Baxter v. United States, 633 F. Supp. 912 (D. Nev. 1986), was a federal tax refund case, decided in 1986, regarding the U.S. federal income tax treatment of the gambling income of a professional gambler.  Because of this case, gambling winnings in the United States can in certain cases be treated as business income for federal income tax purposes. This means that in some cases expenses and losses can be deducted from gambling winnings in arriving at the net earnings from self-employment, and that winnings can be placed into retirement funds.

History

William E. (Billy) Baxter, Jr., had been a gambler since the age of fourteen. For the tax years in question (years 1978 through 1981), both Baxter and the government agreed that Baxter was engaged in the activity of gambling as a "professional gambler."  The parties agreed that Baxter devoted a substantial amount of time to his gambling activity, which was poker. Baxter was a pioneer in professional poker who later went on to win seven World Series of Poker bracelets. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006. Between 1978 and 1981, Baxter claimed $1.2 million in gambling winnings.

Background

To Baxter, the 50% versus 70% maximum marginal tax rates meant the difference of $178,000. At first, Baxter refused to pay. His Certified Public Accountant, E.J. Maddocks, advised Baxter that to avoid potential penalties and interest, Baxter should instead pay the tax asserted by the government, and later sue the government for a tax refund.

The preliminary issue presented to the trial court was whether Baxter, as a professional gambler, was engaged in a "trade or business" for federal income tax purposes. If Baxter was engaged in a trade or business, then his income would be taxed at what was then a maximum rate of 50% for "personal service income" (as that term was defined in the Internal Revenue Code at the time). If, however, Baxter was not engaged in a trade or business, the income would not be "personal service income," and the maximum tax rate would be 70%. The tax law at the time defined "personal service income" to be "earned" income within the meaning of what was then section 911(b) of the Internal Revenue Code.  The court noted that "if Baxter derived his gaming income actively from his expenditure of time, energy, and skill rather than passively from his use of his property, then his gaming income constitutes 'earned income'."

The trial court analyzed two alternative tests for determining whether an activity constitutes a "trade or business" for federal income tax purposes: the "goods and services" test, and the "facts and circumstances" test. The government conceded that if the "facts and circumstances" test was the appropriate test, then Baxter's activity would constitute a trade or business, resulting in the lower tax rate and a lower tax liability.

Trial court ruling

The Nevada judge who heard the case ruled in favor of Baxter, declaring "I find the government's argument to be ludicrous. I just wish you had some money and could sit down with Mr. Baxter and play some poker."

The court stated:

[ . . . ] the Court finds that capital was not a meterial -income-producing factor in Baxter's gaming income. In fact, the Court finds that Baxter's income was derived entirely from his personal services and that the capital he used to finance his poker playing was merely a "tool of the trade." The money, once bet, would have produced no income without the application of Baxter's skills. [ . . . ] it was Baxter's extraordinary poker skills which generated his substantial gaming income, not the intrinsic value of the money he bet.

The trial court ruled in favor of Baxter's claims for tax refunds.

Appeal

When the government appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, that court ruled in Baxter's favor. The government threatened to take the case to the United States Supreme Court, but eventually backed down.

Impact
Because of this case, gambling winnings in the United States can be treated as earned income for federal income tax purposes, depending on the facts and circumstances of the case. This means that in some cases expenses and losses can be deducted from gambling winnings in arriving at the net earnings from self-employment, and that winnings can be placed into retirement funds.

The case of Baxter v. United States is currently being cited by opponents of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Opponents of the UIGEA argue that because poker is a game of skill, the UIGEA does not apply to online poker sites.

Other countries
Russia and Denmark have similarly declared poker to be a game of skill. In the Gutshot Poker Club case in England, the court ruled poker to be a game of luck and so subject to the Gaming Act (though this is currently under appeal).

See also
Income tax and gambling losses

Notes

External links

Gambling in the United States
1986 in United States case law
United States taxation and revenue case law
Poker in North America
United States District Court for the District of Nevada cases

Baxter v. United States


Andrea Maria Schenkel (born 21 March 1962 in Regensburg, West Germany) is a German writer. She received the Corine Literature Prize (2007).

Biography
She published her debut novel Tannöd in 2006. Based on the Hinterkaifeck murder in the 1920s, Schenkel's fictional account takes place in the 1950s. She describes, in ghastly and suspenseful detail, how a small Bavarian village, called Tannöd, became the unlikely site of a horrific crime. In her novel, a whole family – the farmer, his wife and children, the maidservants and farm laborers – are all killed in one night. Nobody had liked the family: they had been unfriendly, greedy and crabby. But now after the outrage, fear dominates life in the village. Nobody knows the murderer. Slowly, anxious and shocked every witness gives his statement. Speculation and assumptions about the case are described in a direct, merciless and impressive manner. With her debut novel, Andrea Schenkel presents not only thrilling crime and fiction. She also draws the pitiless portraits of a bigoted and unromantic rural society influenced by traumatic relations that finally lead to death. More than one million copies were sold in Germany. The work has been published in more than 20 languages, with foreign rights sold to France (Actes Sud), Italy (Riuniti), the Netherlands (Signature), Sweden (Ersatz), Norway and Denmark. In 2009, Constantin Film released Tannöd, starring Julia Jentsch and Volker Bruch. Her first novel won the Deutscher Krimi Preis (German award for crime thrillers) in the category "Best National Crime Thriller 2007". In 2008, Tannöd won Sweden's Martin Beck Award, which is given to the best detective story translated into Swedish. The English translation of the novel was released by Quercus Publishing on 5 June 2008. The title is The Murder Farm. Quercus released a paperback edition of "The Murder Farm" on 26 December 2008. In June 2014, Quercus published the work in the United States, which The New York Times announced in a profile of Schenkel.

In August 2007, Schenkel published her second novel, Kalteis, which focuses on a serial killer in 1930s Germany. It is set in Munich where female bodies keep surfacing around the city and the circumstantial evidence points to the unassuming and married Joseph Kalteis. Kalteis also won the Deutscher Krimi Preis in the category "Best National Crime Thriller 2008" – the first time an author won the award for two consecutive years.

Her third book, "Bunker," was published by Nautilus in 2009. "Finsterau" was published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2012, and by Quercus, under the title "The Dark Meadow," in 2014. Her novel, "Tauscher," was published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2013.

In June 2015, Quercus US published "Kalteis" under the title "Ice Cold," and in March 2016, Hoffman und Campe will publish her next work, "Als die Liebe endlich war" ("Where Love Ends"), which takes readers from 1930s Germany to World War II-era Shanghai to 21st-century America. "Als die Liebe endlich war", was published by Hoffmann und Campe in 2016; the French version, Le bracelet, was published by Actes Sud in 2018.

Andrea Maria Schenkel lives with her family near Regensburg.

Books
The Murder Farm, Quercus Publishing, London (2008),
Ice Cold, Quercus Publishing, London (2009)
Bunker, Quercus Publishing, London (2011)
The Dark Meadow, Quercus Publishing, London (2012); Finsterau, Hoffmann und Campe (March 2012)
Täuscher, Hoffmann und Campe (September 2013)
Als die Liebe endlich war, Hoffmann und Campe (March 2016)

External links
Article in Der Spiegel (German)
Reading excerpt (German)
Website of Andrea Maria Schenkel
Interview on Täuscher (2013)
Quercus and Quercus USA Publisher's websites

1962 births
Living people
21st-century German novelists
German crime fiction writers
German women novelists
Women mystery writers
21st-century German women writers

Andrea Maria Schenkel


Serena Bishop is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Lara Sacher. She made her first on-screen appearance on 9 October 2003. Serena's storylines included kissing her cousin's boyfriend, being taken advantage of by a photographer and starting an incestuous relationship with her half-brother. Shortly after the character's on-screen parents were axed, it was announced in May 2005 that Sacher would also be leaving. Serena made her last appearance on 26 October 2005.

Casting
Sacher was 16 when she landed the role of Serena Bishop on Neighbours. The part was her first professional acting job. Serena was the final member of the Bishop family to be auditioned, Sacher was delighted with the chemistry she shared with Kevin Harrington and Marcella Russo, who play her on-screen parents David and Liljana Bishop respectively.

In May 2005, it was announced that Sacher would be departing the show in an "extremely dramatic" storyline in October of that year. The news came a few weeks after her on-screen parents were axed as part of a cast shakeup. Script producer, Luke Devenish said "All three Bishops will be leaving together ... in one of our most startling storylines for the year". He added "The door will be left open for their return, however, despite the spectacular circumstances. Serena's final scenes will be nothing short of heartbreaking – but very memorable!" In 2007 Sacher revealed there were no plans to introduce her and Serena back into the serial.

Character development
Serena has been characterised as a snob who embarks on a journey growing up and becoming more likeable in the process. Originally Serena's tendency to act like a spoilt snob annoyed some viewers, who labelled the character as "mean". Describing Serena's journey and people's perception of her, Sacher stated: "Towards the middle and the end, she started growing up and she had some life changing experiences that really made her mature, and then people just started relating to her and really understanding her, and I think because she began as a snobby person they really appreciated her more so as she was growing up."

Sacher has stated that Serena's exit from the serial seemed premature. Serena had just started growing up, Sacher felt it was a shame she did not get to play the rest of her journey out. However she was happy with her dramatic exit in the plane crash. Of the filming of Serena's exit, Sacher had to film in a swimming pool fitting with dark lighting and a wave machine. She felt that from an actor's viewpoint it was good to "get her teeth into" the drama filled scenes.

