Birmingham Central Library was the main public library in Birmingham, England, from 1974 until 2013, replacing a library opened in 1865 and rebuilt in 1882. For a time the largest non-national library in Europe, it closed on 29 June 2013 and was replaced by the Library of Birmingham. The building was demolished in 2016, after 41 years, as part of the redevelopment of Paradise Circus by Argent Group. Designed by architect John Madin in the brutalist style, the library was part of an ambitious development project by Birmingham City Council to create a civic centre on its new Inner Ring Road system; however, for economic reasons significant parts of the master plan were not completed, and quality was reduced on materials as an economic measure. Two previous libraries occupied the adjacent site before Madin's library opened in 1974. The previous library, designed by John Henry Chamberlain, opened in 1883 and featured a tall clerestoried reading room. It was demolished in 1974 after the new library had opened.

Despite the original vision not being fully implemented, the library gained architectural praise as an icon of British brutalism with its stark use of concrete, bold geometry, inverted ziggurat sculptural form and monumental scale. Its style was seen at the time as a symbol of social progressivism. Based on this, English Heritage applied but failed twice for the building to gain listed status. However, due to strong opposition from Birmingham City Council the building gained immunity from listing until 2016.

In 2010–11, Central Library was the second-most visited library in the country, with 1,197,350 visitors.

Earlier libraries

The first Central Library occupied a site to the south of Edmund Street and west of the Town Hall. The site had been acquired from the Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) in 1860 after the construction of their own building in 1857 on the corner of Paradise Street and Ratcliff Place. The BMI building was to include a library, but under the Public Libraries Act 1850 a referendum took place on the creation of a municipal library. After the first vote failed, a second one passed in 1860 causing the BMI and the Corporation to cooperate on the joint site.

E. M. Barry was the architect for the BMI building and it was hoped he could be retained as the architect for the adjoining library, but his plans were deemed too expensive for the Corporation. Martin & Chamberlain's plans were approved in October 1862 for a tender price of £8,600 with E. M. Barry's classical facade retained in the design. The Lending Library was opened on 6 September 1865 and the Reference Library was opened just over a year later on 26 October 1866. The chief librarian at the time of opening was John Davies Mullins. Initial use of the library was so heavy that the need for an extension was agreed in 1872 but deferred until 1878. On 11 January 1879 a fire broke out behind a wooden partition serving as a temporary wall during building operations. The fire caused extensive damage, with only 1,000 volumes saved from a stock of 50,000.

Plans to rebuild the library after the fire had been approved as early as May 1879. The library was rebuilt on the same site by J. H. Chamberlain in a Lombardic Renaissance style with a tall clerestoried Reading Room. At a cost of £54,975 the second Central Library opened on 1 June 1882.

As the number of books increased, the Council resolved in 1938 that a new library was an "urgent necessity", but the outbreak of World War II meant that it was not until 1960, and the development of a new Inner Ring Road through the site of the old library, that a general specification was agreed. The library and the BMI building were demolished (the BMI moving to premises a short distance to the east), and the site was part of the Birmingham Conservatoire and its gardens (until the Conservatoire was relocated to Birmingham City University's City Centre campus in Eastside in 2017, following the redevelopment of Paradise Circus.) The 1970s Central Library was constructed on a site originally occupied by Mason Science College and Liberal Club.

Architecture

The new Central Library opened on 12 January 1974. It was designed by John Madin, a Birmingham-based architect. Its inverted ziggurat form was a powerful example of the Brutalist style. With the Rotunda and the Alpha Tower, it became one of Birmingham's key Modernist buildings.

Madin designed the Central Library as part of a large civic centre scheme on the newly created Paradise Circus site. Originally planned to be built alongside the library was a School of Music, Drama Centre, Athletic Institute, offices, shops, public house, a car park with 500 spaces and a bus interchange. The collection of civic buildings were all to be connected by high level walkways and the network of galleries which bridge the roads. The School of Music and a public house (The Yardbird) were the only other buildings in the original plans to be built and the high level walkways were never completed.

The Central Library consisted of two elements: the extrovert lending library and the introvert reference library. The lending library was designed for heavy use and short visits. It formed a wing to the reference library and was of three storeys with a curved façade facing the Town Hall. The reference library was an eight-storey square block designed around an open atrium above a public square that was designed to be entered from four sides. Above the square floated the cantilevered floors of the library in a distinctive inverted ziggurat formation. The designers drew inspiration for the design from Antonio Sant'Elia's drawings of Casa a gradinata, and Marcel Breuer's 1928 scheme for a hospital in Elberfeld, Germany; while another source of inspiration was Leslie Martin's Bodleian Law Library in Oxford. It has also been suggested that they were influenced by the similar design for Boston City Hall, but a member of Madin's design team said they had only seen this design after the library was complete.

The central atrium was completely glazed behind deep concrete balconies; this arrangement was to make it conducive to study. Although there was good natural light, the design was an early recognition of solar gain and the damage it can cause to books. The large windows of the reference library face inwards to reduce traffic noise from the Inner Ring road. On the outside the windows were high level narrow strips with black anodised window frames. The space below the central atrium of the library was designed to define a civic square with gardens, pools, waterfalls and fountains, and potentially to form an open-air exhibition space. Six pools were to be placed in and around this square. Madin also designed the semi-circular amphitheatre around the Chamberlain Memorial in Chamberlain Square to frame the entrance to the library and the new civic square.

The structure was supported on a square set of twelve reinforced concrete columns, built over the Inner Ring road and the uncompleted bus interchange. The bus bays imposed a 36 ft pier spacing on the main block, and led to the standardization of a 1 ft 6in module for the design. Concrete was strongly expressed within the building, the external finishes to structural elements being unclad reinforced concrete. The walls were ribbed, and the locally graded round aggregate was exposed by abrasive blasting. The floors were made of precast concrete coffered units over which a reinforced concrete floor was cast. For the cladding Madin offered the council a choice of Portland Stone or Travertine Marble to align with the adjacent civic buildings. A third, cheaper option was pre-cast concrete with Hoptonwood limestone and Derbyshire spar aggregate with white cement: this was offered by Alan Maudsley, the City Architect, and accepted by the council as an economy measure.

The entrance hall, which was double height between the lending and reference libraries, was entirely glazed on the side facing the atrium – an early example of a freestanding wall made of toughened glass. Before later developments the wall allowed the entrance to be flooded with light and provided views of the Town Hall from the escalators.

The library aimed to provide open access to all its 900,000 volumes. No basement was possible because of the low level roads beneath the library and a tall book stack was deemed inappropriate because of the desire to keep the height of the building low, so it did not overwhelm the surrounding buildings. Storage of the volumes was on the same level as the reading areas: this dual function led to the low ceiling height of three metres. Space was created in the reference library by opening up sections of the floors into double height reading spaces. The furniture for the library was specified by the architects, with a preference for oak veneer book stacks and black linoleum floor covering.

When built, the Central Library provided approximately 250,000 ft² of floor space, making it the largest non-national municipal library in Europe. It was specifically designed for a long life and to stand hard wear with low maintenance costs.

Later developments

The council failed to implement the original plan for Paradise Circus. Spending cuts led to the council's decision to sell off the land surrounding the library, ending the vision of a publicly financed and owned civic centre occupying the entire site.

The 200 seat Library Theatre was built between the School of Music and the reference library block in 1983–86. The theatre was a design and build scheme by Henry Boot Projects. Although the design was in Madin's original plans, Madin did not approve of the design and build method and subsequently had no involvement in the building. Chamberlain House and the Copthorne Hotel were built to the west of the library in 1985–87 by Leonard J. Multon & Partners with wedge shaped ends.

To the north of the library, where an Athletic Institute was originally to stand, a six-storey office block was built in 1988–89 by Leonard J. Multon & Partners. A footbridge connecting the library with Centenary Square was added as part of improvements to the square in 1988–89. The atrium was enclosed with a glass roof and screens by the City Architect's Department in 1989–91. The space below was named Paradise Forum, originally proposed as an alfresco eating and entertainment area, but eventually leased to property companies who sublet the units to shops and fast food outlet tenants. The uncompleted bus interchange became service areas for the tenants of Paradise Forum. In 1999 the whole of Paradise Forum was sold off to Argent now known as Argent (Property Development) Services LLP.

In 1999, a member of the public was almost hit by a small piece of concrete that fell from a cladding panel. Concerns over the condition of the pre-cast cladding panels required the installation of netting to retain any further erosion. The entrance from Chamberlain Square was altered by the city's Urban Design team in 2001, creating a lobby and eliminating the effect of the original tall entrance hall. In July 2010, the east side of the lending library was decorated with painted birds, the work of Lucy McLauchlan.

The appearance of the library building was criticised, mostly on account of the staining of the cladding panels which were originally white and were never cleaned. Prince Charles, in his 1988 television documentary and book A Vision Of Britain, described the building as resembling "a place where books are incinerated, not kept". In October 2011 the World Monuments Fund included the Central Library on its watch list of significant buildings at risk.

Closure and demolition

Birmingham City Council had long planned to move library services away from the Central Library to leave the building free for redevelopment of Paradise Circus. The Paradise Circus site was sold by the Council in 1998 to Argent Group, this spelt an end to the Central Library.

In 2004 an initial plan to move to a building designed by Richard Rogers in Eastside did not materialise. Instead, a site in Centenary Square, 150m to the west of the existing building, was chosen in 2007; and subsequently the new Library of Birmingham was built and opened on 3 September 2013. In the intervening years Argent Group produced plans for the Paradise Circus site which did not include retention of the library building. In response to potential demolition English Heritage applied on two occasions for the building to be listed. On both occasions the library was refused status as a listed building after lobbying from Birmingham City Council. In February 2011 the library received a 5-year Certificate of Immunity from Listing after an application from Birmingham City Council, which meant it could not be protected from demolition until 2016. The library closed on 29 June 2013 and books and archives were moved across to the Library of Birmingham. Planning Application 2012/05116/PA was approved by the City Council on 8 February 2013.

