The .NET Framework (pronounced as "dot net") is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until being superseded by the cross-platform .NET project. It includes a large class library called Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages. Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a software environment (in contrast to a hardware environment) named the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR is an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling. As such, computer code written using .NET Framework is called "managed code". FCL and CLR together constitute the .NET Framework.

FCL provides the user interface, data access, database connectivity, cryptography, web application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. Programmers produce software by combining their source code with .NET Framework and other libraries. The framework is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform. Microsoft also produces an integrated development environment for .NET software called Visual Studio.

.NET Framework began as proprietary software, although the firm worked to standardize the software stack almost immediately, even before its first release. Despite the standardization efforts, developers, mainly those in the free and open-source software communities, expressed their unease with the selected terms and the prospects of any free and open-source implementation, especially regarding software patents. Since then, Microsoft has changed .NET development to more closely follow a contemporary model of a community-developed software project, including issuing an update to its patent promising to address the concerns.

In April 2019, Microsoft released .NET Framework 4.8, the last version of the framework as a proprietary offering. Only monthly security and reliability bug fixes to that version have been released since then. No further changes to that version are planned.

History

Microsoft began developing .NET Framework in the late 1990s, originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS), as part of the .NET strategy. By early 2000, the first beta versions of .NET 1.0 were released.

In August 2000, Microsoft, and Intel worked to standardize Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and C#. By December 2001, both were ratified Ecma International (ECMA) standards. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) followed in April 2003. The current version of ISO standards are ISO/IEC 23271:2012 and ISO/IEC 23270:2006.

While Microsoft and their partners hold patents for CLI and C#, ECMA and ISO require that all patents essential to implementation be made available under "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms". The firms agreed to meet these terms, and to make the patents available royalty-free. However, this did not apply to the part of the .NET Framework not covered by ECMA-ISO standards, which included Windows Forms, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET. Patents that Microsoft holds in these areas may have deterred non-Microsoft implementations of the full framework.

On October 3, 2007, Microsoft announced that the source code for .NET Framework 3.5 libraries was to become available under the Microsoft Reference Source License (Ms-RSL). The source code repository became available online on January 16, 2008, and included BCL, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Windows Forms, WPF, and XML. Scott Guthrie of Microsoft promised that LINQ, WCF, and WF libraries were being added.

The .NET Compact Framework and .NET Micro Framework variants of the .NET Framework provided support for other Microsoft platforms such as Windows Mobile, Windows CE and other resource-constrained embedded devices. Silverlight provided support for web browsers via plug-ins.

In November 2014, Microsoft also produced an update to its patent grants, which further extends the scope beyond its prior pledges. Prior projects like Mono existed in a legal grey area because Microsoft's earlier grants applied only to the technology in "covered specifications", including strictly the 4th editions each of ECMA-334 and ECMA-335. The new patent promise, however, places no ceiling on the specification version, and even extends to any .NET runtime technologies documented on MSDN that have not been formally specified by the ECMA group, if a project chooses to implement them. This allows Mono and other projects to maintain feature parity with modern .NET features that have been introduced since the 4th edition was published without being at risk of patent litigation over the implementation of those features. The new grant does maintain the restriction that any implementation must maintain minimum compliance with the mandatory parts of the CLI specification.

On March 31, 2016, Microsoft announced at Microsoft Build that they will completely relicense Mono under an MIT License even in scenarios where formerly a commercial license was needed. Microsoft also supplemented its prior patent promise for Mono, stating that they will not assert any "applicable patents" against parties that are "using, selling, offering for sale, importing, or distributing Mono." It was announced that the Mono Project was contributed to the .NET Foundation. These developments followed the acquisition of Xamarin, which began in February 2016 and was finished on March 18, 2016.

Microsoft's press release highlights that the cross-platform commitment now allows for a fully open-source, modern server-side .NET stack. Microsoft released the source code for WPF, Windows Forms and WinUI on December 4, 2018.

Architecture

Common Language Infrastructure

Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) provides a language-neutral platform for application development and execution. By implementing the core aspects of .NET Framework within the scope of CLI, these functions will not be tied to one language but will be available across the many languages supported by the framework.

Common Language Runtime

.NET Framework includes the Common Language Runtime (CLR). It serves as the execution engine of .NET Framework and offers many services such as memory management, type safety, exception handling, garbage collection, security and thread management. All programs written for .NET Framework are executed by the CLR.

Programs written for .NET Framework are compiled into Common Intermediate Language code (CIL), as opposed to being directly compiled into machine code. During execution, an architecture-specific just-in-time compiler (JIT) turns the CIL code into machine code.

Assemblies
Compiled CIL code is stored in CLI assemblies. As mandated by the specification, assemblies are stored in Portable Executable (PE) file format, common on Windows platform for all dynamic-link library (DLL) and executable EXE files. Each assembly consists of one or more files, one of which must contain a manifest bearing the metadata for the assembly. The complete name of an assembly (not to be confused with the file name on disk) contains its simple text name, version number, culture, and public key token. Assemblies are considered equivalent if they share the same complete name.

A private key can also be used by the creator of the assembly for strong naming. The public key token determines the real-world identity of the assembly's signer. Only who knows their private key (of the double-key cryptography system) can sign assemblies that have the same strong name as a prior version assembly. Strong naming is required to add assemblies to Global Assembly Cache.

Starting with Visual Studio 2015, .NET Native compilation technology allows for the compilation of .NET code of Universal Windows Platform apps directly to machine code rather than CIL code, but the app must be written in either C# or Visual Basic.NET.

Class library

.NET Framework includes an implementation of the CLI foundational Standard Libraries. The .NET Framework Class Library (FCL) is organized in a hierarchy of namespaces. Most of the built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) are part of either System.* or Microsoft.* namespaces. These class libraries implement many common functions, such as file reading and writing, graphic rendering, database interaction, and XML document manipulation. The class libraries are available for all CLI compliant languages. The FCL implements the CLI Base Class Library (BCL) and other class libraries—some are specified by CLI and other are Microsoft specific.

BCL includes a small subset of the entire class library and is the core set of classes that serve as the basic API of CLR. For .NET Framework most classes considered being part of BCL reside in mscorlib.dll, System.dll and System.Core.dll. BCL classes are available in .NET Framework as well as in CLI's alternative implementations including .NET Compact Framework, Microsoft Silverlight, .NET Core and Mono.

FCL refers to the entire class library that ships with .NET Framework. It includes BCL, an expanded set of libraries, including Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and also extensions to the base class libraries ADO.NET, Language Integrated Query (LINQ), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Workflow Foundation (WF). FCL is much larger in scope than standard libraries for languages like C++, and comparable in scope to standard libraries of Java.

With the introduction of alternative CLI's implementations (e.g., Silverlight), Microsoft introduced the concept of Portable Class Libraries (PCL) allowing a consuming library to run on more than one implementation. With the further proliferation of implementations, the PCL approach failed to scale (PCLs are defined intersections of API surface between two or more implementations). As the next evolutionary step of PCL, the .NET Standard Library was created retroactively based on the System.Runtime.dll based APIs found in UWP and Silverlight. New CLI's implementations are encouraged to implement a version of the Standard Library allowing them to run existent third-party libraries with no need of creating new versions of them. The .NET Standard Library allows an independent evolution of the library and app model layers within the .NET architecture.

NuGet is the package manager for all .NET platforms. It is used to retrieve third-party libraries into a .NET project with a global library feed at NuGet.org. Private feeds can be maintained separately, e.g., by a build server or a file system directory.

C++/CLI

Microsoft introduced C++/CLI in Visual Studio 2005, which is a language and means of compiling Visual C++ programs to run within the .NET Framework. Some parts of the C++ program still run within an unmanaged Visual C++ Runtime, while specially modified parts are translated into CIL code and run with the .NET Framework's CLR.

Assemblies compiled using the C++/CLI compiler are termed mixed-mode assemblies since they contain native and managed code in the same DLL. Such assemblies are more complex to reverse engineer since .NET decompilers such as .NET Reflector reveal only the managed code.

Design principle

Interoperability
Because computer systems commonly require interaction between newer and older applications, .NET Framework provides means to access functions implemented in newer and older programs that execute outside .NET environment. Access to Component Object Model (COM) components is provided in System.Runtime.InteropServices and System.EnterpriseServices namespaces of the framework. Access to other functions is via Platform Invocation Services (P/Invoke). Access to .NET functions from native applications is via the reverse P/Invoke function.

Language independence
.NET Framework introduces a Common Type System (CTS) that defines all possible data types and programming constructs supported by CLR and how they may or may not interact conforming to CLI specifications. Because of this feature, .NET Framework supports the exchange of types and object instances between libraries and applications written using any conforming CLI language.

Type safety
CTS and the CLR used in .NET Framework also enforce type safety. This prevents ill-defined casts, wrong method invocations, and memory size issues when accessing an object. This also makes most CLI languages statically typed (with or without type inference). However, starting with .NET Framework 4.0, the Dynamic Language Runtime extended the CLR, allowing dynamically typed languages to be implemented atop the CLI.