Storylines
Serena arrives in Erinsborough with her parents David and Liljana, when they arrive to stay with her grandfather Harold (Ian Smith) and her cousin Sky Mangel (Stephanie McIntosh) at Number 24 Ramsay Street. Serena, expecting to stay no more than several weeks until the family's new home is built, is upset when she learns that they will have to remain living in Ramsay Street after David is ripped off by his business partner Thomas Morgan, leaving the family bankrupt. She is further displeased when she learns she will have to leave Eden Hills Grammar and attend Erinsborough High along with Sky, but this subsides when Serena becomes popular and tries to distance herself from her cousin.

After sneaking into a nightclub and lying about her age, Serena meets barman Chris Cousens (Simon Mallory) who offers her his card and tells her he is a photographer. Serena agrees to model for a session and earns $200. At the school formal, Serena flirts with Taj Coppin (Jaime Robbie Reyne) but he tries to put her off by pretending to come on heavy with her. Later in the evening when Sky is attacked by Erin Perry (Talia Zucker) and her friends, which results in a portable toilet being tipped over, Serena stands by and does nothing to help. Sky is very cold with her and the truth about Serena's modelling is revealed to Liljana who then slaps Chris.

Chris' seedy dealings are exposed when Serena discovers a webcam in his studio, which is followed by David breaking into Chris' studio to retrieve his computer and later burns the photos of Serena. Stingray Timmins (Ben Nicholas) arrives and is immediately attracted to Serena and tries to impress her by doing silly stunts. Serena softens towards him after being initially resistant. However, Serena has difficulty accepting Stingray's hyperactive streak and is uncomfortable to be seen in public with him at times. David and Liljana disapprove and Stingray turns to Gino Esposito (Shane McNamara) for help in style and etiquette to impress Serena, which backfires when he eats too much during a date and is sick all over her. Serena and Stingray's relationship later ends after his wild behaviour becomes too much to handle.

Serena later meets Luka Dokich (Keelan O'Heir) and becomes immediately attracted to him, much to the horror of her grandmother Svetlanka Ristic (Deidre Rubenstein), who knows the truth about Luka's true parentage. After Luka donates part of his liver to save Liljana, it soon emerges that he is her son and Serena's half-brother. After planning the school formal with Boyd Hoyland (Kyal Marsh), Sky's boyfriend, who has separated from her, Serena shares a kiss with him and they begin a brief relationship.

As 2005 begins, Serena finds her parents at odds after Liljana has an affair with Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) and briefly leaves the family. Liljana later breaks up with Paul and returns. After this Serena takes a job working for Toadfish Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney) in his bikini shop Bounce, which she later buys into and becomes attracted to Connor (Patrick Harvey). Things are messy as Connor is much older and has a daughter, but the couple begin dating until it emerges that Connor has been stealing from the shop to pay back a $50,000 loan to his ex-girlfriend Carmella Cammenitti (Natalie Blair) which was used to pay for an operation for Connor's daughter, Madeleine Lee.

The Bishop family, along with several of their neighbours board a joy flight to Tasmania arranged by Paul for the 20th anniversary of Lassiter's. A bomb explodes taking out one of the engines and the plane crashes into Bass Strait. Serena and Connor find themselves clinging to floating wreckage in a desperate fight for their lives. Connor tries to keep a weakened Serena awake, but is unable to and she vanishes into the rough seas. Serena's body was never found.

Reception
A writer for the BBC's Neighbours website said one of Serena's most notable moments was "Persuading Sky to sneak to a nightclub and then letting her take the blame". Katie Baillie of the Metro included Serena in her list of the "11 of the worst Neighbours characters". Of the character, Baillie stated "She was so annoying that she and her whole family were wiped out in a plane crash. Karma's a bitch in Erinsborough. She was a 'spoilt brat', once stood by as her cousin was pushed over while inside a portaloo (so gross) and got it on with her half brother Luka. So annoying."

References

External links
Serena Bishop at BBC Online

Neighbours characters
Television characters introduced in 2003
Fictional murdered people
Fictional waiting staff
Female characters in television
Bishop family (Neighbours)

Serena Bishop


Scouting and Guiding in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is administered by the United Kingdom Scout Association and Girlguiding UK, due to Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha's affiliations as a British Overseas Territory.

History
Scouting was established on Saint Helena island in 1912. Scouting was established on Ascension Island in November 1973.

Lord and Lady Baden-Powell visited the Scouts on Saint Helena on the return from their 1937 tour of Africa. The visit is described in Lord Baden-Powell's book entitled African Adventures.

Scouting

There are four groups on the two most populated islands (Saint Helena and Ascension Island) that are administered as part of The Scout Association's British Scouting Overseas:
 Ascension Island
 1st Ascension Island
 Ascension Island Explorer Scout Unit
 Saint Helena
 1st Jamestown
 Jamestown Explorer Scout Unit
 Tristan da Cunha
 No Scout or Guide group exists.

Although the programme activities are taken from the British system, Saint Helena and Ascension Island Scouting is geared to the local way of life. Training for Wood Badge and leader training are conducted with the help of British and nearby affiliated Scout associations. Saint Helena and Ascension Island Scouts participate in numerous camps and events.

The Helenian and Ascension Scout Oath and Law, as well as other Scouting requirements, are the same as those of the United Kingdom.

Girl Guiding

Girlguiding Saint Helena (formerly the Saint Helena Girl Guide Association) is a Guiding organization in Saint Helena and Ascension Island. It is one of the nine branch associations of Girlguiding UK. It is represented by Girlguiding UK at World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) level and Girlguiding UK's Chief Guide is also Chief Guide for Girlguiding Saint Helena.

In 2008, there were about 70 Girl Guides on Saint Helena.

The programme is a modified form of Guiding in the United Kingdom, adapted to suit local conditions, with the same promise, and Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and Ranger groups.

See also

References

Organisations based in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Overseas branches of Scouting and Guiding associations
Girlguiding
The Scout Association
Scouting and Guiding by country
1912 establishments in Saint Helena
1973 establishments in Saint Helena and Dependencies
Youth organizations established in 1912

Scouting and Guiding on Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha


Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington (née Fleming; 23 May 1755 – 3 February 1824), was a society hostess and heiress who served as a lady of the Bedchamber to the British queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Early life
Jane Fleming was the eldest of five children of Sir John Fleming, 1st Baronet and his wife Jane (née Coleman), as well as the elder sister of the scandalous Seymour Dorothy Fleming. The death of her father in 1763 left her and her sisters co-heiresses to an enormous fortune of £100,000. At the age of 23, Jane Fleming became engaged to the two years older Charles Stanhope, Viscount Petersham, a war hero who had recently returned from North America to England. His father, the 2nd Earl of Harrington, was deeply indebted, however, and the legal negotiations between the two families led to the postponement of the marriage. By October 1778, rumours began circulating that the match would never actually take place. Lord Petersham became Earl of Harrington on his father's death the following April, and the marriage took place in at St Marylebone in London on 23 May.

Marriage

The new Countess of Harrington was soon praised for generosity, as she immediately settled the debts her husband had inherited from her father-in-law and funded the re-purchase of Stable Yard House in St James's. The money she brought into the marriage also enabled Lord Harrington to raise an infantry regiment, with which the couple departed for Jamaica in 1780. When they returned the next year, Lady Harrington became noted for her fashion sense and physical attractiveness; she and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, were singled out as "the best dressed ladies" at an all-night party held by the Duchess in September 1782.

Although she became a gambler like many of her class, Lady Harrington was "blessed with domestic happiness, a lovely progeny, and every endearment that can make life desirable." Surrounded by aristocracy of generally loose morals, she was considered an epitome of virtue, while her younger sister scandalised the society by reportedly having sexual relations with 27 men other than her husband. She was often contrasted with her mother-in-law, Caroline Stanhope, Countess of Harrington, who was seen as a "fallen woman". A somewhat talented painter, Lady Harrington helped establish John Glover's career as art instructor in the early 1790s, and may have taken lessons from him. She was well acquainted with Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted two famous portraits of her, as well as portraits of her mother, sister and brother-in-law Sir Richard Worsley. In 1794, she became a lady of the Bedchamber to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King George III. Much favoured by Queen Charlotte, Lady Harrington served as lady of the Bedchamber until the Queen's death in 1818.

Old age

Lord and Lady Harrington maintained their popularity into their old age. "Their sempiternal occupation of tea-drinking" was noted by one of their contemporaries, who found that "neither in Nankin, Pekin, nor Canton was the teapot more assiduously and constantly replenished" than in their home. Lady Harrington predeceased her husband, dying at St James's Palace on 3 February 1824. She was buried at the Westminster Abbey on 12 February."

Issue

Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington (8 April 1780 – 3 March 1851). He was married to Maria Foote, daughter of Samuel Foote.
Maj-Gen. Hon. Lincoln Edwin Robert Stanhope (26 November 1781 – 29 February 1840).
Anna Maria Stanhope, Duchess of Bedford (3 September 1783 – 3 July 1857). She was married to Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford.
Leicester FitzGerald Charles Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington (2 September 1784 – 7 September 1862). He married Elizabeth Green, daughter of William Green and Ann Rose Hall. His parents-in-law were residents of Jamaica.
Rev. Hon. FitzRoy Henry Richard Stanhope (24 April 1787 – 11 April 1864). Dean of St Buryan, Cornwall and Rector of Catton and of Wressle in Yorkshire. He married Caroline Wyndham, illegitimate daughter of the Hon. Charles Wyndham. They were parents of Charles Stanhope, 7th Earl of Harrington, his younger brother Percy Stanhope and of several other children.
Maj. Hon. Sir Francis Charles Stanhope (29 September 1788 – 9 October 1862). He had three children by Hannah Wilson, daughter of James Wilson of Parsonstown Manor, County Meath.
Rev. Hon. Henry William Stanhope (2 August 1790 – 21 June 1872). Rector of Gawsworth.
Lady Caroline Anne Stanhope (20 November 1791 – 25 November 1853). She was married to Edward Ayshford Sanford.
Lady Charlotte Augusta Stanhope (15 February 1793 – 15 February 1859). She was married to Augustus Frederick FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster. They were parents to Charles William FitzGerald, 4th Duke of Leinster and another three children.
Hon. Augustus Stanhope (25 March 1794 – 8 December 1831).

