title: Laura Nyro

text: While in high school, she sang with a group of friends in subway stations and on street corners. She said, "I would go out singing, as a teenager, to a party or out on the street, because there were harmony groups there, and that was one of the joys of my youth." She commented: "I was always interested in the social consciousness of certain songs. My mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers, so I felt at home in the peace movement and the women's movement, and that has influenced my music."


title: Laura Nyro

text: Louis Nigro's work brought him into contact with record company executive Artie Mogull and his partner Paul Barry, who auditioned Laura in 1966 and became her first managers. However, Nigro later said he did "not even once" mention Laura to any of his clients, adding "they would have laughed at me if I did."


title: Laura Nyro

text: Mogull had negotiated her a recording and management contract, and she recorded her debut album, "More Than a New Discovery", for the Verve Folkways label (later re-named Verve Forecast). Later, other songs from the album became hits for The 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Barbra Streisand.


title: Laura Nyro

text: On July 13, 1966, Nyro recorded “Stoney End” and “Wedding Bell Blues”, as well as an early version of “Time and Love”, as part of "More Than A New Discovery" at Bell Sounds Studios, 237 West 54th Street, Manhattan. About a month later, she sold "And When I Die" to Peter, Paul, and Mary for $5,000. On September 17, 1966, Nyro and Verve-Folkways released “Wedding Bell Blues"/"Stoney End” as a single. "Wedding Bell Blues" became a minor hit, especially on the west coast. She completed "More Than A New Discovery" in New York on November 29, 1966; and, starting on January 16, 1967, made her first extended professional appearance at age 19, performing nightly for about a month at the "hungry i" coffeehouse in San Francisco. In February 1967, Verve Folkways released "More Than A New Discovery". On March 4, 1967, Nyro appeared on "Clay Cole's Diskoteck", Episode 7.23, along with Dion and the Belmonts and others, but the recording of the episode is lost. On March 21, 1967, she appeared on "Where the Action Is" (episode 3.140) with videos of “Wedding Bell Blues” (partially extant), “Blowin' Away” (lost) and "Goodbye Joe" (lost).


title: Laura Nyro

text: On June 17, 1967, Nyro appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival. Although some accounts described her performance as a fiasco that culminated in her being booed off the stage, recordings later made publicly available contradict this version of events. "Newsweek" reporter Michael Lydon reviewed her performance very negatively, writing that "the evening hit bottom" during Nyro's "melodramatic" set.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Soon afterwards, David Geffen approached Mogull about taking over as Nyro's agent. Nyro successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on the grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor. Geffen became her manager, and the two established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, under which the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged Nyro's new recording contract with Clive Davis at Columbia Records, and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. In his memoir "Clive: Inside the Record Business", Davis recalled Nyro's audition for him: She had invited him to her New York apartment, turned off every light except that of a television set next to her piano, and played him the material that would become "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession". Around this time, she considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears after the departure of founder Al Kooper, but was dissuaded by Geffen. Blood, Sweat & Tears went on to have a hit with a cover of Nyro's "And When I Die".


title: Laura Nyro

text: The new contract allowed Nyro more artistic freedom and control. In 1968, Columbia released "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession", her second album, which received high critical praise for the depth and sophistication of its performance and arrangements, which merged pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz; it is widely considered one of her best works. It was followed in 1969 by "New York Tendaberry", another highly acclaimed work that cemented Nyro's artistic credibility. "Time and Love" and "Save the Country" emerged as two of her most well-regarded and popular songs in the hands of other artists. During the weekend after Thanksgiving in November 1969, she gave two concerts at Carnegie Hall. Her own recordings sold mostly to a faithful cadre of followers. This prompted Clive Davis, in his memoir, to note that her recordings, as solid as they were, came to resemble demonstrations for other performers.


title: Laura Nyro

text: In 1969, Verve reissued Nyro's debut album as "The First Songs". The same year Geffen and Nyro sold Tuna Fish Music to CBS for $4.5 million. Under the terms of his partnership with Nyro, Geffen received half of the proceeds of the sale, making them both millionaires.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro's fourth album, "Christmas and the Beads of Sweat", was released at the end of 1970. It contained "Upstairs By a Chinese Lamp" and "When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag" and featured Duane Allman and other Muscle Shoals musicians. The following year's "Gonna Take a Miracle" was a collection of Nyro's favorite "teenage heartbeat songs", recorded with vocal group Labelle (Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash) and the production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. With the exception of her attribution of "Désiree" (originally "Deserie" by the Charts), it was Nyro's sole album of wholly non-original material, featuring such songs as "Jimmy Mack", "Nowhere to Run" and "Spanish Harlem".


title: Laura Nyro

text: During 1971, David Geffen worked to establish his own recording label, Asylum Records, in part because of the trouble he had trying to secure a recording contract for another of his clients, Jackson Browne (with whom Nyro was in a relationship at the time). Geffen invited Nyro to join the new label and announced that she would be Asylum's first singer; however, shortly before the signing was due to take place, Geffen learned that Nyro had re-signed with Columbia instead, without telling him. When interviewed about the matter for a 2012 PBS documentary on his life, Geffen, who'd considered Nyro his best friend, described her rejection as the biggest betrayal of his life up to that point, and said he "cried for days" afterwards.


title: Laura Nyro

text: By the end of 1971, Nyro was married to carpenter David Bianchini. She was reportedly uncomfortable with attempts to market her as a celebrity and she announced her retirement from the music business at the age of 24. In 1973 her Verve debut album was reissued as "The First Songs" by Columbia Records.


title: Laura Nyro

text: By 1976, her marriage had ended, and she released an album of new material, "Smile". She then embarked on a four-month tour with a full band, which resulted in the 1977 live album "Season of Lights".


title: Laura Nyro

text: After the 1978 album "Nested", recorded when she was pregnant with her only child, she again took a break from recording, this time until 1984's "Mother's Spiritual". She began touring with a band in 1988, her first concert appearances in 10 years. The tour was dedicated to the animal rights movement. The shows led to her 1989 release, "", which included six new compositions.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Her final album of predominantly original material, "Walk the Dog and Light the Light" (1993), her last album for Columbia, was co-produced by Gary Katz, best known for his work with Steely Dan. The release sparked reappraisal of her place in popular music, and new commercial offers began appearing. She turned down lucrative film-composing offers, although she contributed a rare protest song to the Academy Award-winning documentary "Broken Rainbow", about the unjust relocation of the Navajo people.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro performed increasingly in the 1980s and 1990s with female musicians, including her friend Nydia "Liberty" Mata, a drummer, and several others from the lesbian-feminist women's music subculture, such as members of the band Isis. She appeared at such venues as the 1989 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the 1989 Newport Folk Festival, of which a CD containing portions of her performance was released. On July 4, 1991, she opened for Bob Dylan at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Among her last performances were at Union Chapel, Islington, London, England in November 1994; The New York Bottom Line Christmas Eve Show in 1994; and at McCabe's in Los Angeles February 11 and 12, 1995.


title: Laura Nyro

text: "The Tonight Show" and the "Late Show with David Letterman" pursued Nyro for TV appearances, but she turned them down, citing her discomfort with appearing on television. (She made only a handful of early TV appearances, and one fleeting moment on VH-1 performing the title song from "Broken Rainbow" on Earth Day in 1990.) According to producer Gary Katz, she also turned down an invitation to be the musical guest on the 1993 season opener of "Saturday Night Live". She never released an official video, although there was talk of filming some "The Bottom Line" appearances in the 1990s.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro was bisexual, though this fact was known only to her closest friends. She had a relationship with singer/songwriter Jackson Browne in late 1970 to early 1971. Browne was Nyro's opening act at the time.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro married Vietnam War veteran David Bianchini in October 1971 after a whirlwind romance and spent the next three years living with him in a small town in Massachusetts. The marriage ended after three years, during which time she had grown accustomed to rural life, as opposed to the life in the city, where she had recorded her first five records.


title: Laura Nyro

text: After Nyro split from Bianchini in 1975, she suffered the trauma of the death of her mother Gilda to ovarian cancer at the age of 49. She consoled herself largely by recording a new album, enlisting Charlie Calello, with whom she had collaborated on "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession".


title: Laura Nyro

text: In 1978, a short-lived relationship with Harindra Singh produced a son, Gil Bianchini (also known as musician Gil-T), whom she gave the surname of her ex-husband.


title: Laura Nyro

text: In the early 1980s, Nyro began living with painter Maria Desiderio (1954–1999), a relationship that lasted 17 years, the rest of Nyro's life.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro was a feminist and openly discussed it on a number of occasions, once saying, "I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that's how I see life."


title: Laura Nyro

text: By the late 1980s, Nyro had become an animal rights activist and vegetarian, and began to offer literature on the subject at her concerts.


title: Laura Nyro

text: In late 1996, Nyro, like her mother, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After the diagnosis, Columbia Records, with Nyro's involvement, prepared a two-CD retrospective of material from her years at the label. She lived to see the release of "" in 1997.


title: Laura Nyro

text: She died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997, at 49, the same age at which her mother died. Her ashes were scattered beneath a maple tree on the grounds of her house in Danbury.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro's posthumous releases include "Angel In The Dark" (2001), which includes her final studio recordings made in 1994 and 1995, and "The Loom's Desire" (2002), a set of live recordings with solo piano and harmony singers from "The Bottom Line" Christmas shows of 1993 and 1994.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro's influence on popular musicians has also been acknowledged by such artists as Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Tori Amos, Patti Smith, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Diamanda Galas, Bette Midler, Rickie Lee Jones, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Alice Cooper, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Sarah Cracknell, Melissa Manchester, Lisa Germano, and Rosanne Cash.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Todd Rundgren stated that once he heard her, he "stopped writing songs like The Who and started writing songs like Laura."


