Racing History.

Beginnings (2004-06).

The 2004 American Le Mans Series season saw Flying Lizard Motorsports and drivers Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek finish 2nd in the GT2 team and drivers championship.  In 2005, the team finished 3rd in the ALMS GT2 Team Championship with drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Jon Fogarty finishing 5th in the GT2 drivers championship.  In 2006, the team finished 3rd in the GT2 team championship and driver Johannes van Overbeek finished 2nd in the drivers championship while his teammate, Wolf Henzler finished 4th.

ALMS Porsche Factory Support (2007-12).

For the 2007 season, the team took delivery of two brand new 997 Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs. Team also became Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner and received factory support from Porsche. Drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Jörg Bergmeister and the new addition of Marc Lieb shared duties of driving the #45 car, while Darren Law, Seth Neiman, and Lonnie Pechnik shared the #44 car. After the #45 car won three times in 2007, including the prestigious Petit Le Mans, the team would finish second in the team standings to the Risi Competizione team. Drivers Jörg Bermeister and Johannes van Overbeek would also finish second in the series driver standings.  For the 2008 season, the Flying Lizard team continued on in its fifth consecutive season in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans series. For this season, the team expanded into a three car operation with three Porsche 2008 911 GT3 RSRs. In the #45 car, previous season driver Jorg Bergmeister was joined by Wolf Henzler for the full season of competition with third driver Marc Lieb. Johannes van Overbeek and the new addition of Patrick Pilet piloted the team's #46 entry full-time with guest driver Richard Lietz. In the #44 entry, Darren Law and Seth Neiman with guest driver Alex Davison piloted the car. The #45 car of Bergmeister and Henzler was in tight contention with the Tafel Racing squad of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Müller, and at the end of the season emerged the overall points winners, giving Flying Lizard Motorsports their first ever GT2 class championship.  For 2009, Flying Lizard Motorsports back moved to a two car squad with the returning GT2 class champion #45 car being piloted by Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long for the majority of the races with Marc Lieb as the reserve third driver for longer races. The #44 car will be piloted by Seth Neiman and Darren Law for the majority of the races with Johannes van Overbeek as the reserve driver. After coming in 4th at the season opener at Sebring with a heavily damaged car, the #45 team took the class win in the following 5 races. At the following two races at Road America and Mosport they faced much tougher competition with a greatly improved Rahal Letterman Racing BMW team and a new Corvette Racing team. The #45 managed 3rd at Mosport and 4th at Road America but came back to claim first place in GT2 at the season finale in Monterey, California. Winning 6 out of 10 races, the #45 car won the GT2 team championship giving the team its second consecutive championship win. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long also won the GT2 drivers championship.  For 2010, Flying Lizard Motorsports continued running two cars. The two-time GT2 championship winning #45 car, driven by Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long with Marc Lieb as the reserve third driver, competed alongside its sister car, the #44, driven by Seth Neiman and Darren Law with Richard Lietz as the reserve third driver. The Lizards faced fierce competition from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Risi Competizione. After finishing 4th at the 12 hours of Sebring, the #45 car went on to take first place in its class at Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and Mosport. The Lizards placed second in the Team Championship and first in the Drivers Championship thanks to Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long. This gave Flying Lizard Motorsports and Bergmeister three consecutive Driver Championship titles.  For the 2011 season the team utilized the brand new second-generation 997 GT3 RSR. Both the #44 and #45 car were piloted by the same team as the year before, with the exception of Marco Holzer replacing Richard Lietz as reserve third driver in the #45 car. After finishing second in GT2 Championship the year before, Rahal Letterman Racing came back to fight even harder against the Flying Lizard Motorsports group. The #45 car managed a 2nd in class at Lime Rock, 1st in class at Laguna Seca and a 2nd in class finish at Petit Le Mans. The team managed a 3rd-place finish in the GT Season Championship while Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finished 4th in the GT Drivers' Championship.  In 2012 the team took deliver of two brand new second-gereration GT3 RSRs. This years car has a front and rear track that has been widened by 1.9 inches allowing for much wider tires giving more grip. The Flying Lizard Motorsports team struggled to find speed and consistency with the new car. The #45 car managed a win at Lime Rock Park after a fierce battle with Corvette Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports. The team also managed a win at Mosport but was disqualified after failing a stall test at the end of the race. The team finished 4th in the GT championship with Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing 5th in the Drivers Championship points.

2013 (ALMS Porsche GTC).

With the development of the 997 GT3 RSR ending, the team's relationship with Porsche Motorsport North America was discontinued. On November 15, 2012, Flying Lizard Motorsports announced that they would transition to competing in the GT Challenge category. The team fielded a two car team for what would be the final season of the American Le Mans Series before it merged with the Rolex Sports Car Series to form the Tudor United SportsCar Championship in 2014. With the team winning four races of the ten round season, including a victory at the season finale, Petit Le Mans, drivers of the #45 car, Spencer Pumpelly and Nelson Canache Jr, would finish second in the GTC drivers' championship behind the Alex Job Racing's Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil and the team would claim its third ALMS Teams' Championship and their first in the GTC class.

IMSA Customer Program (2014-Present).

After competing with Porsches since its inception, the Flying Lizard team announced on November 11, 2013 that it would partner with Audi Sport Customer Racing to campaign a two car Audi R8 LMS effort in the newly formed Tudor United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona Class. Seth Neiman and Dion von Moltke would team in the #35 car Nelson Canache Jr. and Spencer Pumpelly sharing the #45 car. The season began with a last lap battle at the 24 Hours of Daytona, resulting in the first-place finishing car to receive a penalty for intent for avoidable contact, awarding Flying Lizard as the winners. Five hours later, the penalty was revoked, moving the Lizard squad to second place. The team finished out the season with four top-five finishes.  For 2015, the team announced they would run a partial season in United SportsCar, in addition to running a full season in Pirelli World Challenge and Porsche Cup of America. The team ran five races with the Audi R8 LMS throughout the season: the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Monterey Grand Prix, Lone Star Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. The 2015 drivers included: Tomonobu Fujii, Satoshi Hoshino, Robert Thorne, German Markus Winkelhock, Colin Thompson, Marco Holzer, Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne, Mike Vess and Jason Hart. The team's highlight of the season included a top-5 finish at Petit Le Mans, which was canceled with only 7 hours and 51 minutes of the 10-hour race completed.

Pirelli World Challenge (2015-Present).

GT: K-PAX Racing (2015-Present).

Flying Lizard partnered with championship winning team K-PAX Racing in 2015 to enter two McLaren 650S GT3s for a full season in the Pirelli World Challenge GT championship. With McLaren GT factory driver Kevin Estre and K-PAX veteran Robert Thorne, the unified effort had a successful first season, earning four wins and 8 podiums. Estre proved to be a front runner, winning Round 2 at Circuit of the Americas by over 30 seconds in torrential downpour, establishing himself early as a championship contender.  Flying Lizard returned to manage the K-PAX program, solely under the K-PAX Racing banner, in 2016 with Alvaro Parente, Austin Cindric, and Colin Thompson, racing three McLarens. Parente clinched the driver championship, while young Austin Cindric earned three podiums and three pole positions. In all, the full-season program clinched the team, driver (Alvaro Parente), and manufacturer (McLaren GT) championships, with 16 top five finishes, 12 podiums, seven pole positions, and six wins. The team closed out the season with a return to endurance racing, a first for K-PAX Racing, running the 12 Hours of Sepang with Shane van Gisbergen, Côme Ledogar, and Álvaro Parente. The #9 650S GT3 finished tenth overall, seventh in class.  The championship winning duo returned again in 2017 under the K-PAX Racing banner, with returning champion Alvaro Parente being joined by full season entry Bryan Sellers and partial season entrant Mike Hedlund. The GT championship also introduced a new SprintX format, where two drivers would share a car for an allotment of races. Ben Barnicoat joined Parente in the No. 9 McLaren, and Jonny Kane raced with Sellers for the first few races. Michael Lewis joined Mike Hedlund, but then switched to the car of Sellers after Hedlund pulled out of the championship. The team finished runner up in the Sprint championship, earning a total of five wins and ten podiums.  For 2018, the operation switched manufacturers, dropping McLaren for Bentley. The Pirelli World Challenge championship was comprised 10 events, five of which two-driver SprintX races. Parente returned for a third year, joined by Flying Lizard alumni Rodrigo Baptista. The pair were joined by Bentley works team drivers Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet for the SprintX Races. The team celebrated ten victories, rebounding from heavy crashes at St. Petersburg and VIRginia International Raceway early in the season.  The team returned again in 2019, with drivers Parente and Baptista as the full season entries, with Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet again acting as SprintX drivers.