References

1755 births
1824 deaths
British countesses
English socialites
Daughters of baronets
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Ladies of the Bedchamber
Jane
Women of the Regency era
Court of George III of the United Kingdom

Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington


Balls was a Philippine pay television network based in Quezon City. It was notable for being the country's first local high-definition TV channel. It was owned and operated by ABS-CBN's subsidiary ABS-CBN Cable Channels. The network shows notable sports broadcasts from the Philippines and abroad, as well as other sports related programming. Its local programming were produced and licensed by ABS-CBN Sports.

Background
Balls was officially launched on January 1, 2008, the same day that fellow ABS-CBN subsidiary Sky Cable dropped the channels of Solar Entertainment Corporation (including the sports channels Solar Sports and Basketball TV) from its lineup. These channels were replaced by a group of new channels owned by ABS-CBN's subsidiary Creative Programs Inc. (now ABS-CBN Cable Channels), which include Maxxx and Velvet. While SkyCable officials stated that the channels were being replaced to reduce redundancy in SkyCable's lineup and introduce new programming to the service, reports surfaced that the two companies had failed to reach a carriage deal since ABS-CBN had accused Solar of cannibalizing the revenue of its over-the-air networks. Some reports says that the dispute has to do with Manny Pacquiao's exclusive contract with ABS-CBN's main competitor GMA Network, which Solar has partnered for free TV airing of its boxing matches.

Although Balls was intended to effectively replace it, Basketball TV was restored to the SkyCable lineup in time for the 2008–09 NBA season in October 2008, and other Solar channels also returned to the lineup afterward.

It was announced that Balls and Balls HD would cease their broadcast on December 31, 2015. Its HD channel, as well as the entire channel's content (except the Ultimate Fighting Championship which the broadcast rights was acquired by TV5's sports division, Sports5) was  absorbed to the Sports + Action brand and renamed as ABS-CBN Sports + Action HD.

The last program to air on this channel was a replay of UFC 194: Aldo vs. McGregor on December 31, 2015, before signing off at 12 midnight on January 1, 2016. Cable providers still receiving Balls would see an imaging card that reads "Balls is now signing off". Until the provider can replace it with another channel, while other providers like Sky Cable (in Metro Manila and in select metropolitan and large cities) have replaced this channel with a reserved channel or with another channel, with Sky Cable replacing it with ABS-CBN Sports+Action

High-definition feed
On July 11, 2009, the channel launched its own high-definition feed on Sky Cable, marking the Philippines' first ever local high-definition television channel. On the same day, Balls also televised the country's first locally produced programs in HD, which included a UAAP college basketball game, followed by an NCAA game the following Monday, all produced by ABS-CBN Sports using the recently acquired Sony high-definition professional video cameras and a state-of-the-art HD OB van with technologies developed by EVS Broadcast Equipment, Snell, and Avid Technology. Balls HD was in hibernation from December 28, 2009 until 2013.

Programming
Balls' initial lineup focused on ball sports such as football, basketball, golf, tennis, and volleyball (as suggested by its name). Balls also aired 2 of 4 Tennis Grand Slam Tournament which is French Open (2008–2013; transferred to Fox Sports Asia) and US Open (2007–2015). Balls later expanded its lineup to include boxing, UFC MMA events, WWE programs, and the 2011 Southeast Asian Games. It also carries all the matches of FIFA World Cup which is exclusively licensed to ABS-CBN Sports. While originally airing only foreign events since its inception, Balls began to air domestic events produced by ABS-CBN Sports in 2009, beginning with NCAA Season 85 and UAAP Season 72.

References

External links
 Official website (archived)

Creative Programs
Television channels and stations established in 2008
Sports television networks in the Philippines
Defunct television networks in the Philippines
Men's interest channels
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2015
ABS-CBN Corporation channels

Balls (TV channel)


The Nobel Prize Museum (formerly the Nobel Museum []) is located in the former Stock Exchange Building (Börshuset) on the north side of the square Stortorget in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. (The   Swedish Academy and the Nobel Library are also in the same building.) The Nobel Prize Museum showcases information about the Nobel Prize and Nobel laureates, as well as information about the founder of the prize, Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). The museum's permanent display includes many artifacts donated by Nobel Laureates, presented together with personal life stories.

History

The Nobel Museum  opened in the spring of 2001 for the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize. Its name was changed to Nobel Prize Museum in 2019, in conjunction with Erika Lanner becoming the museum's new director.

According to the manifesto of the museum, the intentions are to be a "reflecting and forward-looking and spirited memory of Nobel laureates and their achievements, as well as of the Nobel Prize and Alfred Nobel." To achieve these aims, the museum offers exhibitions, films, theatre plays, and debates related to science; in addition to its bistro and shop. Museum exhibitions feature prominent Nobel laureates such as Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela, and Winston Churchill.

The museum frequently offers creative exhibitions such as "Sketches of science", a photo exhibition with 42 Nobel laureates photographed with their own sketch of their Nobel discovery. This exhibition has also been shown in other parts of the world as well, including Dubai and Singapore.

For visitors who want to bring a piece of the museum home, a souvenir shop is available that contains items about Alfred Nobel and the museum. One of the most popular items is Alfred Nobel's gold medal made in dark fair trade chocolate. Another one is the Swedish "dynamite" candy that is flavored with jalapeño pepper. During 2011, the souvenir shop collaborated with the artist Artan Mansouri who made paintings that symbolized Nobel's life. Besides that, the shop offers a lot of educational toys for children, books by and about Nobel Prize laureates, and also unique items only found in the Nobel Museum shop.

There is also Bistro Nobel featuring Nobel chocolate, Swedish cakes, and also lunch and dinner. At the bistro, Nobel ice cream is served as well; this ice cream can only be found in the Nobel Bistro. The Nobel tea is usually served every year at the Nobel banquet.

See also
 Nobel Peace Center
 List of Nobel laureates
 Nobel Prize controversies

References

External links
 Official site

Alfred Nobel
Museums in Stockholm
Nobel Prize
Science museums in Sweden
Biographical museums in Sweden
Museums established in 2001

Nobel Prize Museum


Schloss Stainz is a former monastery in Stainz, located in the Austrian state of Styria. Today, the Baroque complex belongs to the Counts of Meran and hosts two museum collections from the Universal Museum Joanneum.

History
Stainz Priory () was a monastery founded by the Augustinian Canons in 1229, when Leutold I von Wildon, lord of the manor of Stainz, allowed a small church with a monastery attached to be established on the mountain where his castle stood. The monastery was settled by canons regular from Seckau Priory.

The priory experienced its heyday during the early 16th century under provost Jakob Roselenz (1596–1629), under whom the community was reorganised and the church, previously neglected, was enlarged. The interior was later refurbished in the Baroque style, with extensive stucco decoration.  The church organ counts among the largest and most melodious in Styria and was restored in 1980.

The monastery was dissolved in 1785 as part of the rationalist reforms of the Emperor Joseph II. The church however remained in use.

In 1840, Archduke Johann, son of Emperor Leopold II and an avid hunter, purchased the building complex from the town for the sum of 40,000 guilders for use as a hunting lodge, known thereafter as Schloss Stainz.  Since his death in 1859, it has remained in the family estate of his descendants, the Counts of Meran.

Present day
Today, besides offering gardens and rooms to rent for engagements, the castle houses two collections from the Universal Museum Joanneum. On 16 September 2006, the Steirisches Jagdmuseum ("Styrian Hunting Museum") was opened. The interdisciplinary approach of this collection combines contemporary technology with historic equipment, weapons and specimens to explore the historical, sociological and anthropological, as well as the philosophical and ethical, phenomena of the human practice of hunting, in addition to wildlife ecology.

In 2009, the Landwirtschaftsmuseum ("Museum of Agriculture and Forestry") also opened, displaying collections of rural Styrian folk culture. The main focus of the exhibition is on the agricultural implements and the household effects of the Styrian countryside from the Stone Age to the present. The exhibition displays objects related to the different branches of agriculture and husbandry, and it offers a fitting companion to the Hunting Museum.

In addition to the two permanent exhibitions of the Joanneum, areas of the castle, for example the courtyard, the cellar, the arcades and the terrace, are also rented out for private events.

External links

 Schloss Stainz
 Joanneum Museum of Hunting
 Joanneum Museum of Agriculture and Forestry

Palaces in Austria
Museums in Styria
Hunting museums
Agriculture museums in Austria
History museums in Austria
Hunting in Austria

Schloss Stainz


Lassie Come-Home is a story about a dog and a boy. It was written by Eric Knight. It was first published as a short story in The Saturday Evening Post on December 17, 1938. The story was well liked. It was made into a book. The book was published by The John C. Winston Company in 1940. The story is about a collie named Lassie who travels hundreds of miles to get to the boy she loves.

In 1943, MGM made the story into a movie called Lassie Come Home. It starred Roddy McDowall and the dog actor Pal. The Lassie character became very famous. She was the main character in other movies during the 1940s. In the middle 1950s, she became the main character in the television series Lassie.

Short stories
Books about dogs
1938 books

Lassie Come-Home


A population pyramid is a graph. It has two back-to-back bars. These bars show the population in groups of ages, with woman in one side and man in the other side.

