Dame Helen Sarah Wallace, Lady Wallace of Saltaire, DBE, CMG, FBA, MAE, FAcSS (born 25 June 1946 in Whalley Range, Manchester), née Rushworth, is a British expert in European studies and, by marriage to William Wallace, Baron Wallace of Saltaire, a peeress. She was Foreign Secretary of the British Academy from 2011 to 2015.

She attended Oxford University (1963–67), where she was President of the Oxford University Liberal Club and where she obtained a BA in Classics. Having already met her future husband, William Wallace, at Oxford, she spent a year at Bruges, Belgium, undertaking postgraduate studies at the College of Europe (1967–68).

Marriage/family
Helen Rushworth married William Wallace on 25 August 1968; the couple have two children, Harriet (born 1977) and Edward (born 1981).

Career
Helen Wallace studied at the University of Manchester (1969–73), where she completed her doctoral thesis with the title The Domestic Policy-making Implications of the Labour Government's Application for Membership of the EEC (1975). She obtained a Certificate of Advanced European Studies at the College of Europe in 1968.

She was lecturer in European Studies at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) 1974–78 and in 1976 was appointed Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, a position she continued to hold until 2001. She was a lecturer at the Civil Service College 1978–85, and, briefly, a member of the planning staff at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1979–80. In 1985, she was appointed Senior Research Fellow and Director of the West-European Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House.

In 1992 she took up the first of several appointments at the University of Sussex, where she was Jean Monnet Professor of Contemporary European Studies and founding Director of the Sussex European Institute. In 1998 she became Director of the Economic and Social Research Council programme One Europe or Several? and became Co-Director of the institute. From 2001 until 31 August 2006 she was Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She was Centennial Professor in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2007 to 2010.

In the 1970s she was Secretary and Chair of UACES (the academic association for Contemporary European Studies). She was a board member for the Brussels-based think-tank, Bruegel (2006–13). For Her Majesty's Government she was a member of the Better Regulation Commission and for the European Commission a member of the Group of Political Analysis and the Advisory Group for Social Sciences. She has been, since 2004, Chair of the Conseil universitaire européen pour l'Action Jean Monnet.

Affiliations
Professor Dame Helen Wallace serves as editor of the book series One Europe or Several? and New Europe published by Palgrave Macmillan and was co-editor of the New European Politics series published by Oxford University Press. She has also served as a member of the editorial advisory boards of the journals Journal of Common Market Studies, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Co-operation and Conflict, Perspectives, European Union Politics, and Policy Studies.

Honours
In 1996, she was appointed a Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite by the President of the French Republic. She was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2000 New Year Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to social science.

She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in June 2000. She has been awarded honorary degrees by the universities of Sussex, Loughborough and Aston and by the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris.

In 2015 she was awarded the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values. In the same year she was elected a Member of the Academia Europaea.

Publications

Fiona Hayes-Renshaw and Helen Wallace, The Council of Ministers (2nd edn, Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006; 1st edn, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997)
Helen Wallace, William Wallace, and Mark A. Pollack, eds, Policy-making in the European Union (5th edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; 4th edn, ed. Helen Wallace and William Wallace, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000; 3rd edn, ed. Helen Wallace and William Wallace, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996; 2nd edn, ed. Helen Wallace, William Wallace, and Carole Webb, Chichester: Wiley, 1983; 1st edn, ed. Helen Wallace, William Wallace, and Carole Webb, London: Wiley, 1977)
Helen Wallace, The future of Europe debate: opportunities for British policy (Brighton: Sussex European Institute, 2001)
Helen Wallace, ed., Interlocking dimensions of European integration (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001)
Alisdair R. Young and Helen Wallace, Regulatory politics in the enlarging European Union: weighing civic and producer interests (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000)
Helen Wallace, 'Whose Europe is it anyway?', European Journal of Political Research 35 (1999), 287–306
Helen Wallace, Coming to terms with a larger Europe: options for economic integration (Falmer: Sussex European Institute, 1998)
Helen Wallace and Alasdair R. Young, eds, Participation and policy-making in the European Union (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997)
Helen Wallace and Alasdair R. Young, Balancing public and private interests under duress (Brighton: Sussex European Institute, 1996)
Helen Wallace, From an island off the north-west coast of Europe (Brighton: Sussex European Institute, 1996)
Helen Wallace, The shaping of Europe: progress and prospect (Ditchley Park: Ditchley Foundation, 1995)
Anna Michalski and Helen Wallace, The European Community: the challenge of enlargement (2nd edn, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1992; 1st edn 1992)
Helen Wallace, ed., The wider Western Europe: reshaping the EC/EFTA relationship (London: Pinter for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1991)
Françoise de La Serre, Jacques Leruez, and Helen Wallace, eds, French and British foreign policies in transition: the challenge of adjustment (New York; Oxford: Berg, 1990)
Françoise de la Serre, Jacques Leruez, and Helen Wallace, eds, Les Politiques étrangères de la France et de la Grande-Bretagne depuis 1945: l'inévitable ajustement (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1990)
Marc Wilke and Helen Wallace, Subsidiarity: approaches to power-sharing in the European Community (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1990)
Helen Wallace, Widening and deepening: the European Community and the new European agenda (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1989)
Ralf Dahrendorf, Helen Wallace, and Russell Johnston, Towards greater democrary and unity in Europe (London: TEAM Promotions, 1988)
J. Jamar & Helen Wallace, eds, EEC-EFTA, more than just good friends? (French title, ) (proceedings of the symposium organised by the College of Europe, Bruges, 30 June-2 July 1988, Bruges: De Tempel, 1988)
Jacques Pelkmans and L. Alan Winters with Helen Wallace, Europe's domestic market (London: Routledge, 1988)
James Eberle and Helen Wallace, British space policy and international collaboration (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987)
Helen Wallace with Adam Ridley, Europe: the challenge of diversity (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul for Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House papers, 1985)
Helen Wallace, Budgetary politics: the finances of the European Communities (London: Allen & Unwin, 1980)
Geoffrey Edwards and Helen Wallace, The Council of Ministers of the European Community and the President-in-Office (London: Federal Trust for Education and Research, 1977)
Helen Wallace, National governments and the European Communities (London: Chatham House, 1973)

References

External links

 Documents by Helen Wallace are deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence

Honorary degree citation, Loughborough University, 9 July 2004
Jean Monnet Programme
University Association for Contemporary European Studies Lifetime Achievement 2006
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, personal.uni-jena.de; accessed 31 December 2015.

English political scientists
English historians
Historians of Europe
College of Europe alumni
Academics of the University of Manchester
Academics of the University of Sussex
Fellows of the British Academy
Members of Academia Europaea
Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
Alumni of the University of Manchester
British baronesses
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
1946 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences
Spouses of life peers
Chatham House people
European Union and European integration scholars
Women political scientists
UACES award

Helen Wallace


Jamie Irene Pineda (born September 27, 1988) is an American pop singer-songwriter and former model. In late 2007, Pineda signed on to be the front woman of the international pop music project Sweetbox staying with the group until 2012. In 2013, she took part in third season of the American music competition series The X Factor.

Early life
Pineda is of Mexican descent and grew up in Fall River Mills, California with eight brothers and sisters. Growing up, she played guitar and piano in the church choir while also singing in the school choir. When she was 14, she was offered a contract after an executive heard her singing on the balcony of her grandmother's restaurant. However, her family said she was much too young and they passed on the opportunity. When she was 15, Jamie stood in line to audition for American Idol but was 20 days too young to compete. Among her credits, she has performed at a halftime show for the Sacramento Kings game. She has stated before that some of her influences are Mariah Carey, Selena, Etta James and Alicia Keys.

Sweetbox

After her town raised money for Pineda to move to Los Angeles, she made the move and found herself modeling for an agency to make ends meet, while trying to make it as a musician. In August 2007, the agency informed Jamie about the international pop project Sweetbox looking for a new singer after the last singer, Jade Villalon, left to embark on a solo career. Taking the chance, she auditioned and impressed executive producer Heiko Schmidt. The next day, the then 18-year-old did some test recordings for Heiko in the studio of Bernd Burgdorf. She signed on soon thereafter to become the new front woman of the project.

The Next Generation
The same month, Pineda got to work and began traveling around the globe to places including Stockholm, Gothenburg, New York City and London. While having songs written for her as the new face of Sweetbox, Pineda also co-wrote tracks with Toby Gad, Georgie Dennis and Derek Bramble. Seeing that they worked so well together, Bramble was chosen as the producer for the album, taking over the spot Geo left vacant after he and Jade Villalon left the project.

In May 2008, Derek and Pineda got to work on the album, entitled The Next Generation. The duo recorded the album in Los Angeles, California with the help of mix engineer Rob Chiarelli, Derek's longtime partner.

The album's debut single, "We Can Work It Out", was released in April 2009 to Japan and reached No. 4 on iTunes Pop charts and eventually reached No. 27 of the Japan Billboard Hot 100. Two more singles, "Crash Landed" and "Everything is Nothing", were released from the album.

The album was released to Japan under the Warner Music Japan label in June 2009 and in Korea under the Sony BMG label in November 2009. Pineda promoted the album in Japan in May and June 2009 by visiting radio stations and performing at various events, including the FRESHNESS Warner event which showcased Warner Japan's hottest talent. In July 2009 the album was released via iTunes worldwide. It was the first Sweetbox release in North America since the debut album from the project in 1998.

The album was well received in Japan and had success in Korea. It peaked in the top 10 on several charts for both countries, including No. 4 on the Oricon International Charts and No. 1 on several Korean charts.

Diamond Veil
Pineda started writing for the second album in June 2009, right after her first album release. Through the official Sweetbox website, she had been asking fans what they would like to see on the album. In September 2009, Pineda traveled to Sweden and started working with previous writers on the album. Pineda took a more hands-on role with the writing of this album and has stated she keeps a notebook with her at all times for inspiration. In a November 2009 interview, she stated that with this writing process she has a lot to write about and more emotions were coming out with the writing.

In January 2010, Heiko Schmidt announced that Pineda had finished writing for the album and that the second release from Pineda would be recorded in the coming months and would be released in the second quarter of 2010. He stated that the new album would feature "more uptempo and high energetic songs" than the project's previous release. In February 2010, Pineda traveled to Sweden once again and continued writing and recording. There, she once again collaborated with Didrik and Sebastian Thott, who co-wrote on Pineda's first studio album.

