allow the 36th Brigade to attack the Dujalia redoubt.

By the time Kemball allowed the attack to go in, all hope of surprise had been lost. As the artillery began its preparatory bombardment, Von Der Goltz began ferrying over the 52nd Division from his reserve on the left bank to reinforce the divisions which were now fully alert and manning the trenches. By the end of the battle, nearly 8,000 men were ferried across the river and brought into fighting positions, effectively doubling the strength of the Ottoman garrison on the right bank.

Although some of Aylmer's assault force was in position, some of it was still struggling to sort itself out from the night march as the barrage began. One unit which did reach its start position on time, the 37th Indian Brigade, was accompanied by Kearny, Aylmer and Gorringe. Despite finding that there a gap in the lines, the Corps and Column commander, as well as the Corps Chief of Staff, held the 37th Brigade back, ordering it to wait and follow the plan's timetable. The infantry assault, originally planned for 7:15 a.m. did not go in till later.

The artillery, which should have started their bombardment earlier, did not get into action until almost 7 a.m. Paradoxically, once the barrage started, all hope of surprise was lost. Through the day, the Anglo-Indian battalions assaulted the Ottoman positions, only to be pinned down and driven back by machine gun and artillery fire.

Despite the missed opportunities, the fresh reinforcements, and the strong defensive entrenchments, by late afternoon, the British once again were on the verge of a breakthrough. 59th Scinde Rifles (Frontier Force) and 1st Manchester Regiment of the 8th (Jullundur) Brigade succeeded in capturing the first two lines of trenches of the Dujalia Redoubt. However, with no reserves left to exploit the success, the two battalions could do nothing more than hang on to their gains. Slowly but surely, the Ottoman battalions counter-attacked with bayonets and grenades, which were in short supply on the British side, forcing the Manchester's and Rifles to retreat in the early evening.  Of the 2,301 men of the 8th Brigade present, 1,174 were casualties by the end of the day.

In all, the Tigris Corps suffered almost 4,000 casualties.  Through the night, the British forces fell back to a rendezvous position approximately 8,000 yards from the Dujalia position. When no counter-attack materialized from the Dujalia, Aylmer ordered his troops back across the river, ending the battle.

Aftermath
The failure at Dujalia sealed Aylmer's fate. On 12 March 1916, he was relieved of command by Lake after the War Office received the report of the defeat. In his place, Gorringe would be elevated to command of the Tigris Corps.

After the defeat, the annual floods began. Melted snow off the Zagros Mountains began the annual re-supply of the rivers. The flooding the Mesopotamian plain began turning it into a sea of mud, flooded nullahs and mud islands. The morale of the Tigris Corps began to drop. When word of the defeat at Dujalia was announced to 6th (Poona) Division, Indian Muslim soldiers, already conflicted about fighting their coreligionists, began to desert.

For the rest of March, the Tigris Corps would await reinforcements, including the all British 13th (Western) Division. Once they were reinforced and concentrated, they would attempt once more to break the siege before Townshend's garrison ran out of food.

References

Bibliography

1916 in Ottoman Iraq
Battles of the Mesopotamian campaign
Battles of World War I involving the Ottoman Empire
Battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom
Battles of World War I involving British India
Conflicts in 1916
March 1916 events

Battle of Dujaila


The Bay Lights were a site-specific monumental light sculpture and generative art installation on the western span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, designed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its opening. The installation by light artist Leo Villareal included 25,000 individual white LEDs along  of the cables on the north side of the suspension span of the bridge between Yerba Buena Island and San Francisco. The installation was controlled via a computer and displayed changing patterns that were not meant to repeat. The opening ceremony was held on March 5, 2013.

Initially intended as a temporary installation, which ended on March 5, 2015, the project was re-installed as a longstanding feature of the Bay Bridge with permanent fixtures that were re-lit on January 30, 2016. Due to the project being underfunded, the lights were turned off on March 5, 2023, the 10th anniversary of the lights.

Origin
The Bay Lights was conceived in September 2010 by Ben Davis of Words Pictures Ideas, a public relations company that has a contract with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for publicizing the construction of the new eastern span replacement of the Bay Bridge between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland. Davis characterized the Bay Bridge as being overshadowed by the Golden Gate Bridge, which is a popular tourist destination for visitors to San Francisco, and he hoped this art project would give the Bay Bridge more recognition.  Davis contacted light artist Leo Villareal, who had an exhibition on display at the San Jose Museum of Art in late 2010.  Davis later founded Illuminate the Arts, a non-profit organization, to organize the sculpture's design, engineering, and fundraising.

Both Davis and Villareal suggest The Bay Lights was influenced by their experiences at the annual Burning Man art and music festival in northwestern Nevada.  Villareal first attended Burning Man in 1994 and eventually joined the board of directors of the Burning Man organization. His prototype light sculpture was 16 blinking lights in a grid that was meant to be a beacon when returning to his camp at night.  From there, Villareal has programmed more complex light matrices and exhibitions, including his largest, "Multiverse," a 41,000 LED installation on permanent display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Operations

The sculpture was visible mostly from the north side of the bridge and was most easily seen from the San Francisco waterfront. The lights were positioned to be invisible to bridge motorists, to prevent driver distractions.  The installation operated from dusk until dawn daily.

Installation
The 25,000 white LEDs were attached by construction workers along the vertical steel support cables that connect the deck of the bridge to the suspension cables at the top. Caltrans workers intermittently closed a lane of traffic on the bridge late at night so electricians could install the individual LEDs to the cables. The lights were programmed to create a series of abstract patterns that ascend and descend the cables and appear to cross the bridge. Villareal said the patterns will be inspired by weather patterns, tides, and the volume of traffic on the bridge at any given time.

The lights needed  of special cabling to power the installation, as well as for networking and communications with the control computer. The lights were spaced every  and were attached to the bridge with 60,000 zip ties.  Each LED bulb could be adjusted for 255 different levels of brightness and the entire installation was controlled remotely by a computer program operated by Villareal. The LED lights complement the permanent string of lights that has been attached to the suspension cables since the 50th anniversary of the bridge in 1986.

The original, temporary installation, which formally opened on March 5, 2013, was taken down in March 2015 when its permits expired so that Caltrans could repaint and perform maintenance on the cables.  Installation of more robust, permanent lights began in October 2015, and a re-lighting ceremony was held on January 30, 2016,  after which the lights were gifted to the state of California.  The new lights were brighter and better able to weather the elements and angled such that they are visible from south of the bridge as well. By 2023, the work had dark patches where bulbs needed replacement with the LEDs failing faster than they could be repaired.

Cost
The initial project cost $8 million, which was raised through private donations and contributions.  50 million people were estimated to see The Bay Lights by 2015, and the project was estimated to bring up to $100 million in tourism revenue to the Bay Area. ZERO1, a non-profit dedicated to bringing art and technology together, signed on as the official fiscal sponsor of the project.

The Bay Lights is estimated to use approximately $30 per day in electricity, or about $11,000 annually. During the temporary installation period, these costs were covered by a private solar investment company in the form of solar credits.