The pyramids show the age distribution of the place, which can help in understanding and predicting the development of a country.

There are three types of population pyramids:
Stationary pyramid shows a constant population, with equal birth rate and death rate
Expansive pyramid shows a growing population
Constrictive pyramid shows a shrinking population

In this type of graph, a wide base means a very high birth rate and a narrow base means a low birth rate.

Population

Population pyramid


The Decameron is a collection of 100 short stories. It was written by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio around 1350. In the book, ten friends, seven young women and three young men, leave the city of Florence because of the plague and stay in a large house in the countryside. Each day, they entertain each other by taking turns to tell stories. The stories are of different types. Some are romantic, some are erotic, some are comedies and some are tragedies.

Other writers have used the stories for ideas. Many paintings have been done which illustrate the stories. The picture to the right shows a scene from the story of "The Pot of Basil" in which Isabella buries the head of her murdered lover Ferdinand inside a potplant.

Other websites
 Decameron Web, from Brown University
 The Decameron - Introduction, from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook

14th-century books
Italian literature

Decameron


God Bless Our Homeland Ghana iku lagu kabangsané Ghana.

Tèks
God bless our homeland Ghana And make our nation great and strong,
Bold to defend forever The cause of Freedom and of Right;
Fill our hearts with true humility, Make us cherish fearless honesty,
And help us to resist oppressors' rule With all our will and might for evermore.

Hail to thy name, O Ghana, To thee we make our solemn vow:
Steadfast to build together A nation strong in Unity;
With our gifts of mind and strength of arm, Whether night or day, in the midst of storm,
In ev'ry need, whate'er the call may be, To serve thee, Ghana, now and evermore.

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana


Horse's Neck is a collection of short stories written by Pete Townshend between 1979 and 1984. It was first published in 1985 by Faber and Faber.

Reviews
Although the stories might be considered semi-autobiographical, Townshend wrote in the preface: "I have never wanted simply to tell my own story. But I have tried here to attend to a wide range of feelings . . . aspects of my struggle to discover what beauty really is."

Reviewer Susan Avallone wrote that the collection of stories was "intriguing experimental writing" and "a strange and compelling collection of poetry and prose," uncovering "family, friends, ambition, addiction, infidelity, obsession, and life on the road." A theme provided by references to horses appeared to be "part obsession and part allegory."  She especially pointed out "Champagne on the Terraces" as "a haunting insight into alcoholism and family life."

Contents
Along with the preface written by Townshend, the book contains the following stories:

 "Thirteen"
 "Horses"
 "The Pact"
 "Champagne on the Terraces"
 "Ropes"
 "Tonight's the Night"
 "Fish Shop"
 "Pancho and the Baron"
 "Winston"
 "A Death in the Day Of"
 "The Plate"
 "Laguna: Valentine's Day 1982"

References

Pete Townshend
1985 short story collections
British short story collections
Faber and Faber books

Horse's Neck (short story collection)


The Geelong Showgrounds in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, are the home of the Royal Geelong Show, an agricultural show held every year since 1855. The current showgrounds are located in the suburb of Breakwater.

The focus of the Royal Geelong Show is the display of rural industry, including livestock and produce, with associated competitions and awards. The show also features amusement rides, a sideshow alley, and showbags, carry bags full of goodies produced by various commercial enterprises.

History
The Geelong and Western District Agricultural and Horticultural Society was formed in February 1855. The first showgrounds site was in East Geelong, south of Eastern Park. It was bounded by Ryrie, Garden, Myers and Normanby Streets. The second showgrounds opened in October 1891, on a new site that ran south from Ormond Road to St Albans Road. A 40-metre-long wooden grandstand was provided.

In 1907, the showgrounds were again moved, this time to the new Geelong Racecourse. On 14 April 1907, Messrs McCoy and Son transported the grandstand from the old site. Weighing 100 tonnes, it was moved across the Queenscliff railway line by a traction engine, after being placed on 52 large rollers. The stand remained at the current racecourse until at least the early 1990s.

The agricultural society shared the Geelong Racecourse until 1954, when it moved to the current site.

References

External links

Buildings and structures in Geelong
Tourist attractions in Geelong
Showgrounds in Australia

Geelong Showgrounds


Susan E. Dietter, usually credited as Susie Dietter, is an American director, known primarily for her work on television cartoons. She has directed episodes of the popular series Futurama, Baby Blues, The Simpsons, Recess and The Critic.  She also worked as an animator for the modern-day Looney Tunes "Museum Scream" and "My Generation G... G... Gap".

Dietter was a nominee for the 2000 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production for her direction of the Futurama episode "A Bicyclops Built for Two".  She also shared an Emmy Award-nomination for Outstanding Animated Series with her fellow producers of Futurama.

Dietter  was the first female director on The Simpsons, Futurama, Baby Blues, and The Critic.

Dietter also was a storyboard artist on the animated movie Open Season.

Directing credits

Simpsons episodes
"Bart Gets Famous" [Season 5, 3.2.1994]
"Bart's Girlfriend" [Season 6, 6.11.1994]
"A Star Is Burns" [Season 6, 5.3.1995]
"Radioactive Man" [Season 7, 24.9.1995]
"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" [Season 7, 1.10.1995]
"Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" [Season 7, 4.2.1996]
"Much Apu About Nothing" [Season 7, 5.5.1996]
"Lisa's Date with Density" [Season 8, 15.12.1996]
"Grade School Confidential" [Season 8, 6.4.1997]
"Lisa the Simpson" [Season 9, 8.3.1998]
"Yokel Chords" [Season 18, 4.3.2007]

Futurama episodes
"A Big Piece of Garbage"
"A Bicyclops Built for Two"
"The Honking"
"The Cyber House Rules"
"Godfellas"
"Less Than Hero"

References

External links

American television directors
American women television directors
American storyboard artists
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)

Susie Dietter


Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City) was an American composer and music theorist.

Biography

Kramer received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University (1965) and his MA and PhD in music from the University of California, Berkeley (1967 and 1969). His composition teachers included Karlheinz Stockhausen, Roger Sessions, Leon Kirchner, Seymour Shifrin, Andrew Imbrie, Richard Felciano, Jean-Claude Éloy, Billy Jim Layton, Edwin Dugger, and Arnold Franchetti. He studied theory with David Lewin, criticism with Joseph Kerman, and computer music with John Chowning.

Kramer was professor of composition and theory at Columbia University from 1988 until his death in 2004. He also taught at the Oberlin Conservatory, Yale University, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He held visiting appointments at Wesleyan University, King's College London, the Canberra School of Music, the School of Music at the University of Western Australia, the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio (Italy), the Center for New Music and Technology (Berkeley), May in Miami, the ISCM Summer Workshop for Composers (Poland), and the European Mozart Academy (Poland). He served four years as program annotator of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, was annotator of the Cincinnati Symphony from 1980; a collection of his program notes, Listen to the Music, was published by Schirmer Books. He was the Cincinnati Symphony's composer in residence and new-music advisor from 1984 to 1992 and served as artist in residence of the Moebius Ensemble since 1997. His book "The Time of Music" is widely considered to be one of the preeminent works on the topic. He produced and hosted several local and national radio programs and represented American Public Radio three times at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.

His notable students include Robert Carl, R. Luke DuBois, Jason Eckardt, Paul Phillips (conductor), Dalit Warshaw, and Duncan Neilson.

Kramer was married to Norma Berson in August, 1966. They had two children, Zachary Charles, born April 1970, and Stephanie Lisa, born November 1972.

He married Deborah Bradley-Kramer on Jan 2, 2004, in Sugar Land, Texas. They had another ceremony on May 2, 2004, in Mohegan Lake, New York. They had one child, Jonah Benjamin Kramer (b. Nov 20, 2007).

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book, "Postmodern Music, Postmodern Listening" and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum. The book was published by Bloomsbury Press in August 2016.

Two funds at Columbia University were named in honor of Kramer upon his death: The Jonathan D. Kramer Memorial Fund for Young Composers, and The Jonathan D. Kramer Legacy Fund.

Selected publications (prose)

 The Time of Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1988)
 Listen to the Music (New York: Schirmer Book, 1988); Spanish trans. Invitacion a la musica (Buenos Aires: Vergara, 1993)
  Postmodern Music, Postmodern Listening (Bloomsbury Press, 2016)
 ed. Time in Contemporary Musical Thought, special issue of Contemporary Music Review (1989–93)
 "The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism," Current Musicology 66 (Spring 1999). Republished in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, ed. Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner (New York: Routledge, 2002)
 "Postmodern Concepts of Musical Time," Indiana Theory Review 17 (1997)
 "Durations from Nested Ratios and Summation Series: Toward an Approach to Rhythm Appropriate to Computer Composition," in Proceedings of the ACMA 1995 Conference (Melbourne: ACMA, 1995)
 "Beyond Unity: Toward an Understanding of Postmodernism in Music and Music Theory," in Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies (Rochester: U. of Rochester Press, 1995)
 "Unity and Disunity in Carl Nielsen's Sixth Symphony," in A Nielsen Companion (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994)
 "Discontinuity and Proportion in the Music of Stravinsky," in Confronting Stravinsky (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1986)

Published compositions (music)

 About Face, orchestra (1989), pub. MMB
Another Sunrise, mixed septet (1990), pub. MMB
Atlanta Licks, mixed sextet (1984), pub. MMB
Cincy in C, orchestra (1994), pub. MMB
Licks, double bass trio with voice (1981), pub. MMB
Moments in and out of Time, orchestra (1983), pub. G. Schirmer
Music for Piano, Number 5 (1980), pub. G. Schirmer
Musica Pro Musica, orchestra (1987), pub.  MMB
No Beginning, No End, chorus with orchestra (1983), pub. MMB
Notta Sonata, 2 pianos with 2–3 percussion (1993), pub. MMB
Obsessions, symphonic wind ensemble (2001), pub. MMB
One for Five in Seven, Mostly, woodwind quintet (1971), pub. MMB
Remembrance of a People, string orchestra with piano and optional narrator (1996), pub. MMB
Renascence, clarinet with electronics (1974), pub. G. Schirmer
Rewind: A Semi-Suite, orchestra  (2000/2003), pub. MMB
Serbelloni  Serenade, clarinet, violin and piano (1995), pub. MMB

External links
https://planetudesmusic.com/

References

American male classical composers
American classical composers
1942 births
American people of German descent
Yale University faculty
Columbia University faculty
Oberlin College faculty
University of Cincinnati faculty
2004 deaths
Harvard University alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Wesleyan University faculty
20th-century classical composers
Pupils of John Chowning (composer)
Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen
Pupils of Roger Sessions
Pupils of Leon Kirchner
Pupils of Seymour Shifrin
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians

Jonathan Kramer


Cauliflower cheese is a traditional British dish. It can be eaten as a main course, for lunch or dinner, or as a side dish.