The commercial outlets of Paradise Forum closed in January 2015, and the library site was fenced off except for the pedestrian route linking Chamberlain and Centenary Squares. Internal demolition of the library took place in the Summer and Autumn of 2015. On 1 November 2015, Paradise Forum was closed to pedestrians and Chamberlain Square was fenced off in preparation for external demolition. The first visible external demolition to the main library building began on 6 November 2015. On 15 November 2015 the road tunnel beneath the library permanently closed to traffic for demolition to progress. On 14 December 2015 the first exterior concrete panels to the reference library were removed to mark the start of significant exterior demolition. On 28 January 2016 the curved facade of the lending library began to be demolished and completed on 25 April 2016. The glass roof of the internal atrium was removed on 26 February 2016. At the beginning of August 2016 the link bridge to the museum was removed and the majority of the library building was demolished.

Campaigns to save the building
Several campaign groups were set up to save the library building from demolition. Groups such as Friends of Central Library, the Twentieth Century Society, English Heritage and World Monuments Fund supported the retention of the library.

English Heritage applied twice in 2002 and 2007 for the Central Library to be listed. On both occasions the Minister for Culture refused the application. On the second occasion, Margaret Hodge, the Minister for Culture, stated that "the building did not have sufficient historical or architectural importance to merit listing". In 2009, following an application from Birmingham City Council for a Certificate of Immunity from Listing, Margaret Hodge signed the certificate which would be in place until 2016.

In 2011 the World Monuments Fund included the library on its watch list along with Preston bus station stating that the buildings were dramatically sited and uncompromising in their stark use of concrete and powerfully structural forms. They brought a sense of the monumental to the British urban landscape at the time of their construction and remain architectural icons. It was hoped that placing these buildings on the watch list would open dialogue into their protection and alternatives for adaptive reuse. Preston bus station was saved from demolition and listed at Grade II in September 2013; however dialogue on the demolition of the Central Library did not progress.

A fresh appreciation of the library began to emerge as the Council declared their intention to demolish it. The movement was led by artists and writers mainly of the 1960s generation who had grown up with it. Jonathan Meades appreciated the "guts and attack" of the library, and spoke negatively of the Council's policies, stating "you don't get a car and never get it serviced". Brutalist architecture was becoming more appreciated in the 21st Century with the listing of Preston bus station, Trellick Tower and the rejuvenation of Park Hill in Sheffield. Books celebrating brutalism were published and television shows featuring brutalist buildings began to feature with greater regularity. The Central Library was chosen to represent the location of MI5 HQ in BBC series The Game.

Friends of Central Library presented an alternative plan to the Council and its developers which retained the library at the centre of the Paradise Circus scheme. It argued that the library could be used for a range of alternative uses and demolition after 40 years went against all principles of sustainability. However Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Civic Society, CABE and Argent strongly opposed any plans to retain the library and consequently the battle was lost.

See also
Pete James

References

Further reading

 "Paradise Circus; Architects: John Madin Design Group, Birmingham Metropolitan District Council: Architects Department", in: Architects' Journal; vol. 9, no. 2, 1974 June, pp. 8–20.
 "Birmingham Central Library; Architects: John Madin Design Group", in: Architects' Journal; vol. 159, no. 21, 22 May 1974, pp. 1137–1157.
 "Birmingham Central Libraries; Architects: John Madin Design Group", in: Interior Design; 1974 May, pp. 292–295.

External links

Architects Drawings of Central Library
Time lapse video of the construction of Central Library
Video of the Library under construction 1973-74
Youtube video of demolition of Central Library in April 2016
Campaign Group to Save Central Library
Invitation to the opening of Birmingham Reference Library in 1882, University of Birmingham

Brutalist architecture in England
Central Library
Central Library
Central Library
Government buildings completed in 1973
Libraries in Birmingham, West Midlands
Library buildings completed in 1973
Public libraries in the West Midlands (county)
Ziggurat style modern architecture
John Madin
Buildings and structures demolished in 2016

Birmingham Central Library


Navy Blue and Gold is a 1937 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer dramatic film starring Robert Young, James Stewart and Lionel Barrymore. The plot revolves around the experiences of three young men attending the United States Naval Academy.

Synopsis
After each is accepted for admission to the United States Naval Academy, three midshipmen, Dick Gates, Roger Ash and "Truck" Cross, become roommates. Dick is the scion of a wealthy family, Roger a former star football player for another university, and Truck a sailor appointed from the fleet. With a common love of football, all three go out for the plebe squad. Dick is tricked into committing a rules violation by a disreputable upperclassman with a penchant for hazing and is severely paddled. Even though hazing is forbidden by regulations, Roger decides to get even on his own terms. Despite his egotism, his classmates as well as the upperclassmen respect him when he  challenges the abuser to a boxing match and wins it.

As upperclassmen, the roommates become varsity players. Dick is undersized but makes the team as a kicker, while Truck becomes a star center. Roger has come to Navy only for the publicity value of playing for the school and makes no effort during a game against a lesser opponent. When varsity coach Tommy Milton benches him for being a "slacker," he goes AWOL. Truck and Dick also go AWOL and find him drunk in a bar. Caught by Milton trying to get Roger back to barracks, the academy's former football coach, Captain "Skinny" Dawes, covers for them with an adroit adherence to the academy's honor system.

Truck faces dismissal from the academy for not using his true name upon enrollment, revealed when he defends the sullied reputation of his father, a disgraced navy ship's captain, during a class discussion. Previously dismissive of academy traditions, Roger "prays" at the statue of Tamanend for Truck's exoneration, overheard by Captain Dawes. Truck is dismissed but reinstated when the superintendent grants him clemency based on Truck's dedication to the navy and his father, who has been restored to duty with his record cleared. Truck arrives at the stadium in time to help his roommates win the Army-Navy game. At the traditional ceremony celebrating Navy's victory, Roger demonstrates his new-found devotion to the academy by giving up his place of honor to Captain Dawes.

Cast
 Robert Young as Roger Ash
 James Stewart as "Truck" Cross
 Lionel Barrymore as Captain "Skinny" Dawes
 Florence Rice as Patricia Gates
 Billie Burke as Mrs. Gates
 Tom Brown as Richard Gates Jr
 Samuel S. Hinds as Richard Gates Sr
 Paul Kelly as Tommy Milton
 Barnett Parker as Graves
 Roger Converse as Size Inspector

Production notes
Production Dates:  7 Sep—early Nov 1937.  Portions of the picture were filmed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was used as the Southern Institute stadium in the early portion of the film and later as the Naval Academy stadium.

Reception
The film was very popular: according to MGM records it made $884,000 in the US and Canada and $284,000 in other countries, recording a profit of $297,000.

See also
 Lionel Barrymore filmography
 List of American football films

References
Notes

Citations

External links

1937 films
1937 drama films
American drama films
American football films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Sam Wood
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films about the United States Navy
Films scored by Edward Ward (composer)
1930s English-language films
1930s American films

Navy Blue and Gold (film)


Aalborg CSP is a Danish renewable energy specialist mainly designing solutions based on concentrated solar power (CSP) technology.
The company's main office is located in, Aalborg, Denmark, and they have offices in Spain, the United States, Kenya, Australia and Indonesia.
Aalborg CSP has participated in projects mainly in Spain, but also in Turkey, Norway and Russia.
The most current project as of 2015 is an integrated energy system located in Port Augusta, Australia. Aalborg CSP has partnered with Sundrop Farms to create a farm powered by the sun and saltwater. By using desalination, powered by the sun, it is possible to produce the water with desalinated seawater. Aalborg CSP was in 2010 given the Gazelle Award, where companies must have had a doubling of either revenue or profit in the last four years. Aalborg CSP has 56 people employed.

History
Aalborg CSP is the result of the merger between BK Aalborg and BK Engineering, which took place on January 1, 2011. These are companies with roots back to the 1980s where they originate from the boiler industry of which the city of Aalborg has become synonymous.

CSP
It is especially the work within the CSP industry that has put Aalborg CSP on the map. With their work on CSP plants around the world, the company has become a leading global player within steam generators for large-scale concentrated solar power plants.
Among other projects the company has contributed to the construction of large CSP plants in Spain. One of these plants were at the time considered to be the world's most powerful solar tower.

References

External links

Renewable energy in Denmark
Fossil fuels in Denmark
Energy companies of Denmark
Engineering companies of Denmark
Companies based in Aalborg

Aalborg CSP


Citizen Dog (; ; ) is a 2004 Thai romance film, directed by Wisit Sasanatieng and based on a novel by Wisit's wife, Koynuch (Siriphan Techajindawong), which was illustrated by him. The second film by the director of Tears of the Black Tiger, it is a colorful story set in contemporary Bangkok, where a boy (Pod) without a goal in life falls in love with a girl (Jin) who lives for her dreams. The film is frequently compared with the French movie  Amélie. One of the main themes of the movie is that people will only find something from the moment when they stopped looking for it.

The movie has been distributed outside Asia by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp.

Plot
Pod is a country boy who moves to Bangkok, despite his grandmother's warning that he'll grow a tail. He finds a small house to live in and takes a job in a sardine cannery, getting rides to work on the back of a motorcycle taxi, the rider of which has been made a zombie after one day it rained motorcycle helmets and he wasn't wearing one.

One hot day the assembly line at the cannery malfunctions. In the confusion, Pod chops his index finger off and it ends up in a can that is trucked away to a local grocery store. He searches everyday, buying can after can of sardines. Eventually he sees a can jumping around and opens it to find a finger. He attaches it simply by pressing it into place.

But something does not feel right. He must have someone else's finger. During a lunch break, he recognises his own finger on a co-worker who is getting ready to pick his nose. He wrests the finger away and gives the man the other finger in return. The nose-picker is named Yod, and the two become friends.

Not wishing to lose any more fingers, Pod quits the factory and becomes a security guard. On the job in an office, he meets Jin, a maid who has her nose perpetually buried in a mysterious white book written in a foreign language that she dreams of someday understanding. The book literally landed at her feet one day while she was still living in the countryside, and since then she has been trying to decipher its meaning. She has obsessive-compulsive disorder, which makes her want to constantly clean and set things in order.

