Pearson Playwrights' Scheme (formerly Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme) is a British organisation established in 1973 to support theatre writing. It runs the Pearson Award for Best New Play.

History

In 1973, Howard Thomas, then managing director of Thames Television, launched the Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme to support and celebrate new writing in the theatre. He believed that television owed much to the theatre for its supply of creative talent. In 1993 Pearson PLC took over the sponsorship of the scheme and it became the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme.
Over the past 30 years, the scheme has helped launch some of the finest British play-writing talent. Each year, bursaries are awarded to new writers and an additional award is offered to the writer of the best play. These are selected by the scheme's panel, chaired by Sir John Mortimer CBE QC. The awards are called the Pearson Award for Best New Play.

Since 2014 the scheme has been sponsored by Channel 4.

Panel and patrons

The panel has included Michael Billington, Thelma Holt CBE, Sue Summers, Catherine Johnson, Beryl Bainbridge DBE and John Tydeman.

Patrons include Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE, Alan Bleasdale, Stephen Daldry, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Richard Eyre, Sir Peter Hall CBE, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Joan Plowright CBE, Sir Tom Stoppard and Sue Townsend.

The scheme is administrated by Jack Andrews MBE, and is supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation and The Olivier Foundation.

Pearson Award for Best New Play
Winners of the Pearson Award for Best New Play, awarded annually since 1982.

 1982 Borderline by Hanif Kureshi (Royal Court Theatre)
 1983 True Dare Kiss by Debbie Horsfield (Liverpool Playhouse)
 1984 No award given
 1985 Particular Friendships by Martin Allen (Hampstead Theatre)
 1986 The Boys from Hibernia by Mark Power (Belgrave Theatre, Coventry)
 1987 Dreams of San Francisco by Jacqueline Holborough (Bush Theatre)
 1988 No award given
 1989 Poor Beast in the Rain by Billy Roche (Bush Theatre)
 1990 The Pool of Bethesda by Allan Cubitt (Guildhall School)
 1991 Talking in Tongues by Winsome Pinnock (Royal Court Theatre) & Dead Sheep by Catherine Johnson (Bush Theatre)
 1992 Worlds Apart by Paul Sirett (Theatre Royal, Stratford)
 1993 No award given

Scheme taken over from Thames by Pearson.

 1994 Uganda by Judith Johnson (Royal National Theatre)
 1995 Pale Horse by Joe Penhall (Royal National Theatre)
 1996 The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (Royal National Theatre)
 1997 Nabokov's Gloves by Peter Moffat (Warehouse Theatre)
 1998 Martha, Josie & the Chinese Elvis by Charlotte Jones (Octagon Theatre, Bolton)
 1999 Trust by Gary Mitchell (Royal National Theatre)
 2000 Normal by Helen Blakeman (Bush Theatre)
 2001 Port by Simon Stephens (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester)
 2002 Drowned World by Gary Owen (Paines Plough) & Honeymoon Suite by Richard Bean (Royal National Theatre)
 2003 The Straits by Gregory Burke (Royal National Theatre)
 2004 All the Ordinary Angels by Nick Leather (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester)
 2005 Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade (Finborough Theatre). Play produced at the Royal Court Theatre.
 2006 Whipping It Up by Steve Thompson (Bush Theatre)

References

1973 establishments in the United Kingdom
Arts organizations established in 1973
British writers' organisations
Cultural organisations based in London

Pearson Playwrights' Scheme


Hypogeomys australis is an extinct rodent from central and southeastern Madagascar. First described in 1903, it is larger than its close relative, the living Hypogeomys antimena, which occurs further west, but otherwise similar. Average length of the femur (upper leg bone) is 72.1 mm, compared to 63.8 mm in H. antimena. One of the few extinct rodents of Madagascar, it survived to at least around 1536 BP based on radiocarbon dating. Little is known of its ecology, but it may have lived in burrows like its living relative and eaten some arid-adapted plants.

Taxonomy
Hypogeomys australis was described in 1903 by Guillaume Grandidier from subfossil material collected in the cave of Andrahomana in southeastern Madagascar. The Hypogeomys material was similar to the living Hypogeomys antimena, but distinct enough for Grandidier to recognize it as a separate species, different in size and some morphological details. Grandidier described another subfossil Hypogeomys species in 1912, H. boulei, but the material that species was based on was later identified as the enigmatic mammal Plesiorycteropus. In 1946, Charles Lamberton illustrated another femur (upper leg bone) of H. australis; the origin and current whereabouts of this specimen are unknown. In 1996, Steven Goodman and Daniel Rakotondravony reviewed the distribution of Hypogeomys and confirmed that H. australis is a distinct species. H. australis and H. antimena are classified together within the exclusively Madagascan subfamily Nesomyinae of the family Nesomyidae, which includes various African rodents.

Description

Hypogeomys australis was generally similar to H. antimena, the largest living rodent of Madagascar, but even larger, with little if any overlap in measurements. Grandidier described the extinct species as more robust, with more prominent muscle scars on the long bones and with longer molars with more distinct crests and lobes. The length of the first lower molar is 5.2 to 6.4 mm, averaging 5.7 mm, in ten H. australis and 3.9 to 5.5 mm, averaging 4.8 mm, in twenty-four H. antimena. The width of the femur at the proximal (near) end is 18.6 to 21.5 mm, averaging 19.9 mm, in thirteen H. australis and 16.8 to 18.5 mm, averaging 17.5 mm, in nine H. antimena. In ten H. australis, total length of the femur is 69.9 to 75.1 mm, averaging 72.1 mm, compared to 59.7 to 69.9 mm, averaging 63.8 mm in nine H. antimena.

Distribution and ecology
Remains attributed to Hypogeomys australis are known from Andrahomana in southeastern Madagascar and Antsirabe in central Madagascar, suggesting a broad former distribution. Its range is not known to overlap that of H. antimena, which has undergone a dramatic reduction during the Holocene. A bone from Andrahomana has been radiocarbon dated to about 4440 BP and another to 1536 BP. Although almost nothing is known of the ecology of H. australis, Goodman and Rakotondravony presumed that it was similar to its living relative in living in burrows in areas with loose soils. H. australis shows relatively high content of carbon-13 isotope, likely because it ate some plants which were enriched in carbon-13 through C4 carbon fixation and crassulacean acid metabolism; both of these photosynthesis-related processes occur most frequently in plants adapted to dry environments.

Hypogeomys australis is one of only three extinct rodents known from Madagascar (the others are Brachytarsomys mahajambaensis and Nesomys narindaensis from northwestern Madagascar). In general, few small animals became extinct on Madagascar, except for these rodents, two species of Plesiorycteropus, and the shrew tenrec Microgale macpheei; in contrast, large animals such as subfossil lemurs, the carnivore Cryptoprocta spelea, Malagasy hippopotamuses, Dipsochelys tortoises, and Aepyornis and Mullerornis birds all became extinct around the time that humans arrived.

References

Literature cited
Burney, D.A., Burney, L.P., Godfrey, L.R., Jungers, W.L., Goodman, S.M., Wright, H.T. and Jull, A.J.T. 2004. A chronology for late prehistoric Madagascar (subscription required). Journal of Human Evolution 47:25–63.
Crowley, B.E., Godfrey, L.R. and Irwin, M.T. 2010. A glance to the past: subfossils, stable isotopes, seed dispersal, and lemur species loss in Southern Madagascar (subscription required). American Journal of Primatology 71:1–13.
Goodman, S.M. and Rakotondravony, D. 1996. The Holocene distribution of Hypogeomys (Rodentia: Muridae: Nesomyinae) on Madagascar. Biogéographie de Madagascar 1996:283–293.
Grandidier, G. 1903. Description de lHypogeomys australis, nouvelle espèce de Rongeur sub-fossile de Madagascar. Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle 9:13–15 (in French).
MacPhee, R.D.E. 1994. Morphology, adaptations, and relationships of Plesiorycteropus, and a diagnosis of a new order of eutherian mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 220:1–214.
Mein, P., Sénégas, F., Gommery, D., Ramanivoso, B., Randrianantenaina, H. and Kerloc'h, P. 2010. Nouvelles espèces subfossiles de rongeurs du Nord-Ouest de Madagascar (subscription required). Comptes Rendus Palevol 9(3):101–112 (in French, with abridged English version).
Musser, G.G. and Carleton, M.D. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894–1531 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. 3rd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp.
Sommer, S. 1996. Ecology and social structure of Hypogeomys antimena, an endemic rodent of the dry deciduous forest in western Madagascar. Biogéographie de Madagascar 1996:295–302.
Turvey, S.T. 2009. Holocene Extinctions. Oxford University Press US, 359 pp.

