title: Balochi language

text: In addition, occurs in a few words in Southern Balochi. (voiceless velar fricative) in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to (voiceless uvular fricative) in Western Balochi; and (voiced velar fricative) in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to (voiced uvular fricative) in Western Balochi.


title: Balochi language

text: In Eastern Balochi, it is noted that the stop and glide consonants may also occur as aspirated allophones in word initial position as and . Allophones of stops in postvocalic position include for voiceless stops, and for voiced stops . are also dentalized as .


title: Balochi language

text: The normal word order is subject–object–verb. Like many other Indo-Iranian languages, Balochi also features split ergativity. The subject is marked as nominative except for the past tense constructions where the subject of a transitive verb is marked as oblique and the verb agrees with the object.


title: Balochi language

text: Much of the Balochi number system is identical to Persian. According to Mansel Longworth Dames, Balochi writes the first twelve numbers as follows:


title: Balochi language

text: There are two main dialects: the dialect of the Mandwani (northern) tribes and the dialect of the Domki (southern) tribes. The dialectal differences are not very significant. One difference is that grammatical terminations in the northern dialect are less distinct compared with those in the southern tribes. An isolated dialect is Koroshi, which is spoken in the Qashqai tribal confederation in the Fars province. Koroshi distinguishes itself in grammar and lexicon among Balochi varieties.


title: Balochi language

text: Balochi was not a written language before the 19th century, and the Persian script was used to write Balochi wherever necessary. However, Balochi was still spoken at the Baloch courts.


title: Balochi language

text: British colonial officers first wrote Balochi with the Latin script. Following the creation of Pakistan, Baloch scholars adopted the Persian alphabet. The first collection of poetry in Balochi, Gulbang by Mir Gul Khan Nasir was published in 1951 and incorporated the Arabic Script. It was much later that Sayad Zahoor Shah Hashemi wrote a comprehensive guidance on the usage of Arabic script and standardized it as the Balochi Orthography in Pakistan and Iran. This earned him the title of the 'Father of Balochi'. His guidelines are widely used in Eastern and Western Balochistan. In Afghanistan, Balochi is still written in a modified Arabic script based on Persian.


title: Balochi language

text: The following alphabet was used by Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi in his lexicon of Balochi "Sayad Ganj" () (lit. "Sayad's Treasure"). Until the creation of the Balochi Standard Alphabet, it was by far the most widely used alphabet for writing Balochi, and is still used very frequently.


title: Balochi language

text: The Balochi Standard Alphabet, standardized by Balochi Academy Sarbaz, consists of 29 letters. It is an extension of the Perso-Arabic script and borrows a few glyphs from Urdu. It is also sometimes referred to as Balo-Rabi or Balòrabi. Today, it is the preferred script to use in a professional setting and by educated folk.


title: Balochi language

text: The following Latin-based alphabet was adopted by the International Workshop on "Balochi Roman Orthography" (University of Uppsala, Sweden, 28–30 May 2000).


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Oklahoma! is a 1955 American musical film based on the 1943 musical of the same name by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, which in turn was based on the 1931 play "Green Grow The Lilacs" written by Lynn Riggs. It stars Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones (in her film debut), Rod Steiger, Charlotte Greenwood, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, James Whitmore, and Eddie Albert. The production was the only musical directed by Fred Zinnemann. "Oklahoma!" was the first feature film photographed in the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process (and was simultaneously filmed in CinemaScope 35mm).


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Set in Oklahoma Territory, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams (Jones) and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain (MacRae) and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry (Steiger). A secondary romance concerns Laurey's friend, Ado Annie (Grahame), and cowboy Will Parker (Nelson), who also has an unwilling rival. A background theme is the territory's aspiration for statehood, and the local conflict between cattlemen and farmers.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: The film received a rave review from "The New York Times", and was voted a "New York Times Critics Pick". It won Academy Awards in the categories of musical scoring and sound recording. In 2007, "Oklahoma!" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Good-natured cowboy Curly McLain admires the beautiful morning while riding his horse to the farm of Laurey Williams, his secret love, and her aunt, Aunt Eller. At the farm he invites Laurey to a box social being held that night to raise money for a new schoolhouse. Frustrated that he waited so long to ask her, Laurey refuses his invitation. Curly tempts her by describing the surrey he plans to drive her in, then tells her he made the story up to get back at her for refusing him. Laurey gets her own revenge by agreeing to go with their menacing field hand, Jud Fry.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Cowboy Will Parker arrives by train from a trip to Kansas City and seeks out his sweetheart, Ado Annie, who, in Will’s absence, has become smitten with itinerant peddler Ali Hakim. Will tells Annie that he has earned the $50 her father, a farmer who does not like cowboys, told him he had to earn before he would allow him to marry Annie, but he spent it all on presents for her. Annie tries to resist Will, but eventually gives in, leaving her torn between Will and Ali.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: The townspeople gather at Aunt Eller’s farm to refresh themselves before the box social. Gertie, a flirtatious woman with a loud, annoying laugh, flirts with Curly and upsets Laurey, despite her promises to not let his games bother her, and Curly flirts back to make Laurey jealous. Curly asks Laurey again if she will go to the social with him, but Laurey, fearful of Jud, refuses again. Curly angrily confronts Jud in the smokehouse, leading to each man firing their gun. Curly stalks off and Jud again threatens Laurey if she changes her mind. Uncertain what to do, Laurey uses a bottle of smelling salts she bought earlier from Ali, hoping to find her answer in a dream. She dreams that she marries Curly, but Jud eventually kills him.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: As Jud drives Laurey to the box social, he tells her he is in love with her and tries to kiss her. She whips the horses, causing them to bolt. Once Jud gets them under control, Laurey leaves Jud behind and drives to the social alone.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: At the social, despite the host's encouraging everyone to get along, Ado Annie’s father belittles the cowboys, causing a fight to break out which Aunt Eller breaks up. Will makes his $50 back by selling his presents to Ali Hakim, who pays Will more than each gift is worth to get Annie back together with Will. When the auction of ladies’ picnic hampers begins, Ali Hakim deliberately outbids Will to get Annie to forget her feelings for him and so Will can keep the $50 he needs to marry Annie. Curly and Jud get into a bidding war over Laurey’s hamper. Curly sells his saddle, horse, and gun to raise enough money to beat Jud’s highest bid and win. Laurey fires Jud after he confronts her and Jud sneers that she will never be rid of him. When Laurey tells Curly what happened, he offers to stay the night at their farm for protection, then goes further and proposes marriage, which Laurey accepts. Meanwhile, Will tells Ado Annie she must stop flirting with other men, despite not being willing to stop flirting with other women. Ali Hakim tells Annie she is better off marrying Will and then resumes his travels.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Weeks later, Curly and Laurey are married. After the ceremony, Jud appears and tries to kill Curly, but Curly kills Jud in self-defense. The townspeople hold an impromptu trial in Aunt Eller’s kitchen where Curly is found not guilty. He and Laurey leave for their honeymoon, admiring the beautiful morning.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Interest in a film version of "Oklahoma!" dates as far back as 1943, when the musical first opened on Broadway. United Artists, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and MGM were among the many Hollywood studios interested in the project. Ultimately, the film rights were bought by the Magna Theatre Corporation, a company founded by George Skouras, Joseph Schenck, and Michael Todd for a record $1,000,000. Magna was initially founded in order to develop a new widescreen process Todd created, called "Todd-AO", and ended up financing the film independently after a deal with Fox fell through. Including the cost of developing the new process, Magna invested $11 million in the film.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Although the film was initially to have been shot on location in the title state, the producers opted to shoot elsewhere, apparently because the oil wells would be a distraction for exterior scenes. Location shooting was done mostly in Nogales, Arizona. The corn field in the opening number as well as the reprise song "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" were shot at the historic Canoa Ranch in Green Valley, Arizona. The train station used in the "Kansas City" routine was located in Elgin, Arizona. Sound stage and backlot sequences were filmed at MGM Studios in Culver City, California.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: "Oklahoma!" was the first production photographed in Todd-AO. The original specification for Todd-AO involved running at 30 frames per second which made it impossible to produce 35mm (which ran at 24 fps) reduction prints from the Todd-AO negative. Therefore, it was simultaneously shot in the more established CinemaScope 35 mm format to allow presentation in theaters lacking 70 mm equipment. Hence, there are actually two different versions of the film comprising different takes. Director Zinnemann mentioned that shooting the film in both formats was a "precautionary measure", as the (converted ca. 1930s Fearless Superfilm 65mm) Todd-AO camera was still being tested during production.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: The many actors who tried out for the role of Curly included James Dean and Paul Newman. According to TCM, Dean "made a sensational [screen] test with Rod Steiger in the 'Poor Jud Is Dead' number", but as his voice wasn't strong enough, Gordon MacRae was cast in the main role. Steiger remarked that Dean "hadn't quite got his technique together. At the time of his death, he was working too much on instinct. He'd be brilliant in one scene and then blow the next". He observed that Dean was a "nice kid absorbed by his own ego, so much so that it was destroying him", which he thinks led to his death. Dean reportedly gave him his prized copy of Ernest Hemingway’s book "Death in the Afternoon", and had underlined every occurrence of the word "death". Joanne Woodward was offered the role of Laurey, which went to Shirley Jones (who had previously performed in a stage production of "Oklahoma!"). Eli Wallach and Ernest Borgnine were considered for the role of Jud before Rod Steiger was cast.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Robert Russell Bennett expanded his Broadway orchestrations, Jay Blackton conducted, and Agnes de Mille again choreographed. Costume designer Orry-Kelly was hired to oversee the costumes for the film with Ann Roth as his assistant.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Rodgers and Hammerstein personally oversaw the film to prevent the studio from making changes of the kind that were then typical of stage-to-film musical adaptations—such as putting in new songs by different composers. They also maintained artistic control over the film versions of several of their other stage musicals.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: The film "Oklahoma!" followed the original stage version extremely closely, more so than any other Rodgers and Hammerstein stage-to-film adaptation. However, it did divide the very long (more than 45 minutes) first scene into several shorter scenes, changing the locations of several of the songs in the process.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: In a nod to "Green Grow the Lilacs", which was the basis of "Oklahoma!", Jud attempts to get revenge on Curly and Laurey by burning a haystack they stand on after the wedding, rather than simply attacking Curly with a knife, as in the stage version of the musical. As Curly and Laurey stand atop the burning haystack, Jud pulls a knife and taunts Curly. The couple jumps down, with Curly landing on Jud and inadvertently causing him to fall on his own knife.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: The film omitted very little from the stage production, cutting only two songs (Ali Hakim's "It's a Scandal, It's a Outrage" and Jud's "Lonely Room"), and thus ran two-and-a-half hours, much longer than most other screen musicals of the time. It was the first of the huge roadshow musical films that would eventually overrun Hollywood in the 1960s.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: Magna held invitational screenings of "Oklahoma!" over three days at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City starting on October 11, 1955. The official public premiere was on October 13. The film was shown on a two-a-day reserved seat policy with three shows at the weekends and holidays and grossed $573,493 in its first 12 weeks in New York. The film opened on the same roadshow basis at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on November 18 and then at the McVicker's Theater in Chicago on December 26.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: In its initial theatrical release, the Magna Theatre Corporation handled distribution of the roadshow presentations in 70 mm Todd-AO. In 29 American and 2 Canadian cities it grossed $8,970,087 from 4,672,184 patrons.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: RKO Radio Pictures distributed the general release version (in 35 mm anamorphic CinemaScope), which was released after its roadshow run ended. Later, when RKO was experiencing financial turmoil, 20th Century Fox assumed distribution of the general release edition.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: All rights to the film are owned by the estates of Rodgers and Hammerstein. In 1982, the US/Canadian distribution rights to this film were acquired by The Samuel Goldwyn Company and re-issued both the 70 mm and 35 mm versions theatrically. The original 70mm version was restored and screened for the first time since its initial engagements.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: In April 2014, a restored version of the Todd-AO version was screened at the Fifth Annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. The eight-month restoration was developed in conjunction with 20th Century Fox and the studio's film preservationist Schawn Belston.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: The Cinemascope version of the film was first telecast as a Thanksgiving Day special by CBS, on the evening of November 26, 1970. Unlike some later telecasts of the film, this one was presented complete and uncut, except for the Overture, Entr'acte, and Exit Music. As with its 1960s telecasts of "The Wizard of Oz", CBS felt that the film needed a host to introduce it, so they brought in Sebastian Cabot, Anissa Jones, Johnny Whitaker, and Kathy Garver, all from the long-running CBS sitcom "Family Affair", to serve as hosts. The four of them, rather than appearing as themselves, spoke their lines in character, as if they were still playing their roles from the series. Because the film was shown on a Thursday evening, it occupied the same time slot in which "Family Affair" was shown in 1970, which explains the selection of the four actors from the show to host the film. It earned a Nielsen rating of 27.9 and an audience share of 47%.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: For unexplained reasons the original UK DVD release is a pan and scan version from a noticeably grainy CinemaScope print, even though the companion DVD of "South Pacific" was taken from a pristine Todd-AO master and presented in widescreen. The 50th Anniversary US DVD release of "Oklahoma!" by partial rights holder 20th Century Fox is a double-disc release that includes both the CinemaScope and original 70 mm Todd-AO versions in widescreen. The Todd-AO version has an Overture, intermission with Entr'acte, and Exit Music. The CinemaScope version is without intermission or any traditional roadshow features. Shirley Jones does audio commentary on the Todd-AO presentation. In March 2006 this version was also released in the UK as part of a set of remastered Rodgers & Hammerstein DVDs.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: In 2014, 20th Century Fox released in the US a special 4-disc Blu-ray and DVD combo set, with both Todd-AO and CinemaScope 35 versions. The Todd-AO version was superior in definition to the Cinemascope version in this release.


