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{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Central_Province,_Sri_Lanka"} | The flag of Central Province, was adopted for the Central Province of Sri Lanka on 14 November, 1987.
Symbolism
The Central Province flag, like many of the other provincial flags depicts the image of a yellow lion in the center. It is on a red square background and again bordered by a yellow border. The red square background is on a white flag yet again bordered by a dotted yellow pattern and red and brown stripes. To the left of the lion are the images of the Sun and the Moon, with a face on the Sun and a rabbit on the moon. The flag has the Central Province written on it three times, in Sinhala, at the top and Tamil and English on the bottom. | 5b29124a-7bba-4b85-8a09-8f55e8ec5b19 |
null | The Zintan Brigades are armed units linked to the town of Zintan and its surrounding area, allied to, but separate from, the Libyan National Army. They played a large part in the Libyan Revolution which overthrew Gaddafi and are currently heavily involved in the 2014 Libyan Conflict on the anti-Islamist side. They are considered politically moderate/liberal within the Libyan political spectrum.
Organization
The Zintan Brigades are under the leadership of the Zintan Revolutionaries' Military Council and currently consist of:
The Airport Security Battalion (for Tripoli International Airport) was linked to the Zintan Brigades, but its current status is uncertain.
History
The Zintan Revolutionaries' Military Council was formed in May 2011 to organize the military efforts and effectiveness of 23 militias in Zintan and the Nafusa mountains. The Council is one of the strongest militias in Libya. Zintani Brigades detained Saif al-Islam Gaddafi after his capture in November 2011. One of its leaders, Osama al-Juwali, served as the Libyan defense minister from November 2011 to November 2012. The brigade is currently led by Mukhtar Kalifah Shahub, a former Libyan navy officer. The group has various Arabic-language media outlets. These include a satellite channel called Libya al-Watan and several websites and pages on Facebook.
The Zintan Brigades have been a major part of the conflict since the launch of Operation Dawn against Tripoli International Airport, because they were responsible for its defense. | 8ff22c13-6e97-4d62-b656-4e8af22e7177 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Mula_(Spain)"} | River in Spain
The Mula is a river in Murcia, Spain. The river's source is located in Bullas., tributary of the River Segura on its right bank. | 5c777246-151d-4012-89c9-06ea0fb00c0c |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_L._Burpee"} | United States army officer
Clarence Lamar Burpee (12 September 1894 - 6 October 1956) was a United States Army general who commanded the 2nd Military Railway Service during World War II.
After service in the United States Marine Corps during World War I, Burpee was a superintendent of terminals with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. During World War II he was commissioned in the United States Army, and commanded the 703rd Railway Grand Division in the North African campaign and the Italian campaign. He then commanded the 2nd Military Railway Service, which supported the campaigns in northwest Europe.
Early life
Clarence Lamar Burpee was born in Jackson, Georgia, on 12 September 1894, the second of the four children of James Arthur Burpee and his wife Katherine Milledge née Smith. His father died when he was just eight years old.
World War I
During World War I, Burpee enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on 4 July 1918. He gave his occupation as "yard master". After basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, he joined the 15th Marine Regiment in August. The following month it sailed to France, but saw no action before the war ended. He was promoted to corporal on 8 January 1919, and returned to the United States in August. He was honorably discharged on 13 August 1919.
Between the two world wars, Burpee served as the superintendent of terminals with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Jacksonville, Florida.
World War II
In July 1941, Burpee was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the engineer reserve. He was called to active duty with the rank of colonel in June 1942. He assumed command of the 703rd Railway Grand Division, which landed at Casablanca in North Africa on 18 November, just ten days after the commencement of Operation Torch. The 703rd Railway Grand Division moved on to Italy, where it opened the first railway line from Salerno on 5 October. He became the director of military railways in Italy, in which role he was responsible for all American railway units supporting the Italian campaign.
Burpee returned to the United States in November 1943 to become the general manager of the 2nd Military Railway Service. He was promoted to brigadier general in February 1944. The 2nd Military Railway Service arrived in the UK in March 1944, and Burpee landed on Utah Beach in late June. He moved his headquarters to Paris in September 1944, and Brussels in February 1945. By the end of the year, the 2nd Military Railway Service had eighteen railway operating battalion, four shop battalions, five mobile workshop units, and ten hospital train maintenance crews. These were controlled by five railway grand divisions, and had a total of 17,526 men.
He left active duty after the war ended, but was promoted to the substantive rank of brigadier general in May 1947. For his services he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.
Death and legacy
Burpee, who never married, died in Jacksonville on 6 October 1956, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery there. The Clarence L. Burpee United States Army Reserve Center in Jacksonville was named in his honor in 1957. | 7e9d5c09-be26-4dea-bd7d-0bfc9c01acd3 |
null | Coordinates: 39°06′01″N 94°34′55″W / 39.10022°N 94.58182°W / 39.10022; -94.58182 Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park is an urban park located in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri's, Central business district, located at the northeast corner of 12th and Walnut Streets. Some notable buildings in the surrounding area are One Kansas City Place, Town Pavilion, and the 1010 Grand Building. The park is often visited by businesspeople of the many surrounding buildings on lunch and coffee breaks.
Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park was dedicated in 1981 and is named for the Oppenstein Brothers, who operated a retail jewelry business in Kansas City and were active in the community, and who are the namesakes of the Oppenstein Brothers Foundation, a Kansas City charitable organization established in 1975. The park was formerly the home to the Rain Thicket Fountain by William Conrad Severson and Saunders Schultz. Also dedicated in 1981, this was an abstract sculpture in a stylized tree-like form with wind-moved limbs which shot, dripped, and bubbled water, creating mists and rainbows.
The park was redesigned and rebuilt in 2006-2008, with a rededication on April 18, 2008. This project was commissioned by the Art in the Loop Foundation, with design by Kansas City artist Laura DeAngelis and architect Dominique Davison. The new concept was named "Celestial Flyways" and was intended to celebrate the natural environment of the Kansas City area.
The centerpiece of the new design is an interactive anaphoric star disc, an astronomical machine based on the anaphoric clock of antiquity. It is probably the largest and most accurate anaphoric star disc ever made. Park visitors can rotate the star disk to a display the stars for a given date and time with a motor operated by buttons on the base. | 70aae16d-cd75-403c-8fe1-8d1febf8c7ab |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Aris"} | Helmut Aris (8 May 1908 – 22 November 1987) became in 1962 the President of the Association of Jewish Communities in the German Democratic Republic, retaining the position till his death in 1987.
Life
Helmut Aris was the son of Julius Aris, a metal worker originally from East Prussia, and his wife Recha Aris, née Stein. He was born in the Striesen district of Dresden in Saxony during the first decade of the twentieth century, a period of rapid industrialisation and social tensions. He attended the academically focused King George Gymnasium (a school in Dresden named after the local king) and then, in 1925, embarked on an apprenticeship on the commercial side of the textile business with a firm called "Hirsch & Co.", for whom he worked till 1929. He worked in the textile sector till 1938.
Aris married Susanne Reinfeld in 1933. Two children were born to the couple, named Heinz-Joachim and Renate. In November 1938 Aris was arrested. This was a manifestation of the anti-Jewish policies of the Nazi Party which had taken power in January 1933. Helmut Aris was Jewish. However, his wife Susanne came from an Evangelical Christian family and for this reason he was, at this stage released. A period of unemployment followed, after which, between 1940 and 1945, Aris was placed under a forced labour regime in a succession of businesses. His father died in 1940 and his mother was deported to Riga where she was murdered in 1942. Helmut Aris was scheduled to be deported on 16 February 1945, but it was never carried out on account of the very heavy bombing to which the city was subjected that week by British and American bombers.
In May 1945 World War II ended and his hometown of Dresden found itself in that part of what had been Germany that was now designated by the winning side as the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ). Membership of (non-Nazi) political parties was no longer illegal and Aris joined the newly formed Social Democratic Party (SPD). However, the Soviet Military Administration had a plan for what now began to mutate into the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The plan involved a return to a one-party state, and in 1946 the SPD merged with the former Communist Party of Germany (KPD): members of both parties were invited, with a simple signature, to switch their party allegiance to the Socialist Unity Party (SED). In 1946 Helmut Aris joined the SED. Aris worked as CEO of a succession of industrial concerns from 1945, and till 1965 he also served as Executive Director at the Dresden-based Institute for the Chemical Industry businesses.
In the immediate post-war years Aris worked to rebuild what remained of the Jewish community and in 1953 he became a member of the Central Saxony Community Leadership council in succession to Leon Löwenkopf, the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (VVN) founder who had been imprisoned since 1950 (following a denunciation) and fled to the west in 1953. Aris was also elected to leadership of the Dresden Community Leadership in succession to Hans Ogrodek who had fled East Germany. It was reported that following the vast scale of the state mandated killings and deportations there were only 5,000 Jews remaining in what was becoming East Germany, of whom perhaps 10% were active in the communities.
In 1952 Aris was a co-founder of the Association of Jewish Communities in the German Democratic Republic. He became the association's vice-president in 1958 and in 1962 he succeeded Hermann Baden as president of the Association of Jewish Communities in the German Democratic Republic.
From March 1954 to July 1956 he is listed in the Stasi records among the country's thousands of Informal collaborators (IM) under the code name "IM Lanus", but he later denied having provided reports to the Security Services on Jewish Community members.
Between 1962 and 1987 Aris was a member of the presidium for the National Council of the National Front which was an alliance of minor political parties and mass movements that were represented on a quota basis in the National Assembly and controlled through the National Front by the country's ruling SED party. He was also a member of the East German committee for the "Fight against Racism Decade", the central leadership of the East German Committee of Anti-Fascist Resistance fighters, of the East German "League for the United Nations" and of the presidium of the East German Peace Council [de].
Helmut Aris died on 22 November 1987 in Dresden and was buried with his wife Gertrud in the city's New Jewish Cemetery.
Awards and honours
Aris was also a recipient of the (East) German Peace medal. | 0898c907-1aab-43d9-8877-4fe73c187110 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuotalo"} | Culture centre in Helsinki, Finland
Vuotalo (Swedish: Nordhuset) is a cultural centre located in Vuosaari, Helsinki, Finland north of the Mosaiikkitori square, near the Columbus shopping centre, the Vuosaari metro station, the Vuosaari sports hall and the Vuosaari high school. The building was designed by Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen and it was completed in 2001.
General
Vuotalo houses a branch of the city library of Helsinki, a workers' institute, hobby spaces for music and arts, and a hall for theatre and dance performances. The Helsinki cultural centre holds cultural events in Vuotalo. The program includes concerts, films, children's events, theatre and senior events. The gallery hosts varying exhibitions throughout the year. The first floor of Vuotalo hosts the Vuosaari library, café Pokkari and a branch of the Lippupiste tickets office. The bright gallery and the Vuosali hall with 320 spaces are located at the first floor. The office of the Helsinki cultural centre and the eastern branch of the Helsinki workers' institute are located at the second floor. The workers' institute also has premises at the corridor between VUotalo and the Vuosaari high school.
History
An architecture competition about Vuotalo was held in 1996. The preconditions for the building site were numerous. There should be a connection to the north to the Vuosaari shopping centre. A connecting corridor perpendicular to the footpath should be built to the adjacent school and sports hall. The construction project of the area also included expansion of the schools and reorganisation of the yards and construction of 420 parking places connected to the Vuosaari metro station. The architectural contest was won by Heikkinen-Komonen Oy's proposal "a la kyltyyri". The building was completed in 2001 and its construction costs amounted to 9.92 million euro.
Structure
The building is semi-circular in shape and its basic structure resembles a hinge, where multifaceted functional and transport connections attach into each other. As the building has light roofs, a sector-shaped auditorium with a long tensor, glass facades and steel barriers around the pedestrian paths, the overground support structures are built in steel. The building also has supplementary building parts, such as equipment and maintenance bridges in the auditorium equipped with trembling dampeners and stairs made from steel. The support pillars of the building are in the centre in a 6-by-6-metre (20 ft × 20 ft) square. In parts of the structure, the pillars are round. The bulkheads in the levels are joined and the panels are hollow.
Horizontal tension of the structure has been partly done with concrete intermediary walls and partly with fire-protected steel lattices. The underground floor of the building and the parking garage partly located underneath the building, as well as the school expansion and the tunnel leading to the Vuosaari sports hall are made of steel-reinforced concrete. The fire resistance class of the supporting structure is R60. The steel structures of the light roofs and the upper floor of the auditorium have been constructed based on a pyrotechnic calculation without fire protection.
Facade
The front facade of the building consists of a glass wall two floors in height. The back facade of the building uses a stainless steel lattice. The curved interior shell of the lattice is made of concrete cast in place. The wide place-cast wall of the auditorium is tensed with steel pillars partly reaching outside the wall, which also support the steel structures of the roof.
Interior
In contrast to the metal superstructure the interior of Vuotalo uses plenty of wood. The floor is made of thermoprocessed birch and the interior walls are made of pine lattices. The walls feature artworks by Jaakko Tornberg and Pekka Syrjälä. | d265ef66-72f3-4db5-b4e3-c8c1141e31af |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_listed_buildings_in_South_Ayrshire"} | This is a list of listed buildings in South Ayrshire. The list is split out by parish.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Listed buildings in South Ayrshire. | cc763d15-1189-4c80-b984-f48d579e9a49 |
null | The Réseau Liberté-Québec (English: Québec Freedom Network) is a non-profit organization aiming to promote libertarian views and ideals in the Canadian province of Quebec. The group, founded during the summer of 2010 by Joanne Marcotte, Éric Duhaime, Roy Eappen, Gérard Laliberté, Ian Sénéchal and Guillaume Leduc, has been compared to the American conservative advocacy movement Tea Party. | 9b841eb0-ced5-4803-827d-e6f2765cbc43 |
null | Jozef De Vroey (1912–1999) was a Catholic priest and child survivor of the 19 August 1914 Aarschot massacre that occurred in World War I during the rape of Belgium and whose book about this atrocity, Aarschot op Woensdag 19 Augustus 1914 (Aarschot on Wednesday, 19 August 1914) (published in 1964, republished in 2014), has been cited by many historians, including Trinity College, Dublin, Professor Alan Kramer in his 2002 Yale University Press published book German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial that he co-wrote with John N. Horne. After World War II, De Vroey, also, published a book about the life, exploits and execution of Belgium spy Jozef Raskin.
Early life and education
De Vroey was born in 1912 in Aarschot, Belgium. His father was one of the victims of the Aarschot massacre after he was shot and killed by German soldiers during World War I in 1914. De Vroey was barely three years old when his father died, and it influenced his attitude to Germans.
When he was 10-years-old, his mother died leaving him to be raised by the Noppen family, who were his aunt and uncle. He later became a Roman Catholic priest and taught in both Antwerp and Leuven in 1937 - 1957. Then he was a religious teacher, two years in secondary education in Westerlo and Aarschot and from 1959 to 1974 in the Atheneum [nl] in Leuven. His hatred of the German misconduct continued throughout his life.
Book about Aarschot massacre
In 1964, De Vroey wrote his book Aarschot op Woensdag 19 Augustus 1914 in which he described the Aarschot massacre as being in retaliation for the murder of the German Colonel Stenger. He, also in this book, described his father's death as being caused by a bullet that pierced the Sacred Heart medallion around his neck, and ended the book with a letter to the Germans he signed and that stated that he was "one of the two hundred and thirty-four war orphans from Aarschot 1914".
Book about Jozef Raskin
After World War II, De Vroey wrote the book titled Pater Raskin in de beide wereldoorlogen (Father Raskin in both world wars) detailing the life and exploits of the Belgium Roman Catholic Church priest Jozef Raskin who was a spy in both World War I and World War II and was guillotined by the Nazi Germans on 18 October 1943.
Bibliography | 29eff28b-fe28-4631-87ac-050c53ebddd3 |
null | The Telugu Filmfare Best Lyricist Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Telugu films.
The award was first given in 2005. Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they won. Sirivennela won most awards in this category 5 times. | 7da5a3fa-0735-4e53-9139-9e241dc322d0 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Meteor_(1823)"} | HMS Meteor was a Hecla-class bomb vessel built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. In July 1832 she was renamed Beacon and reclassified as a survey ship, and was sold in 1846.
Description
Meteor had a length at the gundeck of 106 feet (32.3 m) and 87 feet 1 inch (26.5 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 28 feet 11 inches (8.8 m), a draught of about 10 feet 9 inches (3.3 m) and a depth of hold of 13 feet 10 inches (4.2 m). The ship's tonnage was 378 tons burthen. The Hecla class was armed with two 6-pounder cannon, eight or ten 24-pounder carronades and two mortars, one 10 inches (254 mm) and the other 13 inches (330 mm) in size. The ships had a crew of 67 officers and ratings.
Construction and career
Meteor, the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 18 May 1819, laid down in May 1820 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 25 June 1823. She was completed for sea on 17 June 1824 at Plymouth Dockyard. | f69bed23-eb83-48d8-a767-7c37f0b3a83a |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_Terrillon"} | French physician and surgeon
Octave Roch Simon Terrillon (17 May 1844, Oigny-sur-Seine – 22 December 1895, Paris) was a French physician and surgeon, known as a pioneer of aseptic surgery.
From 1868 he worked as a hospital interne in Paris, where in 1873 he received his medical doctorate. In 1876 he qualified as a hospital surgeon, and eventually became associated with the Salpêtrière Hospital. In 1878 he became an associate professor at the faculty of medicine in Paris.
On April 13, 1957, a French postage stamp featuring a portrait of Dr. Terrillon was issued. Included on the stamp were images of a microscope, an autoclave and some surgical instruments. Somewhere around 1882 he advocated the procedure of using boiling water, a heat sterilisation technique for disinfecting surgical instruments.
Selected works | 90aae07c-3e32-436d-8f71-964b8bb5ea27 |
null | Theater and movie theater in Charlottesville, Virginia, Unitted States
The Jefferson Theater, a former movie palace, is a performing arts venue located at 110 East Main Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is the centerpiece of the Historic Downtown Mall.
Built in 1912, this combination vaudeville house/cinema is one of the major performing venues in Charlottesville, Virginia. Operated most recently as one of the dollar theaters, it is currently owned by Coran Capshaw, who oversaw restoration which has now been completed.
It was designed by architect C.K. Howell, who also designed the November Theatre in nearby Richmond, Virginia.
Before closing for renovations in the spring of 2006, one of the final performances was a concert by the Charlottesville-based bluegrass band, King Wilkie. | 31bbefb3-88f8-4770-b9b3-2ac567379fb9 |
null | Village in Vladimir Oblast, Russia
Vashutino (Russian: Вашутино) is a rural locality (a village) in Posyolok Anopino, Gus-Khrustalny District, Vladimir Oblast, Russia. The population was 898 as of 2010. There are 17 streets.
Geography
Vashutino is located 13 km northeast of Gus-Khrustalny (the district's administrative centre) by road. Babino is the nearest rural locality. | 837873ca-18fd-4cfa-b850-9f20df7973b3 |
null | South African trans woman and sex worker
Ayanda Denge (died 24 March 2019) was a South African trans woman and sex trafficking survivor. She was an advocate for transgender people, sex trafficking survivors, and for the abolition of prostitution. She was the chairperson of the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). Denge has said that, "being transgender is ... a triple dose of stigmatisation and discrimination".
Early life
Denge was Xhosa, and grew up in the city of Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape in South Africa.
Career
Denge began work in Johannesburg, and later travelled to other southern African cities including Harare, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Victoria Falls. She was a sex worker for over 15 years.
Denge worked as outreach co-ordinator for the Sisonke Sex Worker Movement (Sisonke) for two years.
Denge was the chairperson of the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). She was an advocate for transgender people, sex workers, and for the decriminalisation of sex work. In her role with SWEAT, Denge trained 50 peer educators, and worked as a motivational speaker on "cancer awareness, HIV/AIDS awareness, and human rights advocacy issues related to sex work". She also worked on the project "Integrate – HIV/AIDS Reduction for Sex Workers" at the TB/HIV CARE Association. She advocated for the rights of people living with HIV, and was a member of SistazHood, the female transgender sex worker human rights, health, and support group at SWEAT.
Denge led SWEAT through the August 2015 launch in Cape Town of the Asijiki Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Sex Work, where she delivered a speech. The organisation includes sex workers, activists, and advocates and defenders of human rights, and the steering committee consists of the Sisonke Sex Worker Movement (Sisonke), the Women's Legal Centre (WLC), the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), and Sonke Gender Justice. The organization aims through decriminalization to reduce the vulnerability of sex workers to violence and illness, and increase their access to labor, health, and justice services.
Denge was interviewed by the Daily Vox while attending the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, "Being transgender is not a double dose, but it's a triple dose of stigmatisation and discrimination. You are discriminated against for your sexual identity, you are discriminated against for your work, and you are discriminated against of your HIV status." She spoke out also against emotional abuse and police brutality, noting that the police confiscated sex workers' condoms.
Personal life
Denge lived in Cape Town, South Africa. She lived on the street for a period before moving into the Helen Bowden Nurses' Home in Green Point. The former nurses' home is owned by the provincial government, but had been unlawfully occupied by tenants' group Reclaim the City, which campaigns for affordable housing, and renamed the Ahmed Kathrada House. In February 2019, she had been elected a house leader.
Death
Denge was murdered in her own room on the 24th of March 2019. She was stabbed and left laying on her floor. It was reported that Denge’s room was locked with a padlock from the outside and it was only when a leader at the residence peeped through the window out of concern for her well-being that anyone noticed her body on the floor. The electricity had been cut, causing the building to be completely dark at night. She had been living with someone, who disappeared after the killing. | 8082e27d-25a7-4d34-a0ee-e6c85edcc2c5 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanmawke"} | Village in Sagaing Region, Burma
Nanmawke is a village in Kalewa Township, Kale District, in the Sagaing Region of western Burma. | 34b62811-1fe7-46c9-a303-1b50983d34ff |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Institute_%E2%80%93_Seneca_Junior_College"} | The Seneca Institute – Seneca Junior College was an African-American school in Seneca, South Carolina, from 1899 to 1939. This was in a period of segregated public schools in South Carolina.
History
The Seneca Institute was a Christian, primary and secondary school for African Americans that was founded in 1899 by the Seneca River Baptist Association. It occupied about 8 acres (3.2 ha) in Seneca, South Carolina. The site is bounded by West South Third and South Poplar Streets and Scotland Road. It was founded to promote education for African-American children at a time in which there was no secondary school for African Americans in Oconee County.
The first president of the Seneca Institute was Rev. Dr. John Jacob Starks. He was born in what is now rural Greenwood County. He served the Seneca Institute for thirteen years. He left to become the president of Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina. After serving as its president from 1912 to 1930, he became the president of Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. He served as its president until his death.
With the addition of two years of college instruction in 1926, the Seneca Institute was renamed the Seneca Junior College. In addition to the primary and secondary classes, it served as a junior college and teaching training course.
In 1937 a Faith Cabin Library was built on campus with books donated by students at Oberlin College.
The school struggled during the Great Depression. It was closed in 1939.
The Seneca Institute had students who lived in the community and boarders. It had a brick dormitory for girls, the B.S. Sharp Dormitory for boys, the A.P. Dunbar Hall for classes, and a library. Except for the log cabin library that is still standing, the buildings were razed in 1963.
Other African-American schools
During the period of segregated education, there were other private and public schools in Oconee County. The Norrel School was found by Northern Presbyterians. It began as a church and school on Fairplay Street in front of Mt. View Cemetery. The school closed prior to 1939.
The Oconee County Training School, which was a teaching training school for African Americans, was a public institution founded in 1925. Its programs included home economics, industrial arts, and agriculture. In 1955, its building was used for East End Elementary School.
Blue Ridge High School was built in 1955 to serve the African-American community. It continued as the African-American high school in the Seneca area until 1969 when the county public schools were integrated. The building was renamed Seneca Junior High School and later Code Elementary School.
Legacy
The Seneca Institute – Seneca Junior College educated many African Americans that continued to live in the Seneca area as well as the nation. This included many physicians, dentists, clergymen, and educators.
In 1978, the Seneca River Improvement Association dedicated the Seneca Institute Family Life Center, a multi-purpose building, as a community center. It is located on the old campus of the Seneca Institute – Seneca Junior College. | 0216693c-2790-4433-b808-5a5aaaaad0ed |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Claes"} | Flemish scholar, writer, poet and translator
Paul Claes (born 30 October 1943) is a Flemish scholar, writer, poet and translator.
Born in Leuven, Claes graduated in classical literature and Germanic philology (Dutch and English). He obtained a PhD in 1981, with a dissertation De mot zit in de mythe on references to classical texts in the works of Hugo Claus. He worked at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Catholic University of Nijmegen.
He wrote the script for Reynaert de Vos (1973-1974), a satirical newspaper comic based on Reynard the Fox, drawn by hugOKÉ.
Claes made his debut as a poet in 1983 with sonnets in De zonen van de zon. His translation of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" (2007) includes a comprehensive commentary and a new interpretation. "La clef des Illuminations" (2008) is a new interpretation of Arthur Rimbaud's masterpiece. "Concatenatio Catulliana" (2002) proposes a new theory about the arrangement of Catullus' "Carmina".
Awards
Sources | 90440400-b01c-4b38-89d9-2d64a4d948dc |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Devlies"} | Belgian politician
Carl Devlies (born 23 January 1953) is a Belgian politician. He is a member of the Flemish Christian-democratic party. At the moment he is a schepen in Leuven.
Devlies was born in Amsterdam.