Extinct rodents
Hypogeomys
Holocene extinctions
Extinct animals of Madagascar
Fossil taxa described in 1903

Hypogeomys australis


Comic View is an American stand-up comedy show that aired on BET on Tuesdays and Fridays from September 1992 to December 2008. In May 2014, BET announced the return of Comic View. The show has been the launching pad for such comedians as D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, Sommore, and Rodney Perry.

Overview
In the show's later years, the show moved to different cities, such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami and New Orleans.

The episodes aired during the 2005-2006 season were filmed in New Orleans less than a month before Hurricane Katrina. Before the show aired, a message dedicated the show to the citizens of New Orleans. Another incarnation entitled Comic View: One Mic Stand began in September 2008 with actor Kevin Hart as the host. Its recent incarnation was renamed back to Comic View which began in May 2014 with comedian Sommore returning as the new host.

Hosts
D.L. Hughley (1992-1994)
Cedric the Entertainer (1994-1995)
Sommore (1995-1996; 2014)
Don "D.C." Curry (1996-1997; 2013)
Montana Taylor (1997-1998)
Gary Owen (1998-1999)
Lester Barrie (1999-2000)
Rickey Smiley (2000-2001)
Bruce Bruce (New Orleans 10th Anniversary Party Gras, 2000-2002)
Arnez J (Caliente, 2002-2003)
J. Anthony Brown (2003-2004)
Sheryl Underwood (2005-2006)
Kevin Hart (One Mic Stand, 2008)

References in pop culture
The program was mentioned by Cam'Ron in his song "Tomorrow" ("Clowns, they belong on ComicView ")
The program was also mentioned on the 11th episode of the first season of Chappelle's Show. An aged Asian man tells Dave Chappelle his camera will show him things some "would pay not to see." Dave responds, in kind, by asking "Oh snap, it gets ComicView?"
The program was mentioned by Nas in his song "2nd Childhood" off of his Stillmatic album. ("He break his mom's furniture, watching ComicView ").
The program was mentioned by Timbo King in a song by Bronze Nazareth called "More Than Gold" off of Bronze's The Great Migration album. ("You ain't nice as hell, you a ComicView rapper you should write for Chappelle ").
The program was mentioned in the 4th episode of the third season of the Netflix series Dear White People and has apparently not aged well according to a character.

References

External links

1992 American television series debuts
2008 American television series endings
2014 American television series debuts
1990s American stand-up comedy television series
2000s American stand-up comedy television series
2010s American stand-up comedy television series
American television series revived after cancellation
BET original programming
English-language television shows

ComicView


John Bozman Kerr (March 5, 1809 – January 27, 1878) was a U.S. Congressman, representing the sixth district of the state of Maryland from 1849 until 1851. He also served as Chargé d'Affaires to Nicaragua.

Early life
John Bozman Kerr was born in Easton, Maryland to John Leeds Kerr, and attended the common schools and Easton Academy. He graduated from Harvard University in 1830, studied law further, and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Easton in 1833.

Career
Kerr served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1836 until 1838, and later as deputy attorney general for Talbot County from 1845 until 1848.

Kerr was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first Congress, serving from March 4, 1849, until March 3, 1851, and was not a candidate for renomination in 1850. He was appointed by President Millard Fillmore Chargé d'Affaires to Nicaragua on March 7, 1851, and served until July 27, 1853. Kerr resumed the practice of law in Baltimore and St. Michaels, Maryland, in 1854.

Kerr was appointed one of the solicitors in the Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., and served from February 8, 1864, to June 25, 1868, when the position was abolished. He served as solicitor in the office of the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury Department from November 6, 1869, until his death.

Personal life
Kerr was married and had five sons and four daughters.

Death
Kerr died on January 27, 1878, in Washington, D.C. He was interred at his family's cemetery in Eastern Shore.

From the journal of his daughter, Henrietta Maria Kerr:

Papa was born March 1809, and graduated at Harvard University in 1830. Among his classmates were Oliver Wendell Holmes, "the Poet of the North"; Hon. Charles T. Sumner, and John O. Sargent. On leaving college in 1834 he took a trip to the West Indies and Cuba, and a few years later settled in Easton to practice law. In 1850 he was elected to Congress. The following year he was sent as minister to Central America and remained there nearly three years. On his return from South America Papa settled at St. Michaels, until 1869, when he was appointed a solicitor in the Court of Claims at Washington and removed us all to this city.

Our noble, good, kind Father was taken from us very suddenly. On Sunday January 27, 1878, after a few hours illness of Angina Pectoris, he fell asleep, and entered into eternal rest. I never can forget that gray cold Sunday Morning, and the terrible feeling at my heart when I heard the Church bells ring out through the Sabbath stillness, and realized at last that he would never go to Church with us again-a thing he had never missed. He rests in the old family burial ground at Belleville, beside his loved parents and son.-In nature, I think Papa was more nearly perfect than anyone I ever knew. A good loving husband and the sweetest kindest Father, always ready and anxious to entertain and instruct his children, no matter how deeply engaged he might be. He was a scholar and a Christian gentleman, in every sense of that grand old word, and although the latter days of his life were full of cares and troubles, his sunny, kindly nature never changed; even in acute physical pain, he never failed in his loving tender care for us all.

References

External links

 Belleville Cemetery

|-

1809 births
1878 deaths
People from Easton, Maryland
Harvard University alumni
19th-century American diplomats
19th-century American politicians
Members of the Maryland House of Delegates
Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland

John Bozman Kerr


World Youth Day 2013 (), stylized WYDRio2013, was the 14th international World Youth Day, an international Catholic event focused on religious faith and youth. The host city of World Youth Day 2013 was Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as announced by Pope Benedict XVI at the end of the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain. The events were scheduled to be held from 23 July to 28 July 2013.

World Youth Day 2013 was the second World Youth Day to be held in South America; the second to be held in Latin America with the first being held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April 1987; and the third to be held in the Southern Hemisphere. Additionally, World Youth Day 2013 was the first World Youth Day to be held in a country whose primary language is Portuguese, and the first  for Pope Francis. The event was attended by over 3 million people.

Theme
On 24 August 2011, Pope Benedict XVI announced the theme for World Youth Day 2013. Taken from the Gospel of Matthew, the theme will be "Go and make disciples of all peoples" (Matthew 28:19).

Patron saints
On Pentecost Sunday, 27 May 2012, the World Youth Day Office released the names of the official patron saints for WYD2013. The saints and blesseds chosen include:

Patrons: Our Lady of Aparecida, Saint Sebastian, Saint Anthony of St. Ann Galvão, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Blessed John Paul II.

Intercessors: Saint Rose de Lima, Saint Teresa of Los Andes, Blessed Laura Vicuña, Saint José de Anchieta, Blessed Albertina Berkenbrock, Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, Blessed Sister Dulce, Blessed Adílio Daronch, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Blessed Isidore Bakanja, Blessed Frederick Ozanam, Saint George, Saint Andrew Kim and Companions.

Logo
Day 2013 logo incorporates colors and famous symbols of Rio de Janeiro, including the Christ the Redeemer statue, the Sugarloaf Mountain, and coastline and water. The logo was designed by Gustavo Huguenin, a native of Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro. The logo design was based on the official World Youth Day 2013 theme of the Great Commission from the Gospel of Matthew, and includes the use of colours found in Brazilian flag.

The unveiling of the official logo was postponed by Orani João Tempesta out of respect to the January 2011 natural disasters. The logo was later revealed on 7 February 2012. The official logo was presented to President Dilma Rousseff by  Rio de Janeiro governor, Sérgio Cabral Filho on DVD.

Official song
The official song for World Youth Day 2013 was released on 14 September 2012, titled "Esperança do Amanhecer".

Media
The official website for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro was www.rio2013.com and offered social networking through Google+, Twitter, Facebook and RSS feed.

From 22–29 July 2013, the youth website Xt3.com webcast all the major events live from Rio de Janeiro, allowing pilgrims from all over the world to participate in World Youth Day online.

Inés San Martín was the head of international communication.

Pre-World Youth Day incidents
In July 2013 it was reported that 320,000 young people had registered for this World Youth Day, although one million had been predicted by the organizers. A Brazilian newspaper reported that Rio organizers had unsuccessfully sought additional funding from government leaders.

A bus-truck crash in western French Guiana (Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni) on 17 July killed 21-year-old Sophie Moriniere, a member of a Paris WYD group, and wounded six others of the 23 young WYD pilgrims from France on the bus. Moriniere had been serving as a special correspondent for Notre Dame Radio. The bus was reportedly on its way to Kourou, French Guiana. Bishop Emmanuel Lafont of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cayenne in Cayenne celebrated a Mass for the crash victims, while Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, asked members of his Archdiocese to pray for the victims. Pope Francis's Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, S.D.B., sent a formal message of condolence.