In July 2014, Illuminate the Arts announced it was partnering with Tilt.com to sponsor a $1.2 million crowdfunding campaign to keep The Bay Lights lit until 2026.  When the crowdfunding campaign raised less than expected, organizers focused on larger donors and ultimately raised the $4 million necessary to install long-term fixtures.  The Bay Area Toll Authority, which oversees the bridge, agreed in 2014 to allocate up to $250,000 per year from toll revenues for maintenance and electricity.

Critical reception
Since its inauguration, The Bay Lights has received widespread public support and positive reaction, as well as political support from state and local politicians, including Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Hemispheres named The Bay Lights the top attraction in its 2013 "Out with the Old, In with the New" Top-25 feature.

On March 8, 2014, the documentary Impossible Light world premiered at the SXSW Film Festival. The film follows the people who wished to produce The Bay Lights as they search for funding and obtain permits. The Austin Chronicle felt that the documentary was a nearly seamless extraction of the evolutionary relationship between art and benefaction. The film also screened as part of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival and the Newport Beach Film Festival in April 2014.

Notes

Further reading

External links

Art in the San Francisco Bay Area
Bridge light displays
Installation art works
Landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area
Light art
Public art in California
2013 establishments in California
Articles containing video clips

The Bay Lights


Estimé Records is a New York based record label that was founded in 2003 by Owner Alan Estimé.  The company operates independently and gives the artist they sign the creative freedom in their work. You can find all of Estimé Records releases at iTunes music store and other major digital music stores. Estimé Records was previously called Star Recordings, the company went through the name change in 2011.

Releases
 Stryke - "The MC VS The Instrumental" (2003)
 Stryke - "On The Prowl" (2004)
 Stryke - "The Lost Tapes" (2005)
 Sindri - "Bout To Hit Da Bloc" (2007)
 Sam Pollard - "Mixed Up" (2007)

External links
 Website

Record labels established in 2003
American independent record labels

Star Recordings


SplendidCRM produces open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software developed in C# for the ASP.NET framework. The product is available in two editions - Open Source and Professional - the main difference between the two products is the inclusion of stored procedures and source code for a MS Outlook 2003/2007 plug-in in the Professional edition.

History
SplendidCRM, Inc. was founded in November 2005 by Paul Rony. The project began as an experiment to test the effectiveness of the Microsoft .NET development environment at porting an application from the LAMP software bundle to the Microsoft ASP.NET framework. It was soon noted that there were few initiatives at the time dedicated to promoting Open Source and ASP.NET from a CRM perspective and SplendidCRM rapidly gained a following in the .NET developer community. It is a featured community project on the official ASP.NET website.

SplendidCRM adopted the LAMP based SugarCRM Open Source as the blueprint on which to initially model its ASP.NET application. The application is compatible with and uses SugarCRM assets such as icons and terminology packs. However the actual source code that makes up the application is completely original. SplendidCRM complies with the terms of the Sugar Public License 1.1.3. SplendidCRM first appeared on Codeplex on 28 June 2006 and has been downloaded in excess of 4000 times, however this does not include the volume of downloads directly from the SplendidCRM corporate website. SplendidCRM is based on but is not a competitor of SugarCRM. SplendidCRM targets the Microsoft-centric small business sector where Microsoft CRM is too expensive and complex to implement.  SplendidCRM may be taking on Microsoft CRM with Microsoft's own tools.

Product
SplendidCRM is an open-source customer relationship management application built on the Microsoft .NET framework. The product can be deployed in a variety of scenarios including Software-as-a-service.

Licensing
SplendidCRM is one of the new breed of Microsoft-based open-source projects. It is unusual because at present it features a developer based licensing model for its professional edition, which means that  system integrators wishing to adopt SplendidCRM only need to pay for the number of software developers working on their project - rather than the number of ultimate end users.  However, companies that adopt SplendidCRM for internal use must adhere to the per-user fee for all their users.

SugarCRM has now been released under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, although when the port was made, SugarCRM was licensed under its own Sugar Public License 1.1.3 (SPL).  Following criticism from the Open Source Initiative SugarCRM decided to adopt the AGPLv3 to license its community edition (open source) product on July 25, 2007. The SPL is a license that was derived from the Mozilla Public License, and as such is a file-based license; the move to AGPLv3 by SugarCRM is seen to be a positive step by their developer community, and consequently also benefits the developers of ported solutions such as SplendidCRM.

SplendidCRM complied with the SPL, and was only able to sell a Professional Version because the Database Views and Stored Procedures (SPs) were developed completely independently of SugarCRM. These are not available in the current Open Source version of SplendidCRM. The move by SugarCRM to AGPLv3 means that once SplendidCRM has also moved to AGPLv3, ASP.NET developers will be able to use SplendidCRM as a framework for developing their own products and solutions without the restrictions previously experienced under the SPL.

See also
 SugarCRM
 Web application

References

External links
 Official website

Software companies based in North Carolina
Customer relationship management software companies
Free customer relationship management software
Free software companies
Companies established in 2005
Companies based in North Carolina
Software companies of the United States

SplendidCRM


Michael Lucas (born Andrei Lvovich Treivas (), March 10, 1972) is a Russian-American-Israeli businessman and the founder and CEO of Lucas Entertainment, Manhattan's largest gay-adult-film company.

The New Republic dubbed Lucas "Gay Porn's Neocon Kingpin". He contends that his film Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita is the most expensive gay porn film ever made, with a budget of $250,000 and multiple celebrity cameos. In 2009, Lucas was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame, noted for "his stature as an A-list director and performer". He was included in a 2009 New York magazine feature about people who made it to the top, despite arriving in the city with very little.

Lucas is particularly well known for his activism and outspokenness. His criticism of drug use and his sponsorship of public service ad campaigns about the dangers of unprotected sex in the gay community led Harvey Fierstein to interview him for The Advocate. His New York Blade columns on Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and Islam sparked a campus debate at Stanford University in February 2008 when Lucas was invited to give a speech to students. In 2010, he debated Peter Tatchell and Sue Sanders at England's Oxford University on whether the gay rights movement has undermined family values.

In 2009, Lucas released the film Men of Israel, which he called his most important. Journalists from The Atlantic, Out Magazine and Yediot Aharonot noted it as a landmark film as the first pornographic movie shot on location with an all-Israeli cast; while Tablet Magazine and the Los Angeles Times remarked on it being the first to feature an all-Jewish cast. Lucas followed the film with a gay tour of Israel. New York's LGBT Center stopped allowing groups associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to meet in their building after Lucas led a protest over their allowance of an anti-occupation group.

In recent years, Lucas has also begun work as a documentarian. In 2012, he released his first documentary film about the thriving Israeli LGBT community. Titled Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land, the film includes footage of Tel Aviv's vibrant nightlife, a same-sex wedding, and candid interviews with a diverse range of local Israeli gays and lesbians, including a gay MP, an openly gay Army trainer, a drag queen, a transvestite, a young Arab-Israeli journalist, and same-sex parents raising their children and a number of artists and activists. In 2014, Lucas released his second documentary, Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda, which investigates the current anti-gay climate in Russian politics and society.