Career | f0cadddc-9572-4b1c-a17a-c97e5aae41fd |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_European_Athletics_Indoor_Championships_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_400_metres"} | The women's 400 metres event at the 1982 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held on 6–7 March.
Medalists
Results
Heats
First 2 of each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.
Semifinals
First 2 from each semifinal qualified directly (Q) for the final.
Final | 56b96f74-6c6e-470d-996e-8035bdc23f8c |
null | Monastic foundation
The Abbey of Honau was a monastic foundation in Northern Alsace which flourished from the 8th century until 1290, when it succumbed to the flood-waters of the Rhine.
The Abbey was founded by Irish and Scottish monks at the beginning of the 8th century, on an island in the Rhine close to the present day village of La Wantzenau (and Honau, which is part of Rheinau), which was later built on Abbey lands. The first abbot was Benedict (alias Benoît).
In 720, Duke Adalbert of Alsace, the brother of Saint Odile, built a new abbey for the monks, just four years after he had built the Abbey of St Stephen in Strasbourg. The Abbey was dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, a popular saint at the time, as can be testified by the establishment of the abbeys of Mont St Michel in Normandy and Saint Mihiel in Lorraine in the same period.
On Adalbert's death in 723, the abbey passed to King Theuderic IV. The abbey continued to benefit from numerous generous donations. Benedict, who was still living in 726, eventually resigned as abbot and chose Tuban as his successor. Tuban is mentioned in several records of donations to the Abbey (Grandidier, op.cit.).
The subsequent abbots were Etienne, followed by Beatus. In 776 the Abbot Beatus is mentioned in a Charter from Charlemagne, referring to him as bishop and confirming that the Abbey would continue to be administered by Irish monks (Grandidier, op.cit.). According to Grandidier, the number of monks increased considerably during the time of Beatus and monks were sent out to found other churches and monasteries, including those at Luttenbach, in Alsace Aschaffenburg in Germany and Munster in Switzerland, all of which depended on Honau. Beatus was succeeded as Abbot by Edigan, who in turn was succeeded by Thomas. The first five abbots were all referred to as saints in the calendar of Saint Pierre le Vieux in Strasbourg, which, at the time of Grandidier, still claimed to hold relics of all five.
Although some writers claim the Abbey as a Benedictine foundation, this is disputed by Hunkler, who argues that it has not proved possible to associate the abbey to any particular monastic order.
Several of the early abbots had the title bishop, leading to speculation that the abbey was the seat of a bishopric, but it is more probable that they were regional bishops. In the 11th century, the Abbey became secularised, a chapter was created (Hunkler, op. cit.)
In 1290, the Abbey was abandoned, when the island was threatened by floodwaters. On 7 September 1290 Conrad de Lichtenberg, the Bishop of Strasbourg, transferred the Chapter to Rhinau, where a new Abbey was built, this too on an island in the Rhine. The same fate befell this second Abbey, which was abandoned in 1398 due to flooding. The Chapter then moved to Strasbourg on 22 May 1398, where the canons were permitted to practice their liturgy in the church of Saint Pierre le Vieux (Hunkler, op. cit.). They stayed there until 1790, when the Chapter was wound up, apart from the period 1529 to 1683 when, because of the Reform, they were not allowed to use the Church.
The cartulary of Honau
The now lost cartulary of Honau, written in 1079, and described by a 17th-century Jesuit, recorded over a thousand charters from the foundation of the abbey until the time of Charlemagne. Some of these are listed in Bishop Reeves' article. | 9275e08f-814a-4c66-884e-317fe8f3a5e8 |
null | The Myanmar Economic Corporation (Burmese: မြန်မာ့စီးပွားရေး ကော်ပိုရေးရှင်း; abbreviated MEC) is one of the two major conglomerates and holding companies operated by the Burmese military, the "Tatmadaw." The U.S. Treasury Dept. reports that MEC "is a holding company with businesses in the mining, manufacturing, and telecommunications sectors, as well as companies that supply natural resources to the military, and operate factories producing goods for use by the military." As of August 2022, Nyo Saw is the chairman of MEC.
Founded in 1997 by Lt General Tin Hla to establish profitable heavy industries that can provide the Burmese military access to supplies of important materials (e.g. cement and rubber), MEC's operations are shrouded in secrecy. Revenues generated from MEC have strengthened the Burmese military's autonomy from civilian oversight, and has contributed to the military's financial operations in "a wide array of international human rights and humanitarian law violations."
Ownership
MEC is owned by the Burmese military, and is influenced by senior Tatmadaw leaders. Along with Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEHL), MEC is widely observed to generate most of the Burmese military's operating revenue, which are not held accountable to the Burmese parliament, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
Leadership
MEC is led by high-ranking Burmese military officials, including members of the ruling military junta, the State Administration Council, including Moe Myint Tun, a MEC director. The former Vice-President of Burma, Tin Aung Myint Oo, is a former Myanmar Economic Corporation chairman.
Business interests
In 2009, MEC had 21 factories, including 4 steel plants, a bank, a cement plant and an insurance monopoly. Its headquarters are located on Ahlon Road in Yangon's Ahlon Township. MEC has remained on the United States' list of sanctioned companies due to its affiliation to the Burmese military. MEC also operates Innwa Bank, one of Burma's few banking chains. A subsidiary of MEC, Star High Public Company, owns 28% of Mytel, one of Myanmar's largest telecommunications company, in a joint venture with Viettel.
MEC is operated under the Ministry of Defence's Directorate of Defence Procurement (DPP), with its private shares exclusively owned by active-duty military personnel.
The corporation's capital was established through revenues generated from the public auctioning of state-owned enterprises throughout the 1990s. Through joint ventures with foreign companies and mergers with smaller companies, MEC has positioned itself as one of Burma's largest corporations.
In 2000, MEC launched Cybermec Information Technology Center, an IT venture.
History
Following the February, 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, in which the Tatmadaw seized power from the elected civilian government, the United States sanctioned MEC, March 25, 2021, for the company's association with, and support of, the Tatmadaw, -- impounding U.S.-held assets of the company, and forbidding U.S. nationals from doing business with them. | 621d6b72-6421-45b7-8445-17994a086189 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Puchta"} | George Puchta (April 8, 1860 - April 18, 1937) was the assistant Treasurer of the United States from 1911 to 1916 and the Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1916 to 1917.
Biography
He was born on April 8, 1860 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Lorentz Puchta and Barbara K. Schmidt. On October 6, 1887 he married Anna M. Meinhardt.
Puchta was as the Cincinnati Park Commissioner from 1909 to 1911. He was appointed by President William H. Taft as the assistant treasurer for the United States Department of the Treasury from 1911 to 1916.
He was the Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 1916 to 1917. He became ill from "an abdominal ailment complicated by pneumonia" while aboard the SS President Coolidge and he died on April 18, 1937 in Manila.
Puchta was a presidential elector in the 1920, 1924, and 1928 presidential elections. | 6fd16393-d6a5-47bf-8b0b-3893ac03e940 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Loulichki"} | Mohammed Loulichki (born 1952 in Fes) is a Moroccan diplomat. He was Morocco's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York between November 2008 and 14 April 2014.
Loulichki has also been the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations in Geneva and the Moroccan ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Hungary.
In December 2012, Loulichki was the President of the United Nations Security Council. | b515a3a4-ed2e-41f5-b7b9-f4425d7fd4b6 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Incognita_Peninsula"} | Peninsula of Baffin Island, Nunavut Territoty, Canada
Coordinates: 62°45′01″N 068°29′58″W / 62.75028°N 68.49944°W / 62.75028; -68.49944 (Meta Incognita Peninsula)
The Meta Incognita Peninsula is located on southern Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is bounded by Hudson Strait to the south, and Frobisher Bay to the north. The hamlet of Kimmirut is on the Hudson Strait on the southern coast of the western peninsula.
On his second voyage in July, 1577, Martin Frobisher claimed this area in the name of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The Queen named it Meta Incognita, Latin for "the unknown limits." Frobisher's 1578 voyage was originally planned to establish a settlement here. | f4f58b0c-67f0-4c86-abb7-87d660823ce6 |
null | Historic site in Shkodër
The Sanctuary (church-mosque) (Albanian: Faltorja (kishë-xhami)) in Shkodër, Albania is a Cultural Monument of Albania. | cfe00cc4-45e5-4026-8c31-a5714bbf285a |
null | Jon Snow may refer to: | fdf3420b-670e-43b8-acb6-c984bc3ed95b |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign,_Commonwealth_and_Development_Office"} | Ministerial department of the UK Government
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO, itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office, was responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide.
The head of the FCDO is the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, commonly abbreviated to "Foreign Secretary". This is regarded as one of the four most prestigious positions in the Cabinet – the Great Offices of State – alongside those of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary. James Cleverly was appointed Foreign Secretary on 6 September 2022.
The FCDO is managed day-to-day by a civil servant, the permanent under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, who also acts as the Head of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service. Philip Barton took office as permanent under-secretary on 2 September 2020.
The expenditure, administration and policy of the FCDO are scrutinised by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Responsibilities
According to the FCDO website, the department's key responsibilities (as of 2020) are as follows:
In addition to the above responsibilities, the FCDO is responsible for the British Overseas Territories, which had previously been administered from 1782 to 1801 by the Home Office, from 1801 to 1854 by the War and Colonial Office, from 1854 to 1966 by the Colonial Office, from 1966 to 1968 by the Commonwealth Office, from 1968 to 2020 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and since 2020 by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (this did not include protectorates, which fell under the purview of the Foreign Office, or to British India, which had been administered by the East India Company until 1858, and thereafter by the India Office). This arrangement has been subject to criticism in the UK and in the overseas territories. For example, the chief minister of Anguilla, Victor Banks, said: "We are not foreign; neither are we members of the Commonwealth, so we should have a different interface with the UK that is based on mutual respect". There have been numerous suggestions on ways to improve the relationship between the overseas territories and the UK. Suggestions have included setting up a dedicated department to handle relations with the overseas territories, and the absorption of the OTD in the Cabinet Office, thus affording the overseas territories with better connections to the centre of government.
Ministers
The FCDO Ministers are as follows:
History
Eighteenth century
The Foreign Office was formed in March 1782 by combining the Southern and Northern Departments of the Secretary of State, each of which covered both foreign and domestic affairs in their parts of the Kingdom. The two departments' foreign affairs responsibilities became the Foreign Office, whilst their domestic affairs responsibilities were assigned to the Home Office. The Home Office is technically the senior.
Nineteenth century
During the 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach The Times newspaper and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources. Examples of journalists who specialized in foreign affairs and were well connected to politicians included: Henry Southern, Valentine Chirol, Harold Nicolson, and Robert Bruce Lockhart.
Twentieth century
During the First World War, the Arab Bureau was set up within the British Foreign Office as a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department. During the early cold war an important department was the Information Research Department, set up to counter Soviet propaganda and infiltration. The Foreign Office hired its first woman diplomat, Monica Milne, in 1946.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1968–2020)
The FCO was formed on 17 October 1968, from the merger of the short-lived Commonwealth Office and the Foreign Office. The Commonwealth Office had been created only in 1966, by the merger of the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Colonial Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office having been formed by the merger of the Dominions Office and the India Office in 1947—with the Dominions Office having been split from the Colonial Office in 1925.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office held responsibility for international development issues between 1970 and 1974, and again between 1979 and 1997.
The National Archives website contains a Government timeline to show the departments responsible for Foreign Affairs from 1945.
Under New Labour (1997–2010)
From 1997, international development became the responsibility of the separate Department for International Development.
When David Miliband took over as Foreign Secretary in June 2007, he set in hand a review of the FCO's strategic priorities. One of the key messages of these discussions was the conclusion that the existing framework of ten international strategic priorities, dating from 2003, was no longer appropriate. Although the framework had been useful in helping the FCO plan its work and allocate its resources, there was agreement that it needed a new framework to drive its work forward.
The new strategic framework consists of three core elements:
In August 2005, a report by management consultant group Collinson Grant was made public by Andrew Mackinlay. The report severely criticised the FCO's management structure, noting:
The Foreign Office commissioned the report to highlight areas which would help it achieve its pledge to reduce spending by £87 million over three years. In response to the report being made public, the Foreign Office stated it had already implemented the report's recommendations.
In 2009, Gordon Brown created the position of Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) to the FCO. The first science adviser was David C. Clary.
On 25 April 2010, the department apologised after The Sunday Telegraph obtained a "foolish" document calling for the upcoming September visit of Pope Benedict XVI to be marked by the launch of "Benedict-branded" condoms, the opening of an abortion clinic and the blessing of a same-sex marriage.
Coalition and Conservatives (2010–2020)
In 2012, the Foreign Office was criticised by Gerald Steinberg of the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor, saying that the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development provided more than £500,000 in funding to Palestinian NGOs which he said "promote political attacks on Israel". In response, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said "we are very careful about who and what we fund. The objective of our funding is to support efforts to achieve a two-state solution. Funding a particular project for a limited period of time does not mean that we endorse every single action or public comment made by an NGO or by its employees."
In September 2012, the FCO and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding on diplomatic cooperation, which promotes the co-location of embassies, the joint provision of consular services, and common crisis response. The project has been criticised for further diminishing the UK's influence in Europe.
In 2011, the then Foreign Secretary, William Hague, announced the government's intention to open a number of new diplomatic posts in order to enhance the UK's overseas network. As such, eight new embassies and six new consulates were opened around the world.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (2020–present)
On 16 June 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the merger of the FCO with the Department for International Development. This was following the decision in the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle to give cross-departmental briefs to all junior ministers in the Department for International Development and the Foreign Office. The merger, which created the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, took place in September 2020 with a stated aim of ensuring that aid is spent "in line with the UK's priorities overseas". The merger was criticised by three former prime ministers – Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and David Cameron – with Cameron saying that it would mean "less respect for the UK overseas". The chief executive of Save the Children, Kevin Watkins, called it "reckless, irresponsible and a dereliction of UK leadership" that "threatens to reverse hard-won gains in child survival, nutrition and poverty".
In November 2021, it was reported that an employment tribunal had ruled that the FCDO had racially discriminated against Sonia Warner, a black senior civil servant, by treating her unfairly in a disciplinary process.
On 21 February 2022, UK Minister for Africa announced a new £74 million financial package to support women entrepreneurs across Nigeria, who own businesses and small and medium enterprises (SME’s).
In 2022, Maria Bamieh settled an employment claim against the Foreign Office for more than £400,000 shortly before her claim was due to be heard by an employment tribunal. She said that the Foreign Office failed to support her when she attempted to expose corruption at the EU’s rule of law mission (EULEX). The Foreign Office said : “We have agreed to settle this long-running case without any admission of liability and continue to strongly refute these allegations.”
Diplomatic Academy
Following a prior announcement by the then Foreign Secretary William Hague, the FCO opened the Diplomatic Academy in February 2015. The new centre, opened by the Duke of Cambridge, was established in order to create a cross-government centre of excellence for all civil servants working on international issues. The Diplomatic Academy serves to broaden the FCO's network and engaged in more collaborative work with academic and diplomatic partners.
Programme Funds
The FCDO, through its core departmental budget, funds projects which are in line with its policy priorities outlined in its Single Departmental Plan. This funding includes both Official Development Assistance (ODA), and non-ODA funds. The funds are used for a wide range of projects and serve to support traditional diplomatic activities.
The FCDO plays a key role in delivering two, major UK government funds which work to support the government's National Security Strategy and Aid Strategy.
The FCDO also supports a number of academic funds:
2021 aid budget cuts
In 2021, the UK government cut its overseas aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of Gross National Income despite UK legislation against such a move. These cuts, amounting to GBP 4 billion, reduced funding for humanitarian intervention by 44% in places like Yemen and Syria. It also cut funding for the fight against polio, malaria and HIV/AIDS. Funding for girls education worldwide was also reduced by 25%.
Investments
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) announced the first two investments made under its ‘Innovating for Climate Resilience fund’, which was launched at COP26 with support from the UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and in partnership with the Adaptation Research Alliance and the Global Resilience Partnership.
FCDO Services
In April 2006, a new executive agency was established, FCO Services (now FCDO Services), to provide corporate service functions. It moved to Trading Fund status in April 2008, so that it had the ability to provide services similar to those it already offers to the FCDO to other government departments and even to outside businesses.
It is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, and provides secure support services to the FCDO, other government departments and foreign governments and bodies with which the UK has close links.
Since 2011, FCDO Services has been developing the Government Secure Application Environment (GSAE) on a secure cloud computing platform to support UK government organisations. It also manages the UK National Authority for Counter Eavesdropping (UK NACE) which helps protect UK assets from physical, electronic and cyber attack.
FCDO Services is a public sector organisation, it is not funded by the public and has to rely on the income it produces to meet its costs, by providing services on a commercial basis to customers both in the UK and throughout the world. Its accounting officer and chief executive is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs and to Parliament, for the organisation's performance and conduct.
Global Response Office
The FCDO Global Response Office is based in an undisclosed location. It operates 24/7, every day of the year. It takes calls from British Nationals overseas, usually in emergency situations such as lost passports, hospitalisations, deaths and arrests.
Buildings
As well as embassies abroad, the FCDO has premises within the UK:
The FCO formerly also used the following building:
Main Building
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office occupies a building which originally provided premises for four separate government departments: the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the Home Office. Construction on the building began in 1861 and finished in 1868, on the plot of land bounded by Whitehall, King Charles Street, Horse Guards Road and Downing Street. The building was designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott. Its architecture is in the Italianate style; Scott had initially envisaged a Gothic design, but Lord Palmerston, then prime minister, insisted on a classical style. The English sculptors Henry Hugh Armstead and John Birnie Philip produced a number of allegorical figures ("Art", "Law", "Commerce", etc.) for the exterior.
In 1925 the Foreign Office played host to the signing of the Locarno Treaties, aimed at reducing tension in Europe. The ceremony took place in a suite of rooms that had been designed for banqueting, which subsequently became known as the Locarno Suite. During the Second World War, the Locarno Suite's fine furnishings were removed or covered up, and it became home to a Foreign Office code-breaking department.
Due to increasing numbers of staff, the offices became increasingly cramped and much of the fine Victorian interior was covered over—especially after the Second World War. In the 1960s, demolition was proposed, as part of major redevelopment plan for the area drawn up by the architect Leslie Martin. A subsequent public outcry prevented these proposals from ever being implemented. Instead, the Foreign Office became a Grade I listed building in 1970. In 1978, the Home Office moved to a new building, easing overcrowding.
With a new sense of the building's historical value, it underwent a 17-year, £100 million restoration process, completed in 1997. The Locarno Suite, used as offices and storage since the Second World War, was fully restored for use in international conferences. The building is now open to the public each year over Open House Weekend.
In 2014 refurbishment to accommodate all Foreign and Commonwealth Office employees into one building was started by Mace.
Devolution
International relations are handled centrally from Whitehall on behalf of the whole of the United Kingdom and its dependencies. However, the devolved administrations also maintain an overseas presence in the European Union, the U.S. and China alongside British diplomatic missions. These offices aim to promote their own economies and ensure that devolved interests are taken into account in British foreign policy. Ministers from devolved administrations can attend international negotiations when agreed with the British Government e.g. EU fisheries negotiations. | 212d23f3-17dd-492b-b47b-77bc063d40a3 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pere_Ubu"} | American rock band
Pere Ubu is an American rock group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. The band had a variety of long-term and recurring band members, with singer David Thomas being the only member staying throughout the band's lifetime. They released their debut album The Modern Dance in 1978 and followed with several more LPs before disbanding in 1982. Thomas reformed the group in 1987, continuing to record and tour.
Describing their sound as "avant-garage," Pere Ubu's work drew inspiration from sources such as musique concrète, 60s rock, performance art, and the industrial environments of the American Midwest. While the band achieved little commercial success, they have exerted a wide influence on subsequent underground music.
History
1970s
Rocket from the Tombs was a Cleveland-based group that eventually fragmented: some members formed the Dead Boys, and others The Saucers, while David Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner joined with guitarist Tom Herman, bass guitarist Tim Wright, drummer Scott Krauss and synthesist Allen Ravenstine to form Pere Ubu in 1975. At the time the band formed, Herman, Krauss, and Ravenstine lived in a house owned by Ravenstine. The group's name is a reference to Ubu Roi, an avant-garde play by French writer Alfred Jarry.
Pere Ubu's debut single (their first four records were singles on their own "Hearpen" label) was "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" (inspired by the "Doolittle Raid" and named after a film depicting the raid), backed with "Heart of Darkness"; followed by "Final Solution" in 1976. One review noted that "30 Seconds" "was clearly the work of a garage band, yet its arty dissonance and weird experimentalism were startlingly unique." Laughner left the group after their first two singles, and died soon afterwards of acute pancreatic failure.
Other recordings of the 1970s
"Street Waves" b/w "My Dark Ages (I Don't Get Around)" was their third single, and after their fourth single, "The Modern Dance" b/w 'Heaven" (which was pressed in very small quantities and contained a completely different mix of "Modern Dance" from the album version), Pere Ubu signed to Blank Records, a short-lived imprint of Mercury Records.
Tony Maimone signed on as bassist after Tim Wright left to join DNA.
Their debut album, The Modern Dance (1978), sold poorly, but has proven influential. Musicians of many types, including progressive rock, punk rock, post punk and new wave, were influenced by the dark, abstract record. With the song "Sentimental Journey," the debut also introduced the practice of re-appropriating titles from well-known popular songs: Pere Ubu's "Sentimental Journey" has no obvious relation to the Doris Day hit song of the same name; "Drinking Wine Spodyody" has no apparent connection to the Sticks McGhee song (later revived by Jerry Lee Lewis). This practice has continued through 2006's Why I Hate Women, which has a song called "Blue Velvet" (again, no relation to the 1963 hit song by Bobby Vinton).
While most synthesizer players tended to play the instrument as they would a piano or organ, Ravenstine generally opted instead to make sounds that were reminiscent of spooky sound effects from 1950s science fiction films, or perhaps electronic music and musique concrète. One critic writes that Ravenstine "may be one of the all-time great synth players" and his playing has been called "utterly original".
Pere Ubu's second and third albums, Dub Housing and New Picnic Time, followed with much the same reaction.
The group briefly disbanded in 1979, but reformed soon afterwards with Herman replaced by Mayo Thompson (of Red Krayola).
1980s
The Art of Walking (1980) featured Thompson on guitar. For the next original album, Song of the Bailing Man (1982), Krauss was replaced by Anton Fier.
The group disbanded again soon afterwards; Krauss and Maimone formed Home and Garden, while Thomas worked on a solo career, notably with Richard Thompson and with members of Henry Cow.
By the late 1980s, one of Thomas's solo projects eventually featured much of Pere Ubu. The band was reformed again in 1987, with Jim Jones and Chris Cutler joining for the release of The Tenement Year (1988), a far more pop-oriented album than ever before. The following year, "Waiting for Mary" (off Cloudland) appeared on MTV briefly. After the recording of Cloudland, Ravenstine left the group (although he made a guest appearance on Worlds in Collision) and later became an airline pilot. Eric Drew Feldman joined the band in time for the Cloudland tour and the recording of Worlds in Collision, but left afterwards, joining Frank Black.
1990s
In 1993, Story of My Life was released. Maimone left (once again) to join They Might Be Giants, and Michele Temple and Garo Yellin joined the band for the Story of My Life tour and feature on Ubu's 1995 album, Ray Gun Suitcase. Robert Wheeler has played synthesizer and theremin with Pere Ubu since 1994. Krauss left the band during the Ray Gun Suitcase sessions. For the Ray Gun Suitcase tour, guitarist Jim Jones departed as a touring member (although he continued to contribute to recordings), founding guitarist Tom Herman replaced him for the tour.
Concurrent with the 1996 release of the Datapanik in Year Zero box set, Jim Jones retired due to health problems. Tom Herman returned to the band after a twenty-year absence to tour with the band in 1995, and went on to record Pennsylvania (1998), which also featured guitar contributions from Jim Jones. Guitarist Wayne Kramer of MC5 fame joined the band for their 1998 summer tour.
2000–2010
While much of 2000 was given over to live performances by Thomas's side projects - David Thomas and Two Pale Boys (Andy Diagram and Keith Moliné) and The Pale Orchestra - Pere Ubu played a gig bannered '55 Years of Pain' in June at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside 15-60-75. The band then teamed up in September 2000 with special guest Wayne Kramer for another performance of '55 Years of Pain'. This time at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London.
Although Pere Ubu took a break from touring in 2001, they worked on material for a new album. Thomas also devoted himself for much of the year to live performance. This included his theatrical project 'Mirror Man (A Geography of Sound in Two Acts)' as well as an extensive David Thomas and Two Pale Boys European and US tour. In February, The trio were also asked to support Goth band the Sisters of Mercy at five concerts in England. Founding member Andrew Eldritch had long cited Pere Ubu and David Thomas as a key musical influence.Speaking in 2016, Eldritch said: "I remember seeing the best gig I ever saw in my life which was Pere Ubu supported by the Human League on the tiny stage of the F Club in Leeds [Dec 7 1978]."
St. Arkansas was released on 20 May 2002 on Glitterhouse Records. The group comprised David Thomas, Tom Herman, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple and Steve Mehlman. Jim Jones again contributed guitar parts. In September 2002 the band undertook the 11 date 'Mighty Road Tour in American and Canada. Tom Herman left again in late 2002, being replaced by Keith Moliné from David Thomas and Two Pale Boys. That same year, Thomas and Moliné were joined by Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple and Chris Cutler. They performed a live soundtrack to a 3-D screening of 'It Came from Outer Space' at the Royal Festival Hall, London on October 9, 2002. This performance direction reflected a formative influence on Pere Ubu and Thomas's long-held affection for B-Movies. 2002 was also marked by an officially release, on Feb 1, of Rocket From the Tombs' recordings on Smog Veil Records. While bootlegs of varying quality had long circulated The Day The Earth Met The Rockets From the Tombs' drew on original rehearsal and concert masters from 1974.