Portability
While Microsoft has never implemented the full framework on any system except Microsoft Windows, it has engineered the framework to be cross-platform, and implementations are available for other operating systems (see Silverlight and § Alternative implementations). Microsoft submitted the specifications for CLI (which includes the Base Class Libraries, CTS, and CIL), C#, and C++/CLI to both Ecma International (ECMA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO), making them available as official standards. This makes it possible for third parties to create compatible implementations of the framework and its languages on other platforms.

Core cross-plarform .NET (formerly .NET Core) is officially available also for many Linux distributions and MacOS.

Security
.NET Framework has its own security mechanism with two general features: Code Access Security (CAS), and validation and verification. CAS is based on evidence that is associated with a specific assembly. Typically the evidence is the source of the assembly (whether it is installed on the local machine or has been downloaded from the Internet). CAS uses evidence to determine the permissions granted to the code. When calling code demands that it be granted a specific permission, CLR performs a call stack walk checking every assembly of each method in the call stack for the required permission; if any assembly is not granted the permission, it will throw a security exception.

Managed CIL bytecode is easier to reverse-engineer than native code, unless obfuscated.  decompiler programs enable developers with no reverse-engineering skills to view the source code behind unobfuscated .NET assemblies. In contrast, apps compiled to native machine code are much harder to reverse-engineer, and source code is almost never produced successfully, mainly because of compiler optimizations and lack of reflection. This creates concerns in the business community over the possible loss of trade secrets and the bypassing of license control mechanisms. To mitigate this, Microsoft has included Dotfuscator Community Edition with Visual Studio .NET since 2002. Third-party obfuscation tools are also available from vendors such as VMware, V.i. Labs, Turbo, and Red Gate Software. Method-level encryption tools for .NET code are available from vendors such as SafeNet.

Memory management
CLR frees the developer from the burden of managing memory (allocating and freeing up when done); it handles memory management itself by detecting when memory can be safely freed. Instantiations of .NET types (objects) are allocated from the managed heap; a pool of memory managed by CLR. As long as a reference to an object exists, which may be either direct, or via a graph of objects, the object is considered to be in use. When no reference to an object exists, and it cannot be reached or used, it becomes garbage, eligible for collection.

.NET Framework includes a garbage collector (GC) which runs periodically, on a separate thread from the application's thread, that enumerates all the unusable objects and reclaims the memory allocated to them. It is a non-deterministic, compacting, mark-and-sweep garbage collector. GC runs only when a set amount of memory has been used or there is enough pressure for memory on the system. Since it is not guaranteed when the conditions to reclaim memory are reached, GC runs are non-deterministic. Each .NET application has a set of roots, which are pointers to objects on the managed heap (managed objects). These include references to static objects, objects defined as local variables or method parameters currently in scope, and objects referred to by CPU registers. When GC runs, it pauses the application and then, for each object referred to in the root, it recursively enumerates all the objects reachable from the root objects and marks them as reachable. It uses CLI metadata and reflection to discover the objects encapsulated by an object, and then recursively walk them. It then enumerates all the objects on the heap (which were initially allocated contiguously) using reflection. All objects not marked as reachable are garbage. This is the mark phase. Since the memory held by garbage is of no consequence, it is considered free space. However, this leaves chunks of free space between objects which were initially contiguous. The objects are then compacted together to make free space on the managed heap contiguous again. Any reference to an object invalidated by moving the object is updated by GC to reflect the new location. The application is resumed after garbage collection ends. The latest version of .NET framework uses concurrent garbage collection along with user code, making pauses unnoticeable, because it is done in the background.

The garbage collector used by .NET Framework is also generational. Objects are assigned a generation. Newly created objects are tagged Generation 0. Objects that survive one garbage collection are tagged Generation 1. Generation 1 objects that survive another collection are Generation 2. The framework uses up to Generation 2 objects. Higher generation objects are garbage collected less often than lower generation objects. This raises the efficiency of garbage collection, as older objects tend to have longer lifetimes than newer objects. By ignoring older objects in most collection runs, fewer checks and compaction operations are needed in total.

Performance
When an application is first launched, the .NET Framework compiles the CIL code into executable code using its just-in-time compiler, and caches the executable program into the .NET Native Image Cache. Due to caching, the application launches faster for subsequent launches, although the first launch is usually slower. To speed up the first launch, developers may use the Native Image Generator utility to manually ahead-of-time compile and cache any .NET application.

The garbage collector, which is integrated into the environment, can introduce unanticipated delays of execution over which the developer has little direct control. "In large applications, the number of objects that the garbage collector needs to work with can become very large, which means it can take a very long time to visit and rearrange all of them."

.NET Framework provides support for calling Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) via managed code from April 2014 in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2. However, Mono has provided support for SIMD Extensions as of version 2.2 within the  namespace in 2009. Mono's lead developer Miguel de Icaza has expressed hope that this SIMD support will be adopted by CLR's ECMA standard. Streaming SIMD Extensions have been available in x86 CPUs since the introduction of the Pentium III. Some other architectures such as ARM and MIPS also have SIMD extensions. In case the CPU lacks support for those extensions, the instructions are simulated in software.

Alternative implementations
.NET Framework was the predominant implementation of CLI, until the release of .NET. Other implementations for parts of the framework exist. Although the runtime engine is described by an ECMA-ISO specification, other implementations of it may be encumbered by patent issues; ISO standards may include the disclaimer, "Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights." It is harder to develop alternatives to FCL, which is not described by an open standard and may be subject to copyright restrictions. Also, parts of FCL have Windows-specific functions and behavior, so implementation on non-Windows platforms can be problematic.

Some alternative implementations of parts of the framework are listed here.
 .NET Micro Framework is a .NET platform for extremely resource-constrained devices. It includes a small version of CLR and supports development in C# (though some developers were able to use VB.NET, albeit with an amount of hacking, and with limited functionalities) and debugging (in an emulator or on hardware), both using Microsoft Visual Studio. It also features a subset of .NET Framework Class Library (about 70 classes with about 420 methods), a GUI framework loosely based on WPF, and additional libraries specific to embedded applications.
 Mono is an implementation of CLI and FCL, and provides added functions. It is licensed as free software under the MIT License. It includes support for ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and Windows Forms libraries for a wide range of architectures and operating systems. It also includes C# and VB.NET compilers.
 Portable.NET (part of DotGNU) provides an implementation of CLI, parts of FCL, and a C# compiler. It supports a variety of CPUs and operating systems. The project was discontinued, with the last stable release in 2009.
 Microsoft Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure is a non-free implementation of CLR. However, the last version runs on Windows XP SP2 only, and has not been updated since 2006. Thus, it does not contain all features of version 2.0 of .NET Framework.
 CrossNet is an implementation of CLI and parts of FCL. It is free software using an open source MIT License.

Licensing
Microsoft managed code frameworks and their components are licensed as follows:

See also
 Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC), an object-oriented abstraction used to ease Windows-based application programming prior to .NET Framework
 .NET (formerly .NET Core)
 List of CLI languages
 Standard Libraries (CLI), the .NET standard libraries
 Base Class Library (BCL)

Notes

References

External links

 Overview of .NET Framework (MSDN)
 .NET Github repository

.NET Framework implementations
2002 software
Cross-platform software
Microsoft application programming interfaces
Microsoft development tools
Microsoft free software
Windows-only free software

.NET Framework


Axon terminals (also called synaptic boutons, presynaptic terminals, or end-feet) are distal terminations of the branches of an axon. An axon, also called a nerve fiber, is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell that conducts electrical impulses called action potentials away from the neuron's cell body in order to transmit those impulses to other neurons, muscle cells or glands. In the central nervous system, most presynaptic terminals are actually formed along the axons (en-passant boutons), not at their ends (terminal boutons).

Functionally, the axon terminal converts an electrical signal into a chemical signal. When an action potential arrives at an axon terminal (A), neurotransmitter is released and diffuses across the synaptic cleft. If the postsynaptic cell (B) is also a neuron, neurotransmitter receptors generate a small electrical current that changes the postsynaptic potential. If the postsynaptic cell (B) is a muscle cell (neuromuscular junction), it contracts.

Neurotransmitter release
Axon terminals are specialized to release neurotransmitter very rapidly by exocytosis. Neurotransmitter molecules are packaged into synaptic vesicles that cluster beneath the axon terminal membrane on the presynaptic side (A) of a synapse. Some of these vesicles are docked, i.e. connected to the membrane by a number of specialized proteins, the SNARE complex. The incoming action potential activates voltage-gated calcium channels, leading to an influx of calcium ions into the axon terminal. The SNARE complex reacts to these calcium ions and forces the membrane of the vesicle to fuse with the presynaptic membrane, releasing their content into the synaptic cleft within 180 µs of calcium entry. When receptors in the postsynaptic membrane bind this neurotransmitter and open ion channels, information has been transmitted between neuron (A) and neuron (B). To generate an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron, many excitatory synapses must be active at the same time.