title: Laura Nyro

text: Cyndi Lauper acknowledged that her rendition of the song "Walk On By", on her Grammy Award-nominated 2003 cover album "At Last", was inspired by Nyro.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Elton John and Elvis Costello discussed Nyro's influence on both of them during the premiere episode of Costello's interview show . When asked by the host if he could name three great performer/songwriters who have largely been ignored, John cited Nyro as one of his choices. He also addressed Nyro's influence on his 1970 song "Burn Down the Mission", from "Tumbleweed Connection", in particular. "I idolized her," he concluded. "The soul, the passion, just the out and out audacity of the way her rhythmic and melody changes came was like nothing I've heard before."


title: Laura Nyro

text: Bruce Arnold, leader of the pioneering soft rock group Orpheus, was a fan of Nyro's music. They both worked with legendary studio drummer Bernard Purdie. While recording with Purdie, Arnold mentioned his love of Nyro's music, and the drummer responded with a story about Nyro: At Nyro's home one night in the late 1970s, Purdie mentioned that he was the uncredited drummer for Orpheus. Nyro got excited and brought him into a room where she kept her record collection. She pulled out well-worn copies of every Orpheus LP, as well as copies sealed for posterity.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Diane Paulus and Bruce Buschel co-created "Eli's Comin"', a musical revue of the songs of Nyro, which, among others, starred Anika Noni Rose.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Louis Greenstein and Kate Ferber wrote "One Child Born: The Music of Laura Nyro", a one-woman show featuring Ferber and directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt. "One Child Born" was developed at CAP21 in New York City and has sold out Joe's Pub and the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York, World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, and other venues.


title: Laura Nyro

text: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the National Ballet of Canada have also included her music in their performances; notably, "Been On A Train" from "Christmas and the Beads of Sweat", in which a woman describes watching her lover die from a drug overdose, comprises the second movement of Ailey's 1971 solo for Judith Jamison, "Cry". Alvin Ailey choreographed "Quintet" in 1968 with 5 female members of his troupe dancing to several of Laura's songs from the first two albums.


title: Laura Nyro

text: On October 2, 2007, three-time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn released her new album "Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro". The album, which debuted as a concert to a sold-out house at Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series in January 2007, includes several of Nyro's biggest hits ("Stoned Soul Picnic", "Stoney End") as well as some of her lesser known gems.


title: Laura Nyro

text: In 1992, English shoegaze/Britpop band Lush released a song about Laura Nyro ("Laura") on their first full-length album "Spooky". Several of the band's songs (specifically those written by Emma Anderson) have echoed Nyro's music in their titles – "When I Die", "Single Girl". More recently, in 2012, Anderson has referred to Laura Nyro as "wondrous" on her Twitter account.


title: Laura Nyro

text: On her 2006 album "Build a Bridge," the operatic/Broadway soprano Audra McDonald included covers of Nyro's songs "To a Child" and "Tom Cat Goodbye".


title: Laura Nyro

text: Alice Cooper has mentioned on his syndicated radio show that Laura Nyro is one of his favorite songwriters.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, when promoting her 2006 solo album "Rabbit Fur Coat" repeatedly cited Nyro's 1971 album "Gonna Take a Miracle" as a big influence on her music. Lewis performed the first track on that album "I Met Him on a Sunday" on the Rabbit Fur Coat tour.


title: Laura Nyro

text: In the 2004 drama film "A Home at the End of the World" can be heard Nyro's recordings of "Désiree" and "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", both songs from the album "Gonna Take a Miracle".


title: Laura Nyro

text: Paul Shaffer, bandleader for the CBS Orchestra and sidekick on the "Late Show with David Letterman", stated that his desert island album would be "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession".


title: Laura Nyro

text: On October 27, 1997, a large-scale tribute concert was produced by women at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Performers included Rickie Lee Jones, Sandra Bernhard, Toshi Reagon, and Phoebe Snow.


title: Laura Nyro

text: "And a World To Carry On", an original tribute show celebrating the music and life of Laura Nyro, written by Barry Silber and Carole Coppinger, was first performed in 2008 (2nd performance late August 2015) at Carrollwood Players Theatre in Tampa, Fla.


title: Laura Nyro

text: "To Carry On", an original tribute show celebrating the music and life of Laura Nyro, starring Mimi Cohen, is in its second return engagement as of January 19, 2011, at Cherry Lane Theatre in Manhattan.


title: Laura Nyro

text: A biography of Nyro, "Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro", written by Michele Kort, was published in 2002 by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press. "On Track: Laura Nyro", a detailed song-by-song survey by Philip Ward, was published by Sonicbond in 2022.


title: Laura Nyro

text: An analysis of Nyro's music by music theorist Ari Shagal was written at the University of Chicago in 2003, linking Nyro's work to the Great American Songbook by demonstrating the similarities between her chordal language and those of Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, and George Shearing.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Nyro's life and music were celebrated in a 2005 BBC Radio 2 documentary, "Shooting Star – Laura Nyro Remembered", which was narrated by her friend Bette Midler and included contributions from her one-time manager David Geffen, co-producers Arif Mardin and Gary Katz, and performers Suzanne Vega and Janis Ian. It was rebroadcast on April 4, 2006.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Janis Ian, who attended the High School of Music and Art in New York at the same time as Nyro, discussed her friendship with Nyro during the late 1960s in her autobiography, "Society's Child". Ian described her as looking like a "Morticia Addams" caricature with her long, dark hair, and called her a "brilliant songwriter" but "oddly inarticulate" in terms of musical terminology. Ian was a fan of Nyro's work with producer Charlie Calello and chose him as the producer of her 1969 album "Who Really Cares" on the basis of his work with Nyro.


title: Laura Nyro

text: Comedian, writer, and singer Sandra Bernhard has spoken extensively of Laura Nyro as an ongoing inspiration. She dedicated a song, "The Woman I Could've Been" on "Excuses for Bad Behavior (Part One)", to her. She also sang Nyro's "I Never Meant to Hurt You" in her film "Without You I'm Nothing".


title: Laura Nyro

text: Rickie Lee Jones's album "Pirates" and songs such as "We Belong Together" and "Living It Up" are reminiscent of early Laura Nyro songs, and Jones acknowledged Nyro's influence. In her memoir, "Last Chance Texaco", Jones describes discovering Nyro's music in the summer of 1970, saying “Somehow, the moment I fell in love with Laura I loved myself just a little more. I believe an invisible cord came out of me and attached itself to Laura Nyro that summer. Or vice versa.”


title: Laura Nyro

text: Todd Rundgren has also acknowledged the strong influence of Nyro's 1960s music on his own songwriting. While a member of the pop group Nazz, his great admiration for Nyro led him to arrange a meeting with her (which took place shortly after she had recorded the "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" LP). Nyro invited Rundgren to become the musical director of her backing group, but his commitments to Nazz obliged him to decline. Rundgren's debut solo album "Runt" (1970) includes the strongly Nyro-influenced "Baby Let's Swing" which was written about her and mentions her by name. Rundgren and Nyro remained friends for much of her professional career and he subsequently assisted her with the recording of her album "Mother's Spiritual".


title: Laura Nyro

text: On April 14, 2012, Laura Nyro was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction speech was delivered by singer Bette Midler and the award was accepted by her son, Gil Bianchini. The song "Stoney End" was performed by singer Sara Bareilles at the induction ceremony.


title: Laura Nyro

text: The Scottish band Cosmic Rough Riders released a tribute song, "Laura Nyro," on their 2001 album "Pure Escapism".


title: Laura Nyro

text: On July 22, 2014, composer/arranger Billy Childs released "". The album features ten Laura Nyro songs performed by a long list of stars including Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, Alison Krauss, Dianne Reeves, and Wayne Shorter. The album was nominated for three Grammys, with the "New York Tendaberry" track featuring Renee Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma winning for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals.


title: Laura Nyro

text: In 2015, The Christine Spero Group released "Spero Plays Nyro", the Music of Laura Nyro along with a highly acclaimed live tour. The album features eleven of Nyro's songs and an original song, "Laura and John" by Christine Spero, a tribute to Laura Nyro and John Coltrane, whom Nyro admired. This was evidenced in the lyrics of her song "The Roll of the Ocean" ("I want Coltrane in the moon


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: Sacha Dhawan (; born 1 May 1984) is a British actor from Greater Manchester. He is best known for playing Akthar in the play "The History Boys" (2004–2006) and its film adaptation (2006), Paul Jatri in the BBC One comedy drama series "Last Tango in Halifax" (2012), Waris Hussein in the BBC Two docudrama film "An Adventure in Space and Time" (2013), Manish Prasad in the crime thriller "Line of Duty" (2014), Davos in "Marvel's Iron Fist" (2017–2018), Orlo in "The Great" (2020) and The Master in the long-running BBC science fiction series "Doctor Who" (2020–2022).


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: Dhawan trained at the Laine-Johnson Theatre School in Manchester, and started acting at the age of twelve. He attended Aquinas College in Stockport.


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: Dhawan was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2006. In 2016, he suffered from flare ups whilst filming "Iron Fist" in New York.