Pod is smitten and wishes to be closer to Jin. Inspired by Yod and his Chinese empress girlfriend, who consummated their relationship on a crowded bus, Pod asks Jin if she would like to ride the bus. But Jin refuses, saying she breaks out in a rash whenever she takes crowded public transport. Pod quits his job as a guard and becomes a taxicab driver so he can drive her to work.

Eventually, he expresses his true feelings for Jin, but she's become obsessed with a hippie farang, whom she's seen reading the same white book she has. She imagines the man is named Peter and believes he is an environmental activist who was killed in a protest in Washington, D.C. Inspired, she starts collecting plastic bottles, gathering enough to create a mountain that towers over the city, and joins an environmental protest movement calling for a ban on plastic.

Meanwhile, Pod has adventures in his taxicab, giving rides to a little girl with a foul mouth who smokes cigarettes and plays videogames. She has a teddy bear who also swears, smokes and drinks whiskey, and she eventually throws the teddy bear away. Another passenger is a man who incessantly licks things, and Pod must find a solution to make him stop. He also meets his grandmother, reincarnated as a gecko, who repeats her premonition that he'll grow a tail if he stays in the city.

Jin discovers Peter at a rally, who reveals his name is actually Andre and that the white book is an Italian gay romance novel. Crestfallen, Jin throws away the book and her activist lifestyle and leaves Bangkok, telling Pod she needs to be away from him. Pod quits as a taxi driver and returns to the country, only to grow bored as country life has literally slowed down compared to his life in Bangkok. He returns to the city to find that everyone now can and has grown a tail, except for him. He becomes a celebrity, but continues to search for Jin in vain. Pod climbs the plastic mountain and finds her there, confesses his love again and kisses her, overwhelming her doubts about their future.

Six months later, the mountain is a picnic for lovebirds, the girl and her teddy bear marry, and Jin, now running a plastic company into the ground as a successful business woman, is married to Pod and expecting a child. Through a long list of reincarnated animals, Pod believes that his child will actually be his grandmother.

Cast
 Mahasamut Boonyaruk as Pod
 Saengthong Gate-Uthong as Jin
 Sawatwong Palakawong Na Autthaya as Yod
 Chuck Stephens as Peter/Andre
 Raenkum Saninn as Grandmother of Pod
 Pen-Ek Ratanaruang as Narrator

Festivals and awards
 Best visual effects, 2004 Thailand National Film Association Awards.
 Silver Prize for Most Groundbreaking Film and Bronze Prize for Best Asian Film at the 2006 Fantasia Festival.
 shown in 2005 at the "58. International Filmfestival Locarno" (Switzerland) open air on the "Piazza Grande"
 Critics prize, 2005 Deauville Asian Film Festival
 Also screened at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival, Munich Asia Filmfest, Vienna International Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Frankfurt Asia Filmfest, London Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Taipei Film Festival.
 Sixth on the Top 10 Best Films of 2005 by Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss.

Soundtrack
No soundtrack album has been issued. The opening and closing theme is a cover of "...Before", originally performed by Thailand indie rockers Modern Dog. The song is used as a recurring motif. The soundtrack also features songs by Mahasamut Boonyaruk, who starred as Pod and is a musician in the Bangkok underground band Saliva Bastards. Director Wisit Sasanatieng also composed songs for the score.

DVD
The DVD was released in Thailand in 2005 (Region 3) and contained no English subtitles. The film was licensed for release in Hong Kong with English subtitles in 2006, and was released in early 2007 by Asia Video Publishing on an all-region disc.

References

External links

2004 films
2004 romantic comedy films
Five Star Production films
Films based on Thai novels
Thai-language films
Films directed by Wisit Sasanatieng
Thai national heritage films
Thai romantic comedy films

Citizen Dog (film)


A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree of self-sufficiency, autonomy, and local community than found in a prevailing industrial or postindustrial way of life. There have been a variety of motives behind such movements, such as social reform, land reform, and civilian war efforts. Groups involved have included political reformers, counterculture hippies, and religious separatists.

The concept was popularized in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century by activist Bolton Hall, who set up vacant lot farming in New York City and wrote many books on the subject; and by his follower Ralph Borsodi, who is known for his practical experiments in self-sufficient living during the 1920s and 1930s. The practice, however, was strong in Europe even before that time.

During World War II, when Great Britain faced a blockade by German U-boats, a "Dig for Victory" campaign urged civilians to fight food shortages by growing vegetables on any available patch of land.  In the USA between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s there was a revived back-to-the-land movement, with substantial numbers of people migrating from cities to rural areas.

The back-to-the-land movement has ideological links to distributism, a 1920s and 1930s attempt to find a "Third Way" between capitalism and socialism.

Throughout history
The American social commentator and poet Gary Snyder has related that there have been back-to-the-land population movements throughout the centuries, and throughout the world, largely due to the occurrence of severe urban problems where people felt a need to live a better life and/or often simply to survive.

The historian and philosopher of urbanism Jane Jacobs remarked in an interview with Stewart Brand that with the Fall of Rome city dwellers re-inhabited the rural areas of the region.

From another point of departure, Yi-Fu Tuan takes a view that such trends have often been privileged and motivated by sentiment. "Awareness of the past is an important element in the love of place," he writes, in his 1974 book Topophilia. Tuan writes that an appreciation of nature springs from wealth, privilege, and the antithetical values of cities. He argues that literature about land (and, subsequently, about going back to the land) is largely sentimental; "little," he writes, "is known about the farmer's attitudes to nature..." Tuan finds historical instances of the desire of the civilized to escape civilization in the Hellenistic, Roman, Augustan, and Romantic eras, and, from one of the earliest recorded myths, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

North America
Regarding North America, many individuals and households have moved from urban or suburban circumstances to rural ones at different times; for instance, the economic theorist and land-based American experimenter Ralph Borsodi (author of Flight from the City) is said to have influenced thousands of urban-living people to try a modern homesteading life during the Great Depression. The New Deal town of Arthurdale, West Virginia, was built in 1933 using the back-to-the-land ideas current at the time.

There was again a fair degree of interest in moving to rural land after World War II. In 1947, Betty MacDonald published what became a popular book, The Egg and I, telling her story of marrying and then moving to a small farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. This story was the basis of a successful comedy film starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

The Canadian writer Farley Mowat says that many returned veterans after World War II sought a meaningful life far from the ignobility of modern warfare, regarding his own experience as typical of the pattern. In Canada, those who sought a life completely outside of the cities, suburbs, and towns frequently moved into semi-wilderness environs.

But what made the later phenomenon of the 1960s and 1970s especially significant was that the rural-relocation trend was sizable enough that it was identified in the American demographic statistics.

Roots of this movement can perhaps be traced to some of Bradford Angier's books, such as At Home in the Woods (1951) and We Like it Wild (1963), Louise Dickinson Rich's We Took to the Woods (1942) and subsequent books, or perhaps even more compellingly to the 1954 publication of Helen and Scott Nearing's book, Living the Good Life. This book chronicles the Nearings' move to an older house in a rural area of Vermont and their self-sufficient and simple lifestyle. In their initial move, the Nearings were driven by the circumstances of the Great Depression and influenced by earlier writers, particularly Henry David Thoreau. Their book was published six years after A Sand County Almanac, by the ecologist and environmental activist Aldo Leopold, was published, in 1948. Influences aside, the Nearings had planned and worked hard, developing their homestead and life according to a twelve-point plan they had drafted.

The narrative of Phil Cousineau's documentary film Ecological Design: Inventing the Future asserts that in the decades after World War II, "The world was forced to confront the dark shadow of science and industry... There was a clarion call for a return to a life of human scale." By the late 1960s, many people had recognized that, leaving their city or suburban lives, they completely lacked any familiarity with such basics of life as food sources (for instance, what a potato plant looks like, or the act of milking a cow)—and they felt out of touch with nature, in general. While the back-to-the-land movement was not strictly part of the counterculture of the 1960s, the two movements had some overlap in participation.

Many people were attracted to getting more in touch with the basics just mentioned, but the movement could also have been fueled by the negatives of modern life: rampant consumerism, the failings of government and society, including the Vietnam War, and a perceived general urban deterioration, including a growing public concern about air and water pollution. Events such as the Watergate scandal and the 1973 energy crisis contributed to these views. Some people rejected the struggle and boredom of "moving up the company ladder." Paralleling the desire for reconnection with nature was a desire to reconnect with physical work. Farmer and author Gene Logsdon expressed the aim aptly as: "the kind of independence that defines success in terms of how much food, clothing, shelter, and contentment I could produce for myself rather than how much I could buy."

There was also a segment within the movement who already had a familiarity with rural life and farming, who already had skills, and who wanted land of their own on which they could demonstrate that organic farming could be made practical and economically successful.

Besides the Nearings and other authors writing later along similar lines, another influence from the world of American publishing was the Whole Earth Catalogs. Stewart Brand and a circle of friends and family began the effort in 1968, because Brand believed that there was a groundswell of biologists, designers, engineers, sociologists, organic farmers, and social experimenters who wished to transform civilization along lines that might be called "sustainable". Brand and cohorts created a catalog of "tools"—defined broadly to include useful books, design aids, maps, gardening implements, carpentry and masonry tools, metalworking equipment, and more.

Another important publication was The Mother Earth News, a periodical (originally on newsprint) that was founded a couple years after the Catalog. Ultimately gaining a large circulation, the magazine was focused on how-to articles, personal stories of successful and budding homesteaders, interviews with key thinkers, and the like. The magazine stated its philosophy was based on returning to people a greater measure of control of their own lives.

Many of the North American back-to-the-landers of the 1960s and 1970s made use of the Mother Earth News, the Whole Earth Catalogs and derivative publications. But as time went on, the movement itself drew more people into it, more or less independently of impetus from the publishing world.