Imaging the activity of axon terminals

Historically, calcium-sensitive dyes were the first tool to quantify the calcium influx into synaptic terminals and to investigate the mechanisms of short-term plasticity. The process of exocytosis can be visualized with pH-sensitive fluorescent proteins (Synapto-pHluorin): Before release, vesicles are acidic and the fluorescence is quenched. Upon release, they are neutralized, generating a brief flash of green fluorescence. Another possibility is to construct a genetically encoded sensor that becomes fluorescent when bound to a specific neurotransmitter, e.g. glutamate.  This method is sensitive enough to detect the fusion of a single transmitter vesicle in brain tissue and to measure the release probability at individual synapses.

See also
Calyx of Held, a giant axon terminal in the auditory system
Neuromuscular junction, axon terminal contacting a muscle cell
Endocytosis to recycle vesicles after use
Vesicular monoamine transporter, loading vesicles with neurotransmitter
Optogenetic methods to measure cellular activity

References

Further reading

LTP promotes formation of multiple spine synapses between a single axon terminal and a dendrite.

Neurohistology

Axon terminal


The Butler Greenwood Plantation is a plantation in Louisiana. It is on U.S. Route 61,  to the north of St. Francisville, Louisiana. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

The plantation was created by Dr. Samuel Flower, a Quaker physician who relocated from Pennsylvania during the 1770s when the area was British territory. Later, when Spain gained control (see St. Francisville, Louisiana, history), he gave medical treatment to Governor Manuel Gayoso.

When Dr. Flower died in 1813, the year after Louisiana became a state, his eight heirs would divide thousands of arpents of land in the Felicianas, Rapides Parish, along Bayou Manchac, and in the Mississippi Territory. The family residence bordering Bayou Sara, appraised in the estate division at $12,300, was left to Dr. Flower's 20-year-old married daughter Harriett.

Harriett Flower's husband, Judge George Mathews, was a superior court judge in the Mississippi Territory and then in the Territory of Orleans, appointed by President Thomas Jefferson. He became the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court after statehood. His father, General George Mathews, was an American Revolutionary War hero who survived being bayoneted several times to become a US Congressman, military general, and two-term Governor of Georgia.

Harriett and Judge George Mathews lived at Butler Greenwood and used the forced labor of enslaved people to grow indigo, cotton, sugarcane, and corn, shipping the crops from their own dock on Bayou Sara and extending their landholdings to include a productive sugar plantation in Lafourche Parish that, according to Lewis Gray's figures, placed them among the top-producing 9% of sugar planters in the state in the 1850s. After the death of Judge Mathews in 1836, his widow continued to run the plantations with help from her son Charles Lewis Mathews.

In the census of 1860, both Harriett and her son list their occupations as a planter, their household including Charles' wife Penelope Stewart, their children, an Austrian music teacher, and an Irish gardener, with 96 slaves living in 18 dwellings and their personal estate valued at $260,000 (~$ in ). In that year the  of Butler Greenwood Plantation produced 130 bales of cotton, 2000 bushels of corn, 175 hogsheads of sugar and more than 10,000 gallons of molasses. Their other plantations covered nearly  worked by some 400 slaves and were equally productive in 1860, although after the Civil War the labor force had fallen to a field gang of only 27 freedmen working for monthly wages on the home place.

Today
Now the home of the seventh and eighth generation of the family, author Anne Butler and her daughter Chase Poindexter, Butler Greenwood is a simple, raised cottage-style plantation house filled with oil portraits, Brussels carpet, gilded pier mirrors, Mallard poster beds, fine china and silverware, a French Pleyel grand piano, and the area's finest original Victorian formal parlor, its twelve matching pieces still in their original upholstery. The house is surrounded by formal gardens and extensive groves of live oak trees. The original detached brick kitchen dates from the 1790s, the garden gazebo from the 1850s.

Butler Greenwood Plantation is open for house tours and overnight stays in bed and breakfast cottages on the plantation grounds.

References

External links

 Official Website
 West Feliciana Parish Tourist Commission
 Town of St. Francisville

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana
Houses completed in 1810
Houses in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Plantations in Louisiana
Sugar plantations in Louisiana
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana
Tourist attractions in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Bed and breakfasts in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
1810 establishments in the Territory of Orleans

Butler Greenwood Plantation


Andreas Fleischer (5 November 1878–23 November 1957) was a Norwegian theologian, missionary to China, and Lutheran Bishop. He was born in Hegra, Norway, and was a brother to General Carl Gustav Fleischer. He was Bishop of the Diocese of Bjørgvin from 1932 to 1949.  He wrote several books during his lifetime, including some in Chinese.

Early life
Andreas Fleischer was born in the village of Hegra in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway on 5 November 1878.  His father was a pastor, Carl Edvard Fleischer and his mother was Johanne Sophie Fergstad.  He went to school in Trondheim, graduating in 1896. He then went to the University of Oslo and received his Cand.theol. degree in 1902.

Career
Fleischer's first job was as a priest in Trondheim in 1903.  This position was not long lasting.  In 1904, Fleischer moved to China to become a missionary in Hunan province.  While in China in 1908, he married Petra Amalie Margreta Ulsaker, the daughter of another Norwegian minister.  He worked there until 1912, shortly after the Xinhai Revolution in China.  After returning to Norway, he worked in several parishes as a priest.  In Fitjar Church from 1912-1917, Stord Church from 1917-1922, and the parish of Brunlanes from 1922-1932. In 1932, he was appointed as Bishop for the Diocese of Bjørgvin.  After retiring in 1948, he traveled the country as a speaker for the Norwegian Missionary Society, speaking about missions and his history as a missionary in China.  He died in the village of Vikedal in Rogaland county on 23 November 1957.

References

1878 births
1957 deaths
People from Stjørdal
Bishops of Bjørgvin
Norwegian expatriates in China
Norwegian Lutheran missionaries
Lutheran missionaries in China

Andreas Fleischer


Jacques Poulin (born 23 September 1937 in Saint-Gédéon, Quebec) is a Canadian novelist with a quiet and intimate style of writing.
Poulin studied psychology and arts at the Université Laval in Quebec City; he started his career as commercial translator and later became a college guidance counselor. Only after the success of his second novel, Jimmy (1969), was he able to devote himself completely to his writing. Poulin has written fourteen novels, many of which have been translated into English by Sheila Fischman, and published by Cormorant Books.

Poulin lived in Paris for 15 years, but now lives in Quebec City.

Poulin's Volkswagen Blues was selected as a candidate in the CBC's 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by Roch Carrier, author and former National Librarian of Canada.

Awards and recognition
Winner of the Governor General's Award in 1978 for Les grandes marées.
Nominated for the Governor General's Award in 1984 for Volkswagen Blues.
Nominated for the Governor General's Award in 1989, winner of the Prix Québec-Paris in 1989, the Prix Molson from the Académie des lettres du Québec in 1990 and the Prix France-Québec in 1991 for Le Vieux Chagrin.
Winner of the Quebec government's Prix Athanase-David in 1995
Winner of the Molson Prize from the Canada Council in 2000
Winner of the Gilles-Corbeil Prize (Le Nobel québécois) in 2008

Bibliography
The "Jimmy" Trilogy:
Mon cheval pour un royaume — 1967 (Translated as My Horse for a Kingdom)
Jimmy — 1969 (Translated as Jimmy)
Le cœur de la baleine bleue — 1970 (Translated as The Heart of the Blue Whale)
Faites de beaux rêves — 1974 (Not yet translated)
Les grandes marées — 1978 (Spring Tides, translated by Sheila Fischman, (Archipelago Books), 2007)
Volkswagen Blues — 1984 (Translated as Volkswagen Blues)
Le Vieux Chagrin — 1989 (Translated as Mr. Blue)
La tournée d'automne — 1993 (Autumn Rounds by Sheila Fischman, (Archipelago Books), 2021)
Chat sauvage — 1998 (Translated as Wild Cat)
Les yeux bleus de Mistassini — 2002 (Translated as My Sister's Blue Eyes)
La traduction est une histoire d'amour — 2006 (Translation is a Love Affair, translated by Sheila Fischman (Archipelago Books), 2009)
L'anglais n'est pas une langue magique — 2009 ("English is Not a Magic Language", translated by Sheila Fischman (Esplanade Books, the fiction series at Véhicule Press), 2016)
L'homme de la Saskatchewan — 2011 (Not yet translated)
Un jukebox dans la tête — 2015 (Not yet translated)

See also
List of French-Canadian writers

External links
Prix Athanase-David 1995 announcement
Author page on Canada Reads 2005
Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)
Jacques Poulin entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
Archives of Jacques Poulin (Fonds Jacques Poulin, R11789) are held at Library and Archives Canada

1937 births
Living people
Canadian male novelists
Writers from Quebec
Governor General's Award-winning fiction writers
Université Laval alumni
Prix Athanase-David winners
20th-century Canadian novelists
21st-century Canadian novelists
Canadian novelists in French
20th-century Canadian male writers
21st-century Canadian male writers

Jacques Poulin


The  is the 16th edition of the Japan Film Professional Awards. It awarded the best of 2006 in film. The ceremony did not take place in this year.