GTS/GT4: Flying Lizard Motorsports (2016-Present).

In 2016, the Lizard group began its own customer racing program in World Challenge, fielding entries at Road America, Sonoma Raceway, and Laguna Seca with Andy Wilzoch and Mike Hedlund. Helund earned two third-place finishes in both of his Sonoma Raceay races, and Wilzoch also earned a double podium at Road America. Program Manager Darren Law joined Wilzoch at Laguna Seca for the first SprintX double header, and the pair finished ninth and fourth.  The following season, the program expanded, fielding a pair of Flying Lizard Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR for Brazilian Rodrigo Baptista and Nate Stacy. Baptista proved to be one of the breakout rookies of the season, earning four wins, including a sweep at Lime Rock Park, a track the Lizard program always showed success at. Together, the pair earned ten podiums and 17 top five finishes.  World Challenge introduced the SprintX Championship to the GTS class in 2018, allowing AM drivers to have a co-driver for each double header race weekend. Mike Hedlund returned to Flying Lizard to race his Audi R8 LMS GT4 solo, while Adam Merzon and Ryan Eversley shared the driving duties for the No. 23 Audi R8 LMS. Hedlund earned six podiums during the season, and one win at the Watkins Glen season finale. Merzon and Eversley clinched their first pole position as a pair at Lime Rock Park.  New racer Michael Dinan joined Flying Lizard Motorsports for the 2019 season in the series, rebranded as GT4 America under the SRO Motorsports banner. Racing the new Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, Dinan signed up for both the Sprint and SprintX championships for a total of 31 races, bringing IMSA racer Robby Foley as his co-driver for the SX events.

Development Programs.

Toyo Tires (2015-Present).

Flying Lizard Motorsports and Toyo Tires began their partnership in 2015 as a tire development program, with the tire manufacturer utilizing the sports car champions for private testing. In 2015, the duo put their development to the test, entering the Auri R8 LMS that had previously raced in the IMSA series. The #45 Audi R8 LMS won in the ES class and overall, with the all-professional driver lineup of Program Manager Darren Law, Tomonobu Fuji, Guy Cosmo and Johannes van Overbeek.  The #45 Audi returned to defend its win the following year, with drivers Darren Law, Mike Hedlund, Johannes van Overbeek and Dion von Moltke. The Audi again finished first in the ES class and first overall. A second entry, a #74 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR joined the effort, finishing second in the ES class and third overall with drivers Charlie Hayes, Andy Wilzoch, Will Owen, and Tommy Sadler.  In 2017, Flying Lizard and Toyo Tires achieved a three-peat, with the No. 45 Audi R8 LMS again taking the ES class and overall win from pole position. Darren Law, Tom Haacker, Nate Stacym and Charlie Hayes drove the car to victory, completing over 2,100 miles. The #74 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Johannes van Overbeek, Craig Watkins, Mike Hedlund, and Ross Thompson also clinched its own class win. The team also beat the all-time record of 761 laps completed during the race by completing 780 laps. The team returned with a two car effort in 2018, winning overall for the fourth consecutive year, with the #74 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Johannes van Overbeek, Justin Marks, Andy Wilzoch, Charlie Hayes, and Wolf Henzler. van Overbeek started from fifth and brought the car up to second in the opening lap, but within minutes, the Porsche was back in the garage for 14 laps, needing repairs on a broken axle. By Henzler's stint, the car had made it back into the top three, but again suffered a broken axle. In lap 596, van Overbeek brought the car back to the lead, and after 25 hours again finished first overall, officially becoming the team to hold the most wins at the endurance event. The second of two all-female entries on the grid, the #45 Jester & Babbitt Racing by Flying Lizard Motorsports Toyo Tires Audi R8 LMS GT4 was raced by the first-ever female drivers of the team: Christina Nielsen, Aurora Straus, Ashton Harrison, Laura Ely, and Erin Vogel. The all-female car cliched its Toyo Tires GT4 Challenge class win, finishing fourth overall after running a near flawless race and suffering no mechanical issues.  In 2018, the duo of Toyo Tires and Flying Lizard Motorsports took on a new challenge: the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The team enlisted Clint Vahsholtz, driver with the most class victories in the history of the race, to run the No. 45 Flying Lizard / Toyo Tires McLaren 12C GT3. Of 77 entries, the team finished eighth overall and second in class on their debut of the 12.42-mile, 156 turn course, with over 9,000 feet in elevation changes from start to finish.

Lamborghini Super Trofeo (2019-Present).

In spring of 2019, Flying Lizard Motorsports and Lamborghini Squadra Corse announced a new partnership, in which the Lizards took ownership of a Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo, opening a new test program at their home track of Sonoma Raceay. Based off the customer interest in the new car, the program was built around research and development of the car, and allowing prospective racers in the IMSA Super Trofeo series to get seat time in the machinery.

The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, winning six championships to date. The Lizards have also been Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner from 2007 to 2012. The team helped develop the first- and second-generation 997 GT3 RSR as well as bring it to victory several times in its six-year run in the series. Now a customer racing team, Flying Lizard Motorsports runs and manages various sports car racing programs.

Flying Lizard Motorsports est une équipe de sport automobile créée en 2003 à Sonoma, Californie par Seth Neiman. Elle est installée sur le circuit de Sears Point (Sonoma Raceway), à une quinzaine de kilomètres de Sonoma.


Plot.

The game's story revolves around an extraterrestrial mineral, Siberite, that can catalyze cold fusion and serve as fuel for an alien artifact. Siberite and the artifact – named EON – are discovered by an American expedition to Russia during World War I. EON is revealed to be a time machine capable of sending objects into the past, but by the time of the discovery, Siberite stocks are exhausted and research stops. Then in the new millennium vast deposits of the mineral are found in Siberia, and Americans are able to extract enough of it for small-scale time-travel.  The U.S. comes up with a plan to send a small force two million years back in time. There it will mine the Siberite and transport it over the Bering Land Bridge to Alaska, into what will one day be in American hands. The best troops are selected, briefed, and told that it is a one-way trip back through time.  This results in a new time line with the mineral located in Alaska and the U.S. being the only undisputed superpower thanks to the inexhaustible source of energy. Here the time machine wasn't found by the U.S. but the Russians instead. The Soviet Union fumes under American supremacy. Frustration turns to outrage when Soviet scientists find traces of American settlement and Alaskite, the source of U.S. power, in remote Siberia. A Soviet expedition is sent through the EON, here called TAWAR, to repel the American thieves and preserve what is rightfully theirs.  The game story is freely based on the sci-fi novel "The Last Day of Creation" (1981) by Wolfgang Jeschke.

Gameplay.