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: Dhawan has appeared in a number of television shows in the United Kingdom. He had recurring roles in "Weirdsister College", in which he played Azmat Madaridi, and series two and three of the children's TV series "Out of Sight". He appeared in the mini series "The Last Train" (1999), and has guest starred in episodes on "EastEnders", "Altogether Now", and "City Central". He also appeared in 2008 ITV drama, "Wired", as Ben Chandrakar, alongside Jodie Whittaker and Laurence Fox. He was part of an ensemble cast on the NBC sitcom "Outsourced", which aired during the 2010–11 season. In November 2013, Dhawan portrayed director Waris Hussein in "An Adventure in Space and Time", a BBC Two biographical television film on the creation of the BBC science fiction television series "Doctor Who" as part of its 50th Anniversary celebration. He also appeared as Paul Jatri, a 22-year-old man involved with a woman twice his age, in the first series of BBC One's "Last Tango in Halifax". He plays the part of Davos in the Netflix series "Iron Fist" in both the seasons. He starred as Sathnam Sanghera in the critically acclaimed "The Boy with the Topknot", shown on BBC 2 in 2017. He appeared in four episodes of the twelfth series of "Doctor Who" as the latest incarnation of the renegade Time Lord known as the Master. He plays the role of Count Orlo, advisor to Catherine the Great, in comedy-drama TV series "The Great".


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: Dhawan originated the role of Akthar in Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys". After playing Akthar in the original stage production he reprised the role in the Broadway, Sydney, Wellington and Hong Kong productions, and radio and film versions of the play.


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: For his performance in "Bradford Riots" he won the 2007 Royal Television Society Award for On-Screen Breakthrough.


title: Sacha Dhawan

text: In July 2018 Dhawan reunited with "History Boys" playwright Alan Bennett and co-star Samuel Barnett for Bennett's new play "Allelujah!" at the Bridge Theatre.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: The Heroes of Olympus is a pentalogy of fantasy-adventure novels written by American author Rick Riordan. The novels detail a conflict between Greek demigods, Roman demigods, and Gaia (Roman name Terra). In the fourth book of the series, there is also a semi-large fight against Tartarus, which, in Greek mythology, was the darkest and deepest point of the Underworld.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: The series can be read as a standalone volume, but is meant to be read after "Percy Jackson and the Olympians". Riordan introduces Roman mythology in the series alongside several new characters, primarily from the Roman Camp Jupiter. The first book of the series, "The Lost Hero", was published on October 12, 2010. The final entry in the series, "The Blood of Olympus", was published on October 7, 2014. The story is continued in the sequel series "The Trials of Apollo."


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: "The Heroes of Olympus" is centered around a prophecy, introduced in "The Last Olympian", that predicted seven demigods would unite to protect the world from an awakening new enemy, the Earth goddess Gaia. Demigods from both the Greek camp, Camp Half-Blood, and a newfound Roman camp, Camp Jupiter, unite to save the world from being destroyed by Gaia. The prophecy reads:


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: <poem>"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, (Hazel Levesque, Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase, Frank Zhang, Leo Valdez, Piper McLean)


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: To storm or fire, the world must fall. (Leo's fire powers defeated a Roman leader who fought with Gaia, Octavian)


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: An oath to keep with a final breath, (Leo's oath to come back to a magical island where his love waited)


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death." (The awakened giants and Tartarus guard the doors of death)</poem> Seven demigodsAnnabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Percy Jackson and Piper McLean from Camp Half-Blood, with Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque from Camp Jupiterjoin forces. Some other important characters are Nico di Angelo, son of Hades; Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, Praetor of Camp Jupiter and daughter of Bellona; and Gleeson Hedge, a satyr, all of whom are tasked with trying to bring peace between the Greeks and the Romans. The books are set between winter and August, hypothetically in the year 2009.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: The novel begins by introducing Jason Grace (son of Jupiter), Piper McLean (daughter of Aphrodite) and Leo Valdez (son of Hephaestus), three newly discovered demigods who travel to Camp Half-Blood in response to a prophecy, they set off on a quest to prevent the rebirth of the giant king Porphyrion and rescue Piper's father, who has been kidnapped by another giant, Enceladus. Jason, who has amnesia, also begins to remember pieces of his past throughout the book - most importantly, that he comes from a Roman camp for demigods. Camp Half-Blood resolves to seek out this other camp both to gain allies in the fight against Gaia, the giants' mother and commander, and to locate the missing demigod Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon. This book is set in winter.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: The novel opens with Percy Jackson (struck with amnesia) discovering Camp Jupiter and meeting several Roman demigods. After a prophecy from Mars, he, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque travel to Alaska to stop the rise of the giant Alcyoneus and free the god Thanatos, whom the giant has captured. After successfully completing their mission, the group returns to Camp Jupiter to defend it from yet another giant, Polybotes, and his army. After repelling this invasion, the demigods from Camp Jupiter go to meet the delegation from Camp Half-Blood arriving in the flying ship known as the "Argo II". This book is set in June.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: After the "Argo II" unintentionally fires on Camp Jupiter, the seven demigods of the "Prophecy of Seven" Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Piper, and Leo rush to escape the angered Roman campers. They travel to Rome, guided by the "Mark of Athena", a magical talisman designed to lead children of Athena (like Annabeth) to the missing Athena Parthenos. During their journey, they hear that Nico di Angelo has been captured by the Aloadae, and go to rescue him. Although they successfully free the son of Hades and locate the statue, Annabeth and Percy are pulled into Tartarus by Gaia, and Nico promises Percy to get the other demigods to the "Doors of Death". This book is set between June and July.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: In Tartarus, Percy and Annabeth travel towards the "Doors of Death", the only pathway back to the mortal world, with help from Bob the Titan, hoping to escape and simultaneously stop more monsters from getting through. In the mortal world, the remaining demigods search for the mortal side of the Doors to help open them. They also meet with Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, a Roman demigod; she, Nico, and Coach Hedge leave with the Athena Parthenos for Camp Half-Blood. Once reunited, the original seven sail for Greece, where they expect Gaia's main force will gather. This book is set in the first half of July.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: While Reyna, Nico, and Coach Hedge travel towards Camp Half-Blood (where the Romans are preparing to attack the Greeks), the seven of the quest travel to Athens. With help from the gods, the demigods defeat the giants in Athens. They then return to the fight on Camp Half-Blood. where Leo sacrifices himself to defeat Gaia. He is later resurrected by his bronze dragon Festus and goes to find his crush Calypso. Unaware that he is alive, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter mourn his loss, determining to become allies and prevent such a deadly war from happening again. This book is set in the second half of July.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: Released August 14, 2012, "The Demigod Diaries" is a collection of short stories. Similar to "The Demigod Files", it contains some new stories with character interviews, illustrations, puzzles, and a quiz. The four stories include:


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: After realizing how many Greek and Roman myths he had left untouched as well the immense success of the original series, Riordan began writing a second series, using inspiration for his storyline from experiences that he and his children had while playing video and role-playing games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Scion". After creating the storyline, Riordan created three new main characters—Jason, Piper, and Leo—but continued to use the previous main characters such as Annabeth and Grover as secondary characters.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: Unlike the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, which uses first-person narration solely from Percy's point of view, the second series is told in third person, with the point of view alternating between various main characters. In "The Lost Hero", those characters are Jason, Piper, and Leo. Although initially uncertain how fans would react, Riordan later found that they enjoyed the new format, as it allowed them to learn more about each character.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: Riordan says that "It was my way of letting them revisit that world in a fresh twist, but also to catch up with Percy and Annabeth and the rest of the gang from the first series". He also decided to include the Roman gods after many readers requested that Riordan write a new series on Roman gods, who are the Roman equivalent of the Greek gods, with some minor changes in personality. He pondered on how the Roman aspect of the gods would be after moving from Greece to Rome to America. After a while, "playing with that idea gave me the idea for the new series".


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: "The Lost Hero", the first book in the "Heroes of Olympus" series, was released on October 12, 2010 as a hardcover, audiobook, and ebook. The initial publishing run consisted of 2.5 million copies. The book's official publication was preceded by several "sneak-peek" releases by Disney-Hyperion. A graphic novel version, adapted and illustrated by Orpheus Collar, was released October 7, 2014. Another graphic novel, was made for "The Son of Neptune".


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: A sequel pentalogy series titled "The Trials of Apollo" was released, with the first installment, "The Hidden Oracle" released on May 3, 2016. The second installment, "The Dark Prophecy", was released on May 2, 2017. The third installment, "The Burning Maze" was released on May 1, 2018. The fourth installment, "The Tyrant's Tomb" was released on September 24, 2019. "The Tower of Nero", the last book in the series, was released on October 6, 2020.