Pere Ubu's 'Mighty Road' tour resumed in February 2003 with 10 dates in the US. 2003 was also notable for performances in the summer and winter across the US and Canada by a revived Rocket From The Tombs. The band comprised David Thomas, Cheetah Chrome, Craig Bell, Richard Lloyd and Steve Mehlman. Of the 33 dates, one at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland was a benefit for an increasingly ill Jim Jones. Richard Lloyd recorded and engineered live in the studio performances of the original Rockets' songs. Originally, 'Rocket Redux' was sold as gig-only merchandise until it was commercially released the following year by Smog Veil Records.
Live film accompaniment came to the fore again for Pere Ubu in 2004. Firstly, the group premiered its underscore to Roger Corman's 'X, the Man With X-Ray Eyes' at the 'Celebrate Brooklyn' festival on 22 July. The winter of that year also saw a UK tour that revived the band's live underscoring of 'It Came from Outer Space'. American music producer Hal Willner also invited David Thomas to join two shows. The first took place on April 1 in Los Angeles, 'Let's Eat - Feasting on The Firesign Theatre', a celebration of the anarchic comedy outfit of that name. The cast included George Wendt, John Goodman, Todd Rundgren, Chloe Webb and Loudon Wainwright among others.
Just over three weeks later Thomas, partnered by the Paleboys, joined Hal Willner's tribute to director Federico Fellini and composer Nino Rota. 'Perfect Partners' took place at London's Barbican Theatre and the production also featured Carla Bley, Roy Nathanson, Roger Eno, Kate St John, Beth Orton and Geri Allen. 2004 also saw Pere Ubu support Spiritualized at London's Royal Festival Hall on 1 August, Rocket From The Tombs played Kassel in Germany on 25 September and David Thomas and Two Pale Boys performed extensively in Europe and America with the release in April of 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest (Smog Veil Records and Glitterhouse Records).
During the spring, Fall and winter of 2005, Pere Ubu toured a show dubbed 'Live Free or Diet' as well as other concerts across America and Europe. Additionally, the band performed their live underscore to screenings of Roger Corman's 'X, the Man With X-Ray Eyes: April 9 at the Byrd Theatre, Richmond Virginia; August 12 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts and November 5 at the Regent Square Theater in Pittsburgh.
2005 also saw David Thomas join Wayne Kramer and the newly monikered DKT-MC5 as well as the Sun Ra Arkestra on 25 February at the Royal Festival Hall London. When Patti Smith organised the 'Meltdown Festival' in June at the Royal Festival Hall, London she invited Thomas to take part. He sang, with accompaniment from the London Sinfonietta, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's 'Alabama Song'.And, as was now becoming customary when the band was not on the road, Pere Ubu guitarist Keith Moliné joined David Thomas with trumpeter Andy Diagram for a series of improvisational gigs across Europe.
From May until the end of 2006 Pere Ubu gigged in Europe and America. On October 29 at the Royce Hall, Los Angeles, the group delivered a double bill consisting of that year's concert set and their live underscore to a screening of Roger Corman's 'X, the Man With X-Ray Eyes. There was also a nine date Rocket from the Tombs American tour in the summer and Fall.
On 19 September 2006 Pere Ubu released Why I Hate Women on Smog Veil Records. The band was Thomas, Moliné, Wheeler, Temple and Mehlan with contributions from Robert and Jack Kidney, Rodolphe Burger and Andy Diagram. Thomas had teamed up with Burger earlier in the summer for four dates in France. In October, Smog Veil Records and Glitterhouse Records issued Why I Remix Women a set of band reworkings of the original tracks by Thomas, Moliné and Temple. Gagarin, an electronica instrumentalist and drummer for Nico during the 1980s, had worked for several years as live sound man for Pere Ubu as well as providing occasional on-stage contributions . His remix of 'Blue Velvet' was included on the album.
In the spring of 2007, Pere Ubu hit the road once more, with six dates in America, 20 in Europe and followed in the Fall with four shows in the US and Canada. Work also started in 2007 on adapting, for performance, Alfred Jarry's 'Ubu Roi', the play that had inspired the band's name.
In December 2007, the download site Hearpen.com was launched providing live recordings and hard-to-source material by Pere Ubu and related acts.
During February and March 2008 Pere Ubu toured Europe and America. This included two live underscorings of Roger Corman's 'X, the Man With X-Ray Eyes: March 24 at the Neighborhood Theater, Charlotte, North Carolina and March 25 at the Plaza Theater, Atlanta, Georgia.
On February 18, 2008, Jim Jones, former guitarist, associate of the band from its earliest days and US manager for many years of the group's online store, died at his Cleveland residence.
On April 24, 2008, the Ether festival at London's South Bank Centre hosted the world premiere of Bring Me The Head of Ubu Roi. This adaptation by David Thomas of Alfred Jarry's play Ubu Roi was accompanied by animations by the Brothers Quay. The production featured David Thomas as Pere Ubu and Sarah Jane Morris as Mere Ubu with the rest of the band playing various roles.
Back in 2006 musical producer Hal Willner had gathered together a host of musicians and actors for a double CD Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys. In the summer of 2008, Willner brought a three date live show of the work to the UK and Ireland. David Thomas who had contributed versions of 'Dan Dan' and 'The Drunken Sailor' to the album joined the cast along with Pere Ubu guitarist Keith Moliné for all performances.
In 2009, Bring Me The Head of Ubu Roi was staged once again; this time at the Animator Festival, Poznań, Poland on July 11. The band's new album, Long Live Père Ubu!, released September 14 on Cooking Vinyl Records with the American release issued on Hearpen Records. The disc reprised the Ubu Roi story. Sarah Jane Morris guested on the disc as did Ubu's sound man Gagarin. The rest of the band comprised: Thomas, Moliné, Wheeler, Temple and Mehlman. During the Fall and winter the group toured extensively in Europe including material from the new album.
From February 2010, the band continued to tour the new album in the United Kingdom under the banner 'Long Live Père Ubu! - The Spectacle'. The concert show also had its American premerie on 28 March in New York. The band also performed debut album The Modern Dance in its entirety, firstly, at the Cleveland Beachland Ballroom, March 5 then on March 24 at Chicago's Lincoln Hall.
David Thomas once more joined the cast of Hal Willner's live show Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys. Thomas followed that show at the Sydney Opera House, Australia on January 28 with a concert of Pere Ubu songs, again in Sydney, on January 31 where he was backed by local band The Holy Soul. Thomas also revived his spoken word set 'the Ghost Line Diaries', originally aired at the 14th Genoa International Poetry Festival, Genoa, Italy, on June 19, 2008. Three gigs took place: Copenhagen, Denmark on October 9; Boston, USA on October 23 and in Geneva, Switzerland on December 5.
2011–2020
On March 19, 2011, Tom Herman, guitarist from the first Pere Ubu line up joined the band for a show at The Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland. The set included a full performance of 'The Modern Dance' album. Between March and August the group played a further 18 shows in Europe incorporating The Modern Dance in a number of them. In April, David Thomas joined fellow Rocket From the Tombs musician Cheetah Chrome for the 'Cleveland Confidential Book Tour': April 11, Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; and April 14, The Grammy Museum, Los Angeles. A new Rocket from the Tombs album, 'Barfly' appeared in September on Fire Records and Smog Veil Records. The band was: David Thomas; Cheetah Chrome; Craig Bell; Richard Lloyd and Steve Mehlman and they played seven dates in the USA throughout December.
2011 also marked the first live underscoring to a screening of 'Carnival of Souls', a horror film directed in 1962 by . David Thomas and Two Pale Boys debuted the project at Cafe Oto, London on February 12, followed by further performances at Cinéma L'Univers, Lille, France (June 4) and the Duke of York's Picture, Brighton, England (December 2).
David Thomas and The Two Pale Boys were invited once more (as in February 2001) to support the Sisters of Mercy, this time playing at the Goth band's 30th anniversary gig in their home town of Leeds, February 2011.
While work started on a new Pere Ubu album in 2012 - tracks in progress appearing on the band's website 'Ubu Projex' throughout the year - there were no live performances by the band. A scheduled 16-date Rocket From the Tombs tour in May 2012 was disrupted when David Thomas fell ill. The first eight gigs in Europe were cancelled, six took place before Thomas became ill again resulting in the cancellation of the final two dates. However, the band played five gigs in America and Canada in October of that year.
In 2012, Thomas published 'The Book of Hieroglyphs', in which he ruminated on America and the nature of being an American. The book drew on lyrics from Pere Ubu, The Two Pale Boys and other Thomas works, supplemented by a number of essays.
The Pere Ubu long player Lady from Shanghai was released, January 7, 2013, on Fire Records. Its title referenced 'The Lady from Shanghai', a film noir made in 1947 by Orson Welles. The band comprised David Thomas; Keith Moliné; Michele Temple; Robert Wheeler; Steve Mehlman and Gagarin. Clarinettist Darryl Boon guested on the disc. A book, 'Chinese Whispers The Making of Pere Ubu's 'Lady from Shanghai', was published at the same time. This included an account of the creation of the album modelled on the parlour game Chinese Whispers.
On February 17, 2013, Pere Ubu performed the 'Modern Dance' album in full at the 'I'll Be Your Mirror' festival in Melbourne, Australia. A production of Bring Me The Head of Ubu Roi: Chamber Version' aired on March 8 in Lodz, Poland. This small cast version of the play featured Thomas, Gagarin, Malgosia Sady and Kiersty Boon.
An 11-date Pere Ubu tour of England followed in April 2013. A further gig in London on June 16 launched a European tour in June and July. Then on July 13, as part of the East End Film Festival, the band once more performed their live underscore to Carnival of Souls. In September, Pere Ubu played 17 dates in America and Canada. Protracted discussions with the US Customs and Immigration Service had preceded the tour but visas were denied to Keith Moliné and Gagarin. David Cintron guitarist with a number of Cleveland bands including the Terminal Lovers took Moliné's place. However, at a number of the shows Gagarin performed by video link from his studio in London.
Three dates followed in Europe during November before the band played several gigs in the UK and Ireland under the heading of the 'Visions of the Moon tour'. The set that featured some of the material that would appear on the Carnival of Souls album.
On August 4, 2013, Tim Wright, bassist in the original Pere Ubu line up, died at the age of 63.
Pere Ubu's first performance of 2014 was at the Sons d'hiver festival in Creteil, France on February 15. On September 8 Carnival of Souls was released on Fire Records. The album had its musical roots in the live accompaniment that both Pere Ubu and David Thomas and Two Pale Boys had performed for a number of years to screenings of the Herk Harvey B-movie of that name. The band comprised: David Thomas; Keith Moliné; Michele Temple; Robert Wheeler; Steve Mehlman; Gagarin;and Darryl Boon. As with 'Lady From Shanghai', a book was published to coincide with the new album. 'Cogs The Making of Carnival Of Souls' contained essays by David Thomas, commentary from the musicians and album lyrics.
On September 12, the Pere Ubu Fim Group (on this occasion Thomas, Keith Moliné, Gagarin and Darryl Boon) performed their live underscore to Carnival of Souls at the L'Étrange Festival, Forum des Images in Paris, France.
The band embarked on a 13 date UK tour in November 2013 with support from the Pere Ubu Moon Unit (consisting of Thomas and other members of the main band). The 12th gig was an underscoring to Roger Corman's 'X, The Man With X Ray Eyes' at the Brighton Film Festival on November 23. Between November 27 and December 6 the group played nine dates across mainland Europe. In 2015, Fire Records issued a mini-album of the Moon Unit's November 21 performance in Leeds, England.
From late January 2015 until the end of February, the group continued touring in Europe with material from Carnival of Souls with the Pere Ubu Moon Unit often providing support. Five dates in July in the UK were followed by a show at the New Horizons International Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland on July 26. On August 21 Fire Records issued a four disc remastred vinyl box set, Elitism For the People 1975-1978. This comprised the Hearpen singles, The Modern Dance, Dub Housing and a live recording from 1977, made in New York at Max's Kansas City. A new Rocket from the Tombs disc Black Record appeared on November 21, again on Fire Records. The band was Thomas; Craig Bell; Gary Siperko; Buddy Akita; and Steve Mehlman with contributions from Akita's colleagues from This Moment In Black History: Lamont Thomas; Lawrence Caswell; and Chris Kulcsar.
Rocket From The Tombs played eight American dates in December 2015 followed by a show at the State-X New Forms Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands. After two appearances in England the band returned to Europe performing in Diksmuide, Belgium and at the Festival Les Aventuriers, in Paris on December 16.
On February 6, 2016, the Pere Ubu Film Unit delivered its live underscore once more to Carnival of Souls. This time, a dubbed in Spanish and colorized version of the film was screened at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló de la Plana, Spain. Fire Records' release on March 18 of the second archival box set - Architecture of Language 1979-1982 (vinyl remasters of New Picnic Time, The Art of Walking, Song of the Bailing Man and Architectural Salvage a disc of live and alternate mixes) prompted a tour drawing on songs from 1975 to 1982. Tom Herman rejoined the touring band and selected the material for the set list.
The Coed Jail! debuted on March 22, 2016, at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester, England. It ran for most of the year - there was a break in the Fall - 43 dates in total in Europe, Canada and America ending on December 10 in the Casbah, San Diego, California. The name reprised the set of gigs that Pere Ubu performed in February 1978 alongside the Suicide Commandos. Johnny Dromette (John Thompson) record store manager, promoter, designer and housemate of Thomas, had coined the phrase for the game show set he had built over night in their living room. Dromette created the first posters for the band and designed the Datapanik in Year Zero ep cover He has often provided poster, tee-shirt and packaging design as well as video production work throughout Pere Ubu's career. His recollections of the time are shared in two interviews on Pere Ubu's own UbuDub podcast series.
Splinter group Pere Ubu (Moon Unit) also made three appearances in 2016, one in London (Aug 25 with support from David Thomas and Two Pale Boys) and two in France (Nantes, August 27 and Brest, November 19).
The final box sets in Fire Records' series of vinyl remasters appeared in the Spring of 2017. Les Haricots Sont Pas Salés 1987-1991, April 6, contained The Tenement Year, Cloudland, Worlds In Collision and Songs From the Lost Album. Drive, He Said 1994-2002 followed on May 26. It comprised Ray Gun Suitcase, Pennsylvania, St. Arkansas and Back Roads, a disc of outtakes and alternate mixes.
Rocket From the Tombs played the Beachland Tavern, Cleveland on May 11, 2017, and the Ace Of Cups in Columbus, Ohio on May 13. Both Rocket From the Tombs and Pere Ubu performed at the Austin Jukebox, a regular multi band show event, in Austin Texas, on May 19 and 20 respectively.
A repeat of the Coed Jail! set took place in Jarocin, Poland on July 15. The band on this occasion was: David Thomas; Gary Siperko; Robert Wheeler; Michele Temple; and Steve Mehlman. A recording of the concert would provide the bulk of the 2020 release, on Cherry Red Records, By Order of Mayor Pawlicki (Live in Jarocin). Pere Ubu (Moon Unit) played seven European dates in August and October.
At the end of September, Pere Ubu released 20 Years In A Montana Missile Silo on Cherry Red Records. The band was: David Thomas; Keith Molinè; Gary Siperko; Kristof Hahn (of The Swans); Darryl Boon; Robert Wheeler; Gagarin; Michele Temple; and Steve Mehlman. Welsh-Iranian artist Roshi Nasehi provided backing vocal to 'I Can Still See'.
The 'MonkeyNet Tour' in support of the new album, began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 8, 2017. Thirteen more US performances took place before David Thomas became seriously ill resulting in the cancellation of seven concerts on the West Coast of America.
Marking their return to live performance in Spring 2018, Pere Ubu mounted the 'Grand Guignol' show at London's Borderline. A nine-piece band took to the stage on May 19: David Thomas; Keith Moliné; Gary Siperko; Robert Wheeler; Gagarin; Michele Temple; Steve Mehlman; Darryl Boon; and Kristof Hahn. For the rest of May and start of June a more regular-sized band played 12 dates across Europe. The 'MonkeyNet Tour' then resumed with shows in New York (August 17) and Providence, Rhode Island (Aug 18). Five dates followed in September in Italy and one appearance in Tel Aviv (September 15).
Following the critical illness that had prematurely ended the original 'MonkeyNet' tour, Thomas initiated work, early in 2018, on a new Pere Ubu album. While still a work in progress by the end of the year, the plan was to include versions of three tracks at two Pere Ubu (Moon Unit) shows in December. As recounted in the sleeve notes that accompany The Long Goodbye, keyboardist Gagarin suggested, two days before the first gig, that the outfit perform the album in its entirety. The material aired on December 7 at the Music Hall in Ramsgate, England. The band comprised Thomas, Keith Moliné, Gagarin and Chris Cutler. The group repeated the set the following evening at the Théâtre Municipal Berthelot in Montreuil on the outskirts of Paris, a performance eventually issued as a companion disc to The Long Goodbye CD.
A few days after the Montreuil gig, David Thomas fell seriously ill again, was hospitalized and began a period of extensive recovery in 2019. However, The Long Goodbye was completed and released, July 12, on Cherry Red Records. The band was: David Thomas; Keith Moliné; Gagarin; Robert Wheeler; Michele Temple; Darryl Boon; and P. O. Jørgens. Guitarist Gary Siperko also guested. Once more a book accompanied the new album. Baptized Into the Buzz contained information about the new album and the related 2017 record that Thomas had made with Danish percussionist P. O. Jørgens: Live Free or Die on Ninth World Music. There were lyrics to both releases, commentary from musicians and a short piece of family biography by Thomas.
Pere Ubu toured The Long Goodbye late in 2019. Seven dates, spread over September, October and November, that took in London, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. The band began 2020 with a performance at the Centro Conde Duque Arts in Madrid. The day before, January 15, David Thomas ran a workshop, 'How To Be A Singer', in partnership with the band's drummer Chris Cutler. However, further dates scheduled for 2020 were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown. In response, in May The Avant Garage Fan Attic (Official) launched on subscription platform Patreon. The exclusive content includes Datapanik TV (DPKTV), a channel of live broadcasts hosted by David Thomas.
2021–present
On February 11, 2022, the group played a one-off performance called "Pere Ubu's Canterbury Tales" at The University of Kent's Gulbenkain Theater in Canterbury. The group's line-up for this was show included Thomas, Moliné, Gagarin, Cutler and new member Alex Ward on guitar and clarinet. David Thomas and The Two Pale Boys (Moliné, Gagarin, and Andy Diagram for this performance) played an opening set, as did Rats On Rafts, who performed a live cover of Pere Ubu’s Visions Of The Moon. The show was emceed by Bob Holman of the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City.
A new vinyl remasters box set, Nuke The Whales: 2006-2014 was released by Fire on April 1, 2022. The box set, packaged in the same style as the previous box sets, features Why I Hate Women (retitled Why I Luv Women), Lady From Shanghai, Long Live Pere Ubu! and Carnival of Souls. All of the albums except Long Live Pere Ubu! were remixed by David Thomas in 2021, and Why I Luv Women and Long Live Pere Ubu! make their vinyl debuts via this set.
Style
To define their music, Pere Ubu coined the term avant-garage to reflect interest in both experimental avant-garde music (especially musique concrète) and raw, direct blues-influenced garage rock. Thomas has stated the term is "a joke invented to have something to give journalists when they yelp for a neat sound bite or pigeonhole". Their music has been called art punk and post-punk. Their songs imagined 1950s and 1960s garage rock and surf music archetypes as seen in a distorting funhouse mirror, emphasising the music's angst, loneliness and lyrical paranoia. Sometimes sounding like a demented nursery rhyme sing-along, this already bizarre blend was overlaid with Ravenstine's ominous EML synthesizer effects and tape looped sounds of mundane conversation, ringing telephones or steam whistles. Their propulsive rhythmic pulse was similar to Krautrock, but Thomas's yelping, howling, desperate singing was and still is peculiar when compared to most other rock and roll singers.
Personnel
Current
Former
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Digital-only live albums
Compilations
Box sets
Singles and EPs
Other releases & collaborations
Charting singles | 2c52d225-e42b-4bef-96df-e0d2992deceb |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandita_Saha"} | Indian table tennis player
Nandita Saha is an Indian table-tennis player. She was a part of Indian trio who defeated Canada in Common wealth 2006 at Melbourne and won Bronze medal for India. She won Bronze Medal in Women's singles in Senior National TT Championship in 2010. Twice Gold medal winner in Mixed Doubles in National Championship. Represented India in various World Championship, Asian Championship, Commonwealth Championship and SAF Games. She also represented India in Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002. Currently working at Oil India Limited. | 254a78d7-7fa0-451c-a665-147534bbbe0f |
null | The Xiao Erya (simplified Chinese: 小尔雅; traditional Chinese: 小爾雅; pinyin: Xiǎo Ěryǎ; Wade–Giles: Hsiao Erh-ya; "Little [Er]ya") was an early Chinese dictionary that supplements the Erya. It was supposedly compiled in the early Han Dynasty by Kong Fu (Chinese: 孔鮒 264?-208 BCE), a descendant of Confucius. However, the received Xiao Erya text was included in a Confucianist collection of debates, the Kongcongzi (Chinese: 孔叢子; K'ung-ts'ung-tzu; "The Kong Family Master's Anthology"), which contains fabrications that its first editor Wang Su (Chinese: 王肅, 195-256 CE) added to win his arguments with Zheng Xuan (Chinese: 鄭玄, 127-200CE). The Qing Dynasty scholar Hu Chenggong (Chinese: 胡承珙, 1776–1832), who wrote the Xiao Erya yizheng (Chinese: 小爾雅義證 "Exegesis and Proof for the Xiao Erya"), accepted Kong Fu as the author. Liu concludes the Xiao Erya reliably dates from the Western Han Dynasty and suggests its compiler was from the southern state of Chu.
The Xiao Erya has 374 entries, far less than the Erya with 2091. It simplifies the Erya's 19 semantically-based chapter divisions into 13, and entitles them with guang (廣 "expanding") instead of shi (釋 "explaining").
In comparison with the Erya chapter arrangement, Xiao Erya sections 1-3 (defining abstract words) are identical. Despite the different title with yi ("righteousness") instead of qin ("relatives"), both Section 4 and Chapter 4 ("Explaining Relatives") define kinship terms. Sections 6 and 7 divide Chapter 6 ("Explaining Utensils"). Xiao Erya Section 8 combines Chapters 13 ("Explaining Plants") and 14 ("Explaining Trees"); 9 mirrors 17; and Section 10 combines 18 ("Explaining Beasts") and 19 ("Explaining Domestic Animals"). Xiao Erya sections 5 (funeral terms) and 11-13 (units of measurement) are not included in the Erya. | 1cb9281f-6a64-4918-b488-039645104846 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Horse_Artillery_Brigade"} | The Horse Artillery Brigade of the Army of the Potomac was a brigade of various batteries of horse artillery during the American Civil War.
Made up almost entirely of individual, company-strength batteries from the Regular Army's five artillery regiments, the Horse Artillery operated under the command umbrella of the Cavalry Corps. The Horse Artillery differed from other light artillery (also known as "mounted" artillery) in that each member of the unit traveled on his own horse, rather than the traditional light artillery practice of "drivers" riding horses pulling the guns, while the cannoneers rode on the limbers and caissons. Ordinarily, though, the cannoneers traveled on foot behind their respective gun. But, with each man on his own horse, the unit could travel faster and more efficiently. It was the brainchild of former artillery captain and Brig. Gen. William Farquhar Barry, Chief of Artillery for the Army of the Potomac, in 1861. With such a large percentage of the U.S. Horse Artillery being artillery batteries from the regular U.S. Army, it developed a superb reputation for military efficiency, accuracy of fire, and command presence in the field and in battle. These mobile artillery units were typically equipped with 3-inch Ordnance rifles, known for their reliability and accuracy.
Originally under the direct command of Lt. Col. (and future Brigadier General) William Hays, and later under the two-brigade command of captains James Madison Robertson and John C. Tidball, the Horse Artillery served with distinction during most of the major engagements in the Eastern Theater. Tidball's brigade later was commanded by Capt Dunbar R. Ransom.
It is notable that each of these men - Barry, Hays, Robertson, and Tidball - came from the officers corps of the 2nd Regiment of Artillery. One of their chief champions, Henry Jackson Hunt, commanded the Reserve Artillery in the Army of the Potomac, and was also an officer of the 2nd U.S. Artillery.