That May it was announced via Pineda's Twitter that the album would be released in September 2010.
However, with lack of promotion and information the album was released on iTunes and Amazon on May 18, 2011. The cover art of the album is different from the Japanese version. The album has kept its original name Diamond Veil from the beginning of recording. The album is more upbeat and dance-oriented than the previous effort with Pineda due to that being the main criticism of the last album The Next Generation.

Pineda posted two videos on Warner Japan's YouTube page talking about songs on Diamond Veil.

On July 12, the deluxe version of Diamond Veil was released digitally, containing all the tracks found on the physical version. This version contains new artwork using a photo from The Next Generation as a new photo shoot was not done.

Departure from Sweetbox
After the release of Diamond Veil, Pineda left the group. While she had been somewhat open about not being pleased with how her career with Sweetbox went, it is unclear on what terms she left.

Her background vocals were used for the song "Stolen" on the 2008 album I Am by the German girl group Monrose. Pineda had recorded the song while in Sweden in 2007 but the song was given to Monrose for their third album.

The X Factor
In 2013, she auditioned for the third season of The X Factor USA. She was one of Final 40 named, and one of ten finalists in the Girls category mentored by Demi Lovato, but failed to advance to the live shows.

In the newly introduced "four-chair challenge" broadcast on October 2, 2013, she sang "Don't Speak", a hit from No Doubt and was put in chair as appreciation. However she failed to make it to the Final 16 (final 4 of girls) at the end of the process, when Lovato switched her preferring the performance of Ellona Santiago over hers.

Personal life
Pineda is married to Juan Manuel Venegas and resides in Redding, California with her two dogs, and children.

Discography

Albums
 The Next Generation (2009)
 Diamond Veil (2011)

Singles
"We Can Work It Out" (2009)
"Crash Landed" (2009)
"Everything is Nothing" (2010)
"Remember This Dance" (2011)
"Minute By Minute" (2011)
"I Know You're Not Alone" (2011)

References

1988 births
Living people
21st-century American women singers
American women pop singers
American musicians of Mexican descent
Musicians from Glendale, California
People from Shasta County, California
Sweetbox members
The X Factor (American TV series) contestants
21st-century American singers
Hispanic and Latino American women singers

Jamie Pineda


The Invalid Corps is a popular song dating from the time of the American Civil War, circa 1863. The first stanza tells the story of a Union conscript attempting to join the military, only to be rejected because of his poor health. The rest of the song humorously depicts the rejected conscript's experience in the Invalid Corps.  The words and music were composed by Frank Wilder.

The Invalid Corps was a branch of the military during the Civil War, created within the Union Army to allow partially disabled or formerly disabled soldiers to perform some form of light duty, thus allowing able soldiers to be sent to the front lines.

Song lyrics
I wanted much to go to war,
And went to be examined;
The surgeon looked me o'er and o'er,
My back and chest he hammered.
Said he, "You're not the man for me,
Your lungs Are much affected,
And likewise both your eyes are cock'd,
And otherwise defected."

CHORUS
So, now I'm with the Invalids,
And cannot go and fight, sir!
The doctor told me so, you know,
Of course it must be right, sir!

While I was there a host of chaps
For reasons were exempted,
Old "pursy", he was laid aside,
To pass he had attempted.
The doctor said, "I do not like
Your corporosity, sir!
You'll "breed a famine" in the camp
Wherever you might be, sir!"

CHORUS

There came a fellow, mighty tall,
A "knock-kneed overgrowner",
The Doctor said, "I ain't got time
To take and look you over."
Next came along a little chap,
Who was 'bout two foot nothing,
The Doctor said, "You'd better go
And tell your marm you're coming!"

CHORUS

Some had the ticerdolerreou,
Some what they call "brown critters",
And some were "lank and lazy" too,
Some were too "fond of bitters".
Some had "cork legs" and some "one eye",
With backs deformed and crooked,
I'll bet you'd laugh'd till you had cried,
To see how "cute" they looked.

CHORUS

External links
Full lyrics

Songs of the American Civil War
1860s songs

The Invalid Corps


Taz: Wanted is an platform video game released in 2002 by Blitz Games. The game features the Looney Tunes character the Tasmanian Devil.

Plot
Taz and She-Devil are hanging out romantically on Taz Island, but are suddenly captured by Yosemite Sam and held captive in Yosemite Zoo; Taz is kept in a large cage in the center of the zoo while She-Devil is still in a smaller cage in a truck. While Sam films an advertisement for the zoo on TV, Taz attempts to break out his cage, and Sam has She-Devil moved to a safer area of the zoo. After Taz breaks out, Sam has his "Taz Catcher" workers put up wanted posters and post a bounty to help catch Taz. Tweety Bird appears and agrees to help Taz in his journey to save She-Devil, giving him pointers on where the wanted posters Taz needs to destroy are found.

After going through the zoo's safari, winter, and beach-themed attractions and destroying all of the wanted posters strewn throughout, Taz nearly escapes the zoo using a snowblower, a inflatable raft, and an escaped elephant found in said locations. However, Taz soon finds himself having to battle Gossamer in a game of Elephant Pong. When Taz wins, Sam retreats and moves She-Devil again. Taz chases after them, reaching the town of "Sam" Francisco. After evading capture from Sam's workers again, Taz sees Sam advertising She-Devil as the prize on the game show "Gladiatoons", prompting Taz to find a way into the show.

After causing chaos and destroying the wanted posters at the local museum, shopping mall, and construction site, Taz uses an unstable cement mixer from the site to launch himself into the Gladiatoons set. Taz then takes Wile E. Coyote's place in the main competition against the champion, Daffy Duck. Taz eventually emerges victorious against Daffy, but when Taz is placed on the winner's podium, Daffy throws a switch that causes the podium to trap Taz in a cage. After Daffy claims the bounty on Taz, Sam and his workers then take the captive Devil and transport him by train to the Old West. Upon reaching the train station in the desert, Taz manages to break free yet again. He then sees Sam's blimp lower him and She-Devil into an explosives warehouse on an otherwise unreachable butte.

Taz goes on to destroy the wanted posters throughout a local canyon town, a haunted theme park locale, and a large underground strip mine, eventually gaining access to a mine cart in the process. Taz then rides the cart and launches himself into the factory and confronts Sam. Sam uses dynamite in an attempt to blow up Taz, but ends up causing the warehouse to explode in the process. Sam escapes in his blimp with She-Devil, but the explosion has such force that it hurls Taz into outer space and eventually back on his island, where Sam is trying to build a theme park over it.

Taz catches up to Sam, where he is attempting to destroy the entire island by detonating a large amount of explosives in a volcano. Taz defeats Sam, causing him to fall into the lava. However, Sam managed to save himself thanks to a hidden jetpack, and escapes. As Taz and She-Devil are raised into Sam's blimp, which in en route back to Yosemite Zoo, Tweety suddenly appears operating a large mech, much to Taz's confusion. Tweety reveals that it was his idea to construct the 'Tazland A-maze-ment Park' all along, and battles Taz throughout the blimp. The battle eventually culminates with Taz opening the blimp's rear cargo door, and yelling with such audible force that it pushes Tweety out of the blimp, defeating him. She-Devil then appears, having broken out on her own, and shares a brief kissing session with Taz. She-Devil then tries to pilot the blimp from the cockpit to take them home to their island, but Taz accidentally destroys the control panel when he bursts in, causing the craft to crash on the island. She-Devil then hands Taz a broom to clean up, much to Taz's annoyance.

Gameplay
Taz: Wanted has four areas, the first three having the same basic blueprint. There are three levels in each area, each level having seven wanted posters of some variety that must be destroyed with some technique. Once all seven posters are destroyed, a scene will show an area of the level in which something happens that will help Taz get to the new area, such as a gate opening or something breaking. In the new area, Taz gets his hands on something and somehow manages to get it and him back to the HUB. Once the three things are acquired for the area, they can be used to enter a boss arena. The only exception for this is the level Taz Land, in which nothing is brought back, and the final area, with only one level and two bosses. Once the boss is defeated Taz is either blown, shipped, or chased to the next area. To travel between areas, a misplaced door is placed in each one which transports you to Planet X with all the other doors Taz can travel through. Defeating bosses unlocks their arenas for two-player mode.

Reception

Taz: Wanted received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic

The game was nominated for 2002 BAFTA award in category 'Best Children's Entertainment'.

References

External links

2002 video games
3D platform games
Blitz Games Studios games
GameCube games
Infogrames games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
PlayStation 2 games
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Video games featuring the Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes)
Video games with cel-shaded animation
Warner Bros. video games
Windows games
Xbox games

Taz: Wanted


Ingerd Ottesdotter (Rømer) (c. 1475–1555) was her era's wealthiest landowner in Norway. She was the ultimate heiress of the noble Rømer family and a political intriguer. Lady Ingerd is noted for having orchestrated her powerful sons-in-law to support her goals. Her fame was the inspiration for Henrik Ibsen's play Lady Inger of Ostrat.

Life
She was the daughter of Otte Matsson Rømer (1437-1508) and Ingeborg Lydersdatter Struds von Bergen (c. 1451-1512). Lady Ingerd's parents had her marry Lord Nils Henriksson, whose family also had some claim to Austrått Manor in the Trondheimsfjord. Thus the important manor of Austrått, with its associated lands, were settled to be Ingerd's share of the family inheritance. Her husband became both Chancellor and High Steward of Norway (rikshovmester). She was widowed in 1523.

Her interests also targeted Swedish politics, in addition to Norwegian.  In 1526 she received the exiled Swedish chancellor Peder Sunnanväder, who had been implicated in the Dalecarlian rebellions. Later she practically joined attempts to dethrone King Gustav I of Sweden. In 1528 the knight who claimed to be Nils Sture, the elder son of Sten Sture the Younger, the 1512–20 Regent of Sweden (the boy's identity remains controversial to this day: he may have been was the authentic Nils or an impostor), fled to Norway after his defeat and enjoyed the hospitality of Lady Ingerd. She had plans to obtain the crown of Sweden for him, taking it from the Stures' kinsman King Gustav Vasa. And, more importantly to her, she was planning to marry his daughter, Eline Nilsdatter to the young pretender and make her the Queen. Ultimately, nothing came of this and the so-called Daljunkern was executed later in Rostock at request of King Gustav.