title: The Heroes of Olympus

text: "The Lost Hero" won the Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2010 award and was a Massachusetts Children's Book Award Honor book for 2014, among other honors. Rick Riordan was named "Author of the Year" for the novel at the 2011 Children's Choice Awards. The book was also recommended by the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults list of 2012.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Andrew Symonds (9 June 1975 – 14 May 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, who played all three formats as a batting all-rounder. Commonly nicknamed "Roy", he was a key member of two World Cup winning squads. Symonds played as a right-handed, middle order batsman and alternated between medium pace and off-spin bowling. He was also notable for his exceptional fielding skills.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: After mid-2008, Symonds spent significant time out of the team, due to disciplinary reasons, including alcohol. In June 2009, he was sent home from the 2009 World Twenty20, his third suspension, expulsion or exclusion from selection in the space of a year. His central contract was then withdrawn, and many cricket analysts speculated that the Australian administrators would no longer tolerate him, and that Symonds might announce his retirement. Symonds eventually retired from all forms of cricket in February 2012, to concentrate on his family life.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: One of Symonds' birth parents was of an Afro-Caribbean background, while the other was believed to be of Scandinavian descent. Symonds was adopted by parents Ken and Barbara at three months and they moved to Australia when he was a toddler. He had three siblings. His sister, Louise Symonds, who was also adopted, was a contestant on the Australian "Gladiators" television series in 2008.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: He spent the early part of his childhood in Charters Towers, northern Queensland, where his father taught at the private fee paying All Souls St Gabriels School, which Symonds attended. He showed sporting prowess from a very early age. "Dad was cricket mad. He’d throw balls to me five or six days a week, before school, after school. And we’d play all sorts of games inside the house with ping-pong balls and Christmas decorations." Much of his junior cricket was played in Townsville for the Wanderers club, father and son making the 270-kilometre return trip sometimes twice a week. The family later moved to the Gold Coast, where his parents were on the staff of All Saints Anglican School in Merrimac. Symonds was a student at the school.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds was an aggressive right-handed batsman who could also bowl off spin or medium pace, making him a good all-rounder. He was an exceptional fielder, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the fifth equal most run-outs in One Day International (ODI) cricket of any fieldsman, with the fourth highest success rate, with Ricky Ponting rating him the best fielder he had seen, and a better and more versatile one than Herschelle Gibbs and Jonty Rhodes because Symonds was taller than them, giving him better defensive coverage range and had greater throw power outside the circle. He was very agile for his size and weight (medium-heavy build; 187 cm tall), had excellent reflexes, was able to take catches well and had a powerful and accurate throwing arm. His nickname was Roy, shortened from the name Leroy, after a coach from early in his career believed he resembled local Brisbane basketball player Leroy Loggins. He was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 1994.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In 1995, after playing in his first season for English county Gloucestershire, Symonds won the Cricket Writer's Club Young Cricketer of the Year award. Shortly afterwards Symonds was selected as part of the England A team that was to tour Pakistan in the winter; however, he decided not to go, instead choosing to pursue an international career for Australia. His place on the tour was later taken by Middlesex player Jason Pooley.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds scored more than 5,000 runs and took more than 100 wickets for the Queensland state team. He scored 113 and took four wickets in a losing cause in the final of the 1998–99 Sheffield Shield season, and was named man of the match in the 2002 Pura Cup final after scoring 123 runs and taking six wickets.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds played for four English counties during his career—Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire and Surrey. His first appearance for an English county was with Gloucestershire. Initially he was considered an England-qualified player, however, following his first season of county cricket in 1995 he declared that his allegiances lay with Australia when he chose not to tour Pakistan with the England A team.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In August 1995, he hit a record 16 sixes in his unbeaten 254 against Glamorgan at Abergavenny. In doing so, he beat the previous mark set by New Zealand's John R. Reid. "Wisden" reported that the 16th six "landed on a tennis court about over the boundary" and "though he was undoubtedly helped by the short boundaries, it would have been a hugely effective innings on any ground in the world". The record was equalled by Graham Napier for Essex against Surrey in 2011, and stood until May 2022 when Ben Stokes hit 17 sixes in an innings for Durham against Worcestershire. Symonds added four more sixes in the second innings, to beat the old record of 17 in a match, set by Warwickshire's Jim Stewart against Lancashire at Blackpool in 1959.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In July 2005, he signed for Lancashire for the rest of the English season having finished duties as part of Australia's ODI squad. In April 2010, he signed for Surrey to play in the Friends Provident t20 competition.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Between 1999 and 2004, Symonds played for Kent. He joined the club as an overseas player for the first time ahead of the 1999 County Championship and was also brought in as an injury replacement for Daryll Cullinan during the 2001 County Championship.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: He eventually made his mark in T20 cricket which was in its early days during his stint with Kent. He also featured for Kent in the inaugural edition of the 2003 Twenty20 Cup and played an influential knock of an unbeaten 96 runs off just 37 balls with a strike rate of 259.45 against Hampshire in a group stage match. His knock which came at a strike rate of over 250 was a surprise given that T20 cricket was in its very early days. His knock sealed the deal for Kent as the modest target of 146 was reached within just 12 overs.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Some of his highlights came on 2 July 2004 when he hit a 43-ball 112 for Kent Spitfires in a Twenty20 Cup match against Middlesex Crusaders. He scored 112 in 37 minutes and his century, which came at 34 balls, was the then world record for the fastest ever century in T20 cricket. His record stood for nine years before being surpassed by Chris Gayle, during the 2013 Indian Premier League, who did it in 30 balls. Symonds' knock comprised a flurry of boundaries including 18 fours and three sixes which came at a strike rate of 260.46 and his knock helped Kent to win the rain affected match convincingly by seven wickets with 29 balls to spare.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: He appeared in 49 first-class matches for Kent, scoring 3,526 runs for the club at an average of 45.20, including 12 centuries, and also taking 65 wickets. He also played in 62 List A matches for Kent, scoring 1,690 runs at an average of 30.17, and took 69 wickets at an average of 21.53. In 2020, Kent supporters named him as the club's Greatest Overseas Player.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In February 2008, Symonds was signed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Deccan Chargers for US$1,350,000, which made him the second most expensive player in the league at that time. During the 2008 competition, Symonds scored 117 not out from 53 balls against Rajasthan Royals. The Royals ended up winning the game, with Symonds conceding 19 runs from the final over, with 17 required to win. Symonds started the third season convincingly, scoring two 50s in his first three games with the side in 2010. The following year he was contracted by Mumbai Indians for US$850,000.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Although Symonds was originally qualified to play for England due to its being the country of his birth, and West Indies due to his ancestry, in 1995 he decided that he wished to pursue an international career for Australia instead. His international debut came on 10 November 1998, when he played in a One Day International (ODI) for Australia against Pakistan at Lahore. As an ODI player, he was known for scoring runs at an excellent strike rate of over 90, with a highest score of 156.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: However, at the start of his international career, Symonds struggled to make an impact with the bat and ball, although his fielding was of high quality, and was not a regular member of the playing XI. Symonds was named in Australia's 2003 Cricket World Cup squad. After all-rounder Shane Watson had to withdraw due to injury, Shane Warne was sent home after failing a drugs test, and with Darren Lehmann still serving a suspension for racial abuse, Symonds made his way into the starting XI. According to former England cricketer Adam Hollioake, Symonds would not have made the 2003 World Cup squad if he had not received backing from captain Ponting.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In the first match against Pakistan, Symonds scored 143 not out to guide Australia from 4/86 to 8/310 en route to an 82-run victory, a performance described by Kanta Murali of "The Hindu" as "one of the best knocks in one-day cricket history". The innings went on to become the turning point of his career. In the semi-final against Sri Lanka, Symonds top scored with 91 not out and was named Player of the Match, as Australia won by 48 runs. With Australia's defeat of India in the final, they claimed their third World Cup triumph, becoming the first team to go undefeated in an edition of the tournament. Following this breakthrough, "The Age" described Symonds "as a true one-day star", who had "become an essential part of the one-day team."