title: Oklahoma! (1955 film)

text: In 2021, it was announced that the film will stream on Disney+ beginning April 30, 2021, following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company. The Todd-AO version was used on the app.


title: LoJack

text: LoJack is a stolen vehicle recovery and IoT connected car system that utilizes GPS and cellular technology to locate users' vehicles, view trip history, see battery levels, track speeding, and maintain vehicle health via a native app. Prior to selling a vehicle, LoJack dealers can use the system to manage and locate inventory, view and manage battery health, and recover stolen inventory.


title: LoJack

text: The original LoJack system was created and patented in 1979 by William Reagan, a former Medfield, Massachusetts police commissioner, who went on to establish LoJack Corporation in Medfield. Reagan served as the company's first CEO and Chairman. The name "LoJack" was coined to be the "antithesis of hijack", wherein "hijack" refers to the theft of a vehicle through force.


title: LoJack

text: The original LoJack was a hardware and radio based system designed to prevent theft of a vehicle and aid in the vehicle’s recovery by transmitting vehicle location to the LoJack receiver. It was installed in the vehicle and connected to the starting mechanism such that only the original key would start the vehicle. It could also include the incorporation of a scheme whereby an additional step was required to activate the ignition. Prior to starting, it would require the activation of any number of the usual vehicle features such as the radio, headlight switch, or other switched device. Without knowledge of the proper procedure, it would be almost impossible to activate the ignition. Modern transponder key based systems made the original LoJack starting system obsolete, so it was changed to be only a cell phone/GPS based stolen vehicle tracking and recovery system. When a vehicle is stolen, the device transmits data to the LoJack base and includes speed, location, and other data to aid in the vehicle’s recovery. Such information is also simultaneously sent to the vehicle owner’s computer or cell phone.


title: LoJack

text: In 1998, the company began offering its tracking system to the heavy machinery and construction industry, including entering into an agreement with Caterpillar.


title: LoJack

text: By 2013, the LoJack system was reportedly operating in 28 states and the District of Columbia and in more than 30 countries. The company reported that more than 1,800 U.S. law enforcement agencies had LoJack tracking computers in their police vehicles. In November 2013, the company announced they were expanding tracking capabilities to parents, auto makers and insurance companies.


title: LoJack

text: In March 2016, the company was acquired for $134 million by CalAmp, an Irvine, California-based provider of Internet of things (IoT) software applications, cloud services, data intelligence and telematics products and services.


title: LoJack

text: In March 2021, the vehicle intelligence company Spireon announced it had acquired the LoJack U.S. Stolen Vehicle Recovery business from CalAmp, joining LoJack users with "nearly 4 million active subscribers from over 20,000 current Spireon customers". CalAmp would still retain and continue to expand LoJack International, which operates as a subscription-based SaaS business, while also retaining ownership of the LoJack patents and trademarks. Under Spireon, LoJack technology moved from RF-based location to GPS and cellular-based technology, growing availability of the solution throughout the U.S. and Hawaii and expanding the solution from only stolen vehicle recovery into connected car technology for both dealers and consumers.


title: Germania (city)

text: Germania () was the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Nazi Germany after the planned victory in World War II. It was to be the capital of his planned "Greater Germanic Reich". Albert Speer, the "first architect of the Third Reich", produced many of the plans for the rebuilt city in his capacity as overseer of the project, only a small portion of which was realized between the years 1938 and 1943.


title: Germania (city)

text: Some of the projects were completed, such as the creation of a great East–West city axis, which included broadening Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) and placing the Berlin Victory Column in the centre, far away from the Reichstag, where it originally stood. Other projects, however, such as the creation of the "People's Hall" ("Volkshalle"), had to be shelved owing to the beginning of war, although a great number of the old buildings in many of the planned construction areas were already demolished before the war. Ultimately war and defeat put an end to all plans.


title: Germania (city)

text: Adolf Hitler conceived of rebuilding Berlin to be the capital of the new world he would be instrumental in creating, and provided the name for it, 'Germania'. According to records of Hitler's "table talk" of 8 June 1942, Hitler's purpose in the renaming was to give a Greater Germanic world empire of the New Order a clear central point:


title: Germania (city)

text: The official plan for rebuilding Berlin, with Albert Speer in charge, was called the "Comprehensive Construction Plan for the Reich Capital" (German: "Gesamtbauplan für die Reichshauptstadt").


title: Germania (city)

text: Doubts persisted at the time as to whether the marshy Berlin ground could have taken the load of the proposed projects, leading to the construction of an "exploration building" ("Schwerbelastungskörper", literal translation: heavy load-bearing body), which still exists near the site where the Arch of Triumph would have been built. The Schwerbelastungskörper is an extremely heavy block of concrete used by the architects to test how much weight the ground was able to carry. Instruments monitored how far the block sank into the ground. The Schwerbelastungskörper sank in the three years it was to be used for testing, compared to a maximum allowable settlement of . Using the evidence gathered by these gargantuan devices, it is unlikely the soil could have supported such structures without further preparation. The plan was to cover the Schwerbelastungskörper by building a bridge over it. The arch would have been nearby, but problems with the axis running through infrastructure would have made it difficult to establish any convenient location.


title: Germania (city)

text: Speer was reproved by Martin Bormann when he contacted Protestant and Catholic authorities, as, according to Bormann, churches were not to receive building sites in the new areas.