From earlier property disputes and such, Lady Ingerd was an enemy of the Roman Catholic prelate Olav Engelbrektsson, Primate of Norway and Archbishop of Nidaros. Archbishop Engelbriktsonn was also a rival in Norway's government with Lady Ingerd's son-in-law Lord Vincens Lunge. Lady Inger and her family joined the Lutheran Reformation and promoted it extensively. That served as an important impetus for Protestantism in Norway.

Personal life
Ingerd Ottesdotter Rømer and Nils Henriksson had five daughters, all of whom married Danish-Norwegian noblemen:

Margrete Nilsdatter (c. 1495-1550), married to Vincens Lunge, nobleman and member of the Norwegian national council (Riksråd)
Eline Nilsdatter (c. 1504-1532), married with Nils Lykke, feudal lord at Sunnmøre and Nordmøre
Anna Nilsdatter (c 1505-1557), married to Erik Ugerup, feudal lord in Tønsberg
Ingeborg Nilsdatter (c. 1512-1597), married to Peder Hanssøn Litle, feudal lord of Akershus
Lucie Nilsdatter (d. 1555), married Jens Tillufssøn Bjelke, feudal lord of Jemtland

Lucie Nilsdatter had been the center of a social scandal of some substance in those times. Nils Lykke had married Eline Nilsdatter, the elder sister of Lucie.  After her sister Eline's death in 1532, Lucie cared for Eline's children and ultimately conceived a child by Nils Lykke. Nils was subsequently put to death for incest by Archbishop Engelbrektsson in 1535. Lucie married Jens Tillufssøn Bjelke in 1540, and his correspondence thereafter came from Austrått Manor.  Lady Ingerd formally transferred the title of Austrått to Lucie and Jens; records show that the transfer was confirmed by the king in 1552. There has been speculation that Lucie's scandal allowed Jens, who descended from lesser nobility, to be considered socially acceptable for Lucie. In 1555 she and her daughter Lucie Jensdatter died in a shipwrecking off the coast of North-Western Norway.

Later fame
In 1857, playwright Henrik Ibsen, then in his early career, wrote the play "Lady Inger of Ostrat" which loosely utilizes her intrigues towards Swedish throne as basis of drama. The play is not fully accurate on historical and genealogical details.

References

External links
Fru inger til Østråt by Henrik Ibsen

1470s births
1555 deaths
People from Ørland
Norwegian landowners
Converts to Lutheranism from Roman Catholicism
16th-century Norwegian nobility
15th-century Norwegian nobility
15th-century Norwegian women
16th-century Norwegian women
Deaths due to shipwreck at sea
16th-century women landowners

Inger Ottesdotter Rømer


Sugar Bear is the advertising cartoon mascot of Post Super Sugar Crisp (later Golden Crisp) cereal.

History
Sugar Bear originally appeared in the 1940s as the mascot of Sugar Crisp (later known as Golden Crisp),  a cereal produced by General Foods Corporation under the Post brand. The original bear was designed by Robert "Bob" Irwin, a graphic designer for Post Cereal and voiced, in animated commercials, for 40 years by Gerry Matthews in emulation of a Bing Crosby persona – a shallow-eyed, easy going character who crooned his cereal's praises to the tune of "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho".

He was made a character in the 1964 Saturday morning cartoon Linus the Lionhearted. Most of the characters in the series, sponsored by General Foods, were mascots for Post cereal products (permitted at that time, later banned by the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC)).

Sugar Bear normally wore a blue turtleneck sweater with his name on the front, and in the 1980s a bite of Super Sugar Crisp would turn him into the muscular "Super Bear" (this alter ego was used to fight monsters who would steal the cereal). Several commercials in the mid 1980s had him using mere casual gestures to outsmart the aggressive tendencies of other animals. Examples include 1987 spots featuring Sugar Bear riding an elephant into a jungle of feisty tigers, playing matador to a raging bull, and sparring with irate sharks of the ocean.

His consistent nemesis was an elderly woman called Granny Goodwitch, with whom he engaged in elaborate contests, often involving trickery, magic, and high technology to decide who got a box of the cereal. In the end, Granny Goodwitch was never angry with Sugar Bear. Other nemeses included Blob, whose breakfast included pickles and soda; and Sugar Fox, who always tried and failed to keep Sugar Bear from getting his box of Super Sugar Crisp.

The Sugar Bear character was popular enough to have occasional premium toys. A yo-yo and padlock were produced in the 1960s, and even in 1993, a Christmas ornament saw him dressed as Santa Claus. Miniature talking plush dolls were also released in the early 1990s. Most recently, a Wacky Wobbler was released by Funko Inc.

Presently, Sugar Bear is being illustrated for the box covers by commercial illustrator Seymour Schachter.

Musical group
In 1971, producer Jimmy Bowen, singers Kim Carnes and Mike Settle, songwriter Baker Knight and others created a bubblegum pop studio group named the Sugar Bears.  A cardboard cut-out record was produced and printed on the back of thousands of Super Sugar Crisp cereal boxes.  The illustrated record identified four members: Sugar Bear, Honey Bear, Shoobee Bear, and Doobee Bear.  Five different versions of the record were printed, each with one of five songs shown on the label.  A commercial album, Presenting the Sugar Bears, and three singles were released by Big Tree Records with one song, "You Are the One", reaching No. 51 on the Billboard charts.

References

External links
 The Evolution of Sugar Bear

Post Foods characters
Corporate mascots
Bear mascots
Anthropomorphic bears
American mascots
Cartoon mascots
Mascots introduced in 1964
Male characters in advertising

Sugar Bear


MEVGAL (Macedonian Milk Industry) is a Greek brand of dairy products company, the largest in Northern Greece and the third largest producer of fresh dairy products in the country. Its name is an acronym for Macedonian Milk Industry (Greek: Μακεδονική Βιομηχανία Γάλακτος, ΜΕΒΓΑΛ).  It is headquartered in Koufalia in the Thessaloniki regional unit.  It manufactures dairy products that include yogurt, cheese and dairy-based deserts which total up to 170 individual products.

MEVGAL was founded in 1950 in Macedonia where 67% of Greece's fresh cow milk is produced. Its workforce consists of around 1,200 people. It purchases its raw products from up to 1,600 local farms based exclusively in Greece's north province of Macedonia. Its main market is through the local Greek outlets but it also exports to 23 countries around the world.

Since 2003 it expanded in the production of fruit juices and fruit drinks.

Logo
Its logo has a blue circle with its name emblazoned across it in white Greek letters.

Products
Beautiful - yogurt
Harmony - low-fat yogurt range
Makedoniko - cheese brand since 1965
Feta Mevgal - Feta cheese & more

External links
  Homepage Mevgal

Food and drink companies of Greece
Greek brands
Food and drink companies established in 1950
Companies based in Thessaloniki
Dairy products companies of Greece
1950 establishments in Greece

Mevgal


Acla was a Spanish colonial town founded by order of the Governor of Castilla de Oro, Pedrarias Dávila, in 1515. It was located on the central coastline of the modern-day Guna Yala, to the northeast of Panamá. The town's name means bones of men in the indigenous language. The name comes from the large number of bones strewn about the nearby plains, which supposedly came from the conflicts between two indigenous brothers who fought to become chiefs of the region.

The town was established principally to be the Caribbean anchor of a trail that was planned to lead to a future town on the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific Ocean, which had recently been discovered by Vasco Núñez de Balboa. This town is mostly famous because it was the site of the judgement and decapitation of Núñez de Balboa in 1519 at the hands of Governor Dávila.

Due to the unhealthy nature of the climate and terrain surrounding the town, and especially after the founding of Panama City and Nombre de Dios a few months later, it was slowly abandoned until it was left totally deserted in 1532. However, a document from the General Archive of Indies (Archivo General de Indias) documenting an Assault to the town of Acla dates back to May 31st, 1535.

References

History of Panama
Populated places established in 1515
1515 establishments in the Spanish Empire

Acla


Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress particularly associated with movies by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.

Life and career
Ullmann was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Norwegian parents. The family moved to Toronto when she was two. Her father was an engineer and after his death in 1946, Ullmann returned to Norway with her mother and older sister, where they settled in Trondheim.

After high school, she decided on an acting career. She applied and was turned down twice at the National Theater School in Oslo. She nonetheless persevered and after some studies at the Webber School of Acting in London, she eventually found work with a repertory theatre company in Stavenger. She also began appearing in bit parts in movies and on television.

She got her first major break when she met Swedish director Ingmar Bergman who offered her a role in his movie Persona (1966), opposite Bibi Anderson. She became his muse and lover and went on starring in several of his movies to considerable acclaim; Hour of the Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), The Passion of Anna (1969), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes of a Marriage (1973), Face to Face (1975), The Serpent's Egg (1977), Autumn Sonata (1978) and Saraband (2003).

She also appeared in Jan Troell's epic movie The Emigrants (1971) and its sequel The New Land (1972), which earned her an Academy Award nomination as best actress.

After her break up with Bergman in the early 1970s, she went to Hollywood and appeared in movies such as Pope Joan (1972), New Horizons (1973), Forty Carats (1973), The Abdication (1974), Zandy's Bride (1974), but failed to establish herself as the new Nordic star like Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman before her.

She published two autobiographies Changing (1977) and Choices (1984), in which she candidly discussed her life and career.

In the 1990s, she turned to directing with movies including Sofie (1992) and Kristin Lavransdotter (1995). She also worked as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

Miss Ullmann has a daughter Linn Ullmann (born in 1966) with Ingmar Bergman, and two grandchildren.

References

Other websites

1938 births
Living people
Actors from Tokyo
Actors from Toronto
Autobiographers
Golden Globe Award winning actors
Norwegian movie directors
Norwegian entertainers
Norwegian movie actors
Norwegian television actors
Norwegian voice actors

Liv Ullmann


John Ystumllyn (–1786), also colloquially known as Jac Du or Jack Black, was an 18th-century gardener and the first well-recorded black person of North Wales.