title: Andrew Symonds

text: He batted in five innings during the victorious 2003 World Cup campaign where he made 326 runs at an average of 163. He was also the third leading runscorer for Australia during the World Cup campaign just behind Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. He remained unbeaten in three of the five innings and his only failure with the bat in the tournament was against England where he was dismissed for a duck.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: A tour of the West Indies followed, with Symonds playing all seven ODIs, scoring half-centuries in the third and fifth matches. He ended as Australia's top run scorer in a 4–3 series victory.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In March 2004, Symonds made his Test debut in Australia's tour of Sri Lanka, with the selectors citing his bowling and his power hitting against spin bowlers as "ideal" for the subcontinent conditions. He replaced Simon Katich, who had scored a century and unbeaten fifty in Australia's previous Test. Playing as a batsman, Symonds encountered difficulty against Muttiah Muralitharan on the dusty, spinning Sri Lankan tracks, failing to pass 25 in any of his four innings, and was dropped after two Test matches in favour of Katich.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: He was recalled in November 2005 for South Africa's tour of Australia, following an injury to Shane Watson, as Australia's search for an all-rounder continued. After five Tests, with a batting average of 12.62 and a bowling average of 85.00, he was under pressure to retain his place in the team going into the 2005 Boxing Day Test. On the first day of the match, he was out caught behind for a golden duck. But Symonds then took 3/50 in the South African first innings, before hitting 72 off 54 balls in the second innings and taking 2/6 with the ball. For his performances in 2005, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: At the 2006 Allan Border Medal count, Symonds would have won the One Day Player of the Year award as he polled the most votes, but was ineligible due to a drinking binge during the 2005 Ashes tour.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds played every ODI in the tri-nation 2005–06 VB Series. He was named Player of the Match twice in the group stage: once as he hit a half-century in the opening game, and then again after scoring 32 and taking three wickets, both in victories over Sri Lanka. He also scored a second half-century, reaching 65 in a win over South Africa.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Having won six of their eight group stage games, Australia qualified for the best-of-three final, once again facing Sri Lanka, who finished second in the group table. After going down 1–0 in the opening match, Symonds put up 151, including 13 fours and three sixes. He shared a big partnership with Ricky Ponting as Australia recorded 5/368, setting their highest ever ODI score. Symonds was named Player of the Match once again. After Australia secured victory in the third game of the final, Symonds won Player of the Series honours, having scored 389 runs and recorded 11 wickets. For his performances in 2006, he was named as 12th man in the World ODI XI by the ICC.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: After South Africa's tour of Australia, the teams both headed to South Africa in February 2006 for another series there. Symonds missed the first three ODIs through injury, but returned in the fourth with a score of 76, to help Australia chase down a score of 246, and tie the series at 2–2. In the fifth and final ODI, Symonds contributed 27* as Australia broke the world record score for an ODI, with 434. But in what was billed "The greatest the world has seen" by "The Sydney Morning Herald", South Africa successfully chased and broke the new world record, setting a new high of 438, with 1 wicket and 1 ball to spare.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: While batting in the second Test of the tour, Symonds was struck in the face of his helmet by a bouncer off Makhaya Ntini. Symonds required four stitches on the inside of his upper lip. After scoring just 101 runs and claiming one wicket in the three Test series, Symonds found himself dropped from the Test team for the subsequent tour of Bangladesh, with Michael Clarke taking his place.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Following the retirement of Damien Martyn during the 2006–07 Ashes, Symonds was again recalled to the team. Although he scored just 26 and 2 in his first Test back, he retained his place in the team for the second match. In the Boxing Day Test, Symonds arrived at the crease with Australia at 5/84. After a slow start to his innings he proceeded to score his maiden Test century, combining with Matthew Hayden to put on a 279 run partnership and bringing up the century with a six. Symonds was finally dismissed for 156.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Although selected in Australia's 15-member World Cup squad he was unavailable for selection for the first few matches because he ruptured his biceps while batting against England on 2 February 2007 in the Commonwealth Bank Tri Series. Surgery was performed and Symonds underwent extensive physical rehabilitation. As a result, he missed the remainder of that tournament as well as the Chappell–Hadlee Trophy in New Zealand, while Australia suffered their longest losing streak in over a decade.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds remarkably made a relatively quick recovery after returning for Australia's win in their last preliminary World Cup match against South Africa. Australia reached the final, where they faced Sri Lanka. In a rain-affected game, shortened to 38/36 overs per side, Symonds scored 23 not out during Australia's innings, and bowled the final ball of the tournament to seal victory in a contest that concluded in near-total darkness.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In 2007, crowds at the One Day Series in Vadodara, Nagpur and Mumbai were seen to offend Symonds with monkey chants. After the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) initially denied the incident at Vadodara took place (claiming it was a confusion with worshipping Hanuman the monkey god), further incidents occurred at the other grounds in the series.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: During the subsequent Sri Lankan tour of Australia in late 2007, Symonds had good form with the bat but suffered an ankle injury, which ruled him out for the remainder of the Test series. He then returned for 2007–08 Australia–India series.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: During the second Test against India on 2 January 2008, Symonds completed his second Test century. He came to the crease with Australia struggling at 119/4. After his initial partners, Michael Clarke (1) and then Adam Gilchrist (7), were dismissed in quick succession, Australia found themselves in dire shape at 134/6. Symonds and Brad Hogg then put on a record 7th wicket partnership at the Sydney Cricket Ground (also a record for Australia vs. India) of 173 until Hogg was dismissed for 79. At stumps on the first day, Symonds was not out on 137, and Australia 376/7. By the end of the innings, Symonds finished on 162 not out, when the Australians were finally bowled out for 463. He further went on to score 62 not out in the second innings. In January 2008, Indian spin bowler Harbhajan Singh received a three-match ban after a complaint that he had racially abused Symonds during the third day of the Second Test at the SCG. It was alleged that Harbhajan called Symonds a "monkey" after Symonds confronted him over touching fellow Australian player Brett Lee. The case was decided by the match referee, Mike Procter, in a hearing held after the match.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: On 29 January 2008, after the hearing of the appeal, at Adelaide by ICC appeals commissioner John Hansen, the racism charge on Harbhajan Singh was not proved and the three Test ban was lifted. However, a lesser charge (Level 2.8 offence) of using abusive language was applied and Harbhajan was fined 50% of his match fee. Hansen later admitted that he "could have imposed a more serious penalty if he was made aware by the ICC of the bowler's previous transgressions"—including a suspended one Test Match ban. The ICC claimed the "database and human errors ... played a part in Harbhajan Singh escaping a more severe penalty during his appeal hearing in Adelaide".


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Hansen also criticised Symonds in his report accusing him of swearing at Harbhajan after a friendly gesture by the Indian bowler towards Brett Lee. It was also reported that senior players had written a letter to John Hansen requesting a downgrading of the charge. The letter was signed by Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting and counter-signed by Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Symonds. The stump microphone audio was removed immediately after the alleged incident between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds was released by Channel Nine.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In his 2013 autobiography "At the Close of Play", Ricky Ponting expressed his disillusionment with Cricket Australia for failing to support Symonds, who, though the victim of abuse, was painted as a villain. Daniel Brettig notes how, "duly disillusioned", Symonds "drifted from the game via a series of disciplinary problems".


title: Andrew Symonds

text: During the second final of the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series against India on 4 March 2008, Symonds shoulder charged a male streaker who had entered the playing arena. Symonds, who had once considered a career in rugby league with the Brisbane Broncos, may have faced assault charges had the man taken legal action.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds was set to play for Australia in the August 2008 series against Bangladesh in Darwin, but was sent home to Queensland after missing a team meeting while out fishing. Stand-in captain Michael Clarke told the media that Symonds would have to re-evaluate his desire to represent Australia: "The main concern from us is Andrew's commitment, to playing for this team and, in my opinion and I know the rest of the leadership team's opinion, you need to be committed 100 per cent." As a further punishment for his misadventure, Symonds was not selected for the Australian tour of India in October 2008.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: After Australia lost the test series in India two-nil, Symonds was recalled for the Test series against New Zealand in November 2008. He did not play any significant role in the first Test, which Australia won. After the Test, on 22 November, Symonds was reported to have been involved in a pub brawl with another patron who had attempted to hug him and have his photo taken with the cricketer. He was subsequently cleared by Cricket Australia to play in the second test. He then played in the first two tests of the next series against South Africa but performed poorly and was omitted from the team for the third test due to injury; at the same time, many critics called for his omission on performance grounds. Nonetheless, for his performances in 2008, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In January 2009, Symonds gave an interview with sports comedians Roy & HG, in which he made remarks about the acquisition of New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum by the New South Wales Blues to play in the KFC Twenty20 final against Victoria, despite McCullum's not having played at all for the Blues previously. Sounding intoxicated, Symonds called McCullum a "lump of shit", and declared that having dinner at the home of teammate Matthew Hayden was enjoyable because he could glance at Hayden's wife. The interview led to his being charged with violating the Cricket Australia code of conduct. Following a hearing with general manager Michael Brown, he was fined $4,000, instructed to work with a psychologist, and indefinitely barred from selection until he was deemed to have been successfully rehabilitated.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In the meantime Symonds continued to play for Queensland, but was not selected by Australia, missing three five-match series against South Africa, New Zealand and South Africa respectively. He was finally recalled in April to play ODIs against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates,


title: Andrew Symonds

text: but was not selected for the 2009 Ashes series, with young all-rounders Shane Watson, Andrew McDonald and Marcus North being preferred.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In early June 2009, Symonds was sent home from the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in England following "an alcohol-related incident". Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland called a press conference to announce Symonds' dismissal, which marked the end of his international cricket career. His Cricket Australia contract was also reviewed and later cancelled.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: In June 2009, Symonds told Channel Nine's "Sixty Minutes" that he was not an alcoholic but a binge-drinker. "I go out and drink hard all in one hit – too fast, too much", he said.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds previously held the world records for the most sixes hit during a first-class innings (16) and during a first-class match (20), both set while playing for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan as a 20-year-old. His first innings score was 254 not out.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: At the time of his death, Symonds was one of only 22 players to have scored over 5,000 runs and taken more than 100 wickets in ODI cricket and one of only three Australians to have done so. His batting average of 100 runs per inning in World Cup matches was also the highest of any player in that competition.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds was a keen supporter of the Brisbane Broncos since childhood and was considering a switch to rugby league in 2002 when his cricket career was faltering. On 21 June 2009, he played a game for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls against an all-star team featuring some noted players, including Marcus Bai and Steve Renouf. He also trained with the Brisbane Broncos.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds made a cameo in the 2011 Bollywood movie "Patiala House". In 2011, he was a contestant on the Indian reality series "Bigg Boss". Pooja Mishra, who had already been eliminated from the show, returned to act as a translator for Symonds.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: Symonds was killed in a single-vehicle road accident at Hervey Range, north of Townsville, Queensland, on 14 May 2022, at the age of 46. Queensland Police said in a statement that Symonds was driving on Hervey Range Road near the Alice River Bridge when his car left the road and rolled at around 10:30 pm local time. Symonds was the only occupant of the car. Paramedics responded and attempted to revive him, but Symonds was pronounced dead at the scene.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: A minute's silence was observed at the start of the final day of the match between two of Symonds' former English clubs, Kent and Surrey, which was taking place when he died. A silence was also observed before the start of the first day's play of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Chattogram.


title: Andrew Symonds

text: A tribute campaign, called "Fishing Rods for Roy", was launched in memory of Symonds, referring to his interest in fishing. Cricket fans throughout Australia were encouraged to leave fishing rods and cricket balls outside the front of their houses as a nationwide tribute, one which mirrored the tributes after the death of Phillip Hughes in 2014.


title: Food chain

text: A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivores (like earthworms or woodlice), or decomposer species (such as fungi or bacteria). A food chain also shows how organisms are related to each other by the food they eat. Each level of a food chain represents a different trophic level. A food chain differs from a food web because the complex network of different animals' feeding relations are aggregated and the chain only follows a direct, linear pathway of one animal at a time. Natural interconnections between food chains make it a food web.


title: Food chain

text: Food chains were first introduced by the Arab scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 10th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton, which also introduced the food web concept.


title: Food chain

text: A common metric used to quantify food web trophic structure is food chain length. In its simplest form, the length of a chain is the number of links between a trophic consumer and the base of the web. The mean chain length of an entire web is the arithmetic average of the lengths of all chains in the food web. The food chain is an energy source diagram. The food chain begins with a producer, which is eaten by a primary consumer. The primary consumer may be eaten by a secondary consumer, which in turn may be consumed by a tertiary consumer. The tertiary consumers may sometimes become prey to the top predators known as the quaternary consumers. For example, a food chain might start with a green plant as the producer, which is eaten by a snail, the primary consumer. The snail might then be the prey of a secondary consumer such as a frog, which itself may be eaten by a tertiary consumer such as a snake which in turn may be consumed by an eagle.