See also

 Agrarianism
 Alicia Bay Laurel
 Anarcho-primitivism
 Back to nature
 Bioregionalism
 Commune (intentional community)
 Communitarianism
 Community Food Security Coalition
 Deindustrialization
 Down to the Countryside Movement
 Drop City
 Ecovillage
 Foxfire books
 Georgism
 Green anarchism
 Harrowsmith magazine
 Hovel in the Hills
 Karl Hess
 Lasse Nordlund
 Lebensreform
 Localism
 Neo-Tribalism
 Noble savage
 Physiocracy
 Permaculture
 Plain people
 Renewable energy
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 Seachange
 Solarpunk
 Subsistence agriculture
 Survivalism
 Sustainability
 Sustainable living
 The Farm (Tennessee)
 Tolstoyan movement
 Twin Oaks Community
 Wandervogel movement
 World Brotherhood Colonies

References

Further reading
 Agnew, Eleanor. Back from the Land: How Young Americans Went to Nature in the 1970s, and Why They Came Back. 2005.
 Brand, Stewart et al., editors 1968-1998 Whole Earth Catalogs
 Coffey, Richard A. Bogtrotter.  (reprint edition with afterword by author).
 Curl, John 2007. Memories of Drop City: The First Hippie Commune of the 1960s and the Summer of Love. iUniverse. .
 Faires, Nicole 2006. Deliberate Life: The Ultimate Homesteading Guide.
 Fairfield, Richard. The Modern Utopian: Alternative Communities of the '60's and '70's. Process Media, 2010.
 Grant, Brian L. "Surveying the Back to the Land Movement in the Seventies". Published online at Back To The Land
 Jacob, Jeffrey Carl. New Pioneers: The Back-to-the-Land Movement and the Search for a Sustainable Future. Penn State University Press. 1997. .
 Nearing, Helen and Nearing, Scott 1954. Living the Good Life.  (Reprint edition).
 Nearing, Helen and Nearing, Scott 1979. Continuing the Good Life.
 Philips, Jared M. Hipbillies: Deep Revolution in the  Arkansas Ozarks. The University of Arkansas Press, 2019.
 The Mother Earth News, a magazine devoted to the lifestyle
 Daloz, Kate, 2016 "We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America"

Simple living
20th century in the United States
Hippie movement
Agrarian politics
German Youth Movement
Rural community development
Environmental movements
Social movements
History of social movements
Lifestyles

Back-to-the-land movement


Saviour Cumbo (1810–1877) was a Maltese theologian and minor philosopher. His philosophical writings deal mainly with the relationship between reason and faith. Though his engagement with philosophical reflection was peripheral, his contribution in this field was at least interesting and at most insightful. No portrait of him has been identified up till now.

Life
Cumbo was born at Valletta, Malta, in 1810. After entering the diocesan seminary and becoming a priest, he was entrusted with various administrative offices within the diocese of Malta. For many years he was the Vicar-General of the bishop. Concurrently, he taught theology at the University of Malta.

In 1839, he began a periodical called Il Filologo (The Philologist), which was of a literary nature. He issued the periodical for three years. Furthermore, he published various booklets of general public interest. Cumbo died in 1877.

Works
Though Cumbo published profusely, mainly booklets of a few pages, a few of his publications have some philosophical interest, namely:

 1839 - Piano di Pubblica Instruzione (A Plan for Public Education). Published in Malta (Torchi di Francesco Cumbo), this 48-page book in Italian proposes a plan for public education of every level. The work begins with a preface and an introduction, and then is divided into three main chapters (with the last two sub-divided into 11 and 9 parts respectively.

 When speaking of university, Cumbo suggests that students should be given "a deep knowledge of philosophy". In a more concrete manner, he proposes six Chairs: for logic and metaphysics, simple mathematics, pure mathematics, mathematical physics, experimental physics, and maritime studies. For experimental physics, Cumbo suggests building state-of-the-art laboratories.

 While proposing his plan, Cumbo takes the opportunity to criticize the current course of philosophy at the University of Malta. He objects to the fact that the course includes Latin, Italian, and English literature, and also economic politics (which he finds "incompatible" with philosophy).

 1839 - Sul Giuramento (On the Pledge). This 19-page booklet in Italian published in Malta (by Francesco Cumbo), reproduces a speech which Cumbo gave in 1838 to civil servants. The central part of the address deals with the problem encountered by Catholic workers who solemnly pledged their loyalty to a Protestant government (since at the time Malta was under British colonial rule). Though the local authorities of the Catholic Church had declared immoral such a pledge, Cumbo ventures to state in clear terms that it is not so. This irked the local bishop, who accused Cumbo of heresy before the Holy See in Rome. In response, Cumbo wrote Il Trenta Gennajo (below).
 1839 - Il Trenta Gennajo (30 January). A 19-page essay in Italian written by Cumbo and published in Malta (by Francesco Cumbo) in response to the accusations of heresy leveled against him after publishing the tract Sul Giuramento (above). Cumbo had appeared before the Holy See in Rome on 30 January 1839, hence the title of the booklet. The meeting left Cumbo disappointed. So much so that he then decided to publish this short pamphlet, which eventually he had to issue various editions of it. The writing is a lengthy address to the Bishop of Malta, Francis Saverio Caruana, in which he explains the nature of the issue at hand (that is, on the pledge of Catholic civil servants in Protestant Malta) and describes, point by point, why he had declared it morally acceptable.
 1839 - Necessità delle Rivelazione per Guida dei Costumi (The Need of Revelation as a Guide to Behaviour). A 20-page pamphlet in Italian (published by the Tipografia Cumbo, Malta) reproduces an address given in 1839 by Cumbo at the Gioventù Maltese delle Sacre Scienze (Maltese Youth of Sacred Sciences). Cumbo examines the relationship between reason and faith. He does this with the issue of civil servants' pledge (see Il Giuramento and Il Trenta Gennajo above) at the back of his mind.
 1839 - Breve Cenno Sulle Lezioni Scritturali (A Brief Note on Lectures of Scripture). Published in Malta (Tipografia Cumbo), this 16-page pamphlet in Italian is a discussion on some aspects of the lectures given at the University of Malta on the Bible. With his typical passion and analysis, Cumbo makes a philosophical discussion on the relationship of reason to faith.
 1844 - Influenze del Cristianesimo sul Progresso delle Scienze (Influences of Christianity on the Progress of the Sciences). A 36-page book in Italian published in Malta (Tipografia di Francesco Cumbo) and dedicated to Cardinal Charles Januarius Acton. It reproduces an address given by Cumbo on 1 October 1844, in Valletta at the official opening of the academic year 1844-45 of the University of Malta. The work is divided into an introduction and another eleven main parts. Cumbo concentrates on the literary wealth of humanity, and philosophically discusses our relation to it and our appraisal of it.
 1874 - De Laudibus Sancti Thomæ (In Praise of Saint Thomas Aquinas). This 6-page leaflet in Italian published in Malta reproduces an address given by Cumbo at the Dominican priory at Valletta. The initiative to publish the address was taken by Cumbo's students (called discipulorum, disciples). The work is a rhetorical speech on Thomas Aquinas. Though containing some philosophical interest, the address is mainly oratorical.
 1872 - Elogio Funebre al Dr. Giorgio Caruana (Funeral Oration for Dr. George Caruana). The oration contained in this 21-page pamphlet in Italian (published at the Tipografia Strada San Domenico No. 75, Valletta), was delivered in May 1872 at the funeral of George Caruana. It is the work of a philosopher paying homage to another philosopher. Considering the occasion, no substantial philosophical material is to be found in this oration. Nevertheless, Cumbo does not deal superficially with the themes of life and death which he addresses.

References

See also
Philosophy in Malta

19th-century Maltese philosophers
Maltese theologians
19th-century Maltese Roman Catholic priests
Academic staff of the University of Malta
People from Valletta
1810 births
1877 deaths

Saviour Cumbo


KAMR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Amarillo, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KCPN-LD (channel 33); Nexstar also provides certain services Fox affiliate KCIT (channel 14) under joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Mission Broadcasting. The three stations share studios on Southeast 11th Avenue and South Fillmore Street in downtown Amarillo; KAMR-TV's transmitter is located on Dumas Drive (US 87/287) and Reclamation Plant Road in rural unincorporated Potter County.

History
On September 5, 1951, the Plains Radio Broadcasting Company—a subsidiary of Globe News Publishing Co. (owned by landowner and oilman Roy N. Whittenburg and civic leader Samuel "S.B." Whittenburg), then-publisher of the Amarillo Globe-News and owner of radio station KGNC (710 AM)—filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to obtain a license and construction permit to operate a commercial television station on VHF channel 4. The FCC awarded the license and permit for channel 4 to Plains Radio Broadcasting on October 8, 1953; the group subsequently requested and received approval to assign KGNC-TV (for Globe-News Company) as the television station's call letters.

The station first signed on the air on March 18, 1953. KGNC-TV was the first television station to sign on in the Amarillo market, debuting two weeks before KFDA-TV (channel 10) signed on as the market's CBS affiliate on April 4. Channel 4 has been an NBC television affiliate since its debut, inheriting those rights through KGNC radio's longtime relationship with the progenitor NBC Red Network, which had been affiliated with that station since January 1937; it also maintained a secondary affiliations with the DuMont Television Network. The operations of KGNC-TV were originally located at a facility on North Polk Street and Northeast 24th Avenue in northeastern Amarillo, which it shared with KGNC radio. DuMont shut down in 1955, amid various issues that arose from its relations with Paramount that hamstrung it from expansion; that year, the station joined the NTA Film Network until that network closed in 1961.

On October 8, 1966, the Globe News Publishing Company announced that it would sell KGNC-TV and its sister radio properties to Topeka, Kansas-based Stauffer Communications (a family-owned company run by Oscar S. Stauffer, Stanley H. Stauffer, John H. Stauffer and Marion W. Stauffer) for $5.6 million (split between Globe-News Publishing for $4.225 million plus a three-year non-compete agreement worth $300,000, and $1.375 million to Plains Broadcasting); the sale was approved by the FCC on January 12, 1966. The Whittenburg family retained ownership of the Globe-News.

