The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.

History

The Berlin Philharmonic was founded in Berlin in 1882 by 54 musicians under the name Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle (literally, "Former Bilse's Band"); the group broke away from their previous conductor Benjamin Bilse after he announced his intention of taking the band on a fourth-class train to Warsaw for a concert. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the financial management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner; in 1887 Hans von Bülow, the conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra and one of the most famous piano virtuosos of the time, took over the post. This helped to establish the orchestra's international reputation, and guests Hans Richter, Felix von Weingartner, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg conducted the orchestra over the next few years. In 1887, the pianist and composer Mary Wurm became the first woman to conduct the orchestra. Programmes of this period show that the orchestra possessed only 46 strings, much less than the Wagnerian ideal of 64.

In 1895, Arthur Nikisch became chief conductor, and was succeeded in 1923 by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Despite several changes in leadership, the orchestra continued to perform throughout World War II. On 20 April 1942, Furtwängler conducted a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic for Hitler's birthday. Following the end of the performance, Joseph Goebbels approached the podium to shake Furtwängler's hand. This concert led to intense criticism of Furtwängler after the war. After Furtwängler (who was personally opposed to the Nazi regime ) fled to Switzerland to escape arrest by the Gestapo in January 1945, Leo Borchard became chief conductor. The final wartime concert was on 12 April 1945, just before the commencement of the Battle of Berlin. The program included Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene and the finale from Wagner's Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Hitler Youth members are reported to have distributed cyanide pills to the audience for those who wished, by death, to escape the imminent arrival of the Red Army. The battle forced the orchestra to close for two months, but it was quickly reopened by the Soviet occupation authorities under the East Berlin commandant General Nikolai Berzarin on 26 May 1945.

Borchard was accidentally shot and killed later in 1945 by the U.S. Army forces occupying West Berlin. Sergiu Celibidache then took over as chief conductor for seven years, from 1945 to 1952. Furtwängler returned as chief conductor in 1952 and held the post until his death in 1954.

The orchestra elected Herbert von Karajan as its next chief conductor.  Karajan served in the post from 1955 until his resignation in April 1989, only months before his death.  Under him, the orchestra made a vast number of recordings and toured widely, growing and gaining fame. The orchestra hired its first female musician, violinist Madeleine Carruzzo, in 1982. However, Karajan's hiring in September 1982 of Sabine Meyer, the first female wind player to the orchestra, led to controversy when the orchestra voted 73 to 4 not to admit her to the orchestra. Meyer subsequently left the orchestra. After Karajan stood down from the orchestra in 1989, the orchestra offered the chief conductorship to Carlos Kleiber, who declined.

In 1989, the orchestra elected Claudio Abbado as its next principal conductor. It was the first time the Philharmonic resorted to democratic voting after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  Abbado expanded the orchestra's repertoire beyond the core classical and romantic works into more modern 20th-century works. Abbado stepped down from the chief conductorship of the orchestra in 2002. During the post-unification period, the orchestra encountered financial problems resulting from budgetary stress in the city of Berlin. In 2006, the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in Abbado's honour.

In June 1999, the musicians elected Sir Simon Rattle as their next chief conductor. Rattle made it a condition of his signing with the Berlin Philharmonic that it be turned into a self-governing public foundation, with the power to make its own artistic and financial decisions. This required a change to state law, which was approved in 2001, allowing him to join the organization in 2002. In his first season, he initiated community projects, such as a performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps danced by 250 public school children, documented in Rhythm Is It!. Rattle's contract with the orchestra was initially through 2012. In April 2008, the BPO musicians voted in favour of retaining Rattle as their chief conductor through 2018. From 2006 to 2010, the general manager of the orchestra was Pamela Rosenberg. In September 2010, Martin Hoffmann became the orchestra's new Intendant. Hoffmann stood down as its Intendant after the close of the 2016/2017 season.  Andrea Zietzschmann became Intendantin of the orchestra as of the 2017-2018 season.  In December 2020, the orchestra announced the extension of Zietzschmann's contract as Intendantin through 31 August 2025.

In 2006, the orchestra announced it would investigate its role during the Nazi regime. In 2007, Misha Aster published The Reich's Orchestra, his study of the relationship of the Berlin Philharmonic to the rulers of the Third Reich. Also in 2007, the documentary film The Reichsorchester by Enrique Sánchez Lansch was released.

UNICEF appointed the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Rattle as Goodwill Ambassadors in November 2007. On 10 January 2013, the orchestra announced the scheduled end of Rattle's tenure as artistic director and chief conductor in 2018. In 2014, the orchestra founded its own label, Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings.

After an abortive first attempt on 11 May 2015, the orchestra on 21 June 2015 elected Kirill Petrenko as its next artistic director and chief conductor. In October 2015, the orchestra announced that Petrenko was to formally commence his contract as chief conductor with the 2019/20 season. A year after this news, in October 2016, the orchestra specified more precisely the start of Petrenko's tenure as 19 August 2019.

Concert halls

The orchestra's first concert hall, the Philharmonie situated on the Bernburger Straße in Berlin Kreuzberg, was inaugurated in 1882 in a building previously used as a skating rink and converted by the architect Franz Schwechten. In 1899, a smaller concert hall, the Beethovensaal on Köthener Straße, was also inaugurated for chamber music and chamber ensembles. The first Philharmonie was used until British bombers destroyed it on 30 January 1944, the anniversary of Hitler becoming chancellor. The orchestra played until the end of the war in the Staatsoper, Unter den Linden. The Staatsoper was also destroyed on 3 February 1945. In need of a venue, the Berlin Philharmonic played during the years following the war in the Titania-Palast, an old movie theater converted in a concert hall, and still used the Beethovensaal for smaller concerts. During the 1950s the orchestra moved its concerts at the Musikhochschule (today part of the Berlin University of the Arts), in the Joseph-Joachim-Konzertsaal. However, most of the recordings were done at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin Dahlem, celebrated for its acoustics.

The need for a new Philharmonie was expressed since 1949, when the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Berliner Philharmonie e.V. (Friends of the Berliner Philharmonie Society) was created to gather funds. The building of the new Philharmonie started in 1961, following the design of architect Hans Scharoun, and it was inaugurated on 15 October 1963, with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Its location made it part of the Kulturforum, and the great hall (2,440 seats) was then complemented by a chamber-music hall, the Kammermusiksaal (1,180 seats), built in 1987, following the design of architect Edgar Wisniewski, after a project by Hans Scharoun.

The Berliner Philharmonie has since been the home of the Berlin Philharmonic, and its symbol. The orchestra's logo is based on the pentagon-shape of the concert hall.

On 20 May 2008, a fire broke out at the Philharmonie. One-quarter of the roof underwent considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior also sustained water damage, but was otherwise "generally unharmed". The firefighters limited damage by the use of foam. The orchestra was restricted from use of the hall for concerts until June 2008.

On 18 December 2008, the orchestra announced the official creation of a Digital Concert Hall. This hitherto unique internet platform of the BPO enables persons with computer access all over the world to see and hear the Philharmonic's concerts, live or on demand, not only under recent conductors, but even previous concerts conducted, e.g., by Claudio Abbado. Since July 2014, the Digital Concert Hall additionally offers livestreams produced from HD movies of concerts by Herbert von Karajan in the 1960s and early 1970s. Since 2010, selected concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic have been transmitted live to cinemas in Germany and Europe.

Principal conductors

 Ludwig von Brenner (1882–1887)
 Hans von Bülow (1887–1893)
 Richard Strauss (1894–1895)
 Arthur Nikisch (1895–1922)
 Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922–1945)
 Leo Borchard (May–August 1945)
 Sergiu Celibidache (1945–1952)
 Wilhelm Furtwängler (1952–1954)
 Herbert von Karajan (1954–1989)
 Claudio Abbado (1989–2002)
 Simon Rattle (2002–2018)
 Kirill Petrenko (2019–present)

Honorary members

The orchestra conferred honorary membership to the conductors Daniel Barenboim (he is also the first and only honorary conductor), Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, and Zubin Mehta.