title: Food chain

text: Food chains are very important for the survival of most species. When only one element is removed from the food chain it can result in extinction of a species in some cases. The foundation of the food chain consists of primary producers. Primary producers, or autotrophs, utilize energy derived from either sunlight or inorganic chemical compounds to create complex organic compounds, whereas species at higher trophic levels cannot and so must consume producers or other life that itself consumes producers. Because the sun's light is necessary for photosynthesis, most life could not exist if the sun disappeared. Even so, it has recently been discovered that there are some forms of life, chemotrophs, that appear to gain all their metabolic energy from chemosynthesis driven by hydrothermal vents, thus showing that some life may not require solar energy to thrive.


title: Food chain

text: Decomposers, which feed on dead animals, break down the organic compounds into simple nutrients that are returned to the soil. These are the simple nutrients that plants require to create organic compounds. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 different decomposers in existence.


title: Food chain

text: Many food webs have a keystone species. A keystone species is a species that has a large impact on the surrounding environment and can directly affect the food chain. If this keystone species dies off it can set the entire food chain off balance. Keystone species keep herbivores from depleting all of the foliage in their environment and preventing mass extinction.


title: Food chain

text: The length of a food chain is a continuous variable providing a measure of the passage of energy and an index of ecological structure that increases through the linkages from the lowest to the highest trophic (feeding) levels.


title: Food chain

text: Food chains are often used in ecological modeling (such as a three-species food chain). They are simplified abstractions of real food webs, but complex in their dynamics and mathematical implications.


title: Food chain

text: Ecologists have formulated and tested hypotheses regarding the nature of ecological patterns associated with food chain length, such as length increasing with ecosystem volume, limited by the reduction of energy at each successive level, or reflecting habitat type.


title: Food chain

text: Producers, such as plants, are organisms that utilize solar or chemical energy to synthesize starch. All food chains must start with a producer. In the deep sea, food chains centered on hydrothermal vents and cold seeps exist in the absence of sunlight. Chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea use hydrogen sulfide and methane from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps as an energy source (just as plants use sunlight) to produce carbohydrates; they form the base of the food chain. Consumers are organisms that eat other organisms. All organisms in a food chain, except the first organism, are consumers.


title: Food chain

text: Food chain length is important because the amount of energy transferred decreases as trophic level increases; generally only ten percent of the total energy at one trophic level is passed to the next, as the remainder is used in the metabolic process. There are usually no more than five tropic levels in a food chain. Humans are able to receive more energy by going back a level in the chain and consuming the food before, for example getting more energy per pound from consuming a salad than an animal which ate lettuce.


title: Food chain

text: The efficiency of a food chain depends on the energy first consumed by the primary producers. The primary consumer gets its energy from the producer and passes it to the secondary and tertiary consumers.


title: Food chain

text: Food chain studies play an important role in ecotoxicology studies, which trace the pathways and biomagnification of environmental contaminants.


title: NASA X-43

text: The NASA X-43 was an experimental unmanned hypersonic aircraft with multiple planned scale variations meant to test various aspects of hypersonic flight. It was part of the X-plane series and specifically of NASA's Hyper-X program. It set several airspeed records for jet aircraft. The X-43 is the fastest jet-powered aircraft on record at approximately Mach 9.6.


title: NASA X-43

text: A winged booster rocket with the X-43 placed on top, called a "stack", was drop launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. After the booster rocket (a modified first stage of the Pegasus rocket) brought the stack to the target speed and altitude, it was discarded, and the X-43 flew free using its own engine, a scramjet.


title: NASA X-43

text: The first plane in the series, the X-43A, was a single-use vehicle, of which three were built. The first X-43A was destroyed after malfunctioning in flight in 2001. Each of the other two flew successfully in 2004, setting speed records, with the scramjets operating for approximately 10 seconds followed by 10-minute glides and intentional crashes into the ocean. Plans for more planes in the X-43 series have been suspended or cancelled, and replaced by the USAF managed X-51 program.


title: NASA X-43

text: The X-43 was a part of NASA's Hyper-X program, involving the American space agency and contractors such as Boeing, Micro Craft Inc, Orbital Sciences Corporation and General Applied Science Laboratory (GASL). Micro Craft Inc. built the X-43A and GASL built its engine.


title: NASA X-43

text: One of the primary goals of NASA's Aeronautics Enterprise was the development and demonstration of technologies for air-breathing hypersonic flight. Following the cancellation of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program in November 1994, the United States lacked a cohesive hypersonic technology development program. As one of the "better, faster, cheaper" programs developed by NASA in the late 1990s, the Hyper-X used technology and research from the NASP program which advanced it toward the demonstration of hypersonic air breathing propulsion,


title: NASA X-43

text: The Hyper-X Phase I was a NASA Aeronautics and Space Technology Enterprise program conducted jointly by the Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, and the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. Langley was the lead center and responsible for hypersonic technology development. Dryden was responsible for flight research.


title: NASA X-43

text: Phase I was a seven-year, approximately $230 million, program to flight-validate scramjet propulsion, hypersonic aerodynamics and design methods.


title: NASA X-43

text: Subsequent phases were not continued, as the X-43 series of aircraft was replaced in 2006 by the X-51.


title: NASA X-43

text: The X-43A aircraft was a small unpiloted test vehicle measuring just over in length. The vehicle was a lifting body design, where the body of the aircraft provides a significant amount of lift for flight, rather than relying on wings. The aircraft weighed roughly . The X-43A was designed to be fully controllable in high-speed flight, even when gliding without propulsion. However, the aircraft was not designed to land and be recovered. Test vehicles crashed into the Pacific Ocean when the test was over.


title: NASA X-43

text: Traveling at Mach speeds produces a lot of heat due to the compression shock waves involved in supersonic aerodynamic drag. At high Mach speeds, heat can become so intense that metal portions of the airframe could melt. The X-43A compensated for this by cycling water behind the engine cowl and sidewall leading edges, cooling those surfaces. In tests, the water circulation was activated at about Mach 3.


title: NASA X-43

text: The craft was created to develop and test a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or "scramjet" engine, an engine variation where external combustion takes place within air that is flowing at supersonic speeds. The X-43A's developers designed the aircraft's airframe to be part of the propulsion system: the forebody is a part of the intake airflow, while the aft section functions as an exhaust nozzle.


title: NASA X-43

text: The engine of the X-43A was primarily fueled with hydrogen fuel. In the successful test, about of the fuel was used. Unlike rockets, scramjet-powered vehicles do not carry oxygen on board for fueling the engine. Removing the need to carry oxygen significantly reduces the vehicle's size and weight. In the future, such lighter vehicles could take heavier payloads into space or carry payloads of the same weight much more efficiently.


title: NASA X-43

text: Scramjets only operate at speeds in the range of Mach 4.5 or higher, so rockets or other jet engines are required to initially boost scramjet-powered aircraft to this base velocity. In the case of the X-43A, the aircraft was accelerated to high speed with a Pegasus rocket launched from a converted Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber. The combined X-43A and Pegasus vehicle was referred to as the "stack" by the program's team members.


title: NASA X-43

text: The engines in the X-43A test vehicles were specifically designed for a certain speed range, only able to compress and ignite the fuel-air mixture when the incoming airflow is moving as expected. The first two X-43A aircraft were intended for flight at approximately Mach 7, while the third was designed to operate at speeds greater than at altitudes of or more.


title: NASA X-43

text: NASA's first X-43A test on June 2, 2001 failed because the Pegasus booster lost control about 13 seconds after it was released from the B-52 carrier. The rocket experienced a control oscillation as it went transonic, eventually leading to the failure of the rocket's starboard elevon. This caused the rocket to deviate significantly from the planned course, and it was destroyed as a safety precaution. An investigation into the incident stated that imprecise information about the capabilities of the rocket as well as its flight environment contributed to the accident. Several inaccuracies in data modeling for this test led to an inadequate control system for the particular Pegasus rocket used, though no single factor could ultimately be blamed for the failure.


title: NASA X-43

text: In the second test in March 2004, the Pegasus fired successfully and released the test vehicle at an altitude of about . After separation, the engine's air intake was opened, the engine ignited, and the aircraft then accelerated away from the rocket reaching . Fuel was flowing to the engine for 11 seconds, a time in which the aircraft traveled more than . Following Pegasus booster separation, the vehicle experienced a small drop in speed but the scramjet engine afterward accelerated the vehicle in climbing flight. After burnout, controllers were still able to maneuver the vehicle and manipulate the flight controls for several minutes; the aircraft, slowed by air resistance, fell into the ocean. With this flight the X-43A became the fastest free-flying air-breathing aircraft in the world.


title: NASA X-43

text: NASA flew a third version of the X-43A on November 16, 2004. The modified Pegasus rocket was launched from a B-52 mother ship at an altitude of . The X-43A set a new speed record of at about altitude, and further tested the ability of the vehicle to withstand the heat loads involved.


title: NASA X-43

text: In January 2006 the USAF announced the Force Application and Launch from Continental United States or FALCON scramjet reusable missile.


title: NASA X-43

text: In March 2006, it was announced that the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) supersonic combustion ramjet "WaveRider" flight test vehicle had been designated as X-51A. The USAF Boeing X-51 was first flown on May 26, 2010, dropped from a B-52.


title: NASA X-43

text: After the X-43 tests in 2004, NASA Dryden engineers said that they expected all of their efforts to culminate in the production of a two-stage-to-orbit crewed vehicle in about 20 years. The scientists expressed much doubt that there would be a single-stage-to-orbit crewed vehicle like the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) in the foreseeable future.