In October 1973, Stauffer announced it would sell KGNC-TV to Cannan Communications – a locally based company managed under the direction of Darrell A. Cannan, Sr. and Darrell A. Cannan, Jr. – for $2.5 million; the sale received FCC approval, along with the renewal of the KGNC-TV license, on July 31, 1974. In order to comply with an FCC rule in effect at the time that prohibited separately owned radio and television stations in the same market from sharing the same base call letters, as Stauffer was allowed to keep the KGNC call letters for its new radio properties, the station's call letters were changed to KAMR-TV (in reference to its city of license, Amarillo) on November 5 of that year.

During the late 1980s, KAMR-TV had experienced a gradual ratings downturn in both local news and, to a lesser extent, in total-day viewership. Especially troubling for KAMR was the fact that its ratings decline occurred at a timeframe when NBC's ratings were otherwise strong, thanks to its prime time programming (including its Thursday night comedy lineup). Not helping matters was that NBC also held partial broadcast rights to the NFL's American Football Conference (which it continued to broadcast through 1997, when those rights shifted to CBS [and by association, KFDA-TV]), which included rights to Super Bowls following the 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1997 seasons. Each of these telecasts featured an NFC or AFC team of interest to significant cohorts of KAMR's viewing area (particularly, the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos). Meanwhile, KFDA's ratings continued to improve despite CBS losing its NFL telecast rights after the 1993 season. (Prior to 1993, KFDA's final Super Bowl telecast determined 1991's NFL champions; after CBS regained the NFL rights in 1998, channel 10 also carried the Super Bowl that determined the champions for the 2000 season.)

On January 5, 1999, Boston-based Quorum Broadcasting announced that it would purchase KAMR-TV from Cannan Communications as part of a $64-million, three-station deal. The following day (January 6), Westlake, Ohio-based Mission Broadcasting announced that it would acquire KCIT and KCPN-LP from Wichita Falls-based Wicks Broadcast Group for $13 million; the sale to Quorum received FCC approval on February 23, 1999. Quorum took over the operations of KCIT and KCPN on June 1, 1999, under joint sales and shared services agreements with Mission, under which KAMR would handle news production, engineering, security and certain other services as well as handling advertising sales for the two stations. Although KAMR was the senior partner in the deal, it subsequently vacated its longtime studio facility on North Polk Street, and relocated its operations  south to KCIT/KCPN's facility on South Fillmore Street. (The former Polk Street studio is now occupied by the Faith Clinic Christian Center Church, which relocated its campus into the building in July 2003.)

On September 8, 2003, Irving, Texas–based Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would acquire Quorum Broadcasting's ten television stations, including KAMR-TV and the JSA/SSAs involving KCIT and KCPN-LP, for $230 million; the sale of KAMR to Quorum and the transfer of the joint sales and shared services agreements to Nexstar was completed on December 31, 2003.

On February 25, 2013, the over-the-air signals of KAMR, KCIT and KCPN were knocked off the air for more than 18 hours as a result of electricity fluctuations that shut off cooling pumps on the stations' transmitter tower off of US 287 during a major blizzard that crippled much of the Texas Panhandle. Snow drifts of up to  prevented station employees from accessing the site until the morning of February 26, in order to restore power to the transmitters. All three stations remained available to Suddenlink Communications systems in the area through a direct fiber feed.

Programming
KAMR-TV currently broadcasts the majority of the NBC schedule, although the station currently does not clear most of NBC's overnight programming (preempting its weekend lifestyle lineup outright and carrying Early Today as a single half-hour broadcast instead of offering most of its customary overnight loop), preferring to carry infomercials and some syndicated programming in the designated time period (particularly on Tuesday through Saturday mornings after Late Night with Seth Meyers). KAMR broadcast Dr. Red Duke's syndicated medical reports to viewers in the Texas Panhandle throughout the 1980s and 1990s. From its 1986 start until the 2002–03 season, KAMR aired The Oprah Winfrey Show to viewers on the High Plains when the show moved to ABC affiliate KVII-TV for its last nine years on the air (2010–11).

The station also produces the news/talk/lifestyle program Studio 4, which airs weekdays at 4:00 p.m.; the hour-long program, which debuted on October 4, 2010, is currently hosted by Jackie Kingston and Andy Justus (both of whom also serve as weeknight anchors for the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts).

News operation
, KAMR-TV presently broadcasts 16 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with three hours on weekdays and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Unlike most NBC-affiliated stations in the Central Time Zone, it does not carry a midday newscast (instead, the NBC news program NBC News Daily fills the noon timeslot) or a full-length morning newscast of two to 2½ hours (running only 90 minutes) on weekdays, nor does it produce an early evening newscast on Saturdays and Sundays.

In addition, KAMR produces 3½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week for Fox-affiliated sister station KCIT (with one hour on weekdays, and a half-hour each on Saturday and Sundays). Through the shared services agreement with KCIT, the station may also simulcast long-form severe weather coverage on channel 14 in the event that a tornado warning is issued for any county in its viewing area within the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles as well as Eastern New Mexico.

News department history

Concurrent to Cannan Communications's purchase of KAMR, in 1974, the station adopted the Action News format, which allowed it to feature more stories within its newscasts than those seen on KVII and KFDA due to strict time limits on story packages. In October 1990, as part of a major re-imaging of the station, KAMR retitled its newscasts from Action News 4 to News 4. However, these changes — as well as the adoption of "Straight Facts, Straight to You" as its news slogan (which was also used by fellow NBC affiliate KMOL-TV [now WOAI-TV] in San Antonio during the time period) — did little to improve the station's mediocre local news ratings, which had slid from second place during 1989 to an ever-more-distant third by the November 1990 sweeps period; KFDA, which had long rated at third place in local news, overtook KAMR for the #2 spot. (KFDA would surge to first place by the end of the 1990s.)

Following their respective sales to Quorum and Mission Broadcasting and the formation of the SSA between the two stations, on March 11, 2001, KAMR began producing a half-hour newscast at 9:00 p.m. through a news share agreement with Fox affiliate KCIT. The program, titled Fox 14 News at 9:00, was KCIT's second attempt at a local newscast (following an in-house effort that lasted from its sign-on in October 1982 until its news operation was shut down in 1995) and originated from a secondary set at KAMR/KCIT/KCPN's South Fillmore Street studios. The program competes against an existing 9:00 newscast on CW affiliate KVII-DT2, which parent station KVII-TV premiered in September 2012. Originally co-anchored by Kelly James and Paige Smith (née Cook) on Sundays through Friday nights and Mel Hernandez on Saturdays, the newscast was structured to mix a conventional news format with the so-called "Fox attitude" in an effort to both court younger and appeal to traditional news viewers.

Following the completion of Nexstar's purchase of KAMR in 2003, the news department saw the departures of several high-profile anchors. Weeknight anchors Jay Ricci and Paige Cook both quit after Nexstar management asked them to accept a reduction in their salaries in contract renewal negotiations. (Both subsequently joined KVII-TV; sports director Andy Justus shifted to news, taking over Ricci's seat on the evening newscasts.) Mary Allison-Parker (who rejoined the station in February of that year, following a previous run as anchor/reporter from 1987 to 1996) also resigned after she refused to shift from anchoring the KCIT 9:00 p.m. newscast to KAMR's weeknight broadcasts, citing that she was on a part-time contract that precluded her from working such an expanded shift.

Notable former on-air staff
 Dick Williams – weather anchor/children's program host (deceased)

Technical information

Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion
KAMR-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital television under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4.

The main channel was converted to 720p high definition on May 22, 2017. As of September 2017, the NBC feed was restored to its native 1080i resolution.

Translators
KAMR-TV covers a large portion of northern Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle and northeastern New Mexico through many translators that distribute its programming beyond the  range of its broadcast signal. All translators transmit on virtual channel 4, and (with the exception of K25CP-D and K27NL-D, which are owned by Nexstar directly) are owned by local translator cooperatives:
  Childress, TX
  Clarendon, TX
  Clovis, NM
  Guymon, OK
  Memphis, TX
  Tucumcari, NM
  Tulia, TX
  Turkey, TX

See also

Channel 19 digital TV stations in the United States
Channel 4 virtual TV stations in the United States

References

External links
 Official website

NBC network affiliates
Laff (TV network) affiliates
Antenna TV affiliates
AMR-TV
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1953 establishments in Texas
Nexstar Media Group

KAMR-TV


Fujiwara no Toshiyuki (birthdate unknown – 901 or 907, Japanese: 藤原 敏行, also 藤原 敏行 朝臣 Fujiwara Toshiyuki no Ason) was a middle Heian waka poet and Japanese nobleman. He was designated a member of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals and one of his poems is included in the famous anthology Hyakunin Isshu.

Toshiyuki's poems are included in several imperial poetry anthologies, including Kokin Wakashū and Gosen Wakashū. A personal poetry collection known as the Toshiyukishū also remains.

External links
E-text of his poems in Japanese

Fujiwara clan
900s deaths
Year of birth unknown
10th-century Japanese poets
Hyakunin Isshu poets
10th-century Japanese calligraphers

Fujiwara no Toshiyuki


Henry Lewis Solter (November 19, 1873 – March 2, 1920) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter and director.

Career

Solter began his career as an actor in 1908 with Biograph Studios. That same year he met actress Florence Lawrence while making the film Romeo and Juliet for Vitagraph Studios and married on August 30 of that year. In 1909, Solter began working for Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures Co. of America (IMP) as an actor but also as a director. Over the next nine years, he directed 148 silent films.

In 1912, Harry Solter and his wife established the Victor Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1913, they sold out to Carl Laemmle whose amalgamation of several studios created the colossal Universal Film Manufacturing Co. Solter continued to direct for the new company until 1918 when health problems emerged. With this new prosperity, Florence was able to realize a 'lifelong dream,' buying a  estate in River Vale, New Jersey.