Awards
Best Film: Yokohama Mary
Best Director: Miwa Nishikawa (Sway)
Best Actress: Miki Nakatani (Memories of Matsuko, Loft)
Best Actor: Etsushi Toyokawa (Yawarakai Seikatsu, Loft, Hula Girls)
Best New Director: Takayuki Nakamura (Yokohama Mary)
Special: Ryūichi Hiroki (Yawarakai Seikatsu, Koi Suru Nichiyōbi)
Special: Akio Jissoji (For Silver Kamen and his longtime work.)
Popularity: Kaori Momoi (For strenuous efforts for her directorial debut film.)

10 best films
 Yokohama Mary (Takayuki Nakamura)
 Sway (Miwa Nishikawa)
 Yawarakai Seikatsu (Ryūichi Hiroki)
 Kamome Shokudo (Naoko Ogigami)
 Strawberry Shortcakes (Hitoshi Yazaki)
 Memories of Matsuko (Tetsuya Nakashima)
 Kamyu Nante Shiranai (Mitsuo Yanagimachi)
 Loft (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
 Noriko's Dinner Table (Sion Sono)
 Mamiya kyodai (Yoshimitsu Morita)

References

External links

Japan Film Professional Awards
2007 in Japanese cinema
Japan Film Professional Awards

16th Japan Film Professional Awards


The Appalachian Mountains (French: les Appalaches) are a large group of North American mountains. They are partly in Canada, but mostly in the United States. It stretches  southwestward to Central Alabama in the United States  to the Island of Newfoundland in Canada to central Alabama in the United States.

The individual mountains average around 3,000 ft (900 m) in height. The highest is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina (6,684 ft or 2,037m). Mt. Mitchell is also the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River as well as the highest point in eastern North America.

The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east–west travel. Ridgelines and valleys run north–south and travelers must climb them again and again. Only a few mountain passes run east–west. The Erie Canal was built through one of them. In most places the Appalachians are the watershed between the drainage basins of the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean.

The term Appalachia is used to refer to the mountain range and the hills and plateau region around it. The term is often used to refer to areas in the central and southern, but not northern, Appalachian Mountains. These areas usually include all of West Virginia and parts of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, and sometimes extending as far south as northern Georgia and western South Carolina, as far north as Pennsylvania, and as far west as southeastern Ohio. In 1965 the United States Congress  created an Appalachian Regional Commission to include these areas and more, as far west as Mississippi.

The Appalachian Trail in the US is about 3,500 km (2,190 miles) long and goes through 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

Geologic History of the range

The geologic processes that led to the formation of the Appalachian Mountains started 1.1 billion years ago. The first mountain range in the region was created when the continents of Laurentia and Amazonia collided, creating a supercontinent called Rodinia. The collision of these continents caused the rocks to be folded and faulted, creating the first mountains in the region.

Over time, these mountains were eroded by wind and water. The rocks that were eroded were deposited in the ocean, where they were eventually buried and turned into sedimentary rocks. These sedimentary rocks were then uplifted and folded again, creating new mountains.

This process of erosion and mountain building has repeated itself many times over the past 1.1 billion years. As a result, the Appalachian Mountains are not a single, continuous mountain range. Instead, it is a patchwork of different mountain ranges that have been created at different times.

The youngest rocks in the Appalachian Mountains are only about 250 million years old. These rocks were formed during the Alleghanian orogeny, which was the last major period of mountain building in the region.

The Appalachian Mountains are still being eroded today. Over time, the mountains will continue to wear down, and the rocks that make up the mountains will eventually be recycled back into the Earth's crust.

So, the geologic processes that led to the formation of the Appalachian Mountains started 1.1 billion years ago, but the mountains themselves are much younger. The rocks that make up the mountains are the result of millions of years of erosion, deposition, and mountain building.

References

Other websites

Appalachian Mountains


HMS Elfin (pennant number T25) was a torpedo recovery vessel built for the Royal Navy. She was built by J. Samuel White & Company, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, was launched on 20 November 1933 and commissioned on 16 January 1934. She was builder's number 1754. Her home port was the Navy's torpedo trials establishment HMS Vernon, and she was based at Portland. A sistership, , was constructed under builder's number 1753 and was stationed at HMS Defiance, Devonport. Elfin was renamed Nettle during the Second World War, and was later sold for scrapping. She survived in mercantile service, and has been preserved.

Wartime service
Elfin operated during the Second World War. In 1940 she was transferred to Blyth to become the depot ship for the 6th Submarine Flotilla, sharing her name with the submarine base there. She was replaced by the drifter Rotha in 1941 and transferred to the Clyde, being renamed HMS Nettle on 20 August 1941 and assigned pennant number T94.

Post war service
After the war Nettle returned to Portland. By then the tender was operated by a civilian crew. Nettle was finally sold in 1957 to Pounds, Portsmouth for scrapping, but was sold a year later to the Amsterdam Dry-dock Company (ADM). While at Pounds's yard, she appeared in the film The Key.

Mercantile service and preservation
Converted to a tanker cleaning vessel, she continued in service for the ADM in Amsterdam harbour until 1985 as Droogdok 18, HOM7 and TCA1. She was transferred to a preservation society in 1995. The ship has been renamed Elfin, restored and preserved in Wormerveer, the Netherlands. In 2011 she was used in the Dutch film Bennie Stout.

Notes

References

1933 ships
Submarine tenders
Ships built on the Isle of Wight
Ships and vessels on the National Archive of Historic Vessels

HMS Elfin (1933)


The Fair Use Project is part of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. Founded in 2006, it offers legal assistance to "clarify, and extend, the boundaries of "fair use" in order to enhance creative freedom." It is headed by Tony Falzone, lecturer at Stanford Law. It has been involved in several notable cases such as Aguiar v. Webb, Brave New Films v. Viacom, Golan v. Gonzales, Kahle v. Gonzales, Lennon v. Premise Media, Warner Brothers and JK Rowling v. RDR Books, Shloss v. Joyce, and Vargas v. BT.

References

External links
Fair Use Project

Stanford University
Intellectual property activism
Copyright law organizations
2006 establishments in California
Fair use
Organizations established in 2006

Fair Use Project


The European Lunar Explorer (ELE) or European Lunar Lander (ELL) was a planned Romanian Lunar lander. It was being developed by ARCA, as an entrant for the Google Lunar X Prize, until it was cancelled in 2014.

It was intended to have a mass of 400 kilograms when fully fueled, including two upper stages to propel it from low Earth orbit onto a trajectory towards the Moon. The lander itself had a monopropellant cold rocket engine, fuelled by hydrogen peroxide, which was to slow its descent towards the surface of the Moon. The target landing site was Montes Carpatus. The spacecraft was designed to travel 500 metres after landing, in order to explore its landing site.

ELL was the part of the spacecraft to land on the Moon, while ELE was the complete spacecraft, including the two stages intended to propel it from low Earth orbit to a trans-lunar trajectory.

References

External links
 ELE Official Site

Google Lunar X Prize
Cancelled space probes
Missions to the Moon
Space program of Romania
ARCAspace

European Lunar Explorer


Miervaldis (Walter) Jurševskis (November 6, 1921 in Riga, Latvia – March 15, 2014 in Burnaby, British Columbia) was a Latvian-Canadian chess master, and a professional artist.

Jurševskis learned chess from his father at the age of six, but it was not until he entered the University of Latvia, where he studied art, that he became one of the brightest chess stars in Riga. He won numerous tournaments, including the one of Jūrmala, and most of the blitz contests he entered.

He fled Riga in 1944, just prior to the Soviet forces arriving. As a displaced person after World War II, he took place in several chess events in Germany, including Blomberg and Lübeck (both 1945), Meerbeck (1946), and Hanau (1947). In these events, Jurševskis played with strong players from the Baltic countries—along with German and Austrian masters -— including Efim Bogoljubov, Friedrich Sämisch, Ludwig Rellstab, Elmārs Zemgalis, Lūcijs Endzelīns, Romanas Arlauskas, and Kārlis Ozols.

In 1948 Jurševskis emigrated to Canada where he eventually settled in Vancouver. He won the British Columbia Championships six times (1949, 1950, 1954–57). He played in three Canadian Championships (1951, 1955, 1957), his best result occurring at Vancouver 1957 when he tied for third, behind Povilas Vaitonis and Géza Füster.

Jurševskis love to play 5-minute blitz games; he eventually wrote a 14-page booklet in Latvian "Piecu minūšu partijas technika un taktika" (Five Minute Game Technique and Tactics), Memmingen, 1946. By profession Jurševskis was an artist, and contributed many drawings to various chess magazines and has illustrated several chess books.