Background
Lucas was born on March 10, 1972, in Moscow, Russia, to Lev Bregman, an engineer, and Elena Treivas, a Russian literature teacher. He was raised in a secular Jewish family. In 1994 he obtained a degree in law from the Kutafin Moscow State Law University. After graduation, Lucas briefly owned and operated a travel agency in Russia until 1995.

In 1995, Lucas left for Munich, Germany, on a tourist visa. Without an official work permit, he worked and starred in heterosexual porn. He then worked as a nude model and in gay porn for French adult film producer Jean-Daniel Cadinot in Paris.

Lucas moved to New York City in 1997, where he worked at the Gaiety Theater. After a few adult industry jobs in California, he was offered a one-year contract by Falcon Entertainment whose producers had seen him in a French Cadinot film. Lucas won a U.S. green card through the lottery system. With money saved from his work at Falcon, Lucas founded his own gay porn company in New York, rather than Los Angeles where most American porn companies are headquartered, in 1998.

In 2001, Lucas brought his Russian family to the United States. On November 12, 2004, Lucas was sworn in as an American citizen. In October 2008 it was announced that Lucas had married his boyfriend of eight years, Richard Winger. A press release stated that the couple wanted to marry to make a statement about same-sex marriage rights. In 2014 Lucas announced he and Winger divorced.

Career

Actor
Lucas began his career in a German heterosexual pornographic film. While in France, he worked under the influential French director Jean-Daniel Cadinot, appearing as "Ramzes Kairoff" in two gay pornographic films, both released in 1996. Using the name "Michel Lucas," he worked as a Falcon Exclusive, performing as a top in five films released in 1997 and 1998.

Director
He directed his first project, Back in the Saddle, in 1998, and also performed in the film. With co-director Tony DiMarco, Lucas won Best Director at the 2007 GayVN Awards for Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita. DiMarco and Lucas also won a 2008 XBIZ Award for Best GLBT Director, and Lucas received an award for Best Publicity Stunt for "Michael Lucas Found Dead".

The Banana Guide called his productions the most polished, big-budget gay porn films ever made and cited Lucas' love for the subject and high technical aptitude.

Since the founding of Lucas Entertainment, Lucas has gone on to direct over 400 adult films for his studio.

Lucas Entertainment

In 1998, Lucas founded his own production company, Lucas Entertainment. He based the company in New York City (rather than Los Angeles, where many of the other pornography studios are located in part because of the city's hospitable environment for adult films.) In 2004, Lucas Distribution, Inc., his adult video distribution company, began operations. Lucas directs, produces and stars in his own films under the Lucas Entertainment banner. His studio has garnered many GayVN Awards and Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards ("Grabbys") nominations and wins.

In the summer of 2005 Lucas released Michael Lucas' Dangerous Liaisons; the film featured celebrity cameos from RuPaul, Boy George, Graham Norton, Bruce Vilanch, Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore, and Michael Musto.

The company received 24 nominations for the 2009 GayVN Awards, including best picture for Return to Fire Island. That May, Lucas filmed the first gay porn film using all Israeli models, billing it as a sexual journey to promote Israeli culture. The company launched its Men of Israel website to promote the film, which announced its release for July 22.

Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita

In 2006, the studio released Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita Parts 1 & 2, a gay pornographic remake of the 1960 Fellini classic La Dolce Vita. The film won a record fourteen awards at the 2007 GayVN Awards, winning in every category in which it was nominated.

In February 2007, International Media Films, Inc., which owns the rights to Fellini's La Dolce Vita, filed suit against Lucas (as Andrei Treivas Bregman), Lucas Entertainment, Inc., and Lucas Distribution, Inc. for trademark and copyright infringement. The lawsuit seeks to collect unspecified damages and to stop sales of Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita Parts 1 & 2.

Lucas won the lawsuit in April 2010 in a summary judgment by Judge John George Koeltl, who dismissed IMF's claims of copyright infringement, since many porn films have parodied mainstream films.

Writer, speaker and activist

In the 2000s, Lucas attracted attention for his views on politics and culture through a series of columns, speaking events and his increasing activism. He is a vocal opponent of drug use and an advocate for safe sex, both in the porn industry and the gay community at large. In August 2004, The Advocate published an interview by Harvey Fierstein with Lucas about his full-page public service announcements in several national publications warning of the dangers of unprotected sex.

Increasingly Lucas gained attention for his politics, and in particular his views on Israel and Muslims. In March 2008 he was profiled in The New Republic as "Gay porn's neocon kingpin". The article explored his background and a controversy over his writings on Islam that surrounded a lecture he gave at Stanford University.

In an interview with Michael Musto in April 2009, Lucas remarked that his stifled upbringing in Soviet Russia influenced how vocal he is about his opinions.

Lucas wrote about the need for LGBT people to reassess conservatives in August 2010, citing Ann Coulter as an example of a gay-friendly conservative leader.

Columnist
On April 20, 2007, The New York Blade began to publish regular opinion columns by Lucas, who had previously had a number of comments published in the Blade's opinion section. In October 2009, Lucas wrote a column for The Advocate decrying the group Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism. In March 2010 Lucas began writing a column for The Advocate. His columns have focused on Israel, Russia's confronting homosexuality, and the Park51 controversy. In 2011 he started writing a column for Huffington Post.

Islam
His writings on Islam have been controversial. In a 2007 New York Blade column, Lucas expressed support for artist Charles Merrill's burning of a Koran that was estimated at $60,000. He has condemned Islam and accused it of creating negative attitudes that lead to the persecution of homosexuals and discrimination of women.

As a columnist for The Advocate, Lucas continued to explore Islamic topics. In a heavily debated column, he called the Cordoba House, a proposed Islamic community center and mosque controversially located near the World Trade Center site, a 'monument to Muslim terrorism' and an example of "political Islam's ascendancy." After the 2011 Egyptian revolution he wrote that the Muslim Brotherhood would fill a power vacuum, asserting that it would be a problem for the discreet Egyptian gay community that has lived with relatively little government persecution.

University lectures
In April 2005, Lucas was invited to speak before a Calhoun College Master's Tea at Yale University. The speech was organized with the assistance of gaYalies, a campus group for gay and bisexual men. He spoke about his life history and his views on pornography. In February 2006 he participated in a symposium on adult entertainment that was sponsored by the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, which later published Lucas' discussion in its Spring issue.

The Speakers Bureau at Stanford University invited Lucas to speak in Cubberley Auditorium on February 14, 2008, about the role the adult entertainment industry plays in AIDS prevention. The appearance sparked debate about his political columns for the New York Blade, particularly his assertions that "the Qur'an is today's Mein Kampf" and that its teachings inspire Muslims to kill gay people.

Lucas, who grew up in the Soviet Union and experienced its antisemitism and Homophobia, was on a panel at The New School on the state of gay rights and acceptability in Eastern Europe.