Composer in residence
 2016–17 John Adams
 2018–19 George Benjamin
 2022–23 Esa-Pekka Salonen
 2023–24 Jörg Widmann

Artist in residence

Awards and recognition

Classical BRIT Awards

 2001 – "Ensemble/Orchestral Album of the Year" – Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (EMI, 2000)
 2003 – "Ensemble/Orchestral Album of the Year" – Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (EMI, 2002)

Grammy Awards

 1970 – Best Opera Recording – Herbert von Karajan, Helga Dernesch, Thomas Stolze, Jess Thomas, Wagner: Siegfried (DGG, 1969)
 1979 – Best Orchestral Performance – Herbert von Karajan, Beethoven: Symphonies (9) (Complete)
 1993 – Best Orchestral Recording – Leonard Bernstein, Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (DGG, 1992; recording 1979)
 1995 – Best Chamber Music Performance – Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago – Berlin) (1994)
 1998 – Best Small Ensemble Performance – Claudio Abbado, Hindemith Kammermusik No. 1 mit Finale 1921, Op. 24 No. 1 (with members of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) (EMI, 1996)
 2000 – Best Classical Vocal Performance – Claudio Abbado, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Quasthoff: Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn (DGG, 1999)
 2001 – Best Orchestral Performance – Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (EMI, 2000)
 2007 – Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) – Antonio Pappano, Leif Ove Andsnes: Rachmaninov, Piano Concertos 1 and 2 (EMI, 2006)

Gramophone Awards

 1981 – "Opera Recording of the Year" – Herbert von Karajan, Wagner: Parsifal (DGG, 1980)
 1981 – "Orchestral Record of the Year" – Herbert von Karajan, Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (DGG, 1980)
 1984 – "Record of the Year" – Herbert von Karajan, Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (DGG, 1984; live recording 1982)
 2000 – "Orchestral Record of the Year" – Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (EMI, 2000)
 2004 – "Concerto" – Mariss Jansons, Leif Ove Andsnes, Grieg: Piano Concerto and Schumann: Piano Concerto (EMI, 2004)
 2006 – "Record of the Year" – Claudio Abbado, Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (DGG, 2005)

ECHO (formerly Deutscher Schallplattenpreis) of Deutsche Phono-Akademie

 2003 – Chorwerkeinspielung – Sir Simon Rattle, Rundfunkchor Berlin, MDR Rundfunkchor, Ernst-Senff-Chor Berlin, Karita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Moser, Philip Langridge, Thomas Quasthoff: Schoenberg, Gurre-Lieder (EMI, 2002)
 2006 – Musik-DVD Produktion des Jahres – Sir Simon Rattle, Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch (director), Uwe Dierks (producer): Rhythm Is It! (2005)
 2006 – Sinfonische Einspielung – Claudio Abbado: Mahler, Symphony No. 6 (DGG, 2005)
 2016 – Orchester/Ensemble – Jean Sibelius, Symphonies 1–7, (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2015)

ICMA (International Classical Music Awards)

 2016 – "Symphonic" – Sir Simon Rattle: Jean Sibelius, Symphonies 1–7 (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2015)
 2017 – "Symphonic" – Claudio Abbado: The Last Concert (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2016)

Timbre de Platine (Platinum Stamp) awarded by Opéra International magazine

 1987 – Riccardo Muti, Mozart: Requiem (EMI, 1987)

Diapason magazine

 2014 – Diapason D'Or de l'année 2014 – Sir Simon Rattle: Johann Sebastian Bach, St Matthew Passion (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2014)
 2015 – Diapason D'Or Arte – Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Franz Schubert (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2015)
 2015 – Diapason D'Or Arte – Sir Simon Rattle: Johann Sebastian Bach, St John Passion (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2014)
 2016 – Diapason D'Or de l'année 2016 – Sir Simon Rattle: Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphonies 1–9 (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, 2016)

See also

 Philharmonia Quartet Berlin
 The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic
 Scharoun Ensemble

References

Further reading

 Annemarie Kleinert: Music at its Best: The Berlin Philharmonic. From Karajan to Rattle, BoD Publishing Company, Norderstedt 2009,
 Angela Hartwig: Rattle at the Door – Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic 2002 to 2008, published by Evrei, 2009, , Kindle Edition

External links

  (In English and German)
 Berliner Philharmoniker at Google Cultural Institute
 Members of the orchestra, see also :Category:Players of the Berlin Philharmonic
 Digital Concert Hall
 "Economic Crisis Puts the Squeeze on Arts", a 2003 Deutsche Welle article
 Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
 Website about the Kulturforum am Potsdamer Platz
 Misha Aster, Das Reichsorchester
 Bolero Berlin website, the Latin soul of the Berlin Philharmonic

1882 establishments in Germany
Deutsche Grammophon artists
German symphony orchestras
Herbert von Karajan Music Prize winners
Musical groups from Berlin
Musical groups established in 1882

Berlin Philharmonic


Bretby Art Pottery was an art pottery studio founded in 1882 by Henry Tooth and William Ault in Woodville, Derbyshire, where production began on 25 October 1883. Tooth went into partnership with Ault following his successful leadership of the celebrated Linthorpe Pottery in Middlesbrough where he had been recommended as general manager by the designer Dr Christopher Dresser in  1879.

Henry Tooth continued his creative relationship with Dr Dresser and within a year his partnership with Ault had won a gold medal at the 1884 London International and Universal Exhibition, which was held at the Crystal Palace. They also registered their 'Sunburst' logo as a trademark.

The partnership between Ault and Tooth was dissolved on 1 January 1887 when William Ault set up his own pottery Ault & Co. in Midland Road, Swadlincote. Following which Bretby continued to be produced by Tooth and then his family under Tooth and Co until 1993, when the works were presumably sold, trading under the name Tooth and Company Limited until their closure in 1996.

In 1921, the company was reported in the Burton Observer and Chronicle as specialising in "several unique kinds of pottery". These included "Ligna", which looked as if it were made of antique wood and bronze. The article says that the company is well-known for its Cloisonné work.

In May 2016 the ownership of the showroom and offices, the factory itself having been demolished some years earlier, was passed to The Heritage Trust  which is now trying to raise funds to restore and preserve the buildings.

Examples in public collections

Sharpe's Pottery Museum in Swadlincote holds a substantial collection of early examples. Derby Museum and Art Gallery also holds a large collection.

References

Ceramics manufacturers of England
Organisations based in Derbyshire
History of Derbyshire
British companies established in 1883
Art pottery
Manufacturing companies established in 1883
1883 establishments in England

Bretby Art Pottery


Gentianaceae are a family of flowering plants of 87 genera and over 1500 species.

Distribution is cosmopolitan. The family consists of trees, shrubs and herbs showing a wide range of colours and floral patterns.

Economically, some species are cultivated ornamental plants and many species yield bitter principles used medicinally and in flavorings.

Many of this group are mycoheterotrophs: their roots need fungi to break down organic material for them to absorb.

Gentianales
Plant families

Gentianaceae


Massalongiaceae is a small family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Peltigerales. It has three genera and seven species.

Species in this family have cyanobacteria as their primary symbiotic partner (cyanobiont), so they belong to the group known as "cyanobacterial lichens".

Taxonomy
The family was circumscribed by Mats Wedin, Per Magnus Jørgensen, and Elisabeth Wiklund in 2007. Molecular phylogenetic analysis showed that the three genera formed a well-supported monophyletic group that was distinct from other similar families in the Peltigerales. The family was named after the type genus, Massalongia; the genus name honours Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo (1824-1860).

Massalongiaceae has a sister taxon relationship with the family Peltigeraceae, and these two families together form a clade that is sister to a clade containing the families Vahiellaceae and Koerberiaceae. Previous phylogenetic studies had placed genus Massalongia in a group together with Peltigeraceae, Nephromataceae and Lobariaceae, although the relationships of Massalongia within this group were not precisely determined.

Description
The thalli of Massalongiaceae lichens range in form from squamulose (scaley) to microfoliose (tiny and leafy) or microfruticose (tiny and bushy). The photobiont partner is a member of the cyanobacterial genus Nostoc. In the squamulose to microfoliose species, the lobes are rounded to elongated, and the branches in microfruticose species are terete (more or less circular in cross-section) and delicate. The ascomata are in the form of apothecia, and they are usually biatorine (where the outer layers of the apothecium are light-coloured and contain no algae). The hamathecium (a collective term for all kinds of hyphae or other tissues between asci) consists of unbranched to branched paraphyses, and is amyloid.

The asci are semifissitunicate (i.e., discharge of spores from the ascus involves the separation of wall layers), with a thin apical tholus (the thickened inner part of an ascus tip) with an amyloid ring-structure, and cylindrical. The structure of the asci is particularly important in distinguishing between related families in the Peltigerales. For example, Peltigeraceae has a distinctive apical tube, while Nephromataceae lacks any amyloid apical structure, and Lobariaceae has an indistinctive amyloid layer that is not comparable to the apical cap found in the asci of the Massalongiaceae.

There are eight ascospores in each ascus. The spores have septa that divide the spore transversely, and have a shape ranging from spindle-shaped (fusiform) to ellipsoid. The conidiomata are in the form of pycnidia; the conidia are hyaline, lack septa, and are rod-shaped to spindle-shaped. No secondary compounds are known to occur in the family.

Habitat and distribution
Massalongiaceae lichens grow on rocks, and are often associated with bryophytes, growing among or on top of them. Collectively, the family has a cosmopolitan distribution, but with more representation in northern temperate zones.

Genera and species

Leptochidium
L. albociliatum
L. crenatulum

Massalongia
M. carnosa
M. griseolobulata
M. microphylliza
M. patagonica

Polychidium
P. muscicola

Several additional species of Massalongia have been described, but some cannot be identified precisely due to lack of sufficient type material, as they are only known from the type collection, and some have been transferred to other genera.