title: NASA X-43

text: Other X-43 vehicles were planned, but they have been suspended or canceled. They were expected to have the same basic body design as the X-43A, though the aircraft were expected to be moderately to significantly larger in size.


title: NASA X-43

text: The X-43B, was expected to be a full-size vehicle, incorporating a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine or a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) ISTAR engine. Jet turbines or rockets would initially propel the vehicle to supersonic speed. A ramjet might take over starting at Mach 2.5, with the engine converting to a scramjet configuration at approximately Mach 5.


title: NASA X-43

text: The X-43C would have been somewhat larger than the X-43A and was expected to test the viability of hydrocarbon fuel, possibly with the HyTech engine. While most scramjet designs have used hydrogen for fuel, HyTech runs with conventional kerosene-type hydrocarbon fuels, which are more practical for support of operational vehicles. The building of a full-scale engine was planned which would use its own fuel for cooling. The engine cooling system would have acted as a chemical reactor by breaking long-chain hydrocarbons into short-chain hydrocarbons for a rapid burn.


title: NASA X-43

text: The X-43C was indefinitely suspended in March 2004. The linked story reports the project's indefinite suspension and the appearance of Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle before a House Space and Aeronautics subcommittee hearing on March 18, 2004. In mid-2005, the X-43C appeared to be funded through the end of the year.


title: NASA X-43

text: The X-43D would have been almost identical to the X-43A, but expanded the speed envelope to Mach 15. As of September 2007, only a feasibility study had been conducted by Donald B. Johnson of Boeing and Jeffrey S. Robinson of NASA's Langley Research Center. According to the introduction of the study, "The purpose of the X-43D is to gather high Mach flight environment and engine operability information which is difficult, if not impossible, to gather on the ground."


The 1856 United States presidential election was the 18th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1856. In a three-way election, Democrat James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont and Know Nothing nominee Millard Fillmore. The main issue was the expansion of slavery as facilitated by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854.


title: 1856 United States presidential election

text: Buchanan defeated President Franklin Pierce at the 1856 Democratic National Convention for the nomination. Pierce had become widely unpopular in the North because of his support for the pro-slavery faction in the ongoing civil war in territorial Kansas, and Buchanan, a former Secretary of State, had avoided the divisive debates over the Kansas–Nebraska Act by being in Europe as the Ambassador to the United Kingdom.


text: Slavery was the main issue, and with it the question of survival of the United States as it then existed. The Democrats were seen as the pro-slavery party; the new Republican party, though hostile to slavery, limited its efforts to the politically more manageable question of the extension of slavery into federal territories (and its removal from the District of Columbia). The nativist Know Nothings (known formally as the American Party) competed with the Republicans to replace the moribund Whig Party as the primary opposition to the Democrats. They emphasized opposition to Catholic immigrants.


text: The 1856 Republican National Convention nominated a ticket led by Frémont, an explorer and military officer who had served in the Mexican–American War. The Know Nothings, who ignored slavery and instead emphasized anti-immigration and anti-Catholic policies, nominated a ticket led by former Whig President Millard Fillmore. Domestic political turmoil was a major factor in the nominations of both Buchanan and Fillmore, who appealed in part because of their recent time abroad, when they did not have to take a position on the divisive questions related to slavery.


text: The Democrats supported expansionist slave-holding policies generally of varying intensities. Southern Democrats were all in favor of the expansion of slavery. Some wanted to obtain Cuba as slave territory; see Ostend Manifesto. Northern Democrats called for "popular sovereignty", which in theory would allow the residents in a territory to decide for themselves the legal status of slavery. In practice, in Kansas Territory, it produced a state-level civil war. Frémont opposed the expansion of slavery. Buchanan called that position "extremist", warning that a Republican victory would lead to disunion, a then constant issue of political debate which had already been long discussed and advocated. The Know Nothings attempted to present themselves as the one party capable of bridging the sectional divides. All three major parties found support in the North, but the Republicans had virtually no backing in the South.


text: Buchanan won a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote, taking all but one slave state and five free states. Frémont won a majority of electoral votes from free states and finished second in the nationwide popular vote, while Fillmore took 21.5% of the popular vote and carried Maryland. The Know Nothings soon collapsed as a national party, as most of its anti-slavery members joined the Republican Party after the 1857 "Dred Scott v. Sandford" Supreme Court ruling. 1856 also proved to be the last Democratic presidential victory until 1884, as Republicans emerged as the dominant party during and after the Civil War.


text: The 1856 presidential election was primarily waged among three political parties, though other parties had been active in the spring of the year. The conventions of these parties are considered below in order of the party's popular vote.


text: The Democratic Party was wounded from its devastating losses in the 1854–1855 midterm elections. Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, entered the race in opposition to President Franklin Pierce. The Pennsylvania delegation continued to sponsor its favorite son Buchanan.


text: The Seventh Democratic National Convention was held in Smith and Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 2 to 6, 1856. The delegates were deeply divided over slavery. On the first ballot, Buchanan placed first with 135.5 votes to 122.5 for Pierce, 33 for Douglas, and 5 for Senator Lewis Cass, who had been the presidential nominee in 1848. With each succeeding ballot, Douglas gained at Pierce's expense. On the 15th ballot, most of Pierce's delegates shifted to Douglas in an attempt to stop Buchanan, but Douglas withdrew when it became clear Buchanan had the support of the majority of those at the convention, also fearing that his continued participation might lead to divisions within the party that could endanger its chances in the general election. For the first time in American history a man who had been elected president was denied re-nomination after seeking it.


text: A host of candidates were nominated for the vice presidency, but a number of them attempted to withdraw themselves from consideration, among them the eventual nominee, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Breckinridge, besides having been selected as an elector, was also supporting former Speaker of the House Linn Boyd for the vice presidential nomination. However, following a draft effort led by the delegation from Vermont, Breckinridge was nominated on the second ballot.


text: The Republican Party was formed in early 1854 to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act. During the midterm elections of 1854–1855, the Republican Party was one of the patchwork of anti-administration parties contesting the election, but they were able to win thirteen seats in the House of Representatives for the 34th Congress. However, the party collaborated with other disaffected groups and gradually absorbed them. In the elections of 1855, the Republican Party won three governorships.


text: The first Republican National Convention was held in the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17 to 19, 1856. The convention approved an anti-slavery platform that called for congressional sovereignty in the territories, an end to polygamy in Mormon settlements, and federal assistance for a transcontinental railroad—a political outcome of the Pacific Railroad Surveys. John C. Frémont, John McLean, William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Charles Sumner all were considered by those at the convention, but the latter three requested that their names be withdrawn. Seward and Chase did not feel that the party was yet sufficiently organized to have a realistic chance of taking the White House and were content to wait until the next election. Sumner was in no fit condition to run after being violently assaulted on the Senate floor a month before the convention. McLean's name was initially withdrawn by his manager Rufus Spalding, but the withdrawal was rescinded at the strong behest of the Pennsylvania delegation led by Thaddeus Stevens. Kentucky was the only southern state to have a delegation at the convention. Frémont was nominated for president overwhelmingly on the formal ballot, and William L. Dayton was nominated for vice president over Abraham Lincoln.


text: The American Party, formerly the Native American Party, was the vehicle of the Know Nothing movement. The American Party absorbed most of the former Whig Party that had not gone to either the Republicans or Democrats in 1854, and by 1855 it had established itself as the chief opposition party to the Democrats. In the 82 races for the House of Representatives in 1854, the American Party ran 76 candidates, 35 of whom won. None of the six independents or Whigs who ran in these races were elected. The party then succeeded in electing Nathaniel P. Banks as Speaker of the House in the 34th Congress.


text: The American National Convention was held in National Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 22 to 25, 1856. Following the decision by party leaders in 1855 not to press the slavery issue, the convention had to decide how to deal with the Ohio chapter of the party, which was vocally anti-slavery. The convention closed the Ohio chapter and re-opened it under more moderate leadership. Delegates from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, New England, and other northern states bolted when a resolution that would have required all prospective nominees to be in favor of prohibiting slavery north of the 36'30' parallel was voted down. This removed a greater part of the American Party's support in the North outside of New York, where the conservative faction of the Whig Party remained faithful.


text: The only name with much support was former President Millard Fillmore. Historian Allan Nevins says Fillmore was not a Know-Nothing or a nativist. He was out of the country when the presidential nomination came and had not been consulted about running. Furthermore, Fillmore was neither a member of the party nor had he ever attended an American [Know-Nothing] gathering nor had he by "spoken or written word [...] indicated a subscription to American tenets". Fillmore was nominated with 179 votes out of the 234 votes cast. The convention chose Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee for vice president with 181 votes to 30 scattered votes and 24 abstentions. Although the nativist argument of the American party had considerable success in local and state elections in 1854–55, Fillmore in 1856 concentrated almost entirely on national unity. Historian Tyler Anbinder says, "The American party had dropped nativism from its agenda." Fillmore won 22% of the national popular vote.


text: The anti-slavery "Americans" from the North formed their own party after the nomination of Fillmore in Philadelphia. This party called for its national convention to be held in New York City, just before the Republican National Convention. Party leaders hoped to nominate a joint ticket with the Republicans to defeat Buchanan. The national convention was held on June 12 to 20, 1856 in New York. As John C. Frémont was the favorite to attain the Republican presidential nomination there was a considerable desire for the North American party to nominate him, but it was feared that in doing so they may possibly injure his chances to actually become the Republican presidential nominee. The delegates voted repeatedly on a nominee for president without a result. Nathaniel P. Banks was nominated for president on the 10th ballot over John C. Frémont and John McLean, with the understanding that he would withdraw from the race and endorse John C. Frémont once he had won the Republican presidential nomination. The delegates, preparing to return home, unanimously nominated Frémont on the 11th ballot shortly after his nomination by the Republican Party in Philadelphia. The chairman of the convention, William F. Johnston, had been nominated to run for vice president, but later withdrew when the North Americans and the Republicans failed to find an acceptable accommodation between him and the Republican vice presidential nominee, William Dayton.