Cauliflower cheese consists of pieces of cauliflower lightly boiled and covered with a milk-based cheese sauce, for which a mature cheese (such as cheddar) tends to be preferred. A more elaborate white sauce or cheddar cheese sauce flavoured with English mustard and nutmeg may also be used. Some recipes include one third of Stilton in the cheese mix, and add tabasco to taste. The dish is often topped with grated cheese (sometimes mixed with bread crumbs). It is baked in the oven to finish it.

History

There is a recipe for cauliflower with Parmesan cheese in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, first published in 1861. In the 19th and 20th centuries the dish was often served as an accompaniment to the roast meat and potatoes that were eaten for the traditional Sunday lunch, normally in the winter months.

In the UK, cauliflower cheese is now widely produced as a vegetarian ready meal, and is also popular as a pre-prepared baby food.

See also

 List of cheese dishes

External links
Recipe from A Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton

British cuisine
Cheese dishes
Brassica oleracea dishes
Baked foods

Cauliflower cheese


Events
 In this year, the city of Aachen, Germany begins adding a Roman numeral Anno Domini date to a few of its coins. It is the first city in the world to do so.
 The French & the Castilians defeat the English in the naval Battle of La Rochelle. The French gain control of the English Channel for the first time since 1340.
 4 year old Muhammad as-Said succeeds his father, Abu l-Fariz Abdul Aziz I, as Marinids Sultan of Morocco.
 Welshman Owain Lawgoch makes a second attempt to take the throne of Wales from the English. Whilst attacking the island of Guernsey, Owain abandons the invasion in order to fight the English at the Battle of La Rochelle.
 Newaya Maryam succeeds his father, Newaya Krestos, as ruler of Ethiopia.
 Peace declared between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples.
 The Kingdom of Chūzan (now in southern Japan) enters tributary relations with Ming Dynasty China.

Births
 March 13 – Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, son of king Charles V of France (died 1407)
 Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, Sufi saint from India
 Princess Beatrice of Portugal, future Queen of Portugal and Queen-consort of Castile (died 1410)

Deaths
 August 31 – Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (born 1301)
 Eleanor of Lancaster, English noblewoman (born 1318)
 Bagrat I the Little, King of Georgia

1372


A historic overlay district is a layer of local planning regulation in the United States which incorporates the restrictions of the underlying zoning for a given geographic area, with the main goal of preserving the historic character of the neighborhood.

Early development

Historic overlay districts have been increasingly used as a more flexible tool for municipal historic regulation since their inception in the mid-twentieth century.  Courts in all 50 states have generally upheld the powers of municipal governments to regulate property by use of overlay districts, and courts in many states, as well as the United States Supreme Court have upheld the use of historic overlay districts specifically.

The stated goal of most historic overlay districts is to preserve the overall historic atmosphere and appearance of a neighborhood as a whole, rather than merely spot-lighting specific buildings throughout a generally historic area.

Historic district creation today

The creation of historic districts varies from state to state.  Generally, however, district creation begins with a municipal zoning commission or historic preservation committee.  Usual notices of public meetings are given and the acceptance of comments from affected citizens are generally heard, but in the end, the municipal governing body has the final say as to the creation of a historic overlay district.  Many districts are accompanied by the creation of a Historic District Commission, to oversee the creation of specific regulations and appeals from such regulations by landowners.

In states that require strict adherence by municipal government to statutory grants of authority, an enabling statute must be in place expressly allowing the creation of historic overlay districts by towns, cities and counties.  North Carolina, for instance, is a state with an enabling statute allowing its duly created municipal governments to create such districts.

Challenges

Like most zoning ordinances, historic overlay districts and the decisions of local historic district commissions are frequently challenged by individual landowners seeking variances or permission to engage in new construction.  As municipal governing bodies in most states are given a great deal of deference, however, direct challenges to such districts are not generally successful.

Landowners may be more successful in seeking variances or permission to engage in new construction by demonstrating either that a municipal body erred in its application of the zoning ordinance, or that the building at issue actually meshes well with the overall historic character of the district.

References

Urban planning in the United States

Historic overlay district


Harald Valdarsson, also known as Harald the Old (, born circa 568) appears only by name in Hversu Noregr byggðist, but his father, sons and descendants played a central role in the politics of Scandinavian legends.

Hversu Noregr byggðist
Hversu Noregr byggðist tells that he was the son of Valdar, who was the son of Hróarr (i.e. king Hroðgar of Beowulf), and Harald was the father of Halfdan the Valiant and the grandfather of Ivar Vidfamne.

Skjöldunga saga
Skjöldunga saga tells that the same Valdar (i.e. Harald's father) disputed that Rörek, the cousin of Hróarr (Hroðgar) should succeed Hrólfr Kraki (Hroðulf) as the king of the Daner. After the war, Rörek took Zealand, while Valdar took Scania.

Ynglinga saga
In his Ynglinga saga, Snorri Sturluson wrote that Harald's son Halfdan the Valiant was the father of Ivar Vidfamne. Halfdan's brother was king Guðröðr of Scania. Guðröðr married Åsa, the daughter of the Swedish king Ingjald illråde (Ill-ruler) and she prodded Guðröðr to murder Halfdan. She was said to later cause Guðröðr's death as well, and fled to her father's protection. Afterwards, people called her Åsa Ill-ruler like her father Ingjald.

Halfdan's son Ivar Vidfamne mustered a large army and besieged Ingjald and his daughter at Ræning, whereupon the two committed suicide by burning themselves to death inside the hall.

Hervarar saga
Whereas Hversu and Ynglinga saga have no information about Halfdan's mother (who was presumably Harald's wife), Hervarar saga provides the information that she was Hild, the daughter of the Gothic king , the son of Angantyr who defeated the Huns.

It then tells that Halfdan's son Ivar Vidfamne attacked Ingjald Ill-ruler, which led to Ingjald's suicide by burning down his own hall at Ræning together with all his retinue. After this, Ivar Vidfamne conquered Sweden.

Further reading
 Henry H. Howorth. "The Early History of Sweden". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 9 (1881) 174–215.
 Jón Jónsson. "Um Svíakonungatal í Hervarar-sögu". Arkiv för nordisk filologi 18 (1902) 172–79

Legendary Norsemen
Scyldings

Harald the Old


Little House on the Prairie is a children's novel. It was written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was published in 1935. It is the third book in Wilder's Little House series. The book and the series are based on Wilder's memories of her family's time in Kansas in the 19th century, but she changed many things so the story would make sense. In the 20th century, it was made into a television series of the same name.

Plot

The Ingalls family decides to leave the Big Woods of Wisconsin because Mr. Ingalls thinks there are too many people in the Big Woods.  He wants to live where wild animals are not afraid to be.  He arranges to sell their house.  The family puts their things in a covered wagon.  They bring their dog, Jack, but they leave the cat, Black Susan, behind.

They follow a wagon trail west into the part of Kansas that was called "Indian territory" at the time.  Mr. Ingalls knows that the land belongs to the American Indians but he thinks the United States federal government is going to change its mind about that.  He thinks they will say that white people can settle in Kansas soon.  He wants to build a farm before all the good places are taken.  He sees a good place near a valley with a river in it, stops the wagon, and starts building a house out of logs from trees from the valley.

The book describes traveling west, building a house, daily chores, taking care of farm animals, meeting and interacting with neighbors, catching and getting better from malaria and interacting with American Indians.

The Ingalls family spends a year building and improving their house and farm.  For example, they dig a well and put glass windows in the house.  At the end of the book, the Ingalls family hears out that the government has not changed its mind and that all the white settlers must leave.  The Ingalls house is three miles over the boundary into what is at that time American Indian land.  The family pack their belongings into the covered wagon again and they leave.

Non-white characters in the book

In 2018, the Association for Library Service to Children changed the name of its Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to the Children's Literature Legacy Award because people did not like the way Wilder wrote about Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie.  They said the book had "dated cultural attitudes toward Indigenous people and people of color that contradict modern acceptance, celebration, and understanding of diverse communities."  For example, in the book, one white character says "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Some of the words Ingalls use to describe Native Americans makes them sound like non-human animals.  Other people disagreed, saying the book showed how complicated things between Native Americans and white settlers were.  For example, it shows that the Ingalls family is on Indian land illegally, which means they must leave.  It shows Laura asking her parents why they are in Indian territory if they don't want to be near Indians.

There is one black character in the book.  He is the doctor who cures the family when they catch malaria.