Activism

Documentarian

2012 marked another turning point in Lucas' career—he released his first documentary film, "Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land." The official film synopsis explains Lucas' mission in creating the film: "When many people think of Israel, it is often in terms of modern war or ancient religion. But there is much more to the Jewish state than missiles and prayers. In his debut as a documentary filmmaker, adult-film entrepreneur and political columnist Michael Lucas examines a side of Israel that is too often overlooked: its thriving gay community. Undressing Israel features interviews with a diverse range of local men, including a gay member of Israel's parliament, a trainer who served openly in the army, a young Arab-Israeli journalist, and a pair of dads raising their kids. Lucas also visits Tel Aviv's vibrant nightlife scene—and even attends a same-sex wedding—in this guided tour of a country that has emerged as a pioneer for gay integration and equality." Lucas released his second documentary, "Campaign of Hate: Russian and Gay Propaganda," in 2014 with co-director and co-producer Scott Stern.

PrEP
In 2013 Lucas wrote an op-ed column at Out.com where he discussed his use of Truvada (which he began using in June of that year), the medication used as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent contracting the HIV virus. In his column Lucas wrote: "The more I learn about PrEP, the more shocked I'm becoming that gay men are not shouting from the rooftops about this potential game changer in the fight to prevent new HIV infections, which we're losing badly. I'm ready to shout about it. Here's what helped convince me: Dr. Robert Grant of UCSF, the researcher who led the multinational study on PrEP, was quoted at an AIDS conference as saying that 'No one in iPrEx [the PrEP study] acquired HIV infection with a drug level that would have been expected with daily dosing.' Was this really possible? Whether they used condoms or not, people who took Truvada, as prescribed, were protected from the virus?"

Lucas continues to advocate the use and understanding of PrEP in an effort to end the AIDS epidemic. In September 2015 he created his first public-service announcement where he explains the importance of PrEP. In September 2015 he followed up with his original Out.com writing by saying that PrEP works, and the backlash against the medication's use needs to stop. Lucas wrote the following in his column: "Despite all the attempted distractions, the focus must remain on the simple message in the new study: If you take PrEP, you will not get HIV. Period. It is time to wake up, stop the endless debating, and take action. The war against HIV rages on, and when scientists actually win a battle, we must avail ourselves of the powerful weapon they have developed." On February 24, 2016, PrEP was formally approved in Israel.

Israel

The core of Lucas' worldview is his Jewish identity, and particularly his deep affinity for the state of Israel. His time growing up in the Soviet Union, which was notorious for its antisemitism, meant that like many Russian Jews, Lucas had to repress his identity. Lucas has claimed that he was given his mother's maiden name at birth specifically because Treivas sounded less Jewish than his father's surname Bregman.

Hezbollah's attacks in the 2006 Lebanon war affected Lucas, who in the midst of the fighting announced his plans to go to Israel to entertain gay soldiers (who are allowed to serve openly in the military). Lucas received a positive response to the trip; however, some religious segments of Israeli society had expressed less enthusiasm for the arrival of a gay porn magnate. In an article, "Lucas responds," Lucas characterized some of the reaction as homophobic and in an interview said, "Israel is my country as much as it is yours. To come to Israel is my birthright." In September 2009, Lucas was granted Israeli citizenship. In 2010, he renounced his Russian citizenship.

The next summer in a New York Blade column Lucas brought up his disapproval of Haredi Judaism in Israel once again. In "Trouble With Ultra-Orthodox," Lucas referred to the Ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem as "religious goons" and parasites for his belief that they take advantage of state welfare programs.

New York LGBT Community Center
In February 2011, Lucas created a controversy over a pro-Palestinian group that planned to hold a meeting at New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. The group, Siegebusters, had planned to hold a fundraising party on March 5 at the center to help fund another vessel to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, as well as to train activists. Lucas protested and claimed that Israel is the only gay-friendly country in the Middle East, that the group was anti-Semitic, and that LGBT people in the Palestinian territories are tortured and killed. After Lucas's calls for a boycott, the Center backed down and decided that Siegebusters was not an LGBT-related group, and so they should not use their space for the Israeli Apartheid Week event. Siegebusters protested the decision by organizing an online petition; Lucas told The Jerusalem Post that his success with the event's cancellation was a "landmark moment" in his life.

The controversy arose again in May 2011 after the center agreed to let the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid meet in their building, triggering Lucas to again call for a boycott and an end to the center's funding. In a statement defending the move, the center said that it "provides space for a variety of LGBT voices in our community to engage in conversations on a range of topics." In a press release, Lucas responded that the center had become an accomplice of an "anti-Semitic hate group whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel". In the beginning of June 2011, the center decided to place a "moratorium" on renting space to "groups that organize around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

In popular culture
Lucas appeared in Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' 2004 book XXX: 30 Porn Star Photographs
and the accompanying HBO documentary Thinking XXX.
Greenfield-Sanders asked Lucas for a list of his ten favorite films; the ten films he listed are all films from his own production company. In May 2007, Kensington Books published Naked: The Life and Times of Michael Lucas, a biography of Lucas. Lucas asserts the book was published without his involvement or approval.

Awards
 2000 Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards ("Grabbys") Best Newcomer—Director
 2001 GayVN Awards Best Solo Performance, Fire Island Cruising
 2007 GayVN Awards Best Actor, Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita
 2007 GayVN Awards Best Threesome, Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita
 2007 GayVN Awards Best Director, Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita (Tony DiMarco, co-director)
 2008 XBIZ Award GLBT Director of the Year (with Tony DiMarco)
 2008 XBIZ Award Publicity Stunt of the Year, Michael Lucas Found Dead
 2009 GayVN Awards GayVN Hall of Fame

Filmography

Adult films
A complete list of film performance and model credits can be found at Lucas Entertainment.com, including those directed, written or produced by Lucas.

Documentaries
 2012: Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land (written, produced, directed) – co-directed by Yariv Mozer
 2014: Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda – co-directed and produced with Scott Stern

See also

 Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards
 GayVN Awards
 LGBT culture in New York City
 List of male performers in gay porn films
 List of pornographic movie studios
 List of LGBT people from New York City
 New Yorkers in journalism

References

External links

 Gay Erotic Video Index

1972 births
American male pornographic film actors
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American pornographic film directors
American pornographic film producers
American Zionists
American LGBT rights activists
Directors of gay pornographic films
Producers of gay pornographic films
American critics of Islam
21st-century Israeli Jews
Gay Jews
Israeli gay actors
American gay actors
Living people
Russian emigrants to the United States
Russian Zionists
HuffPost writers and columnists
Gay pornographic film actors
American actors in gay pornographic films
Israeli male pornographic film actors

Michael Lucas (director)


Sunshine Biscuits, formerly known as The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, is a defunct independent American baker of cookies, crackers, and cereals.  The company, which became a brand on a few products such as Cheez-It, was purchased by Keebler Company in 1996, which was purchased by Kellogg Company in 2001.  Around then, Sunshine Biscuits was headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois, where Keebler was located until 2001.

At the time of its purchase by Keebler, Sunshine Biscuits was the third largest cookie baker in the United States.