John was of uncertain origin, possibly a victim of the Atlantic slave trade, and from either West Africa or the West Indies. Early in his life he was taken by the Wynn family to its Ystumllyn estate in Criccieth, where he was christened with the Welsh name John Ystumllyn. Here he was taught English and Welsh by the locals. He learned horticulture and craftsmanship, at which he had some natural skill, in the estate garden. He worked as a gardener at the estate and eventually "grew into a handsome and vigorous young man", his portrait painted at around this time. Doted upon by several local girls, he began a romance with the local maid Margaret Gruffydd.

As Margaret moved to different employments Ystumllyn followed her, eventually running away from his job as gardener to marry in 1768. They had seven children, five of whom survived, with several of their descendants still living in the area . They initially worked as land stewards, but Ystumllyn eventually re-entered into the employment of the Wynn family. In recognition of his service Ellis Wynn gave Ystumllyn a large garden and cottage at Y Nhyra Isa. Ystumllyn died in 1786; his wife, Margaret, lived for more than forty years more.

Ystumllyn was well-liked in his lifetime and met with little racial prejudice, though locals often expressed surprise at his unfamiliar appearance. Several years after his death, a small monument was constructed in his place of burial St Cynhaearn's Church. Over a hundred years after Ystumllyn's death, the Welsh writer Robert Isaac Jones published an account of Ystumllyn's life compiled from various local oral records. This work, while also criticised for its "forgetfulness" and "racial stereotyping", serves as "the most informative" extant source of Ystumllyn's life. According to Jones, Ystumllyn was "a very honest man, with no malice, and was respected by the gentry and the common people alike".

Sources
Several Black Welsh individuals are recorded as living in Wales before Ystumllyn, mainly employed as servants and musicians to landowners and the aristocracy, following the vogue in Britain. Welsh historian David Morris has identified 29 black people in South Wales parish registers between 1687 and 1814, including a horn player of Erddig whose master had his portrait painted. Ystumllyn's biographer, Andrew Green, speculates that yet "more remain to be discovered" in North Wales, even if "their absolute numbers were small". Despite this, Ystumllyn has been described as the first black person of North Wales "about whom we have detailed knowledge" by Green, writing for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ystumllyn's life is known from three sources, "all of them remarkable", according to Green.

The earliest is a small oil painting on wood produced by an unknown artisan artist, with a date and identification at the foot: "John Ystymllyn, 11 May 1754". This portrait shows his features as a young man, wearing a green jacket, green buttoned waistcoat and white neckband, garments typical of his working position.

The next is his simple sandstone memorial in the graveyard of St Cynhaearn's Church, Ynyscynhaearn, a former parish church now under the administration of the Friends of Friendless Churches. Here, Ystumllyn was possibly baptised, and was certainly buried in 1786. The memorial was erected posthumously. In 1999, it was made a Grade II listed building "as of special interest in commemorating a slave in service in Wales in the later years of the C18 [18th-century], who must have been well enough thought of that he was provided with a handsome memorial". The memorial's inscription gives his age at the time of death as forty-six, but incorrectly gives his date of death as 1791. It bears a bleak, biographical , composed by the Penrhyndeudraeth musician and poet Dafydd Siôn Siâms (1743–1831):

The last of these sources is a short Welsh-language pamphlet,  (1888), by the Tremadog writer Robert Isaac Jones (1813–1905), published under his bardic name Alltud Eifion. Writing 102 years after Ystumllyn's death, Jones collated various oral traditions about the gardener that had passed down through his family, largely from his grandfather who had been Ystumllyn's doctor near the end of his life. This publication was subsequently adapted into Jones'  (1892), and translated into English by the local canon Tom Morris. Green has acknowledged the inadequacies of Jones' work, often "prone to variation, embroidery and forgetfulness", but it remains, in his view, "the most informative" and "frank" source for Ystumllyn's life. The work has received more harsh criticism from the North Wales newspaper, The Daily Post, as "peppered with racial stereotyping" in its biography of Ystumllyn, citing it in an editorial as an example of the early racial prejudice against black integration in Wales. Welsh historian Ffion Mair Jones concurs with this judgement, calling attention to the "racist overtones" in Jones' description of the 'taming' of the Black Ystummlyn.

Biography
Robert Isaac Jones begins his account of Ystumllyn's life, admitting his uncertain origins, and tracing three narratives of his arrival in Wales.

The first he sources to his own mother, claiming that a member of the Wynn family of Ystumllyn, possibly Ellis Wynn, "who had a Yacht, caught the boy in a wood in Africa and brought him home to Ystumllyn", where "they judged him to be about eight years old, and they took him to the Church in Criccieth, or Ynys[cynhaearn], to be christened, and called him John Ystumllyn". Ystumllyn's true birth name is unknown. Another narrative, derived from Ystumllyn's descendants, "stated that a number of black boys arrived in London, and that Ellis Wynne of Ystumllyn's sister, who lived in London, sent him as a gift to her brother". Green notes that Wynn's sister, Mary, married a William Hollier, perhaps the same Hollier who was the first secretary of the African Company of Merchants, an important character in the slave trade around the Gold Coast. The third account, from John himself, asserted that he was captured by white men while "on the banks of a stream amid woodland attempting to catch a moorhen", and was abducted and taken to their ship to the "frightful howls" of his mother. Green is skeptical of each of these stories, stating that, while it was "not inconceivable that Wynne was directly implicated in the slave trade", "it's much likelier that John came from a slave family in the West Indies", citing the reference to an Indian origin on his gravestone. Ffion Mair Jones, however, is more convinced by the kidnapping narrative as it is corroborated by Ystumllyn's own memories of his childhood.

John's arrival in Ystumllyn was marked by his knowledge of "no language other than sounds similar to the howling of a dog", in Jones' words; this was likely a West African language, unfamiliar to the Welsh locals. Jones speaks of the locals "domesticating" Ystumllyn, meeting with "considerable difficulty for a long time", first keeping him indoors, and – with the help of local women – teaching him fluency and literacy in both Welsh and English. Ystumllyn was then put in the garden, where he showed a gift for crafts and horticulture, and developed a fondness for floristry. According to Tom Morris, "it was remarked that this very black skin had very green fingers". He found employment on the Ystumllyn estate as a gardener, for what Morris reported was very low pay, his upkeep being "less costly than that of a racehorse". On 11 May 1754, he sat for his oil painting, at which time Jones estimated he was aged around sixteen.

Here, Ystumllyn "grew into a handsome and vigorous young man", according to Jones, and "there was much rivalry between [the young ladies of the area] in order to get John as a suitor." One unmarried maid from Hendre Mur, Trawsfynydd, Margaret Gruffydd, was tasked with bringing John "some bread, cheese and ale from the Plas". She was initially terrified of John and ran away upon the sight of him, but over time she grew more comfortable around him, and a romance developed. When Margaret moved to her relatives' nearby mansion, Ynysgain Bach, Criccieth, for domestic work available there, Ystumllyn continued his courtship of her. Jones recounts the shock of the house's master at Ystumllyn, stumbling across Ystumllyn in the kitchen, assured that he must be "the Black Devil" because of his dark skin. Margaret moved once again to Dolgellau, where Ystumllyn followed her. To pursue her further, Ystumllyn ran away from his job at Ystumllyn estate, with Margaret following him the next morning. The two were married on 9 April 1768, in Dolgellau, with Griffith Williams, son of the local vicar, as Ystumllyn's best man.

After their marriage, John and Margaret lived in Ynysgain Fawr, west of Criccieth, where they were employed as land stewards. They had seven children, with the  first two dying while young, and the other five living to adulthood. As of 2019, several descendants of the Ystumllyn family still live in the area. John later worked at the home of Maesyneuadd, near Talsarnau, another estate of the Wynn family. Near the end of his life, in "recognition for his service", Ellis Wynn gave Ystumllyn the house of "Y Nhyra Isa" or "Nanhyran", a small thatched cottage surrounded by a large, ancient garden.

Ystumllyn died of jaundice, and was buried in St Cynhaearn's Church on 2 July 1786. Jones recounts that, on his deathbed, Ystumllyn told a neighbour "his main regret was that he played the crwth on Sundays at Ystumllyn and Masyneuoedd". Margaret died in 1828, at Y Nhyra Isa at the age of eighty-one, outliving John by more than forty years. She was apparently in good health up to this point, being able to "see to sew and knit up until a few months before her death", and "was a quiet and cheerful old lady".The couple's only son, Richard Jones (d. 1862), is covered in detail in Jones' pamphlet; he lived until ninety-two, served under Spencer Bulkeley Wynn, 3rd Baron Newborough for fifty-eight years as his huntsman, and received a pension from the Baron in old age.

Character and reputation
Jones concludes his account of Ystumllyn with several anecdotes of his character. According to Ffion Mair Jones, these stories "portray a man of firm morals, who responded robustly to the preconceptions of his contemporaries about him as the only black person in the neighbourhood, and who adhered to the truth in any case of wrong committed against him or false step of his own". Jones himself concurred that Ystumllyn was, by all accounts, a "very honest man, with no malice, and was respected by the gentry and the common people alike". "He was considered by the old folk as a very moral man. [...] The colour of his skin drew a lot of attention in those days, and his position with the most important gentry of the area, drew more of the attention of the common people, than anyone else."

The locals held many "strange ideas" about Ystumllyn because of his black skin, which Jones duly documented; two maids had wondered out loud if "that man's blood is red like the blood of white men", meeting with a sharp retort from Ystumllyn: "Silly fool, you kill a black hen and a white hen, and you'll see the blood of both is red". The local children apparently feared him, "because they had not seen a black man before". "Although the presence of a black man in Gwynedd inevitably aroused surprise and even shock", according to Green, "there's no suggestion that anyone held racist attitudes towards John". Green quotes one of Jones' anecdotes at length that, he claims, "reveals much about at least one person's 'blindness' to ethnicity:"

Legacy
Writing in 1962, Tom Morris described the story of Ystumllyn and Margaret surviving in Wales as "something of a legend; the memory of their courage – which braved the barriers of colour and class in 18th-century Wales – still lingers on". In 2018, celebrating Black History Month in the United Kingdom, John Ystumllyn was included in a list of 100 Brilliant, Black and Welsh people. In October 2019, again to celebrate Black History Month, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography introduced 23 new biographies of black British people, curated by historians Miranda Kaufmann and Anders Ingram. This selection included Ystumllyn, who Ingram cited as "the most emblematic of the theme of this release", a man "whose settled life existence in rural Wales reminds us of the diversity of the historical experience of black people in Britain".

The Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates at Bangor University and Race Council Cymru organised an online conference celebrating John Ystumllyn as the Father of Black presence in North West Wales as part of Black History Cymru 365 in September 2021.

In June 2020, an article about Ystumllyn was written in HortWeek by Zehra Zaidi, a campaigner who set up We Too Built Britain to tell the stories of under-represented groups to show what we have in common (to then also be able to open up deeper conversations). During her research, she found out that despite the origins of the rose, there had never been a rose named after a British person of ethnic minority heritage. So she ended her article with a suggestion that it would be lovely if a rose could be created and named after John Ystumllyn as "like John and Margaret Ystumllyn, we are all romantics, in the end". The article became somewhat viral and led to members of the public contacting rose breeders to support Zaidi in creating a new rose. The Editor of HortWeek introduced Zaidi to Harkness Roses and they spent lockdown working on a new rose variety. The colour yellow was chosen for friendship, and Zaidi and Harkness Roses decided to launch the rose as a symbol of friendship, community and tolerance.

In October 2021 a new rose variety was released in honour of Ystumllyn. It was the first rose in the UK to be named after a person of colour. The John Ystumllyn rose is a golden yellow hybrid tea rose. The rose was mentioned in the House of Commons by Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru MP for the area where Ystumllyn lived, in a request for a debate on black history stories. The Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg replied: "If the Ystumllyn rose could be the rose of friendship across political parties, I think that's something we could plant with pride". A John Ystumllyn rose was planted in Buckingham Palace's rose garden in May 2022, with a welcoming statement from Queen Elizabeth II: "The rose has been bred as a mark of friendship and community, and I hope guests and visitors to the garden will have the opportunity to reflect on what this rose represents for many years to come." Zaidi and Harkness Roses also worked on creating a community garden scheme along with the launch of the rose and each year, 5,000 roses have been donated by Harkness Roses to allotments, community gardens and charity gardens across the country, including twenty roses planted around Criccieth Library near where Ystumllyn lived.

See also
Cesar Picton (1755–1836), a later black Briton, with a similar history involving a Welsh landowning family, but based near London.

References

External links
 Engraving of "John Ystumllyn, 1754" at People's Collection Wales
John Ystumllyn, neu, 'Jack Black' hanes ei fywyd, a thraddodiadau am dano, o'r amser y dygwyd ef yn wyllt o Affrica hyd adeg ei farwolaeth; ei hiliogaeth, &c., &c., ynghyda darlun o hono yn y flwyddyn 1754 by Eifion Alltud, held at National Library of Wales

1786 deaths
Black British history
Black British people
Burials in Wales
People from Criccieth
Welsh gardeners

John Ystumllyn


John Barwick (1612–1664) was an early English royalist churchman and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Early life
He was born at Witherslack, in Westmorland. John was the third of five sons, and he and his brother Peter Barwick (later his biographer) were the ones given an education.  After time at local grammar schools John was sent to Sedbergh School, then in Yorkshire. In 1631 he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, where Thomas Fothergill was his tutor, and graduated B.A. in 1635. The Master Owen Gwyn had died in 1634, and the subsequent election was disputed and attracted the attention of the king; Barwick became involved as the college's representative. He was then elected to a fellowship. He took holy orders, and in 1638 his M.A. degree.

Civil War period
In 1642 royalists at Cambridge raised a sum of money for the king, and gathered together some college plate. Parliament received information of what was going on, and sent Oliver Cromwell with a party of infantry to a place called Lower Hedges, on the road between Cambridge and Huntingdon. A party of horse was formed under Barnabas Oley of Clare College, of which Barwick was one, who conveyed the treasure along back roads to Nottingham. Subsequently, Cromwell moved on Cambridge, taking over the castle. Two pamphlets were put together by Cambridge academics against Cromwell: the first was by Barwick with Isaac Barrow, Peter Gunning, and Samuel Ward; the second is attributed to Barwick alone.

Barwick left Cambridge, and became chaplain to Bishop Thomas Morton, who nominated him to a prebend at Durham Cathedral and the rectories of Houghton-le-Spring and Walsingham; Barwick in fact settled in London, since Morton at the time had no effective patronage. At Durham House Barwick undertook royalist correspondence and intelligence work, and tried to make converts of some parliamentarians. He worked for the Treaty of Newport of 1648, and was supported by his brothers Peter and Edward. In the end he was betrayed by a post-office official, and Barwick had to destroy his ciphers while arresting officers were breaking into his room. He was charged with high treason, and was committed (April 1650) first to the Gatehouse prison at Westminster, and then to the Tower of London. He was released, without any trial but in much better health, in August 1652.

He then spent a period moving in royalist circles, first with Bishop Morton, and residing for some months in the house of Sir Thomas Eversfield in Sussex. He finally settled in his brother Peter's house in St. Paul's Churchyard, and renewed his management of the king's correspondence. He visited John Hewit, preacher at St. Gregory's, when he was imprisoned for conspiring against Cromwell, and attended him on the scaffold (June 1658), when he received from him a ring with the motto 'Alter Aristides,' which he wore until his death. He was also with Bishop Morton in his last moments (22 September 1659), preached his funeral sermon, and wrote his life (1660). Barwick with Richard Allestree were concerned about the continuity of the episcopal succession of the Church of England, and in 1659 Barwick was riding about between the surviving bishops, gathering their opinions. He was then sent over by the bishops to report the state of church affairs to Charles II at Breda. There he preached before the king, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains.

After the Restoration
After 1660 he did not return to his fellowship at St. John's, where he approved of his successor. He accepted the bishopric of Sodor and Man, only to step aside for a candidate sponsored by the Countess of Derby, and now unwilling to become a bishop was made Dean of Durham. In October 1661 he became Dean of St Paul's. He was one of the nine assistants of the bishops at the Savoy conference, and he was unanimously elected prolocutor of the lower house of convocation of the province of Canterbury. In 1662 his health began to fail, and he died in London from an attack of pleurisy, which carried him off in three days. He was attended by his old friend, Peter Gunning, who preached his funeral sermon, and Humphrey Henchman, Bishop of London, performed the obsequies. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Notes

References

1612 births
1664 deaths
17th-century English Anglican priests
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
Deans of Durham
Deans of St Paul's

John Barwick


The Sunday Format, "BBC Radio 4's first high-quality weekend broadsheet newspaper", is a British satirical radio comedy. The programme is a parody of British middle class newspapers, in particular the lifestyle supplements and glossy celebrity magazines that fill Sunday papers. The programme consists of a series of short sketches that dramatise the articles in the eponymous newspaper, with the cast assuming accents to convey the characters of the journalists or columnists. The articles are presented in the format of a British Sunday newspaper, with the copy distributed in columns across the body of the paper, and commonly feature lists of items or instructions. Sketches are broken up, and often use backing music which also stops and starts along with the reading of the column. This leads to a surreal, Dadaist juxtaposition of sketches, with jokes being set up at the beginning of the episode and the punchline being delivered at a random point before the end.

Conception

The show was first heard in 1996 in a one-off pilot episode. It did not return until a four-part series aired in Feb/Mar 1999, followed by six episodes in Nov/Dec 2000, and three additional four-part series in Sep/Oct 2001, Jan 2003 and Jan/Feb 2004. The show has won a Sony Radio Award and a British Comedy Award.

The show was devised by John Morton and was produced by Paul Schlesinger and Helen Williams. The writing team is Simon Blackwell, Nick Revell, Dave Cohen, Ewan Bailey, Emma Kennedy, Bill Dare, Laurence Howarth, Andrew Marlatt and Tony Roche. The cast is Ewan Bailey, Rebecca Front, Simon Greenall, Emma Kennedy, Chris Langham, Tracy-Ann Oberman, and Alice Arnold. Alexander Armstrong, Ben Miller, Martin Hyder and Siriol Jenkins also appeared in the earlier series.

See also
 People Like Us
 The Harpoon

External links
 Sunday Format page on Radio 4 site
 h2g2: Sunday Format

BBC Radio comedy programmes
Sunday_Format

The Sunday Format


Sir Donald George Bradman  (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001) was an Australian cricketer. Often called "The Don", he was a batsman. He is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He scored 6,996 runs in his Test match career, at an average of 99.94 runs. If he had scored four runs in his last Test match, he would have scored an average of 100 runs. However, he scored no runs (a duck) in his last innings from just two balls. This is the highest average in Test cricket, the second-highest average being 61.87. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has been cited as the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport. Bradman also gained a degree in mathematics from the University of Victoria achieving the highest mark in his year.

Bradman command over the game showed as a batsman, as a captain, as a selector, as a writer and as an administrator. Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson said that bowling to Bradman was one of his "greatest moments". This happened in 1977–78 in Adelaide during India's tour to Australia. Thompson said: "Sir Don was batting in a suit, no pads, no gloves, just a bat. He must've been around 70 and hadn't batted [much] for almost 30 years and he was still so good. It was turf wicket, and I bowled within myself, but there were a couple of young blokes who were bowling at full speed and he was carting them all over the place. Along with meeting George Best, bowling to Bradman is the greatest moment of my life."

Cricket playing days

Bodyline Series
Before the first match of the tour, England had not told Australia what they were going to do, but when England named 5 fast bowlers (including Harold Larwood and Bill Voce). It was not usual to have so many fast bowlers in one team, so Bradman knew that England were about to try something new. The new way of bowling was first tried in a warm-up match which Bradman played in, and as expected Bradman struggled. Bradman did not play in the first Test Match of the tour, which led some people to think this was because his had suffered a nervous breakdown. England still tried their new way of bowling, and won the match but the Australian team were not happy.