References

External links

1921 births
2014 deaths
Sportspeople from Riga
Latvian emigrants to Canada
Latvian World War II refugees
Latvian chess players
Canadian chess players
Sportspeople from Vancouver

Miervaldis Jurševskis


Here Today is a children's novel by Ann M. Martin. It was first published in 2004 and takes place in the 1960s. The story is about Ellie, an 11-year-old whose mother is irresponsible and whose siblings are argumentative. She, along with her best friend Holly, gets bullied and treated like she does not exist.

Plot summary
Eleanor Roosevelt Dingman (Ellie) is an 11-year-old girl who lives on Witch Tree Lane, in Spectacle, New York. Along with the other people who live on the street, she is hated by the other children in school. Holly and Ellie have been given a hard time by the popular girls in their school (the Sparrows), but since the recent death of the late president John F. Kennedy, it has temporarily stopped.  Ellie's life is turned upside down when her mother, the self-proclaimed "Doris Day" Dingman, decides to go into show business. Overcome with grief for the newly widowed mother, Jackie Kennedy, Doris realizes that life is short; she goes to New York to "become established" and leaves her children and husband to fend for themselves.

Ellie discovers she has more power than she thinks and can change her life no matter what the situation. Doris's move to New York forces Ellie to take care of her family and deal with the absence of her already distant mother and a father who, though hard working and loving, is often absent. When Doris decides to move to Hollywood, Ellie has finally had enough. Ellie's father finds a better job with more pay and better hours, allowing him to spend more time with Ellie and her siblings.

References

2004 American novels
2004 children's books
American children's novels
Children's historical novels
Novels set in the 1960s
Novels set in New York (state)
Children's books set in New York (state)
Children's books set in the 1960s

Here Today (novel)


Frits Jan Willem den Ouden (July 23, 1914 – July 31, 2012) was a Dutch bomber pilot during World War II. He flew missions for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force from 1936 to 1950, working his way up to the rank of captain.

Early life
den Ouden was born in The Hague, Netherlands on July 23, 1914. At the age of five his parents divorced, he lived with his father who was an officer in the Aceh War. den Ouden's father died when he was 16. During the Great Depression in the Netherlands when education costs were low he began training at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda. After his study at the KMA on August 2, 1936, he was appointed as a second lieutenant of artillery at the Royal Dutch Air Force, he was stationed in Surabaya.

War War II
In 1939 he was placed within the 1st Royal Air Force Division at Husein Sastranegara International Airport (then called Andir Airport) in Indonesia. He was stationed there until the outbreak of the war against Japan. He was sent to Samarinda with his unit, from Samarinda International Airport den Ouden was part of multiple bombing attacks with Glenn Martin bombers on enemy targets.

For his commitment during these bombing missions he was awarded the Airman's Cross or Vliegerkruis by the Government Decree. He was later awarded the Military William Order for his contributions during the Battle of Makassar Strait on February 12, 1942. On March 6, 1942, he was relocated to Adelaide where he was stationed a short time. He was then moved from Australia to the United States. In the U.S. he was assigned to the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School in Jackson, Mississippi (RNMFS). After removal of the RNMFS he returned to Australia to join the No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF, for which he flew many missions in and around Australia and the United States on the B-25 Mitchell. On August 11, 1949, he returned to the Netherlands where he continued to fly into his 70s.

Post-war career
den Ouden retired from the military in 1950. For years den Ouden worked as a director of WJ Stokvis Royal Metalworks Factory, and in 1970 he founded a shipyard called De Amer which produced about 100 boats a year. Mainly patrol boats selling them to countries in Europe, United Arab Emirates, United States, Canada and Asian countries like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Death

den Ouden died eight days after his 98th birthday on July 31, 2012. He was cremated with full military honors on August 8, 2012. During his funeral four Dutch military aircraft performed a missing man formation during the funeral.

References

1914 births
2012 deaths
Dutch aviators
Dutch World War II pilots
Bomber pilots

Frits Jan Willem den Ouden


Jean Bouguer (or Jan Bouguer; pronounced boo-GAYR) (d. 1714) was a French hydrographer and mathematician from Brittany. A former maritime pilot who had lost a leg at Bantry in the 1689 French invasion of Ireland, causing him to leave active maritime service.  Bouguer was appointed royal professor of hydrography in charge of the new École d'hydrographie at Le Croisic in June 1691. He was author of a highly regarded treatise on navigation and piloting (Traité complet de la navigation, Paris, Guignard, 1698 ). He would also teach students privately in a one-room school at his home, where he kept many astronomical and navigational instruments. He was well-versed in astronomy, mathematics, and hydrography, and held the certificate of Maîtrise d'hydrographe.

He had three children with his wife Marie Françoise Josseau, including sons Pierre Bouguer, who succeeded him in his position at Le Croisic and continued the family navigation school, and Jan Bouguer, who took over the family school when his brother left for Paris some years later.

References

External links
Letter in Bouguer's hand.

17th-century births
1714 deaths
French hydrographers

Jean Bouguer


Peter Lehner (born 1958) is an American lawyer and environmentalist. He leads a sustainable food and farming program at Earthjustice, developing strategies to reduce harmful effects of food production on climate, human health and the environment, and to promote a more ecologically sound agricultural system. He coauthored the book In Deep Water, about the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with Bob Deans.

Education

Lehner received AB degrees in philosophy and mathematics from Harvard College and is an honors graduate of Columbia Law School.

Career

Early in his career, Lehner created and led the environmental prosecution unit for New York City Law Department. His cases protecting the city's drinking water laid the foundation for the city's current watershed protection program. Subsequently, he joined NRDC as director of the water program from 1994 to 1999, where he brought attention to the problem of stormwater pollution.

From 1999 to 2006, Lehner served as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General's office. He supervised all environmental litigation by and against the state and developed multi-state strategies targeting global warming and air pollution from the nation's electric utilities. Law established in Supreme Court decisions in two of these cases, Massachusetts v. EPA and American Electric Power v. Connecticut, now underlies the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.  Lehner also initiated watershed-wide enforcement programs and led cases addressing invasive species, wildlife protection, and public health.

Lehner was the executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the NRDC Action Fund from 2007 to 2015. During his tenure, he managed environmental advocates in seven NRDC offices and led the Action Fund's political activities. He opened new offices for NRDC in Beijing and Chicago and launched a Center for Market Innovation. Among other new initiatives, Lehner shaped a clean food program addressing food waste, antibiotics in meat, regional food, and climate mitigation.

Lehner blogs regularly on Huffington Post. He delivered a TEDx talk on food waste in 2013.

Awards and honors

Lehner has been honored with the Distinguished Public Service Award by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; the Earth Day Good Government Award by the City of New York; the Environmental Leadership Award by Hudson Riverkeeper; the Region II Environmental Quality Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the Environmental Leadership award by Environmental Advocates; and the Public Interest Achievement Award from the Public Interest Law Foundation. In 2015, Lehner was presented with the Right Stuff Award from the Apollo Alliance Project of the Blue Green Alliance, for outstanding efforts to promote a sustainable environment and economy.

Personal life

Lehner is married to Fritz Beshar and has three daughters: Nadine, Eliza and Marina.

See also

Earthjustice
NRDC

References

1958 births
Living people
Columbia Law School alumni
American environmental lawyers
Harvard College alumni
Natural Resources Defense Council people

Peter Lehner


The Ponce YMCA Building is a historic structure located in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico.  It is located at 7843 Calle Nazaret, Urbanizacion Santa Maria.  The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 4 June 2012.

History
The history of the Ponce YMCA dates back to 1917 when the YMCA was organized in San Juan. In 1919 efforts and surveys were made to start YMCA work in Ponce. In 1934, Manuel Bueno became General Secretary of the Puerto Rico YMCA, the first native Puerto Rican to hold the post. Hurricanes in September 1928  and again in 1931, prevented the Ponce work to move forward once more, as money that had been obtained for the International YMCA Committee had to be used by the San Juan YMCA to help towards repairs to the San Juan YMCA building after these storms. In 1934, however, the YMCA of Puerto Rico became self-supporting.

The Great Depression of the 1930s, however, made it very difficult once more to move forward with plans to build a YMCA building in Ponce. The General Secretary, for example, received no salary for six months. As a result of these difficulties, affiliation with various statewide YMCA organizations was sought in 1944, and again in 1947. The Ponce YMCA was founded in 1947, partly as a result of these affiliations. Its architect was Pedro A. de Castro Gaya, the son of architect Pedro Adolfo de Castro.  On 10 September 1953 the new Ponce YMCA building broke ground. It was inaugurated on 22 February 1955.

National Register of Historic Places
The Ponce YMCA was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 4 June 2012. Its listing was made possible in part for its interior mural by Rafael Rios Rey titled "El Hombre" (English: Man).