A travel firm's bankruptcy affected pilgrims in 20 US dioceses.

Cardinal Barbarin canceled his participation after suffering a heart incident in Guyane, where 700 French WYD pilgrims were stranded due to airliner failure.

References

External links

Catholic Pilgrim Office - World Youth Day headquarters
WYD RIO 2013  Twitter : @Website20121
Live Webcast for World Youth Day 2013

2013 in Brazil
Catholic Church in Brazil
Foreign trips by popes
2013
2013 in Christianity
Pope Francis
2010s in Rio de Janeiro
July 2013 events in South America

World Youth Day 2013


William Henry Blackmore (2 August 1827 – 12 April 1878) was an English lawyer who gained a fortune by exploiting a large social network as an investment promoter. He used his fortune for philanthropy, primarily centred on his interest in Native Americans, but ended his life after a failed investment deal related to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.

Lawyer
William was born 2 August 1827 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, to a family claiming descent from the family of Sir Richard Blackmore, the English poet and physician.  His grandfather, The Reverend Richard Blackmore, was Rector of Donhead St Mary located on the edge of the Blackmore Vale.  He attended King's College, Bruton, a public school in the neighbouring county of Somerset and then was articled to his uncle John Lambert of the Salisbury firm of solicitors Lambert and Norton.  After qualifying in 1848 Henry joined the firm of solicitors Duncan, Squarey and Duncan in Liverpool, England and soon became a full partner of Duncan, Squarey and Blackmore. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1869.

Social network and venture capitalisation
Through several maritime compensation cases William developed contacts with Americans and their representatives; as well as British and European, investors, business and political leaders.  An American lawyer, Cyrus Martin Fisher, showed William the large and immediate returns to assisting ventures to find capital.  To this end William found his family and business connections useful. In each deal the promoter either took fees, stock or both in exchange for placing bonds or shares with investors.  He opened a second office in Founder's Court, Lothbury, London, had success in ventures in Europe and Africa and became well known in British and European investment circles.

On 14 May 1851 William married Mary Sidford.  The couple entertained many prominent people of the time at Shepley House in Carshalton, south of London, including: Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Mark Twain", John Russell Bartlett, Sir John Evans, Sir Arthur Church, the artist Ernest Griset, Sir John Lubbock, Colonel Lane Fox, Joseph W. Prestwick, and Charlotte Brontë.

American investment
On his first trip to America, 1863, William met with investors in New York and they developed a plan for investments in lands in Virginia, headed to Washington, D.C. in early 1864 with letters of introduction to senators, congressmen and President Abraham Lincoln. William made several trips to the United States to find investment opportunities, making additional deals with lands in Colorado and New Mexico and forming railway companies.

General William Jackson Palmer needed financing for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad which Blackmore placed primarily with a party of Dutch bankers. Blackmore became an investor in the United States Freehold Land and Emigration Company Limited which promoted emigration, particularly from the Netherlands and Germany, to the  Costilla Estate in the San Luis Valley, Colorado Territory.

Social network extends
In January 1864, while in New York meeting with investors William attended the opera as the guest of August Belmont.

In the fall of 1868 Blackmore travelled west to inspect the completion of the transcontinental railroad, locate likely mining ventures and to investigate the Mormons. At the start of the trip Colonel Edward Bridges and Blackmore participated in a buffalo hunt organised by General Henry B. Carrington.  On the train they joined Government commissioners, Mitchell and Latham, Thomas C. Durant, General Grenville M. Dodge, Samuel B. Reed, Colonel Silas Seymour, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge and Professor Ferdinand Hayden.  West of Laramie, Wyoming, Blackmore and Bridges left the train to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah to make confidential reports to unidentified industrial leaders and the British Cabinet. There was much publicity in the eastern states that the Mormons would not trade with non-Mormons, and in Britain there were concerns raised on the large numbers of British subjects who had left to join the Mormons in Utah.  From 6 to 10 October 1868 John Willard Young escorted the men providing information and guiding them around the area.  Others they met with include Bishop John Sharpe, David Durant, William Henry Hooper, President Brigham Young and his son Joseph Angell Young.

On a trip to the US aboard the SS Russia in 1871 with Generals Sheridan, Forsyth, and Ledlie, Blackmore was introduced to Abraham Lincoln's widow and son, Robert Todd Lincoln.  Robert later became involved in one of William's land deals.

Philanthropy
From the mid-1840s, archaeologists Ephraim George Squier (1821–1888) and Edwin Hamilton Davis (1811–1888) excavated artefacts from mounds discovered in the Mississippi and Ohio valley, to form the so-called Squier-Davis collection.  They had written a manuscript discussing their findings but did not have the funds to publish it.

Having been unsuccessful in his efforts to sell the 1300-piece Mound City Group collection to the Smithsonian Institution or the New York Historical Society, Davis prepared a catalogue featuring his cumulative collections and placed them up for sale on the open market. The catalogue included not only Ohio antiquities, but those from his excavations in Peru, Central America, and Denmark as well. Davis preferred having the collection remain in the United States, but no American institution came forward to make a serious monetary offer. In 1864 Blackmore acquired the entire collection of native American archaeological artefacts excavated from the mounds in the Mississippi valley, including the Squier-Davis collection. He purchased this collection from Davis for US$10,000.

William founded the Blackmore Museum in Salisbury which opened in a lavish ceremony on 4 September 1867. Dr. Humphrey Purnell Blackmore (1822–1929) and William's brother in law Edward Thomas Stevens (1828–1878) were the museum's honorary curators. Since the museum collections included the Squier and Davis collections it appears to have become something of a place of pilgrimage for American archaeologists. The 1907 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica described the museum as "one of the finest collections of prehistoric antiquities in England."  In 1899 the eminent US ethnographer George Amos Dorsey (1868–1931) wrote; "The Blackmore Museum of Salisbury contains one of the best selected and arranged collections of man's prehistoric relics that I have ever seen."

William significantly sponsored the 1872 survey expedition of the Yellowstone region led by Ferdinand Hayden, also funding equipment for photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran. William and his wife travelled with the expedition. Hayden named a newly discovered mineral Blackmorite in thanks for William's support.

Blackmore commissioned photographers like Jackson to photograph Native Americans.  Some accompanied the survey expeditions, some he contacted and acquired their existing prints and some made portraits of natives visiting Washington. The work of some twenty-eight photographers were to be found in Blackmore's photographic collection.  These included Antonio Zeno Shindler (d.1899), Alexander Gardner, Orloff R. Westman, and Dr. William Abraham Bell.  The collections also included commercially available carte de visites and stereoscopic views.

William took prints for display at the museum but asked that the negatives be left for students to study.  The original set of photographs is referred to as the Blackmore Collection. Some photographers continued to make portraits after Blackmore left and those expanded were named for the photographer.

His brother, Dr. Humphrey Purnell Blackmore, a physician, surgeon and archaeologist was one of the founders of the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum which was primarily dedicated to local artefacts.  In 1902 the two museums were amalgamated, taking the latter name.  Following Humphrey Blackmore's death, a significant number of Blackmore Museum artefacts were distributed to other museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the Birmingham Museum, and the British Museum. In 1932, Barbara Freire-Marreco Aitken (1879–1967), a prominent anthropologist who had worked with the innovative educator and passionate amateur archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett (1865–1946), secured a substantial set of Blackmore's papers relating to his activities in New Mexico for the Historical Society of New Mexico. This material also included some 112 photographs in carte de visite, stereoscopic, Cabinet and other formats.  Blackmore's museum, whose name had become incorporated with that of the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum after his death – and amalgamated in 1902 – finally disappeared in 1968.  The remnants of his museum moved from its purpose built setting adjoining the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum in St. Ann Street to The King's House in the Cathedral Close in 1981 and the building was subsequently converted into residential apartments.

Death
While on the expedition to Yellowstone in July 1872, Blackmore's wife Mary contracted pneumonia and died in Bozeman, Montana.  William purchased land and donated it to the town for a cemetery.  Ferdinand Hayden named Mount Blackmore in Mary's honour.

In 1871 he sent his brother Henry and cousin George Blackmore and their families to look after lands in Colorado. A world recession hit in 1873, investors became agitated, American partners were taking advantage of William's absence leading to a stressful situation for the promoter. In 1877 his sister Blanche and her husband Arthur Boyle (1840–1910), whom she had married in that year, emigrated to America to look after Blackmore's property in New Mexico. Back in England William was suffering from a fall, overwork, lack of rest and over-indulgence. Humphrey prescribed some time away in the South of England. However, after a drinking binge he suffered from sun stroke, returning home in worse condition. Blackmore's business investments fell into more and more precarious states.  He was unable to raise funding to travel to the USA to sort matters out. On 12 April 1878 William shot himself in his study at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, London, London, near Victoria Station.  At his own request, he was buried on 20 April in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Published work
Colorado: Its Resources, Parks, and Prospects as a New Field for Emigration, with and Account of the Trenchara and Costilla Estates, in the San Luis Park. Published by Sampson Low, Son and Marston, 1869, London.
A brief account of the North American Indians and particularly of the hostile tribes of the plains; principal Indian events since 1862; causes of Indian wars; Indian atrocities and western reprisals; and war of extermination now being waged between the white and red men. An Introduction to Col. Richard Irving Dodge's Hunting Grounds of the Great West. Chatto & Windus, 1877, London.