"Original War" is an RTS: The player builds a base, finds resources, builds vehicles, and destroys the enemy. Its distinguishing feature is the way the game mechanics reflect the backstory's scarcity of resources and isolation.  It is not possible to train new men. Moreover, the same units who fight are needed for resource gathering and the bases' functions. Production facilities, research labs, vehicles and base defenses are all useless unmanned. The local apemen can be trained to do simple tasks, and with the right research it is possible to use remote control and AIs, but all are generally worse in combat than humans. Losses in personnel are otherwise irreplaceable.  Units do not fight to the end. Critical damage causes humans and apemen to collapse, and vehicles and buildings to eject their occupants and catch fire. They can be saved if they are healed or repaired before they bleed out or explode, respectively. Units give lower priority to incapacitated targets, and the player's units will not attack them unless ordered to. Vehicles without drivers belong to no one, so hijacking is easy and even desirable.  "Original War" is "almost as much an RPG as a RTS." Each human or apeman unit has its own name and portrait, speed, firepower and defense scores, and experience levels in each of the game's four classes. Humans can change class (or "kit") in seconds by ducking into an appropriate building. Soldiers deal and withstand much more damage, can crawl, and receive huge bonuses while in emplacements. Engineers can haul resources, initiate the construction of new buildings, and repair and dismantle buildings. Mechanics can construct and repair vehicles, and receive equally huge bonuses while driving them. Scientists are researchers, healers, and apeman tamers. Units gain XP and level up in a skill by performing actions associated with the skill. XP gain is faster for units with the associated kit.  The game has three types of resources: Crates, oil and Crystals. Supply crates sent from the future are the foundation of all construction. Small piles of crates appear on the map with a thunderclap at random intervals. Most maps in the game have regions where crates appear the most often. American optoelectronics enable them to pinpoint the exact locations of the crates as they arrive, while the Soviets, who have focused on time-based technology, are able to predict a perimeter where the crates will arrive a few seconds before they materialise.  Oil and the varyingly named mineral power bases and vehicles. Scientists can locate their deposits, and constructing a tower or mine on a deposit generates a steady stream of the resource. This may be the only base function that works automatically. Oil is used mostly early- and midgame as a cheap yet readily available power source. Oil-burning vehicles have fuel meters. They can be refueled at a base or by transporting oil to them, and the driver can get out and push. The crystal allows vehicles to run indefinitely, and opens up several advanced research topics. Solar power is also available. Solar-based fuel reserves are pitiful, but they regenerate.  "Original War" has an American and a Soviet campaign. The game recommends playing the American one first. Missions on both sides tend to contain scripted events, multiple-choice situations and sidequests. Human units persist between missions, so that each loss is a loss for the rest of the game. Mission design keeps the ranks from becoming too thin or too thick: for instance, the player might be ordered to choose eight men altogether from veterans of previous missions and other members of the side, go defend an outpost, and return after the mission. Units also gain XP for completing missions. The XP gained increases farther into the game, and is affected by the player's success in completing the various demands (often sidequests) in each mission. The player chooses one class for each unit to receive 50% of the xp, and the other three skills gain the remaining 50% between them.

History.

Community support.

In January/February 2005 a member of the game's community, Stuart "Stucuk" Carey, asked Altar Interactive (Now known as Altar Games) for permission to maintain Original War with patches. Altar Interactive agreed and gave access to the source-code. In June 2005 work began on the first patch v1.03, which primarily added basic Mod support to Original War.

Multiplayer.

Originally the only way to play Original War over the internet was through GameSpy Arcade. In 2007, starting with version 1.09 however, the game features a working master server hosted by Original War Support, and an IRC based chat system that allows people to set up or join multiplayer matches from an ingame menu. In July 2011 the community website Original-war.net released a working version of a multiplayer ranking system that records the outcomes of matches and displays them online.

Reception.

The Finnish "Pelit" magazine gave "Original War" a score of 82% in a two-page review. Reviewer Aleksi Stenberg wrote that the plot and the unusual gameplay made the game "more interesting than a dozen ""." He warmed up to "Original War" at a time when he had grown weary with the genre. He also complimented the interface. He criticized overspecialized character classes, the vehicles' designs, and the voice acting.  The Finnish general computing magazine "MikroBITTI" awarded the game 91%. Its review praised the game's playability and mentioned voice acting as the only clearly negative feature.

Original War is a real-time strategy video game developed by Czech company Altar Interactive and released by Virgin Interactive on June 15, 2001. It was re-released in the United Kingdom under the budget Sold Out label in 2004, and was later re-released again by Good Old Games in 2008.

Original War est un jeu vidéo de guerre en temps réel non linéaire développé par Altar Games et édité par Virgin Interactive dès le. Il est redistribué au Royaume-Uni sous le label budget "« Sold Out »" en 2004.


History.

Corsican Dogs have been known on Corsica since the 16th century. Until the 1950s, the breed was used as a versatile hunting and farming dog on the island. During the second half of the 20th century the breed suffered due to competition from continental breeds. In 1989 the L'association de Sauvegarde du Chien Corse was set up to safeguard the breed.  The breed has been recognised by the Société Centrale Canine, the French kennel club, since 2003; it is placed in the spitz and primitive group breeds, as a primitive breed.

Description.

The breed measures at the withers with male dogs being slightly larger than females. Their coat can be fringed, with usual colors being brindle, fawn, black and tan or brown. The presence of a melanistic mask is permitted under the breed standard. White markings can be on the chest or the legs. The skin of the dog adheres closely to the body, and dewlaps do not appear in the breed.

Temperament.

The Corsican Dog is docile, loyal and very attached to its owner. It is wary of strangers. It's an intelligent, calm and stable dog capable of adapting itself to many situations. Calm at home, it explodes with energy and speed when in action.

Use.

It is a versatile breed, having been used as a sheepdog, as well as to herd cattle and in some instances for dog fighting. In hunting it is most often used in hunting Wild boar, but has been used for fox and hare. It is still used as a herding dog, a watchdog and for companionship. It can require further training than some other breeds, but can become a pleasant companion to its owner.

Health.

There are no breed specific health issues.

The Corsican Dog ("chien corse") or Cursinu, is a breed of dog originating from Corsica. It has existed on the island since the 16th century, but went into decline during the late 20th century; however it was saved and became recognized by the Société Centrale Canine. Used for a variety of working purposes, it has no specific health issues.

Le cursinu est une race de chien originaire de Corse attestée au moins depuis le. Toutefois sa reconnaissance par la société centrale canine ne date que de 2003. C'est un chien de travail polyvalent.


Publication history.

The Magdalena first appeared in "The Darkness" #15 (June 1998) and only appeared in two brief series. The Magdalena has been featured in "The Darkness", "Witchblade", "Tomb Raider", and "Vampirella", and in its own series of twelve issues from April 2010 to April 2011.

Fictional character biography.

The Magdalena is the title of a series of women descended from Jesus Christ via his marriage to Mary Magdalene. The Magdalena inherits great powers from the royal bloodline and acts as a warrior in the defence of the Catholic Church.  The Roman Catholic Church has been the Magdalena's employer since the Middle Ages, raising her from childhood and training her until she is ready to carry out her role. The Inquisition, a secretive and powerful council of cardinals, oversees the Magdalena's activities and decides her missions.

Sister Rosalia.

Sister Rosalia was a former Magdalena who died when she was 33 years old. She was raped as a teenager by a masked assailant. She became pregnant as a result of the assault and gave birth to a girl. The child was stolen from her and raised in an unidentified convent.  In her last mission, she was sent to investigate vampirism in France. She was informed that vampirism is a retrovirus that forces vampires to consume blood to restore their hemoglobin. She decided that they were not evil and aided their escape. She was killed by the soldiers of the Inquisition, the Garduna, for trying to prevent them from slaughtering the vampires. It was hinted that Rosalia might have been infected with the virus and would rise three days after her death, mirroring the Resurrection of Jesus.

Sister Mariella.

Mariella, the adult daughter of Rosalia, was sent to kill Jackie Estacado with the Spear of Destiny, but unbeknownst to her she still wasn't fully trained and wasn't able to differentiate between right and wrong. After the Sisters of the Order of Magdalene performed the ritual which gave Mariella the ability to divine a person's sins, she and her Sisters were overpowered and defeated by Jackie, who made an example of them by crucifying them in the church. After recovering from her crucifixion and the fight with Jackie, Mariella learned where the Spear of Destiny was and prepared to retrieve it. While doing so, she encountered the Angelus and Appolonia Francetti in the Amazon rainforest and was again left to die after Appolonia used a portion of the Darkness' power to subdue her.