Organization
1862 - Peninsula Campaign
Commander: Lieutenant Colonel William Hays, USV (Captain, USA, 2nd U.S Artillery), of Tennessee
Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery (2nd Regiment of Artillery)
Commander: Captain John C. Tidball, USA, of Ohio
Battery B & L, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: Captain James Madison Robertson, USA, of New Hampshire
Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: Captain Henry Benson, USA, of New Jersey
Battery C, 3rd U.S. Artillery
Commander: Captain Horatio Gates Gibson, USA, of Pennsylvania
1863 - Gettysburg Campaign
First Brigade, Horse Artillery
Commander: Captain James Madison Robertson, USA
Acting Assistant Adjutant General: First Lieutenant J.H. Bell, 6th New York Cavalry
Batteries of the First Brigade:
9th Michigan Battery, US Volunteers (6 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: Captain Jabez James Daniels, USV
Independent Battery, 6th New York Light Artillery, US Volunteers (6 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles) (formerly the Artillery Company K, 9th New York State Militia, and the 83rd New York Infantry Regiment)
Commander: Captain Joseph W. Martin, USV
Batteries B & L, 2nd US Artillery (6 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: First Lieutenant Edward Heaton, USA
Battery M, 2nd US Artillery (6 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: First Lieutenant Alexander Cummings McWhorter Pennington, Jr., USA
Battery E, 4th US Artillery (4 -3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: First Lieutenant Samuel Sherer Elder, USA
Second Brigade, Horse Artillery
Commander: Captain John Caldwell Tidball, USA
Batteries of the Second Brigade:
Battery E & G, 1st US Artillery (4 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: Captain Alanson Merwin Randol, USA
1st U.S. Light Artillery, Battery K (6 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: Captain William Montrose Graham, USA
Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery (6 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: Second Lieutenant John Haskell Calef, USA
Battery C, 3rd US Artillery (6 - 3-inch Ordnance Rifles)*
Commander: First Lieutenant William Duncan Fuller, USA
Light Battery H, 3rd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, US Volunteers (2 - 3-inch Ordnance rifles)
Commander: Captain William D. Rank, USV
*Note: Battery C, 3rd US Artillery was not present during the battle of Gettysburg
1864 - Overland Campaign
The Horse Artillery remained organized into two brigades until June, when it was reduced to one. The units that were cut from the ranks left their best equipment with the remaining units, and reported to Washington, DC for further orders, elsewhere. The following are the final list of command and staff and order of battle of the larger organization and the list for the reduced roster.
January – June, 1864
First Brigade, Horse Artillery
Commander: Captain James Madison Robertson, USA (Brevet Colonel)
Quartermaster: Captain William Goldie, USV (formerly Captain, 56th Illinois Infantry)
Commissary of Subsistence: Captain Henry Loud Cranford, USV (formerly First Lieutenant, 84th New York Infantry)
Organization:
9th Battery, Michigan Light Artillery
Commander: Captain Jabez Daniels, USV
6th Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery
Commander: Captain Joseph W. Martin, USV
Batteries B & L, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Edward Heaton, USA
Battery D, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) Edward Bancroft Williston, USA
Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) Alexander Cummings McWhorter Pennington, Jr., USA
Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Captain) Rufus King, Jr., USA
Battery E, 4th U.S. Artillery
Commander: Captain Samuel Elder, USA
Second Brigade, Horse Artillery
Commander: Captain John Caldwell Tidball, USA (Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, USA; Colonel, 4th New York Artillery, USV)
Quartermaster: Captain Ira F. Payson, USV (died, July 30, 1864)
Commissary of Subsistence: First Lieutenant (Brevet Captain) William Murray Maynadier, USA
Organization:
Battery E & G, 1st U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Frank Sands French, USA
Battery K, 1st U.S. Artillery
Commander: Captain (Brevet Lieutenant Colonel) William Montrose Graham, USA
Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Robert Clarke, USA
Section Chiefs: First Lieutenants John H. Calef, USA; N.A. Cameron, USV (TDY from 4th New York Heavy Artillery); and B.J. (Benjamin Franklin) Littlefield, USV (former US Sharpshooter, on TDY from 4th New York Heavy Artillery)
Battery G, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) John Hartwell Butler, USA
Battery C, 3rd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) William Duncan Fuller, USA
From June 1864
Horse Artillery Reserve, Army of the Potomac
Commander – Captain (Brevet Colonel) James M. Robertson, USA
Organization:
Batteries H & I, 1st U.S. Artillery
Commander: Captain (Brevet Major) Alanson M. Randol, USA
Battery K, 1st U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) John Egan, USA
Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Robert Clarke, USA
Batteries B&L, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Edward Heaton, USA
Battery D, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Lieutenant Colonel) Edward B. Williston, USA
Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) Alexander C.M. Pennington, Jr., USA
Batteries C, F,&K, 3rd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) James Rigney Kelly, USA (formerly enlisted Engineers Artificer and later enlisted 3rd Artillery Sergeant)
Batteries C&E, 4th U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Charles Lane Fitzhugh, USA, (later Colonel, 6th New York Cavalry and Brevet Brigadier General, USA and USV)
Units separated & sent to Washington, D.C. for further orders
Batteries E & G, 1st U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant David Essex Porter, USA
Battery G, 2nd U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant (Brevet Major) William Neil Dennison, USA
Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery
Commander: First Lieutenant Rufus King, Jr., USA
6th New York Independent Battery
Commander: Captain Joseph W. Martin, USV
1865
By 1865, the Horse Artillery Brigade still existed on paper, but the various units were dispersed and assigned to a number of commands, as was the typical practice of regular foot artillery in the field. | b6905a2a-23ad-408f-ac4c-d2ff46f86781 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Allen"} | American singer
Musical artist
Constantina "Connie" Allen (September 24, 1926 – August 30, 1991) was an American singer and musician. She recorded the song "Rocket 69" in 1951, backed by Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers (also called the Todd Rhodes Orchestra).
Other songs
In addition to "Rocket 69", Allen also performed several other songs with Todd Rhodes as well as Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams. Some of her songs include; "Your Daddy's Doggin' Around", "Hard Working Woman", "Sugar in my Bowl", "What's Happening", and "You'll Never Change Me". | c7058cb0-8ba2-4bcc-a7b9-573295d3e50c |
null | Web service
SOCH (Swedish Open Cultural Heritage) is a web service used for searching and retrieving data from museum an historical environment sectors in Sweden.
SOCH aggregates metadata from different central, regional and local databases in order to facilitate applications to search and present cultural heritage data via an open API. The aim is to facilitate application developers to build applications that exploit SOCH.
In March 2013 some +10 different applications has been built using SOCH API. One of the first applications built on SOCH was a mobile phone application displaying ancient monuments on a map layer. A number of museums are also building applications on SOCH in order to make more than their own stuff available online. In 2012 commercial applications started to appear using SOCH data.
The SOCH is operated and developed at the Swedish National Heritage Board (SNHB). SNHB has used SOCH API for applications: http://www.kringla.nu and http://www.platsr.se. | 58a7eb50-a824-4197-ad9e-20e1a26752d7 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrija_%C5%A0tampar"} | Andrija Štampar (1 September 1888 – 26 June 1958) was a distinguished scholar in the field of social medicine from Croatia.
Education
Štampar was born 1 September 1888 in Brodski Drenovac (part of Pleternica), at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in modern Požega-Slavonia County. From 1898 to 1906, he attended grammar school in Vinkovci. During his secondary schooling, Štampar was a brilliant pupil and, at that time, he wrote his first literary attempt, published in the periodical Pobratim in 1902. He enrolled at the medical school in Vienna in 1906, which was at the time the most important medical center in the world. As a medical student, he initiated the editing of medical papers and wrote pamphlets and articles with the intention of educating people in health matters. In 1909 in Nova Gradiška he started publishing the series called Public Health Library discussing numerous topics regarding health and prevention. On 23 December 1911, he was awarded the title of Doctor of General Medicine (doctor medicinae universae).
Career
On 1 January 1912, Dr. Štampar started working at the town hospital at Karlovac and remained at this post until 8 August 1913. He enrolled in the Croatian Medical Association, an organization of physicians, and published a few articles in their journal.
By a decree of the Župan, (Prefect) of the Požega District, he was appointed district health officer of Nova Gradiška in 1913. In 1919, he attended the Congress of Inter-Allied Countries for Social Hygiene in Paris giving a lecture on children's health. It showed at that time that he had a clear concept of organizing the public health service. Andrija Štampar is universally known as "the man of action" [citation needed].
At age 31 he was named principal of the Department of Public Health in Belgrade. Thanks to Štampar's endeavours, a special Institute of Social Medicine was founded affiliated with the University of Zagreb School of Medicine. From 1924 he was the member of several international expert committees, which through his efforts received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. [citation needed]
King Alexander's dictatorship suddenly put a stop to his work at the Ministry of Public Health in 1930 and, in 1931, he was put on the retired list by the King's decree and came into personal conflict with King Alexander due to his refusal to enter the government. He was offered the portfolio of the Minister of the Interior, but he refused and asked for free elections as a condition. [citation needed]
International activities
From 1931 to 1933, Štampar was permanently employed as the expert of the Health Organization of the League of Nations. He entered upon a new kind of work; study travels, extensive lecturing in different parts of the world, confronting health problems at the international level. From October 1931 until January 1932, Štampar was in the United States and Canada as the guest of the Rockefeller Foundation. The League of Nations also entrusted him with the task of acquainting himself with the work of a special American Committee dealing with the costs of medical care. [citation needed]
He also spent time in China, from 1933 to 1936. The Health Organization sent him as an advisor to help the Chinese health administration in the control of the mass infectious diseases that cropped up after devastating floods in 1931. [citation needed]
Dr. Štampar has come to China to help our Government in its work on reconstruction based on the plan of technical cooperation with the League of Nations. He went round several provinces, from Kansu and Shanghai in the West to Kwangtung and Kwangsi in the South, and made a valuable contribution to the reconstruction of our villages, especially in the field of rural health protection services. On his departure we wish to give this to him as a remembrance of his work in China, hoping he will come to visit us again. -- Ching Feng [citation needed]
In 1936, he received an offer from the secretary general of the League of Nations for the post of an expert at the Health Organization in Geneva. In 1938, he received an invitation from Harvard University in Boston, where he delivered a lecture. After Boston, he toured a great part of North America and lectured on hygiene and social medicine at a series of universities (Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, McHarry, Tulane, Texas, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland, Minnesota, Toronto, McGill, Columbia, Galvestone). [citation needed]
The International Health Conference held in New York in the summer of 1946 was attended by the official representatives of 51 nations. With only a few minor alterations, they accepted the draft of the World Health Organization (WHO). The First World Health Assembly was called with the ratification of the WHO Constitution. It was in session from 24 June to 24 July 1948. in Geneva, Štampar was elected as the first president of the assembly unanimously. At the 8th regular session of WHO in Mexico City, in 1955, Štampar was awarded the Leon Bernard Foundation Prize and Medal, the greatest international recognition of merit in the field of social medicine.
A statue has been dedicated to Dr. Štampar in Morocco for his work in curing malaria. [citation needed]
Zagreb
Andrija Štampar founded the School of Public Health in Zagreb in 1927.
By the decree of 5 March 1939, eight years after his election as full professor of hygiene and social medicine in Zagreb, he finally became a professor at Zagreb University. Elected by the council of the medical school in Zagreb, Štampar became the dean of the school for the academic year 1940/41. With the energy so characteristic of him, he set to work on the reform of medical training. [citation needed]
On the third day of the occupation of Zagreb, Štampar was arrested by the Ustaša police. Released, he was arrested again by the German police and sent to Graz, where he was imprisoned and interned until the arrival of the Soviet Red Army. On his return in May 1945, he resumed his duty as professor of hygiene and social medicine at the medical school and became head of the School of Public Health in Zagreb. [citation needed]
Štampar was the rector of Zagreb University for the academic year 1945/46. In 1952, he was again elected the dean of the medical school, for 5 years consecutively. He also had an important role in founding of the medical school at Rijeka in 1955. [citation needed] | 869a2be5-5bea-415a-ac3d-bd7e462bb7fd |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milivoj_A%C5%A1ner"} | Croatian police chief and war criminal
Đuro Milivoj Ašner (21 April 1913 – 14 June 2011) was a police chief in the Independent State of Croatia who was accused of enforcing racist laws under the Nazi-allied Ustaše regime and expulsion and deportation of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Romani. He was 4th on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals and on the Interpol's most wanted list also.
Ašner himself admitted the deportations of Serbs to Serbia, but denied there was any deportations to the camps, as he stated, "such moves would be expensive, as one must feed and restrain the prisoners."
Life
Ašner was born in Daruvar, in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941, he became chief of police in Požega. After the collapse of the Independent State of Croatia Ašner retreated towards Austria, where he took a new name, Georg Aschner.
In 1992, after Croatia declared itself independent, Ašner returned to Croatia, living in Požega until 2004 when Alen Budaj, a historian and associate of the Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Centre located him there. That same year, the director of the centre, Efraim Zuroff, brought the documents on Ašner to the Croatian Prosecutor's Office. Ašner fled to Austria. In 2005, the Republic of Croatia accused him of crimes against the civilians and asked for his extradition from Austria.
In 2008, Austria refused on the grounds that Ašner suffered from severe dementia and unfit to stand trial.
Efforts to prosecute
In 2005, Croatia indicted Ašner for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the city of Požega in 1941–42. In February 2006, Austrian judicial officials said they were close to deciding on whether to arrest Ašner. Austrian officials initially ruled he could not be handed over to Croatian authorities as he held Austrian citizenship.
He remained on Interpol's most wanted list, and was considered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as the fourth most wanted Nazi at large.
In June 2008, the then controversial Governor of Carinthia, Jörg Haider, praised Ašner's family as friendly and said of Ašner that "he's lived peacefully among us for years, and he should be able to live out the twilight of his life with us". This provoked further criticism, with Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center saying that Haider's views reflected "the political atmosphere which exists in Austria and which in certain circles is extremely sympathetic to suspected Nazi war criminals".
In an interview that aired in Croatia on 19 June 2008, Ašner acknowledged that he was involved in deportations, but maintained that those who were deported were taken not to death camps, as is generally believed, but to their homelands instead. He claimed his conscience was clear and that he was willing to go on trial in Croatia, but also asserted that his health was a problem. In an examination in the same week, it was again decided he was mentally unfit. Zuroff expressed the suspicion that Ašner was pretending or exaggerating regarding his condition.
Death
Milivoj Ašner died on 14 June 2011 in his room in a Caritas nursing home in Klagenfurt. His death was announced on 20 June 2011. | 51635378-549c-4096-bc34-51d26040f7af |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthomyrmex_concavus"} | Species of ant
Acanthomyrmex concavus is a species of ant that belongs to the genus Acanthomyrmex. It was described by Moffett in 1986, and is found in Indonesia. | 211b0d03-043d-4720-af10-9bc0ca25b233 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szko%C5%82a_Narodowa_Polska_w_Pary%C5%BCu"} | Polish international school at the Polish embassy in France
Szkoła Narodowa Polska w Paryżu ("Polish School in Paris"; French: École polonaise Paris), also known as the School at Batignolles (Polish: Szkoła Batiniolska; French: École polonaise des Batignolles) is a Polish international school at the Polish embassy in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, France.
It includes a primary school and a three-year lyceum course followed by a further three years of (senior high school/sixth form college) under the aegis of the Polish Ministry of Education.
The history of the schools dates to mid-19th century, and it is seen as an important element of Polish-French culture, particularly for the Polish people in France.
History
The school first opened in Chatillon-sous-Bagneux in October 1842, and moved to Paris in 1843.
Part-time school
It has Wednesday and Saturday part-time classes, and its instruction includes Polish history, the Polish language, and Polish geography. Students may get extra marks in the French Baccalaureate for completing these classes. The school's role in giving access to Polish culture and the Polish language, makes it a popular school among Polish parents in the Paris area.
Location
Ewelina Dabaene, the author of "Emigration Versus Mobility. The Case of the Polish Community in France and Ireland," wrote that Polish families living in outlying parts of the Paris area may find that this school, located in central Paris, is "not an easy reach". | b171d03f-d3d4-4b79-8dd3-b0e697e3eedd |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvan_Colonna"} | Corsican nationalist assassin (1960–2022)
Yvan Colonna (Corsican: Ivanu Colonna, [iˈvanu koˈlɔnna]; 7 April 1960 – 21 March 2022) was a French Corsican nationalist convicted for the assassination in 1998 of the prefect of Corse-du-Sud, Claude Érignac. He was beaten to death in prison by a jihadist inmate, sparking riots.
Early life
Colonna was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 7 April 1960. He was the son of Jean-Hugues Colonna, a former member of the National Assembly for the Socialist Party elected in the Alpes-Maritimes and a recipient of the French Légion d'honneur. His mother was from Laz in Brittany. In 1975, his family moved to Nice. After completing his Baccalauréat (French high school), he studied to become a teacher of physical education and sports, but broke off his studies in 1981.[citation needed] He then went to Corsica and moved to Cargèse, where his brother later opened a beach bar. He later took up goat herding, a traditional occupation in Corsica, and joined a nationalist militant faction close to the National Liberation Front of Corsica. He was suspected in several terrorist acts in the region, and notably to have taken part in an attack on the Pietrosella police station.
Role in the assassination of Prefect Érignac
On 6 February 1998 at 9:05 pm, the prefect of Corsica, Claude Érignac, was assassinated as he exited a theatre onto rue Colonna-d'Ornano in Ajaccio. He was shot with three 9 mm bullets in his neck and died shortly thereafter. The weapon was later found to be one of the guns stolen in the attack on the Gendarmerie station in Pietrosella on 6 September 1997.
The following enquiry resulted in the arrest of several militants, and their interrogation pointed towards Yvan Colonna as the culprit. By the time police went to question him, he had already fled, which sparked the biggest manhunt in French history. Colonna was thought to have left the country, possibly for South America. However, an infrared camera set in the mountains of Corsica, near Vico as surveillance of a bergerie, a traditional Corsican shepherd stone hut, yielded evidence that Colonna was hiding there. He was arrested on 4 June 2003.
Charged with assassination and of being a member of a terrorist organisation, he was arraigned on 12 November 2007 before the court in Paris which handles terrorism cases. The court was in session until 12 December 2007. During his pre-trial internment, he repeatedly claimed innocence, and that he was the victim of unfair press coverage that had convicted him before trial. On 13 December 2007, Colonna was pronounced guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. He later appealed.
On 20 June 2011, Colonna's conviction was upheld on appeal, and he spent the remainder of his life in the Toulon-La Farlède detention centre.
Death
On 2 March 2022, Colonna was attacked in prison by Franck Elong Abé, an Islamist 36-year-old Cameroonian inmate, reportedly for "disrespecting Muhammad". In response, violent unrest broke out across Corsica. After spending three weeks in a coma at a hospital, he died of his wounds on 21 March 2022, at the age of 61. | f7f78c44-dfea-479d-9d1b-b21275d7d79e |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samy_Abdel_Razek"} | Egyptian sport shooter
Samy Abdel Razek (Arabic: سامي عبد الرازق; born 10 April 1980) is an Egyptian sport shooter. Abdel Razek represented Egypt at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed in the men's 50 m pistol. He finished only in thirty-second place by four points ahead of Portugal's João Costa from the final attempt, for a total score of 549 targets.
He competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men's 10 m air pistol event and the 10 m air pistol mixed team event. | 3bea3d4a-0915-44fd-ac3f-3995140ea6f6 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farquhar_Street,_George_Town"} | Coordinates: 5°25′14.78″N 100°20′18.36″E / 5.4207722°N 100.3384333°E / 5.4207722; 100.3384333
Farquhar Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of George Town in Penang, Malaysia. Created in the late 18th century, the road forms part of the city centre's civic precinct, and is notable for the colonial buildings built under British rule. These include some of the most significant civic, religious, and commercial buildings of Penang, such as Penang High Court, Penang State Museum and Art Gallery, St. George's Church, Church of the Assumption, and Eastern & Oriental Hotel.
Located within the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site, the road was also the cradle of the top English schools in Penang - Penang Free School, St. Xavier's Institution, Convent Light Street and St. George's Girls' School. Today, only St. Xavier's Institution and Convent Light Street remain at Farquhar Street, while the other schools have since been relocated.
Etymology
Farquhar Street was named after Robert Townsend Farquhar, who served as the second Lieutenant-Governor of the Prince of Wales Island (now Penang Island).
During his tenure between 1804 and 1805, Farquhar advocated the destruction of Malacca in order to strengthen George Town's position as the premier harbour within the Malacca Straits. At the time, Malacca had been temporarily given to the British East India Company by the Dutch, whose country was conquered by France, to prevent the colony from coming under French control. Anxious to demolish Malacca prior to the return of the Dutch, Farquhar ordered William Farquhar, the Resident of Malacca, to destroy the city using gunpowder. Only the timely intervention by Stamford Raffles (who would go on to found Singapore) prevented the total destruction of A Famosa, leaving behind a small gate which stands to this day.
On the other hand, Farquhar was responsible for the improvements in infrastructure in George Town, such as the construction of an aqueduct and a Government House, and the enlargement of Fort Cornwallis.
History
Farquhar Street was laid out towards the end of the 18th century and appeared in the earliest maps of George Town. However, it was only named Farquhar Street either during or after the term of Robert Townsend Farquhar as the Lieutenant-Governor between 1804 and 1805.
As British officials and Europeans moved into Farquhar Street, a number of magnificent colonial buildings were erected along the road. The Anglicans completed the St. George's Church at the junction with Pitt Street in 1818, while the Catholics built the Church of the Assumption in 1857. The famous Eastern & Oriental Hotel near the western end of Farquhar Street was constructed by the Sarkies Brothers in the 1880s.
The road also became the birthplace of some of the best English and missionary schools in Penang. The oldest of all, Penang Free School (now located at Green Lane), was established in 1819 in what is now the Penang State Museum. Between 1856 and 1858, two Catholic schools, St. Xavier's Institution and Convent Light Street, were relocated to Farquhar Street; both remain at the street to this day. Meanwhile, St. George's Girls' School was founded by the Anglicans in the latter half of the 18th century; the school has since been moved to Macalister Road.
Gallery
From west to east:
Landmarks
Judiciary
Education
Hotels | 6588c019-4179-43fc-86e7-48cf20fd6a92 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slocum_(crater)"} | Feature on the moon
Slocum is a small lunar impact crater in the southeastern part of the Mare Smythii. It lies near the eastern limb of the Moon, and from the Earth this section of the surface is viewed at a very oblique angle. This greatly limits the amount of detail that can be observed. In addition, libration of the Moon in its orbit can cause this area to be completely hidden from Earth. Nearby craters of note include Runge to the west-northwest, Warner to the west-southwest, and Swasey to the south-southeast.
This is a roughly circular, bowl-shaped crater that is surrounded by lunar mare. It is not marked by any overlying craters of note. To the west and southwest of this crater is a rille in the surface of the mare. | 11bb673d-5372-48b2-8102-1f35a2c8c175 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_House_of_Representatives,_District_194"} | American legislative district
The 194th Pennsylvania House of Representatives District is located in Montgomery County and Philadelphia County and includes the following areas:
Representatives | 655b5973-71bd-4fd8-9bc9-d9cb8021d839 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Never_Love_the_Same_Way_Twice"} | 1994 single by Rozalla
"You Never Love the Same Way Twice" is a song by Zambian-born singer Rozalla, released in October 1994 as the third single from her second album, Look No Further (1995). It was later also included on her Best Of album. The song reached number 12 on the Scottish Singles Chart and number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, during a five-week chart run. It was a minor hit in Germany and Iceland, and peaked at number 61 on the Eurochart Hot 100 in November 1994. The single was also released in the US in 1995, as the attendant single of the US edition of her second album, reaching number 11 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. In 2005, Rozalla re-recorded and re-released the track for a German label.
Critical reception
Larry Flick from Billboard described "You Never Love the Same Way Twice" as "slammin'", and a "disco bauble that tingles with lush strings and a vocal that is commanding without flying out of control." He complimented Rozalla's voice as a "warm, soulful quality that brings this disco-drenched house mover to vibrant life." He concluded with that "this could be the start of Rozalla's long-deserved ascension into the pop spotlight." In his UK chart commentary, James Masterton felt it is "a far more impressive piece of pop dance" than "This Time I Found Love". Alan Jones from Music Week rated it three out of five, and noted that "she seems to be back on the right track with this smart urban/house song". Tim Jeffery from the RM Dance Update stated, "Probably her best single since signing to a major", declaring it "a likely hit." Another editor, James Hamilton, viewed it as an "attractive ditty".
Music video
A music video was produced to promote the single. It was later published on YouTube in December 2014.
Track listing
Charts | fdfe3a5c-0466-4f19-9296-ca613971be35 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobankyo"} | The Hōsō Bangumi Chosakuken Hogo Kyōgikai (放送番組著作権保護協議会), commonly abbreviated as Hōbankyō (放番協), and known in English as the Council for Protection of Copyright of Television Program of Japan is an organization representing Japan-based television networks, motion picture producers, Japanese anime manufacturers, screenwriters and record companies. Hōbankyō enforces intellectual property laws in areas both within and outside Japan for their clients. In cooperation with other domestic and international law enforcement agencies around the world, Hōbankyō cracks down on organizations that illegally distribute Japanese entertainment content protected by Hōbankyō.
For-sale and rental items outside Japan come under Hōbankyō. To legally sell items protected by Hōbankyō, stores must obtain licenses from Hōbankyō. For video rental items, Hōbankyō issues a holographic decal that is placed on the item.
Other names referencing Hōbankyō include Hōsō Bangumi Kyōkai.
Legal proceedings
F-Shrine (2005)
According to Article 30 of Japan's Copyright Act, a person is allowed to record and distribute television content for personal use, as long as the content is used domestically (i.e. within Japan). It is referred to as shiteki-fukusei (私的複製) or "private duplication" (equivalent to the fair use doctrine in the U.S.[citation needed]). The recordings can then be sent to family and friends for their personal use. However, F-Shrine tried to create a business model based on shiteki-fukusei, and the practice was eventually deemed illegal in Tokyo District Court.