Cited references

External links
William Blackmore Collection – A collection of William Blackmore's papers obtained by the Archives of New Mexico.
Twelve boxes of William Henry Jackson's photographs donated to the University of Iowa, William Blackmore mentioned in the Historical text.
Business papers, estate papers, accounts, corresp. of William Blackmore, Solicitor Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, UK
Some account of the Blackmore Museum – Online and PDF copies of the book written by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society in 1868.  284 pages.
Portrait of William Henry Blackmore from the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum, UK.

Addendum
 Two reasons there is so much material available on William Blackmore are: first, he was an individual who kept all his correspondence, notes and journals and his family was willing to share those documents with authors and archives; second, that he interacted with so many people in his lifetime and they or others recorded those interactions.
 Living relatives, through correspondence, related the following unsubstantiated story.  William acted as solicitor for Charles Darwin and travelled to the Orient with Darwin.  William became addicted to opium, which was partially responsible for his ill health.

Further reading
 Brayer, Herbert Oliver. (1949) William Blackmore: Volume One: The Spanish-Mexican Land Grants of New Mexico and Colorado. Bradford-Robinson, Denver.
 Brayer, Herbert Oliver. (1949) William Blackmore: Volume Two: Early Financing of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway and Ancillary Land Companies. Bradford-Robinson, Denver.
 Hamber, Anthony. (2010) Collecting the American West: The Rise and Fall of William Blackmore. Salisbury: Hobnob Press.
 Willoughby, R. W. H. (1960). "The (William) Blackmore Museum." The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (1958–1960) 57: 316–321.

1827 births
1878 deaths
19th-century English lawyers
People educated at King's School, Bruton
English solicitors
Suicides by firearm in England
Suicides in Greater London

William Henry Blackmore


K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel was a Belgian association football club from the city of Geel in Antwerp (province).

History
The club was born in 1921 as a merger of Flandria and Geel Sport, becoming Flandria Geel Sport, and registered in 1924 to the Belgian Football Association receiving the matricule n° 395 after changing its name to FC Verbroedering Geel.  It played for the first time in the second division in 1985–86.  In 1999–2000 it appeared shortly in the first division as it won the second division final round. At this time the club merged with neighbours from K.F.C. Herentals leaving both name and matricule of the latter club.

On 30 November 2005 Verbroedering Geel is judged by the Control Commission of the FA for having falsified the 2004–05 second division final round and is subsequently downgraded to the third division.  The judgement was confirmed on 1 March 2006 after which chairman Vic Keersmaekers resigned.  Eventually on 13 April 2006 the Evocation Commission cancelled the decision of the Control Commission.  Though on 3 May 2006 it was confirmed by the Appeal Commission of the FA that the club would be relegated.  It thus seized the Evocation Commission.  The executive committee of the FA decided on 8 May 2006 to let Geel play the 2005–06 second division final round although the rules of the competition state that a relegated club cannot take part in the final round.  On 15 June 2006 the Evocation Commission rejected the plaint of Geel and the club was then officially relegated to the third division, permitting K.M. S.K. Deinze to avoid relegation.

The club was suffering serious financial trouble. Conversations were started with the Egyptian group Wadi Degla Investment to take over the club. Eventually they chose to take over Lierse and KFC Turnhout. On 30 June 2008, the club filed for bankruptcy and ultimately ceased to exist.

A different local team Verbroedering Meerhout, playing in Belgian Promotion, chose to move to the stadium of Verbroedering Geel due to better facilities. They changed their name to Verbroedering Geel-Meerhout, a symbolic merger.

Honours
Belgian Second Division final round:
Winners (1): 1998–99
Belgian Third Division B:
Winners (1): 1984–85
Belgian Third Division final round:
Winners (1): 2006–2007

References

 Official website of Verbroedering Geel-Meerhout

Association football clubs established in 1921
Association football clubs disestablished in 2008
1921 establishments in Belgium
2008 disestablishments in Belgium
K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel
Belgian Pro League clubs
Defunct football clubs in Belgium

K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel


Judith of Thuringia (;  – 9 September after 1174), a member of the Ludovingian dynasty, was Queen consort of Bohemia from 1158 until 1172 as the second wife of King Vladislaus II. She was the second Queen of Bohemia after Świętosława of Poland, wife of King Vratislaus II, had received the title in 1085.

Marriage
Judith was the daughter of Landgrave Louis I of Thuringia (d. 1140) and his wife Hedwig of Gudensberg. She was raised at the Thuringian court at Wartburg Castle. In 1153 she was married to Duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia, three years after the death of his first wife Gertrude of Babenberg. The main reason for the marriage was that Judith, by her brother Landgrave Louis II and his wife Judith of Hohenstaufen, was related to the new German King Frederick Barbarossa. Vladislaus' bride was about eighteen years old; he was 15–20 years her senior.

Probably in 1155, two years after the wedding, Judith gave birth to the first son. In medieval times the names for
babies were chosen mostly by mothers, so it was probably Judith's idea to name the son Přemysl after the legendary founder of the Přemyslid dynasty.

Queen Judith

A chronicler wrote about Judith that she was of great beauty and mind, educated in Latin and politics. It is said that she often deputized for Vladislaus in his absence. When he obtained the royal title from Emperor Frederick and was crowned King of Bohemia in 1158, Judith became Queen consort. Her coronation is not actually documented, but chronicles write about Queen Judith.

During Vladislaus' rule a new bridge across the Vltava river in Prague was built from about 1160, where the famous Charles Bridge stands today. It was the first stone bridge in central Europe and in honour of the queen it was called Judith Bridge. Drawn away by a 1342 flood, remnants of some pillars and arches are still visible, as well as the preserved bridge tower (Juditina věž) on the Malá Strana bank.

In the ongoing struggle around the Prague throne, Judith backed the inheritance claims of her son Přemysl Ottokar, however, Duke Vladislaus named his stepbrother Frederick his successor. When her husband finally abdicated in 1172, his wife followed him to exile in Thuringia. Vladislaus died two years later at Meerane Castle.

It is not known where Judith died, but her remains were found in the former Benedictine monastery of Teplice, which she had founded about 1160. According to the historian Emanuel Vlček she died about 1210 at the age of 75, living to see the successful reign of her eldest son Přemysl.

Children
Ottokar ( – 1230), Duke of Bohemia in 1192/93 and again from 1197, became King of Bohemia in 1198, first of a hereditary line
Vladislaus III ( –  1222), Duke of Bohemia in 1197, Margrave of Moravia from 1197 until his death
Richeza (d. 1182), married to Henry of Mödling, a younger son of Duke Henry II of Austria.

Literature
KAREŠOVÁ, Z.; PRAŽÁK, J. Královny a kněžny české. 1. vyd. Praha : X-Egem, 1996.
VLČEK, E. Judita Durynská– paní znamenité krásy a ducha neobyčejného. O čem vypovídá lebka manželky krále Vladislava II. Vesmír 81, říjen 2002.
M. Skopal. K otázce řezenské korunovace Vladislava II. "Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Philosophica et Historica", T. 2: Studia Historica, t. 31: 1987, s. 31–39, ad rem: s. 36–37.
A. Merhautová-Livorová. Reliéf na věži bývalého Juditina mostu. "Uméní", R. 19: 1971, nr 1, s. 70–75.

References

Queens consort of Bohemia
Thuringian nobility
Ludovingians
12th-century people from Bohemia.
12th-century women from Bohemia
Daughters of monarchs

Judith of Thuringia


Pretty Poison is an American dance group based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Group members are Jade Starling (lead vocalist); Whey Cooler (keyboardist and guitarist); and Kaya Pryor (percussionist). Thomas Hays was also a guitarist as was Lou Franco. Pretty Poison is best known for their hit "Catch Me (I'm Falling)", a top 10 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1987.

Philadelphia

Pretty Poison (group)


Ira "Iry" LeJeune (October 27, 1928 – October 8, 1955) was one of the best selling and most popular Cajun musicians in the mid to late 1940s into the early 1950s.