Patience.

The third and current Magdalena is known as Patience, created by writer Brian Holguin. Patience was in her novitiate but she left her convent suddenly, forcing the Inquisition to send an agent, Kristof, to track her down when her time came to assume the role of the Magdalena.  Kristof found Patience living on the streets with a homeless girl named Rowan Barry. Kristof became Patience's mentor and gave her basic training. Patience was initially hesitant but later accepted her destiny when Rowan was abducted by agents of an evil force. The events lead to a disagreement with Kristof and the Inquisition, prompting her to declare herself independent of their control. She remains allied with them only when their goals do not conflict with her ethics.  Patience appeared again when Sara Pezzini, an officer of the New York City Police Department and wielder of the Witchblade, was attacked by a bloodthirsty demon posing as a young woman. Patience helped her to drive away the demon.

Benedetta Maria Ferro.

Benedetta was a Magdalena of Spanish descent who tried to stop Jackie Estacado's ancestor, Miguel Estacado, from obtaining a treasure meant for the Pope. During her battle with Estacado, she was fatally wounded before plunging the Spear of Destiny into the hull of Estacado's ship. Before her death, Miguel took the spear, intending to return it to the Holy See, and left her to die, a decision he later regretted.

Powers and abilities.

Each Magdalena has the innate ability to see into the human heart and show people the error of their ways in order to give them the chance to redeem their sins. Additionally, each Magdalena wields the Spear of Destiny, the spear that pierced the side of Christ, as a weapon against demons and evil magic.

Planned movie.

A movie was planned by Top Cow in 2008. In July 2009, it was announced that Ryûhei Kitamura would direct with Holly Brix writing. Jenna Dewan and Luke Goss were set to star. The project never came to fruition.

The Magdalena is an American comic book superheroine character created by Joe Benitez, David Wohl and Malachy Coney for Top Cow Productions.

Magdalena est une héroïne de comics créée par Top Cow. Elle n'a pas de série propre mais deux séries limitées lui ont été consacrées et elle a fait des apparitions dans "The Darkness", "Witchblade", "Tomb Raider", "The Angelus" et "Vampirella". Elle est apparue dans "Darkness" #15 pour la première fois en juin 1998 aux États-Unis.


Early life.

He graduated in 1985 from the School of Fine Arts in Tehran, majoring in graphic design. He went on to get a second degree and majored in painting from the Tehran University of Art and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1992. Upon graduating until 1993 he was the Editor of the visual section of Sureh Monthly Magazine. In 1993, he founded Reza Abedini Studio an independent design consultancy and art direction studio.

Design.

His design influences include Aleksander Rodchenko, Ikko Tanaka, Sani'ol Molk Ghafari, Roman Cieslewicz and Mirza Gholam-Reza Esfahani.  Abedini has won dozens of national and international design awards. In 2006, he received the Principal "Prince Claus Award" in recognition of his personal creativity in the production of special graphic designs, as well as for the personal manner in which he applies and redefines the knowledge and accomplishments of Iran’s artistic heritage, thus making them highly interesting. The award also focuses attention on the diversity of both the historical and the modern Iranian culture, recognizing the impact of graphic design as an influential international means of communication.  Abedini is a member of the Iranian Graphic Designers Society since 1997, he was a member of jury at several biennials throughout the world. His name is listed in "Meggs" History of Graphic Design, as one of the world's outstanding post digital graphic designers.

Academic career.

Since 1996, he has been a Professor at the University of Tehran in graphic design and visual culture. He previously was a visiting Assistant Professor of graphic design and visual culture at the American University of Beirut.

See also.

Other Iranian Prince Claus Award winners

Reza Abedini (, born 1967 in Tehran) is an Iranian graphic designer and a professor. His works keep a modern theme as he blends traditional Islamic patterns, calligraphy and culture. He combines simple illustrations with poetic typography and elegant layouts, exploring the beauty of the Persian language. He is also an art critic, independent art director with "Reza Abedini Studio" and the editor-in-chief of Manzar magazine in Iran.

Reza Abedini, né en 1967 à Téhéran en Iran est un graphiste iranien. Il est graphiste indépendant et travaille essentiellement pour les milieux culturels de Téhéran (théâtre, cinéma, revues, artistes). Il est membre de l'Alliance graphique internationale et enseignant en design graphique à l'université de Téhéran depuis 1996.


History.

In 1713, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz suggested to establish an Academy, inspired by the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences. The "Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien" was finally established by Imperial Patent on 14 May 1847. The academy soon began extensive research. In the humanities the academy started with researching and publishing important historical sources of Austria. Research in natural science also covered a wide variety of topics.  The 1921 federal law guaranteed the legal basis of the academy in the newly founded First Austrian Republic. From the mid-1960s onwards it became the country's leading institution in the field of non-university basic research.  The academy is also a learned society, and its past members have included Theodor Billroth, Ludwig Boltzmann, Christian Doppler, Anton Eiselsberg, Otto Hittmair, Paul Kretschmer, Hans Horst Meyer, Albert Anton von Muchar, Julius von Schlosser, Roland Scholl, Eduard Suess and the Nobel Prize winners Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Victor Francis Hess, Erwin Schrödinger and Konrad Lorenz.

Research facilities.

The academy operates 28 research institutes. In 2012, a reorganization prompted the outsourcing of various institutes to universities as well as mergers. The academy's institutes are split into two major divisions, one for mathematics and natural sciences ("mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse") and one for humanities and social sciences ("philosophisch-historische Klasse").  In the field of humanities, there are the Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture, which is well known for the analysis of excavation results in Carnuntum and Ephesos, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, focusing on montology, the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History, and the Vienna Institute of Demography, among others.  Facilities that focus on natural sciences include the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (which is operated in cooperation with Boehringer Ingelheim), the Gregor Mendel Institute, the Institute of Molecular Biology, Salzburg, the Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (RICAM), Linz, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine, the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, the Acoustics Research Institute and the Space Research Institute.

Gallery of Research.

During his term as president of the academy (1991–2003), Werner Welzig initiated the establishment of the Galerie der Forschung (English: Gallery of Research). In 2005 the Gallery organised its pilot event "Mapping controversies: the case of the genetically modified food", which was staged in the Alte Aula in Vienna.

Publications.

The academy publishes "Medieval Worlds: Comparative & Interdisciplinary Studies", a biannual peer-reviewed open access academic journal covering Medieval studies. Its main scope is the time period from roughly 400 to 1500 CE, with a focus on Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The founding editors-in-chief are Walter Pohl and Andre Gingrich. The journal was established in 2015 with initial funding of the Austrian Science Fund.  Other publications are the "Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum" and "eco.mont – Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management".

The Austrian Academy of Sciences () is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research.

L'Académie autrichienne des sciences (en allemand "Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften") est une institution nationale autrichienne, situé à Vienne. Sa mission est de promouvoir et de soutenir le développement des sciences, et plus particulièrement la recherche fondamentale. Elle a été fondée suivant le modèle d'autres sociétés savantes comme l'Académie allemande des sciences naturelles Leopoldina, l'Académie des sciences, ou la Royal Society.


Career.

Bellamy is primarily a rock 'n' roll and country-and-western singer. In the late 1950s, he played in a band and later a duo with Alan Klein. Bellamy decided to audition for a group formed by Joe Meek that was advertised in the music press. It was this audition that determined that Bellamy would play rhythm guitar for the Tornados, who were firstly a session band for Meek. However, the group reached new heights with their instrumenal "Telstar", which reached number one all over the world and was the first British rock song to be a number-one single in the United States. Bellamy wrote one of The Tornados' tracks, "Ridin' the Wind", which also was a hit single in the USA.  Bellamy left the Tornados in 1963 when it became necessary to cease touring because of problems with his lower spine. After medical treatment, he worked with Don Charles, who had set up his own recording company with Alan Caddy named "Sound Venture". Bellamy continued doing session work in London until 1972, working with arrangers and producers such as Burt Bacharach, George Martin, and Ivor Raymond. Bellamy re-recorded "Telstar" with his own record company "SRT" in 1975 with members of the original Tornados.