title: Germania (city)

text: The razing of old buildings to make way for the reconstruction of Berlin began in 1938 in various places around the city. This included the Alsen district, where the Great Hall would stand, and the Tiergarten district, where Speer planned to build the House for German Foreign Transport, and where the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse would intersect with the great East-West Axis which was to be built. The East-West Axis was completed in time for Hitler's 50th birthday celebration a year later, in 1939, when Speer ceremoniously presented it to Hitler with the words "My Führer. I should like to report the completion of the east-west axis. May the work speak for itself."


title: Germania (city)

text: Speer designed a new Chancellery, which included a vast hall designed to be twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. Hitler wanted him to build a third, even larger Chancellery, although it was never begun. The second Chancellery was destroyed by the Soviet Army in 1945.


title: Germania (city)

text: At the beginning of World War II, with the German invasion of Poland in 1939, construction was suspended, but resumed after the clear German victory. When France was defeated in 1940, Hitler visited Paris briefly with Speer and a few chosen others, the Führer's desire to "give Berlin a new face" was revitalized, and the work was redoubled at his command. At Speer's instigation, Hitler signed a decree which read:


title: Germania (city)

text: In the shortest possible time Berlin must be redeveloped and acquire the form that is its due through the greatness of our victory as the capital of a powerful new empire. In the completion of what is now "the country's most important architectural task" I see the most significant contribution to our final victory. I expect that it will be completed by the year 1950. [emphasis in the original]


title: Germania (city)

text: After serious setbacks in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which Hitler had initially seen as another "blitzkrieg" ("lightning war"), construction on "Germania" was halted permanently in March 1943.


title: Germania (city)

text: Almost none of the other buildings planned for Berlin were ever built. Berlin was to be reorganised along a central boulevard known as the "Prachtallee" ("Avenue/Boulevard of Splendor(s)"). This would run south from a crossroads with the East-West Axis close to the Brandenburg Gate, following the course of the old Siegesallee through the Tiergarten before continuing down to an area just west of Tempelhof Airport. This new North-South Axis would have served as a parade ground, and have been closed off to traffic. Vehicles would have instead been diverted into an underground highway running directly underneath the parade route; sections of this highway's tunnel structure were built, and still exist today. No work was ever begun above ground although Speer did relocate the Siegesallee to another part of the Tiergarten in 1938 in preparation for the avenue's construction.


title: Germania (city)

text: The plan also called for the building of two new large railway stations as the planned North-South Axis would have severed the tracks leading to the old Anhalter and Potsdamer stations, forcing their closure. These new stations would be built on the city's main "Hundekopf" (dog's head) geography S-Bahn ring with the "Nordbahnhof" in Wedding and the larger "Südbahnhof" in Tempelhof-Schöneberg at the southern end of the avenue. The Anhalter Bahnhof, no longer used as a railway station, would have been turned into a swimming pool – in post-World War II Berlin.


title: Germania (city)

text: At the northern end of the avenue on the site of the Königsplatz (now the Platz der Republik) there was to be a large open forum known as "Großer Platz" ("Grand Plaza") with an area of around . This square was to be surrounded by the grandest buildings of all, with the Führer's palace on the west side on the site of the former Kroll Opera House, the 1894 Reichstag Building on the east side and the third Reich Chancellery and high command of the German Army on the south side (on either side of the square's entrance from the "Avenue of Splendours"). On the north side of the plaza, straddling the River Spree, Speer planned to build the centrepiece of the new Berlin, an enormous domed building, the Volkshalle ("people's hall"), designed by Hitler himself. Had it been built, the Volkshalle would still be the largest enclosed space in the world today. Although war came before work could begin, all the necessary land was acquired, and the engineering plans were worked out. The building would have been over high and in diameter, sixteen times larger than the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.


title: Germania (city)

text: Towards the southern end of the avenue would be a triumphal arch based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but again, much larger; it would be almost high, and the Arc de Triomphe (at the time the largest triumphal arch in existence) could have fit inside its opening, evidently with the intention of replacing the rather long history associated with this Arch and in particular the unique ceremonies, with reference to the history of France, connected with it. As a result of the occupation of Berlin by Soviet troops in 1945, a memorial was constructed with two thousand of the Soviet dead buried there in line with this proposed 'Triumphal Arch'. It had been intended that inside this generously proportioned structure the names of the 1,800,000 German dead of the First World War should be carved.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: Belle de Jour () is a 1967 drama film directed by Luis Buñuel, and starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, and Michel Piccoli. Based on the 1928 novel "Belle de jour" by Joseph Kessel, the film is about a young woman who spends her midweek afternoons as a high-class prostitute, while her husband is at work.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: The title of the film is a play on words on the French term "belle de nuit" ("beauty of the night", i.e., a prostitute), as Séverine works during the day under the pseudonym "Belle de Jour". Her nickname can also be interpreted as a reference to the French name of the morning glory ("Convolvulaceae"), meaning "beauty of [the] day", a flower that blooms only during the day.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: "Belle de Jour" is one of Buñuel's most successful and famous films with many film historians calling Deneuve's performance her finest. It won the Golden Lion and the Pasinetti Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1967.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve), a young and beautiful housewife, is unable to share physical intimacy with her husband, Dr. Pierre Serizy (Jean Sorel), despite their love for each other. Her sexual life is restricted to elaborate fantasies involving domination, sadomasochism, and bondage. Although frustrated by his wife's frigidity toward him, he respects her wishes.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: While visiting a ski resort, they meet two friends, Henri Husson (Michel Piccoli) and Renée (Macha Méril). Séverine does not like Husson's manner and the way he looks at her. Back in Paris, Séverine meets up with Renée and learns that a common friend, Henriette, now works at a brothel. At her home, Séverine receives roses from Husson and is unsettled by the gesture. At the tennis courts, she meets Husson and they discuss Henriette and houses of pleasure. Husson mentions a high-class brothel to Séverine at 11 Cité Jean de Saumur. He also confesses his desire for her, but Séverine rejects his advances.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: Haunted by childhood memories, including one involving a man who appears to touch her inappropriately, Séverine goes to the high-class brothel, which is run by Madame Anaïs (Geneviève Page), who names her "Belle de Jour." That afternoon Séverine services her first client. Reluctant at first, she responds to the "firm hand" of Madame Anaïs and has sex with the stranger. After staying away for a week, Séverine returns to the brothel and begins working from two to five o'clock each day, returning to her unsuspecting husband in the evenings. One day, Husson comes to visit her at home, but Séverine refuses to see him. Still, she fantasizes about having sex with him in her husband's presence. At the same time, Séverine's physical relationship with her husband is improving and she begins having sex with him.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: Séverine becomes involved with a young criminal, Marcel (Pierre Clémenti), who offers her the kind of thrills and excitement of her fantasies. When Marcel becomes increasingly jealous and demanding, Séverine decides to leave the brothel, with Madame Anaïs's agreement. Séverine is also concerned about Husson, who has discovered her secret life at the brothel. After one of Marcel's associates follows Séverine to her home, Marcel visits her and threatens to reveal her secret to her husband. Séverine pleads with him to leave, which he does, referring to her husband as "the obstacle".


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: Marcel waits downstairs for Pierre to return home and shoots him three times. Marcel then flees but is shot dead by police. Séverine's husband survives but is left in a coma. The police are unable to find a motive for the attempted murder. Sometime later Séverine is at home taking care of Pierre, who is now paralysed, blind and in a wheelchair. Husson visits Pierre to tell him the truth about his wife's secret life; she does not try to stop him. After Husson leaves, Séverine returns to see Pierre crying. In an ambiguous ending which is hinted to be another of her fantasies, Pierre then gets out of the wheelchair, pours himself a drink and discusses holiday plans with Séverine.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "Belle de Jour" holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 58 reviews, and an average rating of 8.6/10. Roger Ebert of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film 4 stars out of 4 and included it into his Great Movies list.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: American director Martin Scorsese promoted a 1995 limited re-release in America and a 2002 release on DVD.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: In 2006, the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira released "Belle Toujours", imagining a future encounter between the characters of Séverine and Henri Husson from the original film.


title: Belle de Jour (film)

text: In 2010, "Belle de Jour" was ranked No. 56 in "Empire" magazine's list, The 100 Best Films of World Cinema.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Kathleen Nolan (born Joycelyn Schrum, September 27, 1933) is an American actress and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. From 1957 to 1962, she played Kate McCoy, a housewife, on the television series "The Real McCoys".


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Nolan first appeared on stage on the showboat "Goldenrod" when she was 13 months old. She acted on the showboat for 12 years. Her family acted in tent shows and had their own troupe, the Circle Stock Company. She graduated from high school in St. Louis and sang on a radio station there.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: On Broadway, Nolan played Wendy in the original production of the Styne-Comden-Green musical version of "Peter Pan" (1954–1955), starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, a role she repeated in both the 1955 and 1956 live NBC-TV broadcasts on "Producers' Showcase". A 1960 version was produced for television broadcast, and converted to videotape, but it does not feature Nolan because she was then deemed too old. One of the earlier black-and-white versions, with Nolan’s revelatory, irrepressible performance, can be viewed by appointment at New York’s Paley Center. Both 1955 and 1956 TV broadcasts can be viewed on DVD releases from VAI - Video Artists International.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: When Nolan was an usher at the Palace Theatre for Judy Garland’s show, word got backstage to Garland that an usher (Nolan) could recreate her entire performance. Garland had, of course, never seen the show or her own staging, so she invited Nolan to perform the entire show while she sat in the house. Garland later recommended Nolan to the Peter Pan creators.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan spent most of her career on television, making her debut in an episode of "The Philco Television Playhouse". She had a regular role as the teenaged cousin Liz in the 1953-1954 sitcom "Jamie", starring Brandon deWilde in the title role.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan made other appearances over the years on such series as "Gunsmoke", "The Lloyd Bridges Show", "The Millionaire", "The Untouchables", "Breaking Point", "Crossing Jordan", "Ally McBeal", "Chicago Hope", "All My Children", "Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls", "Murder, She Wrote" (1991 episode "The Prodigal Father"), "Magnum, P.I." (episodes "The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii" (1981) and "Double Jeopardy" (1982) (last one in which Larry Pennell guest starred), "The Incredible Hulk", "Quincy M.E.", "The Love Boat", "Charlie's Angels", "The Rockford Files", "The Bionic Woman", "", "Love, American Style", "Bewitched", "The Big Valley", "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour"," Thriller", "Burke's Law", "Meet McGraw", and "Ben Casey".