References

Peltigerales
Lecanoromycetes families
Taxa described in 2007
Taxa named by Per Magnus Jørgensen
Lichen families
Taxa named by Mats Wedin

Massalongiaceae


Memnon () was an Aethiopian king and an ally of the Trojans during the Trojan War. He was a demigod, the son of Tithonus and Eos, the goddess of the dawn. As a warrior, he was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in prowess and skill. During the Trojan War, Memnon himself slew Antilochus in the middle of a fierce battle and was himself later killed by Achilles. The death of Memnon appears to echo that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles had also slain.

People in Greek mythology

Memnon (mythology)


Daniel C. Ustian was the chairman of Navistar, Inc. beginning in 2004, president and chief executive officer beginning in 2003, and a director beginning in 2002 until his release in 2012. Before serving in these positions, he was president and chief operating officer from 2002 to 2003 and president of the Engine Group of Navistar, Inc. from 1999 to 2002. He also held the position of group vice president and general manager of Engine & Foundry from 1993 to 1999. An alum of DePaul University, he was a director of Monaco Coach Corporation and a member of the Business Roundtable, Society of Automotive Engineers and the American Foundry Society.

Compensation
While CEO of Navistar International in 2008, Daniel Ustian earned a total compensation of $6,642,747, which included a base salary of $1,170,833, a cash bonus of $2,589,500, stocks granted of $2,775,216, and no options.

Retirement
Daniel Ustian abruptly retired as president, executive chairman, and CEO of Navistar International on August 27, 2012. Lewis B. Campbell immediately stepped in to replace him as chairman and interim CEO. Ustian is largely blamed for convincing the company to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the unproven and noncompliant exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology.  EGR did not receive EPA certification, which led to governmental fines, high warranty costs, widespread retrofits, brand damage and loss of marketshare.   Since Ustian's departure, the company has struggled to return to profitability.  Navistar has also undergone two rounds of lay-offs -- one in August/September 2012 and another in August/September 2013.

On March 31, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Ustian in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois, citing a "campaign of deception" regarding the company's ultimately unsuccessful 2010 emissions compliance strategy.  As of August 2018, the SEC suit against Ustian continued to move forward.

References

1950 births
Living people
American business executives
DePaul University alumni

Daniel Ustian


The Rhubarb Triangle is a  area of West Yorkshire, England between Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell famous for producing early forced rhubarb. It includes Kirkhamgate, East Ardsley, Stanley, Lofthouse and Carlton. The Rhubarb Triangle was originally much bigger, covering an area between Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield.  From the 1900s to 1930s, the rhubarb industry expanded and at its peak covered an area of about .

Rhubarb is native to Siberia and thrives in the wet cold winters in Yorkshire. West Yorkshire once produced 90% of the world's winter forced rhubarb from the forcing sheds that were common across the fields there.

In 2010, Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was awarded Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
status by the European Commission's Protected Food Name scheme after being recommended by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Cultivation

The cultivation method for forced rhubarb was developed in the early 1800s. The fields were fertilised with large quantities of horse manure and 'night soil' from the nearby urban areas and woollen waste from "mungo and shoddy" mills.

The rhubarb plants spend two years out in the fields without being harvested. While in the fields the plants store energy from the sun in their roots as carbohydrates. The roots are subjected to frost before being moved into sheds in November where they are kept in complete darkness. In the sheds the plants begin to grow in the warmth and the stored carbohydrate in the roots is transformed into glucose resulting in forced rhubarb's sour-sweet flavour. The sheds are long low buildings which are heated; originally with coal, which was plentiful and relatively cheap in the area, but this has been replaced by diesel.

Forced rhubarb grown in the sheds is more tender than that grown outdoors in summer. Without daylight the rhubarb leaves are a green-yellow colour, and the stalks, measuring around , are crimson in colour with a smooth texture. Traditionally, the pickers pull the stalks in candlelight as any exposure to strong light will stop the growth. By the end of March the harvest is over and the root stock is totally exhausted and used for compost.

History
Growing and forcing rhubarb was originally done by many hundreds of small farmers, smallholders and market gardeners. In later years some growers expanded and owned many thousands of roots and extensive forcing sheds. In the late 19th century early forced rhubarb was sent to Spitalfields and Covent Garden markets in London in time for Christmas and was sent to Paris for the French market.  A special express train carrying rhubarb was run by the Great Northern Railway Company from Ardsley station every weekday night during the forced rhubarb season from Christmas until Easter. Up to 200 tons of rhubarb sent by up to 200 growers was carried daily at the peak of production before 1939. In 1962, a rail strike caused the growers to look for alternative transport and the service ended shortly after. Wakefield Museum has a permanent exhibition about forced rhubarb. Rhubarb became less popular after the Second World War when more exotic fruits became more available.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the name "rhubarb triangle" to a 1965 textbook mentioning pre-war trains called rhubarb specials that ran from the West Riding rhubarb triangle to London and it was mentioned in the Guardian newspaper in 1986.

EU recognition of Yorkshire forced rhubarb

Twelve farmers who farm within the Rhubarb Triangle applied to have the name "Yorkshire forced rhubarb" added to the list of foods and drinks that have their names legally protected by the European Commission's Protected Food Name scheme. The application was successful and the farmers in the Rhubarb Triangle were awarded Protected Designation of Origin status (PDO) in February 2010. Food protected status accesses European funding to promote the product and legal backing against other products made outside the area using the name. Other protected names include stilton cheese, champagne and parma ham. Leeds Central MP, Hilary Benn, was involved in the Defra campaign to win protected status.

Culture
Wakefield Council holds an annual Rhubarb Festival in February, celebrating the area's links and promoting the surviving rhubarb industry. A Farmers' Market, cookery demonstrations, walks and tours of the forcing sheds are among the attractions. In 2005 Wakefield council  erected a sculpture depicting a rhubarb plant in Holmfield Park Wakefield. Rhubarb growing and the 'Rhubarb Express' are featured in Wakefield Museum.

In Frances Brody's 2019 novel The Body on the Train (Piatkus: ) a murdered man's body is found on a rhubarb train from Ardsley, on its arrival at King's Cross. The book's cover illustration features boxes of rhubarb on a platform beside a train.

See also
 Rhubarb forcer

References
Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Rhubarb Sheds; images from Leodis
E. Oldroyd & Sons Ltd
 Asquith Growers
Yorkshire Film Archive (documentary): The Rhubarb Triangle (2000)

British products with protected designation of origin
Geography of the City of Bradford
Geography of Leeds
Rhubarb
Rothwell, West Yorkshire

Rhubarb Triangle


Andrés Oppenheimer (born in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is the editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist with The Miami Herald, anchor of "Oppenheimer Presenta" on CNN En Español, and author of seven books, several of which have been published in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. His column, "The Oppenheimer Report," appears twice a week in The Miami Herald and more than 60 U.S. and international newspapers, including the Miami Herald, El Mundo of Spain, La Nación of Argentina, Reforma of Mexico, El Mercurio of Chile and El Comercio of Peru. He is the author of Saving the Americas (Random House, 2007) and six other books, and is a regular political analyst with CNN en Español. His previous jobs at The Miami Herald included Mexico City bureau chief, foreign correspondent, and business writer. He previously worked for five years with The Associated Press in New York, and has contributed on a free-lance basis to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, the BBC, CBS' "60 Minutes", and El Pais of Spain.

He was selected by the Forbes Media Guide as one of the "500 most important journalists" of the United States in 1993, and by Poder Magazine as one of the "100 most powerful people" in Latin America in 2002 and 2008.

Early life and education
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he studied law, and moved to the United States in 1976 with a fellowship from the World Press Institute. After a year at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, he obtained a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City in 1978. He has honorary PhD degrees from the Galileo University of Guatemala (2004), Domingo Savio University of Bolivia (2011), and ESAN University of Peru (2014).

Awards and recognition
Oppenheimer is the co-winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize as a member of The Miami Herald team that uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal. He won the Inter-American Press Association Award twice (1989 and 1994), and the 1997 award of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He is the winner of the 1993 Ortega y Gasset Award of Spain's daily El País, the 1998 Maria Moors Cabot Award of Columbia University, the 2001 King of Spain Award, given out by the Spanish news agency EFE and King Juan Carlos I of Spain, the Overseas Press Club Award in 2002, and the Suncoast Emmy award from the National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences in 2006.