His recordings and repertoire remain influential to the present day. He was among a handful of recording artists who returned the accordion to prominence in commercially recorded Cajun music and dance hall performances. The return of the accordion contrasted with the popular Cajun recorded output of the late 1930s and 1940s, a time during which fiddles and Western Swing sounds from Texas were influencing Cajun music. The return of the accordion to prominence is referred to as a Cajun music renaissance, i.e. a return to the roots and rebirth in Cajun pride in their traditional music. Iry LeJeune is regarded as one of the best and most beloved Cajun accordionists and singers of all time.

Early life

Iry LeJeune was born October 27, 1928, on a modest sharecropping farm at Pointe Noire, a rural area near Church Point, LA. LeJeune came from a family that embraced music and his father, Agness LeJeune, taught him the rudiments of accordion at an early age. LeJeune's uncle, Angelas LeJeune, an excellent accordion player who'd made 78s in the 1920s, also encouraged him, often showing LeJeune traditional songs on his instrument. Nearly blind, music provided happiness for LeJeune, and as he grew older, he relied on it to make a living. Besides his uncle, LeJeune's major influence was Amédé Ardoin, the Creole accordion player who made several records in the 1930s - "Jole Catin" and "Les Blues De Voyage" among others – and was popular at white and Creole dances in the area. LeJeune selected Ardoin's repertoire and adopted the emotive crying style of vocals that would eventually become his trademark.

Unable to work in the fields because of his poor eyesight, as a youth, LeJeune entertained the local sharecroppers. By the time he reached his teens, LeJeune was making a few dollars on weekends playing dances around Church Point, and occasionally traveling as far as Eunice, LA to perform. At the conclusion of World War II, LeJeune moved west to Lacassine, Louisiana (near Lake Charles, LA) where there were many more venues in which to play music.

Cajun Renaissance

Initially, LeJeune found the going tough because at the time the accordion and Cajun music had become unpopular, as it was being replaced by the fiddle and Western Swing music. In postwar Louisiana, many felt Acadiana should assimilate with the rest of America and eliminate the French language, culture and music.

Luckily, in 1946 LeJeune met fiddler Floyd LeBlanc. Together they traveled to Houston, Texas where they recorded "Love Bridge Waltz" and "Evangeline Special" on Leblanc's "Opera" label with Virgil Bozeman's Oklahoma Tornadoes supporting. The disc was the turning point in LeJeune's career and for Cajun music. For the first time in nearly a decade, the accordion again wailed from radios and jukeboxes, largely due to many Cajuns returning home from World War II eager to hear their own Cajun music. Cajun listeners responded by buying great quantities of the release. LeJeune stayed in Houston with LeBlanc, performing and enjoying the popularity of the record, but returned to Louisiana after six months.

Upon returning to Lacassine, LeJeune went to radio station KPLC in Lake Charles and asked to perform on the air. The station manager wasn't keen on hearing the primitive, wailing accordion, but disc jockey Eddie Shuler liked what he heard and featured him on several broadcasts. "I felt sorry for the kid," admitted Shuler. "He was nearly blind and he had no other way to make money."

The cameo on Shuler's show proved so successful that Lake Charles listeners demanded more French music. A year later, there was as much as eight hours of French broadcasting on KPLC daily. Still, LeJeune needed a new record out to get work at the dances around Lake Charles. He then approached Shuler, who'd already made a record with his group, the Reveliers, and released it on his own Goldband Records label. "He said 'Eddie, I want to make records and I want you to make them,'" said Shuler. "I didn't know anything about making French records. Finally I agreed though because there was nobody around here making French records. Nobody was interested in making them because there was no money in French records. But as it turned out, I had the market to myself."

Bribing the engineer with a bottle of Old Crow, Shuler had LeJeune record "Lacassine Special" and "Calcasieu Waltz" on a disc cutter at the radio station used to record commercials and jingles. He sent the metal masters to Houston where several hundred 78s were pressed on the Folk Star label.  Later, he did the same with TNT Records in San Antonio. Selling the release from the trunk of his car to record shops and jukebox outlets, the disc did remarkably well in the area. As a result, Shuler rushed LeJeune back to the station to cut "Teche Special" and "Te Mone." Suddenly, the fiddle was on the way out of Louisiana and the accordion was back in. Accordionists Lawrence Walker, Aldus Roger, Sidney Brown and Nathan Abshire would soon follow with their own records, but they couldn't touch LeJeune in terms of popularity or sales.

LeJeune assembled a crack band, the Lacassine Playboys, which at one time or another featured Crawford Vincent or Robert Bertrand on drums, Alfred "Duckhead" Cormier on guitar, Wilson Granger on fiddle, R. C. Vanicor on steel guitar and even occasionally Shuler on guitar. The Playboys were known for their casual appearance on the bandstand as LeJeune, never further than an arm's length from a cigarette and a cold bottle of Jax, often looked like he'd just arrived from a day of fishing. Attire aside, LeJeune continued to accumulate a phenomenal body of work. Shuler continued to record LeJeune at KPLC and later at LeJeune's home in Calcasieu, LA, setting his tape recorder on the kitchen table. From LeJeune's kitchen came the beautiful "Duraldo Waltz," a song that featured no accordion, but did include a well-timed bark by the LeJeune family's hog dog, Rain. Another classic was "I Made A Big Mistake," a J.D. Miller composition accentuated by LeJeune's bluesy vocals and crying accordion.

Death

Sadly, at the peak of his career, LeJeune was killed at the age of 26. LeJeune and fiddler J. B. Fuselier were returning home after playing at a dance at the Green Wing club in Eunice on October 8, 1955, when tragedy struck. "They were coming home on old Highway 90," recalled Shuler. "They had a flat where they were widening the highway and they couldn't pull off. They were trying to change the tire when a guy came along going about 90 MPH. He hit him (LeJeune) and knocked him into a field. That was the end of Iry."

LeJeune left a wife Wilma, and five children including Eddie LeJeune and Ervin LeJeune, who would follow in their father's musical footsteps.

Legacy

Widely mourned in Acadiana, LeJeune's music continued to live on. To this day most jukeboxes in Acadiana have at least one selection by LeJeune, he remains a staple of Cajun radio, and most Cajun bands feature some of LeJeune's material. The timelessness of LeJeune's music can be traced to his mastery of the accordion and his unrestrained individuality. LeJeune sang deeply personal songs about his life which in fact reflected the lives of all Cajuns. Iry LeJeune said that he wasn't ashamed to sing and speak French and that the Cajun way of life suited him just fine. Simply put, he was proud to be Cajun when it wasn't necessarily popular.

LeJeune's complete body of work consists of fewer than 30 songs. Frustratingly for Cajun listeners, unless you were lucky enough to possess some of his original 78s or 45s, until a few years ago, you couldn't hear LeJeune's undoctored masterpieces. When assembling LeJeune's material for reissue on LP in 1970, Shuler overdubbed an electric bass on all the tracks. This was undone when Ace Records in England assembled Iry LeJeune: Cajun's Greatest — The Definitive Collection using original discs and master tapes as sources.

 Iry LeJeune with the Oklahoma Tornadoes: Love Bridge Waltz
 Iry LeJeune with the Oklahoma Tornadoes: Evangeline Special

Both Love Bridge Waltz and Evangeline Special were inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2009.

See also
History of Cajun Music
List of Notable People Related to Cajun Music

References
Yule, Ron. Iry LeJeune: Wailin' the Blues Cajun Style. Natchitoches, LA: Northwestern State University of Louisiana Press, 2007.

External links

1928 births
1955 deaths
American folk musicians
Musicians from Louisiana
Cajun accordionists
20th-century American musicians
20th-century accordionists

Iry LeJeune


In queueing theory, a discipline within the mathematical theory of probability, a layered queueing network (or rendezvous network) is a queueing network model where the service time for each job at each service node is given by the response time of a queueing network (and those service times in turn may also be determined by further nested networks). Resources can be nested and queues form along the nodes of the nesting structure. The nesting structure thus defines "layers" within the queueing model.

Layered queueing has applications in a wide range of distributed systems which involve different master/slave, replicated services and client-server components, allowing each local node to be represented by a specific queue, then orchestrating the evaluation of these queues.

For large population of jobs, a fluid limit has been shown in PEPA to be a give good approximation of performance measures.

External links

 Tutorial Introduction to Layered Modeling of Software Performance by Murray Woodside, Carleton University

References

Distributed computing
Queueing theory
Network performance

Layered queueing network


In mathematics, particularly matrix theory, the n×n Lehmer matrix (named after Derrick Henry Lehmer) is the constant symmetric matrix defined by

Alternatively, this may be written as

Properties

As can be seen in the examples section, if A is an n×n Lehmer matrix and B is an m×m Lehmer matrix, then A is a submatrix of B whenever m>n. The values of elements diminish toward zero away from the diagonal, where all elements have value 1.