text: A group of North American delegates called the North American Seceders withdrew from the North American Party's convention and met separately. They objected to the attempt to work with the Republican Party. The Seceders held their own national convention on June 16 and 17, 1856. 19 delegates unanimously nominated Robert F. Stockton for president and Kenneth Rayner for vice president. The Seceders' ticket later withdrew from the contest, with Stockton endorsing Millard Fillmore for the presidency.


text: The Whig Party was reeling from electoral losses since 1852. Half of its leaders in the South bolted to the Southern Democratic Party. In the North the Whig Party was moribund with most of its anti-slavery members joining the Republican Party. This party remained somewhat alive in states like New York and Pennsylvania by joining the anti-slavery movement.


text: The fifth (and last) Whig National Convention was held in the Hall of the Maryland Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 17 and 18, 1856. There were one hundred and fifty delegates sent from twenty-six states. Though the leaders of this party wanted to keep the Whig Party alive, it became irretrievably doomed once these one hundred and fifty Whig delegates decided unanimously to endorse the American Party's national ticket of Fillmore and Donelson.


text: By 1856, very little of the Liberty Party remained. Most of its members joined the Free Soil Party in 1848 and nearly of all what remained of the party joined the Republicans in 1854. What remained of the party ran 1848 candidate Gerrit Smith under the name of the "National Liberty Party."


text: None of the three candidates did any public campaigning. The Republican Party opposed the extension of slavery into the territories: in fact, its slogan was "Free speech, free press, free soil, free men, Frémont and victory!" The Republicans thus crusaded against the Slave Power, warning it was destroying republican values. Democrats warned that a Republican victory would bring a civil war.


text: The Republican platform opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise through the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which enacted the policy of popular sovereignty, allowing settlers to decide whether a new state would enter the Union as free or slave. The Republicans also accused the Pierce administration of allowing a fraudulent territorial government to be imposed upon the citizens of the Kansas Territory, thus engendering the violence that had raged in Bleeding Kansas. They advocated the immediate admittance of Kansas as a free state.


text: Along with opposing the spread of slavery into the continental territories of the United States, the party also opposed the Ostend Manifesto, which advocated the annexation of Cuba from Spain. In sum, the campaign's true focus was against the system of slavery, which they felt was destroying the republican values that the Union had been founded upon.


text: The Democratic platform supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty. The party supported the pro-slavery territorial legislature elected in Kansas, opposed the free-state elements within Kansas, and castigated the Topeka Constitution as an illegal document written during an illegal convention. The Democrats also supported the plan to annex Cuba, advocated in the Ostend Manifesto, which Buchanan helped devise while serving as minister to Britain. The most influential aspect of the Democratic campaign was a warning that a Republican victory would lead to the secession of numerous southern states. The main Democratic campaign was a counter-crusade against the Republicans. They ridiculed Frémont's military record and warned that his victory would bring civil war. Much of the private rhetoric of the campaign focused on unfounded rumors regarding Frémont—talk of him as president taking charge of a large army that would support slave insurrections, the likelihood of widespread lynchings of slaves, and whispered hope among slaves for freedom and political equality.


text: Because Fillmore was considered by many incapable of securing the presidency on the American ticket, Whigs were urged to support Buchanan. Democrats also called on nativists to make common cause with them against the specter of sectionalism even if they had once attacked their political views.


text: Fillmore and the Americans, meanwhile, insisted that they were the only "national party" since the Democrats leaning in favor of the South and the Republicans were fanatically in favor of Northern fanaticism.


text: A minor scandal erupted when the Americans, seeking to turn the national dialogue back in the direction of nativism, put out a false rumor that Frémont was in fact a Roman Catholic. Because of the Republican candidate's French-Canadian ancestry and surname, many voters accepted the allegation at face value. The Democrats ran with it, and the Republicans found themselves unable to counteract the rumor effectively given that while the statements were false, any stern message against those assertions might have crippled their efforts to attain the votes of German Catholics. Attempts were made to refute it through friends and colleagues, but the issue persisted throughout the campaign and might have cost Frémont the support of a number of American Party members.


text: The campaign had a different nature in the free states and the slave states. In the free states, there was a three-way campaign, which Frémont won with 45.2% of the vote to 41.5% for Buchanan and 13.3% for Fillmore; Frémont received 114 electoral votes to 62 for Buchanan. In the slave states, however, the contest was for all intents and purposes between Buchanan and Fillmore; Buchanan won 56.1% of the vote to 43.8% for Fillmore and 0.1% for Frémont, receiving 112 electoral votes to 8 for Fillmore.


text: Nationwide, Buchanan won 174 electoral votes, a majority, and was thus elected. Frémont received no votes in ten of the fourteen slave states with a popular vote; he obtained 306 in Delaware, 285 in Maryland, 283 in Virginia, and 314 in Kentucky.


text: Of the 1,713 counties making returns, Buchanan won 1,083 (63.22%), Frémont won 366 (21.37%), and Fillmore won 263 (15.35%). One county (0.06%) in Georgia split evenly between Buchanan and Fillmore.


text: This would be the only presidential election where the Know Nothing Party put up a campaign, as the party began to splinter. After the Supreme Court's controversial "Dred Scott v. Sandford" ruling in 1857, most of the anti-slavery members of the party joined the Republicans. The pro-slavery wing of the American Party remained strong on the local and state levels in a few southern states, but by the 1860 election, they were no longer a serious national political movement. Most of their remaining members either joined or supported the Constitutional Union Party in 1860.


text: This was the last election in which the Democrats won Pennsylvania until 1936, the last in which the Democrats won Illinois until 1892, the last in which the Democrats won California until 1880, the last in which the Democrats won Indiana and Virginia until 1876 and the last in which the Democrats won Tennessee until 1872. This also started the long Republican trend in Vermont, which would not be broken until 1964, over a century later. The presidential election of 1856 was also the last time to date that a Democrat was elected to succeed a fellow Democrat as president, and the last one in which a former president ran for election to the presidency on a third party ticket until 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt ran on the Progressive Party ticket.


text: Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, "Presidential ballots, 1836–1892" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57.


text: During the joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, a dispute occurred over Wisconsin's slate. The electors of Wisconsin, delayed by a snowstorm, did not cast their votes for Frémont and Dayton until several days after the appointed time and sent a certificate mentioning this fact. When the votes for the state were opened by acting Vice President James Mason, he counted them over the objections of the leadership of both Houses of Congress.


title: Arduino Uno

text: The Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board based on the Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller and developed by Arduino.cc and initially released in 2010. The board is equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output (I/O) pins that may be interfaced to various expansion boards (shields) and other circuits. The board has 14 digital I/O pins (six capable of PWM output), 6 analog I/O pins, and is programmable with the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment), via a type B USB cable. It can be powered by the USB cable or by an external 9-volt battery, though it accepts voltages between 7 and 20 volts. It is similar to the Arduino Nano and Leonardo. The hardware reference design is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 license and is available on the Arduino website. Layout and production files for some versions of the hardware are also available.


title: Arduino Uno

text: The word "uno" means "one" in Italian and was chosen to mark the initial release of Arduino Software. The Uno board is the first in a series of USB-based Arduino boards; it and version 1.0 of the Arduino IDE were the reference versions of Arduino, which have now evolved to newer releases. The ATmega328 on the board comes preprogrammed with a bootloader that allows uploading new code to it without the use of an external hardware programmer.


title: Arduino Uno

text: While the Uno communicates using the original STK500 protocol, it differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it uses the Atmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to version R2) programmed as a USB-to-serial converter.


title: Arduino Uno

text: The Arduino project started at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII) in Ivrea, Italy. At that time, the students used a BASIC Stamp microcontroller, at a cost that was a considerable expense for many students. In 2003, Hernando Barragán created the development platform "Wiring" as a Master's thesis project at IDII, under the supervision of Massimo Banzi and Casey Reas, who are known for work on the Processing language. The project goal was to create simple, low-cost tools for creating digital projects by non-engineers. The Wiring platform consisted of a printed circuit board (PCB) with an ATmega168 microcontroller, an IDE based on Processing, and library functions to easily program the microcontroller.


title: Arduino Uno

text: In 2003, Massimo Banzi, with David Mellis, another IDII student, and David Cuartielles, added support for the cheaper ATmega8 microcontroller to Wiring. But instead of continuing the work on Wiring, they forked the project and renamed it "Arduino". Early arduino boards used the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip and an ATmega168. The Uno differed from all preceding boards by featuring the ATmega328P microcontroller and an ATmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to version R2) programmed as a USB-to-serial converter.


title: Arduino Uno

text: Each of the 14 digital pins and 6 analog pins on the Uno can be used as an input or output, under software control (using pinMode(), digitalWrite(), and digitalRead() functions). They operate at 5 volts. Each pin can provide or receive 20 mA as the recommended operating condition and has an internal pull-up resistor (disconnected by default) of 20-50K ohm. A maximum of 40mA must not be exceeded on any I/O pin to avoid permanent damage to the microcontroller. The Uno has 6 analog inputs, labeled A0 through A5; each provides 10 bits of resolution (i.e. 1024 different values). By default, they measure from ground to 5 volts, though it is possible to change the upper end of the range using the AREF pin and the analogReference() function.