History

Until the late 19th century, the biscuit and cracker industry was made up of small independent local bakeries preparing products and selling them in bulk. The barrels and crates of biscuits were delivered by horse and wagon, set out in the grocery store and sold to the consumer by the measure.

In 1890, a group of 33 midwest and western bakers combined to form the American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company. This was to compete with United States Baking Company, another Midwest group  and the New York Biscuit Company, an east coast conglomerate. Soon the American Biscuit and New York Biscuit groups were opening bakeries and lowering prices in each other's area in an attempt to eliminate the competition. Finally in February 1898, the competing groups combined 114 factories and formed the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco).

Joseph Loose was a member of Nabisco's Board of Directors, and in 1902, he, his brother Jacob Loose, and John H. Wiles, liquidated their holdings in National Biscuit Company and formed the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company in Kansas City, Missouri. They envisioned a factory filled with sunlight and so they adopted the name Sunshine. Soon they began expanding and opened new plants in Boston and then New York City. In 1912 Loose-Wiles opened its "Thousand Window" bakery in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City, which remained the largest bakery building in the world until 1955. The plant was closed in 1965 and the production was moved to Sayreville, New Jersey.

Loose-Wiles never registered its Sunshine brand name and therefore spent much effort in the first forty years trying to dissuade other companies from using the word "sunshine" or any related word on their product or in their advertising. Since Loose-Wiles claim was not based on a registered mark, they often had to investigate when and where the other company first used the word to determine which company had first claim so as not to lose their right to the name "Sunshine" for their own products. Finally in 1946, the Loose-Wiles Company officially changed its name to Sunshine Biscuit, Inc.

The early part of the company's history was dominated by developing new items and acquiring established brands from other smaller companies. Many of the products and their names are similar to those of their largest competitor, the National Biscuit Company. For example, Nabisco's first individually packaged cracker was named Uneeda. Loose-Wile's cracker was "Takhoma". Loose-Wiles made "Trumps Cookies". Nabisco produced "Aces". Sunshine Biscuit had "Animal Crackers" and "Toy Cookies".  Nabisco produced "Barnum's Animals".

The American Tobacco Company purchased the company in 1966. It was then sold to G. F. Industries, a privately held California company, and finally merged with the Keebler Company in 1996.

Products

Sunshine Biscuits made the Hydrox chocolate sandwich cream cookie, before it was discontinued in 1999. They were reintroduced in 2015, and are now made by Leaf Brands. Sunshine is best known as the brand name of Cheez-It snack crackers. However, six well-known Sunshine products were discontinued after the merger with Keebler: Chip-A-Roos, Chocolate Nugget cookies, Chocolate Fudge Cookies, Lemon Coolers, Golden Raisin Biscuits (through 1996, similar to Garibaldi biscuits), and Golden Fruit Biscuits. Sunshine originated Vienna Fingers cookies, which became branded as Keebler.

Current products are Cheez-It snack crackers, Krispy saltine crackers, Krispy Soup & Oyster crackers, and Nut Sundae Cookie.

Former products include Hydrox chocolate sandwich cookies, sold to Leaf Brands in 2014; Lemon Coolers cookies, trademarked by Texan Foods LLC in 2016; Yum Yums coconut caramel cookies, trademarked by Texan Foods LLC in 2016; Hi Ho Crackers, trademarked by Texan Foods LLC in 2016; and  Sunshine Nut Sundaes marshmallow cookies.

They made a snack cracker line called American Heritage, Cherry Coolers, Fig Bars (not Fig Newtons), and International Snacks, a line of sandwich cookies with two flavors of creme in every cookie. Shredded Wheat was produced at the Sayreville, New Jersey facility and distributed only east of the Mississippi.

After Kellogg's took over Keebler including crackers bearing the Sunshine name, the Sunshine brand was replaced by the Kellogg's brand.

References

Snack food manufacturers of the United States
Brand name cookies
Kellogg's brands
Manufacturing companies based in Kansas City, Missouri
Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois
Elmhurst, Illinois
Products introduced in 1890
Products introduced in 1946
American companies established in 1902
Food and drink companies established in 1902
Food and drink companies disestablished in 1996
1902 establishments in Missouri
1996 disestablishments in Illinois
1996 mergers and acquisitions

Sunshine Biscuits


Two Steps Forward, One Step Back is the sixth album by Patrick Sky, released as SLIF 2000 on Leviathan Records, identified as "[a] division of Innisfree Inc." on the back sleeve.  The sleeve notes and front cover title are a reproduction of Sky's own handwriting, notable especially for his misspelling the word forward as foreward [sic], though the standard spelling is found on the two sticker labels of the LP itself.  The record is noteworthy also because it includes a piano-driven re-recording of Sky's signature song, "Many a Mile," and because of "My Friend Robert," later recorded by George Thorogood.  Dedicated "[t]o the loving memory of Mississippi John Hurt," the album features not only a cover photo of the fingerpicking legend with Sky (who produced Hurt's Vanguard albums), but also covers of three John Hurt songs.  Other highlights include a cover of Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground" (Lunsford's version is included in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music) and lighthearted rhinological commentary about David Bromberg in the Sky original "Lucky Me."  The album also includes a performance of Sky playing "Lost James Whalen," featuring Sky's vocals as well as his playing of the uilleann pipes.

The cover bears a distinct similarity to Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years album cover, with the wide buff matting, the hand-written heading of the artist's name and album title, the re-touched and colorized low-rez photo in the center. Both were released in 1975, although Sky's album was released a few months earlier than Simon's.

Track listing

Side one
"Many a Mile"
"Lucky Me"
"Perryville Reel, Rhode Island Reel"
"My Friend Robert"
"Frankie and Albert"
"Mole in the Ground"

Side two
"Payday"
"Candy Man"
"To Find a Way"
"Danville Girl"
"Moanin' Blues"
"Lost James Whalen"

Personnel
 Eddie Wright - bass
 Bud Morrissoe - Fiddle
 Gordon Titcomb - Bars, piano
 Lar Anderson - Drums
 Buzz Kuhar - Drums
 Patrick Sky - Guitar, 12 String [,] Uilleann Pipes, Banjo, Dulcimer, Moans and Vocal Incantations
Production notes:
 Executive Producer - Lisa Null
 Produced & Arranged - Patrick Sky
 Engineered by - Pitt Kinsolving
 Cover photo - Bob Campbell
 Layout & Design - Joe Szarek, Patrick Sky, Butch Lockwood

References

1975 albums
Patrick Sky albums

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back


Blut Aus Nord (, ) is a French black metal band from Mondeville, Calvados, that has incorporated avant-garde and industrial elements in its music.

History
Vindsval began a solo project, under the name "Vlad", in 1993. He released two demos before changing the project's name in 1994 to Blut aus Nord, before the release of Ultima Thulée in 1995. The next three albums were recorded with the aid of session musicians. It is only recently that the group has had any permanent members apart from Vindsval.