F-Shrine claimed that their activities fell under shiteki-fukusei, in that the user owned the equipment, he paid for the TV feeds, and he did all the programming himself. F-Shrine just provided the facilities. Even though a "hand and foot" transaction (the user physically walking over to the facility and obtaining the video) wasn't done in this scenario, the process should still be deemed legal. And, the actual video content was not sold or rented. Hōbankyō, however, claimed that these users must also be physically living in Japan in order for shiteki-fukusei to take effect.
J Network (2009)
Two employees of Bangkok-based company J Network Service were arrested on charges of violating Japan's copyright law. Both defendants live in Japan, and used servers in several dozen locations throughout Japan to transmit broadcast TV out to customers via the Internet for a fee. Fuji Television notified the authorities in June 2008 about the subscription business, and later reported two violations of copyright to the authorities in February 2009 for transmitting the day-time talk show Gokigenyo through J Network.
Members
Below is an incomplete list of members. | 1c892258-c6a5-4150-8d99-cac1c32c67e6 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_in_Romania"} | List of events
Events from the year 1929 in Romania. The year was dominated by the Great Depression. Romania won on the first Balkan Cup, held this year.
Incumbents
Events
Births
Deaths | 8b0a44ed-d4d3-4fff-8fb5-56db6387ab32 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockship"} | Ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used
A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of HMS Hood at Portland Harbour in 1914; or it may be brought by enemy raiders and used to prevent the waterway from being used by the defending forces, as in the case of the three old cruisers HMS Thetis, Iphigenia and Intrepid scuttled during the Zeebrugge raid in 1918 to prevent the port from being used by the German navy.
An early use was in 1667, during the Dutch Raid on the Medway and their attempts to do likewise in the Thames during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, when a number of warships and merchant ships commandeered by the Royal Navy were sunk in those rivers to attempt to stop the attacking forces.
An even earlier use are the six 11th century Skuldelev ships in Roskilde Fjord, sunk to protect Roskilde from northern Vikings. They are now on display in the Viking Ship Museum.
The above is the principal and enduring meaning of 'block ship', but in the mid-19th century the term blockships was applied to two groups of mobile sea batteries developed by the Royal Commission on Coast Defence. The first batch of four was obtained from around 1845 by converting old sailing 74-gun two-deckers, all of them Vengeur-class ships of the line, into floating batteries, equipped with a steam/screw propulsion system. Also called "steam guardships", these conversions involved cutting down to a single deck, with ballast removed, and a jury rig installed with a medium 450-horsepower (340 kW) engine for speeds of 5.8–8.9 knots (10.7–16.5 km/h; 6.7–10.2 mph). These ships, converted in 1846, were Blenheim, Ajax, Hogue and Edinburgh. Although these ships were intended for coast defence some of them were used offensively, notably in the Baltic Campaign of 1854 and 1855, where they were an integral part of the British fleet. A second batch of five were similarly obtained from around 1855 by converting other elderly 74-gun ships; these were Russell, Cornwallis, Hawke, Pembroke and Hastings.
The most recent known use of blockships in warfare was during the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. On 6 March 2014, the Russian Navy towed and scuttled the decommissioned cruiser Ochakov at the entrance to Donuzlav Bay in western Crimea, to prevent remaining Ukrainian navy vessels from leaving port. Less than 24 hours later, on 7 March, another blockship, the former Black Sea Fleet rescue/diving support vessel BM-416 was scuttled near Ochakov. | d2e6c281-8a12-4339-93af-41f95ddafc8b |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Jacobs"} | British jurist (born 1939)
Sir Francis Geoffrey Jacobs KCMG KC (born 8 June 1939) is a British jurist who served as Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Communities from October 1988 to January 2006. He was educated at the City of London School, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Mods and Greats (Classics), and Nuffield College, Oxford, where he read for a DPhil in Law. He practised as a barrister from Fountain Court Chambers in London. Jacobs has served as an official with the Secretariat of the European Commission of Human Rights, Professor of European Law at the University of London and Director of the Centre of European Law for King's College London School of Law. He is visiting professor at the College of Europe. He was appointed a Privy Councillor in December 2005.
On 4 December 2007, Jacobs was elected President of Missing Children Europe, the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children.
He was President of the European Law Institute from 2011 to 2013.
He married in 1975 (as his second wife) Susan Cox, granddaughter of Michael Gordon Clark; they have three daughters and one son. He has one son by an earlier marriage.
List of cases
Case C-251/95 Sabel BV v Puma AG, Rudolf Dassler Sport | ab001159-c6fe-4998-be32-a5db3cee020b |
null | Brigadier General Diego Lamas is the name given to a train station in a rural area of the Artigas Department of northern Uruguay, by decree Ley No. 11.857. During the census of 2004, no population was recorded in this location. In the satellite image of 8/10/2003 (currently the latest of the area), about 30 small buildings appear near the station (see 30°45′14.2″S 57°3′14.8″W / 30.753944°S 57.054111°W / -30.753944; -57.054111Coordinates: 30°45′14.2″S 57°3′14.8″W / 30.753944°S 57.054111°W / -30.753944; -57.054111). | e270130d-7b6c-4a74-8b43-77c28aa16c62 |
null | 2006 studio album by The Blizzards
A Public Display of Affection is the debut album from Irish band The Blizzards. All lyrics were written by Niall Breslin and all the music was by The Blizzards.
Track listing
Bonus track: "First Girl to Leave Town" | 31f4c74e-6d6c-4ea2-b128-a07ab730e9ef |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do%C3%B1a_B%C3%A1rbara_(2008_TV_series)"} | Doña Bárbara is a Spanish-language telenovela produced by Hugo León Ferrer for Telemundo in 2008–09. It is based on the 1929 Venezuelan novel Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos.
As with most of its soap operas, the network broadcast English subtitles as closed captions on CC3 until late October, when the network canceled the translations. This show was the first to regain the subtitles when captions were restored in late March 2009.
Edith González, Christian Meier, and Génesis Rodríguez star as the protagonists, Katie Barberi and Arap Bethke as co-protagonists.
Story
Set in the plains of Venezuela and Colombia, this melodrama features a courageous, beautiful, and strong-willed woman who must rise above heartbreak, betrayal, and tragedy. Her troubled past haunts her, as she confronts her own deep-seated vulnerabilities in the face of an impossible love. She falls passionately for a dashing man and must face her memories head-on. She must fight to keep her secrets from destroying her chance of happiness, fulfillment, and true love. The show's English trailer says, "The best stories feature strong women. This is the story that started it all."[citation needed]
Summary
Bárbara is an attractive woman raised mostly on the rivers of Venezuela by her riverboat captain father. Her mother was an Indian woman who died while giving birth to her. She was madly in love with young Asdrúbal until tragedy smashed everything. Some of the men who worked for her father steal their boat and kill her father. The bandits then rape her and shoot her boyfriend. This causes her to hate men, but at the same time sleep with them to get what she wants. She becomes involved with Lorenzo Barquero, the owner of a cattle ranch, with whom she becomes pregnant and has a daughter named Marisela. Barbara later steals Lorenzo's home and fortune and kicks both him and their daughter out, leaving them to fend for themselves with absolutely nothing. Santos is the only remaining son of the Luzardo family, who had a feud with the Barqueros. He returns to his hacienda, Altamira, planning to sell it. Undeterred, Santos sets out to save his cousin Lorenzo and to educate young Marisela. After Barbara sees one of her old rapists and kills him she decides that in order to gain back the peace and happiness that was stolen from her that horrible night she must find and kill all 5 of her rapists. When she meets Santos she instantly falls in love with him seeing as he reminds her of her first love Asdrubal. In him, she thinks she can find happiness and that he can help her change and become a different person. Santos is very attracted to Barbara and genuinely cares for her and wants to help save her from herself, they go through a long, drama-filled romance in which he is never sure he should be with her because of all the horrible things he hears of her and it is only until she is raped a second time and almost killed by "Chepo", one of the same men that raped her as a girl, that he admits he is in love with her. When Chepo dies in front of Barbara from a heart attack she is furious and sad at the same time because after he rapes her a second time she wasn't able to kill him, she then destroys her prayer room and says she can manage on her own, this action makes her rebullones (imaginary birds that sometimes symbolise her mood) die. Santos and Barbara were living happily at her ranch for some period. Her happiness with Santos doesn't last as one day he realizes he loves Marisela and when he reads Mr. Danger's diary (one of Barbara's accomplices) in which he finds out all of the things Barbara has done he decides he can't be with her anymore and that no matter what he has done she can't be saved.
When Marisela comes back from the city educated and civilized she decides to take her mother to court and take back her father's ranch with the help and support of Santos, during the trials it is known that Sapo, Barbara's worst enemy (one of the rapists), bought the judge and made him favor Marisela. When Barbara loses el Miedo she is not willing to give it up and comes to an arrangement with Marisela to buy it. While Marisela and Santos are happy living their romance Barbara finds out that she is two months pregnant. When Santos hears the news he is furious and decides not to believe Barbara and accuses her of having cheated on him but Marisela knows that Barbara would have never done such a thing and believes her and decides to break off their relationship. Santos slowly comes to realize his mistake and accept the baby is his. When word of Barbara's pregnancy gets to "El Sapo" (her worst enemy, one of the rapers) who is now a high ranking and powerful drug trafficker sends his men to burn Barbara's ranch and to kill anyone who is in it, including her. As the hacienda burns Barbara is able to get Eustaquia, her nanny (mother figure) to the basement for safety seeing as there is no other way out. She then confronts Sapo and his men and starts firing at them from inside the house. Melquiades, Barbara's right hand, is able to get to Marisela and warn her that her mother is in danger and she and Santos get there in time to help her. The day after Barbara starts suffering from abdomen pains and with the help of Juan Primito goes to la Chusmita, place where she abandoned Marisela when she was two, to meet up with Melquiades. There she loses her baby and goes crazy. She forgets everything that happened to her and that she lost her baby. When Marisela finds out she tries taking Barbara to see a doctor but while they are in the city she sees Sapo and reacts badly even though she doesn't remember who he is. Melquiades decides to take her back to el Miedo which is fully restored. She starts remembering everything and is heartbroken, she can't believe that she lost her last chance at happiness and what she considered her salvation. During that whole time, Barbara and Marisela managed to become a little close. Santos finds out that she isn't pregnant anymore and gets happy because now there is no obstacle between him and Marisela. Marisela has decided to stay with Gonzalo in order to spy on him after finding out that he and "El Sapo" are allies in drug trafficking. Now, the fear caused by "El Sapo" is bringing Barbara and Marisela back together once more to destroy "El Sapo". Barbara decides to end her war with Sapo once and for all and in order to do so, she needs everyone she cares about to be away from her. She makes Marisela believe that she hates her in order to scare her away (which doesn't work) and sends Eustaquia and Juan Primito to live at Danger's house, who is now deceased (killed by Balbino). When Sapo finds out where Eustaquia is staying he decides to pay her a visit and, to get back at Barbara, cuts her veins, when Barbara finds her she is lying on the floor unconscious. Eustaquia dies in her arms but before she tells Barbara that once everything is done she will see everything differently and that at that moment she should go back to the river. After Eustaquias funeral Barbara realises that "Sapo" is watching her and the battle between them starts inside an abandoned church next to the cemetery. During the fight "Sapo" is about to shoot Barbara but Melquiades gets in the way and takes the shot, Barbara runs to him and he professes his love to her and tells her to not let anyone mistreat her physically or emotionally and that if a man doesn't love her like he did that he isn't worth the time, at that moment he dies in Barbara's arms leaving her alone. While her fight with "Sapo" continues Santos arrives making Barbara lose concentration and allowing "Sapo" to capture her. "Sapo" ties both Barbara and Santos but Barbara is able to knock him out with a sleeping dart and unties herself but refuses to untie Santos as she knows he will stop her from doing what she must; kill "Sapo". Once Barbara finishes tying "Sapo" up Santos tries to talk her out of it but she refutes that she owes it to Eustaquia, to Melquiades, to Asdrubal, and to herself, but above it all, she owes it to the son she lost because of him. She tells him that he always called her a monster and that now he would really get to see her in action. She then muffles him and continues to wake up "Sapo", she ignores his pleas. When he tells her that she is better than he is and that she can't kill him she responds that she is worse than the devil. She ends everything by setting him on fire. When everything is done she leaves and realizes that even though her vengeance is complete she is not in any more peace as she was before and questions if everything she did was done in vain. The detective who was sent to capture Sapo is now after Barbara but she is able to escape with the help of everyone, Marisela, Santos, etc. as they now understand everything Barbara did and why she did it. Before leaving Barbara demands Santos tell her why he is helping her, she tells him that this is his way of setting everything right since he changed her for her daughter, his way of saving her since he wasn't able to save her soul, he responds that that is not it. She continues to push him until he admits that it's because he loves her, that she is the love he can't have and that he had to get away to save himself from her abyss and that he also loves Marisela because she is his salvation. After finally hearing Santos be completely honest with his feeling to her she leaves.
Once Barbara is away from everything she contemplates everything and in a monologue says that she does love Marisela and that she has nothing out there left and that she is going to reunite with Eustaquia and Melquiades and that her death is her payment to those she made suffer, she lets Cabos Blancos free saying that she is giving him his freedom back as she gave Santos' freedom back and proceeds to drown herself in the marsh. Cabos Blancos returns to Altamira and Marisela sees him and worries that something happened to Barbara and goes to look for her. She finds her sinking in the marsh, she ties a rope around herself and goes in to get Barbara out, as Marisela starts sinking Barbara grabs her and pulls herself and Marisela out. Barbara and Marisela have a long talk and forgive each other for everything. Barbara tells her that she has to go, that she can't stay because she wouldn't be able to watch her and Santos together. She says she wants to preserve this feeling she has and that she has never felt, she finally feels like a mother before a woman. Before leaving on her bongo Santos arrives and watches as her and Marisela say their last goodbyes, Antonio asks him if he isn't going to go say goodbye and he responds that he doesn't want to be an obstacle in their last moment like he has always been. Barbara tells Marisela that they won't see each other but that she'll know how she is every morning when she thinks about her and tells her that when one of her children looks up at her with her eyes she'll know she's with her. That night Barbara runs into a missionary who gives her a place to stay because it is raining, the lady realizes that Barbara has a fever and when she asks her name Barbara responds that she can call her Dona and never reveals her real name. 10 years pass and Santos and Marisela have two boys and a little girl on the way, when Maurice asks him if he still thinks of Barbara he responds yes and that that is the only secret he keeps from Marisela, at that moment Marisela arrives in labor pains and she is rushed to the doctor's office. Barbara (now with long gray hair) has been constantly visiting the missionary woman throughout the ten years giving her medicine for the children that live with her and buying the kids candy and toys all the while she claims to not like children, the missionary tells her she "hides" it well. Later Barbara is lying in the hammock. She is very sick and is dying. The next day as Marisela and Santos are admiring their new baby girl they admit that the little girl has Barbara's eyes, that she looks like her, and at that moment Juan Primito arrives yelling that the ravens (los rebullones) have come back to life and that they all have to be careful. That night we see Barbara next to the river, young again and in her all-black outfit with Eustaquia and Melquiades behind her who have come to take her far away. She tells them that they are dead and asks if that means that she is dreaming or if it means that she is also dead, Mealquiades responds that only humans die and that legends like herself never die and live in the hearts of everyone. She goes with them in the bongo and as Eustaquia asks with who they go Barbara responds "con dios y con la virgen" (with God and the Virgin Mary).
Cast and characters
Main characters
Recurring and guest
Awards and nominations | 57a10857-24d7-47ca-b11e-a8d4d98cf8b8 |
null | English footballer
John Stephen Oldfield (born 19 August 1943) is a former professional footballer, who played for Huddersfield Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crewe Alexandra and Bradford City.
John Oldfield was a keeper who set a record by saving penalties in successive games against Arsenal and Liverpool more than 40 years ago. | 4ee3a787-5ba4-4c11-a946-cdaab67024f9 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bell_(golfer)"} | Scottish golfer
David "Davie" Bell (c. 1880 – ?) was a Scottish professional golfer. Bell placed third in the 1900 U.S. Open at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois. He carded consistent rounds of 78-83-83-78=322 and won $125.
Early life
Bell was born circa 1880 in Scotland.
Golf career
Bell placed third in the 1900 U.S. Open, held 4–5 October 1900, at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois. He posted rounds of 78-83-83-78=322 and won $125. In the 1901 Western Open, held at Midlothian Country Club, he was second behind Laurie Auchterlonie. Bell and Willie Smith played some exhibition matches in Santa Barbara, California, in the winter of 1901.
Death
Bell's date of death is unknown. | 361fe154-3c21-4f8f-b79b-ce8b0e779af5 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sheffield_(1877)"} | SS Sheffield was a passenger and cargo vessel built for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1877.
History
The ship was built by John Elder and Company of Govan and launched on 13 January 1877. She was designed for the passenger and cargo service between Grimsby and Hamburg and Antwerp.
On 14 May 1893 she was badly damaged in a collision with the Londoner, and was only kept afloat by her watertight compartments. The Londoner sank but the crew of 36 and 90 passengers were rescued by the Sheffield. Two of the first-class passengers were in their bunks near the point at which the Londoner was struck, and were firmly wedged in by the broken timber and ironwork, and it was only with extreme difficulty that they were rescued. The Ashton also came to the scene, and the passengers were transferred for landing them at North Shields.
In 1897 she passed to the Great Central Railway. In 1910 she was sold to the Patriotic Steam Ship Company, and in 1911 to Joseph Constant in Grimsby. Finding herself in the Mediterranean Sea in 1914, she was seized by the Ottoman Navy for the duration of the First World War and renamed Selda. She returned to Grimsby in 1919 and adopted her earlier name. In 1926 she was sold to owners in Turkey and was renamed Huseyniye in 1926 and Seyyar in 1931. She was withdrawn from service in 1953 and scrapped in 1961. | b074fd78-d7b4-46bc-849d-7c6cc7189104 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stary_Zawid%C3%B3w"} | Village in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Stary Zawidów [ˈstarɨ zaˈviduf] (German: Alt Seidenberg) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sulików, within Zgorzelec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland, close to the Czech border.
It lies approximately 7 kilometres (4 mi) south of Sulików, 16 kilometres (10 mi) south of Zgorzelec, and 138 kilometres (86 mi) west of the regional capital Wrocław.
Gallery
Notable residents | 988b02df-4598-4944-aaec-f9e34d6659d9 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_Videkull"} | Swedish footballer
Lena Mari Anette Videkull (born 6 December 1962) is a Swedish former association football forward who won 111 caps for the Sweden women's national football team, scoring 71 goals. Videkull can be seen in the Sveriges Television documentary television series The Other Sport from 2013.
Club career
Videkull won the Damallsvenskan championship six times in her career. She was the league's top goalscorer on a record six occasions.
International career
Videkull made her senior Sweden debut in the final of the first UEFA championships for national women's teams in May 1984. Sweden beat England 1–0 in the first leg at Ullevi, then prevailed in a penalty shootout at Kenilworth Road, Luton after a 1–0 defeat.
Sweden reached the final again in the next edition of the UEFA championships in 1987. Videkull scored in the final but the Swedes lost 2–1 to Norway. In May 1989 Videkull scored in a women's international match at Wembley Stadium, adding to Pia Sundhage's opening goal as Sweden beat England 2–0 in a curtain–raiser for the Rous Cup.
In 1991, Videkull helped Sweden to a third-place finish at the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup. Videkull was Sweden's top scorer at that tournament, and tallied her country's first ever World Cup goal in a 2–3 loss to the USA on match day one. She also scored the fastest goal in a women's World Cup after 30 seconds in an 8–0 win against Japan.
In 1993, she was given the Diamantbollen award for the best Swedish female footballer of the year. Coming on as a second-half substitute in the second leg of the 1995 Women's Euro semi-final, Videkull scored a hat trick in a 4–1 win, ensuring the Swedes a spot in the final as they defeated Norway 7–5 on aggregate. She briefly retired after featuring for Sweden in the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, which they hosted, but was tempted into a comeback for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Matches and goals scored at World Cup & Olympic tournaments
Matches and goals scored at European Championship tournaments
Personal life
Videkull is a lesbian and lives with her partner Nina and their daughter, Felicia. | adbd17d2-c743-4f95-917c-c331fafdfecb |
null | Season summary
The 2005–06 Victoria Salmon Kings season is the Salmon Kings' 2nd season in the ECHL. After a disappointing inaugural season that posted 15 wins, the Salmon Kings looked to improve in the 2005-06 season. Although the Salmon Kings improved its win total to 26 it was still not enough to clinch their first playoff berth. Their inability to show any signs of improvement midway through the season caused the organization to fire general manager and head coach, Bryan Maxwell who was then replaced by new general manager, Dan Belisle and new head coach, Troy Ward. The few bright spots for the Salmon Kings was Adam Taylor and defensemen, Steve Lingren who were both named starters on the National Conference ECHL All-Star team. Taylor led the team with 57 points, while Lingren scored a team leading 15 power play goals and tied for the team lead with 22 goals, alongside Lanny Gare.
Standings
Schedule and results
Regular season
Player stats
Skaters
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes
Goaltenders
Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; GAA= Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO= Shutouts
†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Victoria. Stats reflect time with the Salmon Kings only. ‡Denotes player no longer with the team. Stats reflect time with Salmon Kings only.
Transactions
Trades | 3cd19464-71f7-4e13-ad41-ee2b710cf0de |
null | Serbian wrestler
Antun Fischer (Serbian: Антун Фишер, romanized: Antun Fišer; 12 April 1911 – 27 July 1985) was a Serbian wrestler. He competed in the men's Greco-Roman welterweight at the 1936 Summer Olympics. | d26eaefb-5dad-4f32-873c-0d6ce77e6798 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poonsawat_Kratingdaenggym"} | Thai boxer
Chalermwong Udomna (Thai: เฉลิมวงศ์ อุดมนา; formerly Prakob Udomna (ประกอบ อุดมนา)), who boxes as Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, (พูนสวัสดิ์ กระทิงแดงยิม; born 20 November 1980) is a retired professional boxer from Thailand who fought in the Super bantamweight (also known as Junior featherweight) division. He is a former WBA Regular Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight World Champion, and a former PABA regional Bantamweight and Superbantamweight. His manager is Niwat Laosuwanwat who is the manager of the former WBA Junior bantamweight World Champion and legendary Thai boxer Khaosai Galaxy.
On 26 September 2009 Poonsawat defeated Irish boxer Bernard Dunne in the 3rd round to claim the WBA World Super Bantamweight title. Then Poonsawat defended his title two more times until May 2010.
On 2 October 2010 Poonsawat lost to Ryol Li Lee in a stunning upset. This was Kratingdaenggym's first loss since July 2006 against Volodymyr Sydorenko.
Poonsawat was due to fight Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba in an attempt to regain the WBA Super Bantamweight title. However, on December 14, 2012, after Olympic-style drug testing, it was revealed that Poonsawat had failed a medical exam, and would not be able to participate in the bout. Rumors came about that Poonsawat had tested positive for HIV, but it was later revealed that he suffers from thalassemia, an affliction that affects red blood cells and causes anemia. Due to this, his boxing career has ended. | 3939afa0-f098-4512-ae1a-12cfaba559bb |
null | American comedienne
Lahna Turner is a stand up comedian and actress. She is primarily known for being married to comedian, Ralphie May.
Early life
As a child, Turner and her family moved from Canada to Houston, Texas for her father’s career with Exxon.
Turner attended Texas State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts with a focus in photo technology. Turner worked full-time as a photographer throughout her college career. At the age of 19, she started an unofficial internship with the Associated Press, which eventually led to a freelance position with the organization.
Career
Turner began her comedy career post-college in Houston where she performed three comedic songs at a local open mic night. She booked her first paying gig two months later. In 2004, Turner released her first comedy album, Dick Jokes & Other Assorted Love Songs. She later recorded If These Lips Could Talk (2012), her first one-hour special So…. I Wrote a Song About It (2014) and Limeade (2017), the first ever comedy visual album. Turner’s albums have received airplay at top radio stations across the country as well as National Lampoon's Top 40 comedy countdown, and are in rotation on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. She also has an early, non-comedy album called Life as a Human.
Turner made her big-screen debut in Teacher of the Year where she played Ursula Featherstone. She also appeared in This Is Meg (2017), Brand New Old Love (2018) and is a producer of What’s Eating Ralphie May? (2019). She is also the Executive Producer for the documentary: 360 Degrees Down.
Personal life
Turner married fellow comedian Ralphie May on July 3, 2005, they have two children together. May died in 2017. | 26334528-94f5-408f-9e9d-9f0aee809017 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bell_Gilkeson"} | American politician and lawyer
Henry Bell Gilkeson (June 6, 1850 – September 29, 1921) was an American lawyer, politician, school administrator, and banker in West Virginia.
Gilkeson was born in Moorefield, Virginia (now West Virginia), the eldest child of a dry goods merchant, and was raised in Romney. Following his graduation from Hampden–Sydney College, Gilkeson became a schoolteacher and served as superintendent of the Hampshire County Schools district from 1877 to 1879. Gilkeson later studied law and started a law practice in Romney. Following the death of John Collins Covell in 1887, Gilkeson served as the principal of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind until 1888.
Gilkeson served in the West Virginia Legislature as a state senator representing the 12th District in the West Virginia Senate (1890–93) and as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates (1883–85 and 1909–11). Gilkeson served as the mayor of Romney beginning in 1885, and the first president of the Bank of Romney (1888–1913).
Early life and education
Henry Bell Gilkeson was born in Moorefield, Virginia (now West Virginia) on June 6, 1850. He was the eldest child of Robert B. Gilkeson and his wife, Sarah E. Gilkeson, both of Scottish ancestry. His father was a prominent dry goods merchant in Romney, where Henry and his brother, Edward, were raised.