Death
Solter died of a stroke on March 2, 1920, at the age of 46. He is interred in the Baltimore Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Selected filmography

References

External links

1873 births
1920 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male screenwriters
American male silent film actors
Film directors from Maryland
Male actors from Baltimore
People from River Vale, New Jersey
Film directors from New Jersey
Screenwriters from New Jersey
Screenwriters from Maryland
Silent film screenwriters
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters

Harry Solter


Robert Baldwin Sullivan,  (May 24, 1802 – April 14, 1853), was an Irish-Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician who became the second Mayor of Toronto, Upper Canada.

Career
In 1835, he was elected to Toronto City Council of the year-old city of Toronto and was chosen to be mayor. He added a business-like atmosphere to council with the official 'robes of office'. The Council worked on matters like tax rates, grants and the removal of 'filth and nuisances from the city streets'. On May 6, 1835, Council's Committee on draining and paving approved construction of the city's first main sewer on King Street into which all drains and sewers were to be connected.

In 1836, actions by new Lieutenant Governor Francis Bond Head triggered the resignation of the members of the Executive Council for the province. Sullivan accepted an appointment to the council. In the same year, he became the commissioner of crown lands. In 1839, he was appointed surveyor general of the province and became a member of the Legislative Council. Although criticized by many as a turncoat, he was an able administrator.

He supported the union of Upper and Lower Canada and was appointed to the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada. He served briefly as the first Commissioner of Crown Lands for the united province February 10, 1841 – June 30, 1841.

In 1848, he was appointed to the Queen's Bench. Judge Sullivan died April 14, 1853, in Toronto. He was buried on the Baldwin family estate, now the grounds of Spadina House in Toronto.

Family

Baldwin was born in Bandon, County Cork in Ireland in 1802 and came to York, Upper Canada with his family in 1819. He studied law and was called to the bar in 1828. He moved to Vittoria, then the district town of the London District, and married in 1829, but returned to York after his wife's death in 1830.

Sullivan remarried in 1833, marrying Emily Louisa Delatre, daughter of Lieut.-Col. Philip Delatre, 1st Ceylon Regiment, and his second wife, Amey Scolding December 24, 1833. Emily Louisa was born in Ceylon.  The couple had four sons and five daughters.

Emily Louisa remarried June 14, 1875, as the second wife of the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, C.B., K.C.M.G., formerly Premier of the Province of Canada and, subsequently, Governor of the Windward Islands and of British Guiana. Lady Hincks died in Montreal May 14, 1880, aged 64. Sir Francis Hincks died in Montreal, August 18, 1885.

References

Russell, Victor Loring, Mayors of Toronto, Volume 1, 1834–1899, Boston Mills Press, 1982

1802 births
1853 deaths
Lawyers in Ontario
Judges in Ontario
Mayors of Toronto
Members of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada
Members of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada
Politicians from County Cork
Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario
Treasurers of the Law Society of Upper Canada
Canadian King's Counsel
Immigrants to Upper Canada
19th-century Canadian judges
People from Bandon, County Cork

Robert Baldwin Sullivan


Athina Rachel Tsangari (, ; born 2 April 1966) is a Greek filmmaker. Some of her most notable works include her feature films, The Slow Business of Going (2000), Attenberg (2010) and Chevalier (2015) as well as the co-production of Yorgos Lanthimos' films Kinetta (2005), Dogtooth (2009), and Alps (2011). In her versatile work for cinema, she has also founded and been director of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival. In 2014-2015, she was invited to Harvard University's Visual and Environmental Studies department as a visiting lecturer on art, film, and visual studies.

Life and career
Tsangari was born in Athens, Greece. She holds a university degree from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and two post-graduate diplomas: an MA in performance studies from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and an MFA in film directing from the University of Texas at Austin.

Her first experience working in film was with a small role in Richard Linklater's 1991 film Slacker. Since then, Tsangari has assumed multiple roles within the film industry.

Film director
Her debut short film, Fit (1994), was created for her NYU studies and was shortlisted for the Annual Student Academy Awards.

For her MFA thesis, she created her first feature-length film, The Slow Business of Going (2000), a lo-fi/sci-fi road movie, shot in multiple formats (8mm, 16mm, mini-DV and 35 stills) in hotel rooms of nine cities around the world and then transferred the final cut of the film to 35mm. The film premiered at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2000 and won best film at the New York Underground Film Festival in 2002. The film was described by Domitila Bedel in Senses of Cinema as "a permanent erection for the eye". The 2002 Village Voice Critics Poll listed it as one of the year's "best first films" and it now belongs to MoMA's permanent film collection.

Her second feature-length film, Attenberg (2010), premiered in the main competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actress for its protagonist, Ariane Labed. The film was Greece's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Her short film The Capsule (2012), commissioned by the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, was screened at the Locarno, Toronto and Sundance film festivals to critical acclaim.

In 2013, she was one of seventy directors invited by the Venice Film Festival to participate in the project Venezia 70 - Future Reloaded, for which she made the short science fiction film 24 Frames Per Century (2013).

In 2013, she also created a fundraising film for the Benaki Museum, the pioneering museum of Greek heritage, narrated by Willem Dafoe.

In 2015, her third feature-length film Chevalier (2015) was released  — a buddy comedy set on a yacht in the Aegean Sea — premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. It won the Best Film prize in official competition at the BFI-London Film Festival 2015. It also received a Best Actor prize for its all-male ensemble cast, and a Jury Special Mention for directing, from the Sarajevo IFF. It had its North American premiere at the Toronto IFF, followed by the New York Film Festival to critical acclaim. The film was Greece's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.[14]

Tsangari's next directorial project will be a film adaptation of Jim Crace's novel Harvest with an estimated release date of 2024.

TV director
Tsangari directed two episodes of the Canal+/ ZDF/ Netflix historical drama series Borgia.

Her most recent TV work includes the film direction of the BBC Two TV series, Trigonometry. The TV series premiered at the "Berlinale Series" section of Berlinale in 2020.

Film producer
In 2005, Tsangari founded Haos Film, a production and post-production studio based in Athens. Her producing credits include three films directed by Yorgos Lanthimos: Kinetta (2005), Dogtooth (2009), as an associate producer, and Alps (2011). She is a co-producer on Richard Linklater's Before Midnight (the third installment of the "Before Sunrise" series, shot in Messenia, Greece), where she also appeared in the role of Ariadni.

Tsangari's film project Duncharon was awarded the ARTE France Cinéma Award for best project at the International Film Festival Rotterdam CineMart 2012.

Film festival work
In 1995, Tsangari founded and became the artistic director of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, a film festival for experimental work which ran until 2006.

She also served as a creative advisor at the Sundance Feature Film Program Directing Lab and at the Sundance Istanbul and Jordan screenwriter labs.

In 2013, she was a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2017 she was on the World Dramatic Jury at the Sundance Film Festival and on the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

Projection designer
Tsangari served as the projection designer and video director on the creative team headed by Dimitris Papaioannou that designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

She also designed the stage projections for the dance theatre work "2" by Dimitris Papaioannou in 2007.

In 2008, she designed the video displays and projections for "A Greek Ceremony" - the Beijing Capital Museum Exhibit on the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

In 2009, she created "Reflections", a series of large-scale projections commissioned for the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Filmography

Feature films
Director
The Slow Business of Going (2000)
Attenberg (2010)
Chevalier (2015)

Screenwriter
Attenberg (2010)
Chevalier (2015), co-written with Efthymis Filippou

Producer
The Slow Business of Going (2000)
Kinetta (2005), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Palestine Blues (2006), directed by Nida Sinnokrot
Dogtooth (2007), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, associate producer
Lovers of Hate (2010), directed by Bryan Poyser, executive producer
Attenberg (2010)
Alps (2011), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Pearblossom Hwy (2012), directed by Mike Ott
 Before Midnight (2013), directed by Richard Linklater, co-producer
 Lake Los Angeles (2014), directed by Mike Ott, executive producer
 Petting Zoo (2015), directed by Micah Magee, co-producer
 Fireflies (2018), directed by Bani Khoshnoudi, co-producer

Actor
 Slacker as Cousin from Greece (credited as Rachel Reinhardt)
 Before Midnight as Ariadni

Shorts
On Infection (1993), writer, director
Fit (1994), writer, director, editor
Fit #2 (1995), writer, director
Plant #1 (1996), writer, director
Anticipation™ (1996), co-directed with Nida Sinnokrot and Kenny Strickland
Pleasureland (2001), executive producer
The Wind Squeezes Glass Leaves (2002), animation, director
Funky Beep (2007), music video for K.Bhta, director
Marina № 5 / 20:04–21:10 UTC+8 / 31° 10' N 121° 28' E (2008), director
 The Capsule (2012), co-writer, director
 24 Frames per Century (2013) (segment of Venice 70 - Future Reloaded), co-writer, director
 The Benaki Museum (2013), narrated by Willem Dafoe, director, writer
 Sandy Beach (2016), producer
 After Before (2016), documentary short, director, producer

Television
Borgia (TV series), director
 Trigonometry (BBC Two series), director

Projection design
Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (2004), projection designer and video director
2 (2007), stage projection designer
A Greek Ceremony - Beijing Capital Museum Exhibit (2008), projection designer and video director
Reflections - Opening Ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum (2009), concept, director, projection designer

References

External links
Official Haos Film website
Official Attenberg website

1966 births
Living people
Female music video directors
Greek women film directors
Greek music video directors
Greek women screenwriters
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Moody College of Communication alumni
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki alumni
Film people from Athens

Athina Rachel Tsangari


USRC Commodore Barry was a vessel that the US Revenue Cutter Service bought in 1812, before the outbreak of the War of 1812. The British captured her in August of the same year. She served briefly in November as a privateer out of Saint John, New Brunswick under the name Brunswicker before being laid up that same month. She was sold in 1815.

Commodore Barry
The US government bought this schooner on 20 March 1812 for US $4100 from Stephen Mitchell of Sag Harbor, New York. On 31 April Daniel Elliot of East Machias, Maine, received a commission as a revenue cutter master, and brought the vessel back to eastern Maine. The schooner was stationed at Eastport, on Passamaquoddy Bay under the control of the local customs collector, Lemuel Trescott, and engaged in anti-smuggling operations.