The inverse of a Lehmer matrix is a tridiagonal matrix, where the superdiagonal and subdiagonal have strictly negative entries. Consider again the n×n A and m×m B Lehmer matrices, where m>n. A rather peculiar property of their inverses is that A−1 is nearly a submatrix of B−1, except for the A−1n,n element, which is not equal to B−1n,n.

A Lehmer matrix of order n has trace n.

Examples
The 2×2, 3×3 and 4×4 Lehmer matrices and their inverses are shown below.

See also
 Derrick Henry Lehmer
 Hilbert matrix

References
 M. Newman and J. Todd, The evaluation of matrix inversion programs, Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Volume 6, 1958, pages 466-476.

Matrices

Lehmer matrix


Jim Murphy (b. 23 August 1967 in Glesga) is a Scots Labour Pairty politeecian. He wis its convener frae 13 December 2014 tae 16 Mey 2015, an MP frae 1 Mey 1997 tae 30 Mairch 2015.
In the Unitit Kinrick General Election on 7 Mey 2015 he lost his seat in Glesga tae the Scots National Pairty an the pairty lost awmaist aw o its seats in Scotland. He resignit as convener an wis succeedit bi Kezia Dugdale on 15 August 2015.

He wis made famous by tauking anent sniffin the glue when he wis asked anent drugs in a pairlamentary debate on cannabis, sayin he didnae ken if he ever sniffed it, but later denied ever takin drugs.

References

1967 births
Scots fowk o Erse strynd
Alumni o the Varsity o Strathclyde
Livin fowk
Members o the Privy Cooncil o the Unitit Kinrick
Politeecians frae Cape Toun
Politeecians frae Glesga
Politics o East Renfrewshire
Preses o the Naitional Union o Students (Unitit Kinrick)
Scots Labour Pairty MPs
Scots Roman Catholics
Secretaries o State for Scotland
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
Leaders o the Scots Labour Pairty
Internaitional opponents o apartheid in Sooth Africae

Jim Murphy


Ovarian cysts are collections of fluids, surrounded by a very thin wall within an ovary. Ovarian follicles that are larger than two centimeters are termed ovarian cysts. The cysts range from pea-sized to just larger than an orange. Most cysts are functional in nature and harmless.

Ovarian cysts affect women of any age.

Diseases and disorders of the female reproductive system

Ovarian cyst


Titania is a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. She is Queen of the Fairies. She is married to Oberon, King of the Fairies. She will not give a little Indian boy she has in her keeping to Oberon. This angers him. When she is asleep, he tells his servant Puck to put a love potion in her eyes. This potion will make her love the first thing she sees when she wakes. What she sees is a weaver named Bottom.  Puck has put a donkey's head on Bottom. All ends well, with Titania once again in love with Oberon this ends straight away as they both find out they are lying to each other.

Characters in Shakespeare's plays
Fairies

Titania (Shakespeare)


Rainulf Drengot (also Ranulph, Ranulf, or Rannulf; died June 1045) was a Norman adventurer and mercenary in southern Italy. In 1030 he became the first count of Aversa. He was a member of the Drengot family.

Early life and arrival in Italy

When Rainulf was exiled by Richard II of Normandy for a violent criminal act, Rainulf, Osmond, and their brothers Gilbert Buatère, Asclettin (later count of Acerenza), and Raulf went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the soldier-archangel, Michael, at Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano in the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy. They brought with them a band of 250 warriors, formed of other exiles, landless cadets and similar adventurers.

Mercenary service
In 1017 they arrived in the Mezzogiorno, which was in a state of virtual anarchy. Establishing a stronghold at Monte Gargano in Apulia, they joined forces with the Lombard Melus of Bari, who had rebelled against his Byzantine overlords but who was currently on the run. Their first major engagement with the army of the Byzantine catepan Basil Boioannes, fought at the Battle of Cannae, an ancient Apulian villa, was a disaster for the Normans and ended in defeat.  They were decimated and their leader, Rainulf's brother Gilbert, was killed. Rainulf, who now came to the fore as the undisputed leader, withdrew with the remnants of the band from Apulia to Campania, where, according to Amatus of Montecassino, though surrounded by enemies they were able to take advantage of dissension among the undisciplined Lombard lords.

They took to protecting, at a price, bands of pilgrims headed for the shrine of St Michael from the depredations of other marauders. Rainulf also served the Lombard Pandulf IV of Capua. "Under his protection," Amatus reports, "they hastened to plunder the neighboring places and to harass his enemies. But since human thoughts are inclined to greed and money always triumphs in the end, from time to time they abandoned him... They sold their services as they could, according to circumstances, offering most to him who gave most." Soon the balance of power in Lombard Campania lay in Norman hands: "For the Normans never desired any of the Lombards to win a decisive victory, in case this should be to their disadvantage. But now supporting the one and then aiding the other, they prevented anyone being completely ruined."

Norman reinforcements and local miscreants, who found a welcome in Rainulf's encampment with no questions asked, swelled the numbers at Rainulf's command. Their Norman language and Norman customs welded a disparate group into the semblance of a nation, as Amatus observed.

Mercenary to Count
Rainulf eventually switched his allegiance to Sergius IV of Naples, with whom he achieved some success. In 1030, Duke Sergius gave him the former Byzantine stronghold of Aversa north of Naples, with the title of count and his sister in marriage.  In 1034, this first wife died, and Rainulf married the daughter of the duke of Amalfi, who was also the niece of Sergius' inveterate enemy, Pandulf IV of Capua; He expanded his territory at the expense of the abbey of Montecassino.  His title to Aversa was recognised in 1037 by Emperor Conrad II. After vanquishing the Byzantines in battle in 1038, he declared himself prince, formalizing his independence from Naples and from his former Lombard allies. He conquered his neighbour Pandulf's principality, and Conrad approved the union of the two domains, which formed the largest polity in southern Italy.  In 1039, he was at the side of Guaimar IV of Salerno and the emperor Conrad.

Ranulf was one of the leaders of the anti-Byzantine coalition which rebelled in southern Italy in 1040. He took part in the decisive victory at the battle of Olivento in March 1041. In 1042, after the victory of his Norman ally William Iron Arm, he received, from the erstwhile Byzantine territories, suzerainty over Siponto and Monte Gargano. He died in June 1045 and was succeeded by his nephew, Asclettin, son of Asclettin of Acerenza.

The historians Amatus of Montecassino and William of Apulia are the main contemporary sources for the career of Rainulf.

See also
Norman conquest of southern Italy
Drengot family

Notes

References
Norman World: The first Norman rulers
Lexikon des Mittlealters vol. VII, p 422

Italo-Normans
Norman mercenaries
Norman warriors
1045 deaths
Counts of Aversa
Dukes of Gaeta
Year of birth unknown

Rainulf Drengot


Gamer.tv was a weekly television show produced by the company of the same name and owned by IMG, that ran from 2002 to 2008. Each half-hour episode mixed topical video game news, reviews, previews and features. The series aired on a number of networks around the world including Bravo in the United Kingdom and Starz in North America. It was also shown in Canada, South America, Spain, India, and New Zealand, and video segments appeared on a number of websites, as well, including MSN. The show was banned in China.

History
The first episode aired in December 2002. In October 2005, the UK edition briefly changed name to "Gamer TV: Next Gen" for 12 episodes that featured host Sam Delaney on screen. In January 2006, they reverted to its traditional name and Sam Delaney's narration. On 14 September 2007, the series celebrated its 250th episode. On the 25 November 2007 episode, Gamer.tv changed its scoring system from out of 5, to out of 10.

Gamer.tv concluded in the UK on 26 April 2008 with its 283rd episode. Bravo replaced it with Playr on 3 May 2008.

Between May 2006 and February 2008, it aired in the United States on Starz narrated by Christian Stevenson, with occasional segments from the UK programme.

It was aired in India and in various parts of Asia through TEN Sports, during its original run and with one-week tape delay.

In the UK, it spawned two spin-offs, which also aired on Bravo. The first was "Gamer's Guide to..." and then a different subtitle each week, such as Gamer's Guide to PS3 Games and Gamer's Guide to Wii Games, which showcased all the reviews from previous Gamer.tv shows in a compilation of must own video games. The second was Gamer.tv Extra which included the production team revealing more on the games featured in that week's episode of Gamer.tv as well as some games exclusive to Extra.

The series has also appeared on the American television network GSN under their GSN Video Games block, paired with another Gamer.tv program, Game Sauce; and G4. Segments from this program were re-vamped and added to a show in Nickelodeon Games and Sports called Play 2Z.