References

20th-century American novels
1935 books
American children's books

Little House on the Prairie


Anders Sørensen Vedel (9 November 1542 – 13 February 1616) was a Danish priest and historian. He translated the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus into Danish in 1575, and published the influential "Hundredvisebogen" in 1591.

Biography
Anders Sørensen was born in Vejle, from which place the Vedel name comes. At 14 years old, he moved to study in Ribe, and after finishing his education he moved on to Copenhagen University in 1561. In 1562, he was the tutor of astronomer Tycho Brahe on Brahe's Grand Tour in Europe, forming a lasting bond of friendship with him. Vedel started studying at Wittenberg in 1565, which he finished in 1566, and was appointed priest at Copenhagen Castle in 1568. Vedel's historical knowledge was admired by leading politicians including Christoffer Valkendorf,
Bjørn Andersen, Arild Huitfeldt, Johan Friis and Peder Oxe, and he was seen as the right man to continue Christiern Pedersen's Danish language translation of the Latin chronicle Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus.

He started his translation in 1570, and the finished work "Den danske Krønicke" was published in 1575. The work was both a translation and rewriting of the original Latin phrases. While working on the translation, he was given the income of a canon at Ribe Cathedral in 1573. After pressure from Peder Oxe, Niels Kaas, and , Vedel wrote a proposal for a Latin continuation of Saxo's work in 1578 which was finalized in 1581. He was relieved of his priesthood in Copenhagen, and moved to Ribe in 1581.

He was appointed Royal historian in 1584 and received a prelature at Ribe to support himself, and undertook the task of continuing the Danish chronicle in that year. However, he overreached himself in his attempt to do so. He planned an ambitious work in twenty-two books dealing with both language and topography as well as with history. However other tasks, lack of help from secretaries, his own slowness and carefulness—and perhaps also a general underestimation of the demands of this work—led to very modest results. In 1594, after the death of chancellor Niels Kaas, the task was given to Niels Krag, under Vedel's protestations. He got a one-year reprieve, but could not produce satisfactory results, after which he turned his work over to Niels Krag. Much of what he had written was lost at the fire of Copenhagen in 1728.

One spin-off from this task which survived was his "Hundredvisebogen" (1591) of a hundred Danish ballads which became a solid foundation of later knowledge of the older Danish literary tradition. It was published with the support of Queen Sophie (it has been suggested that as a result, Vedel opted to omit certain ballads which portrayed a Queen Sophie – ostensibly Sophia of Minsk – in a negative light). Vedel's one hundred songs were republished by Peder Syv in 1695, as half of his collection of 200 folksongs. Vedel's own re-creation of some of the ballads shows his ability as a poet. In the Faroe Islands, texts from "Hundredvisebogen" have been in use among folk singers right up until today.

Vedel died on 13 February 1616 in Ribe.

Bibliography
 Pavekrønike, 1571.
 Den danske Krønicke, 1575
 Hundredvisebog, 1591.  (facsimile)

References

1542 births
1616 deaths
16th-century Danish clergy
17th-century Danish clergy
16th-century Danish historians
17th-century Danish historians
People from Vejle Municipality
University of Copenhagen alumni
University of Wittenberg alumni
Danish folk-song collectors

Anders Sørensen Vedel


Turbo-folk (sometimes referred as pop-folk or popular folk) is subgenre of contemporary pop music with its origins in Serbia, that initially developed during the 1980s and 1990s, with similar music styles in Bulgaria (chalga), Romania (manele, etno) and Albania (tallava). It is a fusion genre of popular music, blending Serbian folk music with other genres: such as pop, rock, R&B, electronic and hip-hop.

Background and characteristics
Turbo-folk music emerged as a subculture in the countryside during the 1970s before migrating to the city in the '80s and eventually reaching further expansion in the '90s during the rule of Slobodan Milošević, Yugoslav Wars, inflation and political isolation.

The term was originally coined by Montenegrin musician Rambo Amadeus whilst jokingly referring to his own musical style. However, critics soon adopted this term which referred to a musical style blending folk music with elements of electronic music, Eurodance and hip-hop or other genres not related to true Serbian traditional music. Turkish and Greek folk music have also had great influence, often with cases of plagiarism without consequences due to the political situation in Yugoslavia. Songs were primarily composed by acclaimed rock and pop musicians such as Milić Vukašinović, Goran Bregović and Kornelije Kovač with lyrics mainly written by Marina Tucaković.

The visual image also went through changes and was heading towards MTV aesthetics. Music videos and editorials were mostly directed by former art photographer Dejan Milićević, who himself stated Baroque as his main inspiration. Turbo-folk was predominantly broadcast on RTV Palma and RTV Pink.

Performers and popularity
The record in sales is held by Lepa Brena, who has sold over 40 million records and held some of the biggest concerts on the Balkans, making her the most successful Bosnian singer to date. Brena was also considered to be the symbol of former Yugoslavia, the country's unity and power, and after the breakup of the federation, of so-called yugo-nostalgia. At the time, the only "rival" Lepa Brena had was Vesna Zmijanac. Zmijanac and Brena were considered the biggest stars in Yugoslavia. Recognized as one of the most popular Yugoslavian singers, Zmijanac was dubbed the sex symbol, fashionista and gay icon of the eighties.

Among various turbo-folk singers in the nineties, arguably the biggest star of the decade was Dragana Mirković, who has sold more than 10 million records. She was at the time signed to Južni Vetar, alongside other popular singers like Mile Kitić, Sinan Sakić and Šemsa Suljaković. Arguably one of the most famous Ex-Yugoslavian artists, Zorica Brunclik is known for her singing voice, fashion style and bright pink hair. Sometimes she and folk singer Snežana Đurišić are labeled as the queens of new folk music.

However, Svetlana Ceca Ražnatović and Aca Lukas dominated in the late nineties and early two thousands acquiring enormous popularity despite their controversies. Ceca was married to Željko Ražnatović Arkan, commander of the Serb Volunteer Guard, while Lukas is known for his troublesome lifestyle involving drug addictions and gambling problems. Both singers were arrested during the operation Sablja in 2003. Nevertheless, today they are both considered as the biggest stars on the Balkans. Because of her popularity, Ceca is referred to as the "Serbian mother". She also holds the record for the biggest concert made by a Serbian singer. Her concert Ušće 2013 was attended by more than 150 000 people. Jelena Karleuša also rose to prominence in the mid nineties, recognized for her highly sexual image and provocative work. During this period, Croatia also had their own pop-folk stars like Severina and Magazin with its lead singer Jelena Rozga.

In the 2000s, the single-person dominated scene was replaced by diverse performers who remained popular for at least a year. New music and its performers were labeled as pop-folk performers. Serbian record label Grand Production signed almost every singer in the country, taking monopoly over the music industry with significant media space for its TV shows, music festivals and magazines. Grand was held responsible for the success of the most of, at the time, popular acts like Seka Aleksić, Indira Radić, Saša Matić, Goga Sekulić, Stoja, Dara Bubamara, Aco Pejović, Viki Miljković, Sanja Đorđević, Jana, Dejan Matić and many more. At the beginning of the 2000s popular singers Viki Miljković and Indira Radić became one of the biggest stars in the country. In 2006 Indira Radić received the award for the largest number of concerts held. In 2005 with her album Mahi, mahi Viki Miljković became one of the most successful and popular singers at the time. Every single song on her album became an enormous hit throughout the Balkans.  Popular reality singing competition Zvezde Granda also created many raising stars of pop-folk, such as Milica Todorović, Tanja Savić, Milan Stanković, Rada Manojlović and Milica Pavlović, whose careers were managed by Grand. The stars that emerged in later seasons were Aleksandra Prijović, Katarina Grujić and Andreana Čekić.

Pop-folk is a music genre dominated by Ana Bekuta and Neda Ukraden. Both of them are hugely popular with their careers lasting for decades. Ana Bekuta is a big star in Serbia, while Neda Ukraden is more successful on the Balkan music scene.

In the 2010s, pop-folk embraced even more pop influence and would often infuse electronic or hip-hop, leaning toward club music. Previously an underground hip-hop duo, Elitni Odredi gained enormous popularity after they had commercialized their sound by adding folk music. They were the pioneers of digital age in Serbian music, avoiding mainstream media, while using YouTube as their main platform. Bosnian singer Maya Berović, who saw moderate success in the 2000s, reached the zenith of her career when she collaborated with rappers Jala Brat and Buba Corelli on her 2017 album Viktorijina tajna, which was a mixture of contemporary R&B and pop-folk.

Criticism

Although very popular, turbo-folk is described as pseudo-folklore, while often linking it to Serbian involvement in Bosnian and Croatian conflicts during the nineties. This left-wing section of Serbian and Croatian society explicitly viewed this music as vulgar, almost pornographic kitsch, glorifying crime, moral corruption and nationalist xenophobia. In addition to making a connection between turbofolk and "war profiteering, crime & weapons cult, rule of force and violence", in her book Smrtonosni sjaj (Deadly Splendor) Belgrade media theorist Ivana Kronja refers to its look as "aggressive, sadistic and pornographically eroticised iconography". Along the same lines, British culture theorist Alexei Monroe calls the phenomenon "porno-nationalism". However, turbo-folk was equally popular amongst the South Slavic nations during the brutal wars of the 1990s, reflecting perhaps the common cultural sentiments of the warring sides.

The resilience of a turbo-folk culture and musical genre, often referred to as the "soundtrack to Serbia's wars", was and to a certain extent still is, actively promoted and exploited by pro-government commercial TV stations, most notably on Pink and Palma TV-channels, which devote significant amount of their broadcasting schedule to turbo-folk shows and music videos.