Bibliography
Saving the Americas: The Dangerous Decline of Latin America and What the U.S. Must Do
Bordering on Chaos: Guerrillas, Stockholders, Politicians and Mexico's Road to Prosperity
Crónicas de héroes y bandidos
Ojos vendados: Estados Unidos y el negocio de la corrupción en América Latina
Cuentos chinos: El engaño de Washington, la mentira populista y la esperanza de América Latina
Basta de historias!: La obsesión latinoamericana con el pasado y las doce claves del futuro
Crear o Morir: La Esperanza de América Latina y las 5 Claves de la Innovación
¡Sálvese Quien Pueda!: El futuro del trabajo en la era de la automatización

References

External links
Columns at the Miami Herald
Biography from The Wharton School
PBS Frontline Interview
The Oppenheimer Report blog

1951 births
Living people
American people of Argentine-Jewish descent
Argentine emigrants to the United States
Argentine people of German-Jewish descent
Argentine Jews
Argentine journalists
Argentine male journalists
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni
Macalester College alumni
Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners
Journalists from Buenos Aires

Andrés Oppenheimer


Achille in Sciro is an opera seria by composer Domenico Sarro. The opera uses an Italian language libretto by Pietro Metastasio. It was commissioned for the opening of the Teatro di San Carlo by King Charles VII of Naples, later known as Charles III of Spain. The work premiered at the inauguration of the theatre on 4 November 1737, Charles's name day. It is based on the story of Achilles on Skyros.

The opera was not performed for more than 250 years until it was revived at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in 2007. That performance was recorded live and released on CD by Dynamic Records in 2008. The cast was as follows:

Achille: Gabriella Martellacci
Lycomedes: Marcello Nardis
Teagene: Massimiliano Arizzi
Deidamia: Maria Laura Martorana
Ulysses: Francisco Ruben Brito
Nearco: Eufemia Tufano
Arcade: Dolores Carlucci
Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia
Bratislava Chamber Choir
Conductor: Federico Maria Sardelli
Director: Davide Livermore

Metastasio's libretto Achille in Sciro was first set by Antonio Caldara (1736, Vienna).

Recordings
Federico Maria Sardelli Dynamic 3CD

References

1737 operas
1749 operas
Operas
Italian-language operas
Operas by Domenico Sarro
Opera world premieres at the Teatro San Carlo

Achille in Sciro (Sarro)


Whitehawk is a suburb of Brighton in the city of Brighton and Hove on England's south coast. It consists of a large housing estate developed by the council in the 1930s. In the late 1960s, five high rise flats were built in the suburb's northern end, known as the Swanborough flats. Beginning in the late 1970s, a major redevelopment of the estate took place. The estate lies in a valley and is partly surrounded by Brighton's Race Course. Whitehawk is the name given to a Neolithic camp situated at the top of Whitehawk Hill. The camp was inhabited some 5500 years ago.

Brighton

Whitehawk


Criticism of Islam is questioning or challenging the beliefs, practices, and doctrines of Islam. Criticism of Islam can take many forms, including academic critiques, political criticism, religious criticism, and personal opinions.

Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written disapprovals came from Christians and Jews as well as from some former Muslims such as Ibn al-Rawandi. Later the Muslim world itself received criticism. Western criticism of Islam grew after the September 11 attacks and other terrorist incidents.

Objects of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in both his public and personal lives. Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the scriptures of Islam, both the Quran and the hadiths, are also discussed by critics. Islam has also been viewed as a form of Arab imperialism and has received criticism by figures from Africa and India for the destruction of indigenous cultures. Islam's recognition of slavery as an institution, which led to Muslim traders exporting as many as 17 million slaves to the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa, has also been criticized. The Shafi'i version of Islam has received criticism for advocating female genital mutilation and introducing this practice to Southeast Asia, where it was previously nonexistent. More recently, Islamic beliefs regarding human origins, predestination, God's existence and nature, have received criticism for their apparent philosophical and scientific inconsistencies.

Another criticism focuses on the question of human rights in the Islamic world, both historically and in modern Islamic nations, including the treatment of women, LGBT people, and religious and ethnic minorities, as shown in Islamic law and practice. As of 2014, about a quarter of the world's countries and territories (26%) had anti-blasphemy and (13%) had anti-apostasy laws or policies. In 2017, 13 nations, all of which were Muslim majority nations, had the death penalty for apostasy or blasphemy. In the wake of the recent multiculturalism trend, Islam's influence on the ability or willingness of Muslim immigrants to assimilate in the host nations has been criticized. Assimilationist arguments have also been made in other countries where Muslims are a substantial minority, such as China, India and Russia.

Historical background

The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are found in the writings of Christians, such as John of Damascus who was familiar with Islam and Arabic, who came under the early dominion of the Islamic caliphate. Other notable early critics of Islam included Abu Isa al-Warraq, a ninth-century scholar and critic of Islam, Ibn al-Rawandi, a ninth-century atheist, who repudiated Islam and criticized religion in general, al-Ma'arri, an eleventh-century Arab poet and critic of all religions who was known for his veganism and antinatalism. and Abu Bakr al-Razi, a Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist who lived during the Islamic Golden Age. He was critical of the concepts of prophethood and revelation in Islam. Jews similarly passed on criticism on Muhammad by oral-traditions.

There have been several notable critics and skeptics of Islam from within the Islamic world, including the blind poet al-Ma'arri, whose poetry was known for its "pervasive pessimism." He labeled religions in general as "noxious weeds" and believed that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth. In 1280 CE, the Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammuna criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths.

During the Middle Ages, Christian church officials commonly represented Islam as idolatry or a counterfeit religion propelled by Satan. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe, some academics attempted to exoticize Islam by portraying it as an Eastern religion that was distinct from the West and the religions of Judaism and Christianity. Others classified it as a "Semitic" religion, in contrast to the Indo-European religions, which included Christianity. Many academics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries referred to Islam as Mohammedanism, which allowed them to criticize Islam by criticizing Muhammad's actions. Such criticisms rendered Islam as only a derivative of Christianity and not, as Islam itself claims, as the successor of Abrahamic monotheisms, in contrast to the Christian idea of Christ's perfection.
By contrast, many academics nowadays study Islam as an Abrahamic religion in relation to Judaism and Christianity.

Points of criticism

The expansion of Islam
In an alleged dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos () and a Persian scholar, the emperor criticized Islam as a faith spread by the sword. This matches the common view in Europe during the Enlightenment period about Islam, then synonymous with the Ottoman Empire, as a bloody, ruthless, and intolerant religion. More recently, in 2006, a similar statement of Manuel II, quoted publicly by Pope Benedict XVI, prompted a negative response from Muslim figures who viewed the remarks as an insulting mischaracterization of Islam. In this vein, the Indian social reformer Pandit Lekh Ram () thought that Islam was grown through violence and desire for wealth, while the Nigerian author Wole Soyinka considers Islam as a "superstition" that it is mainly spread with violence and force.

This "conquest by the sword" thesis is opposed by some historians who consider the transregional development of Islam a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon. The first wave of expansion, the migration of the early Muslims to Medina to escape persecution in Mecca and the subsequent conversion of Medina, was indeed peaceful. In the years to come, Muslims defended themselves against frequent Meccan incursions until Mecca's peaceful surrender in 630. By the time of his death in 632, many of the Arabian tribes had formed political alliances with Muhammad and adopted Islam peacefully, which also paved the way for the subsequent conquests of Syria, Iran, Egypt and North Africa after the death of Muhammad. Islam nevertheless often remained a minority religion in conquered territories for several centuries after the initial waves of conquest, indicating that the conquest of territories beyond the Arabian Peninsula did not instantly result in large conversions to Islam.

Other religions' views
Many early Christian authors viewed Islam as a Christian heresy or a form of idolatry and often explained it in apocalyptic terms. They criticized Islam as a material, rather than spiritual, religion for its sensual descriptions of paradise, even though such descriptions were present in early Christianity, as seen in the writings of Irenaeus, a second-century bishop. The Bible also implies such ideas, such as drinking wine in the Gospel of Matthew. Later, however, the doctrines of the Catholic theologian Augustine of Hippo () led to the broad repudiation of bodily pleasures in this life and the afterlife.

Pope Innocent III () thought that many men were seduced by Muhammad for the pleasure of flesh. The Christian apologist G. K. Chesterton criticized Islam as a heresy or parody of Christianity, David Hume (), both a naturalist and a sceptic, considered monotheistic religions to be more "comfortable to sound reason" than polytheism but also found Islam to be more "ruthless" than Christianity. The Greek Orthodox bishop Paul of Antioch accepted Muhammed as a prophet, but did not consider his mission to be universal and regarded Christian law superior to Islamic law. In his book, The Fountain of Wisdom, John of Damascus () claims that Muhammad was influenced by an Arian monk. He also viewed Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible. Maimonides, a twelfth-century rabbi, did not question the strict monotheism of Islam, but was critical of the practical politics of Muslim regimes and considered Islamic ethics and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts.
Apologetic writings, attributed to the philosopher Abd-Allah ibn al-Muqaffa (), not only defended Manichaeism against Islam, but also criticized the Islamic concept of God. He disregarded the Quranic deity as an unjust, tyrannic, irrational and malevolent demonic entity. The Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammuna () reasoned that the Sharia was incompatible with the principles of justice, and that this undercut the notion of Muhammad being the perfect man, "There is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others, as claimed."