Capture
 and  captured Commodore Barry on 3 August in the Little River, Bay of Fundy, together with three privateer schooners, Madison, Olive, and Spence (or Spruce). Each of the schooners was armed with two guns. Before the British captured the vessels many men from their crews escaped to batteries they had erected on shore and armed with guns from their vessels. The Americans resisted, inflicting some casualties, and then fled. Still, the British captured some men on Commodore Barry who remained prisoners of war until paroled in June 1813. The crew of Spartan received prize money for Commodore Barry in July 1820.

Brunswicker
In November, the provincial authorities in Saint John, New Brunswick bought the Commodore Barry for protection against American privateers. By this point the vessel was re-rigged as a sloop, but it is unclear when this happened.  On 19 November she sailed on a cruise with the 4-gun schooner . Together, they chased four American privateers from Passamaquoddy Bay. For this cruise Brunswickers crew consisted of 20 volunteers from Saint John. The province laid the sloop up on 24 November, but sailed her again in the spring of 1813.  Apparently the vessel had been very expensive to operate and with the Royal Navy asserting its dominance in the region by 1813, her services were no longer required.

Fate
The authorities in Saint John auctioned off Brunswicker on 4 July 1815, for £730. She had been in custody for 770 days.

Notes

Citations

References
 Smith, Joshua M. (2011) Battle for the Bay: The Naval War of 1812 (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions).
 Snider, G.H.J. (1928) Under the Red Jack: Privateers of the Maritime Provinces of Canada in the War of 1812. (London:Martin Hopkinson & Co.).
 U.S. Coast Guard History Program: War of 1812 Revenue Cutters & Masters.
 Wells, William R., II (1998) "US Revenue Cutters Captured in the War of 1812". The American Neptune Vol. 58, No. 3 (Summer), pp. 225–41.

Ships of the United States Coast Guard
Ships of the United States Revenue Cutter Service
Brunswicker
Maritime history of Canada
Ships built in New Brunswick
Privateer ships
Sailing ships of Canada

USRC Commodore Barry


Drone can mean:

In nature:
 Drone (bee), a male bee
 A male wasp
 A male ant

In vehicles:
 A unmanned aerial vehicle, often used for target practice or surveillance
 A remotely operated vehicle (ROV), used for mine clearing or underwater exploration
 An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), a robotic land vehicle often used to replace humans in hazardous situations

In fiction:
 Drone (2017 film)
 A member of the Drones Club in P. G. Wodehouse's novels
 A humanoid that has been assimilated by the Borg in the fictional Star Trek universe
 "Drone" (Voyager episode), an episode of Star Trek: Voyager
 Drone Weapon, similar to a guided missile, in the Stargate universe
 Three robotic helpers in the movie Silent Running, named Huey, Dewey and Louie
 In the novel The Traveller, the term drones describes a class of citizens that have become exhausted
 Detective Drone, the hero of Victorian crime stories
 A Zerg worker unit in Starcraft

In music:
 Drone (music), a continuous note or chord
 The part of various musical instruments (such as the bagpipe) that produce the drone sound
 A bumbass, a folk instrument sometimes called a drone
 Drone music, a music style or genre related to background music and ambient music
 Drone Records, a record label
 "Drones," a song by Rise Against
 The Drones, a rock group from Melbourne, Australia

Drone


Postal codes in the People's Republic of China () are postal codes used by China Post for the delivery of letters and goods within mainland China.

China Post uses a six-digit all-numerical system with four tiers: the first tier, composed of the first two digits, show the province, province-equivalent municipality, or autonomous region; the second tier, composed of the third digit, shows the postal zone within the province, municipality or autonomous region; the fourth digit serves as the third tier, which shows the postal office within prefectures or prefecture-level cities; the last two digits are the fourth tier, which indicates the specific mailing area for delivery.

The range 000000–009999 was originally marked for Taiwan (The Republic of China) but is not used because it not under the control of the People's Republic of China. Mail to ROC is treated as international mail, and uses postal codes set forth by Chunghwa Post.

Codes starting from 999 are the internal codes used by China Post for handling international (including the SARs and Taiwan) mails, and are not used by the general public.

External links
 China Post - Postcode query
 Name Address Database of China Post
 Hong Kong postal addressing
 China Postal Code

Postal system of China
China
Postal codes

Postal codes in China


Mex Urtizberea (born October 25, 1960, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine musician, actor, writer, conductor and comedian.

In 1980, Mex formed a group called MIA (Músicos Independientes Asociados), along with Lito Vitale. Then in 1988, he made his first album with his band La Sonora del Plata. Then in 1994, along with Alfredo Casero and Lito Vitale, recorded Gestando a la Halibour.

External links
 Official Home Page

References

1960 births
Argentine male actors
Argentine male writers
Argentine comedians
Living people

Mex Urtizberea


In plant morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles, and in general spinose structures (sometimes called spinose teeth or spinose apical processes), are hard, rigid extensions or modifications of leaves, roots, stems, or buds with sharp, stiff ends, and generally serve the same function: physically defending plants against herbivory.

Description
In common language, the terms are used more or less interchangeably, but in botanical terms, thorns are derived shoots (so that they may or may not be branched, they may or may not have leaves, and they may or may not arise from a bud), spines are derived from leaves (either the entire leaf or some part of the leaf that has vascular bundles inside, like the petiole or a stipule), and prickles are derived from epidermis tissue (so that they can be found anywhere on the plant and do not have vascular bundles inside).

Leaf margins may also have teeth, and if those teeth are sharp, they are called spinose teeth on a spinose leaf margin (some authors consider them a kind of spine). On a leaf apex, if there is an apical process (generally an extension of the midvein), and if it is especially sharp, stiff, and spine-like, it may be referred to as spinose or as a pungent apical process (again, some authors call them a kind of spine). When the leaf epidermis is covered with very long, stiff trichomes (more correctly called bristles in this case; for some authors a kind of prickle), it may be referred to as a hispid vestiture; if the trichomes are stinging trichomes, it may be called a urent vestiture.

There can be found also spines or spinose structures derived from roots.

Function
The predominant function of thorns, spines, and prickles is deterring herbivory in a mechanical form. For this reason, they are classified as physical or mechanical defenses, as opposed to chemical defenses.

Not all functions of spines or glochids are limited to defense from physical attacks by herbivores and other animals. In some cases, spines have been shown to shade or insulate the plants that grow them, thereby protecting them from extreme temperatures. For example, saguaro cactus spines shade the apical meristem in summer, and in members of the Opuntioideae, glochids insulate the apical meristem in winter.

Agrawal et al. (2000) found that spines seem to have little effect on specialist pollinators, on which many plants rely in order to reproduce.

Definitions and technical distinctions
Pointing or spinose processes can broadly be divided by the presence of vascular tissue: thorns and spines are derived from shoots and leaves respectively, and have vascular bundles inside, whereas prickles (like rose prickles) do not have vascular bundles inside, so that they can be removed more easily and cleanly than thorns and spines.

Thorns
Thorns are modified branches or stems. They may be simple or branched.

Spines
Spines are modified leaves, stipules, or parts of leaves, such as extensions of leaf veins. Some authors prefer not to distinguish spines from thorns because, like thorns, and unlike prickles, they commonly contain vascular tissue.

Spines are variously described as petiolar spines (as in Fouquieria), leaflet spines (as in Phoenix), or stipular spines (as in Euphorbia), all of which are examples of spines developing from a part of a leaf containing the petiole, midrib, or a secondary vein. The plants of the cactus family are particularly well known for their dense covering of spines. Some cacti have also glochids (or glochidia, singular glochidium) – a particular kind of spine of different origin, which are smaller and deciduous with numerous retrose barbs along its length (as found in areoles of Opuntia).

Prickles
Prickles are comparable to hairs but can be quite coarse (for example, rose prickles). They are extensions of the cortex and epidermis. Technically speaking, many plants commonly thought of as having thorns or spines actually have prickles. Roses, for instance, have prickles. While the position of thorns and spines are known positively to be controlled by phyllotaxis, the positioning of prickles appears to be truly random. If not, then by a phyllotaxis so arcane as to give the appearance of randomness.

Other structures
Other similar structures are spinose teeth, spinose apical processes, and trichomes. Trichomes, in particular, are distinct from thorns, spines, and prickles in that they are much smaller (often microscopic) outgrowths of epidermal tissue, and they are less rigid and more hair-like in appearance; they typically consist of just a few cells of the outermost layer of epidermis, whereas prickles may include cortex tissue. Trichomes are often effective defenses against small insect herbivores; thorns, spines, and prickles are usually only effective against larger herbivores like birds and mammals.

Spinescent is a term describing plants that bear any sharp structures that deter herbivory. It also can refer to the state of tending to be or become spiny in some sense or degree, as in: "... the division of the African acacias on the basis of spinescent stipules versus non-spinescent stipules..."

There are also spines derived from roots, like the ones on the trunk of the "Root Spine Palms" (Cryosophila spp.). The trunk roots of Cryosophila guagara grow downwards to a length of 6–12 cm, then stop growing and transform into a spine. The anatomy of crown roots on this species (roots among the bases of the living fronds) also alters during their life. They initially grow upwards and then turn down and finally they, too, become spinous. Lateral roots on these two types of roots, as well as those on the stilt roots on this species, also become spinous. Some authors believe that some of these short spiny laterals have a ventilating function so they are 'pneumorhizae'. Short spiny laterals that may have a ventilating function may also be found on roots of Iriartea exorrhiza.

There are also spines that function as pneumorhizae on the palm Euterpe oleracea. In Cryosophila nana (formerly Acanthorhiza aculeata) there are spine roots or root spines, some authors may prefer "root spines" if the length of the root is less than 10x the thickness, and "spine roots" if the length is more than 10x the thickness. Adventitious spiny roots have also been described on the trunks of dicotyledonous trees from tropical Africa (e.g. Euphorbiaceae, as in Macaranga barteri, Bridelia micrantha and B. pubescens; Ixonanthaceae, Sterculiaceae), and may also be found protecting perennating organs such as tubers and corms (e.g. Dioscorea prehensilis -Dioscoreaceae- and Moraea spp. -Iridaceae- respectively). Short root spines cover the tuberous base of the epiphytic ant-plant Myrmecodia tuberosa (Rubiaceae), these probably give protection to ants which inhabit chambers within the tuber as they wander over the plant's surface. (Jackson 1986 and references therein). In many respects, the pattern of spine formation is similar to that which occurs in the development of thorns from lateral shoots. (Jackson 1986 and references therein).