Current use
The building has been in continuous use since its inauguration, and sees heightened activity during the summer months with the addition of summer camp programs. During the year it caters to children and adolescents. Over 400 children use its programs. It also holds regular summer camp programs. The Ponce YMCA oftentimes works in conjunction with the Ponce Region Boy Scout movement in order to help the boys' programs with growth. The building is heavily used for its sports facilities. The Ponce YMCA executive director in 2019 was Maritza Correa.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Ponce, Puerto Rico

References

External links
Summary sheet from the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office

National Register of Historic Places in Ponce, Puerto Rico
1955 establishments in Puerto Rico
Sports venues in Ponce, Puerto Rico
YMCA buildings
Cultural infrastructure completed in 1955
Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico
Sports venues completed in 1955

Ponce YMCA Building


Anthonij (Anton) Rudolf Mauve (18 September 1838, Zaandam, North Holland – 5 February 1888, Arnhem) was a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School. He signed his paintings 'A. Mauve' or with a monogrammed 'A.M.'.
He had a great influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh.

Mauve mostly painted people and animals shown outdoors. The paining Morning Ride shows well-dressed riders at the coast of the sea, as they ride away from the viewer. One detail which is uncommon, but shows his realism are the horse droppings shown in the foreground of the picture. His best-known paintings show peasants working in the fields, and sheep-herding scenes.

Other websites

1838 births
1888 deaths
Dutch painters
People from Zaanstad

Anton Mauve


"Piece of Me" is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her fifth studio album, Blackout (2007). It was released on November 27, 2007, by Jive Records as the second single from the album, but was actually the last song recorded. It was written and produced by Swedish producers Bloodshy & Avant and Klas Åhlund as a response to the media scrutiny and sensationalism of the singer's private life, which they had witnessed firsthand after working with her over the years. The song, acting as the singer's manifesto, has biographical lyrics retelling Spears's mishaps. It can be classified as an electropop, dance-pop and EDM-pop song that features an "electro instrumental track" and runs through a down-tempo dance beat. Spears's voice is heavily synthesized and her pitch constantly shifts; backing vocals are provided by Bloodshy & Avant and Robyn.

"Piece of Me" garnered widespread acclaim from the music critics with many deeming it as one of the highlights of Blackout. Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 15 on their list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. It peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Spears's second single from the album to top the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. "Piece of Me" was a global success, topping the charts in the Republic of Ireland and peaking within the top ten in fourteen countries.

The music video to "Piece of Me", directed by Wayne Isham, portrays the state of Spears' life in 2007; it shows her and her friends disguising themselves in order to confuse the paparazzi, which ties directly to the lyrics. Director Isham's concept was to have Spears confidently parodying her situation. It received mixed reviews from critics, most arguing her body was digitally altered. The video, however, was nominated and won in three separate categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year.

"Piece of Me" was performed on tour at the Circus Starring Britney Spears (2009) and the Femme Fatale Tour (2011). The song shares its title with Spears's first Las Vegas residency show, Britney: Piece of Me (2013–2017), where it was also performed. The show went on to become a world tour, retaining the name, known as the Piece of Me Tour (2018).

Background
"Piece of Me" was co-written and produced by the Swedish duo Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, professionally known as Bloodshy & Avant, along with Klas Åhlund. While recording with Spears over the years, Karlsson and Winnberg often saw first-hand how her regular activities were interrupted by the paparazzi, including one experience in Hamburg which Winnberg deemed "really scary". For Blackout, Spears worked with them on "Radar", "Freakshow" and "Toy Soldier". When the album was considered to be finished, Bloodshy & Avant were persuaded by her A&R Teresa LaBarbera Whites to work on a new track. Winnberg commented that it had always been an unwritten rule not to write songs about Spears's personal life since the label rejected "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex", a response track to Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River". However, the duo wrote "Piece of Me" with Åhlund and sent it to Spears, who loved it. Bloodshy & Avant worked on the track at Bloodshy & Avant Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and Spears recorded her vocals at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. Winnberg stated that Spears was extremely psyched when she came to the studio, where she recorded the song in about half an hour as she had learned the lyrics by heart in her car. "Piece of Me" was later mixed by Niklas Flyckt at Mandarine Studios in Stockholm. On October 31, 2007, during a radio interview with Ryan Seacrest, Spears talked about the song, saying,
"Wherever you go, there's a lot of people who ask questions, and sometimes you don't know their intentions and stuff like that. So, it is kind of a cute way of putting it out there. You know, like, 'You want a piece of me?', you know, in a cool, cute and clever way. It is a cute song [...] I like it".

Composition

"Piece of Me" is an electropop, dance-pop and EDM-pop song backed by an "electro instrumental track" and performed in an insistent pop groove. The song is composed in the key of D major with a time signature in common time. The melody runs through a down-tempo dance beat.
Spears's vocals span over two octaves from D3 to D5. They are heavily synthesized and are constantly pitch-shifted. The track consists of over-the-top vocal distortions, causing a split sound effect, making it difficult to discern which voice is Spears's. Background vocals were also provided by Swedish pop singer Robyn. Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg sing the line "Extra! Extra!" during the chorus and writer Klas Åhlund, along with Robyn, alternates the repeated "piece of me" line in robotized voices. Dave De Sylvia of Sputnikmusic drew comparisons to the songs in Robyn's Robyn (2005), specifically to her single "Handle Me".

The lyrics of "Piece of Me" are written as a reaction to the scrutiny of Spears's private life in the media. They deal with fame and living under the spotlight. During the first verse, Spears sings the hookline "You want a piece of me?", that is repeated throughout the song. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times, the line "could be an accusation or an invitation or a threat". "Piece of Me" is constructed in the common verse-chorus pattern. "Piece of Me" is written like a biography retelling Spears's mishaps, sung in a nearly spoken manner. Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy compared the lyrics to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" (2006). Bill Lamb of About.com said that "Piece of Me" makes Michael Jackson's "Scream" (1995) "sound like a whimper."

Critical reception

"Piece of Me" received widespread acclaim from music critics, most of whom considered it the standout track from Blackout. Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy gave "Piece of Me" four stars, calling it "a two fingered-salute to the media hounds and an electro-thudding cry of defiance, warning us that this popstrel is not for turning. [The opening line] poops from a great height on anything Lily Allen has ever penned and reveals that it's been Spears who's been laughing hardest during her year of zany media antics". Peter Robinson of The Observer and Margeaux Watson of Entertainment Weekly named "Piece of Me" one of the standout tracks of the album. Dennis Lim of Blender called it one of the best tracks of Blackout along with "Gimme More". Laura Herbert of BBC News said that the song is "without doubt the best track on the whole album. [...] It's a masterpiece." Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times said "[Bloodshy & Avant] evoke the horror, the exhilaration and (finally) the boredom of [Spears's] overexamined life. It's brilliant".

Tom Ewing of Pitchfork Media suggested that "the hypertreatment of the voice, the way it edges into the music, suggests that the price of fame is identity erasure. We understand her through a filter, and that's how we have to hear her too. The multiple backing vox fragment identity further, turn the song more universal". Dave De Sylvia of Sputnikmusic also picked it as one of the album's highlights. Melissa Maerz of Rolling Stone named it the best track of the album along with "Freakshow", deeming it as a "tabloid-bashing banger". Jim Abbott of the Orlando Sentinel said that "Musically, songs such as 'Piece of Me,' 'Radar' and 'Break the Ice' are one-dimensional, robotic exercises."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic commented that "Bloodshy & Avant try desperately to craft a defiant anthem for this tabloid fixture, as she couldn't be bothered to write one on her own". Chris Wasser from the Irish Independent said the song "drowns slowly under cloggy production and a lyrical theme that for all of its close connection with the trials and tribulations Spears has had to deal with, weren't even penned by the singer who could have very easily recorded her fairly unchallenging input on Blackout in less than a week." The song was later included in Rolling Stones 100 Best Songs of 2007 at number fifteen.

Chart performance

On November 17, 2007, "Piece of Me" debuted at number sixty-five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. On February 9, 2008, the song peaked at number 18. It was the second consecutive single from Blackout to reach number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The song shipped over 1,000,000 copies in the United States, earning a platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of March 2015, "Piece of Me" has sold 1.9 million digital downloads in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. It is her sixth best-selling digital single in the country. In Canada, the song debuted at number 37 on the Canadian Hot 100 for the week of November 17, 2007. For the week of April 26, 2008, it reached its peak position of number five. "Piece of Me" was certified platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for paid digital downloads of 40,000.

In Australia, "Piece of Me" debuted at the ARIA Singles Chart at number two on February 4, 2008 – for the week ending date February 10, 2008. The song has shipped over 70,000 copies in Australia, earning a platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 34 on the New Zealand Singles Chart on December 31, 2007 – for the week ending date January 6, 2008. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for sales over 7,500 copies.

In the United Kingdom, "Piece of Me" debuted at number 69 on the UK Singles Chart on December 23, 2007 – for the week ending December 29, 2007. After its physical CD release, the song peaked at number two on the chart on January 13, 2008 – for the week ending date January 19, 2008. According to the Official Charts Company, the song has sold 276,000 copies in Britain. In the Republic of Ireland, the song debuted at number 27 on the Irish Singles Chart on December 14, 2007 – for the week ending date December 20, 2007. It peaked at the top of the chart on January 4, 2008 – for the week ending date January 10, 2008 – where it remained for two consecutive weeks. "Piece of Me" achieved similar success across continental Europe, peaking inside the top ten in the European Hot 100 Singles chart, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Sweden and reaching the top forty in Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands.