In his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, the cultural critic Edward Said suggests that the Western view of Islam is particularly hostile for a range of religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity." In his view, the general basis of Orientalist thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study, thus forming a considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up.

Scripture

Criticism of the Quran

In the lifetime of Muhammad, the Quran was primarily preserved orally and the written compilation of the whole Quran in its current form took place some 150 to 300 years later, according to some sources. Alternatively, others believe that the Quran was compiled shortly after the death of Muhammad in 632 and canonized by end of the caliphate of Uthman (). The ideal that Quran is perfect and impossible to imitate as asserted in the Quran itself is disputed by critics. One such criticism is that sentences about God in the Quran is sometimes followed immediately by those in which God is the speaker. A legend, likely developed in the tenth century, claims that Muhammad was taught and influenced by a Jewish teacher. The modern historian John Wansbrough believes that the Quran is in part a redaction of other sacred scriptures, in particular the Judaeo-Christian scriptures. The Christian theologian Philip Schaff () praises the Quran for its poetic beauty, religious fervor, and wise counsel, but considers this mixed with "absurdities, bombast, unmeaning images, and low sensuality." The Iranian journalist Ali Dashti () criticized the Quran, saying that "the speaker cannot have been God" in certain passages. Similarly, the secular author Ibn Warraq gives Surah al-Fatiha as an example of a passage which is "clearly addressed to God, in the form of a prayer." Ibn Mas'ud, a companion of Muhammad, thought that al-Fatiha and two other small s were not part of the Quran but were the words of Muhammad. The orientalist Gerd Puin believes that the Quran contains many verses which are incomprehensible, a view rejected by Muslims and many other orientalists. Some divine rulings in the Quran are also contradictory, although this is explained by the Quran itself as abrogation, "God doth blot out / Or confirm what He pleaseth." According to some early historical accounts, Muhammad was temporarily tricked by Satan into reciting two verses in praise of the idols instead of the two Quranic verses 53:1920. One argument for the fabrication of this story is that his fight against idolatry was consistently the defining mission of Muhammad's prophetic career. Had he publicly praised the idols, as the story goes, to the point of winning the support of the Meccan pagan elite, his erstwhile bitter enemies, he would have certainly lost his credibility and followers. Apology of al-Kindy, a medieval polemical work, describes the narratives in the Quran as "all jumbled together and intermingled," and regards this as "evidence that many different hands have been at work therein."

Pre-existing sources

Critics point to various pre-existing sources to argue against the traditional narrative of revelation from God. Some scholars have calculated that one third of the Quran has pre-Islamic Christian origins. Aside from the Bible, the Quran relies on several Apocryphal and legendary sources, like the Protoevangelium of James, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and several infancy gospels. Several narratives rely on Jewish Midrash Tanhuma legends, like the narrative of Cain learning to bury the body of Abel in Quran 5:31. Norman Geisler argues that the dependence of the Quran on preexisting sources is one evidence of a purely human origin. Richard Carrier regards this reliance on pre-Islamic Christian sources as evidence that Islam derived from a Torah-observant sect of Christianity.

Criticism of the Hadith

It has been suggested that there exists around the Hadith (Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah (words and deeds) of Muhammad) three major sources of corruption: political conflicts, sectarian prejudice, and the desire to translate the underlying meaning, rather than the original words verbatim.

Muslim critics of the hadith, Quranists, reject the authority of hadith on theological grounds, pointing to verses in the Quran itself: "Nothing have We omitted from the Book", declaring that all necessary instruction can be found within the Quran, without reference to the Hadith. They claim that following the Hadith has led to people straying from the original purpose of God's revelation to Muhammad, adherence to the Quran alone. Ghulam Ahmed Pervez was among these critics and was denounced by
thousand orthodox clerics as a 'kafir', a non-believer. In his work Maqam-e Hadith he considered any hadith that goes against the teachings of Quran to have been falsely attributed to the Prophet. Kassim Ahmad in his "Hadith: A Re-evaluation" suggested that "the hadith are sectarian, anti-science, anti-reason and anti-women."

According to John Esposito "Modern Western scholarship has seriously questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith", and that Joseph Schacht "found no evidence of legal traditions before 722," from which Schacht concluded that "the Sunna of the Prophet is not the words and deeds of the Prophet, but apocryphal material" dating from later. Other scholars, however, such as Wilferd Madelung, have argued that "wholesale rejection as late fiction is unjustified".
Orthodox Muslims do not deny the existence of false hadith, but believe that through the scholars' work, these false hadith have been largely eliminated.

Lack of secondary evidence

The traditional view of Islam has also been criticised for the lack of supporting evidence consistent with that view, such as the lack of archaeological evidence, and discrepancies with non-Muslim literary sources. In the 1970s, what has been described as a "wave of sceptical scholars" challenged a great deal of the received wisdom in Islamic studies. They argued that the Islamic historical tradition had been greatly corrupted in transmission. They tried to correct or reconstruct the early history of Islam from other, presumably more reliable, sources such as coins, inscriptions, and non-Islamic sources. The oldest of this group was John Wansbrough.
Gerd R. Puin, investigating Sana'a manuscripts, noted unconventional verse orderings, minor textual variations, and rare styles of orthography and suggested that some of the parchments were palimpsests which had been reused. Puin believed that this implied a text that changed over time as opposed to one that remained the same.

Criticism of Muhammad

The Christian missionary Sigismund Koelle and the former Muslim Ibn Warraq have criticized Muhammad's actions as immoral. In one instance, the Jewish poet Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf provoked the Meccan tribe of Quraysh to fight Muslims and wrote erotic poetry about their women, and was apparently plotting to assassinate Muhammad. Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b, and he was consequently assassinated by Muhammad ibn Maslama, an early Muslim. Such criticisms were countered by the Islamicist William M. Watt, who argues on the basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards and norms of his own time and geography, rather than ours. The Scottish philosopher David Hume () describes the Quran as an "absurd performance" of a "pretended prophet" who lacked "a just sentiment of morals." The fourteenth-century epic poem Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri contains defamatory images of Muhammad, picturing him the eighth circle of hell, along with his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib. Dante does not blame Islam as a whole but accuses Muhammad of schism for establishing another religion after Christianity. Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself. In the same vein, Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscript of unknown origins, describes how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation: God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their deviation from the faith. He then sent an angel to the Christian monk Osius who ordered him to preach to the Arabs. Osius, however, was in ill-health and instead ordered a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders. Ozim set out to follow his orders, but was stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believed him to be the same angel that had spoken to Osius before. The evil angel modified and corrupted the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renamed Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to Tultusceptru. According to the Christian monk Bede (), Muhammad was foretold in verse 16:12 of the Genesis, as the one whose hand is against all and all hands are against him.

Islamic ethics

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, while there is much to be admired and affirmed in Islamic ethics, its originality or superiority is rejected.
Critics stated that the Quran 4:34 allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them. There is however confusion amongst translations of Quran with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them", "beat", "strike lightly" and "separate". The film Submission critiqued this and similar verses of the Quran by displaying them painted on the bodies of abused Muslim women.
Some critics argue that the Quran is incompatible with other religious scriptures as it attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions. Sam Harris interprets certain verses of the Quran as sanctioning military action against unbelievers as it said "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled."(Quran 9:29) Jizya is a tax for "protection" paid by non-Muslims to a Muslim ruler, for the exemption from military service for non-Muslims, and for the permission to practice a non-Muslim faith with some communal autonomy in a Muslim state.
Harris argues that Muslim extremism is simply a consequence of taking the Quran literally, and is skeptical that moderate Islam is possible.
Max I. Dimont interprets that the Houris described in the Quran are specifically dedicated to "male pleasure". According to Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Umar Ahmed Usmani "Hur" or "hurun" is the plural of both "ahwaro" which is a masculine form and also "haurao" which is a feminine, meaning both pure males and pure females. Basically, the word 'hurun' means white, he says.
Henry Martyn claims that the concept of the Houris was chosen to satisfy Muhammad's followers.

Views on slavery

According to Bernard Lewis the Islamic injunctions against the enslavement of Muslims led to massive importation of slaves from the outside.Also Patrick Manning believes that Islam seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse.
Brockopp, on the other hand believe that the idea of using alms for the manumission of slaves appears to be unique to the Quran ( and ). Similarly, the practice of freeing slaves in atonement for certain sins appears to be introduced by the Quran (but compare Exod 21:26-7). Also the forced prostitution of female slaves, a Near Eastern custom of great antiquity, is condemned in the Quran. According to Brockopp "the placement of slaves in the same category as other weak members of society who deserve protection is unknown outside the Qur'an. Bernard Lewis maintains that although slaves often suffered on the way before reaching their destination, they received good treatment and some degree of acceptance as members of their owners' households.