Australian newspapers described this way of bowling as "bodyline", because the balls were often aimed fast at the body. They felt that this bowling was unfair and dangerous, as in 1930s batsman did not wear helmets. Despite this, the tour carried on and in the second Test Match Bradman returned. In the first Australian innings, Bradman was bowled first ball. Bradman guessed that the ball was going to be bounced high, so he moved to one side and swung the bat so he could score a boundary. The ball did not bounce as high as Bradman thought, and it hit the stumps. This was the first time he had been out on the first ball (called a duck) in his career at that point. The crowd were shocked, as they were used to seeing Bradman easily score hundreds. Bradman had a better second innings and scored 103 runs. With good bowling from Australian bowlers Bill O'Reilly and Bert Ironmonger, this score helped Australia win the second match. Australia were happy, as they thought that they had beaten what they felt was unfair bowling.

England won the last 3 test matches, still bowling "bodyline". Bradman changed the way he batted a lot to try to score runs. In bodyline, England put a lot of fielders on the leg side, so Bradman had the idea of moving backwards to hit the ball on the off side, where there were few fielders. This was not a normal way of playing but this helped him to get 56.57 runs on average per innings in the tour. Jack Fingleton (Australian batsman) thought that this tour changed Bradman's way of batting for the rest of his career.

Personal life

Bradman was married to Jessie Martha Menzies for 65 years, until Jessie died in 1999. Bradman said on many occasions how important his wife was, once saying "I would never have achieved what I achieved without Jessie". Don and Jessie Bradman had 3 children, but family life was difficult. Their first child died young in 1936. Their second child (John, born in 1939) caught poliomyelitis, a serious virus disease. and their third child (Shirley, born 1941) had cerebral palsy since birth.

Death
Bradman died of pneumonia on 25 February 2001, aged 92, in Kensington Park, South Australia.

Gallery

References

1908 births
2001 deaths
Australian cricketers

Knights Bachelor
Sportspeople from New South Wales
Order of Australia
Australian sport administrators

Don Bradman


Patricia Law, née Bolter (born 17 March 1954) is a Welsh politician who was the Blaenau Gwent People's Voice AM for Blaenau Gwent in Wales between 2006 and 2011.

Background

Patricia Bolter was born in Nantyglo, Blaenau Gwent, in 1954. She was educated in Nantyglo Junior School, Glanyravon Secondary Modern School and Ebbw Vale College. She trained as a Nursing Assistant in an EMI unit for Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, before marrying Peter Law. The couple were married for 30 years and had five children and one grandchild.

During Peter Law's term as AM and MP, Trish Law worked in his constituency office. She was Mayoress of Blaenau Gwent in 1988–89, Secretary of Abertillery and Blaina Inner Wheel Club (Rotary) and for a short period of time was Secretary of the League of Friends at Blaina Hospital.

Political career

After Peter Law's resignation from the Labour Party due to the imposition of an all-women candidate list, and later death from a brain tumour on 25 April 2006, Trish Law was supported by Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group, the group formed by those who helped Peter Law overturn a 19,000 Labour majority at the 2005 General Election. She won the seat at a by-election on 29 June 2006. Labour also failed to regain the Westminster seat as Peter Law's former campaign manager, Dai Davies, was elected to replace him.

Following her election, the National Assembly for Wales became the first UK legislature to have a female majority of representatives. Although an independent, Law backed Labour's Assembly Budget after Finance Minister Sue Essex accepted two of her demands: a commitment that women's refuges will be set up in all Welsh counties that don't currently have one; and the opening of a therapy centre in Blaenau Gwent for people suffering from depression, stress and low self-esteem. This and other campaigns meant Law won the BBC Wales award for Campaigning Politician of the Year.

Law won re-election as an independent at the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election.

In November 2008, Law attempted to prevent a reading by poet Patrick Jones, arranged by Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black and scheduled to take place in the buildings of the Welsh Assembly on 11 December 2008. Jones had been invited by Black to give a reading from his book Darkness Is Where the Stars Are, after the bookseller Waterstone's had cancelled a launch event for the book following threats to disrupt the event from Christian fundamentalist group Christian Voice, led by Stephen Green.

Notwithstanding that the UK's blasphemy law had been repealed, Law wrote to Welsh Assembly Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas to ask him to forbid the reading, saying: "I am disgusted that, two weeks before Christmas Day, it is proposed to proceed with the reading of blasphemous poems which are an insult to Jesus Christ and to all his followers."

Her request for censorship was refused, Assembly Commission chief executive Claire Clancy saying: "Neither officials nor the Assembly Commission make judgments on the nature or purpose of these events, except to ensure they would not give rise to any legal problems. Assembly buildings are public buildings, and secular in character. It is our responsibility to ensure that events sponsored by any Assembly Members are always allowed to take place without fear of disruption or intimidation, while respecting the right to peaceful protest."

In August 2010, Law indicated that she would not seek re-election at the 2011 Assembly election.

Sources

External links

Biography at National Assembly for Wales (archived on 8 January 2007)

Offices held

1954 births
Living people
Independent members of the Senedd
Wales AMs 2003–2007
Wales AMs 2007–2011
Independent politicians in Wales
Welsh socialists
Female members of the Senedd
Blaenau Gwent People's Voice politicians
Welsh Christians

Trish Law


General Zod (full name Dru-Zod) is a fictional Superman character who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 (April 1961), was created by Robert Bernstein and initially designed by George Papp. He is a super-villain from Superman's planet. He has the same powers and strength that he has. He was sent to Earth to kill Superman.

He was played by Terence Stamp in Superman and in Superman II. He was also played by Michael Shannon in Man of Steel and The Flash.

Total Film ranked Zod #32 on their "Top 50 Greatest Villains of All Time" list in 2007. Pop-culture website IGN.com ranked General Zod as #30 on their list of the "Top 100 Comic Book Villains", asserting that "Stamp is Zod.

DC Comics supervillains
Kryptonians
Superman

General Zod


Roti jala, roti kirai or roti renjis (English: net bread or lace pancake; Jawi: روتي جالا) is a popular Malay and Minangkabau tea time snack served with curry dishes which can be found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. This is a very traditional Malay dish that is usually homemade and served at events such as weddings and festivals. It is usually eaten in sets of three to four pieces with curries, especially chicken curry, as a substitute to rice.

History

Not much is known about the history of roti jala, but it is believed that it first came from India. The recipe was tweaked by locals after arriving in Malaysia. This is why we see similarities between roti jala and 'putu mayam' or string hoppers.

The Malays, being originally fishermen and living by the sea, found inspiration for the snack from the nets they used for fishing, thus the name. It is also called roti renjis, which means "Rinsed Bread", because of the original way it was made, which was by hand, in which the ingredient would be 'rinsed' onto the pan to be cooked. roti kirai is another name in which 'kirai' refers to the circular motion of the hand when pouring the ingredient from a condensed milk can with tiny holes poked through it.

Jalara dosa originated from roti jala.

Preparation
The ingredients consist mainly of flour, eggs, milk (dairy or coconut), and a pinch of turmeric. They are combined with water to form a runny batter, then drizzled onto a hot pan in a circular motion. A specialized utensil is often used, resembling a cup with multiple outlets beneath, which aids the creation of the "net-like" effect.

Comparison with string hoppers
While both foods consist of string-like batter, roti jala is made with wheat flour while string hoppers are made with rice flour. Roti jala is made flat in a single layer (then folded or rolled up after cooking, as desired), while string hoppers are made into a small pile. Roti jala is essentially pan-fried, while string hoppers are steamed.

See also

 Roti
 Kue laba-laba - similar Indonesian dishes but sweeter
 Pek nga
 Malay cuisine

References

External links

Malay cuisine
Padang cuisine
Singaporean cuisine
Indonesian breads
Indonesian snack foods
Malaysian breads
Malaysian snack foods

Roti jala


In probability theory and statistics, the gamma distribution is a two-parameter family of continuous probability distributions.  The exponential distribution, Erlang distribution, and chi-squared distribution are special cases of the gamma distribution.  There are two equivalent parameterizations in common use:
With a shape parameter  and a scale parameter .
With a shape parameter  and an inverse scale parameter  , called a rate parameter.
In each of these forms, both parameters are positive real numbers.

The gamma distribution is the maximum entropy probability distribution (both with respect to a uniform base measure and a  base measure) for a random variable  for which E[X] = kθ = α/β is fixed and greater than zero, and E[ln(X)] = ψ(k) + ln(θ) = ψ(α) − ln(β) is fixed (ψ is the digamma function).

Definitions
The parameterization with k and θ appears to be more common in econometrics and other applied fields, where the gamma distribution is frequently used to model waiting times. For instance, in life testing, the waiting time until death is a random variable that is frequently modeled with a gamma distribution. See Hogg and Craig  for an explicit motivation.

The parameterization with  and  is more common in Bayesian statistics, where the gamma distribution is used as a conjugate prior distribution for various types of inverse scale (rate) parameters, such as the λ of an exponential distribution or a Poisson distribution – or for that matter, the β of the gamma distribution itself. The closely related inverse-gamma distribution is used as a conjugate prior for scale parameters, such as the variance of a normal distribution.

If k is a positive integer, then the distribution represents an Erlang distribution; i.e., the sum of k independent exponentially distributed random variables, each of which has a mean of θ.

Characterization using shape α and rate β
The gamma distribution can be parameterized in terms of a shape parameter α = k and an inverse scale parameter β = 1/θ, called a rate parameter. A random variable X that is gamma-distributed with shape α and rate β is denoted

The corresponding probability density function in the shape-rate parameterization is

where  is the gamma function.
For all positive integers, .

The cumulative distribution function is the regularized gamma function:

where  is the lower incomplete gamma function.

If α is a positive integer (i.e., the distribution is an Erlang distribution), the cumulative distribution function has the following series expansion:

Characterization using shape k and scale θ
A random variable X that is gamma-distributed with shape k and scale θ is denoted by

The probability density function using the shape-scale parametrization is

Here Γ(k) is the gamma function evaluated at k.

The cumulative distribution function is the regularized gamma function:

where  is the lower incomplete gamma function.

It can also be expressed as follows, if k is a positive integer (i.e., the distribution is an Erlang distribution):

Both parametrizations are common because either can be more convenient depending on the situation.