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan appeared with fellow guest star Michael Landon in the 1958 episode "Rose of the Rio Bravo" on the series "Tombstone Territory", starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. She also appeared on the interview program "Here's Hollywood".


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan's best-known television role was as Kate, the wife of Luke McCoy (Richard Crenna), on the popular sitcom "The Real McCoys". On February 23, 1961, she was thrown from a horse and injured during the filming of an episode. She then missed four months of work and was "in and out of the hospital many times" before returning to the series to perform in the episode broadcast on June 15, 1961. Nolan left "The Real McCoys" before its final season (1962-1963). At the time, the series also switched networks from ABC to CBS. The time slot for "The Real McCoys" changed as well in the switch to CBS, moving from Thursday evenings to Sunday evenings opposite NBC's "Bonanza". In the revamped story for the series, Nolan's character was said to have died.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan appeared on "McHale's Navy", which resulted in her own spin-off series "Broadside", in which she led a cast that included Edward Andrews, Dick Sargent, Sheila James (in her last regular television series role), Lois Roberts, Joan Staley, George Furth, Arnold Stang, and Jimmy Boyd. "Broadside" had good ratings, but Universal Studios dropped the series after a single season.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Beyond television, she appeared as Burt Reynolds's love Claudia in the 2017 film "The Last Movie Star".


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan in 1980 received the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women "who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry".


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: In 1959, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series for her work in "The Real McCoys".


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan served for two terms as the first female president of the Screen Actors Guild (1975–79). She also served on SAG's board of directors for a dozen years.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: She is a life member of the Actors Studio and a recipient of the Women in Film Crystal Award. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Nolan to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.


title: Kathleen Nolan

text: Nolan married Richard Heckenkamp, a "personal manager for celebrities", on November 4, 1962. They were divorced on May 19, 1965. They had a son, Spencer Garrett.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Edgar Valdez Villarreal (born August 11, 1973), also known as La Barbie ("The Barbie"), is a Mexican-American former drug lord and high-ranking lieutenant of the now-disbanded Beltrán Leyva Cartel. Valdez is serving a 49-year prison sentence at USP Coleman II in Florida.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Valdez worked for several years as a cartel lieutenant alongside nephew Fernando Valdez, before rising to a leadership position in an enforcement squad called Los Negros. Following the death of cartel boss Arturo Beltrán Leyva in late 2009, Valdez fought a protracted gang war for control of the cartel resulting in over 150 deaths. He employed techniques such as videotaped torture and decapitation.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: On August 30, 2010, he was arrested by Mexican Federal Police at a rural house near Mexico City. His gang, known as Los Negros, collapsed by 2011. He was intended to serve a 49-year sentence at USP Coleman II, a high-security US federal prison in Florida. As of November 2022, he is no longer listed as being in the custody of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, though it has been reported that this was due to certain circumstances involving "safety, security, or privacy reasons."


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Valdez was born and raised in Laredo, Texas. He was a popular high school football player. His nickname "La Barbie" came from his American football coach at United High School; because of his white skin, blue eyes and facial features, he was compared to a Ken doll.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Valdez's first arrest came at the age of 19 in Texas, where he was charged with criminally negligent homicide for running over a middle-school counselor with his truck while speeding down a Laredo street. He was not indicted. He became a marijuana dealer on the streets of Laredo while he was in high school. He turned down his father's offer of financing a college education in order to focus on his business, but was soon indicted on charges of distributing marijuana. To avoid capture he fled to Mexico, where he allegedly joined the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel and quickly moved up through the ranks due to his connections in the US.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Valdez came to lead the enforcement gang called Los Negros, who were engaged in a territorial dispute in the Nuevo Laredo region against Los Zetas. Los Negros orchestrated kidnappings and recruited operatives, including corrupt police officers, military personnel and federal agents, according to the attorney general's office. While the group was allegedly controlled directly by Valdez, it used to be overseen by the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: According to Mexican media reports, shortly after the death of cartel leader Arturo Beltrán Leyva on December 16, 2009, Valdez began to dispute the cartel's leadership and its territory; in 2010 one faction was led by Valdez and Gerardo Alvarez-Vasquez, while the other was led by Arturo's brother Héctor Beltrán Leyva and his lieutenant Sergio Villarreal Barragán.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: In August 2010 four decapitated bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Cuernavaca, along with a message warning anyone helping Valdez of a similar fate. Both sides engaged in similarly gruesome tactics intended to ward off the other; over 150 deaths are allegedly linked to the dispute.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: US government reports allege that Los Negros has been known to employ local gangs such as MS-13 and the Mexican Mafia to carry out murders and other illegal activities.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: On the morning of January 25, 2010, football player Salvador Cabañas was wounded by a gunshot to the head. Through the recording of a CCTV camera, José Jorge ("JJ") Balderas Garza was identified as his attacker. According to his own statements, due to their friendship Valdez-Villarreal himself was the person who gave "JJ" shelter to protect him from the police by placing him in one of his safe houses.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Benjamin Yeshurun Sutchi (killed in Mexico by the CJNG gang), and well-known Israeli drug dealer and a major player in the international cocaine business, was wanted by Interpol and was one of the best friends of Edgar Valdez Villarreal. Mexico’s attorney general said that between 2001 and 2005 Sutchi built a criminal empire based on drug trafficking, kidnappings and casinos, working with Mexico’s own mafia. In a raid, police found photos showing Sutchi together with his friend Valdez in Sinaloa.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Mexican police had been searching for Valdez since his 2002 indictment on two counts of conspiracy with intent to distribute marijuana. In their investigation, police raided homes that he had rented, locating grenades, automatic weapons and police uniforms. In May 2009 Mexican authorities listed him as one of their 24 most wanted drug traffickers, and posted a 30-million-peso (US$2.3 million) reward for information leading to his capture.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Valdez pleaded not guilty and took out advertising in the local Monterrey newspaper, "El Norte", describing himself as: "a legitimate businessman who had been forced to leave Nuevo Laredo and move to the neighboring state of Coahuila because he was being harassed for bribes by local police officers."


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: In June 2010 Valdez was indicted in a US court on charges of trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Mexico into the US between 2004-06. Mexican officials claim that Valdez introduced to the US about one ton of cocaine per month. In 2009 the Justice Department posted a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: Mexican police said they tracked Valdez across five Mexican states for a year, a pursuit that intensified in the final months as they raided home after home owned by the drug lord, missing him but arresting several of his allies. On August 30, 2010, Valdez was captured by Mexican Federal Police near Mexico City.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: In a video released by the federal police on September 1, 2010, Valdez could be seen telling his interrogators how he smuggled drugs from Panama to the US and transported cash from the US back into Mexico hidden in trailers. He said that he spent $200,000 to make a film based on his life; however, he decided not to release the movie because it might reveal too much information about him. After Valdez' arrest, his father-in-law, Carlos Montemayor González, (a.k.a., "El Charro") took control of the cartel, only to be arrested three months later on November 24, 2010.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: His American lawyer told "The New York Times" that Valdez denies all charges against him and that the video confession was made under duress. In November 2010 Mexico started his extradition process to the US.


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: On September 30, 2015, Valdez Villarreal was extradited to the US along with 12 other criminals, including former high-ranking Gulf Cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez. In June 2018 he was sentenced to 49 years in a US federal prison. After being pressed by the Government of Mexico on November 30, 2022 as to why Valdez Villarreal was no longer being listed as in Federal Prison custody, the U.S. Bureau of Federal Prisons claimed that "We do not provide specific information on the status of inmates who are not in the custody of the BOP for safety, security, or privacy reasons," but also that "Inmates who were previously in BOP custody and who have not completed their sentence may be outside BOP custody for a period of time for court hearings, medical treatment or for other reasons."