The project's most critically acclaimed release is The Work Which Transforms God, a concept album which, in spite of being mostly instrumental with none of the lyrics made public, is meant to challenge the listener's prejudices and preconceptions about reality and various metaphysical subjects. The album was named by Terrorizer Magazine as one of its top 10 albums of 2003. So far, Vindsval has only allowed the lyrics from one of Blut aus Nord's full-length releases, Memoria Vetusta I, to be made public. According to journalist Avi Pitchon, "Blut Aus Nord are responsible, perhaps more so than any band, for the most recent evolution within black metal. 2003's 'The Work Which Transforms God' introduced us to the warped, collapsing mutation of 'black hole metal'; nowadays also called shoegazing BM."

Vindsval is head of the underground French record label Appease Me..., which is home to several extreme metal acts, in addition to Blut aus Nord.

On their follow-up release, 2006's MoRT, Blut aus Nord moved even further away from traditional black metal. The sound on MoRT is closer to experimental metal, comprising a mixture of dark and surreal noises and sounds that create a disturbing and bleak atmosphere.

Blut aus Nord's 2007 album Odinist: The Destruction of Reason by Illumination (the subtitle being a quote from Aleister Crowley), was leaked to the Internet on 10 September 2007. While the album's superficial sound is similar to that of MoRT, the album demonstrates a return to more traditional black metal songwriting and structure.

The sequel to Memoria Vetusta I, subtitled Dialogue with the Stars, was released in February 2009. In June 2010 they released an LP entitled What Once Was... Liber I on Debemur Morti Productions. In late 2010, the band re-released The Mystical Beast of Rebellion through Debemur Morti, with an additional CD of newly recorded material meant to act as a complementary work to the original.

The name "Blut aus Nord" translates from German as "Blood from the North", though the non-standard grammar suggests nautical jargon (a more standard phrasing would be "Blut aus (dem) Norden" or "Blut von Nord(en)", though cardinal directions are seldom used in spoken German to begin with).

They released a split EP with Ævangelist in June 2016 through Debemur Morti Productions. Two new albums, Deus Salutis Meæ and Hallucinogen, were released in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Loudwire named the latter one of the 50 best metal albums of 2019.

Musical style and conceptual elements
Blut Aus Nord's work has been described as the "sonic equivalent to Thorns injecting Streetcleaner-era Godflesh with an evil unpredictability". Vindsval, the vocalist and guitarist, made the following statement:

In addition to rejecting Satanism, BAN have distanced themselves from nationalism - another common black metal theme - instead recognising a kinship with "environmentalist black metal" groups such as Wolves in the Throne Room.

Current line-up
Vindsval - guitar, vocals (1993-)
W.D. Feld - drums, electronics, keyboards (1994-)
GhÖst - bass (2003-)
Thorns - drums (2014-)

Discography
Studio albums
Ultima Thulée (1995)
Memoria Vetusta I – Fathers of the Icy Age (1996)
The Mystical Beast of Rebellion (2001)
The Work Which Transforms God (2003)
MoRT (2006)
Odinist: The Destruction of Reason by Illumination (2007)
Memoria Vetusta II – Dialogue with the Stars (2009)
777 – Sect(s) (2011)
777 – The Desanctification (2011)
777 – Cosmosophy (2012)
 Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry (2014)
 Deus Salutis Meæ (2017)
 Hallucinogen (2019)
 Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses (2022)
 Lovecraftian Echoes (2022)
 Disharmonium – Nahab (2023)
EPs
Thematic Emanation of Archetypal Multiplicity (2005)
Dissociated Human Junction (2007)
What Once Was... Liber I (2010)
What Once Was... Liber II (2012)
What Once Was... Liber III (2013)
Debemur MoRTi (2014)
Triunity (2014)

Split releases
Decorporation 10 (2004) – split with Reverence
Dissociated Human Junction (2007) – split with Bloodoline, Reverence, and Karras
Triunity (2014) – split with P.H.O.B.O.S.
Codex Obscura Nomina (2016) – split with Ævangelist

References

External links
 Facebook page
 Biography on Allmusic

French black metal musical groups
Avant-garde metal musical groups
French industrial metal musical groups
Post-metal musical groups
Musical groups established in 1994
1994 establishments in France
Musical groups from Normandy
Candlelight Records artists

Blut Aus Nord


Mark Twain Lake is a reservoir located in Ralls and Monroe Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was created by the Clarence Cannon Dam (formerly called Joanna Dam) impounding the Salt River and is located about  southwest of Hannibal. The lake was named for Missouri author Mark Twain and part of the area around it is Mark Twain State Park. The village of Florida, the birthplace of Mark Twain, is mostly surrounded by the lake.

Authorization and purpose

In 1937 the Joanna Dam project was first proposed as an answer to many years of flooding by the Salt River. With support and expertise of many, including Representative Clarence Cannon, the multi-purpose project was authorized by Congress in the Flood Control Act of October 1962. The dam and the lake offer multiple benefits to Northeast Missouri including: hydroelectricity, flood Control, recreation, fish and wildlife conservation, water supply (shortage of existing ground water), navigation.
The dam was dedicated in 1984.
Johnny Cash played at the dedication ceremony.

Clarence Cannon Dam and power house

Clarence Cannon Dam is a  high and  long combination concrete gravity embankment dam. The dam contains  of concrete and  of earth-fill.

The dam contains a hydroelectric power plant, with two generators, capable of producing up to  of power, or enough to supply a town of 20,000 people. When both units are operating at capacity, as much as  of water pass through the turbines each minute. A regulation dam, located  downstream from the main dam, creates a storage pool that can be used for pumped-storage hydroelectricity. When demand for electricity is low, power from other sources can be used to pump water back from the tailwater to the lake. This water can then be re-cycled through the turbines when energy is in high demand.

Namesakes

Clarence Cannon was one of the prime influences in the realization of the Cannon Dam Project during his 42 years serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was actively engaged in farming in Lincoln County throughout his life and the author of several publications on parliamentary law. Following his death in 1964, the Joanna Dam was officially renamed to honor the man who was a longtime supporter of the project.

The lake is named for author Mark Twain, (pen name of Samuel Clemens) who was born in Florida, Missouri. At the time of his birth, Florida sat on the bank of the Salt River which was later dammed to create the lake. Although he lived and wrote about many other places, he often delighted audiences and readers with colorful stories of his native Missouri.

Recreation

Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake provide opportunities for outdoor recreation - boating, swimming, fishing, picnicking, hiking and hunting. There are recreation areas equipped with facilities such as campgrounds, beaches, and picnic shelters, as well as areas that are being managed for wildlife habitat. All visitors can enjoy the  of land and water at Clarence Cannon Dam and Mark Twain Lake.

Camping is available in three U.S. Army Corps of Engineers developed recreation areas, at the Mark Twain State Park and in several private recreation areas around the lake. Camping fees and facilities differ in the areas, however most have electric hookups, showers, restrooms, sanitary stations, fire grills, picnic tables and playground equipment. Group camping areas and a number of individual campsites are also available on a reservation basis. Campfire programs are held throughout the summer at outdoor amphitheaters in the campgrounds and give visitors the opportunity to learn more about the natural and cultural history of the area. School, scout and other interested groups may schedule programs upon request. The Corps also assists groups who sponsor bass tournaments, jamborees and other special events at the lake.