Properties

Mean and variance
The mean of gamma distribution is given by the product of its shape and scale parameters:

The variance is:

The square root of the inverse shape parameter gives the coefficient of variation:

Skewness
The skewness of the gamma distribution only depends on its shape parameter, k, and it is equal to

Higher moments

The nth raw moment is given by:

Median approximations and bounds

Unlike the mode and the mean, which have readily calculable formulas based on the parameters, the median does not have a closed-form equation. The median for this distribution is the value  such that

A rigorous treatment of the problem of determining an asymptotic expansion and bounds for the median of the gamma distribution was handled first by Chen and Rubin, who proved that (for )

where  is the mean and  is the median of the  distribution.  For other values of the scale parameter, the mean scales to , and the median bounds and approximations would be similarly scaled by .

K. P. Choi found the first five terms in a Laurent series asymptotic approximation of the median by comparing the median to Ramanujan's  function.  Berg and Pedersen found more terms:

Partial sums of these series are good approximations for high enough ; they are not plotted in the figure, which is focused on the low- region that is less well approximated.

Berg and Pedersen also proved many properties of the median, showing that it is a convex function of , and that the asymptotic behavior near  is  (where  is the Euler–Mascheroni constant), and that for all  the median is bounded by .

A closer linear upper bound, for  only, was provided in 2021 by Gaunt and Merkle, relying on the Berg and Pedersen result that the slope of  is everywhere less than 1:
  for  (with equality at )
which can be extended to a bound for all  by taking the max with the chord shown in the figure, since the median was proved convex.

An approximation to the median that is asymptotically accurate at high  and reasonable down to  or a bit lower follows from the Wilson–Hilferty transformation:

which goes negative for .

In 2021, Lyon proposed several approximations of the form .  He conjectured values of  and  for which this approximation is an asymptotically tight upper or lower bound for all .  In particular, he proposed these closed-form bounds, which he proved in 2023:

  is a lower bound, asymptotically tight as
  is an upper bound, asymptotically tight as

Lyon also showed (informally in 2021, rigorously in 2023) two other lower bounds that are not closed-form expressions, including this one involving the gamma function, based on solving the integral expression substituting 1 for :
 (approaching equality as )
and the tangent line at  where the derivative was found to be :
 (with equality at )

where Ei is the exponential integral.

Additionally, he showed that interpolations between bounds could provide excellent approximations or tighter bounds to the median, including an approximation that is exact at  (where ) and has a maximum relative error less than 0.6%.  Interpolated approximations and bounds are all of the form

where  is an interpolating function running monotonically from 0 at low  to 1 at high , approximating an ideal, or exact, interpolator :

For the simplest interpolating function considered, a first-order rational function

the tightest lower bound has

and the tightest upper bound has

The interpolated bounds are plotted (mostly inside the yellow region) in the log–log plot shown.  Even tighter bounds are available using different interpolating functions, but not usually with closed-form parameters like these.

Summation
If Xi has a Gamma(ki, θ) distribution for i = 1, 2, ..., N (i.e., all distributions have the same scale parameter θ), then

provided all Xi are independent.

For the cases where the Xi are independent but have different scale parameters, see Mathai  or Moschopoulos.

The gamma distribution exhibits infinite divisibility.

Scaling
If

then, for any c > 0,

  by moment generating functions,

or equivalently, if

  (shape-rate parameterization)

Indeed, we know that if X is an exponential r.v. with rate λ, then cX is an exponential r.v. with rate λ/c; the same thing is valid with Gamma variates (and this can be checked using the moment-generating function, see, e.g.,these notes, 10.4-(ii)): multiplication by a positive constant c divides the rate (or, equivalently, multiplies the scale).

Exponential family
The gamma distribution is a two-parameter exponential family with natural parameters k − 1 and −1/θ (equivalently, α − 1 and −β), and natural statistics X and ln(X).

If the shape parameter k is held fixed, the resulting one-parameter family of distributions is a natural exponential family.

Logarithmic expectation and variance
One can show that

or equivalently,

where  is the digamma function.  Likewise,

where  is the trigamma function.

This can be derived using the exponential family formula for the moment generating function of the sufficient statistic, because one of the sufficient statistics of the gamma distribution is ln(x).

Information entropy
The information entropy is

In the k, θ parameterization, the information entropy is given by

Kullback–Leibler divergence

The Kullback–Leibler divergence (KL-divergence), of Gamma(αp,  βp) ("true" distribution) from Gamma(αq, βq) ("approximating" distribution) is given by

Written using the k, θ parameterization, the KL-divergence of Gamma(kp,  θp) from Gamma(kq,  θq) is given by

Laplace transform
The Laplace transform of the gamma PDF is

Related distributions

General
 Let  be  independent and identically distributed random variables following an exponential distribution with rate parameter λ, then  ~ Gamma(n, λ) where n is the shape parameter and λ is the rate, and .
 If X ~ Gamma(1, λ) (in the shape–rate parametrization), then X has an exponential distribution with rate parameter λ. In the shape-scale parametrization, X ~ Gamma(1, λ) has an exponential distribution with rate parameter 1/λ.
 If X ~ Gamma(ν/2, 2) (in the shape–scale parametrization), then X is identical to χ2(ν), the chi-squared distribution with ν degrees of freedom. Conversely, if Q ~ χ2(ν) and c is a positive constant, then cQ ~ Gamma(ν/2, 2c).
 If θ=1/k, one obtains the Schulz-Zimm distribution, which is most prominently used to model polymer chain lengths.
 If k is an integer, the gamma distribution is an Erlang distribution and is the probability distribution of the waiting time until the kth "arrival" in a one-dimensional Poisson process with intensity 1/θ. If

then

 If X has a Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution with parameter a, then

 If X ~ Gamma(k, θ), then  follows an exponential-gamma (abbreviated exp-gamma) distribution. It is sometimes referred to as the log-gamma distribution. Formulas for its mean and variance are in the section #Logarithmic expectation and variance.
 If X ~ Gamma(k, θ), then  follows a generalized gamma distribution with parameters p = 2, d = 2k, and  .
 More generally, if X ~ Gamma(k,θ), then  for  follows a generalized gamma distribution with parameters p = 1/q, d = k/q, and .
 If X ~ Gamma(k, θ) with shape k and scale θ, then 1/X ~ Inv-Gamma(k, θ−1) (see Inverse-gamma distribution for derivation).
Parametrization 1: If  are independent, then , or equivalently,
Parametrization 2: If  are independent, then , or equivalently,
 If X ~ Gamma(α, θ) and Y ~ Gamma(β, θ) are independently distributed, then X/(X + Y) has a beta distribution with parameters α and β, and X/(X + Y) is independent of X + Y, which is Gamma(α + β, θ)-distributed.
 If Xi ~ Gamma(αi, 1) are independently distributed, then the vector (X1/S, ..., Xn/S), where S = X1 + ... + Xn, follows a Dirichlet distribution with parameters α1, ..., αn.
 For large k the gamma distribution converges to normal distribution with mean μ = kθ and variance σ2 = kθ2.
 The gamma distribution is the conjugate prior for the precision of the normal distribution with known mean.
 The matrix gamma distribution and the Wishart distribution are multivariate generalizations of the gamma distribution (samples are positive-definite matrices rather than positive real numbers).
 The gamma distribution is a special case of the generalized gamma distribution, the generalized integer gamma distribution, and the generalized inverse Gaussian distribution.
 Among the discrete distributions, the negative binomial distribution is sometimes considered the discrete analog of the gamma distribution.
 Tweedie distributions – the gamma distribution is a member of the family of Tweedie exponential dispersion models.
 Modified Half-normal distribution – the Gamma distribution is a member of the family of Modified half-normal distribution. The corresponding density is , where  denotes the Fox–Wright Psi function.
 For the shape-scale parameterization , if the scale parameter  where  denotes the Inverse-gamma distribution, then the marginal distribution  where  denotes the Beta prime distribution.

Compound gamma
If the shape parameter of the gamma distribution is known, but the inverse-scale parameter is unknown, then a gamma distribution for the inverse scale forms a conjugate prior. The compound distribution, which results from integrating out the inverse scale, has a closed-form solution known as the compound gamma distribution.

If, instead, the shape parameter is known but the mean is unknown, with the prior of the mean being given by another gamma distribution, then it results in K-distribution.

Weibull and stable count

The gamma distribution  can be expressed as the product distribution of a Weibull distribution and a variant form of the stable count distribution.
Its shape parameter  can be regarded as the inverse of Lévy's stability parameter in the stable count distribution:

where  is a standard stable count distribution of shape , and  is a standard Weibull distribution of shape .

Statistical inference

Parameter estimation

Maximum likelihood estimation
The likelihood function for N iid observations (x1, ..., xN) is

from which we calculate the log-likelihood function

Finding the maximum with respect to θ by taking the derivative and setting it equal to zero yields the maximum likelihood estimator of the θ parameter, which equals the sample mean  divided by the shape parameter k:

Substituting this into the log-likelihood function gives

We need at least two samples: , because for , the function  increases without bounds as . For , it can be verified that  is strictly concave, by using inequality properties of the polygamma function. Finding the maximum with respect to k by taking the derivative and setting it equal to zero yields

where  is the digamma function and  is the sample mean of ln(x). There is no closed-form solution for k. The function is numerically very well behaved, so if a numerical solution is desired, it can be found using, for example, Newton's method. An initial value of k can be found either using the method of moments, or using the approximation

If we let

then k is approximately

which is within 1.5% of the correct value. An explicit form for the Newton–Raphson update of this initial guess is:

At the maximum-likelihood estimate , the expected values for  and  agree with the empirical averages:

Caveat for small shape parameter
For data, , that is represented in a floating point format that underflows to 0 for values smaller than , the logarithms that are needed for the maximum-likelihood estimate will cause failure if there are any underflows. If we assume the data was generated by a gamma distribution with cdf , then the probability that there is at least one underflow is:

This probability will approach 1 for small  and  large . For example, at ,   and , . A workaround is to instead have the data in logarithmic format.

In order to test an implementation of a maximum-likelihood estimator that takes logarithmic data as input, it is useful to be able to generate non-underflowing logarithms of random gamma variates, when . Following the implementation in scipy.stats.loggamma, this can be done as follows: sample  and  independently. Then the required logarithmic sample is , so that .

Closed-form estimators

Consistent closed-form estimators of k and θ exists that are derived from the likelihood of the generalized gamma distribution.