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: A character loosely based on Valdez Villarreal, named "La muñeca" ("The Doll"), was featured in the 2017 TV series "El Chapo".


title: Edgar Valdez Villarreal

text: In 2011 Legendary Pictures acquired the rights to film "American Drug Lord", a movie about Valdez based on an article in "Rolling Stone" magazine. Charlie Hunnam, who is best known for his role as Jax Teller in the TV crime-drama "Sons of Anarchy", is scheduled to play the crime figure. In January, 2016 it was revealed that since 2013 American actor Armie Hammer contacted the family of the infamous cartel leader "La Barbie" (Valdez-Villarreal) and secured the rights to film the life story of the drug lord.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: The series follows a teenage high school girl named Hitomi, who finds herself pulled from Earth to the planet Gaea when a boy named Van appears on the high school track while battling a dragon. In Gaea, she is caught in the middle of a war as the Zaibach Empire attempts to take over Gaea. Van (King of Fanelia), with aid from Allen (an Asturian Knight), commands his mystical mech Escaflowne in the struggle to stop the Zaibach Empire. Hitomi's fortune telling powers blossom in Gaea as she becomes the key to awakening Escaflowne and to stopping Zaibach's plans.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: While the anime series was in production, two very different manga retellings were also developed and released: a shōnen version of the story entitled "The Vision of Escaflowne" and a shōjo retelling titled "Hitomi — The Vision of Escaflowne". In addition, a second shōjo adaptation called "Escaflowne — Energist's Memories" was released as a single volume in 1997. The story was novelized in a series of six light novels by Yumiko Tsukamoto. A movie adaptation, entitled simply "Escaflowne", was released on June 24, 2000, but bears only a basic resemblance to the original series. Four CD soundtracks and a drama CD have also been released in relation to the series.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Gaea is an alternate dimension that was created from the combined wishes of the inhabitants of Atlantis when it started to sink into the ocean. Gaea has 100 countries. On Gaea, Earth is known as the Mystic Moon. Gaea's size, mass, atmospheric composition, temperature belts, and even seasons are the same as Earth’s, although its gravity is lower, as implied by some of the jumps and acrobatic feats of some of the show's characters.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: The series focuses on Hitomi Kanzaki and her adventures after she is transported to the world of Gaea, a mysterious planet where she can see Earth and its moon in the sky. Hitomi's latent psychic powers are enhanced on Gaea and she quickly becomes embroiled in the conflicts between the Zaibach Empire led by Emperor Isaac Dornkirk and the several peaceful countries that surround it. The conflicts are brought about by the Zaibach Empire's quest to revive the legendary power from the ancient city of Atlantis. As the series progresses, many of the characters' pasts and motivations, as well as the history of Atlantis and the true nature of the planet Gaea, are revealed.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Shoji Kawamori first proposed the series after a trip to Nepal, during which he visited the foggy mountain region and pictured a hidden world where an epic focusing on both fate and divination should be set. When he returned, he proposed the series to Bandai Visual and Sunrise. According to Kawamori, his pitch for the series was simple: "if "Macross" was robotic mecha and love songs, why not a story about robotic mecha and divining powers?"


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: He worked with Bandai producer Minoru Takanashi to finish fleshing out the original idea. They researched various mysteries for inspiration, particularly stories centered on the mythical land of Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle. As the series began taking shape, they changed the lead character from a male, the norm for an action-mecha series, to a high school girl as the lead character. Nobuteru Yuki was hired as the character designer, and tasked with crafting a design for Hitomi and the rest of the cast. He would later state that Hitomi was his favorite character because it was the first one he'd ever designed completely from scratch rather than simply being adapted from an existing medium. Initially, Folken and Dilandau were a single enemy commander, but as the story was fleshed out, the creators felt the series would be more interesting if there were two with very different personalities.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Initially, the series was planned at thirty-nine episodes, with Yasuhiro Imagawa brought on board to direct. He is credited with coining the word "escaflowne", a Latin-based derivative of the word "escalation", that would be used in the title. Imagawa imagined a typical "shōnen" series that was heavily male-oriented and would feature a shapely heroine and dramatic battles. However, he left the project before production started to direct "Mobile Fighter G Gundam". Without a director, the series was put on hold and Kawamori left to work on other projects. After two years, Sunrise revisited the project and brought in relative newcomer Kazuki Akane as the new director. To broaden the potential audience, Akane decided to add more "shōjo", or girl-oriented, elements to the series. The suggestive elements were removed, several of the male characters were given more "bishōnen"—"beautiful boy"—appearances, and the plot element around the tarot cards were added. Akane also redesigned Hitomi, taking her from a curvy, air-headed, long-haired girl with glasses to a slim, athletic, short-haired and more intelligent and confident girl.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: With the series character designs finalized and the story set, Yoko Kanno was selected to write the songs for the series, including the background songs which she co-wrote with her then-husband Hajime Mizoguchi, with whom she had previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Please Save My Earth. Initially they found it difficult to score the series as the plot itself was still being reworked around the new concept, but the plot changes were finished in time for them to prepare the score and give the film the desired final "epic touch." 16-year-old Maaya Sakamoto, fresh from a small role in the anime adaptation of "Mizuiro Jidai", was selected not only as the voice of Hitomi, but also to sing the "Escaflowne" theme song. Kanno is noted as saying that Sakamoto is an ideal interpreter of her work. After this project, they continued to collaborate on many other works and some consider her work on "The Vision of Escaflowne" to be the launching point of Sakamoto's career.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: As the series entered into production, the budget required it be cut down to twenty-six episodes before work began on the final scripts and the animation. Not wanting to cut out any of the characters or the already elaborately planned plot lines, the series was instead forced to fit into the shorter length and cover more of the story in each episode than originally planned. This can be seen some in the first episode, where in the credits were cut in favor of adding more exposition. In the retail Japanese video release, some of the deleted scenes were restored to the first seven episodes.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: "The Vision of Escaflowne" premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 2, 1996 where it aired weekly until it completed its twenty-six-episode run on September 24, 1996. Bandai Entertainment North American division, which licensed the series for home video distribution under its AnimeVillage label, first released the series with English subtitles, across eight VHS volumes, including a box set, from September 15, 1998 to December 15, 1998. In August 2000, Fox Kids Network began broadcasting the series in the United States. Produced by Saban Entertainment under license by Bandai Entertainment, these dubbed episodes were heavily edited to remove footage, add new "flashback" sequences to remind the audience of the events that just occurred, and to heavily downplay the role of Hitomi in the series. The first episode was skipped altogether, and the series soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno was partially replaced with more techno rearrangements by Inon Zur. This modified version of the series was canceled after ten episodes due to "low ratings". Fox explained that they edited to meet their own target audience, to comply with broadcast standards, and to fit the allowed timeslot. The Canadian television channel YTV acquired Fox's dubbed version of the series for broadcast. Following Fox's planned broadcast schedule, they premiered the series on September 11, 2000 with the second episode. YTV aired all of the episodes Fox Kids dubbed, concluding with the series true first episode in February 2001. Bandai began releasing the dubbed version to VHS in 2000, discontinuing the releases in February 2001 after only four volumes had been released.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Bandai later released the entire series, unedited and in the original episode order, to Region 1 DVD. Spanning eight volumes, the releases include the original Japanese audio tracks with optional English subtitles, and the uncut English dubbed track. Bandai also later released the series in several different box sets, including a Limited Edition set released on July 23, 2002, a "Perfect Collection"—which included the "Escaflowne" feature-length movie—released October 26, 2004, and an "Anime Legends" box set on April 11, 2006. At Otakon 2013, Funimation had announced that they have acquired both licenses to "The Vision of Escaflowne" and the movie. On February 27, 2016, Funimation launched a Kickstarter campaign to re-dub the Escaflowne TV series using the HD materials from Sunrise, with the goal of $150,000.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Three pieces of theme music are used for the series. , performed by Maaya Sakamoto, is used for the series opening theme for the entire series, except the first episode in which no opening sequence is used. Performed by Hiroki Wada, "Mystic Eyes" is used for the ending theme for the first twenty-five episodes, while the final episode uses Yoko Kanno's instrumental piece .


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Maaya Sakamoto voiced the main character of Hitomi Kanzaki and performed the opening theme song "Yakusoku wa Iranai" and other songs from the series. Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi composed and produced the series' musical themes and background, incorporating a variety of styles including contemporary, classical, and Gregorian chant.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Four CD soundtracks have been released in Japan by Victor Entertainment. "Escaflowne: Over the Sky" was released on June 5, 1996, with sixteen tracks, including the series' full opening and ending themes. The second CD, "Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 2", was released on July 24, 1996 and contained an additional seventeen tracks.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Released on September 28, 1996, "Escaflowne Original Soundtrack 3" contained an additional fifteen tracks. The fourth CD soundtrack, "The Vision of Escaflowne: Lovers Only", was released in on January 22, 1997 and contained twenty tracks, including the original TV length opening and ending themes and the ending theme used for the final episode of the series. Despite the relative popularity of the soundtracks, they were not licensed for release outside Japan for some time and were only available by importing them. However, all 4 soundtracks can now be currently purchased digitally via iTunes.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Three alternate retellings of "The Vision of Escaflowne" have been released in manga form, with first two manga series developed at the same time as the anime. Due to the radical changes in the anime series during production, these two manga series are very different from the original anime series and each other. The first series, also titled "The Vision of Escaflowne" was one of the first manga series to appear in the then new "Shōnen Ace" magazine from Kadokawa Shoten. Despite the anime series itself being on hold, Sunrise gave artist Katsu Aki the existing production and character designs, resulting in the first manga series having the heavy "shōnen" feel and curvaceous Hitomi that was originally planned for the anime series. Given free rein to change the story however he wanted, Aki's version is a violent saga focused primarily on fighting and has Hitomi transforming into a "curvaceous nymph" that is the power source of the mecha Escaflowne. The series premiered in "Shōnen Ace"'s first issue on October 24, 1994 and ran until November 26, 1997. The thirty-four chapters were collected and published by Kadokawa across eight "tankōbon" volumes. It was licensed for released in North America by Tokyopop with the first volume released on July 8, 2003. The Tokyopop English editions were also imported for distribution in Australia by Madman Entertainment.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: In 1996, with the premiere of the anime series, "Messiah Knight — The Vision of Escaflowne" was created. This "shōjo" oriented adaptation was written by Yuzuru Yashiro and serialized in "Asuka Fantasy DX" from April 8, 1996 through January 18, 1997. Unlike the first manga, it focused more on the interaction of the characters and severely toned down the violence to the point that the mecha are not used for battle at all and Escaflowne only appears near the end of the series. It was abruptly canceled after only 10 chapters and the end of the anime, due to the slowing popularity of the series. The individual chapters were released in two "tankōbon" volumes, at which time the series was retitled "Hitomi — The Vision of Escaflowne."