With over  of water, Mark Twain Lake is a suitable location for any type of water recreation. Boaters can use numerous boat ramps located conveniently around the lake as well as two full service marinas. Developed beaches on the lake provide swimming conditions. Anglers will find catfish, bass, crappie, walleye, bluegill and sunfish. Timber has been left in the upper ends of the lake and in selected coves to improve fish habitat.

Mark Twain Lake also provides recreational opportunities for picnickers, hikers, and hunters. Hikers and backpackers can use the many miles of trails throughout the lake area. Wildlife blinds, food plots and small ponds enhance a hiker's chance of spotting a deer, bluebird or other wildlife inhabitants of Missouri. For hunters, there are thousands of prime hunting grounds easily accessible from hunter/fisherman parking lots located throughout the area.

Near the lake, north of the village of Florida, are a group of prehistoric burial mounds; this site, known as the Crigler Mound Group, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

Reservoirs in Missouri
Protected areas of Ralls County, Missouri
Protected areas of Monroe County, Missouri
Quincy–Hannibal area
Mark Twain
Bodies of water of Ralls County, Missouri
Bodies of water of Monroe County, Missouri
1984 establishments in Missouri

Mark Twain Lake


An icosidodecahedron is a polyhedron (a three-dimensional shape) with 20 (icosi) triangular faces and 12 (dodeca) pentagonal faces. An icosidodecahedron has 30 identical vertices, with two triangles and two pentagons meeting at each, and 60 identical edges, each separating a triangle from a pentagon. As such it is one of the Archimedean solids and more especially, a quasiregular polyhedron.

Polyhedra

Icosidodecahedron


Joshua White (born May 7, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver who competes part-time in the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East, driving the No. 03 Ford for Clubb Racing Inc. He has also competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in the past. White is a former lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and is believed to be the second U.S. Marine to compete in a NASCAR national series event.

Racing career
At eight years old, White's grandfather allowed him to drive his truck around the family's farm, while his grandmother rode with him during drives in the truck, which White stated was what began his interest in racing. After her death before a 2015 race at Salem Speedway, White placed a memorial decal on his ARCA Racing Series car.

He started racing when he was 16, competing in drag racing, followed by mud bogging at the age of 18. In 2007, he raced at Kanawha Valley Motorsports Park, winning four times in the track's IHRA Street Modified division. Two years later, he joined the track's IHRA Modified, recording five wins.

In 2010, White enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, attending boot camp at Parris Island. He was part of the USMC's Ready Reserve (IRR) program as a lance corporal. After returning from basic training a year later, he re-entered racing and switched to stock cars, running IMCA Crate Late Models at I-77 Raceway, where he had five top-five finishes and a win.

In 2012, he ran an Automobile Racing Club of America race at Toledo Speedway, where he finished 13th. The following season, he began competing full-time in the ARCA Lincoln Welders Truck Series for Team Wilson, driving the No. 9 Ford. That year, he made his ARCA Racing Series debut for Hixson Motorsports at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield; he retired from the race after two laps with handling problems and finished 31st. He also made a start at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack, where he finished 30th. He did not make an ARCA Racing Series start in 2014, but returned for the 2015 season, running 17 races for Hixson. He ended the season 12th in points with a best finish of 21st at Springfield.

In 2015, White was initially scheduled to make his Camping World Truck Series debut at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he did not attempt the race. The next season, he joined Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing in 2016 to attempt his CWTS debut at Martinsville Speedway, and was reported to be the first Marine to compete in a NASCAR national series event. However, ex-Marine Larry Frank drove in the NASCAR Grand National Series between 1956 and 1966. The effort was supported by Gulf War veteran David Pack, who works for JJCR as a business development representative. Pack, who is also a board member with Cobb's military charity Driven2Honor, noticed White's Facebook post requesting funding to race. "Dave was excited at the thought of having a Marine race their truck," White stated. "We have been working together for the past month and have already secured enough funding to attempt my first NASCAR race." After starting 31st, White finished 32nd and last after being involved in a crash on lap 51 with Kyle Donahue.

After being without a ride for three years, in September 2019, it was reported that White signed with Vizion Motorsports to potentially run the ARCA season opener at Daytona and some Truck Series races if the team was able to find sponsorship. An official announcement that White had joined Vizion was made on December 19, 2019, with him driving the No. 36 ARCA car full-time if possible, as well as possibly a few Truck races. In 2020, he was set to run at ARCA's Daytona testing in January, driving the Josh Williams Motorsports No. 60 although he did not end up making any laps in the test session.

On January 1, 2022, Clubb Racing Inc. announced that White would return to ARCA and drive three races (Charlotte, the Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack and Bristol) in their No. 03 car in 2022. These were White's first ARCA starts since 2015 and his first NASCAR start since 2016. The race at Bristol was also a combination race with the ARCA Menards Series East and as a result, White made his debut in that series.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Camping World Truck Series

ARCA Menards Series
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Menards Series East

 Season still in progress

References

External links

1991 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia
Racing drivers from West Virginia
United States Marine Corps reservists
ARCA Menards Series drivers
NASCAR drivers

Josh White (racing driver)


A block upconverter (BUC) is used in the transmission (uplink) of satellite signals. It converts a band of frequencies from a lower frequency to a higher frequency. Modern BUCs convert from the L band to Ku band, C band and Ka band. Older BUCs convert from a 70 MHz intermediate  frequency (IF) to Ku band or C band.

Most BUCs use phase-locked loop local oscillators and require an external 10 MHz frequency reference to maintain the correct transmit frequency.

BUCs used in remote locations are often 2 or 4 W in the Ku band and 5 W in the C band. The 10 MHz reference frequency is usually sent on the same feedline as the main carrier. Many smaller BUCs also get their direct current (DC) over the feedline, using an internal DC block.

BUCs are generally used in conjunction with low-noise block converters (LNB). The BUC, being an up-converting device, makes up the "transmit" side of the system, while the LNB is the down-converting device and makes up the "receive" side. An example of a system utilizing both a BUC and an LNB is a VSAT system, used for bidirectional Internet access via satellite.

The block upconverter is a block shaped device assembled with the LNB in association with an OMT, orthogonal mode transducer to the feed-horn that faces the reflector parabolic dish.  This is opposed to other types of frequency upconverter which may be rack mounted indoors or not co-located with the dish.

Radio technology
Satellite broadcasting
Telecommunications equipment

Block upconverter


Laxoox (pronounced 'la-hoh') in Somalia, or Canjeera is a flat bread, a kind of pancake served in Somaliland, Somalia, Yemen and parts of Djibouti. It is frequently seen in the kitchens of northern East Africa.

Variants
Laxoox bread is very similar to injera, made in Ethiopian and Eritrea, but is much thinner and smaller in size. However, laxoox  is always made with wheat flour, while the injera is made from teff (which can be made with flour of other cereals).