Music video
Development
The music video for "Piece of Me" was filmed on November 27 and 28, 2007, at the nightclub and restaurant Social Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. It was directed by Wayne Isham, who had previously worked with Spears on the music video of "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman". In some scenes of the music video, Spears wore a purple satin dress from American designer Marina Toybina. Spears reportedly arrived twelve hours late to the set, after spending the day with her sons Sean Preston and Jayden James. Isham talked about the situation, saying, "She was late. People made a big thing about it, [but] how could she not be late, when you have 50, 65, 75 people running down the street chasing her car? That was a long day for the crew. It was literally a 20-hour day for the crew. She was there for the last six hours of it. She got there late, showed up and just kicked ass". He also explained the concept of the music video:
"On [the music video], I really just wanted to put the mirror back onto the whole experience. You can see that she had that kind of confidence. And, literally, every take became a more and more confident take, so that she could have fun with what was going on. Not being over-the-top sarcastic, but ... having a laugh at everything that was going on around her, with confidence. [...] The very last dance of the piece, she had her hair up, and I go, 'Can you just do one for me with your hair down?' She dropped her hair down. You'll see we intercut with her hair up and her hair down. That was the last piece. She just rocked it from her heart. She choreographed that last dance at the very end. She did that on her own and said, 'Let's go for it'".

Synopsis

The video begins with four blonde women changing their clothes, putting make up on and dancing in a bedroom. Outside, several paparazzi are taking pictures of the situation through the window. Spears appears in front of a multi-colored, illuminated background wearing a short brown fur vest, a sequined black bra and ripped low-rise jeans. There are also intercut scenes of Spears wearing a white fur coat tearing down tabloid covers such as In Touch Weekly and creating positive ones, such as "It's Britney, Bitch" and "Exceptional Earner". One tabloid in particular is labeled Rats Weakly, likely a pun of Star when written backwards. During the first chorus, Spears joins the four women, all wearing matching blond bob wigs, dark sunglasses and black trench coats being hounded by paparazzi.

Then they enter a nightclub, with Spears wearing a purple satin dress. Spears starts flirting with a man and guides him into the women's bathroom, where she discovers he has a hidden camera in his chest. She writes "Sucker" in his forehead. There is a dance sequence until the song ends, in which Spears and the four women dance in the bathroom. At the end, the women are seen back at the bedroom watching an entertainment news program, in which the "Britney invasion" from earlier is reported. The final scene shows a close-up of Spears smirking.

Reception
The music video received mixed reviews from critics. The Daily Telegraph commented "Britney – presumably with the help of some serious digital remastering – has turned back the clock, looking every part the young starlet that gave us 'Oops'". Dose said "shockingly, it's not that bad. Well, not that bad for everyone's favourite panty protesting, deposition skipping, weave wearing pop-tard". On August 17, 2008, it was announced that the video was nominated for Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Video of the Year at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. The ceremony was held on September 7, 2008, and Spears won all three categories. On October 18, 2008, during a live interview with New York's Z100, she explained that she was shocked when she won, saying, "It's a cool video, but I think by far I've done videos that are way better, so I was really shocked that it got [Video of the Year]. It was just inspiring, though, because now, going forward with the videos that I'm doing now, I can really go there and do something crazy and see what happens".

International version
An international version of the video was also officially released. This version is almost exactly the same as the original, with the only difference being that some of the early shots where Spears dances in front of the multicolored background are replaced by shots of Spears with a short blonde bob wig wearing a purple dress and in front of a black background with flashing lights.

MTV alternate video
On November 27, 2007, MTV launched the contest "Britney Spears Wants a Piece of You", in which fans could direct a separate video for the song, using footage of interviews and performances from Spears. Using the MTV Video Remixer, fans could mix and create a mash up of the footage. The winning video premiered on TRL on December 20, 2007, and MTV. Jive Records and Spears herself picked the winner. The winner also received a Haier Ibiza Rhapsody device along with a one-year subscription to Rhapsody, as well as Spears' entire discography released in the United States.

Live performances
"Piece of Me" was performed at 2009's the Circus Starring Britney Spears as the second song of the show. At the end of the performance of "Circus", Spears took off her red jacket that represented a ringmaster, to reveal a black corset encrusted with Swarovski crystals, fishnet stockings and high-heeled laced up boots, designed by Dean and Dan Caten. While smoke surrounded her, she entered a cage in the middle of the stage while "Piece of Me" began. During the performance, Spears represented a slave, that attempted to escape from her dancers. "Piece of Me" was also performed at 2011's Femme Fatale Tour. Following "3", Spears climbed into a small platform and started performing the song while floating over the stage. The male dancers below her were dressed as policemen, and took off their shirts to reveal S&M bondage harnesses. Shirley Halperin of The Hollywood Reporter named it one of the best performances of the show along with "3" and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", stating that "ironically enough, [they] were the ones with fewest frills." The song is currently performed live at Spears's Las Vegas residency show, Britney: Piece of Me.

Track listingsCD single "Piece of Me" (Album Version) – 3:32
 "Piece of Me" (Böz o Lö Remix) – 4:53German limited edition CD single – CD1 "Piece of Me" (Album Version) – 3:32
 "Piece of Me" (Tiësto Radio Edit) – 3:23German limited edition CD single – CD2 "Piece of Me" (Album Version) – 3:32
 "Piece of Me" (Junior Vasquez and Johnny Vicious Radio Edit) – 3:38CD maxi single "Piece of Me" (Album Version) – 3:32
 "Piece of Me" (Böz o Lö Remix) – 4:53
 "Piece of Me" (Bimbo Jones Remix) – 6:26
 "Piece of Me" (Vito Benito Remix) – 6:46
 "Gimme More" ("Kimme More" Remix featuring Lil' Kim) – 4:14Digital download – Remixes "Piece of Me" — 3:32
 "Piece of Me" (Böz o Lö Remix) – 4:53
 "Piece of Me" (Tiësto Radio Edit) – 3:23
 "Piece of Me" (Junior Vasquez and Johnny Vicious Radio Edit) – 3:38
 "Piece of Me" (Friscia & Lamboy Radio Edit) – 3:27
 "Piece of Me" (Sly & Robbie Reggae Remix featuring Cherine Anderson) – 4:16Digital download – Digital 45'''
 "Piece of Me" – 3:31
 "Piece of Me" (Bloodshy & Avant's Böz o Lö Remix) – 4:53

Credits and personnel
Credits and personnel are adapted from the Blackout'' album liner notes.
 Christian Karlsson – writer, producer, recording, keyboards, programming, bass, guitar
 Pontus Winnberg – writer, producer, recording, keyboards, programming, bass, guitar
 Klas Åhlund – writer, additional bass
 Niklas Flyckt – mixing
 Henrik Jonback – additional guitar
 Robyn Carlsson – background vocals
 Tom Coyne – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

See also
List of most expensive music videos

References

2007 singles
2007 songs
Britney Spears songs
Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
Jive Records singles
MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video
MTV Video of the Year Award
Music videos directed by Wayne Isham
Song recordings produced by Bloodshy & Avant
Songs about the media
Songs written by Christian Karlsson (DJ)
Songs written by Klas Åhlund
Songs written by Pontus Winnberg
Songs about fame

Piece of Me


Tayfun Gönül (1958, Izmit - July 30 2012 in Istanbul) was a Turkish writer, doctor, Turkey's 'first conscientious objector,' and anarchist.

Life
Gönül's childhood years were spent in Izmit and Istanbul. His father was a doctor. After finishing Ankara Science High School, he studied Medicine at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine and graduated as a doctor. He wrote in the Aydınlık ( People's Voice ) group since his high school years. In the 1980s, he started writing in Sokak and Yeni Olgu magazines and in 1986, Kara, the first anarchist journal. Gönül moved from Istanbul to Izmir, and established the Izmir War Opposition Association.

In 1989, Turkey started conscription. Tuğrul Eryilmaz, with whom Gönül worked in Sokak magazine, started a "No compulsory military service" campaign during these years. Following the launch of the campaign, Gönül was charged with the charges of "discouraging the people from military service" together with Metin Münir, editor-in-chief of Eryilmaz and Güneş newspaper. In 1993, he worked extensively to combine all anarchist environments and publications under the Apolitika project. Finally, in 1999, he started to publish the weekly newspaper Efendisizler . Meanwhile, Gönül's  returned to Antalya because of illness.

Gönül, who had a heart infarction on February 15, 2012, was discharged after being in the hospital for two months. He participated in the World Conscientious Objectors' Day, on May 15, 2012. Gönül, who had a heart attack again at home on Monday, July 30 at around 23.30, died in the hospital. His body was taken from the morgue at Zincirlikuyu cemetery and was buried on 2 August 2012 by her friends in the Kilyos cemetery.