Critics argue unlike Western societies there have been no anti-slavery movements in Muslim societies,
which according to Gordon was due to the fact that it was deeply anchored in Islamic law thus there was no ideological challenge ever mounted against slavery. Only in the early 20th century that slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands.
Murray Gordon characterizes Muhammad's approach to slavery as reformist rather than revolutionary that abolish slavery, but rather improved the conditions of slaves by urging his followers to treat their slaves humanely and free them as a way of expiating one's sins.
In Islamic jurisprudence, slavery was theoretically an exceptional condition under the dictum The basic principle is liberty.
Reports from Sudan and Somalia showing practice of slavery is in border areas as a result of continuing war and not Islamic belief. In recent years, except for some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars,
most Muslim scholars found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality".

Apostasy

In Islam, apostasy along with heresy and blasphemy (verbal insult to religion) is considered a form of disbelief. The Qur'an states that apostasy would bring punishment in the Afterlife, but takes a relatively lenient view of apostasy in this life (Q 9:74; 2:109).
While Shafi'i interprets verse Quran 2:217 as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Quran, the historian W. Heffening states that Quran threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only., the historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet."
According to Islamic law, apostasy is identified by a list of actions such as conversion to another religion, denying the existence of God, rejecting the prophets, mocking God or the prophets, idol worship, rejecting the sharia, or permitting behavior that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery or the eating of forbidden foods or drinking of alcoholic beverages. The majority of Muslim scholars hold to the traditional view that apostasy is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance, at least for adults of sound mind.
Also Sunni and Shi'a scholars, agree on the difference of punishment between male and female.

Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion. In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Some contemporary Islamic jurists, such as Hussein-Ali Montazeri have argued or issued fatwas that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances.
According to Yohanan Friedmann, "The real predicament facing modern Muslims with liberal convictions is not the existence of stern laws against apostasy in medieval Muslim books of law, but rather the fact that accusations of apostasy and demands to punish it are heard time and again from radical elements in the contemporary Islamic world."

Sadakat Kadri noted that "state officials could not punish an unmanifested belief even if they wanted to".
The kind of apostasy which the jurists generally deemed punishable was of the political kind, although there were considerable legal differences of opinion on this matter.
Wael Hallaq states that "[in] a culture whose lynchpin is religion, religious principles and religious morality, apostasy is in some way equivalent to high treason in the modern nation-state".
Also Bernard Lewis consider the apostasy as a treason and "a withdrawal, a denial of allegiance as well as of religious belief and loyalty".
The English historian C. E. Bosworth suggests the traditional view of apostasy hampered the development of Islamic learning, like philosophy and natural science, "out of fear that these could evolve into potential toe-holds for kufr, those people who reject God."
While in 13 Muslim-majority countries atheism is punishable by death,
according to legal historian Sadakat Kadri, executions were rare because "it was widely believed" that any accused apostate "who repented by articulating the shahada" (LA ILAHA ILLALLAH "There is no God but God") "had to be forgiven" and their punishment delayed until after Judgement Day.
William Montgomery Watt states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived."

Islam and violence

Quran's teachings on matters of war and peace have become topics of heated discussion in recent years. On the one hand, some critics claim that certain verses of the Quran sanction military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after. The Quran says, "...cast terror in their hearts and strike upon their necks." (8:12) Also that  "Fight in the name of your religion with those who fight against you."
Jihad, an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims meaning "striving for the sake of God".

It is perceived in a military sense (not spiritual sense) by Bernard Lewis and David Cook. Also Fawzy Abdelmalek and Dennis Prager argue against Islam being a religion of peace and not of violence. John R. Neuman, a scholar on religion, describes Islam as "a perfect anti-religion" and "the antithesis of Buddhism". Lawrence Wright argued that role of Wahhabi literature in Saudi schools contributing suspicion and hate violence against non-Muslims as non-believers or infidels and anyone who "disagrees with Wahhabism is either an infidel or a deviant, who should repent or be killed."

Most Muslim scholars,on the other hand, argue that such verses of the Quran are interpreted out of context, and argue that when the verses are read in context it clearly appears that the Quran prohibits aggression, and allows fighting only in self-defense.
Charles Mathewes characterizes the peace verses as saying that "if others want peace, you can accept them as peaceful even if they are not Muslim."  As an example, Mathewes cites the second sura, which commands believers not to transgress limits in warfare: "fight in God's cause against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits [in aggression]; God does not love transgressors" (2:190).

Orientalist David Margoliouth described the Battle of Khaybar as the "stage at which Islam became a menace to the whole world". In the battle reportedly Muslims beheaded Jews. Margoliouth argues that the Jews of Khaybar had done nothing to harm Muhammad or his followers, and ascribes the attack to a desire for plunder
Montgomery Watt on the other hand, believes Jews' intriguing and use of their wealth to incite tribes against Muhammad left him no choice but to attack.
Vaglieri and Shibli Numani concur that one reason for attack was that the Jews of Khaybar were responsible for the Confederates that attacked Muslims during the Battle of the Trench.

The September 11 attacks have resulted in many non-Muslims' indictment of Islam as a violent religion.
In the European view, Islam lacked divine authority and regarded the sword as the route to heaven.

Karen Armstrong, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad's teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Quran alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the 20th-century Indian independence movement, although non-violence is dominant in the Qur'an, thirteen hundred years of imperialist expansion have made Muslims a militant body.

Other self-described Muslim organisations have emerged more recently, and some of them have been associated with jihadist and extreme Islamist groups. Compared to the entire Muslim community, these groups are sparsely populated. They have, however, received more attention from governments, international organisations, and the international media than other Muslim groups. This is as a result of their participation in actions intended to combat alleged enemies of Islam both at home and abroad.

Years later, however, al-Qaida has yet to succeed in gaining the support of the majority of Muslims and continues to differ from other Islamist organisations in terms of both philosophy and strategy.

Marriage

Homosexuality

In 10 Muslim-majority countries homosexual acts may be punishable by death, though in some the punishment has never been carried out.
The ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq states that the Quran's condemnation of homosexuality has frequently been ignored in practice, and that Islamic countries were much more tolerant of homosexuality than Christian ones until fairly recently.

Short-term marriage

 is a fixed-term or short-term contractual marriage in Shia Islam. The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. For this reason, nikah mut'ah has been widely criticised as the religious cover and legalization of prostitution. Shi'a and Sunnis agree that Mut'ah was legal in early times, but Sunnis consider that it was abrogated. Currently, however, mut'ah is one of the distinctive features of Ja'fari jurisprudence.
Sunnis believe that Muhammad later abolished this type of marriage at several different large events,Bukhari 059.527 Most Sunnis believe that Umar later was merely enforcing a prohibition that was established during Muhammad's time.

Shia contest the criticism that nikah mut'ah is a cover for prostitution, and argue that the unique legal nature of temporary marriage distinguishes Mut'ah ideologically from prostitution.
Children born of temporary marriages are considered legitimate, and have equal status in law with their siblings born of permanent marriages, and do inherit from both parents. Women must observe a period of celibacy (idda) to allow for the identification of a child's legitimate father, and a woman can only be married to one person at a time, be it temporary or permanent. Some Shia scholars also view Mut'ah as a means of eradicating prostitution from society.

Contractually limited marriage

Nikah Misyar is a type of Nikah (marriage) in Sunni Islam only carried out through the normal contractual procedure, with the provision that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy, the wife's rights to housing, and maintenance money ("nafaqa"), and the husband's right of homekeeping and access. Essentially the couple continue to live separately from each other, as before their contract, and see each other to fulfil their needs in a legally permissible (halal) manner when they please.
Misyar has been suggested by some western authors to be a comparable marriage with Nikah mut'ah and that they find it for the sole purpose of "sexual gratification in a licit manner"
Islamic scholars like Ibn Uthaimeen or Al-Albani claim that misyar marriage may be legal, but not moral.

Age of Muhammad's wife Aisha

According to Sunni hadith sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married to Muhammad and nine when the marriage was consummated. The Muslim historian al-Tabari () reports that she was ten, while Ibn Sa'd () and Ibn Khallikan (), two other Muslim historians, write that she was nine years old at marriage and twelve at consummation. Muhammad Ali (), a modern Muslim author, argues that a new interpretation of the Hadith compiled by Mishkat al-Masabih, Wali-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Khatib, could indicate that Aisha would have been nineteen. Similarly, on the basis of a hadith about her age difference with her sister Asma, some have estimated Aisha's age to have been eighteen or nineteen at the time of her marriage. At any rate, Muhammad's marriage to Aisha may have not been considered improper by his contemporaries, for such marriages between an older man and a young girl were common among the Bedouins. In particular, Karen Armstrong, an author on comparative religion, writes, "There was no impropriety in Muhammad's marriage to Aisha. Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger than Aisha."