Rough Terrain.

In late 1997 he formed a Devon-based band, called Rough Terrain, who played at local events in the UK. The members were:  Bellamy began working in the building industry of Devon in 1984. He retired to Costa Blanca, south of Alicante, Spain, in 2004 and formed the rock band Freeway.  The 2009 feature film "Telstar" portrays the young Bellamy, played by actor Alan Scally.  After returning to UK in late 2010 Bellamy formed a band in Devon called The Lyrics. The members are: George Bellamy - Rhythm guitar/vocals (Previous colleague) Jodie West - vocals/percussion Terry Stacey - drums/vocals Jamie Milne - lead guitar/vocals Jon Milne - bass guitar/technicals

George Bellamy (born 10 August 1941) is an English musician, singer and former rhythm guitarist for The Tornados. He is the father of Matt Bellamy, frontman of British rock band Muse.

George Bellamy est né le, à Sunderland en Angleterre. Il était le guitariste du groupe The Tornados, et il est le père de Matthew Bellamy du groupe Muse.


Background.

The band Matching Mole disbanded soon after the release of "Little Red Record" in 1972, and Wyatt began composing the material that later appeared on "Rock Bottom". The album's preparation was interrupted by an accident on the night of 1 June 1973. During a raucous party, at Vale Court, Hall Road, Maida Vale in London, an inebriated Wyatt fell from a third-floor bathroom window and was paralysed from the waist down. Wyatt has used a wheelchair ever since. He later called the event the beginning of his maturity and in hospital he continued to work on the songs that would appear on "Rock Bottom" "in a trance". "I was just relieved that I could do something from a wheelchair", he said. "If anything, being a paraplegic helped me with the music because being in hospital left me free to dream, and to really think through the music."  Within six months he was back at work in the recording studio and appeared on stage at London's Rainbow Theatre with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, who lent financial support by playing a benefit concert for him. Although the music itself is intense and often harrowing, and the lyrics to the songs are dense and obviously deeply personal, Wyatt has denied that the material was a direct result of the accident and the long period of recuperation. Indeed, much of the album had been written while in Venice in early 1973 prior to Wyatt's accident, where his partner and future wife (the poet Alfreda Benge) was working as an assistant editor on Nicolas Roeg's film "Don't Look Now".

Music and lyrics.

Enlisting friends and luminaries including Fred Frith, Ivor Cutler and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason (who produced the album), Wyatt recorded most of the album shortly after his release from hospital. In July 1974, the album was released to great critical acclaim. Cutler's performance (reciting a semi-nonsensical narrative three quarters of the way through "Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road" and intoning the same poem in a flat baritone voice at the end of "Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road" to close the album) was singled out for its brilliance, which resulted in his being offered a three-album deal with Virgin Records.  The record's abstract sketches of pain, loss and suffering are shot through with vivid flashes of love and renewal, inspired as it was by his relationship with Alfreda Benge, whom he married on the day of "Rock Bottom"s release. Benge provided the artwork for all his album covers and considerable lyrical assistance.  "Rock Bottom" contains six songs, some of which have more traditional song structures (for instance the opening "Sea Song" or "Alifib"), while others are less defined, more expressionist pieces displaying a jazz influence (as in "Alifie", or the album's centrepiece "Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road"). Side two starts with a medley of sorts ("Alifib/Alifie"), with Wyatt first singing and then reciting in a disjointed manner lyrics apparently dedicated to Benge, who replies with her own vocal at the end of "Alifie". The LP closer, "Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road", is divided into two parts; the first is a melodic progressive rock song featuring prominent electric guitars, predominantly multi-tracked by Mike Oldfield, and a chant-like vocal refrain, while the second part—bearing little resemblance to the first—features only a droning harmonium, viola and guest vocalist Ivor Cutler reciting bizarre lyrics in a monotone voice.

Album artwork.

"Rock Bottom" has been released with two different covers, both featuring artworks by Benge. The cover found on the original LP and several reissues is a pencil drawing of a scene at an ocean shore. The upper area of the cover, inspired by a Victorian-era book cover, depicts activity along the beach and off to the horizon, while the bottom third gives an underwater view of strange animal and plant life in the sea. Details include three teenage girls playing at the beach, a faraway steamer, seagulls and sandcastles. Benge intended the cover's subdued style to strike a contrast with the dominant trend of fantastical progressive rock album art, best typified by Roger Dean's science fiction-inspired artwork for Yes. At a time when "all the covers were getting more and more complicated, competing with each other for pizzazz", Benge said, "the only way to counter that... was to be absolutely minimal and quiet."

Reception.

"Rock Bottom" sold better than expected, and was released to acclaim from critics. The British musical press praised the album, with positive reviews in "NME", "Melody Maker", "Sounds", and the "Record and Radio Mirror". The album charted in the United States on "Billboard" FM Action—a chart that measured airplay of LPs on "progressive rock" radio stations—where it peaked at number 13 in 1975.  "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau wrote of "Rock Bottom" in a retrospective review, "I'm at a loss to describe this album of 'drones and songs' conceived and recorded after Wyatt's crippling accident except to say that the keyboards that dominate instrumentally are of a piece with his lovely tortured-to-vulnerable quaver and that the mood is that of a paraplegic with the spirit to conceive and record an album of drones and songs."  Reviewing the album for "Pitchfork", Douglas Wolk said:  "Pitchfork" listed it as the 98th best album of the 1970s. In 2015, "NME" ranked the album at 358 on its list of the 500 "greatest albums of all time."

Track listing.

All songs written by Robert Wyatt.

Rock Bottom is the second solo album by former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt. It was released on 26 July 1974 by Virgin Records. The album was produced by Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason, and was recorded following a 1973 accident which left Wyatt a paraplegic. He enlisted musicians including Ivor Cutler, Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Laurie Allan, Mike Oldfield and Fred Frith in the recording.

Rock Bottom est le second album solo de Robert Wyatt, le premier après son départ de Soft Machine. À la suite d'une chute d'une fenêtre qui l'a laissé paralysé des membres inférieurs, Wyatt a abandonné son travail au sein du groupe Matching Mole, étant dans l'incapacité de continuer à jouer de la batterie. Une partie des chansons commencées pour le troisième album de Matching Mole est alors transformée et finalisée pour cet album durant le temps qu'il passe à l'hôpital après l'accident. L'album a été produit par Nick Mason du groupe Pink Floyd.


Geography.

The town is situated in an area of lowland bogs and forests, about northeast of Nizhny Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. The Kerzhenets River flows through the town. The surrounding area includes most of the Kerzhenets Nature Reserve, a federal-level strict ecological reserve, established for the protection and scientific study of the local ecology of the region.

History.

It was established in the beginning of the 17th century as a settlement of Old Believers. According to an Old Believer legend, the Old Believer settlement in the area was spurred by the existence of the ancient Olenevsky Skete (today, the village of Bolshoye Olenevo, some southeast from Semyonov), which had supposedly been founded in the 15th century by some of Venerable Macarius's monks to commemorate their leader's Miracle of the Moose that took place at that site, and later joined the "Raskol".  The first documented mention of Semyonov was in 1644; it was referred to as Semyonov's hamlet, later as Semyonovo village, and from 1779 as the uyezd town of Semyonov.  From the beginning of the 19th to the early 20th century, it was a center for Old Believers movement and the only place to produce Old Believers' religious items such as lestovka prayer beads.