References

External links
Official website

2002 British television series debuts
2008 British television series endings
Television shows about video games

Gamer.tv


Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (founded 1958) is a German classical music record label. It was founded by Rudolf Ruby and based in Freiburg, Breisgau. The company was acquired by BMG Music in 1992 and is now part of Sony Music Entertainment. Ruby had Alfred Krings of WDR assemble their own house orchestra Collegium Aureum, founded 1964, to perform early music, selecting as leader Franzjosef Maier.

During the war Ruby had been imprisoned as a member of the Kreisau Circle of anti-Nazi resistance, and at a reunion in the 1960s he met fellow resistance member prince Joseph-Ernst Graf Fugger von Glött who invited him to use the Fugger castle, Schloss Fugger, in Kirchheim in Schwaben for his concerts and recordings. The connection with the Fugger family continued through the "Music of the Fuggers" recording made for DHM by Anthony Rooley.

Ruby had distribution deals with his friend Bernard Coutaz of Harmonia Mundi France, until first BASF, then briefly with EMI bought into the label in the late 1980s, before finally selling to BMG in 1992 and retiring in 1993. In his retirement Ruby later founded the smaller Ars Musici label, which was purchased in 2008 by Membran.

References

External links

Classical music record labels
Early music record labels
German record labels
Record labels established in 1958
1958 establishments in Germany
Freiburg im Breisgau
Companies based in Baden-Württemberg
Former Bertelsmann subsidiaries
Sony Music

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi


The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam tennis event still held on grass. Initially an amateur event that occupied club members and their friends for a few days each summer, the championships have become far more prominent than the club itself. However, it still operates as a members' tennis club.

The club has 375 full members, about 100 temporary playing members, and a number of honorary members. To become a full or temporary member, an applicant must obtain letters of support from four existing full members, two of whom must have known the applicant for at least three years. The name is then added to the candidates' list. Honorary members are elected from time to time by the club's committee. Membership carries with it the right to purchase two tickets for each day of the Wimbledon Championships. In addition to this all champions are invited to become members.

The Princess of Wales has been the patron of the club since 2016 when the then monarch Elizabeth II stepped back from a number of royal patronages.

History

The club was founded by six gentlemen at the offices of The Field on 23 July 1868 at the height of a croquet craze as the All England Croquet Club, and held its first croquet competition in 1870. Its original ground was situated off Worple Road, Wimbledon. Croquet was very popular there until the then-infant sport of lawn tennis (a game introduced by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year or so prior, and originally called Sphairistikè) was introduced in 1875, when one lawn was set aside for this purpose. The first tennis gentlemen's championship in singles was held in July 1877, when the club changed its name to The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. That year at Wimbledon service was underarm. The champion, Spencer Gore, opined that "Lawn tennis will never rank among our great games." In 1878 the height of the net was altered to  at the posts and  at the centre. In 1882, croquet was dropped from the name, as tennis had become the main activity of the club. But in 1899 it was restored to the club's name for sentimental reasons, and the club's name became The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

In 1884, the club added Ladies' Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles, and then in 1913 Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles. For the 1908 Summer Olympics, the venue hosted the Grass Courts tennis events. The early club colours were found to be almost identical to those of the Royal Marines, so they were changed in 1909 to the present club colours of dark green and purple. The popularity of Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen was largely responsible for forcing the club to move to larger grounds at its present site in Church Road, Wimbledon, in 1922, where its first championship was "plagued by rain each day".

The current Centre Court dates from that year. It has been improved and extended on several occasions. Most recently a sliding roof was added in time for the 2009 Championships. In 1924 the old No.1 Court opened on the west side of Centre Court. During World War II The Championships were suspended but the club remained open with a much smaller staff, and was used for fire and ambulance services, British Home Guard, and a decontamination unit, and troops stationed nearby drilled on the main concourse. At 5:20 p.m. on 11 October 1940, five 50-pound German bombs struck the grounds, demolishing 1,200 seats in Centre Court. The old No.1 Court was replaced with the current No.1 Court in 1997, and the Broadcast Centre was built at the same time. Shortly afterwards, the Millennium Building, which houses facilities for players, press, officials and members, was built on the site of the old No.1 Court.

The Church Road site initially extended only as far north as Centre Court. In 1967 the All England Club purchased  to the north. This was leased to the New Zealand Sports and Social Club and became known as Aorangi Park (Aorangi means "Cloud Piercer", and is the Māori part of Aoraki / Mount Cook; "Aorangi" is the standard Māori spelling and "Aoraki" is used in the Māori dialect in the vicinity of the mountain). It is most commonly known as "Henman Hill" because of the popularity of former British tennis player Tim Henman. Initially the only use that the All England Club itself made of this new land was for car parking during The Championships, but in 1981 the New Zealanders' lease was terminated, and the club has developed most of the area for its own purposes.

The All England Club, through its subsidiary The All England Lawn Tennis Ground plc, issues debentures to tennis fans every five years to raise funds for capital expenditure. The original debentures were issued in 1920. Each debenture provides a pair of tickets for each day of the tournament for five years. Only debenture holders are legally permitted to sell on their tickets to third parties.

In 2011, the club established another subsidiary, The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Limited, trading as AELTC, and transferred all of its assets relating to The Championships to that entity on 1 August of that year. Since that time, the club's activities have been conducted separately from those of The Championships.

The club was the venue for the tennis event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In June 2020, Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time since World War II due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wimbledon was cancelled several times during the wars: in World War I between 1915–1918 and World War II between 1940 and 1945.

From June 2022, Wimbledon was played on a Sunday for the first time since 2016, as a replacement for the traditional rest day.

In July 2023, Debbie Jevans became the first chairwoman of the board, succeeding Ian Hewitt at the end of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.

1913 suffragette terror attack

A failed attempt was made to destroy the grounds in 1913, as part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign. During the years before the First World war, suffragettes, as part of their campaign for women's votes, carried out politically motivated arson and bombings across the country. On 27 February 1913, a suffragette woman "between the ages of 30–35" was arrested within the grounds, after being spotted by a groundsman climbing over a hedge at around midnight. She was found to have on her paraffin and wood shavings, for the purpose of setting fires in the grounds. The woman refused to give her name or any information and was later sentenced to two months' imprisonment.

Facilities

The club currently has 18 tournament grass courts, eight American clay courts, two acrylic courts, and six indoor courts. There are also 22 Aorangi Park grass courts, which serve as competitors' practice courts before and during The Championships. The grass courts can be used from May until September. The grass has been cut to 8 mm since 1995, and 100% perennial ryegrass has been used for its strength since 2001 (prior to that, it was 70% perennial rye and 30% creeping red fescue). The courts are renovated in September, using nine tons of grass seed annually.

The largest court is Centre Court, which hosts the finals of the main singles and doubles events at The Championships. There is an inscription above the entryway to Centre Court which reads "If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same" – lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem If—. This court also served as the main venue for the tennis events at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Initially, the courts were arranged in such a way that the principal court was situated in the middle with the others arranged around it; hence the title "Centre Court".

The present Centre Court, built in 1922 upon the move of the club, was not actually in the centre at the time it was built, but as new courts were added in later years it became a more accurate description. It currently seats 15,000 – expanded from 14,000 following redevelopment in 2007–08 (spatially, the expansion is greater than those numbers imply, as seats have been widened), and (as of 2009) is the fourth-largest tennis stadium in the world. The Club installed a retractable roof on Centre Court which was completed in May 2009. It is a "folding concertina" made of 5,200 square metres of a translucent waterproof fabric that allows natural light to reach the grass, and opens or closes in under 10 minutes. Redevelopment work commenced in 2006, and Centre Court had no roof at all in place for the duration of the 2007 Championships.

The other "show court" is No.1 Court, built in 1997, which holds around 11,500 people and occasionally plays host to Davis Cup matches (Centre Court usually being reserved for the Wimbledon Championships). It has been fitted with a retractable roof similar to Centre Court and was unveiled at a special ceremony on 19 May 2019.

A new No.2 Court with 4,000 seats was first used at the 2009 Championships. The old No.2 Court was renamed No.3 Court in 2009, and was rebuilt after the 2009 Championships. The grounds underwent major renovation as part of the Wimbledon Master Plan.

In December 2018 the club agreed a £65 million compensation package with the members of the adjacent Wimbledon Park Golf Club to cut short their lease on the ground in order to expand.

The club also houses the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

The Championships

Among the features that differentiate The Wimbledon Championships from the other Grand Slams are that they are played on grass courts, they require the players to wear white, and until 2021, the middle Sunday was a day off (though sometimes – in 1991, 1997, 2004 and 2016 – poor weather meant play needed to take place). Balls were also white until 1986. The winner of the Gentlemen's singles at The Championships receives a gold trophy inscribed with the words: "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World".