Others, however, feel that this neglects the specific social and political context that brought about turbo-folk, which was, they say, entirely different from the context of contemporary western popular culture. In their opinion, turbo-folk served as a dominant paradigm of the "militant nationalist" regime of Slobodan Milošević, "fully controlled by regime media managers". John Fiske feels that during that period, turbo-folk and its close counterpart Serbian eurodance had the monopoly over the officially permitted popular culture, while, according to him, in contrast, Western mass media culture of the time provided a variety of music genre, youth styles, and consequently ideological positions.

Upon introduction of Billboard Croatia Songs chart on 15 February 2022, it became apparent that mainstream music from Serbia and other former Yugoslav republics (which is all classified as turbo-folk or more commonly "" by its critics in Croatia) dominated the music taste of the people of Croatia, as the only Croatian artists featured on the chart were Eni Jurišić, Matija Cvek, 30zona, Kuku$ Klan, Jelena Rozga and Grše, and the only Western artists featured on the chart were Glass Animals and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

See also

Music of Serbia
Chalga
Manele
Arabesk music
Disco polo
Laïkó
Dangdut
Eurodance

Notes

References

 Sabina Mihelj, "The Media and the Symbolic Geographies of Europe: The Case of Yugoslavia", 2007.
 William Uricchio, We Europeans?: media, representations, identities, Intellect Books, 2008, p. 168-9

External links
 Balkania Fanzine - Turbo-Folk and Balkan Music Video Culture Blog
 Report about turbo-folk, ceca and politics
 Muzika u vestima dana

Serbian styles of music
Serbian music
Pop music genres
Folk music genres

Turbo-folk


Sir John Patrick Richardson,  (6 February 1924 – 12 March 2019) was a British art historian and biographer of Pablo Picasso. Richardson also worked as an industrial designer and as a reviewer for The New Observer.

In 1952, he moved to Provence, where he became friends with Picasso, Fernand Léger and Nicolas de Staël. In 1960, he moved to New York and organized a nine-gallery Picasso retrospective. Christie's then appointed him to open their U.S. office, which he ran for the next nine years. In 1973 he joined New York gallery M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., as vice president in charge of 19th- and 20th-century painting, and later became managing director of Artemis, a mutual fund specializing in works of art.

In 1980 he started devoting all his time to writing and working on his Picasso biography. He was also a contributor to The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.

In 1993, Richardson was elected to the British Academy and in 1995 he was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford. He was awarded France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011 and in 2012 was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Biography

Youth and education
John Patrick Richardson was born on 6 February 1924 in London, the elder son of Sir Wodehouse Richardson, Quarter-Master General in the Boer War, and founder of the Army & Navy Stores. His mother was Patty (née Crocker); he had a younger sister (b. 1925) and a younger brother. In 1929, when he was five years old, his father died, and his mother sent him to board at two successive preparatory schools, where he was unhappy. When he was thirteen he became a boarder at Stowe School, where he admired the architecture and landscape and was taught something about the work of Picasso and other innovative painters.

By 1939 and the outbreak of World War II, Richardson knew that he wanted to become an artist, and, a month short of seventeen, enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art (at that time evacuated to Oxford), where he became a friend of Geoffrey Bennison and James Bailey. When he was called up for military service, he obtained a position in the Irish Guards, but almost immediately contracted rheumatic fever and was invalided out of the army. During this period he met and made friends with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, both of whom later painted portraits of him. He spent the rest of the war with his mother and siblings in London. During daytime, he worked as an industrial designer before becoming a reviewer for The New Observer. In 1949 he became acquainted with art historian and collector Douglas Cooper, with whom he would share his life for the next ten years.

Liaison with Douglas Cooper
Richardson moved to Provence in the south of France in 1952, when Cooper acquired the Château de Castille in the vicinity of Avignon and transformed the run-down castle into a private museum of early Cubism. Cooper had been at home in the Paris art scene before World War II and had been active in the art business as well; by building his own collection, he also met many artists personally and introduced them to his friend.  Richardson became a close friend of Picasso, Léger and de Staël as well. During this period of his life he developed an interest in Picasso's portraits and contemplated creating a publication; more than 20 years later, these plans expanded into his four-part Picasso biography A Life of Picasso, the final volume of which was published in 2022.

New York
In 1960, Richardson left Cooper and moved to New York City, where he organized a nine-gallery Picasso retrospective in 1962 and a Braque retrospective in 1964. Christie's, the auction house, then appointed him to open their US office, which he ran for the next nine years. In 1973, he joined New York gallery M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., as Vice President in charge of 19th- and 20th-century painting, and later became Managing Director of Artemis, a mutual fund specializing in works of art.

In 1980, Richardson decided to devote all his time to writing. Besides working on his Picasso biography, he was a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. In 1993, Richardson was elected to the British Academy and in 1995 he was appointed Slade Professor of Art at the University of Oxford.

Picasso biography
The first of four planned volumes of Richardson's A Life of Picasso biography, (originally planned to be published in one single volume), was published in 1991. This described 25 years from his birth to 1906 and won a Whitbread Award. The second volume was published in November 1996, dealing with the period 1907–1916, and thus covering the birth of Cubism, followed by the third volume in 2007, devoted to the period up to 1932, when Picasso turned 50. Richardson was working on the fourth volume, which was originally to span the early 1930s to the liberation of Paris in 1944. Though the fourth volume fell behind schedule (it was to be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2014), Richardson spoke of still progressing with it in a February 2016 interview with Alain Elkann. Richardson stated then that he was working daily, "even weekends", on the project with three assistants who were aiding him with writing and research. He stated that he was "up to 1939", and that he hoped to "get through the war". The fourth volume, covering Picasso's life until 1943 was eventually published in November 2021.

Fifteen years after Cooper's death, Richardson published a memoir (The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper) in 1999 and a collection of essays in 2001 (Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters). He was curator of an exhibition of the late Picasso with title Mosqueteros in the Gagosian Gallery in New York City. For the London Gagosian Gallery, he curated another such exhibition in 2010: Picasso - The Mediterranean Years (1945-1962), which ran from 4 June until 28 August 2010. In 2011, Richardson and Diana Widmaier Picasso co-curated another sizable Picasso exhibition, "Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'amour fou", at the Gagosian gallery in New York City for which Richardson also wrote a related book.

Also in 2011, Richardson was awarded France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his contributions to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.

Richardson was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to art.

Death

Richardson died in New York City on 12 March 2019, at the age of 95.

Bibliography

Books
Picasso, Pablo: Aquarelle und Gouachen. Dt. Buch-Gemeinschaft, Berlin 1956
Manet, Edouard: Gemälde und Zeichnungen. Phaidon Verlag, Köln 1959

Juan Gris. Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund 1965
Dorothy M. Kosinski, John Richardson, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel: Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus. Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel 1987,
A Life of Picasso (1991 - 2021):
The Prodigy, 1881-1906 (Vol 1). Random House, New York 1991,  (German edition: Kindler, München, 1991)
The Cubist Rebel, 1907-1916 (Vol 2). Random House, New York 1996,  (German edition: Kindler, 1997)
The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932 (Vol 3). Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2007,
The Minotaur Years, 1933-1943 (Vol 4). Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2021,
The Sorcerer's Apprentice  Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper, Jonathan Cape London 1999
Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters: Beaton, Capote, Dalí, Picasso, Freud, Warhol, and More. Random House, New York 2001,
(with Brenda Richardson) Warhol from the Sonnabend Collection (Rizzoli, 2009)
(with others) Picasso Mosqueteros: The Late Works 1962-1972 (2009)
(with others) Picasso & the Camera  (Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2014)

Essays and reporting
"Bacon Agonistes", New York Review of Books, 17 December 2009.
"Cubism steals the show", Vanity Fair v. 634, p. 84-85 (June 2013).

Filmography
Picasso: Magic, Sex, Death (2001), writer and presenter

References

1924 births
2019 deaths
American art historians
British art historians
Fellows of the British Academy
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford)
Vanity Fair (magazine) people
British Army personnel of World War II
Irish Guards soldiers
British emigrants to the United States
People educated at Stowe School

John Richardson (art historian)


The Order Police battalions were militarised formations of the Nazi German  Ordnungspolizei (Order Police, "Orpo"). During World War II, they were subordinated to the SS and deployed in German-occupied areas, specifically the Army Group Rear Areas and territories under German civilian administration. Alongside detachments from the Einsatzgruppen and the Waffen-SS, these units perpetrated mass murder of the Jewish population and were responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity targeting civilian populations.

Operational history
The Nazi German Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) was a key instrument of the security apparatus of Nazi Germany. In the prewar period, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, and Kurt Daluege, chief of the Order Police, cooperated in transforming the police force of the Weimar Republic into militarised formations ready to serve the regime's aims of conquest and racial annihilation. In 1938, before the breakout of World War II, the police units participated in the annexation of Austria and the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Invasion of Poland

Police troops were first formed into battalion-sized formations for the invasion of Poland, where they were deployed for security and policing purposes, also taking part in executions and mass deportations. The first 17 battalion formations were deployed by Orpo in September 1939 along with the Wehrmacht in the invasion of Poland. The battalions guarded Polish prisoners of war and carried out expulsion of Poles from Reichsgau Wartheland under the banner of Lebensraum. They also committed atrocities against both the Catholic and the Jewish populations as part of those "resettlement actions". After hostilities had ceased, the battalions−such as Reserve Police Battalion 101−took up the role of security forces, patrolling the perimeters of the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland (the internal ghetto security issues were managed by the SS, SD, and the Criminal Police, in conjunction with the Jewish ghetto administration).