Gilkeson graduated from Hampden–Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Virginia, in 1872. While a student, he was inducted as a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Gilkeson completed a special course in engineering at Yale University. He also received further education in Germany.
Academic career
Following his graduation from Hampden–Sydney College, Gilkeson became a schoolteacher and later served as superintendent of the Hampshire County Schools district from 1877 to 1879. Before 1886, Gilkeson was elected a member of the Romney Literary Society together with his brother.
West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind
From 1876 to 1888, Gilkeson served as a member and secretary of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Board of Regents of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind, a position that enabled him to become familiar with the school's efforts to educate its deaf and blind students.
In 1887, upon the death of the schools' principal, John Collins Covell, Gilkeson was selected by the Board of Regents to serve as principal of the institution. The Board of Regents had reservations about selecting an immediate successor to Covell and requested that Gilkeson fill the position temporarily until the board could find a permanent replacement. Gilkeson left his lucrative law practice and accepted the position under the condition that he serve as interim principal while the Board of Regents sought a more suitable candidate to build upon Covell's initiatives and reforms. Gilkeson believed that only administrators and educators fluent in sign language should be appointed to serve in the School for the Deaf, and during his tenure as principal he found that personnel who relied on interpreters did not receive "satisfactory results". After he had spent a few weeks as acting principal, the Board of Regents reconvened and appointed him to stay on permanently.
During his tenure, the position of principal included the roles of clerk, bookkeeper, steward, and final arbiter of matters in the classroom. While Gilkeson lacked special training for the position, his business experience allowed him to run the schools in an economically efficient manner, which pleased the schools' Board of Regents.
In the summer of 1888, Gilkeson was delegated by the Board to Regents to attend the Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf in New York City and select the most fitting candidate present at the conference or recommended someone to replace him as principal of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Gilkeson tendered an offer to C. H. Hill, then an instructor at the Maryland School for the Deaf, and upon Gilkeson's return to Romney he recommended Hill and resigned from his post as principal. Hill was subsequently appointed by the Board to fill the position. While the Board of Regents was pleased with Gilkeson's performance as principal and wished for him to stay on in the position, but he preferred to return to his professional law and political career in the end.
Gilkeson resumed the practice of law and pursued a political career, but he continued his involvement with, and advocacy for, the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind, especially through his influence as a prominent lawyer and state legislator. Gilkeson used his position as a state legislator to condemn and hold accountable the officials responsible for the mismanagement of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and often interceded on the schools' behalf following Hill's retirement due to political reasons. Gilkeson was displeased with the state's political interference in the schools, and the "multiplication" of positions within the institution that were filled with personnel who had political or business ties but lacked prior knowledge or experience with deaf and blind education.
Law and political careers
Following his tenure as superintendent of Hampshire County Schools, Gilkeson undertook the study of law and started a law practice in Romney; he subsequently became a prominent lawyer in the community. His law office was located on Main Street in Romney, two blocks from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Due to his preeminence in the legal field and high standing in the community, Gilkeson served as dean of the Hampshire County Bar Association.
Gilkeson was twice elected to represent Hampshire County as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates for the 1883–85 and 1909–11 legislative sessions. As the leadership of the House of Delegates was being determined at the 1884 Democratic Party State Convention in Wheeling, Gilkeson was a leading contender for a speaker candidacy, but fellow Romney native Robert White was selected as the party's candidate instead.
On August 13, 1890, the Twelfth Senatorial District Democratic Convention nominated Gilkeson to fill the vacant West Virginia State Senate seat of Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy. Gilkeson was elected to fill the seat during the general election of 1890 and served the remainder of Flournoy's senate term until 1893. At the time of his appointment, the Twelfth Senatorial District consisted of Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, and Pendleton counties. In 1892, Gilkeson was appointed to the Committees on the Judiciary, Public Buildings and Humane Institutions, Federal Relations, Forfeited, Delinquent, and Unappropriated Lands, and Clerks Office. In addition to serving in the state senate, Gilkeson also held the position of mayor of Romney, West Virginia, beginning in 1885.
Banking and business career
Gilkeson served on the board of directors as the first president of the Bank of Romney after it was granted its charter by the West Virginia Legislature on September 3, 1888, and was opened later on December 20, 1888. During Gilkeson's tenure as president, the Bank of Romney occupied two rooms on the ground floor of the Wirgman Building, where the city's previous bank, the Bank of the Valley of Virginia, was located prior to the American Civil War. Gilkeson served as the president of the Bank of Romney until his retirement in 1913, when he was succeeded by John J. Cornwell, 15th Governor of West Virginia. In November 1906, Gilkeson, R. W. Dailey, Jr., P. J. Ruckman, and Joshua Soule Zimmerman were incorporators of the Mill Mountain Orchard Company, which operated orchards along the top of Mill Creek Mountain west of Romney.
Later life and death
Gilkeson resided in Romney for the majority of his life and was involved in most of the community's organizations as either a leader, officer, or stockholder. Gilkeson's son Henry Bell Gilkeson, Jr., died on November 16, 1901, from injuries sustained by falling against a piece of sharp iron, which penetrated his stomach. Gilkeson's wife, Mary Katherine, predeceased him in February 1910 following the effects of a surgical procedure she had undergone in Cumberland, Maryland.
In his later years, Gilkeson developed allergic rhinitis and experienced a "physical breakdown" following the death of his son, Robert William Gilkeson, on October 2, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I and shortly before the Armistice with Germany. Robert William Gilkeson was a second lieutenant in Company C of the 316 Engineers, and was interred in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial near Romagne-sous-Montfaucon. Robert William Gilkeson was a 1907 graduate of his father's alma mater, Hampden–Sydney College.
On account of his increasingly failing health, Gilkeson spent the summer of 1921 in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, to recuperate. About a week before his death, Gilkeson fell down a flight of porch steps at his vacation residence, fracturing a number of bones. He died on September 29, 1921, in Mountain Lake Park, and his funeral was held on the anniversary of his son's death on October 2, 1921. Gilkeson is interred with his wife Mary Katherine and son Henry, Jr., at Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney, West Virginia.
In recounting Gilkeson's achievements to the Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf following his death, West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind instructor Charles D. Seaton said of Gilkeson:
"His learning ability and integrity were recognized in the various courts in which he practised. As a counselor he was safe, careful, painstaking, and always conscientious. As a criminal lawyer he defended the interests of his clients with all his energy, never however beyond the bounds of honor or of the ethics of his profession. His courtesy to the court, to his associates at the bar, and to witnesses was always such as to place upon him the unerasable stamp of 'gentleman'. His decisions were always based on one proposition – the right. He was not aggressive. He was unobtrusive in manner, but firm as a rock in his conception of duty. It was a blessed privilege for any young man to have been associated with him and to have been influenced by him as one was bound to be".
— Charles D. Seaton, Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf (1921)
In 1980, Gilkeson's son-in-law George Sloan Arnold bequeathed the $1.5-million George S. Arnold Trust to Hampden–Sydney College, his shared alma mater with his father-in-law and brother-in-law Robert William Gilkeson. At the time, it was the largest amount given by a living person and the institution's second-largest gift in its 204-year history. Arnold gave the trust in honor of the Gilkeson family.
Gravestones at the Gilkeson family plot in Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney. From left to right: Henry Bell Gilkeson, Mary Katherine Paxton Gilkeson, Laura Paxton Gilkeson Arnold, George Sloan Arnold, Robert William Gilkeson, and Henry Bell Gilkeson, Jr.
Religious activities
Gilkeson was active in the Presbyterian Church in Hampshire County and served as a trustee for the Presbytery of Winchester along with Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy. In 1881, Gilkeson and his fellow trustees were instrumental in securing from Amos L. and Allie G. Pugh a house and a large, partially wooded land lot in Capon Bridge for use by the Presbytery as a centrally located manse in Hampshire County. Gilkeson remained a trustee of the Presbytery from 1876 until his death in 1921. He was also a commissioner of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States representing the Presbytery of Winchester, and attended the assembly's meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, May 15–25, 1902.
Marriage and family
Gilkeson was married on November 19, 1884, to Mary Katherine Paxton (1853–1910), daughter of Jordan J. and E. J. Paxton of Iron Gate, Virginia. Their wedding ceremony was officiated by Reverend George W. Finley of Romney at the residence of Mary Ann Lipscomb at 1537 I Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C. Mary Katherine had been employed as a teacher under Lipscomb at Waverly Seminary. Following the ceremony, Gilkeson and his wife embarked upon a tour of the Northern United States. Gilkeson and his wife Mary Katherine had three children together:
Bibliography | e6ba7d3c-5225-4b4a-8121-eeabe6c5189a |
null | Unincorporated community in Pennsylvania, United States
Seger is an unincorporated community and coal town in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. | 572cffc8-546d-4b60-af79-9534b95ae408 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Library_Consortium"} | American non-profit charitable organization
The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) is a library consortium based in the Boston area with 23 member institutions across New England.
Membership
The Boston Library Consortium is an academic consortium of twenty-three institutions: sixteen in Massachusetts, three in Connecticut, one in New Hampshire, one in Rhode Island, and one in Vermont. The Internet Archive is an affiliate member. Member institutions represent a mix of liberal arts colleges, research universities, public and private institutions, and special libraries. New members may join the BLC if they are based in the northeastern United States and their application is approved by a two-thirds vote of the board of directors. The BLC is funded through membership assessments.
Members
Current members include the following institutions:
History
The BLC was founded in 1970 and officially incorporated in 1977, consisting originally of five institutions. It had grown to twelve institutions by 1993, seventeen by 2014, and nineteen by 2019. Former members include Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The BLC is administered by an Executive Director and governed by a board of directors. Each member institution of the BLC is represented on the Board by the chief librarian of its principal library. Per its bylaws, the BLC's purpose is "to share human and information resources so that the collective strengths support and advance the research and learning of the members’ constituents."
Activities
Major BLC areas of activity include resource sharing and professional development. The BLC runs a "BLC Leads" program to foster leadership development among member library staff, a reciprocal borrowing agreement through which faculty and other patrons affiliated with any member library can borrow materials for free from other member libraries, a shared virtual catalog and rapid delivery of materials between libraries to fulfill patron requests, cooperative purchasing of scholarly resources, and hosting of communities of interest to foster discussion and collaboration among member libraries. Past activities included cooperative collecting and sharing of materials in select subject areas, such as women's studies.
In 2007, the BLC partnered with the Open Content Alliance (OCA) to digitize BLC member libraries' out-of-copyright print collections and make them freely available online via the Internet Archive. To fund the effort, the BLC pledged more than $845,000 over two years. This partnership made the BLC the first large-scale consortium to embark on a self-funded digitization project with the OCA.
In 2014, the BLC, along with the Orbis Cascade Alliance and other groups, pushed back against a publisher price increase on e-books, which they feared would negatively impact academic library budgets.
Since 2014, the BLC has administered the Eastern Academic Scholars' Trust (EAST), a collective collections initiative across sixty-five academic libraries throughout the eastern United States. EAST member libraries have committed to retaining over six million volumes. EAST's goal is "preserving the print scholarly record and ensuring its availability for scholars, students and faculty." Under BLC auspices, the EAST initiative received startup grants totaling $1.5 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation in 2014–2015. As of 2018, EAST is self-supporting through institutional membership fees. | 250e8f1b-6e02-46c5-9d43-2a3880dc55c8 |
null | Sri Lankan cricketer
Raveen Yasas (born 10 January 1999) is a Sri Lankan cricketer. He made his first-class debut for Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in the 2016–17 Premier League Tournament on 20 January 2017. He made his List A debut for Puttalam District in the 2016–17 Districts One Day Tournament on 22 March 2017. He made his Twenty20 debut on 4 March 2021, for Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in the 2020–21 SLC Twenty20 Tournament. | 7aae1def-dc25-4af8-8e02-830ee28af7c4 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_You_Like_Horny_Bunnies%3F"} | 2001 video game
2001 video game
Ecchi na Bani-san wa Kirai? (Japanese: エッチなバニーさんは嫌い?; "You don't hate Sexy Bunnies, Right?" localised as Do You Like Horny Bunnies?) is a bishōjo game developed by ZyX and released by G-Collections in 2001.
The game is a multi-scenario interactive eroge, although there is about five or ten minutes of clicking through dialogue before it becomes interactive. The main character is 18-year old Yukari Fujisawa, a feminine-looking Japanese boy who has never had sex with a girl. He starts working as a waiter in a membership restaurant, Platinum, where all the female employees wear Playboy bunny suits. Soon he finds out that the other waitresses, including his own cousin Sae Ishigami, have very unusual sexual tendencies.
The game features the original Japanese voices along with an English translation and is uncensored.
A sequel, Do You Like Horny Bunnies? 2, which is set in another branch of Platinum with cameos from the original's characters, was also released in 2002.
Story
Yukari Fujisawa is a boy who works at the Platinum restaurant, an exclusive Italian eatery. He was employed for a strange and embarrassing reason: he was mistaken as a girl. The girls are good at figuring it out, but either they will either ruin his job or the discovery can make his and their jobs and lives much easier and more fun, exciting, interesting, and especially enjoyable.
Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, the player learns about Yukari Fujisawa's life. If the player selects options that do not lead the protagonist to a specific possibility too many times, Yukari will get fired, and the player will be forced back to the title screen.
Characters
Yukari Fujisawa: He is an 18-year-old boy, despite his feminine appearance. He has plenty of friends at his school. In the game, he is shown to be a decent judo student and takes care of exotic fish in his free time.
Sae Ishigami: Yukari's cousin. In their childhood, they were inseparable, but they grew distant as the years went on. They are later reunited at Platinum. Sae is an exhibitionist and therefore enjoys being watched while performing sexual acts.
Hiromi Yanagi: Sae's best pal appears to be probable to work in a bunny suit. She dresses complete with a pair of glasses and a stylish appearance. Luckily for her, she easily opens up to Yukari.
Ryo Kugenuma: Despite the fact that she is the youngest of the team, she is by far the most mature. Her serious attitude comes from her parents. Although she would seem more fitting as an executive of a major company and not a waitress in a bunny suit, she is still proud of her work at Platinum. Ryo enjoys consuming the sperm of her partner.
Chimaki Hase: The eldest of the bunnies at Platinum, despite looking young and immature. She has no shame in meeting Yukari. It is shown that Chimaki is addicted to Yukari.
Akina Inamura: She is called "The big boss of Platinum" by her co-workers. She seems to be a strange case at first and greets people in a way that she thinks is cute.
Sequel
A sequel titled "Do You Like Horny Bunnies? 2" was released in 2002. The game focuses on a new character, Kazuma Takatsuki, and the story takes place in another branch of the Platinum. The game also features cameos of characters from the original game. | 0b6229df-ae2c-4e55-be55-cde3e3584fb3 |
null | Max Schlosser (5 February 1854 – 7 October 1932) was a German zoologist and paleontologist. He is best known for his research on extinct primates and Caniformia. | 1da7a00e-75be-49a8-b805-05fc211fd561 |
null | Public school district in Scottsboro, Alabama
Scottsboro City Schools is a public school district in Scottsboro, Alabama.
In the Scottsboro City School system, there are about 2,450 students, divided among five different schools, as well as an alternative school. Each school has its own mascot, such as the Brownwood Beaver. However, the Scottsboro Wildcat is the one mascot the whole city shares.
Schools
Former schools | 7a8b7e9b-a495-48f4-aab8-f34b0432b020 |
null | The Kōzuke Province Tago District Warehouse ruins (上野国多胡郡正倉跡, Kōzuke-no-kuni Tago-gun shōsō ato) is an archaeological site with the ruins of late Nara period to Heian period government tax warehouse complex located in the Yoshiimachiike neighborhood of the city of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 2020.
Overview
In the late Nara period, after the establishment of a centralized government under the Ritsuryō system and Taika Reforms, local rule over the provinces was standardized under a kokufu (provincial capital), and each province was divided into smaller administrative districts, known as (郡, gun, kōri), composed of 2–20 townships in 715 AD. Each of the units had an administrative complex built on a semi-standardized layout based on contemporary Chinese design, with rectangular layout surrounded by a moat, earthen ramparts and wooden palisade. Within were the administrative buildings, typically in a "U" shape, and often within a secondary enclosure. Either within the primary enclosure, or else nearby was a group of warehouses arranged in regularly spaced rows, protected by its own palisade and moat. These warehouses were granaries used for storing rice or other produce, which was collected as taxation from the local inhabitants.
Although the site of district office for ancient Tago District has not yet been discovered, the existence of this administrative division and the approximate location of the kanga (官衙), or administrative office is known from the Tago Stele, a contemporary stone monument located 350 meters to the north. From its inscription, this complex was built in 711 AD. The warehouse complex with granaries for storing tax rice was in a compound 210 meters from north-to-south and 55 meters from east-to-west on its northern border. It is uncertain if the compound was square, or trapezoidal, as the southern borders has not yet been confirmed. The compound was surrounded by a moat with a width of two to three meters. Within, an archaeological excavation confirmed the cornerstones marking the locations of two buildings, and from the distribution of other stones and large accumulation of roof tile shards, it is estimated that many other buildings existed within this area. One of the buildings confirmed was at north end of the compound, and was a large 3 x 7 bay structure, which may have been the actual kanga office. | 09db0ba3-600e-4646-a58d-8a0dbd25e40a |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanh_V%C3%A2n,_B%E1%BA%AFc_Giang"} | Commune and village in Bắc Giang Province, Vietnam
Thanh Vân is a commune (xã) and village in Hiệp Hòa District, Bắc Giang Province, in northeastern Vietnam. | 5dafe5bc-87d9-4558-bcfb-5b6e7afa5de6 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Rudge"} | English botanist and antiquary (1763–1846)
Edward Rudge FSA (27 June 1763 – 1846) was an English botanist and antiquary.
Life
He was the son of Edward Rudge, a merchant and alderman of Salisbury, who possessed a large portion of the abbey estate at Evesham. He matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 11 October 1781, but took no degree. His attention was early turned to botany, through the influence of his uncle, Samuel Rudge (died 1817), a retired barrister, who formed an herbarium, which passed to his nephew. His uncle's encouragement and the purchase of a fine series of plants from The Guianas, collected by Joseph Martin, led Rudge to study the flora of that country, and to publish between 1805 and 1807 Plantarum Guianæ rariorum icones et descriptiones hactenus ineditæ, fol. London.
Between 1811 and 1834 he conducted a series of excavations in those portions of the Evesham Abbey estate under his control, and communicated the results to the Society of Antiquaries of London, who figured the ruins and relics discovered in their Vetusta Monumenta, accompanied by a memoir from Rudge's son. In 1842 he erected an octagon tower on the battlefield of Evesham, commemorative of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester.
Rudge was at an early period elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, to the Linnean Society in 1802, and to the Royal Society in 1805. In 1829 he was appointed High Sheriff of Worcestershire.
He died at the Abbey Manor House, Evesham, on 3 September 1846. He married twice, including to the botanist Anne Rudge (1761–1836). A genus of the family Rubiaceae was named Rudgea in his honour by Richard Anthony Salisbury in 1806 (Trans. of Linn. Soc. viii. 326). His library of botanical and travel books, some inherited from his uncle Samuel Rudge, was sold by his descendant John Edward Rudge in 1930.
Besides the work above named, Rudge was author of some seven botanical papers in the Royal and Linnean societies' publications, and of several papers in Archæologia. One of these was a 'Description of Seven New Species of Plants from New Holland'.
His son, Edward John Rudge, M.A. (1792–1861), of Caius College, Cambridge, and barrister-at-law, was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and author of Some Account of the History and Antiquities of Evesham, 1820, and Illustrated and Historical Account of Buckden Palace, 1839.
The standard author abbreviation Rudge is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Work
Bibliography | 1d1ccebc-8438-46d4-b545-3706f5f3d9b0 |
null | Historic house in Tennessee, United States
United States historic place
Keener-Johnson Farm is a historic farmhouse in Seymour, Tennessee, U.S.. It was built circa 1853 for Adam Harvey Keener. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since March 18, 1999. | 7344cc51-9fc8-4cf3-8f5d-3e59a8b3c3ca |
null | New Zealand rugby union player
Rugby player
Lee Allan (born 13 September 1991) is a former New Zealand rugby union player who played as a loose forward for Otago in the ITM Cup and the Highlanders in the international Super Rugby competition.
Career
Allan made his name playing for the Otago Razorbacks in New Zealand's domestic competitions and made himself a regular in the Dunedin based side's number 7 jersey during the 2013 ITM Cup campaign. This saw him named in the Highlanders wider training squad for the 2014 Super Rugby season. He made his Super Rugby debut on 27 June 2014 as a second-half substitute in a 29–25 victory over the Chiefs.
Allan announced his retirement from the game in 2017 at age 25 due to on-going concussion issues. He has since taken up a role as Otago defence coach. | ebafb139-dab1-4f3d-b4bf-82d37f6a0e9b |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tula_de_Allende"} | Municipality and town in Hidalgo, Mexico
Tula de Allende (Otomi: Mämeni) is a town and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo in central-eastern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 305.8 km2 (118.07 sq mi), and as of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 103,919. The municipality includes numerous smaller outlying towns, the largest of which are El Llano, San Marcos, and San Miguel Vindho. It is a regional economic center and one of Mexico's fastest growing cities. However, it is best known as the home of the Tula archeological site, noted for its Atlantean figures. Its built-up area (or metro) made up of Atotonilco de Tula, Atitalaquia, Tlaxcoapan municipalities was home to 188,659 inhabitants at the 2010 census.
City of Tula de Allende
The city of Tula de Allende was built on what was the southern extension of the ancient city of Tula, centered on a former monastery built by the Spanish in the 16th century. The modern city is still connected to the ancient ruins, which are an important tourist attraction as well as a symbol of the city, especially the warrior figures located on the Quetzalcoatl pyramid. Toltec finds are not uncommon underneath the modern city. In 2009, Toltec burials from 900-1100CE were found under Tula-Iturbe Boulevard along with several kilns for firing pottery.
The modern city is a regional economic center and has been listed as one of the fastest growing in Mexico by the National Commission of Population. Most of the reason for this is the existence of a refinery and a thermoelectric plant.
The city is centered around the parish and former monastery of San Jose, with the oldest part built between 1546 and 1556. The main facade has three arches, pilasters with reliefs, a curved pediment and a chapel annex that takes from the 17th century. The cloister of the monastery has two levels with arches and fresco murals. Inside the main church, there is a modern mural called “Jesus” located at the main altar. It was named a cathedral in 1961.
Near here is a main plaza and an open-air theatre, framed by a mural called “Tula Eterna” created by Juan Pablo Patiño Cornejo. Another mural called “Tianguis Mamehni” is found at the chamber of commerce. There is also the Plaza de las Artesanias dedicated to local handcrafts including replicas of the atlas figures.
The municipality
The government of the city of Tula de Allende is also the government for a total of 76 communities. The city is the largest community, with a population of about 27,000. Other important communities include El Llano (11,000 people), San Miguel Vindho (10,500), San Marcos (10,400), Bomintzha (3,000), Santa Ana Ahuehuepan (2,600), Santa Maria Macua (1,750), Ignacio Zaragoza, (1,750), Nantzha (1740), Xochitlan de las Flores (1,300), Colonia San Francisco Bojay (1,250) and Monte Alegre (1,200). The government consists of a municipal president, fourteen administrators, 54 delegates and fourteen commissions.
History
The name is derived from the Nahuatl phrase Tollan-Xicocotitlan, which means near where cattails grow. Tula is the Hispanicized pronunciation of Tollan. In Otomi the area is called Namehi, which means “place of many people.” It was given the appendage of “de Allende” in honor of Ignacio Allende who fought in the Mexican War of Independence.
The area was the capital of one of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica, that of the Toltecs. The Toltecs rose to power after 713 CE as the successor to Teotihuacan. The current city is centered just south of the ceremonial center of the ancient city, which is famous for its Atlantean figures. The Toltec Empire reached as far south as the Valley of Mexico and its influence has been found in artifacts as far away as the current U.S. Southwest. It is believed that aguamiel was first extracted around 1100CE, which led to the making of pulque. The last Toltec ruler was Topilzin Ce-Acatl Quetzalcoatl who came to power in 1085.
According to the Codex Mendoza, the site was conquered under the reign of Tizoc and subsequently incorporated into the Aztec Empire
After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Pedro Miahuazochil was named in 1531 as the lord of Tula helping to evangelize the area.
Tula became a municipality in 1871.
The Tula area was the scene of various battles during the Mexican Revolution, particularly between those loyal to Venustiano Carranza and those to Emiliano Zapata.
Geography and environment
The municipality is located in the south of the Mezquital Valley in the southwest of the state of Hidalgo. With an extension of 305.8 km2 it borders the municipalities of Tepetitlán, Tlahuelilpan, Tepeji del Río, Atotonilco de Tula, Atitalaquía and Tlaxcoapan, with the State of Mexico to the west.
The city of Tula has an altitude of 2,020 meters above sea level Most of the municipality is semi flat with only one significant elevation completely in the municipality known as Magoni. Elevations in the west form the border between it and the State of Mexico. These include Magueni and La Malinche. In the north there is a small mountain of volcanic origin called Xicuco.
Surface water is mostly found in the Tula River, the Rosas River and the Arroyo Grande, whose waters are stored in the Endho Dam. The Tula River begins with the discharge from the Valley of Mexico which pass north through the State of Mexico before reaching the area. The Rosas River also begins in the State of Mexico but with clean waters from a fresh water spring. It has carved some small canyons in the area.