The Championships attract attendance of around 450,000 people. Ninety per cent of the financial surplus that the Club generates from running The Championships is used to develop tennis in Great Britain; between 1998 and 2016 the surplus ranged from £25–40 million per year. The Championships are run by a Committee of Management that consists of 12 club members and seven nominees of The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

In 2003, a long-standing tradition of Centre Court players bowing or curtseying to the Royal Box was discontinued by order of the Duke of Kent, with the exception of the Queen or the Prince of Wales's attendance. Andy Murray and Jarkko Nieminen elected to bow when the Queen visited The Championships for their 2010 second round match, as did Roger Federer and Fabio Fognini at their second round match, watched by the Prince of Wales, in 2012. In December 2016, it was announced that the then Duchess of Cambridge would succeed the Queen as Patron of The AELTC and The Championships, effective January 2017.

Controversies

Black players were not allowed to play at the club until 1951, and Jews were not admitted until 1952. According to Angela Buxton, the Jewish former British Wimbledon doubles champion, it also has led to her exclusion. Buxton said in 2004, reflecting on the fact that the All England Club, almost 50 years after Buxton's 1956 Wimbledon triumph with Althea Gibson, had still not invited Buxton to join: "I think the anti-Semitism is still there. The mere fact that I'm not a member is a full sentence that speaks for itself." Buxton told New York Post reporter Marc Berman that she had been on the "waiting list" since she applied in the 1950s. "I wish it still wasn't such an elite sport," Buxton told Berman. "I wish we could bring it down to a common baseline. It's going that way. It's still not there."

In 2006, Chairman Tim Phillips said that paying men and women equal prize money at The Championships was something they "fundamentally don't think would be fair on the men" (due to men playing best-of-five sets, and women only best-of-three). The Championships introduced equal prize money the following year.

Arms

See also
 Wimbledon Championships
 The Wimbledon Effect
 Wimbledon Manor House
 Queen's Club – London's second most famous tennis club
 History of tennis
 Lawn Tennis Association

Notes

References

External links

 Club page on the Wimbledon Championships site
 "Wimbledon: Facts, Figures, and Fun," by Cameron Brown

1868 establishments in England
Venues of the 1908 Summer Olympics
Venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics
Wimbledon Championships
Buildings and structures in Wimbledon, London
Croquet in England
Olympic tennis venues
Sport in the London Borough of Merton
Sports clubs and teams established in 1868
Sports venues in London
Tennis venues in London
History of tennis
Wightman Cup
Croquet clubs
Sports clubs and teams in England
Tennis clubs


B minor is a minor scale based on B.  The harmonic minor raises the A to A.  Its key signature has two sharps.

Its relative major is D major, and its parallel major is B major.

In Baroque times, people thought that B minor was the key of passive suffering. Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739-1791) said that it was a key that was complaining gently and quietly, something that matches Bach's use of the key in the St. John's Passion. By Beethoven's time, B minor had changed in people's minds: Francesco Galeazzi wrote that B minor was not suitable for music in good taste, and Beethoven labelled a B minor melodic idea in one of his sketchbooks as a "black key".
The chord was famously used as the first chord in Pink Floyd's 1979 hit "Comfortably Numb". The second movement of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, one of the most famous compositions for the classical guitar, is in B minor.

Well-known Classical pieces in this key
 Violin Concerto No. 3 (Saint-Saëns) - Camille Saint-Saëns
 Mass in B minor - Johann Sebastian Bach
 Piano Sonata in B minor - Franz Liszt
 Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58 - Frédéric Chopin
 Waltz Opus 69 No. 2 in B Minor - Frédéric Chopin
 Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor (La Campanella) - Niccolò Paganini
 Symphony No. 8 in B minor - Franz Schubert
 Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 (Pathétique) - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
 E lucevan le stelle from Tosca'' - Giacomo Puccini
 Cello Concerto in B minor - Antonín Dvořák
 Concerto for 4 Violins and Cello, RV 580 (Concerto No. 10 from L'estro armonico) - Antonio Vivaldi

References

Musical keys
Minor scales

B minor


The Camel Trophy was a vehicle-oriented competition that was held every year between 1980 and 1998. It was best known for its use of Land Rover vehicles over extreme terrain.

Events

1980s
The Camel Trophy began in 1980 as a team expedition over the Trans-Amazonian highway. Camel Trophy events since then have been informally called "the Olympics of 4×4".  They were all about adventure and exploration.  Over the next eight years, the expeditions crossed Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Zaire, Brazil, Borneo, Australia, Madagascar (the first north-south crossing) and Sulawesi before returning to the Amazon. These extreme tests of human endurance brought together teams from around the world. Each team hoped they could triumph over some of the worst off-road conditions imaginable. Teamwork and mutual trust were crucial. The competition came in a series of "Special Tasks," such as winching and timed driving routes. In each case national teams competed against each other.

1990s
In the 1990s, the Camel Trophy headed to Siberia and the USSR, followed by Tanzania, Burundi, Guyana, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile (the "Road to Hell" event), Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras (controversially serving 500 out-of-season lobster at a dinner), Kalimantan (a thousand miles and 18 rollovers to celebrate the first crossing of the island 100 years previously) and Mongolia. The Camel Trophy however, did not simply change venue; over the years, the event evolved from a mud-plugging expedition to involve elements of adventure sport, such as kayaking, mountain biking and winter sports.  Teams were selected by each competing nation in competitions held nationally, designed to test the athletic, engineering and driving prowess of potential candidates.

Although the events had an impact on the environment where they travelled, there were ways in which the Camel Trophy benefited the local society or environment.  In 1993, for example, the teams worked through the night to build an environmental monitoring station in the jungle so biologists could accurately study the flora and fauna of an area. In all the events, the convoy's progress reopened roads and trails which had fallen into disuse. They frequently rebuilt bridges and repaired sections of damaged roads.

End of the Camel Trophy
In 1998 the Camel Trophy returned to Argentina and Chile for the penultimate Tierra del Fuego event. The Land Rover Freelander made its debut and was used to speed the competitors six thousand miles across the remote and snowy environment.  Outdoor pursuits dominated the event.  Shortly afterwards, Land Rover, a major sponsor, felt that the Camel Trophy was moving away from adventure and exploration and a news release indicated they would not sponsor future events. This ultimately led to the cancellation of the 1999 event which was planned for Peru.

In 2000 the Camel Trophy returned with a new style of event.  It developed the spirit of the Tierra del Fuego event and the Camel brand but with the 32 competitors exploring Tonga and Samoa in RIB powerboats.  This event was the single most successful Camel Trophy event as both a sporting activity and a Camel PR and marketing exercise. At this time the international brands of RJ Reynolds (which included Worldwide Brand Inc, the owners of the CT brand) were in the process of being sold to Japan Tobacco Inc.  JTI subsequently chose to change direction and instead concentrate on the Camel Active fashion brand.  It was to be the last Camel Trophy event.

Vehicles
The Camel Trophy originated in 1980 with three Jeep-equipped German teams exploring the Amazon.  After that first event, the organisers turned to Land Rover. Over the course of the next twenty years, all of the Land Rover vehicle range were used. Range Rover, Series III, Defender, Discovery and Freelander vehicles all appeared in the distinctive "sandglow" colour scheme.

The vehicles were heavily modified by Land Rover Special Vehicles with a range of expedition, recovery and safety equipment, including:

 Safety Devices roll cages
 Under body protection and steering guards
 Modified electrical systems
 Winches
 Dixon Bate tow hitches and recovery points
 Mantec snorkels
 Transmission breathers
 Michelin XCL or BF Goodrich Mud and snow tires
 Upgraded suspension and transmission components
 Auxiliary fuel tanks
 Webasto fuel burning heaters
 Brownchurch / Safety Devices roof racks
 Hella driving, spot, fog and work lights.
 Brownchurch Bull bars and bush wires
 Flag poles
 Event plaques, decals and sponsor logos (including Camel Trophy Adventure Wear/Bags/Boots/Watches, Lee Cougan, Perception, Sony, Scott USA, Safety Devices, Land Rover, Fjällräven, Warn, Malaysia Airlines, Superwinch, Shell, Avon)
 Expedition tools, Jerry cans, Pelican cases, Zarges boxes, high lift or New Concept air jacks, sand ladders, axes, ropes, drawbars, spades
 Garmin, Terratrip and other navigation and communication equipment

Usually the Land Rovers were only used once for one event. Some competitors purchased their vehicles and many remained in the host country.  Those vehicles that returned to the UK were highly sought after as they were low mileage—but they were "Camel Trophy miles".  They were stripped of most of their equipment by Land Rover before they were sold but kept the color and Camel Trophy markings.

References

Other websites
 First Camel Trophy - Camel Trophy 1980 Transamazonica, YouTube
 Camel Trophy Land Rover History, YouTube

Team sports
1980 establishments
2000 disestablishments

Camel Trophy