Invasion of the Soviet Union
Twenty-three Orpo battalions were slated to take part in the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. Nine were attached to the Wehrmacht security divisions. Two battalions were assigned to support the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile death squads of the SS, and the Organisation Todt, the military construction group. Twelve were formed into regiments, three battalions each, and designated as Police Regiments Centre, North, South, and Police Regiment Special Purpose. The goals of the police battalions were to secure the rear by eliminating the remnants of the enemy forces, guarding the prisoners of war, and protecting the lines of communications and captured industrial facilities. Their instructions also included, as Daluege stated, the "combat of criminal elements, above all political elements".

Comprising about 550 men each, the 300-numbered battalions were raised from recruits mobilised from the 1905–1915 year groups. They were led by career police professionals, steeped in the ideology of Nazism, driven by anti-semitism and anti-Bolshevism. The regiments and battalions were placed under the command of career policemen. When the units crossed the German-Soviet border, they came under the control of the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSS-PF) for the respective Army Group Centre Rear Areas.

Occupied Western and Southern Europe

Units

Regular police battalions
 Police Battalion 9 (attached to Einsatzgruppen)
 Police Battalion 45
 Police Battalion 303
 Police Battalion 304
 Police Battalion 307
 Police Battalion 309
 Police Battalion 314
 Police Battalion 315
 Police Battalion 316
 Police Battalion 320
 Police Battalion 322

Reserve police battalions
Reserve Police Battalion 101

Aftermath
The Order Police as a whole had not been declared a criminal organisation by the Allies, unlike the SS, and its members were able to reintegrate into society largely unmolested, with many returning to police careers in Austria and West Germany.

References

Bibliography

Further reading

1939 establishments in Germany
1941 establishments in Germany
The Holocaust in Belarus
The Holocaust in Poland
The Holocaust in Russia
The Holocaust in Ukraine
SS and Police units
Ordnungspolizei

Order Police battalions


Videocassette recorder (VCR) is an electronic device that records and plays videotapes. Most use VHS or Beta cassettes that contain recordings of movies and other programs (such as music videos, exercise videos, and so on). To watch a recording using a VCR, the VCR has to be connected to a television set.

VCRs at first were mainly used to record programs from television broadcasts. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many people used VCRs to record their favorite television shows to watch them later. This was called time-shifting.

Watching movies
In the mid-1980s, VCRs became a very popular way for people to watch movies and other recorded programs on their home television. Until the 21st century, video rental stores offered a large selection of movies recorded on VHS tapes that customers could rent. In the 1980s, some video rental stores also offered a smaller number of movies recorded on Beta tapes.

VHS vs Betamax
In the 1980s, VHS was involved in a format war with Sony's Betamax. VHS won the format war. Betacam, a variant of Betamax designed specifically for professional camcorders, did become popular in television studios, but consumers used VHS at home.

In 1974, the Japanese government's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) tried to force the Japanese video industry to agree on just one home video recording format, in order to avoid consumer confusion. Later, Sony built a prototype of a Betamax VTR. Sony presented the prototype to MITI, and convinced them to use Betamax as the technical standard. Sony was then allowed to charge other companies licensing fees to use the Betamax technical standard, so that they could also build and sell Betamax machines.

JVC believed that an open standard (a technical standard that is open and free for anyone to use) like VHS was better for the consumer, so they fought against the MITI and Sony. JVC attempted to convince other companies, including Matsushita, to use VHS instead of Betamax. Matsushita agreed with JVC because Matsushita worried that Sony might become the most powerful company in the video recording industry if the Betamax format was the only one that the MITI allowed them to sell. Matsushita also disliked the fact that Betamax systems could only record one hour of video.

Because Matsushita agreed with JVC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Sharp began to support the VHS technical standard. When Sony released its Betamax machines in Japan in 1975, it pressured the MITI to support Sony even more. However, the combination of JVC and the other companies was much stronger, and eventually the MITI stopped trying to create a single technical standard for the whole industry. JVC released the first VHS machines in Japan in late 1976, and then in the United States in early 1977. Sony continued to sell Betamax machines, and they competed with VHS throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

In countries that use the NTSC technical standard for television broadcasting, the Beta I version of Betamax was able to record one hour of video at a tape speed of 1.5 inches per second (ips), which was similar to a VHS standard-play mode (SP). Originally, VHS recorded two hours of video at 1.31 ips. Betamax's smaller-sized cassettes were not able to contain as much magnetic tape as VHS cassettes. They could not compete fit longer lengths of tape into the cassettes to match VHS's two-hour recording time. Instead, Sony had to slow the tape speed down to 0.787 ips (Beta II) in order to reach two hours of video recording in the same cassette size. This meant that the television picture produced by a Betamax tape was worse than VHS when comparing two-hour recordings. Sony eventually released a longer Betamax cassette called Beta III which allowed NTSC Betamax to record more than two hours, but by then VHS had already won the format war.

VHS also used a less complicated set of mechanisms to read the magnetic tape than Betamax, and VHS machines were faster at rewinding (winding the magnetic tape back to its starting place so that the video starts from the beginning the next time) and fast-forwarding than Betamax machines.

In countries that use the PAL and SECAM technical standards for their television broadcasting, Betamax's recording time was similar to VHS and the picture on the television was at least as good as VHS.

DVDs replaced VCRs
In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, the DVD player replaced the VCR as the most common way to watch movies on a home television. The VCR sales dropped later, causing the VCR to be used less by people. VCRs are still available, but fewer stores offer them, because fewer people want them.

References

Entertainment
Electronics

Videocassette recorder


Scrabble is a board game that is played by 2, 3 or 4 people. It uses a 15×15 board with squares on it and a large number of letters on small tiles. (In the English version of Scrabble, there are 100 tiles.) Players take turns putting words on the board using any of the seven letters (seven tiles) that they have in front of them. Their word must connect to another word that is already on the board.

History
Scrabble was invented in 1938 by an architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. He had previously invented a similar game called Lexiko. He decided how many points each letter was worth by looking at books and newspapers and counting how often each letter was used in the English language. He called the game "Criss-Crosswords". However, he was not successful in selling the game. In 1948 a lawyer called James Brunot bought the rights to make to game. Brunot made some of the rules easier, and changed the name to "Scrabble", which is a real word meaning "to scratch around frantically". Soon other firms around the world were buying rights to make the game. It had become so popular by 1984 that it was made into a daytime TV show on NBC television.

The name Scrabble today is a trademark of Hasbro in the US and Canada and of J. W. Spear & Sons PLC in other countries.

Many people play Scrabble in clubs and tournaments all over the world. People who play in serious tournaments are given a time limit.  They lose points if they spend too long thinking about their moves.

There are websites where one can play Scrabble online.

How to play

The players decide who is going to start by taking one letter (one tile) from the bag. The person with the letter closest to the beginning of the alphabet may start.

Each player takes seven tiles from the bag (without looking at what they are). The player puts these tiles on a rack in front of them. This is so the player can see the letters they have, but the other players can not.

The first player puts a word on the board using some, or all, of their seven letters. The first player has to put their word on the star in the middle. After this, players take turns putting words on the board. Each new word placed on the board has to connect to another word. Sometimes it is possible to make two or more words in one turn by touching other letters, but each word on the board reading horizontally (left to right) or vertically (top to bottom) must be a real word.

Once a player plays a word, they take more tiles from the bag to replace the tiles they played. Near the end of the game, there will be no more tiles in the bag. When this happens, players do not take more tiles. The game ends when one player has no more tiles to play. When this happens, the other players add up the points of the letters they have left, and subtract that number from their score. The winner of the game is whoever has the most points.

Allowed words
There are special Scrabble dictionaries used for the game. In these dictionaries, all the allowed words (words that can be played during the game) are listed. When playing according to the proper rules, a player can not use a dictionary. However, if one player puts a word on the board, and another player says it is not an allowed word, then the players may check the dictionary. If the word is not in the dictionary, the player who played the word must take their letters back and lose their turn.

Scoring
Each letter has a number of points. Letters worth more points are less common. For example, common letters such as E, T, and A are worth one point, while uncommon letters such as Q and Z are worth 10 points.  There are also two blank tiles which can be used for any letter. These are worth zero points. A player must say what the letter is when they place it on the board. For example, a player might place the tiles "C", "A", and a blank tile on the board, and say the blank tile is a T. This makes the word "CAT". For the rest of the game, the blank tile must be used as if it was a T.

There are many squares on the board where a player can get extra points. Some squares allow the player to count that letter twice (light blue) or three times (dark blue). These squares have "double letter score" or "triple letter score" written on them. Other squares allow them to count the whole word twice (light red) or three times (dark red). These squares have "double word score" or "triple word score" written on them. The star at the center of the board is also a "double word score" square.

Example
Player 1 plays the word "TEAR" on the board. The letter "T" is on a "double letter score" square, and the letter "R" is on a "double word score" square.

To find how many points Player 1 gets, the points of each letter are added together: (1 × 2) (T) + 1 (E) + 1 (A) + 1 (R) = 5. The letter T gets twice as many points because of the square it is on. Because the word is on a "double word score" square, this number is multiplied by 2: 5 × 2 = 10. Player 1 gets 10 points for playing this word.

Now it is Player 2's turn. Player 2 adds an "S" to the end of Player 1's word. This makes the word "TEARS". Each of these letters is worth 1 point, so Player 2 will get 1 (T) + 1 (E) + 1 (A) + 1 (R) + 1 (S) = 5 points for playing this word. Player 2 does not get a "double word score" or "double letter score". This is because these squares only give extra points the first time a word is played on top of them.

Other languages
There are many different versions of Scrabble for other languages. This is because not all languages use the same letters. Some languages also use some letters more often than others. There are versions in languages with other alphabets, such as Russian.

References

Board games
Word games

Scrabble