The municipality's climate varies from temperate to cold with an average annual temperature of 17.6 °C (63.7 °F). It has an average annual rainfall of 699 mm (27.5 in), with most rain falling from May to September.
The natural vegetation is mostly semi desert, with cactus and maguey plants the most defining followed by mesquite and the pirul tree (Schinus molle) along with seasonal grass. Native fauna includes rabbits, squirrels, chameleons, roadrunners, coyotes, various kinds of birds and snakes, skunks and opossums.
Pollution problems generally come from the PEMEX refinery and the discharge of wastewater from the Valley of Mexico into the Tula River.
Politics
Economy
The city and municipality have a very low level of socioeconomic marginalization but median household income varies between US$10,641 and $5,037 a year. The city is a regional economic center. The nucleus of its economic sphere includes the municipalities of Tula de Allende, Atitalaquuia, Atotonilco de Tula, Chapantongo and Nopala de Villagrán. Other municipalities which are affected include Tepetitlán, Tepeji del Río, Tlahualilpan, Tlaxcoapan, Tezontepec de Aldama, Soyaniquilpan de Juárez and Jilotepec .
Of the economically active population (minus students and retirees), just under ten percent work in agriculture and livestock; just over 33 percent work in manufacturing and mining and about 55 percent work in commerce, services and tourism. 97% of the land is held in common, generally in ejidos, for agricultural purposes. The main crops are corn, beans, oats, wheat, vegetables such as squash, tomatillos and chili peppers, alfalfa, nopal cactus, cactus fruit, peaches and avocados. Livestock includes sheep, goats, cattle and pigs along with domestic fowl. Fishing is mostly limited to sporting catching carp and catfish.
There are firms dedicated to manufacturing, mineral extraction and construction as well as "maquiladoras". The most important of these are the Francisco Pérez Ríos Thermoelectric plant and the PEMEX refinery as well as the Cruz Azul and Tolteca cement locations. The refinery was established in 1976, and makes gasoline, diesel and solvents. It has 35 plants in eleven sections, covering an area of 707 hectares (1,750 acres). It processes just under 25% of Mexico's crude employing about 3,500 workers. The main handcraft in the city is the making of replicas of Toltec stone pieces. The altas figures are also recreated in way, marble, plastic and clay. Textiles are also made especially quezquémetl, rebozos, sarapes, hats and baskets.
Commerce is mainly for local needs such as groceries and clothing. There are two main traditional markets in the city of Tula, the municipal market and the Tianguis. The latter generally concentrates on electronics. The major service sector is related to tourism. This is mostly focused on visitors to the Tula archeological site. There is also the Requena dam (boating, fishing and picnicking) and the Parque Acuático la Cantera, a water park with a pool and thermal springs. The municipality has two four star hotels and two three star hotels.
The municipality's infrastructure includes 37 km (23 mi) of federal highway, 72 km (45 mi) of state highway, 9 km (5.6 mi) of rural highway and 40 km (25 mi) of rail line. It has a main bus terminal with local and intercity bus service. Trains that regularly pass through include the Mexico City–Ciudad Juárez line and the Mexico City-Tula-Querétaro line. It still has telegraph service, one of the oldest still in service after 100 years. Postal service in the town is also one of Mexico's oldest, beginning in 1856. There are two radio stations, FM XHLLV and “Super Stereo 90.9”.
Demography
Populated places in Tula de Allende
The census of 2010 reported a population of 103,919 people: 53,429 females and 50,490 males. The municipality has a total population of 103,919, living in 26,937 households, with 581 speaking an indigenous language.
The Tula de Allende municipality is very big, and includes many cities, towns, and small communities. The biggest city is Tula de Allende, and the second largest city is Cruz Azul City (near to San Miguel Vindho and Santa María Ilucan). Tula-Tepeji, the third Metropolitan Area in Hidalgo state, is the most important population center in the Mezquital valley.
Culture and education
Eighty seven percent of the population is Catholic, with most of the rest practicing some form of Catholicism. The main feast day is dedicated to Saint Joseph on March 19. There is also a large annual pilgrimage from here to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City with many traveling by foot.
Traditional garb for men consists of pants and shirt made of undyed cotton cloth along with a sombrero. Women's traditional dress is a dress made of the some cloth often with a crinoline skirt underneath, decorated with ribbons and embroidery although beads and sequins are also used. A wool rebozo is common in the winter. For charreada events, men can be seen in charro outfits and women in China Poblana dress.
Traditional dishes of the area include barbacoa, carnitas, pulque, nopal cactus with eggs, beans with epazote and mixote but the area is known for dishes made with escamoles (ant eggs) as well as mezcal worms which are both seasonal. Street food such as gorditas is popular in the local markets. The most important museum in the municipality is the site museum for the Tula archeological site called the Jorge R. Acosta Museum, which is run by INAH.
The municipality has 73 preschools, 66 primary schools, 30 middle schools, thirteen high schools and at higher level the Universidad Politecnica de la Energia and the Universidad Tecnológica de Tula-Tepeji, with a total of about thirty thousand students. This is sufficient for the lower levels but not for higher education.
Tula archeological site
The ceremonial center of ancient Tula is located about five minutes from the center of the modern city. Tula became the most important city in the region after the fall of Teotihuacan, although it never reached the same size due to competing cities in the area. Usually identified as the Toltec capital around 980 CE, the city was destroyed at some time between 1168 and 1179.
The site is at and around the junction of two rivers, the Río Rosas and the Río Tula. The two largest clusters of grand ceremonial architecture are nicknamed "Tula Grande" (the most visited by tourists) and "Tula Chico". Remains of other buildings extend for some distance in all directions. Tula Grande contains pyramids, Mesoamerican ball courts and other buildings but its most distinctive characteristics are the Atlantean figures, columns in the shape of warriors and the “Serpent Wall,” a wall with reliefs that serve as a predecessor to similar constructions in later cultures.
The archeological site was made a national park in 1981 by the Mexican government. The park covers an area of 1 km2. | 1356aeba-6255-44d3-a890-c28601c1a370 |
null | Gisela Necker (1932 - 2011) was an early lesbian activist active in Berlin from the 1970s until her death. She was a leading member of Homosexual Action West Berlin (HAW), co-founding its first lesbian group in the early 1970s. She later helped to found the Berlin women's centre and the Lesbian Action Centre. She died in Berlin at the age of 78.
Early life
Gisela was born in eastern Germany growing up in the area that later became the German Democratic Republic. She was orphaned and trained to be a teacher at a young age, gaining her first teaching post at the age of 18. She moved to the West Germany in 1959 when she realised that the East and West Germany border would close.
Activism
Living in Berlin and socialising in its homesexual and lesbian sector lead her to form the first lesbian section of HAW. In 1974 the group chose to archive the documents relevant to their activities, for example, posters and flyers and formed the archive Spinnboden. Gisela was also a founder of the Berlin women's centre and the Lesbian Action Centre. | 9291b56c-d5ea-4178-97f8-0fe193b03338 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_at_90_Prospect_Street"} | Historic house in Massachusetts, United States
United States historic place
The House at 90 Prospect Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is one of three houses in the family compound of Elizabeth Boit. Built in 1913, the compound of which this house is a part is the only estate of one of Wakefield's major industrial figures to survive. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Description and history
Elizabeth Boit, co-founder of the Harvard Knitting Mills, was one of the first highly placed female executive in the male-dominated management ranks of textile firms of the turn of the 20th century, and is believed to be the only woman in a top executive position in the United States textile industry in 1923. She pioneered improvements in worker conditions, offering health care to factory workers, and providing bonuses based on company profits. The compound she built at Chestnut and Prospect Streets, on the summit of Cowdry's Hill, is the only surviving estate of Wakefield's leading business executives.
Boit's three houses were all designed by local architect Harland Perkins, and were set in an estate compound on the summit of Cowdry's Hill that included three residences, formal gardens, a playhouse, and greenhouse. All three residences, 90 and 88 Prospect Street, and 127 Chestnut Street (1910-1913), were designed in the English Cottage style. The stucco structures have red tile roofs, recessed entries, exposed purlins, and irregular fenestration. This house is 1+1⁄2 stories in height, with its entry set under a cross-gable roof section with a clipped gable. There are recessed porches on either side, supported by heavy columns. | 82dd1c73-e612-4615-9773-bad9d9123083 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Powell_(New_Mexico_politician)"} | Ray Bennett Powell is an American politician and veterinarian from the state of New Mexico. He served as New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands from 1993 until 2003, and again from 2011 until 2015.
Early life and education
Powell was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in anthropology and biology from University of New Mexico, a Master of Science in botany and plant ecology from UNM, and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University, with an emphasis in wildlife medicine.
Career
Powell entered politics in 1993 after he was appointed New Mexico commissioner of public lands by Governor Bruce King. He was elected to a full term in 1994 and reelected in 1998. Due to term limits, Powell could not run again in 2002. He ran again in 2006 and narrowly lost to Jim Baca, whom he had succeeded in 1993, in the Democratic primary. Powell ran once again in 2010 and this time was successful. He lost in 2014 to Republican Aubrey Dunn Jr. by a margin of 704 votes out of nearly 500,000 cast.
Prior to his election as Commissioner in 2010, Powell worked with scientist and humanitarian Jane Goodall and for the Jane Goodall Institute. Powell served as the elected state land commissioner from 1993 to 2002 and from 2011 to 2014. He was the president and vice-president of the 22-member Western States Land Commissioners Association from 1996 to 1998. He served as a special assistant to Governor Bruce King with responsibility for environment, natural resources, health, and recreation. Powell served two terms as a member of the United States Department of Agriculture Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases. In this capacity he gained significant expertise in understanding the impacts of disease and other pathogens on our human and domestic and wild animal populations. Powell served as a member of the New Mexico Board of Veterinary Regulation and Licensing from 2002 to 2010. He was the chairman of the board for much of his tenure. He worked tirelessly to enhance the humane treatment of animals.
Personal life
Powell is married to Jean Civikly-Powell, a professor emerita of Communication at the University of New Mexico. She has served as Ombudsperson for the UNM faculty since 1999. | fdf55cc7-0065-4b90-9752-e53191d55675 |
null | Standardized test measuring proficiency in spoken English
The Test of Spoken English (TSE) was an oral test developed by Educational Testing Service which measured the ability of nonnative English speakers to communicate effectively. As of March 2010, the TSE has been superseded by the speaking portion of the TOEFL iBT as well as by the SPEAK test.
Before its retirement, TSE scores were used by academic institutions, corporations, government agencies, health care systems, and other organizations to guide their decisions regarding graduate assistantships in teaching and research, hiring new workers, and licensing and certifying existing employees.
Scoring
The TSE score consisted of a single score of communicative language ability, which was reported on a scale of 20 to 60. Assigned score levels were averaged across items and raters, and the scores were reported in increments of five (i.e., 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60). | 6751392a-a6df-4620-b7b7-67cf30a78631 |
null | British heavy metal band
Musical artist
Rogue Male are a British heavy metal band, formed in 1984.
Rogue Male was the brainchild of Northern Ireland-born singer and guitarist Jim Lyttle, who had previously been in the Northern Irish punk rock band Pretty Boy Floyd and The Gems. Moving to London in the late 1970s, he decided to put together a band that would mix punk rock styles and aggression, with the more heavy metal sounds of the NWOBHM bands of the time. The band signed to the UK heavy metal label Music for Nations and subsequently Elektra in the US., Shortly afterwards, the band were invited to appear on the E.C.T. (Extra Celestial Transmission) Heavy Metal music programme on England's Channel 4 where they performed two songs live on 19 April 1985.
The first Rogue Male album, First Visit, was recorded by Lyttle on guitar and vocals, John Fraser-Binnie on lead guitar, Phil Clark on bass, and Steve Kingsley on drums., Kingsley was later replaced by Danny Fury., The album was produced by Steve James. Rogue Male toured the UK/Europe and the US in support of it. Kerrang! magazine in the UK gave the band several features, and a front cover article. "All Over You" was released as a 12-inch single. The second album Animal Man, was released a year later., Rogue Male subsequently dropped their record companies and started legal proceedings. The 1980s incarnation of the band played their final show in late 1987.
Both the original albums were re-released on the Polish label Metal Mind records in 2007. In an interview in the March 2009 edition of Classic Rock Magazine, Lyttle stated that he had recently written, arranged, recorded and produced a new Rogue Male album. This featured Bernie Tormé on guitar on some tracks with John McCoy on bass and Robin Guy on drums and was called Nail It. A new track, "Cold Blooded Man" appeared on the CD which accompanied the magazine. Original lead guitarist John Fraser Binnie subsequently rejoined the band and a new DVD entitled Liar was recorded and released.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Compilation albums | f9b8ec47-2eb3-40ef-a6d7-27b660722c9a |
null | Automobiles
Motorcycles
Aircraft | 3900880e-8495-4c76-8802-4ea52dc61877 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elachista_ibunella"} | Species of moth
Elachista ibunella is a moth of the family Elachistidae. It is found in the United States, where it has been recorded from California. | 18477122-62af-4322-b437-ca2ee8917baf |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volumes_7_%26_8"} | 2001 compilation album by The Desert Sessions
Volumes 7 & 8 is a compilation of the seventh and eighth releases from The Desert Sessions. The seventh volume is titled Gypsy Marches, and the eighth Can You See Under My Thumb? There You Are.. The album features appearances from Mark Lanegan, Alain Johannes, Natasha Shneider, Chris Goss, Brendon McNichol, Fred Drake, Nick Eldorado, and Joshua Homme.
Track listing
Personnel | 2988779f-a767-4474-bac4-192525ca046e |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_32"} | Sailboat class
The Ontario 32 is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by C&C Design and first built in 1974.
Production
The design was built by Ontario Yachts in Canada, between 1974 and 1986, with a total of 160 boats completed during its production run. The design is now out of production.
Design
The Ontario 32 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fiberglass, with wood trim. It has a masthead sloop rig, a raked stem, a square transom, an internally-mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a wheel and a fixed long fin keel. It has distinctive Dorade box ventilators. It displaces 9,800 lb (4,445 kg) and carries 3,977 lb (1,804 kg) of ballast.
The boat has a draft of 4.50 ft (1.37 m) with the standard keel fitted.
The boat is fitted with a Japanese Yanmar diesel engine of 15 hp (11 kW). The fuel tank holds 26 U.S. gallons (98 L; 22 imp gal) and the fresh water tank has a capacity of 66 U.S. gallons (250 L; 55 imp gal).
A tall mast version was also produced, with a mast about 2.0 ft (0.61 m) higher than standard.
The tall mast version has a PHRF racing average handicap of 177 with a high of 185 and low of 176. It has a hull speed of 6.9 kn (12.78 km/h).
Operational history
In a review Michael McGoldrick wrote, "The Ontario 32 is a no-nonsense cruising boat with respectable performance, and it remains in high demand...The Ontario 32's popularity is in large part due to the fact that Ontario Yachts built these boats to very high standards and included many sought-after cruising features including, for example, dorade boxes for added ventilation, three burner stove with an oven, shoal draft, large chart table, 6' 4" of headroom" | 44373442-22d0-42ac-804f-f27ff4bf2f76 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keshavarzeh-ye_Olya"} | Village in Lorestan, Iran
Keshavarzeh-ye Olya (Persian: كشورزه عليا, also Romanized as Keshavarzeh-ye ‘Olyā) is a village in Honam Rural District, in the Central District of Selseleh County, Lorestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 154, in 33 families. | 746ab507-085b-4240-9090-d6fba0cde56c |
null | 1916 British film
The Marriage of William Ashe is a 1916 British silent drama film directed by Cecil Hepworth and starring Henry Ainley, Alma Taylor and Stewart Rome. It is an adaptation of the 1905 novel The Marriage of William Ashe by Mary Augusta Ward.
Cast
Bibliography | 034e01c8-42b9-4164-9dbf-9c3803ac5ece |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Chernikov_(footballer,_born_2000)"} | Russian football player
Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Chernikov (Russian: Александр Евгеньевич Черников; born 1 February 2000) is a Russian football player who plays as a defensive midfielder for FC Krasnodar.
Club career
He made his debut in the Russian Professional Football League for FC Krasnodar-2 on 17 March 2018 in a game against FC Biolog-Novokubansk. He made his Russian Football National League debut for Krasnodar-2 on 22 July 2018 in a game against FC SKA-Khabarovsk.[citation needed]
He made his debut for the main squad of FC Krasnodar on 25 September 2019 in a Russian Cup game against FC Nizhny Novgorod. He made his Russian Premier League debut for Krasnodar on 1 March 2020 in a game against FC Ufa, he started the game and was substituted at half-time.
International career
He was called up to the Russia national football team for the first time in October 2021 for the World Cup qualifiers against Cyprus and Croatia. He was included in the extended 41-players list of candidates.
Career statistics
As of 21 May 2022 | d03aff43-d3f8-44c3-9a0f-92db2f4b0d96 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllodactylus_simpsoni"} | Species of lizard
Simpson's leaf-toed gecko or Western Galápagos leaf-toed gecko (Phyllodactylus simpsoni) is a species of gecko. It is endemic to Isabela Island and Fernandina Island in the Galápagos Islands. | 17bc6331-e5c5-434f-9c01-6fff5c8f03bb |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris"} | Human-created solid waste in the sea or ocean
Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created waste that has deliberately or accidentally been released in a sea or ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, frequently washing aground, when it is known as beach litter or tidewrack. Deliberate disposal of wastes at sea is called ocean dumping. Naturally occurring debris, such as driftwood and drift seeds, are also present. With the increasing use of plastic, human influence has become an issue as many types of (petrochemical) plastics do not biodegrade quickly, as would natural or organic materials. The largest single type of plastic pollution (~10 %) and majority of large plastic in the oceans is discarded and lost nets from the fishing industry. Waterborne plastic poses a serious threat to fish, seabirds, marine reptiles, and marine mammals, as well as to boats and coasts.
Dumping, container spillages, litter washed into storm drains and waterways and wind-blown landfill waste all contribute to this problem. This increased water pollution has caused serious negative effects such as discarded fishing nets capturing animals, concentration of plastic debris in massive marine garbage patches, and increasing concentrations of contaminants in the food chain.
In efforts to prevent and mediate marine debris and pollutants, laws and policies have been adopted internationally, with the UN including reduced marine pollution in Sustainable Development Goal 14 "Life Below Water". Depending on relevance to the issues and various levels of contribution, some countries have introduced more specified protection policies. Moreover, some non-profits, NGOs, and government organizations are developing programs to collect and remove plastics from the ocean. However, in 2017 the UN estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans if substantial measures are not taken.
Types
Researchers classify debris as either land- or ocean-based; in 1991, the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution estimated that up to 80% of the pollution was land-based, with the remaining 20% originating from catastrophic events or maritime sources. More recent studies have found that more than half of plastic debris found on Korean shores is ocean-based.
A wide variety of man-made objects can become marine debris; plastic bags, balloons, buoys, rope, medical waste, glass and plastic bottles, cigarette stubs, cigarette lighters, beverage cans, polystyrene, lost fishing line and nets, and various wastes from cruise ships and oil rigs are among the items commonly found to have washed ashore. Six pack rings, in particular, are considered emblematic of the problem.
The US military used ocean dumping for unused weapons and bombs, including ordinary bombs, UXO, landmines and chemical weapons from at least 1919 until 1970. Millions of pounds of ordnance were disposed of in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of at least 16 states, from New Jersey to Hawaii (although these, of course, do not wash up onshore, and the US is not the only country who has practiced this).
Eighty percent of marine debris is plastic. Plastics accumulate because they typically do not biodegrade as many other substances do. They photodegrade on exposure to sunlight, although they do so only under dry conditions, as water inhibits photolysis. In a 2014 study using computer models, scientists from the group 5 Gyres, estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic weighing 269,000 tons were dispersed in oceans in similar amount in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Ghost nets
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded in the ocean. These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea. They can entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver. Acting as designed, the nets restrict movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe.
It's estimated that around 48,000 tons of ghost nets are generated each year, and these may linger in the oceans for a considerable time before breaking-up.
Macroplastic
Microplastics
A growing concern regarding plastic pollution in the marine ecosystem is the use of microplastics. Microplastics are beads of plastic less than 5 millimeters wide, and they are commonly found in hand soaps, face cleansers, and other exfoliators. When these products are used, the microplastics go through the water filtration system and into the ocean, but because of their small size they are likely to escape capture by the preliminary treatment screens on wastewater plants. These beads are harmful to the organisms in the ocean, especially filter feeders, because they can easily ingest the plastic and become sick. The microplastics are such a concern because it is difficult to clean them up due to their size, so humans can try to avoid using these harmful plastics by purchasing products that use environmentally safe exfoliates.
Because plastic is so widely used across the planet, microplastics have become widespread in the marine environment. For example, microplastics can be found on sandy beaches and surface waters as well as in the water column and deep sea sediment. Microplastics are also found within the many other types of marine particles such as dead biological material (tissue and shells) and some soil particles (blown in by wind and carried to the ocean by rivers). Upon reaching marine environments, the fate of microplastics is subject to naturally occurring drivers, such as winds and surface oceanic currents. Numerical models are able to trace small plastic debris (micro- and meso-plastics) drifting in the ocean, thus predicting their fate.
Deep-sea debris
Marine debris is even found on the floor of the Arctic ocean. Although an increasing number of studies have been focused on plastic debris accumulation on the coasts, in off-shore surface waters, and that ingested by marine organisms that live in the upper levels of the water column, there is limited information on debris in the mesopelagic and deeper layers. Studies that have been done have conducted research through bottom sampling, video observation via remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and submersibles. They are also mostly limited to one-off projects that do not extend long enough to show significant effects of deep-sea debris over time. Research thus far has shown that debris in the deep-ocean is in fact impacted by anthropogenic activities, and plastic has been frequently observed in the deep-sea, especially in areas off-shore of heavily populated regions, such as the Mediterranean.
Litter, made from diverse materials that are denser than surface water (such as glasses, metals and some plastics), have been found to spread over the floor of seas and open oceans, where it can become entangled in corals and interfere with other sea-floor life, or even become buried under sediment, making clean-up extremely difficult, especially due to the wide area of its dispersal compared to shipwrecks. Plastics that are usually negatively buoyant can sink with the adherence of phytoplankton and the aggregation of other organic particles. Other oceanic processes that affect circulation, such as coastal storms and offshore convection, play a part in transferring large volumes of particles and debris. Submarine topographic features can also augment downwelling currents, leading to the retention of microplastics at certain locations.
A Deep-sea Debris database by the Global Oceanographic Data Center of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), showing thirty years of photos and samples of marine debris since 1983, was made public in 2017. From the 5,010 dives in the database, using both ROVs and deep-sea submersibles, 3,425 man-made debris items were counted. The two most significant types of debris were macro-plastic, making up 33% of the debris found – 89% of which was single-use – and metal, making up 26%. Plastic debris was even found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,898m, and plastic bags were found entangled in hydrothermal vent and cold seep communities.
Garbage patches (gyres)
A garbage patch is a gyre of marine debris particles caused by the effects of ocean currents and increasing plastic pollution by human populations. These human-caused collections of plastic and other debris, cause ecosystem and environmental problems that affect marine life, contaminate oceans with toxic chemicals, and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Once waterborne, marine debris becomes mobile. Flotsam can be blown by the wind, or follow the flow of ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of oceanic gyres where currents are weakest. Garbage patches grow because of widespread loss of plastic from human trash collection systems.
Sources
The 10 largest emitters of oceanic plastic pollution worldwide are, from the most to the least, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, largely through the rivers Yangtze, Indus, Yellow, Hai, Nile, Ganges, Pearl, Amur, Niger, and the Mekong, and accounting for "90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world's oceans."
An estimated 10,000 containers at sea each year are lost by container ships, usually during storms. One spillage occurred in the Pacific Ocean in 1992, when thousands of rubber ducks and other toys (now known as the "Friendly Floatees") went overboard during a storm. The toys have since been found all over the world, providing a better understanding of ocean currents. Similar incidents have happened before, such as when Hansa Carrier dropped 21 containers (with one notably containing buoyant Nike shoes).
In 2007, MSC Napoli beached in the English Channel, dropping hundreds of containers, most of which washed up on the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. A 2021 study following a 2014 loss of a container carrying printer cartridges calculated that some cartridges had dispersed at an average speed of between 6 cm and 13 cm per second. A 1997 accident of Tokio Express ship off the British coast resulted in loss of cargo container holding 5 million Lego pieces. Some of the pieces became valued among collectors who searched the beaches for Lego dragons. It also provided valuable insight in studying marine plastic degradation.
In Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, 52% of items were generated by recreational use of an urban park, 14% from sewage disposal and only 7% from shipping and fishing activities. Around four fifths of oceanic debris is from rubbish blown onto the water from landfills, and urban runoff.
Some studies show that marine debris may be dominant in particular locations. For example, a 2016 study of Aruba found that debris found the windward side of the island was predominantly marine debris from distant sources. In 2013, debris from six beaches in Korea was collected and analyzed: 56% was found to be "ocean-based" and 44% "land-based".
In the 1987 Syringe Tide, medical waste washed ashore in New Jersey after having been blown from Fresh Kills Landfill. On the remote sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, fishing-related debris, approximately 80% plastics, are responsible for the entanglement of large numbers of Antarctic fur seals.
Environmental impacts
Not all anthropogenic artifacts placed in the oceans are harmful. Iron and concrete structures typically do little damage to the environment because they generally sink to the bottom and become immobile, and at shallow depths they can even provide scaffolding for artificial reefs. Ships and subway cars have been deliberately sunk for that purpose.