Women in Islam

The meaning of Quran 4:34 has been the subject of intense debate among experts. While many scholars claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women many Muslim scholars arguing that it acts as a deterrent against domestic violence motivated by rage.
Shari'a is the basis for personal status laws such as rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody which was described as discriminatory against women from a human rights perspective in a 2011 UNICEF report.
Allowing girls under 18 to marry by religious courts is another criticism of Islam
Sharia grants women the right to inherit property but a daughter's inheritance is usually half that of her brother's.
Furthermore, slave women were not granted the same legal rights.
Under classical Islamic law, Muslim men could have sexual relations with female captives and slaves without their consent.
The master is subject to several limitations nevertheless; for example, he is not permitted to cohabitate with a female slave who belongs to his wife or engage in romantic contact with a female slave who is a joint owner or who is already married.
On 14 January 2009, the Catholic Portuguese cardinal José Policarpo directed a warning to young women to "think twice" before marrying Muslim men.

In contrast to the widespread Western belief that women in Muslim societies are oppressed and denied opportunities to realize their full potential, many Muslims believe their faith to be liberating or fair to women, and some find it offensive that Westerners criticize it without fully understanding the historical and contemporary realities of Muslim women's lives. Conservative Muslims in particular (in common with some Christians and Jews) see women in the West as being economically exploited for their labor, sexually abused, and commodified through the media's fixation on the female body.

Islam and multiculturalism

Muslim immigration to Western countries has led some critics to label Islam incompatible with secular Western society. This criticism has been partly influenced by a stance against multiculturalism closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers. Recent critics include the Pascal Bruckner and Paul Cliteur.
Tatar Tengrist criticize Islam as a semitic religion, which forced Turks to submission to an alien culture. Further, since Islam mentions semitic history as if it were the history of all mankind, but disregards components of other cultures and spirituality, the international approach of Islam is seen as a threat.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, described Islam as the religion of the Arabs that loosened the national nexus of Turkish nation, got national excitement numb.

In the early 20th century, the prevailing view among Europeans was that Islam was the root cause of Arab "backwardness". They saw Islam as an obstacle to assimilation, a view that was expressed by one of the spokesmen of colonial French Algeria named André Servier.
The Victorian orientalist scholar Sir William Muir criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslim countries.

Jocelyne Cesari, in her study of discrimination against Muslims in Europe, finds that anti-Islamic sentiment may be difficult to separate from other drivers of discrimination because Muslims are mainly from immigrant backgrounds and the largest group of immigrants in many Western European countries, xenophobia overlaps with Islamophobia, and a person may have one, the other, or both.

See also

References

Footnotes

Citations

Sources

Further reading

 Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Belknap Press. .
 Kepel, Gilles (2004). The War for Muslim Minds. Harvard University Press. .
 Ibn Warraq (1995). Why I Am Not a Muslim. Prometheus Books. .
 Ibn Warraq (2003). Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Prometheus Books. .
 Cox, Caroline & Marks, John (2003). The 'West', Islam and Islamism: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy?. Civitas. .

External links
A collection of Muslim Responses To Anti-Islam Polemics

Islam
Islam-related controversies

Criticism of Islam


Helles or hell is a traditional German pale lager beer, produced chiefly in Southern Germany, particularly Munich. The German word hell can be translated as "bright", "light", or "pale".

Flavour profile
Helles-style beers typically are full-bodied, mildly sweet and light-coloured, with low bitterness. The beer is clear due to filtration before bottling, although some restaurants and breweries do offer an unfiltered version. Munich-style helles is a yellow beer brewed using cool fermentation with a lager yeast such as Saccharomyces pastorianus, bitter hops such as Hallertau hops, and an original specific gravity (prior to fermentation) between 1.044 and 1.053 (11 to 13 degrees plato), and between 4.5 and 6% alcohol by volume. Helles has a less pronounced hop flavour than German pilsner beers.

History
Until the 1960s, Helles was universally available in German-speaking regions. In many regions, Helles was slowly replaced by pilsner-style beers, which was also driven by changing consumer preferences from draft beer to bottled beer. In regions outside of Southern Germany, Helles was regaining popularity in 2010, particularly Berlin, where the beer's traditional image has become trendy.

Distribution
Helles enjoys great popularity in the Southern German regions of Bavaria, Franconia, and Baden-Württemberg. It can be referred to as , , , "Munich lager", or "export". No clear distinction is drawn between lager and export, although export typically is closer in style to Dortmunder Export, which has a slightly higher ABV of 5.5% for extended shelf life.

Examples
 Andechser Hell
 Augustiner-Bräu Lagerbier Hell
 Ayinger Lager Hell
 Bayreuther Hell
 Chiemseer Hell
 Dinkelacker Hell
 Erdinger Brauhaus Helles
 Flötzinger Hell
 Giesinger Münchner Hell
 Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Helles
 Hofbräu München Original
 Kichesippi Beer Co. Heller Highwater
 Löwenbräu Original
 Oberdorfer Helles
 Paulaner Münchner Hell
 Spaten Münchner Hell
 Schönramer Hell
 Stiegl Hell
 Tegernseer Hell
 Weihenstephaner Original
 Ølsnedkeren Sikkert og vist

See also
 Beer in Germany

References

German beer styles
German cuisine

Helles


Local Now (stylized as "local now") is an American over-the-top internet television service owned by The Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Entertainment Studios. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now primarily provides a cyclic playlist of weather, news, sports, entertainment and lifestyle segments, incorporating localized content through feeds geared to a user-specified area.

Originally developed as a hybrid TV Everywhere service intended for subscribers of virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPD), after it was acquired by Entertainment Studios in 2018, Local Now converted to a free-to-access model and has since expanded into a hybrid advertiser-supported streaming service, adding advertising video on demand (AVOD) content through digital linear channels and a selection of VOD programming supplied by Entertainment Studios, and various news providers and independent content distributors.

Local Now's programming is streamed live on the network's website; through apps for Amazon Fire TV, Android, iOS, and Roku devices; and linear pay television via Dish Network (as an app on internet-connected Hopper set-top boxes), YouTube TV, FuboTV and Sling TV. The service is operated from The Weather Channel's corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia by a skeleton crew of three staff members.

History
On September 9, 2015, in published reports regarding The Weather Channel's planned overhaul of its programming schedule that would refocus on forecast-based news shows and weather-related reality/documentary programs as well as pending layoffs of around 50 of TWC's 1,400 employees, sources within The Weather Company (then the corporate parent of The Weather Channel) revealed that the consortium would launch a localized weather, news and traffic service intended for over-the-top streaming services offering tiered "skinny bundles" of cable-originated television channels.

The service, which was named Local Now, would maintain a format similar to that of Weatherscan, a digital cable and satellite network featuring localized weather forecasts and traffic reports, which original TWC parent Landmark Communications launched in 1999. Developed as part of its plan to place emphasis on its internet and mobile properties, The Weather Company intended to distribute Local Now to OTT providers in lieu of or in conjunction with The Weather Channel.

In preparation for the service's launch, The Weather Channel reached agreements with various information service providers to offer content for Local Now to supplement its in-house weather data and video content. Initial partners included the Associated Press, which provides headlines and video for its local and then showbiz news segments; Sportradar, a sports information agency which provides sports scores and schedules for its local sports segment; INRIX, which provides real-time incident data sourced from intelligent transportation systems; and TrafficLand, a traffic video integration service that provides footage from cameras maintained by state departments of transportation. The Weather Channel collaborated with Arris Global Services to provide technological management services for Local Now, handling design and integration, test validation, deployment, customized HTML software development and managed services. Local Now utilizes integration of the company's transcoders and Anevia's ViaMotion+ packaging software, and was the first service to implement CPE virtualization technology from ActiveVideo (a cloud video provider operated as joint venture of ARRIS and Charter Communications).

Local Now launched on January 25, 2016, initially exclusive to subscribers of Sling TV that, at minimum, receive its base "Best of Live TV" tier, with support for Amazon Fire TV, Android devices (including Android TV), and Google Chromecast. The service was designed with younger news consumers in mind, allowing a viewer to get constantly updated local news, weather, sports and traffic information in a condensed format at any time of the day. As noted by Freddy Flaxman, chief operating officer of The Weather Group (which became The Weather Channel's corporate parent after IBM purchased The Weather Company's digital assets in January 2016), this allows Local Now to better compete in a media landscape where consumers are increasingly consuming local news content via the Internet and smartphone apps, instead of waiting to watch long-form newscasts that air between one and five times per day on most major network affiliates and some independent stations.

On March 4, 2016, Local Now launched a channel on Roku, which provides live streams of the service's national and local feeds to OTT subscribers who use Roku's digital media players. On May 13, 2016, The Weather Channel announced that it would unveil standalone Local Now mobile apps for Apple and Android devices, which would extend access to the channel to cable and satellite subscribers who receive TWC. The apps, which were made available on the Apple App Store and Google Play on June 8, provide live streams of Local Now's 226 local feeds and The Weather Channel, accessible by entering an authenticated login from a participating conventional or over-the-top MVPD provider (those who do not subscribe to a participating provider can view the Local Now feeds via a 30-day free trial, in which users must enter their email address in the login dialog to send a linked message to their account which grants them access).