Administrative and municipal status.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with 1 work settlement and 190 rural localities, incorporated as the town of oblast significance of Semyonov—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Semyonov is incorporated as Semyonovsky Urban Okrug.

Economy and crafts.

Since 1918 Khokhloma wood painting became a major craft in Semyonov. In 1960, Semyonov was organized as a factory named "Khokhlomskaya rospis" ("", Russian for "Khokhloma painting").  This factory specialized in the production of hand-painted wooden items (ranging from tableware to toys and furniture) with unique style, and also matryoshka dolls, marketed as souvenir items. The factory offers tours around the various stages of production and visitors can see craftspeople making and painting the items in traditional Russian styles.

Transportation.

Semyonov is located on the Nizhny Novgorod-Kotelnich railway, which is part of one of the main routes used by trains traveling from Moscow to the Urals and Siberia. The town is served by electric commuter trains, connecting it to Nizhny Novgorod in just over an hour.

Semyonov () is a town in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, notable for being a major center for traditional handcrafts such as Khokhloma wood painting and matryoshka dolls. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 24,473.

Semionov (en ) est une ville de l'oblast de Nijni Novgorod, en Russie, et le centre administratif du raïon de Semionov. Sa population s'élevait à habitants en 2014.


Playing career.

Norway.

Soltvedt started his professional career at Viking in Stavanger in 1987 and was a member of the team who won the Norwegian Cup in 1989 and the Tippeligaen in its inaugural year, 1991.  In 1992, he joined mid-table club Brann. At the end of his first season he was voted the club's "most popular" player. During his time at Brann, the club finished each season in 6th or 7th place in the league. His extremely dedicated style, his innocent and somewhat naïve personality and the fact that many of his goals were scored as a midfielder made him immensely popular. Just before the start of the 1995 season, however, he was sacked by Brann's board for "illoyality", the board refusing to elaborate on this. This prompted a demonstration from fans supporting Soltvedt.  After three seasons at Brann, he moved to Rosenborg where he was able to share in more success, claiming the Tippeligaen championship in 1995 and 1996 as well as winning the Norwegian Cup in 1995. Trond Egil was also part of the Rosenborg team who beat AC Milan 2-1 away at the San Siro to advance to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

England.

His success in Norway brought him to the attention of English clubs and after an unsuccessful trial at Stoke City, Gordon Strachan signed him for Coventry City for a fee of £500,000 in July 1997.  After two seasons at Coventry City, he was then signed by Southampton under Dave Jones in August 1999 for £300,000. He was a "tall, elegant midfielder who added an air of calm authority whenever he played". He made his Saints debut as a substitute in a 4-2 victory over Newcastle United on 15 August 1999, helping to set up Mark Hughes for the final goal. He made a total of 24 appearances in the 1999-2000 season, playing in midfield alongside Matthew Le Tissier and Marians Pahars as Saints struggled both in defence and in attack, finishing in the lower half of the table. Soltvedt missed a large part of the last few months of the season with persistent groin problems.  After replacing Jones as Southampton's manager, Glenn Hoddle soon transferred Soltvelt to Sheffield Wednesday, initially on loan before making the deal permanent in March 2001 for an appearance-based fee which had the potential to rise as high as £200,000.  He remained at Sheffield Wednesday for three seasons and was appointed team captain. Unfortunately, he was unable to prevent Wednesday being relegated at the end of the 2002-03 season, when he was released, returning to Norway to play in the lower leagues.

Trond Egil Soltvedt (born 15 February 1967) is a Norwegian former footballer who played as a midfielder. After playing for Viking, Brann and Rosenborg in Norway, he played in England with Coventry, Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday before he retired. Soltvedt was capped four times playing for Norway.

Trond Egil Soltvedt est un footballeur norvégien né le à Voss. Il évoluait au poste de milieu de terrain. Ce joueur possède quatre sélections en équipe de Norvège.


Fictional character biography.

Langford "Happy" Terrill.

Prior to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" reboot, Happy Terrill is originally described as having been exposed to lightning and sunlight at the same time while ballooning, and gains energy-based super-powers. He is able to emit energy from his body, and use it to fly through the air.  According to "Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes", "The Ray fights the Hindu mystic Bela Jat, Cadava the Crumbler, the Mongol warrior Khan, and the pied piper of crime, Stradivarius."  His post-Crisis origin is more involved. Before World War II, the government established a secret group known as RONOL (Research on the Nature of Light). One RONOL member, Dr. Dayzl, theorized that the light that originated millennia ago where Earth now orbits would eventually circumnavigate the universe and return as a dangerous, conscious entity.  The only way to stop the "Light Entity", Dayzl believed, was to talk to it. Tricking a reporter named Happy Terrill into joining them, Dayzl and his assistants staged an upper atmosphere ballooning "accident", making certain Terrill was exposed to a genetic "light bomb". Dayzl calculated that Terrill's offspring would be a unification of human and light energy, a potential liaison to the Light Entity. Unaware of the truth, Terrill used his resulting powers to become the super-heroic Ray. Simultaneously, RONOL lost government backing due to Dayzl's unorthodox beliefs. Dayzl's fate remains unknown.  In 1950, after learning the truth, Terrill vowed to quit his Ray identity. Happy and his first wife, had a child named Joshua. For a time Joshua accompanied Ray on missions as his sidekick "Spitfire". However, Joshua was prone to violent outbursts; he was placed in suspended animation in the 1950s only to wake up again in the future, still only 10 years old. After a brief association with his old team the Freedom Fighters in the 1970s, he had married and settled down. Everything seemed normal until Happy saw his newborn son glowing with crackling energy in the hospital nursery. Happy was convinced Dayzl's theories were correct. He now knew his son would one day have the power to confront the Light Entity. Not wanting to put his wife through torment, Happy told her that the baby had died and then set up his son with a foster father (Happy's brother Thomas).  In the 2008 "Freedom Fighters" series, Terrill is asked by Uncle Sam to ask Neon the Unknown for help. When Neon, completely detached from humanity, refuses, Terrill drinks from the waters of his oasis, becoming a new Neon the Unknown, known simply as "Neon".

Ray Terrill.

Ray Terrill was told he was hypersensitive to light and exposure to sunlight would kill him. Privately tutored in his window-darkened home, Ray's most earnest wish was for normalcy. The media called him Night Boy. His only friend during his formative years was his neighbor, Jennifer Jurden. When he was 18, at his supposed father's deathbed, Ray learned his life was a lie. He was not allergic to light, nor did he have to live in darkness. Most disturbing of all, he discovered his true father was the 1940s war-time super-hero, the Golden Age Ray.

Stan Silver.

The reformed Freedom Fighters have a member called the Ray who has similar powers to the Terrills. The new Ray is Stan Silver, and he was described by Justin Gray as being "capable of turning his body into a living laser light" and "the playboy of the group". Stan likes to show off in front of the media.  Working as a foreign correspondent for the Washington Sun, Silver was exposed to upper atmosphere radiation while covering a story, thus gaining power over various forms of light. Recruited by S.H.A.D.E., Silver begins using his powers in the service of his government. He is, however, something of a womanizing egomaniac in his civilian persona. Silver later defects from S.H.A.D.E. to join Uncle Sam's new group of Freedom Fighters.  In "Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters" #6, Silver reveals that he is a double agent still loyal to S.H.A.D.E. He turns on his teammates and kills the Invisible Hood. Immediately after, the colors of his "costume" were inverted, becoming blue instead of yellow.  In "Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters" #7, he battles his former teammates and is defeated by Ray Terrill, and is sent back to Father Time. He is later seen outside the White House with S.H.A.D.E.'s other super-soldiers, who join Father Time in the timestream after the battle ends.

Lucien Gates.