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: A final manga retelling, "Escaflowne — Energist's Memories," was a collaborative effort of various manga artist around Japan to create 15 "mini-stories" related to the anime series. The single volume manga was published in January 1997 under Kadokawa's "Asuka comics DX" shōjo imprint. Artist's who contributed to the volume include: Tammy Ohta, Yayoi Takeda, Kahiro Okuya, Daimoon Tennyo, Kazumi Takahashi, Masaki Sano, and Kyo Watanabe.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Yumiko Tsukamoto and Shoji Kawamori collaborated in the writing on a novelization of the "Vision of Escaflowne" anime series. The light novel chapters were originally serialized in "Newtype", and the illustrations were provided by Nobuteru Yuuki and Hirotoshi Sano. The individual chapters were collected and released in six individual volumes by Kadokawa under their "New Type Novels" label between June 1996 and August 1997.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: is a ninety-eight-minute anime film released in Japan on June 24, 2000 that retells of the story in "The Vision of Escaflowne". The film was produced by Sunrise, animated by Studio BONES, and directed by Kazuki Akane. Featuring character re-designs by Nobuteru Yūki, the film focuses on the relationship between Van and Hitomi and their personal issues. The characters themselves are also given different personalities; in the film Hitomi changes from a cheerful girl in love to a depressed, suicidal schoolgirl who suffers from self-induced feelings of loneliness and alienation and Van is now a violent, hot-headed man. In the film the world of Gaea has a more Asian design than the heavily European-influenced television series.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Victor Entertainment released one drama CD for the series, "Escaflowne Original Drama Album", which was released on December 18, 1996.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: A video game based on the series, also titled "The Vision of Escaflowne" was released to the PlayStation system by Bandai Games in 1997. A limited edition version came packaged with a small collector's book and 26 tarot cards. The action-adventure game had an altered plot line and featured additional characters.


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Though well received, "The Vision of Escaflowne" was not as popular in Japan as producers hoped. Outside Japan, however, it was a worldwide hit. In the United States, it outsold "Gundam" on video tape, and the first volume of the English DVD release of "The Vision of Escaflowne" was the fourth best-selling anime DVD for the month of September 2000. The series aired in South Korea where it enjoyed consistently high ratings. Producers noted that it was the worldwide success that led to the eventual creation of the anime film, "Escaflowne".


title: The Vision of Escaflowne

text: Egan Loo, writing for "Animerica", considered it an "epic fantasy" with some of the "most dramatic music in any soundtrack, anime, or live-action", and a "breathless pacing" that result in its being an "acclaimed masterpiece." The Anime Encyclopaedia calls it the "genuine family entertainment, both in and out of the anime world, and arguably the best TV anime of the 1990s". It is called a "fantastically beautiful series, with striking production design" and an "incredibly well executed fusion of familiar anime genres and devices" by Anime Classics Zettai!


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Aluminium hydroxide, Al(OH), is found in nature as the mineral gibbsite (also known as hydrargillite) and its three much rarer polymorphs: bayerite, doyleite, and nordstrandite. Aluminium hydroxide is amphoteric, i.e., it has both basic and acidic properties. Closely related are aluminium oxide hydroxide, AlO(OH), and aluminium oxide or alumina (AlO), the latter of which is also amphoteric. These compounds together are the major components of the aluminium ore bauxite. Aluminium hydroxide also forms a gelatinous precipitate in water.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Al(OH) is built up of double layers of hydroxyl groups with aluminium ions occupying two-thirds of the octahedral holes between the two layers. Four polymorphs are recognized. All feature layers of octahedral aluminium hydroxide units, with hydrogen bonds between the layers. The polymorphs differ in terms of the stacking of the layers. All forms of Al(OH) crystals are hexagonal :


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: "Hydrargillite", once thought to be aluminium hydroxide, is an aluminium phosphate. Nonetheless, both "gibbsite" and "hydrargillite" refer to the same polymorphism of aluminium hydroxide, with "gibbsite" used most commonly in the United States and "hydrargillite" used more often in Europe. Hydrargillite is named after the Greek words for water (') and clay (').


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Aluminium hydroxide is amphoteric. In acid, it acts as a Brønsted–Lowry base. It neutralizes the acid, yielding a salt:


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Virtually all the aluminium hydroxide used commercially is manufactured by the Bayer process which involves dissolving bauxite in sodium hydroxide at temperatures up to . The waste solid, bauxite tailings, is removed and aluminium hydroxide is precipitated from the remaining solution of sodium aluminate. This aluminium hydroxide can be converted to aluminium oxide or alumina by calcination.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: The residue or bauxite tailings, which is mostly iron oxide, is highly caustic due to residual sodium hydroxide. It was historically stored in lagoons; this led to the Ajka alumina plant accident in 2010 in Hungary, where a dam bursting led to the drowning of nine people. An additional 122 sought treatment for chemical burns. The mud contaminated of land and reached the Danube. While the mud was considered non-toxic due to low levels of heavy metals, the associated slurry had a pH of 13.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Aluminium hydroxide also finds use as a fire retardant filler for polymer applications. It is selected for these applications because it is colorless (like most polymers), inexpensive, and has good fire retardant properties. Magnesium hydroxide and mixtures of huntite and hydromagnesite are used similarly. It decomposes at about , absorbing a considerable amount of heat in the process and giving off water vapour. In addition to behaving as a fire retardant, it is very effective as a smoke suppressant in a wide range of polymers, most especially in polyesters, acrylics, ethylene vinyl acetate, epoxies, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and rubber.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Aluminium hydroxide is a feedstock for the manufacture of other aluminium compounds: calcined aluminas, aluminium sulfate, polyaluminium chloride, aluminium chloride, zeolites, sodium aluminate, activated alumina, and aluminium nitrate.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Freshly precipitated aluminium hydroxide forms gels, which are the basis for the application of aluminium salts as flocculants in water purification. This gel crystallizes with time. Aluminium hydroxide gels can be dehydrated (e.g. using water-miscible non-aqueous solvents like ethanol) to form an amorphous aluminium hydroxide powder, which is readily soluble in acids. Heating converts it to activated aluminas, which are used as desiccants, adsorbent in gas purification, and catalyst supports.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Under the generic name "algeldrate", aluminium hydroxide is used as an antacid in humans and animals (mainly cats and dogs). It is preferred over other alternatives such as sodium bicarbonate because Al(OH), being insoluble, does not increase the pH of stomach above 7 and hence, does not trigger secretion of excess acid by the stomach. Brand names include Alu-Cap, Aludrox, Gaviscon or Pepsamar. It reacts with excess acid in the stomach, reducing the acidity of the stomach content, which may relieve the symptoms of ulcers, heartburn or dyspepsia. Such products can cause constipation, because the aluminium ions inhibit the contractions of smooth muscle cells in the gastrointestinal tract, slowing peristalsis and lengthening the time needed for stool to pass through the colon. Some such products are formulated to minimize such effects through the inclusion of equal concentrations of magnesium hydroxide or magnesium carbonate, which have counterbalancing laxative effects.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: This compound is also used to control hyperphosphatemia (elevated phosphate, or phosphorus, levels in the blood) in people and animals suffering from kidney failure. Normally, the kidneys filter excess phosphate out from the blood, but kidney failure can cause phosphate to accumulate. The aluminium salt, when ingested, binds to phosphate in the intestines and reduce the amount of phosphorus that can be absorbed.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Precipitated aluminium hydroxide is included as an adjuvant in some vaccines (e.g. anthrax vaccine). One of the well-known brands of aluminium hydroxide adjuvant is Alhydrogel, made by Brenntag Biosector. Since it absorbs protein well, it also functions to stabilize vaccines by preventing the proteins in the vaccine from precipitating or sticking to the walls of the container during storage. Aluminium hydroxide is sometimes called "alum", a term generally reserved for one of several sulfates.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Vaccine formulations containing aluminium hydroxide stimulate the immune system by inducing the release of uric acid, an immunological danger signal. This strongly attracts certain types of monocytes which differentiate into dendritic cells. The dendritic cells pick up the antigen, carry it to lymph nodes, and stimulate T cells and B cells. It appears to contribute to induction of a good Th2 response, so is useful for immunizing against pathogens that are blocked by antibodies. However, it has little capacity to stimulate cellular (Th1) immune responses, important for protection against many pathogens, nor is it useful when the antigen is peptide-based.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: In the 1960s and 1970s it was speculated that aluminium was related to various neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Since then, multiple epidemiological studies have found no connection between exposure to environmental or swallowed aluminium and neurological disorders, though injected aluminium was not looked at in these studies.