On December 14, 2016, The Weather Group announced a multi-year distribution agreement with fuboTV, in which Local Now and The Weather Channel would be included as part of an expanded service set to launch in early 2017, designed to compete with Sling TV and other OTT competitors such as PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now, that would offer 70+ broadcast and cable networks.

On February 28, 2017, as part of Google's unveiling of YouTube TV, the company announced – through a carriage agreement with NBCUniversal – that Local Now and The Weather Channel would be among the channels included as part of the over-the-top MVPD service's initial lineup when it launched in select major U.S. cities that spring. YouTube TV did not include Local Now in its channel offerings at launch, and would not begin carrying the service until December 11, 2018. On March 27, 2017, The Weather Channel signed an agreement with OTT financial news channel Cheddar to provide daily business news updates for Local Now. On October 11, 2017, Dish Network began offering Local Now via an application on all generations of its internet-connected Hopper DVR set-top boxes; severe weather notifications provided by Local Now/The Weather Channel were also made available based on the user location. The following month on November 29, Xumo began offering the service as a premium digital channel through its Channel Plus tier for LG Electronics devices on channel IP-126.

On March 22, 2018, Entertainment Studios (owned by comedian and producer Byron Allen) announced its intent to acquire The Weather Channel's television assets from an NBCUniversal/Blackstone Group partnership. The actual value is undisclosed, but was reported to be around $300 million; the channel's non-television assets, which were separately sold to IBM two years prior, were not included in the sale. On May 24, 2018, The Weather Group announced it had reached a content partnership with Tronc-owned news syndication service Tribune Content Agency (TCA) to provide supplementary community-focused content for the service's local news segments. On July 18, The Weather Group announced it had reached a content partnership with Yelp to provide recommendations, reviews, images, and videos of top local restaurants and bars in each Local Now market for the network's "Tasty Stuff" segment.

Distribution and market coverage
Although a spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now is formatted as a general news and weather channel. Because of the distribution structure of over-the-top subscription television, Local Now utilizes a version of TWC's IntelliStar unit – installed at The Weather Channel's uplink site in Atlanta – that are configured differently from that used by The Weather Channel and Weatherscan, allowing for the recycling of segments featured in one news block seamlessly into another and routine updating of segments to each of the localized feeds. Local Now's automated model – which leverages The Weather Channel's existing infrastructure and technology, and employs only three staff members – allows Local Now to be offered at a fraction of the retransmission rates charged by local broadcast stations. Users of the Local Now website and mobile app, and subscribers of over-the-top MVPD providers carrying the channel, are able to access their local feed based on ZIP code, by their IP address via geolocation, or by manual selection, allowing subscribers to access a feed from another city when they travel outside of their home market.

, Local Now programs 226 individual feeds covering 207 of the 210 U.S. media markets that provide local news, weather and traffic content tailored to those communities (the St. Joseph, Missouri, Presque Isle, Maine and Zanesville, Ohio markets are served by the Kansas City, Bangor and Columbus area feeds by default), with 15 of them operating as subfeeds offering hyperlocal content to individual regions of the New York City, Atlanta, Denver and Dallas markets. Most markets are served by a single local feed, though Local Now plans to eventually launch additional subfeeds for most markets to "deliver a greater degree of [aggregated content of] local relevance" than can be incorporated within a local television newscast due to the market's geographical size and time constraints.

Over-the-air (OTA) digital television coverage
, Local Now has current and pending affiliation agreements with 3 television stations in 3 television markets encompassing three states, covering 3.78% of the United States.

Programming and content
Local Now relies on information sourced from The Weather Channel and other content partnerships that the service maintains with the Associated Press, Reuters, Foursquare, American City Business Journals, Stadium, Cheddar, Pointslocal, SportRadar, the Internet Video Archive, TrafficLand, INRIX, Nextdoor, Fresco, FlightAware, the Tribune Content Agency and Yelp.  In addition to supplying forecast data and other featured content, The Weather Channel also provides simulcasts of its live, wall-to-wall coverage in the event that a severe weather event, winter storm or landfalling tropical system affects the United States (accompanied by a red lower-tenth banner denoting the live TWC simulcast). Unlike TWC, which carries the Local on the 8s segments during storm coverage, Local Now suspends all regularly featured segments – including local forecasts – during the TWC simulcasts, with time allocated to commercial breaks on TWC filled by a slide denoting that the simulcast will return following the break.

The channel originally featured a lower display line (LDL) similar to that seen on TWC at the bottom one-tenth of the screen, to display continuous weather information and inform viewers of current and forthcoming segments in tab form and the current time (the tab highlighting the segment being aired at the time cycled between the segment's title and a countdown clock). The national feed's LDL showed current conditions (denoting the sky condition, and cycling through the temperature, wind data and if applicable, apparent temperature) and daypart forecasts for 20 major U.S. cities, and the current time in all four time zones in the Contiguous U.S. The localized versions – which were keyed over the national LDL – cycled through current conditions and forecasts for cities within proximity of the metropolitan area, with the time bar corresponding to the local time zone. As part of a graphical overhaul on February 20, 2017, the LDL was replaced by a progress bar counting down the runtime of the current segment, which had previously appeared atop the LDL; the progress bar was eventually removed on March 1, 2018.

On June 26, 2018, Local Now began employing Sasha Rionda (a veteran anchor/reporter who previously worked for E!, CNN International and CNN en Español, among other news credits) as an on-air anchor to conduct certain national news and entertainment segments and provide occasional field reports. (The addition of Rionda coincided with a refresh of the app that allowed increased content selection functionality, chaptering functions, and advanced notifications and alerts.)

Cycle products
The service maintains a "wheel" schedule that cycles in randomized intervals of, depending on the collective length of the included segments, between 15 and 20 minutes in length. (Originally, these cycles started at approximately the top of each hour, though since June 26, 2018, the segment cycles start immediately upon the user accessing an appropriate local feed.) Some segments – particularly weather and sports segments – featured in the cycle are routinely updated throughout the hour, while others – particularly news and entertainment segments – are updated every three to six hours. Each content cycle includes the following regular segments (listed in order of broadcast):

Slogans
 Just the Facts, Please (2016–2017)
 Places, People, Stuff (2017–2018)
 Stream On / Stream Your City (advertising; 2018–present)

See also
 FuboTV
 Haystack News
 IntelliStar
 LocalBTV
 NewsON
 Sling TV
 VUit
 The Weather Channel
 WeatherNation TV
 WeatherStar

References

External links

The Weather Channel
Former Comcast subsidiaries
English-language television stations in the United States
Weather television networks
Television channels and stations established in 2016

Local Now


Frederick Richard Buck (2 November 1879 – 5 June 1952), better known as Fred Buck, was an English footballer who played as an inside forward and centre half. He played in the Football League for West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool, and the Southern League for Plymouth Argyle and Swansea Town.

Life and career
Buck was born in Audley, Staffordshire. He joined Stafford Wesleyans in August 1895, moving on to Stafford Rangers in July 1897. In November 1900 he signed for West Bromwich Albion before a move to Liverpool in May 1903. Buck was signed by Plymouth Argyle in January 1904, then re-joined West Bromwich Albion in April 1906. Buck was Albion's top league goalscorer in the 1907–08 season, scoring 18 times, and again in 1909–10 when he found the net on 16 occasions. In May 1914 he moved to Swansea Town, where he finished his career, scoring one goal in eight league appearances. He retired in May 1917.

Buck's parents were Richard Samuel Buck (1839–1909) and Harriet Johnson (1840–1910). He appeared in the 1881 census in Alsagers Bank, and in the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses in Stafford. In the 1901 census he was an apprentice fitter, and in the 1911 census he was described as an engineer fitter. During his time with Plymouth Argyle, he was described as being 5 foot  inches tall and barely 11 stone. In July 1913, he resided in Stafford and he married Stella Margaret Williams on 15 July 1913. In the First World War, from 1915 to 1918, he served in the Army Service Corps where he gained the British War Medal. In 1918, he was resident in Cramer Street, Stafford. From 1921 to 1931 he was a publican in Rugby, Warwickshire at the Victoria Inn, 1 Lower Hillmorton Road. Between 1945 and 1952 he was a clerk in the Grinding Wheel Works in Stafford. He died in Stafford on 5 June 1952, and is buried in the Eccleshall Road Cemetery.

References

1879 births
1952 deaths
People from Audley, Staffordshire
English men's footballers
Stafford Rangers F.C. players
West Bromwich Albion F.C. players
Liverpool F.C. players
Plymouth Argyle F.C. players
Swansea City A.F.C. players
English Football League players
Southern Football League players
Western Football League players
English Football League representative players
Men's association football forwards
Royal Army Service Corps soldiers
British Army personnel of World War I
Publicans
Footballers from Staffordshire

Fred Buck