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, a character named Lucien Gates was introduced as the Ray in a mini-series titled "The Ray", written by Palmiotti and Gray with art duties by Jamal Igle. It did not feature any of the previous incarnations of The Ray but instead centered around a new character by the name of Lucien Gates. Remarks made by Lucien referencing Langford's origin and his use of the Ray title in his debut issue indicate that he is not the first hero to be called The Ray as far as the newly rebooted DC universe is concerned. The mini-series debuted in December 2011.  Lucien Gates is a Korean-American San Diego County lifeguard who, while on duty, was caught in the path of a particle beam. The beam, accidentally fired from a solar energy cannon commissioned by an unnamed government agency, mutated a number of living organisms before striking Gates. The resulting energy transforms him into an energy manipulator, able to fly at superhuman speed, fire various energy beams, and create illusions. Gates is also a Korean-American adoptee.  Distinctively, Gates cannot direct his flight as is common for airborne superheroes, instead traveling in a straight line as a literal ray of light. To change direction, he must strike a reflective surface, though it does not appear he is bound by the normal mechanics of specular reflection and can "reflect" at any angle (perhaps more akin to a swimmer kicking off from the edge of a pool than true reflection). When necessary, he can reduce his speed and even hover.

Powers and abilities.

All versions of the Ray can absorb, store, and process pure light and use the energy to fly and create dazzlingly strong and powerful bursts of light. In his Golden Age appearances, Happy Terrill was able to manipulate other forms of energy such as electricity and magnetism.  The Terrills were also capable of manipulating and controlling light externally to create illusions and even solid light constructs, as well as render themselves invisible.  Later in Happy's career (while mentoring/antagonizing his son), he was shown to have a greater mastery of his abilities. For example, by using "solid light vibrations", essentially resonating the target's inner ear, he was able to approximate telepathic communication.  Ray Terrill is capable of converting his body completely into light energy. No physical harm can come to him in this form.  Stan Silver's full abilities and powers are largely undocumented. As noted above, he is apparently "capable of turning his body into a living laser light".  Lucien Gates can not become immaterial; rather the light forms a protective armor. In order to fly, Gates bounces off of reflective surfaces. His thought processes calculate hundreds of options, allowing him to redirect his path at light speed.

Reception.

In "American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944", comics historian Kurt Mitchell writes that the Golden Age strip "showcased Fine's growing mastery of lighting effects, as well as the wild fight scenes and memorably ugly villains that had by now become trademarks of his style."

In other media.

Miscellaneous.

The Ray appears in Justice League Unlimited tie in comic #17.

The Ray is the name of four fictional superheroes in the DC Comics Universe. The first Ray was Langford "Happy" Terrill, a Quality Comics character. When DC Comics later purchased Quality Comics, Happy Terrill was retconned as a member of the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X. The character, created by artist Lou Fine, first appeared in "Smash Comics" #14 (Sept 1940) and continued in the book until issue #40 (Feb 1943).

The Ray fait référence à quatre personnages de DC Comics, tous des super-héros aux capacités semblables. Le premier Ray fut Langford "Happy" Terrill, un personnage de Quality Comics. Quand DC Comics racheta Quality Comics, Happy Terrill fut recréé en tant que membre des Freedom Fighters sur Earth-X. Suite à l’altération de la ligne temporelle et de la continuité du DC Univers par "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Happy Terrill est maintenant un habitant de la continuité principale du DC Comics Univers et son fils Ray Terrill devient le second Ray. Plus tard, le personnage Stan Silver opère brièvement comme troisième Ray. En 2011, suite au relaunch The New 52 de DC Comics, où la continuité et l'histoire son à nouveau restructurées, un nouveau personnage du nom de Lucien Gates est présenté comme the Ray. Bien qu'historiquement, il est le quatrième super héros à utiliser ce nom, dans "The Ray" #1 (2012), il fait allusion à Happy Terrill. Ce serait une histoire qu'il a entendu étant enfant.


Early life.

Leisler was born in the village of Bockenheim, now a central part of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in March 1640, the son of Calvinist French Reformed minister Jacob Victorian Leisler. After his father's death in 1651, Leisler was sent to military school.  He went to New Amsterdam (later New York) in 1660 as a soldier in the service of the Dutch West India Company. Leaving the company's employ soon after his arrival, Leisler engaged in the lucrative fur trade and tobacco trade, and became a wealthy man. New York tax records from 1676 list Leisler as the third wealthiest man in the city.  In 1674, Leisler was one of the administrators of a forced loan imposed by Anthony Colve. While residing in Albany in 1676, Leisler engaged in a theological dispute with the Rev. Nicholas van Rensselaer, who had been appointed to the Reformed pulpit by James, Duke of York (later King James II). His finances and reputation both suffered from this encounter, as he and a fellow dissenter Jacob Milborne were forced to pay all the costs of a lawsuit they had initiated in the dispute. While on a voyage to Europe in 1678, he was captured by Moorish pirates, and was compelled to pay a ransom of 2,050 pieces of eight to obtain his freedom.  Leisler had endeared himself to the common people by befriending a family of French Huguenots who had been landed on Manhattan island. They were so destitute that a public tribunal had decided they should be sold into slavery in order to pay their ship charges. Leisler prevented the sale by purchasing the freedom of the widowed mother and son before the sale could be held. French Huguenots were arriving in New York as refugees from religious persecution by Catholics in France. Under Thomas Dongan's administration in 1683, Leisler was appointed one of the judges, or "commissioners," of the court of admiralty in New York, a justice of the peace for New York City and County, and a militia captain.

Leisler's rebellion.

The English Revolution of 1688 also played out in New York, where people of a wide variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds divided into two well-defined factions. In general, the small shopkeepers, small farmers, sailors, poor traders and artisans allied against the patroons (landholders), rich fur-traders, merchants, lawyers and crown officers. The former were led by Leisler (himself a wealthy man), the latter by Peter Schuyler, Nicholas Bayard, Stephen Van Cortlandt, William Nicolls and other representatives of the aristocratic Hudson Valley families. The Leislerians claimed greater loyalty to the Protestant accession.  In 1688, Governor Dongan was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor Francis Nicholson. In 1689, the military force of the city of New York consisted of a regiment of five companies, with Leisler as one of the company captains. He was popular with the men and was probably the only wealthy resident in the province who sympathized with the Dutch lower classes. At that time, the latter were agitated owing to the attempts of the Jacobite office-holders to retain power in spite of the revolution in England and the accession of William III and Mary II to the throne. When news was received that Governor Sir Edmund Andros had been imprisoned in Boston by the opposition, the Leislerians took possession, on May 31, 1689, of Fort James at the southern end of Manhattan Island. They renamed it Fort William and announced their determination to hold it until the arrival of a governor commissioned by the new sovereigns.  On a report that supporters of King James II were about to seize the fort and massacre their Dutch fellow-citizens, an armed mob gathered on the evening of 2 June 1689 to overthrow the existing government. The cry of "Leisler" was raised, and the crowd rushed to his house. At first, he refused to lead the movement, but when the demand was reiterated he acceded, and within an hour received the keys of the fort, which had been seized. The revolutionaries took advantage of the fort containing all the public funds, which return Lieutenant Governor Nicholson demanded in vain.  Four hundred of the new party signed an agreement to hold the fort "for the present Protestant power that reigns in England," while a committee of safety of ten of the city freeholders assumed the powers of a provisional government, of which they declared Jacob Leisler to be the head. They commissioned him as "captain of the fort." In this capacity, he began to repair the fort, strengthening it with a battery of six guns beyond its walls. This was the origin of the public park known as the Battery in Lower Manhattan. Thus began Leisler's Rebellion.

Leisler as acting lieutenant-governor.