Evolution
It has been proposed that thorny structures may have first evolved as a defense mechanism in plants growing in sandy environments that provided inadequate resources for fast regeneration of damage.

Morphological variation
Spinose structures occur in a wide variety of ecologies, and their morphology also varies greatly. They occur as:
 sharpened branches (e.g. in Carissa, Citrus, Crataegus),
 spiky inflorescences (Tylecodon),
 a tiny point at the tip of the leaf (mucronate leaves) (Sansevieria),
 leaves fully converted to spines (Opuntia),
 stipules converted to spines (many Vachellia),
 prickles on stems (Rosa, Erythrina and Ceiba speciosa),
 urticating (i.e. stinging) hairs,
 bristles, and
 finely barbed spines called glochids.

Some thorns are hollow and act as myrmecodomatia; others (e.g. in Crataegus monogyna) bear leaves. The thorns of many species are branched (e.g. in Crataegus crus-galli and Carissa macrocarpa).

Human uses
Plants bearing thorns, spines, or prickles are often used as a defense against burglary, being strategically planted below windows or around the entire perimeter of a property. They also have been used to protect crops and livestock against marauding animals. Examples include hawthorn hedges in Europe, agaves in the Americas and in other countries where they have been introduced, Osage orange in the prairie states of the US, and Sansevieria in Africa.

See also
Areole
Glochid
Trichome
Plant defense against herbivory

References

Bibliography

 Simpson, M. G. 2010. "Plant Morphology". In: Plant Systematics, 2nd. edition. Elsevier Academic Press. Chapter 9.
 Judd, Campbell, Kellogg, Stevens, Donoghue. 2007. "Structural and Biochemical Characters". In: Plant Systematics, a phylogenetic approach, third edition. Chapter 4.
Esau, K. 1965. Plant Anatomy, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons. 767 pp.
Llamas, K. A. 2003. Tropical Flowering Plants. Timber Press, Portland. 423 pp.

External links

Plant morphology
Biological defense mechanisms
Hazards of outdoor recreation

Thorns, spines, and prickles


The 8th Empire Awards ceremony (officially known as the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards), presented by the British film magazine Empire, honored the best films of 2002 and took place on 5 February 2003 at The Dorchester Hotel in London, England. During the ceremony, Empire presented Empire Awards in nine categories as well as two honorary awards. The award for Sony Ericsson Scene of the Year was first introduced this year. The Best Debut award was renamed to "Best Newcomer". British actor Richard E. Grant hosted the show for the first time. The awards were sponsored by Sony Ericsson for the first time.

Minority Report won the most awards with three including Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Other winners included 28 Days Later, About a Boy, Die Another Day, Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with one. Dustin Hoffman received the Lifetime Achievement Award and Michael Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton received the Independent Spirit Award for their role in the direction and production of 24 Hour Party People.

Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Multiple awards
The following film received multiple awards:

Multiple nominations
The following 11 films received multiple nominations:

References

External links

Empire Award ceremonies
2002 film awards
2003 in British cinema
2003 in London
February 2003 events in the United Kingdom
2000s in the City of Westminster

8th Empire Awards


Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Baronet,  (9 June 178321 October 1862) was an English physiologist and surgeon who pioneered research into bone and joint disease.

Biography

Brodie was born in Winterslow, Wiltshire.  He received his early education from his father, the Rev Peter Bellinger Brodie; then choosing medicine as his profession he went to London in 1801 and attended the lectures of John Abernethy and attended Charterhouse School.  Two years later he became a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St George's Hospital, and in 1808 was appointed assistant surgeon at that institution, on the staff of which he served for over thirty years. In 1810 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, to which in the next four or five years he contributed several papers describing original investigations in physiology. In 1834, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

At this period he also rapidly obtained a large and lucrative practice and from time to time wrote on surgical questions, contributing numerous papers to the Medical and Chirurgical Society and to the medical journals.  His most important work is widely acknowledged to be the 1818 treatise Pathological and Surgical Observations on the Diseases of the Joints, in which he attempts to trace the beginnings of disease in the different tissues that form a joint and to give an exact value to the symptom of pain as evidence of organic disease.  This volume led to the adoption by surgeons of more conservative measures in the treatment of diseases of the joints, with consequent reduction in the number of amputations and the saving of many limbs and lives. He also wrote on diseases of the urinary organs and on local nervous affections of a surgical character.

In 1854 he published anonymously a volume of Psychological Inquiries "... to illustrate ... the Mental Faculties" — by the third edition of 1856, it bore his name.  Eight years later, in 1862, a "Second Part" on " ... the Physical and Moral History of Man" appeared.  He received many honours during his career and attended to the health of the Royal Family, starting with George IV.  He was also sergeant-surgeon to William IV and Queen Victoria and was made a baronet in 1834.  He became a corresponding member of the French Institute in 1844, Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and DCL of Oxford in 1855, president of the Royal Society in 1858 and subsequently, the first president of the General Medical Council.

In 1858 Henry Gray dedicated his work Gray's Anatomy to Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie.

Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie died of a shoulder tumour in Broome Park, Surrey at the age of 79. His collected works, with autobiography, were published in 1865 under the editorship of Charles Hawkins. (Timothy Holmes wrote a 255-page biography Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1898).)

In 1816 Brodie had married Anne Sellon, daughter of an eminent lawyer and they had several children of whom three survived into maturity. His eldest son was the Oxford chemist Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet.

See also
 List of presidents of the Royal Society

References

Bibliography

1783 births
1862 deaths
Nobility from Wiltshire
British surgeons
English surgeons
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Society
Recipients of the Copley Medal
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Benjamin
18th-century English medical doctors
19th-century English medical doctors
People educated at Charterhouse School
British physiologists
Chairs of the General Medical Council


Alexander III (; 1609 – 1 March 1660), was a Georgian monarch of the Bagrationi dynasty, who reigned as king of Imereti from 1639 to 1660.

Reign

Alexander succeeded upon the death of his father, George III of Imereti, in 1639. Most of his reign was spent in the struggle against the powerful prince of Mingrelia, Levan II Dadiani, who refused to acknowledge the king of Imereti as his overlord, and aspired to displace him from his throne. In one of the battles, Dadiani captured and blinded Alexander's energetic brother Mamuka, bringing the king to the edge of despair. Alexander's father-in-law, Teimuraz I of Kakheti, who had fled the Saffavid Persian invasion of his country to Imereti, attempted to mediate the conflict, but nothing came of this.

Both Mingelian and Imeretian rulers sought Russian support in their cause. Envoys from Moscow visited Mingrelia in 1639/40, though without achieving any positive results. In response to an appeal from Alexander, another embassy arrived in the Imeretian capital of Kutaisi in 1651, and, on October 9, Alexander took an oath of fealty to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich. As the Russian were still too far from South Caucasus, this move had virtually no effect on the course of events, though. It was not until Levan's death in 1657 that Alexander was able to avenge his earlier setbacks. He immediately marched into Mingrelia, subdued its nobles and installed his own nominee, Vameq, as prince-Dadiani. In 1659, he also interfered in the Principality of Guria, and replaced the refractory prince Kaikhosro I with his protégé Demetre Gurieli. Thus, for a short time, the authority of the crown of Imereti was reestablished throughout western Georgia.

Family
Alexander was married twice. His first wife was Tamar, daughter of Mamia II Gurieli, whom Alexander married in 1618 and divorced in 1620. He married secondly, in 1629, Nestan-Darejan, daughter of Teimuraz I of Kakheti. All of his children were born of the first marriage:
 Bagrat V (1620–1681), King of Imereti (1660–1681).
 Prince Klimenti (fl. 1651).
 Princess Tinatin (fl. 1661 – 1680), who was married to the nobleman Lasha-Giorgi Goshadze and then to Levan III Dadiani.

References

 Вахушти Багратиони (Vakhushti Bagrationi) (1745). История Царства Грузинского: Жизнь Имерети.
David Marshall Lang, The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832. New York: Columbia University Press, 1957.

1609 births
1660 deaths
Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Imereti
Kings of Imereti
17th-century people from Georgia (country)
Eastern Orthodox monarchs

Alexander III of Imereti


Neville Hiscock (27 March 1951 – 13 February 1983) was a New Zealand motorcycle racer in the 1970s and 1980s. He raced competitively in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.

Neville Hiscock along with his equally skilled brother Dave Hiscock dominated the competitive racing circuits in New Zealand and Australia and was just starting to make a name for himself internationally when he was killed in South Africa while racing.  He was currently leading the race, when he fell and  suffered severe head injuries. He died soon after never having regained consciousness. Neville was killed in February 1983, at Killarney, near Cape Town.  Shortly after his brother Dave Hiscock retired from competitive racing, and continued to live in South Africa for a number of years.

Neville and his younger brother Dave Hiscock grew up in Stokes Valley, a suburb near Wellington, where they both rode an old BSA Bantam in grass paddocks, and later perfected their skills on the infamous Rimutaka hill climb nearby north of Upper Hutt.
Neville and Dave began racing in 1972 at the Gracefield street circuit in Lower Hutt on Commando 750s. Neville finished in fifth place and Dave finished eighth.

Neville's notable achievements include winning the Australian Castrol Six Hour in 1981 with his team rider D. Petersen riding a Suzuki GSX1100 and completing 314 laps and winning the New Zealand Castrol 6 Hour while teaming up with his brother in 1982 riding a Suzuki GSX1100 Katana. He also came 2nd in the South African 6 Hour Race which prompted Suzuki to offer him full sponsorship for his last season before he died.

References

New Zealand motorcycle racers
1983 deaths
1951 births

Neville Hiscock