title: Aluminium hydroxide

text: Neural disorders were found in experiments on mice motivated by Gulf War illness (GWI). Aluminum hydroxide injected in doses equivalent to those administered to the United States military, showed increased reactive astrocytes, increased apoptosis of motor neurons and microglial proliferation within the spinal cord and cortex.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Xenia () is an ancient Greek concept of hospitality. It is almost always translated as 'guest-friendship' or 'ritualized friendship'. It is an institutionalized relationship rooted in generosity, gift exchange, and reciprocity. Historically, hospitality towards foreigners and guests (Hellenes not of your polis) was understood as a moral obligation. Hospitality towards foreign Hellenes honored Zeus "Xenios" (and Athene "Xenia") patrons of foreigners.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: The rituals of hospitality created and expressed a reciprocal relationship between guest and host expressed in both material benefits (e.g. gifts, protection, shelter) as well as non-material ones (e.g. favors, certain normative rights). The word is derived from "xenos" 'stranger'.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: The Greek god Zeus is sometimes called Zeus Xenios in his role as a protector of strangers. He thus embodied the moral obligation to be hospitable to foreigners and guests. Theoxeny or theoxenia is a theme in Greek mythology in which human beings demonstrate their virtue or piety by extending hospitality to a humble stranger "(xenos)", who turns out to be a disguised deity "(theos)" with the capacity to bestow rewards. These stories caution mortals that any guest should be treated as if potentially a disguised divinity and help establish the idea of "xenia" as a fundamental Greek custom. The term "theoxenia" also covered entertaining among the gods themselves, a popular subject in classical art, which was revived at the Renaissance in works depicting a Feast of the Gods.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Legally, "xenia" was a charge of bastardy. Attic lawsuits apply it to accuse someone of committing citizenship fraud perpetrated through marriage fraud. The Periclean citizenship law of 451/450 BC expanded the definition of bastardy to include the children of unions between Athenians and non-Athenians.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Xenia was considered to be particularly important in ancient times when people thought that gods mingled among them. If one had poorly played host to a stranger, there was the risk of incurring the wrath of a god disguised as the stranger. It is thought that the Greek practice of "theoxenia" may have been the antecedent of the Roman rite of Lectisternium, or the draping of couches.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: While these practices of guest-friendship are centered on the gods, they would become common among the Greeks in incorporating xenia into their customs and manners. Indeed, while originating from mythical traditions, xenia would become a standard practice throughout all of Greece as a historical custom in the affairs of humans interacting with humans as well as humans interacting with the gods.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: The "Argonautica", written by Apollonius of Rhodes, takes place before the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." Since the story takes place during Greek times, the theme of xenia is shown throughout the story.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Solemn pronouncements were often used to establish a ritualised personal relationship, such as when "Xerxes, having been offered lavish hospitality and most valuable gifts by Pythios the Lydian, declared "...in return for this I give you these privileges ("gera"): I make you my "Xenos."" The same set of words could be applied in non-face-to-face situations, when a ruler wished to contract an alliance through the intermediary of messengers. Herman points out that this is correspondent to pacts made by African tribal societies studied by Harry Tegnaeus (in his 1952 ethno-sociological book "Blood Brothers") where "the partners proclaim themselves in the course of the blood ceremony each other's 'brothers', 'foster-brothers', 'cousins'. The surviving treaties of 'fraternity' 'paternity' and 'love and friendship' between the petty rulers of the ancient Near East in the second half of the second millennium B.C. incorporate what are probably written versions of such declarations." (Herman also sees an echo of this in the medieval ceremony of homage, in the exchange between a would-be-vassal and the lord.)


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Herman goes on to point out that "no less important an element in forging the alliance was the exchange of highly specialized category of gifts, designated in our sources as "xénia" (as distinct from "xenía", the term of the relationship itself) or "dora". It was as important to give such gifts as to receive, and refusal to reciprocate as tantamount to a declaration of hostility. Mutual acceptance of the gifts, on the other hand, was a clear mark of the beginning of friendship." Herman points to the account of Odysseus giving Iphitos a sword and spear after having been given a formidable bow while saying they were "the first token of loving guest-friendship". Herman also shows that Herodotus holds "the conclusion of an alliance and the exchange of gifts appeared as two inseparable acts: Polykrates, having seized the government in Samos, "concluded a pact of "xenia" with Amasis king of Egypt, sending and receiving from him gifts ("dora")". Within the ritual it was important that the return gift be offered immediately after receiving a gift with each commensurate rather than attempting to surpass each other in value. The initial gifts in such an exchange would fall somewhere between being symbolic but useless, and of high use-value but without any special symbolic significance. The initial gifts would serve as both object and symbol. Herman points out that these goods were not viewed as trade or barter, "for the exchange was not an end in itself, but a means to another end." While trade ends with the exchange, the ritual exchange "was meant to symbolize the establishment of obligations which, ideally, would last for ever."


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Plato makes mention of Zeus Xenios while discussing his journey to meet Dion of Syracuse in The Seventh Letter.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Vitruvius uses the word "xenia" once, near the end of Book 6 of "De Architectura," in a note about the decorative paintings, typically of food, located in guest apartments: "when the Greeks became more luxurious, and their circumstances more opulent, they began to provide dining rooms, chambers, and storerooms of provisions for their guests from abroad, and on the first day they would invite them to dinner, sending them on the next chickens, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and other country produce. This is why artists called pictures representing the things which were sent to guests ‘xenia.’"Architectural theorist Simon Weir explained how Vitruvius refers to "xenia" at the beginning of Book 6 of "De Architectura," in the anecdote of Aristippus shipwrecked and receiving hospitality from the Rhodians. Also how xenia was pervasive in the work of the earliest ancient Greek architects, whose work was always concerned with public buildings and the hosting of guests rather than the design of private residences. Architectural Historian, Lisa Landrum has also revealed the presence of Xenia in Greek theatre onstage and offstage.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Several incidents recorded in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are considered parallels to the Greek concept of "theoxenia", whereby hospitality is shown to a stranger before they reveal their divine nature.


title: Xenia (Greek)