Preparation
The bread is made with a mixture of sorghum flour, all-purpose flour, yeast (optional), warm water and a small portion of salt. The mixture is stirred by hand until it becomes creamy and smooth, and is left to ferment. If yeast is not being added, the batter is made in the afternoon and left to ferment overnight.

The laxoox is traditionally cooked in a circular metal plate called Daawa. Somalis living in exile, without access to a Daawa, use a normal pan instead.

Traditionally, laxoox is served as a breakfast with tea and subag (ghee butter) or saliid macraso (sesame oil). Laxoox is also served with stir-fried liver, scrambled eggs, minced meat, beans, hummus, soup or camel milk.

Breads
Somalia

Laxoox


Courtney Rheagan Wallace (born June 9, 1987) is an American actress who had a brief recurring role as Georgia Huffington on the television series 7th Heaven. Her other television credits include Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Devious Maids, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, ER, That's So Raven, Malcolm in the Middle, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Walker, Texas Ranger, among other series.

Rheagan was born in Dallas, Texas. She played a role as a child in the game Harvester.

In 2011, Rheagan played Deede Wallrath, the daughter of Texas agricultural tycoon Richard "Dick" Wallrath (portrayed by Jon Gries) in the film Deep in the Heart (which premiered at the Austin Film Festival on October 23, 2011).

Her most recent performance, the tenth installment of the Hellraiser franchise, in the 2018 Hellraiser: Judgment. Rheagan plays Alison Carter, the wife of Detective Sean Carter.

Filmography

References

External links

1987 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American child actresses
American film actresses
American television actresses
Living people
Actresses from Dallas

Rheagan Wallace


Sahibzada Mir Masjidi Khan (died 1841) was a leader in the Kohistan region of Afghanistan. He opposed the occupation of Afghanistan by the Government of British India during the First Anglo-Afghan War. Leaders in the Kohistan region including Mir Masjidi Khan, refused to pay taxes to the British, and began to organize their soldiers in July 1840. After attacks by British soldiers he and Sultan Muhammad Khan joined forces with Dost Muhammad Khan and fought a major battle with British at Parwan on November 2nd, 1840. After the battle Mir Masjid Khan continued to attack the British, while Dost Muhammad Khan surrendered. Mir Masjidi was later given poison by the British and he later died.

He is remembered by the Mir Masjidi Khan Medal, the second highest civilian award in Afghanistan. Winners have included the boxer Hamid Rahimi, truck driver Adam Khan, Olympic games coach Bashir Taraki and teacher Attaullah Wahidyar.

References

Year of birth missing
1841 deaths
Afghan leaders

Mir Masjidi Khan


Timothy C. Wong  (born 24 January 1941), is a Sinological translator and literary theorist of traditional Chinese fictional narratives and the Chinese efforts to Westernize and politicize their modern counterparts into what everyone now equates with "novels."  Wong was born in Hong Kong as an American citizen, and moved with his family back to Hawaii, his father's birthplace, when he was 10 years old.  He remained in the city of Honolulu through high school, before going on to northern California for his undergraduate—and eventually graduate—studies.

Wong received his B.A. in Political Science from Saint Mary's College before joining the Peace Corps in 1963, just two years after its founding.  His service in central Thailand teaching English in two different teacher-training colleges heightened his interest in both language-learning and language-teaching.  On his return to the US, he received a grant from the East-West Center, and enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he began the serious study of Mandarin Chinese.  His knowledge of this language advanced greatly at the Inter-University Program in Taipei, where he remained for fifteen months as an EWC grantee. He returned to the EWC in late 1967 to complete his M.A. in Asian Studies.  A fellowship from Stanford University in 1968 enabled him to spend the next six years working on his doctorate in traditional Chinese fiction, including a year at the Inter-University Center for advanced learning of Japanese in Tokyo.  In 1975, a year after he joined the faculty at Arizona State University, he completed his doctoral dissertation on the Qing dynasty satirist Wu Jingzi (Wu Ching-tzu, 1701–1754), which had been funded by a grant from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. In 1984–85, he took three different groups of American students to Beijing, as Director of the CIEE (Council for International Educational Exchange) at Peking University.  While there, he received and accepted an offer from The Ohio State University, to teach Chinese literature and language at both undergraduate and graduate levels.  He remained in Columbus, Ohio, for the next ten years before agreeing to return to Arizona State University as Professor of Chinese, to direct the Center for Asian Studies there. He served in that capacity for seven years before returning to full-time teaching and research, and to start an M.A. program in Chinese and Japanese literature, at the department where he began his professional career.

Wong's published research is largely focused on examining premodern Chinese fiction on its own terms, with the idea that knowing the differences between the way the Chinese told their stories and the way Europeans and Americans did is indispensable for a deeper understanding of both.  He retired from Arizona State University in 2010, but has continued to publish and to be active at academic conferences.

Selected English Publications
 Wu Ching-tzu.  Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1978.
 Stories for Saturday:  Twentieth Century Chinese Popular Fiction.  Honolulu:  University of Hawai'i Press, 2003.
 Sherlock in Shanghai:  Stories of Crime and Detection by Cheng Xiaoqing.  Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006.
 "Self and Society in Tang Dynasty Love Tales."  Journal of the American Oriental Society, 99, No. 1 (January–March 1979), 95–100.
 "Entertainment as Art: An Approach to the Ku-chin Hsiao-shuo." Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, 3, No. 2 (July 1981), 235–250.
 "Notes on the Textual History of the Lao Ts'an yu-chi." T'oung Pao LXIX, 1–3 (1983), 23–32.
 "The name 'Lao Ts'an' in Liu E's Fiction."  Journal of the American Oriental Society, 109, No. 1 (January–March 1989), 103–106.
 "Liu E in the Fang Shih Tradition."  Journal of the American Oriental Society, 112, No. 2 (April–June 1992), 302–306.
 "The Government Language Paradigm in the Academy: Some Observations."  Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association XXIX, No. 2 (May 1994), 13–22.
 "Commentary and Xiaoshuo Fiction." Rpt. in Of Ong & Media Ecology: Essays in Communication, Composition, and Literary Studies, eds Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup.  New York: Hampton Press, Inc.,   2012, pp. 143–159.
 "The Facts of Fiction: Liu E's Commentary to the Travels of Lao Can." Excursions in Chinese Culture.  Festschrift in Honour of Dr. William R. Schultz, eds Marie Chan, Chia-Lin Pao Tao, and Jing-shen Tao.  Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2002.
 "Chinese Narrative." Entry in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, eds. David Herman, Manfred Jahn, and Marie Laure Ryan.  London and New York: Routledge, 2005, pp. 62–63.
 "The Original Evolutionary Nature of Chinese Vernacular Fiction." Comparative Literature: East & West, 15, No. 2 (Autumn/Winter, 2011), 57–63.
 "Orality in Performance: The Art of Classical Xiaoshuo." Comparative Literature: East & West, 22, No. 1 (Spring/Summer, 2015), 1–7.

See also
 List of Sinologists

References

1941 births
Living people
Chinese sinologists
Arizona State University faculty
American people of Chinese descent
Chinese–English translators
Ohio State University faculty
Hong Kong emigrants to the United States

Timothy C. Wong