The estimate for the shape k is

and the estimate for the scale θ is

Using the sample mean of x, the sample mean of ln(x), and the sample mean of the product x·ln(x) simplifies the expressions to:

If the rate parameterization is used, the estimate of .

These estimators are not strictly maximum likelihood estimators, but are instead referred to as mixed type log-moment estimators. They have however similar efficiency as the maximum likelihood estimators.

Although these estimators are consistent, they have a small bias. A bias-corrected variant of the estimator for the scale θ is

A bias correction for the shape parameter k is given as

Bayesian minimum mean squared error
With known k and unknown θ, the posterior density function for theta (using the standard scale-invariant prior for θ) is

Denoting

Integration with respect to θ can be carried out using a change of variables, revealing that 1/θ is gamma-distributed with parameters α = Nk, β = y.

The moments can be computed by taking the ratio (m by m = 0)

which shows that the mean ± standard deviation estimate of the posterior distribution for θ is

Bayesian inference

Conjugate prior
In Bayesian inference, the gamma distribution is the conjugate prior to many likelihood distributions: the Poisson, exponential, normal (with known mean), Pareto, gamma with known shape σ, inverse gamma with known shape parameter, and Gompertz with known scale parameter.

The gamma distribution's conjugate prior is:

where Z is the normalizing constant with no closed-form solution.
The posterior distribution can be found by updating the parameters as follows:

where n is the number of observations, and xi is the ith observation.

Occurrence and applications
Consider a sequence of events, with the waiting time for each event being an exponential distribution with rate . Then the waiting time for the -th event to occur is the gamma distribution with integer shape . This construction of the gamma distribution allows it to model a wide variety of phenomena where several sub-events, each taking time with exponential distribution, must happen in sequence for a major event to occur. Examples include the waiting time of cell-division events, number of compensatory mutations for a given mutation, waiting time until a repair is necessary for a hydraulic system, and so on.

In biophysics, the dwell time between steps of a molecular motor like ATP synthase is nearly exponential at constant ATP concentration, revealing that each step of the motor takes a single ATP hydrolysis. If there were n ATP hydrolysis events, then it would be a gamma distribution with degree n.

The gamma distribution has been used to model the size of insurance claims and rainfalls. This means that aggregate insurance claims and the amount of rainfall accumulated in a reservoir are modelled by a gamma process – much like the exponential distribution generates a Poisson process.

The gamma distribution is also used to model errors in multi-level Poisson regression models because a mixture of Poisson distributions with gamma-distributed rates has a known closed form distribution, called negative binomial.

In wireless communication, the gamma distribution is used to model the multi-path fading of signal power; see also Rayleigh distribution and Rician distribution.

In oncology, the age distribution of cancer incidence often follows the gamma distribution, wherein the shape and scale parameters predict, respectively, the number of driver events and the time interval between them.

In neuroscience, the gamma distribution is often used to describe the distribution of inter-spike intervals.

In bacterial gene expression, the copy number of a constitutively expressed protein often follows the gamma distribution, where the scale and shape parameter are, respectively, the mean number of bursts per cell cycle and the mean number of protein molecules produced by a single mRNA during its lifetime.

In genomics, the gamma distribution was applied in peak calling step (i.e., in recognition of signal) in ChIP-chip and ChIP-seq data analysis.

In Bayesian statistics, the gamma distribution is widely used as a conjugate prior. It is the conjugate prior for the precision (i.e. inverse of the variance) of a normal distribution. It is also the conjugate prior for the exponential distribution.

In phylogenetics, the gamma distribution is the most commonly used approach to model among-sites rate variation when maximum likelihood, Bayesian, or distance matrix methods are used to estimate phylogenetic trees. Phylogenetic analyzes that use the gamma distribution to model rate variation estimate a single parameter from the data because they limit consideration to distributions where α=β. This parameterization means that the mean of this distribution is 1 and the variance is 1/α. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods typically use a discrete approximation to the continuous gamma distribution.

Random variate generation
Given the scaling property above, it is enough to generate gamma variables with θ = 1, as we can later convert to any value of β with a simple division.

Suppose we wish to generate random variables from Gamma(n + δ, 1), where n is a non-negative integer and 0 < δ < 1. Using the fact that a Gamma(1, 1) distribution is the same as an Exp(1) distribution, and noting the method of generating exponential variables, we conclude that if U is uniformly distributed on (0, 1], then −ln(U) is distributed Gamma(1, 1) (i.e. inverse transform sampling). Now, using the "α-addition" property of gamma distribution, we expand this result:

where Uk are all uniformly distributed on (0, 1] and independent. All that is left now is to generate a variable distributed as Gamma(δ, 1) for 0 < δ < 1 and apply the "α-addition" property once more. This is the most difficult part.

Random generation of gamma variates is discussed in detail by Devroye, noting that none are uniformly fast for all shape parameters. For small values of the shape parameter, the algorithms are often not valid. For arbitrary values of the shape parameter, one can apply the Ahrens and Dieter modified acceptance-rejection method Algorithm GD (shape k ≥ 1), or transformation method when 0 < k < 1. Also see Cheng and Feast Algorithm GKM 3 or Marsaglia's squeeze method.

The following is a version of the Ahrens-Dieter acceptance–rejection method:

 Generate U, V and W as iid uniform (0, 1] variates.
 If  then  and . Otherwise,  and .
 If  then go to step 1.
 ξ is distributed as Γ(δ, 1).

A summary of this is

where  is the integer part of k, ξ is generated via the algorithm above with δ = {k} (the fractional part of k) and the Uk are all independent.

While the above approach is technically correct, Devroye notes that it is linear in the value of k and generally is not a good choice. Instead, he recommends using either rejection-based or table-based methods, depending on context.

For example, Marsaglia's simple transformation-rejection method relying on one normal variate X and one uniform variate U:

 Set  and .
 Set .
 If  and  return , else go back to step 2.

With  generates a gamma distributed random number in time that is approximately constant with k.  The acceptance rate does depend on k, with an acceptance rate of 0.95, 0.98, and 0.99 for k=1, 2, and 4.  For k < 1, one can use  to boost k to be usable with this method.

References

External links

 ModelAssist (2017) Uses of the gamma distribution in risk modeling, including applied examples in Excel.
 Engineering Statistics Handbook

Continuous distributions
Factorial and binomial topics
Conjugate prior distributions
Exponential family distributions
Infinitely divisible probability distributions
Survival analysis
Gamma and related functions

Gamma distribution


The Austrian literary magazine Literatur und Kritik (Literature and Critical Reviews) was founded in April 1966 by the Austrian writers Rudolf Henz, Gerhard Fritsch, and Paul Kruntorad as successor of the literary publication Wort in der Zeit, which had existed since 1955.

Profile
Compared to its predecessor, Literatur und Kritik printed more texts written by young authors and much more literature from Central and East European countries.

A study by the German scholar Renate Langer argued that the magazine was conceived originally as an official literary magazine of the Austrian state and thus received public subsidies from the first day on. Until the end of the 1980s, the magazine was dogged by this reputation.

Since its founding, Literatur und Kritik has been edited by the Salzburg publishing house Otto Müller Verlag, for several years now as five double issue per year. Scholar Klaus Zeyringer names it as one of the most interesting and richest literary magazines in German speaking countries. As of 2010 the print run of Literatur und Kritik was around 4,000.

Editors in chief were first Jeannie Ebner and eventually Kurt Klinger. In 1991, Karl-Markus Gauß became the new editor, together with publisher Arno Kleibel, and designed new characteristics for the magazine. For example, he introduced the new category Cultural Letters with essays and feuilletons covering cultural and historico-cultural topics. He gave more weight to discussion of the literatures of Central Europe and international literature. Additionally he managed to interest a younger generation of writers in collaborating.

The 40 Year Anniversary issue gives insight into texts published during the first twenty-five years of the magazine, e.g. by Ilse Aichinger, Ingeborg Bachmann, Italo Calvino, Elias Canetti, Paul Celan, Erich Fried, Alfred Gesswein, Peter Henisch, Friederike Mayröcker, Robert Menasse, Peter Rosei, Peter Turrini, and Czesław Miłosz.

Dossiers
Most issues of Literatur und Kritik comprise a dossier about special topics of about the literature of a chosen country. Among others, dossiers about Moldavia, Sorbian Literature, Portugal, Ukraine, Guatemala, South Tyrol, Occitanian Literature, Sinti and Roma, Bulgaria, and Yiddish Literature have been published.

Cultural Letters
The category Cultural Letters was introduced by Karl-Markus Gauß. Essays and feuilletons cover cultural topics in a broad sense. Every year, Literatur und Kritik publishes two to three Cultural Letters features. Writers such as Beppo Beyerl, Max Blaeulich, Manfred Chobot, Klaus Ebner, Leopold Federmair, Andrea Grill, Drago Jančar, Michael Scharang, Wolfgang Sréter, Daniela Strigl, Christian Teissl, and Manfred Wieninger have written cultural essays for the magazine.

Poetry
Since 2005, the first double issue of the year has published new poetry. The editors are committed to presenting a broad variety of contemporary poetry.

Magazine in Magazine
The international concept of Magazine in Magazine allows a literary magazine to present itself via another literary magazine based in another country (and in another language). Chosen texts are translated and speak for themselves in the target country. The original idea stems from the writers group of the magazine Apokalipsa in Ljubljana in Slovenia. Initial projects brought together Literatur und Kritik with magazines in Slovenia, Hungary, Montenegro, Poland and Croatia.

Reviews
Every issue contains reviews of recently published literary books. As a specialty, the so-called Controversy deserves mention, in which two authors review the same book from different viewpoints. Well-known Germanists such as Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch, Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, Daniela Strigl and Klaus Zeyringer have written reviews for Literatur und Kritik.

See also
 List of magazines in Austria

References
Herbert Zeman (Ed.): Das 20. Jahrhundert, Geschichte der Literatur in Österreich Vol. 7, Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1999.
Klaus Zeyringer (Ed.): Österreichische Literatur seit 1945, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2001.
Literatur und Kritik Nr. 399/400: 40 Jahre, Otto Müller Verlag, Salzburg November 2005.

External links
 Otto Müller Verlag, Salzburg

1966 establishments in Austria
Poetry magazines published in Austria
German-language magazines
Magazines established in 1966
Mass media in Salzburg

Literatur und Kritik