text: Writers distinguish between "positive theoxenies," in which the community treats the guest appropriately, and a "negative theoxeny," where the host receives the blessing of life rather than the death the unwelcoming public is cursed with. The theoxenies of Genesis 18–19 are an example of the influence of Hellenic culture on the ancient Israelites.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania,United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County. It is also part of the Johnstown-Somerset, PA Combined Statistical Area, which includes both Cambria and Somerset Counties.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Johnstown was settled in 1770. The city has experienced three major floods in its history. The Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889, occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed upstream from the city during heavy rains. At least 2,209 people died as a result of the flood and subsequent fire that raged through the debris. Another major flood occurred in 1936. Despite a pledge by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to make the city flood free, and subsequent work to do so, another major flood occurred in 1977.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The city is home to five national historic districts: the Downtown Johnstown Historic District, Cambria City Historic District, Minersville Historic District, Moxham Historic District, and Old Conemaugh Borough Historic District. Individual listings on the National Register of Historic Places are the Grand Army of the Republic Hall, Cambria Iron Company, Cambria Public Library Building, Bridge in Johnstown City, Nathan's Department Store, and Johnstown Inclined Railway.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: A settlement was established here in 1791 by Joseph Jahns, in whose honor it was named, and the place was soon laid out as a town.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Johnstown was formally platted as Conemaugh Old Town in 1800 by the Swiss German immigrant Joseph Johns (born Josef Schantz). The settlement was initially known as "Schantzstadt", but was soon anglicized to Johnstown. The community incorporated as Conemaugh borough January 12, 1831, but renamed Johnstown on April 14, 1834. From 1834 to 1854, the city was a port and key transfer point along the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. Johnstown was at the head of the canal's western branch, with canal boats having been transported over the mountains via the Allegheny Portage Railroad and refloated here, to continue the trip by water to Pittsburgh and the Ohio Valley. Perhaps the most famous passenger who traveled via the canal to visit Johnstown briefly was Charles Dickens in 1842. By 1854, canal transport became redundant with the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which now spanned the state. With the coming of the railroads, the city's growth improved. Johnstown became a stop on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and was connected with the Baltimore & Ohio. The railroads provided large-scale development of the region's mineral wealth.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Iron, coal, and steel quickly became central to the town of Johnstown. By 1860, the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown was the leading steel producer in the United States, outproducing steel giants in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Through the second half of the 19th century, Johnstown made much of the nation's barbed wire. Johnstown prospered from skyrocketing demand in the western United States for barbed wire. Twenty years after its founding, the Cambria Works was a huge enterprise sprawling over in Johnstown and employing 7,000. It owned of valuable mineral lands in a region with a ready supply of iron, coal and limestone.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Floods were almost a yearly event in the valley during the 1880s. On the afternoon of May 30, 1889, following a quiet Memorial Day ceremony and a parade, it began raining in the valley. The next day water filled the streets, and rumors began that a dam holding an artificial lake in the mountains to the northeast might give way. It did, and an estimated 20 million tons of water began spilling into the winding gorge that led to Johnstown some away. The destruction in Johnstown occurred in only about 10 minutes. What had been a thriving steel town with homes, churches, saloons, a library, a railroad station, electric street lights, a roller rink, and two opera houses was buried under mud and debris. Out of a population of approximately 30,000 at the time, at least 2,209 people are known to have perished in the disaster. An infamous site of a major fire during the flood was the old stone Pennsylvania Railroad bridge located where the Stonycreek and Little Conemaugh rivers join to form the Conemaugh River. The bridge still stands today.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The Johnstown flood of 1889 established the American Red Cross as the pre-eminent emergency relief organization in the United States. Founder Clara Barton, then 67, came to Johnstown with 50 doctors and nurses and set up tent hospitals as well as temporary "hotels" for the homeless, and stayed on for five months to coordinate relief efforts.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The mills were back in operation within a month. The Cambria Works grew, and Johnstown became more prosperous than ever. The disaster had not destroyed the community but strengthened it. Later generations would draw on lessons learned in 1889. After the successful merger of six surrounding boroughs, Johnstown became a city on April 7, 1890.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: In 1923, Johnstown Mayor Joseph Cauffiel ordered the expulsion of all African-Americans and Mexicans in Johnstown who had lived in Johnstown for less than seven years. The edict was in response to a fatal altercation between Robert Young, a black man, and Johnstown police officers. African-Americans had settled in the Rosedale neighborhood during the Great Migration. Although Cauffiel's edict of expulsion was without legal force, Cauffiel's declaration resulted in around 500 African-Americans fleeing the city. The Ku Klux Klan burned twelve crosses outside Johnstown in an attempt to intimidate Rosedale's black population. Governor Gifford Pinchot intervened to prevent Cauffiel from enforcing the edict.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: In the early 20th century, the population reached 67,000 people. The city's first commercial radio station, WJAC, began broadcasts in 1925. The downtown boasted at least five major department stores, including Glosser Brothers, which in the 1950s gave birth to the Gee Bee chain of department stores. However, the St Patrick's Day flood of 1936 combined with the gnawing effects of the Great Depression left Johnstown struggling again, but only temporarily. Johnstown's citizens mobilized to achieve a permanent solution to the flooding problem and wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt pleading for federal aid. Starting in August 1938, continuing for the next five years, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers gouged, widened, deepened, and realigned of river channel in the city, and encased the river banks in concrete and reinforced steel. In a campaign organized by the Chamber of Commerce, thousands of Johnstown's citizens wrote to friends and relatives across the country hoping to bring new business to the town.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Professional ice hockey found a home in Johnstown, starting in 1941 with the Johnstown Blue Birds for one season and returning in 1950 with the Johnstown Jets. The Jets later hosted an exhibition game against Maurice Richard and the Montreal Canadiens on November 20, 1951. Newcomers to the town heard little about the tragic past. Johnstown proclaimed itself "flood-free", a feeling reinforced when Johnstown was virtually the only riverside city in Pennsylvania not to flood during Hurricane Agnes in 1972.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The immediate post-World War II years mark Johnstown's peak as a steel maker and fabricator. At its peak, steel provided Johnstowners with more than 13,000 full-time, well-paying jobs. However, increased domestic and foreign competition, coupled with Johnstown's relative distance from its primary iron ore source in the western Great Lakes, led to a steady decline in profitability. New capital investment waned. Johnstown's mountainous terrain, and the resulting poor layout for the mills' physical plant strung along of river bottom lands, compounded the problem.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: New regulations ordered by the EPA in the 1970s also hit Johnstown, with the aging Cambria plant (now Bethlehem Steel) especially hard. However, with encouragement from the steel company, the city fathers organized an association called Johnstown Area Regional Industries (JARI) and, within a year, raised $3 million for industrial development in the area. Bethlehem Steel, which was the major contributor to the fund, committed itself to bringing new steelmaking technologies to Johnstown because they were impressed by the city's own efforts to diversify.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Extensive damage from the 1977 flood was heavy and there was talk of the company pulling out. Again, the city won a reprieve from the company's top management, which had always regarded the Johnstown works with special affection because of its history and reputation. As the increasing amount of federal environmental regulations became more difficult to comply with and the issues with the aging manufacturing facilities grew more significant, and as steel companies began closing down plants all over the country, by 1982 it looked as if Johnstown had exhausted its appeals. By the early 1990s, Johnstown abandoned most of its steel production, although some limited fabrication work continues.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: In 2003, U.S. Census data showed that Johnstown was the least likely city in the United States to attract newcomers; however, what were previously relatively weak opportunities provided by the local manufacturing and service economies have more recently begun to burgeon, attracting outsiders. Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, a Spanish wind energy company, opened its first U.S. wind turbine blade manufacturing facility near here in 2006 which subsequently closed in 2014. Several wind turbines are sited on Babcock Ridge, the "Eastern Continental Divide", along the eastern edge of Cambria and Somerset counties. Lockheed Martin relocated a facility from Greenville, South Carolina, to Johnstown in 2008. Höganäs AB, a Swedish powdered metals manufacturer operates two plants in the region, one in the Moxham section of the city and also in nearby Hollsopple in Somerset County. Companies like Concurrent Technologies Corporation, DRS Laurel Technologies, ITSI Biosciences, Kongsberg Defense and more throughout the region are in business for themselves. Recent construction in the surrounding region, the downtown, and adjacent Kernville neighborhood—including a new Regional Technology Complex that will house a division of Northrop Grumman, among other tenants—signal the increasing dependence of Johnstown's economy on the U.S. government's defense budget. The high-tech defense industry is now the main non-health-care staple of the Johnstown economy, with the region pulling in well over $100M annually in federal government contracts, punctuated by one of the premier defense trade shows in the U.S., the annual Showcase for Commerce.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Johnstown remains a regional medical, educational, cultural, and communications center. As in many other locales, health care provides a significant percentage of the employment opportunities in the city. The region is located right in the middle of the "Health Belt", an area stretching from the Midwest to New England and down the East Coast that has had massive growth in the health care industry. Major health care centers include Memorial Medical Center and Windber Medical Center, the Laurel Highlands Neuro-Rehabilitation Center, and the John P. Murtha Neuroscience and Pain Institute, with its advances in treating wounded veterans, and the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center's focus on early diagnosis and advanced treatment.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College attract thousands of students to their contiguous campuses in Richland, east of Johnstown. Cambria-Rowe Business College, located in the Moxham section of Johnstown, offers concentrated career training and has continuously served Johnstown since 1891. The Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center, a concert/theatrical venue at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, attracts high-quality performers. The Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the recently formed Johnstown Symphony Chamber Players provide classical music. The Johnstown Concert Ballet, centered in the Historic Cambria City District, provides classical ballet performances and training to the area. The Pasquerilla Convention Center was recently constructed downtown, adjacent to the historic Cambria County War Memorial Arena at 326 Napoleon Street. Point Stadium, a baseball park where Babe Ruth once played, was razed and rebuilt. A zoning ordinance created an artist zone and a traditional neighborhood zone to encourage both artistic endeavors and the old-fashioned "Mom and Pop" enterprises that had difficulty thriving under the previous code. The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center offers many exhibitions, events, performances, and classes that celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the area.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The Johnstown Chiefs ice hockey team played for 22 seasons, the longest period a franchise of the league stayed in one city. The Chiefs were a member team of the ECHL, and played their home games in the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. The Chiefs' decision to relocate caused a flood of public interest in the sport of hockey. As many as four leagues were interested in having a team in the War Memorial. In the end the city landed a deal with another ECHL team, the Wheeling Nailers, who played parts of two seasons at the War Memorial. A full-time tenant arrived in 2012, when the Johnstown Tomahawks of the junior North American Hockey League began play.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The recently established ART WORKS in Johnstown! houses artist studios in some of the area's architecturally significant but underused industrial buildings. The ART WORKS in Johnstown project is projected to be a non-profit LEED-certified green building. The Frank & Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discovery Center opened in 2001 with the permanent exhibit "America: Through Immigrant Eyes", which tells the story of immigration to the area during the Industrial Revolution. In June 2009, the Heritage Discovery Center opened the Johnstown Children's Museum and premiered "The Mystery of Steel", a film detailing the history of steel in Johnstown. The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center, ART WORKS, and the Heritage Discovery Center are located in the historic Cambria City section of town, which boasts a variety of eastern European ethnic churches and social halls. This neighborhood hosted the National Folk Festival for three years in the early 1990s, which expanded into the Flood City Music Festival. Johnstown also hosts the annual Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally during the fourth week of June; the event has attracted motorcyclists from across the Northeast to the city of Johnstown since 1998. Well over 200,000 participants enjoyed the 2008 edition of Thunder in the Valley, and the event continues to grow in size.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Significant efforts have been made to deal with deteriorating housing, brownfields, drug problems, and other issues as population leaves the city limits and concentrates in suburban boroughs and townships. The Johnstown Fire Department has become a leader in developing intercommunication systems among first responders, and is now a national model for ways to avoid the communications problems which faced many first responders during the September 11, 2001 attacks.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 3.25%, is water. The Conemaugh River forms at Johnstown at the confluence of its tributaries, the Stonycreek River and the Little Conemaugh.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The city of Johnstown is divided into many neighborhoods, each with its own unique, ethnic feel. These include the Downtown Business District, Kernville, Hornerstown, Roxbury, Old Conemaugh Borough, Prospect, Woodvale, Minersville, Cambria City, Morrellville (West End), Oakhurst, Coopersdale, Walnut Grove, Moxham and the 8th Ward. Before 1900, the town of Windber, Pennsylvania, was a suburb of Johnstown, until its incorporation.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: Dale Borough is an enclave located within the city of Johnstown, situated on the southeast side of the city between Hornerstown and Walnut Grove.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 20,978 people, 9,917 households, and 5,086 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,555.6 people per square mile (1,371.1/km). There were 11,978 housing units at an average density of 2,030.2 per square mile (782.9/km). The racial makeup of the city was 80.0% White, 14.6% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.7% some other race, and 4.3% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 3.1% of the population. In the three-year period ending in 2010, it was estimated that 22.3% of the population were of German, 15.8% Irish, 12.9% Italian, 7.7% Slovak, 6.7% English, 5.6% Polish, and 6.1% American ancestry.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: At the 2010 census there were 9,917 households, of which 22.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.5% were headed by married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.7% were non-families. Of all households, 43.0% were made up of individuals, and 17.9% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.87.


title: Johnstown, Pennsylvania

text: The age distribution was 21.7% under 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 27.9% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 or older. The median age was 41.8 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.5 males.