References

Other websites

 Tayfun Gönül'ün Cenazesi

1958 births
2012 deaths
Turkish scientists
Nonviolence advocates
Anarchists
Turkish activists

Tayfun Gönül


The Erie Railroad Station in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania was built by the Erie Railway (later reorganized as the Erie Railroad) in 1863. The three-story Gothic Revival structure included a large hotel, called Starrucca House, with rooms for 200 people and a  long dining room. Overall building size is  length by  width.

The railroad converted the hotel into offices and sleeping quarters for railroad personnel c. 1903. Alterations were made to the building in 1913 and 1917. The Erie Railroad merged into the Erie Lackawanna Railroad in 1960, which ended passenger train service over the former Erie Delaware Division through Susquehanna in 1966. The last passenger trains were the Atlantic Express/Pacific Express and unnamed trains to Binghamton timed to meet up with the Phoebe Snow. All remaining passenger service, on the former Lackawanna route via Scranton, Pennsylvania, was discontinued on January 6, 1970. The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

History

The Erie enters Susquehanna
The New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway constructed the railroad through a dense forest in 1848 as a central spot for their work between Piermont and Dunkirk, New York. At that point, the village was nameless and had only one farm on the land nearby. That year, the railroad purchased  along the Susquehanna River for repair shops and other necessary facilities. Constructions at Susquehanna included the large machine shop, ( by ) with room for up to 40 locomotives; the boiler shop;  blacksmith's shop; pattern shop; paint shop; foundry; and engine rooms for them. The facilities included a larger lecture hall for workers, with a capacity of 600 people.

The Erie also constructed the Starrucca House, which contained a dining hall that was  by  and was a hotel for passengers. The construction of the Starrucca House was necessary as a layover stop for engines coming out of Gulf Summit, New York that had to deal with the steep grade. The depot could feed 200 people and provide room as a hotel for the same number of people. This was the first depot constructed entirely out of brick in the United States, containing a 2,400 volume library, a reading  room and the lecture room.

By 1863, the shops in Susquehanna employed 700 men (up from the original 350) in the community with a $38,000/year total payroll. The master mechanic of the shops, James Gregg, worked to renovate and improve the shops, which were consistent fire risks. Construction of the shops began that year at a cost of $1.25 million (1865 USD), along with $500,000 in tools and machinery, on an 8-acre site. .

March 1874 strike
In March 1874, the Erie fell behind paying its workers at the Susquehanna shops. On March 15, the day the railroad promised that it would pay its workers, they announced that finances were even worse and would have to delay the payment until March 25. The workers at the shop agreed with the delay, but stated that they were willing to walk off the job on March 25 if they were not paid. That day, the Erie announced that they had to pay workers on other parts of the railroad. Denied their wages, the railroad shop workers told the managers to leave the premises and took over the facilities. They demanded that, if the railroad did not pay within 24 hours, they would begin to stop trains from running.

The railroad responded by firing the leaders of the strike at Susquehanna, which caused things to get worse. The shop workers disabled locomotives and put them in a roundhouse, while stranding cars of coal and fuel on sidings in the area. Workers kept mechanical pieces of engines hostage and put them elsewhere in the town. The railroad was on the attack end of the media and the government, who sympathized with the workers. M.M. Helme, the local Sheriff, refused to have the strikers chased off the property. The Governor of Pennsylvania, John F. Hartranft told the railroad that only the Sheriff could request state troops to come in and the latter refused to do so, along with several leading citizens of the village.

The lawyers of the railroad soon learned that the trains down the line were being affected by the strike, only then causing Helme to call-in troops. The railroad offered that, in ending the strike, all but the spokespeople for the strike would get their jobs back, which was refused. With that refusal, the railroad threatened to move its shops to Elmira, New York, which would affect the local economy, causing their support to dwindle further. The strike ended within hours of that, with workers returning to their jobs.

References

Railway stations in the United States opened in 1863
Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Railway hotels in the United States
Former Erie Railroad stations
Transportation buildings and structures in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
1863 establishments in Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania

Susquehanna station


Shift-by-wire is an automotive concept or system that employs electrical or electronic connections that replace the mechanical connection between the driver's gearshift mechanism and the transmission. Since becoming commercially available in 1996, shift-by-wire has been commonly used in automated manual transmission, and has later been implemented in semi-automatic transmission and automatic transmission.

Dispensing with gearshift mechanical linkages has several advantages: it reduces complexity and simplifies assembly; reduces the force required to shift gears and allows it to be customized with haptic technology; allows for more interior design freedom in the placement of the gearshift mechanism; allows for automation of the engagement of the parking brake and other functions; reduces cabin noise by eliminating the acoustic linkage between the transmission and the gear shift; and by reducing floor openings it improves the crash behavior of the vehicle.

With a mechanical connection, the gearshifft selector always matches the engaged transmission gear. With shift-by-wire, safety mechanisms need to be put in place. The system needs to block incorrect input and "guide" the gearshift back to a position that matches the state of the transmission in case of error. Another solution is to separate the gearshift selector from the gear indicator, meaning the driver has to visually monitor which gear is actually engaged, for instance on a display. Safety considerations require redundancy in the gearshift and transmission sensors and in the vehicle communication network.

Park by wire

A park by wire system engages the parking pawl of a transmission using electrical means, without the traditional mechanical system which involves linkages between the gear shifter and the transmission. Park-by-wire can be considered a part of a shift by wire system, as it shifts the transmission into park mode. The main components of a park by wire system include the driver interface which could be a lever, switch, or knob; an electronic control unit; and actuators which are capable of driving the parking pawl into and out of the locking position with the parking gear of the transmission.

See also
Drive by wire
Unsafe at Any Speed § Disaster deferred

References

Automotive electronics
Vehicle safety technologies
Automotive transmission technologies

Shift-by-wire


Asiatisk Plads is a waterfront area in the Christianshavn neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is bounded by Torvegade to the south, next to Knippel Bridge, Strandgade to the east and the Old Dock area to the north. It takes its name from Danish Asia Company which was based at the site from its foundation in 1732 until 1843 when it was dissolved. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now based in the area, in a purpose-built office complex from 1980 as well as in the surviving buildings of the Danish Asia Company, its former head office and two converted warehouses, all of which are listed. Asiatisk Plads is frequently used as a metonym for the Ministry.

History

Danish Asia Company was founded in 1732 as a replacement for the Danish East India Company which had been dissolved in 1729. A head office for the company was built at a site just south of Old Dry Dock in 1738 to a design by Philip de Lange. The complex was later expanded with the addition of two warehouses.

Danish Asia Company was dissolved in 1843 and the company's premises at Christianshavn were then acquired by Jacob Holm, owner both of a shipyard and what had grown to be the largest shipping company in the country at the time.

The southern part of the grounds was redeveloped in 1978-1980 when a new home was built for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to designs by Haldor Gunnløgson (1918-1985) and Jørn Nielsen (1919-1996). The complex consists of three buildings with gables facing the water in accordance with the traditions for warehouses.  Their monotonous Modernist designs have been heavily criticized.

Architecture

Philip de Lange's former head office for the Danish Asia Company is designed in the Late Baroque style. The facade is decorated with a relief, probably by Johann Christoph Petzold, featuring Neptune.

A short wall with a gate connects the building to a warehouse which was built at the neighbouring site in 1781 to a design by J. B. Schottmann. To achieve symmetry, the warehouse has a facade similar to that of the head office in terms of proportions and facade pattern while it is a typical warehouse as seen from the water.

The site also includes the Eigtved Warehouse which was built for the Danish Asia Company from 1748 to 1750. It is named after its architect, Nicolai Eigtved, who was responsible for the planning of Frederiksstaden around the same time as well as for many prominent buildings such as Amalienborg Palace.

Erik Møller Architects refurbished all three buildings and adapted them to the needs of the Foreign Ministry between 1979 and 1982.

Public art
The quay features three abstract sculptures by Søren Georg Jensen: The Cyclop (Kyklopen), The Long Journey (Den Lange Rejse) and Figurehead (Galionsfigur).

See also
 Wilders Plads

References

External links

Christianshavn
Streets in Christianshavn

Asiatisk Plads


Frank Fitzgibbon is an Irish newspaper editor and journalist. He is one of the four founders of The Sunday Business Post in 1989. Fitzgibbon edited the Irish edition of The Sunday Times for 15 years from 2005 until 2020.
He worked as a freelance journalist and then editor of the Kevin Kelly's, monthly Irish Business Magazine before setting up the Sunday Business Post.
Fitzgibbon also worked for the Sunday Tribune, Business & Finance Magazine and as a presenter and reporter on current affairs for RTE Television. He worked as Business editor of The Sunday Times from 2002 until he succeeded Fiona McHugh.

The son of journalist and broadcaster Denis ('Din Joe') Fitzgibbon he is originally from Bancroft, Tallaght, Co. Dublin, he was educated at St Mary's College, Dublin.
He was appointed to the Press Council of Ireland in 2018.

References

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Irish newspaper editors
Sunday Tribune people
Business Post people

Frank Fitzgibbon