Additionally, hermit crabs have been known to use pieces of beach litter as a shell when they cannot find an actual seashell of the size they need.
Impacts from plastic pollution
Many animals that live on or in the sea consume flotsam by mistake, as it often looks similar to their natural prey. Overall, 1288 marine species are known to ingest plastic debris, with fish making up the largest fraction. Bulky plastic debris may become permanently lodged in the digestive tracts of these animals, blocking the passage of food and causing death through starvation or infection. Tiny floating plastic particles also resemble zooplankton, which can lead filter feeders to consume them and cause them to enter the ocean food chain. In addition, plastic in the marine environment that contaminates the food chain can have repercussions on the viability of fish and shellfish species.
COVID-19 pandemic impacts
In Kenya, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the amount of marine debris found on beaches with around 55% being a pandemic-related trash items. Although the pandemic-related trash has shown up along the beaches of Kenya, it has not made its way into the water. The reduction of litter in the ocean could be a result of the closing of beaches and lack of movement during the pandemic, so less trash was likely to end up in the ocean. Additional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been seen in Hong Kong, where disposable masks have ended up along the beaches of Soko’s islands. This may be attributed to the increased production of medical products (masks and gloves) during the pandemic, leading to a rise in unconventional disposal of these products.
Removal
Coastal and river clean ups
Techniques for collecting and removing marine (or riverine) debris include the use of debris skimmer boats (pictured). Devices such as these can be used where floating debris presents a danger to navigation. For example, the US Army Corps of Engineers removes 90 tons of "drifting material" from San Francisco Bay every month. The Corps has been doing this work since 1942, when a seaplane carrying Admiral Chester W. Nimitz collided with a piece of floating debris and sank, costing the life of its pilot. The Ocean cleanup has also created a vessel for cleaning up riverine debris, called Interceptor. Once debris becomes "beach litter", collection by hand and specialized beach-cleaning machines are used to gather the debris.
There are also projects that stimulate fishing boats to remove any litter they accidentally fish up while fishing for fish.
Elsewhere, "trash traps" are installed on small rivers to capture waterborne debris before it reaches the sea. For example, South Australia's Adelaide operates a number of such traps, known as "trash racks" or "gross pollutant traps" on the Torrens River, which flows (during the wet season) into Gulf St Vincent.
In lakes or near the coast, manual removal can also be used. Project AWARE for example promotes the idea of letting dive clubs clean up litter, for example as a diving exercise.
Once a year there is a diving marine debris removal operation in Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, run by Ghost Fishing UK, funded by World Animal Protection and Fat Face Foundation.
Cleanup of marine debris can be stymied by inadequate collaboration across levels of government, and a patchwork of regulatory authorities (responsibility often differs for the ocean surface, the seabed, and the shore). For example, there are an estimated 1600 abandoned and derelict boats in the waters of British Columbia. In 2019 Canada's federal government passed legislation to make it illegal to abandon a vessel but enforcement is hampered because it is often difficult to determine who owns an abandoned boat since owners are not required to have a license – licensing is a provincial government responsibility. The Victoria-based non-profit Dead Boats Disposal Society notes that lack of enforcement means abandoned boats are often left to sink, which increases the cleanup cost and compounds the environmental hazard (due to seepage of fuel, oil, plastics, and other pollutants).
Mid-ocean clean ups
On the sea, the removal of artificial debris (i.e. plastics) is still in its infancy. However, some projects have been started which used ships with nets (Ocean Voyages Institute/Kaisei 2009 & 2010 and New Horizon 2009) to catch some plastics, primarily for research purposes. There is also Bluebird Marine System's SeaVax which was solar- and wind-powered and had an onboard shredder and cargo hold. The Sea Cleaners' Manta ship is similar in concept.
Another method to gather artificial litter has been proposed by The Ocean Cleanup's Boyan Slat. He suggested using platforms with arms to gather the debris, situated inside the current of gyres. The SAS Ocean Phoenix ship is somewhat similar in design.
In June 2019, Ocean Voyages Institute, conducted a cleanup utilizing GPS trackers and existing maritime equipment in the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone setting the record for the largest mid-ocean cleanup accomplished in the North Pacific Gyre and removed over 84,000 pounds of polymer nets and consumer plastic trash from the ocean.
In May/June 2020, Ocean Voyages Institute conducted a cleanup expedition in the Gyre and set a new record for the largest mid-ocean cleanup accomplished in the North Pacific Gyre which removed over 170 tons (340,000 pounds) of consumer plastics and ghostnets from the ocean. Utilizing custom designed GPS satellite trackers which are deployed by vessels of opportunity, Ocean Voyages Institute is able to accurately track and send cleanup vessels to remove ghostnets. The GPS Tracker technology is being combined with satellite imagery increasing the ability to locate plastic trash and ghostnets in real time via satellite imagery which will greatly increase cleanup capacity and efficiency.
Another issue is that removing marine debris from the ocean can potentially cause more harm than good. Cleaning up microplastics could also accidentally take out plankton, which are the main lower level food group for the marine food chain and over half of the photosynthesis on earth. One of the most efficient and cost effective ways to help reduce the amount of plastic entering our oceans is to not participate in using single-use plastics, avoid plastic bottled drinks such as water bottles, use reusable shopping bags, and to buy products with reusable packaging.
Laws and treaties
The ocean is a global common, so negative externalities of marine debris are not usually experienced by the producer. In the 1950s, the importance of government intervention with marine pollution protocol was recognized at the First Conference on the Law of the Sea.
Ocean dumping is controlled by international law, including:
Australian law
One of the earliest anti-dumping laws was Australia's Beaches, Fishing Grounds and Sea Routes Protection Act 1932, which prohibited the discharge of "garbage, rubbish, ashes or organic refuse" from "any vessel in Australian waters" without prior written permission from the federal government. It also required permission for scuttling. The act was passed in response to large amounts of garbage washing up on the beaches of Sydney and Newcastle from vessels outside the reach of local governments and the New South Wales government. It was repealed and replaced by the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981, which gave effect to the London Convention.
European law
In 1972 and 1974, conventions were held in Oslo and Paris respectively, and resulted in the passing of the OSPAR Convention, an international treaty controlling marine pollution in the north-east Atlantic Ocean. The Barcelona Convention protects the Mediterranean Sea. The Water Framework Directive of 2000 is a European Union directive committing EU member states to free inland and coastal waters from human influence. In the United Kingdom, the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 is designed to "ensure clean healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, by putting in place better systems for delivering sustainable development of marine and coastal environment". In 2019, the EU parliament voted for an EU-wide ban on single-use plastic products such as plastic straws, cutlery, plates, and drink containers, polystyrene food and drink containers, plastic drink stirrers and plastic carrier bags and cotton buds. The law will take effect in 2021.
United States law
In the waters of the United States, there have been many observed consequences of pollution including: hypoxic zones, harmful agal blooms, and threatened species. In 1972, the United States Congress passed the Ocean Dumping Act, giving the Environmental Protection Agency power to monitor and regulate the dumping of sewage sludge, industrial waste, radioactive waste and biohazardous materials into the nation's territorial waters. The Act was amended sixteen years later to include medical wastes. It is illegal to dispose of any plastic in US waters.
Ownership
Property law, admiralty law and the law of the sea may be of relevance when lost, mislaid, and abandoned property is found at sea. Salvage law rewards salvors for risking life and property to rescue the property of another from peril. On land the distinction between deliberate and accidental loss led to the concept of a "treasure trove". In the United Kingdom, shipwrecked goods should be reported to a Receiver of Wreck, and if identifiable, they should be returned to their rightful owner.
Activism
A large number of groups and individuals are active in preventing or educating about marine debris. For example, 5 Gyres is an organization aimed at reducing plastics pollution in the oceans, and was one of two organizations that recently researched the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Heal the Bay is another organization, focusing on protecting California's Santa Monica Bay, by sponsoring beach cleanup programs along with other activities. Marina DeBris is an artist focusing most of her recent work on educating people about beach trash. Interactive sites like Adrift demonstrate where marine plastic is carried, over time, on the worlds ocean currents.
On 11 April 2013 in order to create awareness, artist Maria Cristina Finucci founded The Garbage patch state at UNESCO –Paris in front of Director General Irina Bokova. First of a series of events under the patronage of UNESCO and of Italian Ministry of the Environment.
Forty-eight plastics manufacturers from 25 countries, are members of the Global Plastic Associations for solutions on Marine Litter, have made the pledge to help prevent marine debris and to encourage recycling.
Mitigation
Marine debris is a widespread problem, not only the result of activities in coastal regions.
Plastic debris from inland states come from two main sources: ordinary litter and materials from open dumps and landfills that blow or wash away to inland waterways and wastewater outflows. The refuse finds its way from inland waterways, rivers, streams and lakes to the ocean. Though ocean and coastal area cleanups are important, it is crucial to address plastic waste that originates from inland and landlocked states.
At the systems level, there are various ways to reduce the amount of debris entering our waterways:
Consumers can help to reduce the amount of plastic entering waterways by reducing usage of single-use plastics, avoiding microbeads, participate in a river or lake beach cleanup. | 0114e61a-f705-44dc-8072-d026e935d475 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Quinn_(rugby_league)"} | Australian rugby league footballer
Damien Quinn (born 24 August 1981) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer.
In 2001, Quinn played on the wing for the Toowoomba Clydesdales in the Queensland Cup Grand Final against the Redcliffe Dolphins, regarded as the most exciting Grand Final in Queenaland Cup History. Quinn's position of choice is as a five-eighth. He was a key player for the Crusaders since joining in 2006, and he won National League One's Player of the Year award in 2008
In August 2009, Quinn, along with five team mates, was ordered to leave the United Kingdom after the UK Border Agency identified breaches to their visa conditions. The Celtic Crusaders cancelled Quinn's contract with immediate effect. | 4b4899a1-0a01-4bf9-9ff8-a209cac0ce3c |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microposaurus"} | Extinct genus of amphibians
Microposaurus (meaning "small eyed lizard"; from Greek μικρός, "small" + ὀπός, "face" or "eye" + σαῦρος, "lizard") is an extinct genus of trematosaurid temnospondyl. Fossils are known from the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group (part of the Karoo Supergroup) in South Africa and the Rouse Hill Siltstone of Australia that date back to the Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic. These aquatic creatures were the short snouted lineage from Trematosaurinae.
Discovery
During 1923, the first species of Microposaurus were found by Dr. E. C. Case on a venture into the redbed exposures of Wonderboom Bridge. These sites, just south of Burgersdrop Formation in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, were from the Cynognathus zone. When found, the skull was described as an "embedded palate upwards, in a fairly soft dark-green shaly mudstone" which is characteristic of the amphibious behavior of Microposaurus. Relating to the name of the discoverer, the given name was Microposaurus casei. Unfortunately, the skull had a ferruginous material coating that could not be removed without damaging the already crushed skull. Also, from the coating, the sutures typical of skulls were unable to be determined decisively. From these drawbacks, many features stated by Haughton in his first examination of the specimen were later determined to be incorrect. As a result, when Damiani wrote his paper on M. casei he noted many features that Haughton had named or described incorrectly.
Several decades later, a new Microposaurus species was uncovered. During an expedition in the Anisian Rouse Hill Siltstones, Steven Avery found and named the holotype and single specimen of Microposaurus averyi. Unlike M. casei, this specimen was found in the Ashfield Shale Formation of New South Wales, Australia. Quite a distance from South Africa, the environment during the life period of Microposaurus would have been similar in both cases. The marine landscape, with black/gray, silty claystone was indicative that M. averyi also lived an amphibious lifestyle.
Classification and species
The classification of the first discovered skull of Microposaurus were to the lineage of trematosaurines. Common trematosaurines features observed from the specimen were their orbits were within the anterior half of their skull, the postorbital-prepineal growth zone was present, the anterior palatal vacuities were paired, the transvomerine tooth row was reduced or absent, the parasphenoid was antero-posteriorly elongated, the exoccipitals were underplated by the parasphenoid being posteriorly expanded, and in adults the orbits were small and located near the lateral margins of the skull. Based on these characteristics many authors agreed on the evolutionary placement of these amphibians. Furthermore, one main aspect of M. casei provided evidence for branching off from their sister family Lonchorhynchinae. The physically striking contrast between Microposaurus and Lonchorhynchinae was their seemingly short snouts compared to the elongated counterpart of the latter.
Description
M. casei
Skull
Besides being narrow, long, and wedge-shaped like most trematosaurids, M. casei also had significant ossification that caused individual skull bones to be indistinguishable from fusion with one another. A notable characteristic was the posterior placement of the "suspensorium beyond the skull table".
The rounded tip of their short snout produced nostrils that were closely spaced and further back which was from a significant prenarial growth. Furthermore, the nostrils had a teardrop shape from the anterior constriction experienced at the snout. An attribute of M. casei was symphyseal tusks from their lower jaw protruding into the nostril openings that caused small foramens in the anterior palatal vacuities to ventrally open with the nostrils (dorsally).
Found in all trematosauroids, their orbits were elliptical (long axes oriented medially) and had a smooth dorsal surface to the palatines. Upon this surface is also multiple foramina. Described as being more-complete on the left side of the skull and "relatively large, elliptical, and slightly constricted posteriorly". This is unique when compared to other trematosaurids having shallow and triangular otic notches.
Palate
As in the skull, the palate was also heavily ossified with a similarity to their lineage with having paired anterior palatal vacuities (APV). These APVs were formed by the premaxillae (anteriorly) and the vomers (posteriorly). These APVs had a posteroventrally prong-like process that separated them from one another anteriorly. Another similarity was the choana which is larger in Microposaurus but still circular-elliptical in appearance. A lasting ancestral trait was the quadrate ramus's primitive appearance of the same length and orientation. Some differences were the parasphenoid and pterygoid sutures were elongated, and the "parasphenoid was broader posteriorly than anteriorly".
Dentition
Out of any stereospondyl, the dentition of M. casei was described as the most specialized. The marginal tooth row were recurved medially which is a characteristic of mastodonsauroids and not trematosauroids. However, the tightly packed marginal teeth all had plaurodont implantations with antero-posterior compression at the bases. The palatal tooth row were reduced with little teeth on the vomers (medial to the choana) and on the posterior ends of the ectopterygoids. There were no teeth on the palatines. Referring back to the anterior tusks, they were giant in size with the left vomer being about 50mm in height, and the smallest on the left ectopterygoids at 30mm in height. The acrodont tooth style was seen in the palatal teeth and the tusks.
Occiput
Exoccipital condyles were present with a large, rounded outlining. The paroccipital processes were attached to each condyle but barely persevered in the specimen. A single, large paraquadrate foramen was seen near the posterolateral margin of the skull.
M. averyi
Three distinctive characteristics were detected on the M. averyi specimen that separated the two species from one another. The greatly enlarged anterior emargination of the external nostrils were more anteriorly placed. The APV were widely separated without the prong of the premaxilla like M. casei. And there was a medial subrostral fossa in the premaxillae.
Geological and Paleobiology
While Microposaurus lived during the Anisian period of the Triassic, the transition from the Permian-Triassic created more aquatic environments for these species to survive. In the Karoo Basin of South Africa, after the extinction, multiple new rivers were created that ran through areas of the continent.
Due to the aquatic lifestyle of Microposaurus, their diet was determined to be piscivorous. For all trematosaurids, most were marine at one point in their life cycles. The normal size of these carnivorous predators was about one to two meters in total body length. Inferred to be eating smaller vertebrates found in their wide range of environments.
At the time of diverging of trematosaurids (between the short and long-snouted (Lonchorhynchinae)), these aquatic swimmers had a nearly global distribution. The contribution to this wide distribution is from their possible euryhaline ability and preference to "nearshore marine to distal deltaic habitats". These observations were "based on the associated invertebrate faunal elements such as ammonoids and bivalves". Alternatively, marine temnospondyls were interpreted as "‘crisis progenitors’" who were "‘initially adapted to perturbed environmental conditions of the mass extinction interval, readily survive this interval, and are among the first groups to seed subsequent radiation into unoccupied ecospace during the survival and recovery intervals’". Further supporting their radiation to other parts of Pangea that lead to the high diversification during the Early Triassic. Also resulting in the spreading from South Africa to South America (Brazil) where more fossils of Stereospondyls were found. Even a mandible from the Lower Anisian Mukheiris Formation in Jordan was discovered, and shared many similarities with the genus, including a similarly sized Meckelian fenestra on the inner surface of the lower jaw, teeth with sharp edges, and large fangs in the upper jaw. | 61430d92-7d7d-4548-a586-77d3b59ddb81 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Sergeyevich_Smirnov_(painter)"} | Russian painter
Vasily Sergeyevich Smirnov (Russian: Василий Сергеевич Смирнов; 12 August 1858 – 17 December 1890) was a Russian painter in the Academic style who specialized in scenes from ancient history.
Biography
He was born to a family of the Russian nobility. His father served as a chamberlain at the Imperial Court and Marshal of the nobility in the Klinsky District. He apparently decided upon art as a career through the influence of Vasily Perov, a friend of the family. In 1875, he enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He participated in an exhibition there in 1878, winning a silver medal.
That same year, he transferred to the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, where he studied with Pyotr Shamshin and Pavel Chistyakov. In 1882, he was granted leave from the Academy due to "chronic catarrh" of the lungs. The following year, he was awarded the title of "Artist" and a stipend to study abroad.
He went to Italy, via Vienna, and eventually settled in Rome. The summer heat proved too intense, so he moved to Turin, then spent some time in Paris, exhibiting at the Salon. After travelling throughout Northwestern Europe, he returned to Italy, where he lived with Vasily Savinsky [ru], who became a sort of mentor.
In 1885, he made sketches at Pompeii, which was the start of his interest in Classical subjects. The following year, he began work on "The Death of Nero", which took two years to complete. It was sent to Saint Petersburg and, after several showings, was bought by Tsar Alexander III.
In 1889, he became an associate professor at the Academy, but stayed for only a short time as his lung condition (diagnosed as tuberculosis) continued to worsen. The Italian climate had no beneficial effect so, sensing the end was near, he decided to return to the family estate. He died while in transit, on the train between Kubinka and Golitsyno. His brother organized a major exhibition in 1891, which included several unfinished paintings.
Works
Literary sources | c0a9a41e-fe7a-466d-8f36-28ee6967474a |
null | Argentine footballer
Brian Nicolás Aguirre (born 6 January 2003) is an Argentine footballer who plays as a forward for Newell's Old Boys.
Club career
Aguirre joined Newell's Old Boys' youth academy in 2015. He made his first appearance for the senior squad on 26 April 2021 in a 1–2 loss against Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata for the Copa de la Liga Profesional. He renewed his contract with the club at the end of the season.
In September 2022, he suffered a knee injury that left him unable to play any game in the 2022 season.
International career
Aguirre was called up to the Argentina national under-20 football team for the 2022 Maurice Revello Tournament in France.
In January 2023, he was called up to the Argentina national under-20 football team ahead of the 2023 South American Championship.
Career statistics
Club
As of 11 January 2023 | 5bd19f87-9702-4bc6-9fff-9a3cdd49f7ea |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Information_and_Communications_Services_Group"} | LICSG is now the reserve element of a regular Royal Signals unit 15th Signal Regiment (Information Support) and as of 1 May 2014 became 254 Signal Squadron.
The Land Information and Communications Services Group (LICSG) of the British Army was one of the four Territorial Army (TA) units which constituted Central Volunteer Headquarters Royal Signals (CVHQ), the others being 81 Signal Squadron (Volunteers), the Land Information Assurance Group (LIAG) and the Full Time Reserve Service. Members of CVHQ are considered to be subject matter experts (SMEs) with current commercial and military skills and experience in either information assurance (IA) or information and communications services (ICS). It is a Royal Signals cap-badged unit and has members who have served with the Royal Navy; Army units: Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Signals, Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, Infantry units and the Royal Logistics Corps together with the Royal Air Force.
The LICSG provided critical national infrastructure (CNI) support in line with both the National Cyber Security Strategy and ISO/IEC 27001 (a compliance standard for information security management), offering specialist expertise and advice at every stage of the development and management of ICS. Key functions which it can undertake include:
The LICSG helped bring about the following effects for a defence organization: | cfd32d5d-748b-454e-9ced-3960370503e8 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holla_Holla_(Akon_song)"} | 2008 promotional single by Akon featuring T-Pain
"Holla Holla" is the first of three promotional singles from Akon's third studio album Freedom. The song features guest vocals from American singer/rapper T-Pain. The single was released as a digital download on iTunes on November 25, 2008, however, was on to the internet on November 17, 2008. The song peaked at #19 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart on December 1, 2008. The song was not released on any physical formats.
Track listing
Charts | 9fe2d55a-d0b1-40c2-b446-70c08b11a9a4 |
null | Icelandic footballer
Elmar Geirsson (born 25 July 1948) is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Club career
Geirsson started at Fram and later was successful in Germany with Hertha Zehlendorf and SV Eintracht Trier 05.
International career
He made his debut for Iceland in 1967 and went on to win 23 caps, scoring two goals. | 7f0d8f28-adfc-414f-b58c-e248d85d6012 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Time_Goes_By_(novel)"} | As Time Goes By is a novel written by American author Michael Walsh, intended as a prequel/sequel to the film Casablanca. It was published in 1998. The book alternates between the early life of Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart in the film) in America and the period immediately after the plane leaves Casablanca at the end of the 1942 film.
Plot
1931-35
Yitzik "Rick" Baline is a small-time New York criminal during the time of Prohibition. He meets and falls in love with Lois, daughter of Solly Horowitz, a big-time gangster and becomes a favorite of Solly. He eventually becomes Boss of the 'Tootsie-Wootsie' Club, a speakeasy. He is viewed with extreme disfavor by Tick-Tock, Solly's principal assistant, who plans to be the heir to Solly's businesses if he should retire or be killed.
Solly makes it clear that Lois is intended for better things, and she eventually marries a lawyer and would-be politician, Robert Meredith, whom she does not really love.
Warfare erupts between the Horowitz, Salucci and O'Hanlon gangs and there are several deaths. Solly and Tick-Tock are killed, as are Lois and her husband, now exposed as a corrupt politician. Rick must flee America. He takes Solly's money, half a million dollars, probably intended for Lois, and travels to Boston with Sam. While the two are purchasing tickets for a steamship to Le Harve, Rick changes his name to Richard Blaine.
1941-42
Rick, Louis and Sam leave Casablanca with documents provided by Louis. They all travel via Lisbon to London. America has now entered WW2 and they track down Victor, who is keen to resume his part in the work of the Czech Resistance. Ilsa begs him to allow her to assist him, and Rick and Louis also become involved while Sam stays in London.
Ilsa, who speaks perfect Russian, is placed in Prague as an assistant to Reinhard Heydrich, the 'Butcher of Prague'. Her cover is as a White Russian, and she gains his confidence to the point where he wants her to become his mistress.
The plot to assassinate Heydrich (Operation Anthropoid) goes ahead, despite last-minute delays and great risks. During the operation Victor kills Louis, having become convinced that he was a traitor. He then assassinates Heydrich but is killed in the process.
With North Africa once again in Allied hands, Ilsa and Rick marry and return to Casablanca with Sam. With Carl as the new owner, Rick's Café Americain is still operating. | b50d6a43-defa-4c2e-8880-41d31631335e |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_Storer_(Ohio_politician)"} | American politician
Bellamy Storer (March 26, 1796 – June 1, 1875) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio, father of Bellamy Storer (1847).
Born in Portland in Massachusetts' District of Maine, Storer attended private schools in his native city. He entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick in 1809. He studied law in Boston. He was admitted to the bar in Portland in 1817 and commenced practice in Cincinnati, Ohio, the same year.
Storer was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837). He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1836 to the Twenty-fifth Congress, taking a job as a professor in Cincinnati Law School 1855–1874. He was a Whig Presidential elector in 1844 for Clay/Frelinghuysen. He was nominated by the Whigs in 1851 for the Ohio Supreme Court, but lost. He served as judge of the superior court of Cincinnati from its organization in 1854 until 1872, when he resigned. He resumed the practice of law, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 1, 1875. He was interred in Spring Grove Cemetery.
He was a trustee of Ohio University beginning in 1866. A bust of Storer was sculpted by Moses Jacob Ezekiel.
Sources | 5e8a5b54-1216-4c47-9af6-b42651a5f869 |
{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Offence"} | 1936 British film
The First Offence is a 1936 British low-budget "quota quickie" drama film directed by Herbert Mason, produced by Michael Balcon for Gainsborough Pictures and starring John Mills, Lilli Palmer and Bernard Nedell. It is a remake of the 1934 French film Mauvaise Graine, directed by Billy Wilder.
Plot
A wealthy doctor's rich and spoiled son, Johnnie Penrose joins a gang of car thieves in France after being denied a car by his father.
Cast
Production
The film was originally called Bad Blood and was going to star Paul Robeson.
Filming took place in London.
Bibliography | da45a60e-f2ba-45b1-b513-574b60494b3e |
null | Dam in Tottori Prefecture, Japan
Dam in Tottori Prefecture, Japan
Myogadani Dam is a gravity dam located in Tottori prefecture in Japan. The dam is used for power production. The catchment area of the dam is 50.4 km2. The dam impounds about 5 ha of land when full and can store 612 thousand cubic meters of water. The construction of the dam was started on 1958 and completed in 1960. | 6604ef93-5791-4688-8630-34b5b6f067e7 |
null | 5th season of No Prep Kings racing
2022 Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings
Previous
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Next
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Final Standings | 2e87c733-5e02-49a5-a27e-a29a671530ba |
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