The aristocrats also favored deposing James, but preferred to continue the provincial government established by his authority rather than risk the danger of an interregnum. Nicholson and the council of the province, with the authorities of the city, headed by Mayor Stephen van Cortlandt, attempted to prevent the uprising, but without effect. Finally, becoming alarmed for his own safety, Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson sailed for England on the 24th of June. The New York City mayor and other officials retired to Albany.  Albany held out against Leisler's authority for a time. In November, Leisler sent Jacob Milborne to Albany with an armed force to assist in its defense against any Indians. Milborne was directed to withhold aid unless Leisler's authority was recognized. This was refused, and Milborne returned unsuccessful. But after the destruction of Schenectady on February 19, 1690, by the French and their allied Indians, Christian Mohawk among them, Albany submitted to Leisler's authority.  Under authority of a letter from the home government addressed to Nicholson, "or in his absence, to such as for the time being takes care for preserving the peace and administering the laws in His Majesty's province of New York," Leisler had assumed the title of lieutenant-governor in December 1689. He dissolved the committee of safety, appointed a council, and took charge of the government of the entire province. He appointed Jacob Milborne as Clerk to the Council, Attorney-General, Advocate General and his Secretary. Milborne married Leisler's daughter Mary.  Leisler summoned the first Intercolonial Congress in America, which met in New York on May 1, 1690, to plan concerted action against the French and Native Americans in the ongoing conflict in North America. The congress planned an expedition against Canada. It equipped and dispatched against Quebec the first fleet of men-of-war ever sent from the Port of New York. However, the expedition was unsuccessful.  In the meantime, Colonel Henry Sloughter had been commissioned Governor of the Province of New York by William and Mary on September 3, 1689, but he did not reach New York until March 19, 1691.

Leisler and the Huguenots.

Acting on behalf of a group of Huguenots in New York, Leisler brokered the purchase of land upon which they could settle. In 1689 John Pell, Lord of Pelham Manor, officially deeded 6,100 acres (25 km2) to Leisler for the establishment of a Huguenot community north of Manhattan. On September 20, 1689, Leisler donated a third of this land to Huguenot refugees. In addition to the purchase money, Leisler and his heirs and assigns were to yield and pay unto John Pell and his heirs and assigns (Lords of the Pelham Manor) one "Fat Calf" yearly, as acknowledgment of their feudal obligation to the Manor. This settlement developed as the city of New Rochelle, New York.

End of the rebellion.

On January 28, 1691, English Major Richard Ingoldesby, who had been commissioned Lieutenant Governor of the province, landed with two companies of soldiers in Manhattan and demanded possession of Fort James. Leisler refused to surrender the fort without an order from the king or the governor. After some controversy, Ingoldesby attacked the fort on 17 March, during which Leisler's forces killed two of his soldiers and wounded several.  When Governor Sloughter finally arrived in New York the following March, he immediately demanded Leisler's surrender. Leisler refused to surrender the fort until he was convinced of Sloughter's identity and the governor had sworn in his council. As soon as the latter event occurred, he wrote the governor a letter resigning his command.  Sloughter responded by arresting Leisler and nine of his colleagues, including his son-in-law Jacob Milborne. All but Milborne were released after trial. Leisler was imprisoned, charged with treason and murder. Shortly afterward he was tried and condemned to death. His son-in-law and secretary, Milborne, was condemned on the same charges. Leisler's son and other supporters were outraged by the trials, as they were considered unjust. The judges were the personal and political enemies of the prisoners, and their acts were described as "gross."  Governor Sloughter was said to have hesitated to sign the death-warrants, but was trying to stabilize politics in the colony and did not have sufficient influence among the elite of New York City. He was said to finally sign the warrants under the influence of wine.  On the 16 May 1691, Leisler and Milborne were executed. The court had sentenced them to be hanged "by the Neck and being Alive their bodyes be Cutt downe to Earth and Their Bowells to be taken out and they being Alive, burnt before their faces..." (In fact, the real villain [Robert Livingston] later bragged in writing that the pair were spared the disemboweling and were cut down before dead and decapitated by sword. The crowd then began fighting over their heads to acquire hair as a souvenir.) and by the English law of treason, their estates were forfeited to the Crown. Leisler's son and other supporters appealed for justice from the committee of the Privy Council; it reported that, although the trial was in conformity to the forms of law, they nevertheless recommended the restoration of the estates to their heirs.

Restitution.

In 1695, by an act of Parliament, achieved through the efforts of Leisler's son and supporters, the names of Jacob Leisler and Milborne were cleared. Leisler's estate was restored to his heirs. Three years later the Earl of Bellomont, who had been one of the most influential supporters of Leisler's son, was appointed as governor of New York. Through his influence the assembly voted an indemnity to Leisler's heirs.

Personal life.

He married Elsie Tymens, the widow of Pieter Cornelisz van der Veen in 1663.  Some descendants of Leisler use his surname as a middle name. The most prominent of them was Walther Leisler Kiep, a CDU politician.

References.

Notes Sources

Jacob Leisler (ca. 1640 – May 16, 1691) was a German-born colonist in the Province of New York. He gained wealth in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in the fur trade and tobacco business. In what became known as Leisler's Rebellion following the English Revolution of 1688, he took control of the city, and ultimately the entire province, from appointees of deposed King James II, in the name of the Protestant accession of William III and Mary II.

Jacob Leisler (né vers 1640 - mort le ) était un colon américain d'origine allemande. Commençant en 1689, il mena une insurrection (la Rébellion de Leisler) dans la Province de New York, prenant le contrôle de la colonie jusqu'à sa capture et son exécution à New York pour trahison envers le Roi Guillaume et la Reine Marie. Des controverses existent parmi les historiens quant aux faits et la signification de la brève carrière de Leisler comme chef de New York.


Geography.

Rhenish Hesse, stretches from the Upper Rhine Plain on the west bank of the Rhine up to the Nahe and Alsenz rivers in the west and down to the mouth of the Isenach in the south. The region borders on the Rhineland in the northwest, on the Palatinate in the southwest, and on South Hesse beyond the Rhine. The Rhenish-Hessian Hills along the Selz river, also called the "land of the thousand hills", reach up to at the summit of the Kappelberg and about in Rhenish-Hessian Switzerland.  The Mainz Basin, a Cenozoic marine basin, covered the area about 38 to 12 million years ago. The landscape is characterised by large Loess and Marl deposits. Due to the favourable climatic conditions of Rhenish Hesse, agriculture covers most of the region. As the Hunsrück and Taunus ranges protect it from cold winds, wine and fruit production is practised on a large scale.  The region comprises the cities of Mainz – the Rhineland-Palatinate capital – and Worms, surrounded by the administrative districts of Mainz-Bingen and Alzey-Worms. Other towns include Bingen, Alzey, Nieder-Olm, Ingelheim, Nierstein, Oppenheim, and Osthofen. Many inhabitants commute to work in Mainz or Wiesbaden and Frankfurt in the neighbouring state of Hesse.

History.

The importance of the Rhenish-Hessian lands increased when they were allotted to King Louis the German by the 843 Treaty of Verdun. The region was part of the core territory of Rhenish Franconia. It comprised the Imperial Cathedrals of Worms and Mainz which were erected in the High Middle Ages. The Worms Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery count among the oldest in Europe. Devastated by the Thirty Years' War, the area became a patchwork of possessions of the Catholic Electorate of Mainz and the Prince-Bishopric of Worms as well as of the Protestant Electoral Palatinate.  Rhenish Hesse was occupied by Revolutionary France in 1792. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15, Grand Duke Louis I of Hesse was obliged to give up his Westphalian territories. In compensation, he received the district on the left bank of the Rhine. Because of this addition, he amended his title to "Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine" and the name of the region was created. In Allied-occupied Germany, the Rhenish-Hessian lands were incorporated as a district into the newly established state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1946.

Cuisine.

Each region has developed its own cuisine dependent on geography, climate, soils, seasons and wealth. These vary from plain home cooking with simple dishes to culinary specialities for festive occasions. Rhenish Hesse also has a large number of specialities, with Weck, Worscht un Woi, not least through the Mainz carnival, has achieved supra-regional fame.

Wine growing.

Rheinhessen is the largest of 13 regions producing German wine. Outside Germany, it is best known as the home of Liebfraumilch. Most is made from white varieties such as Riesling, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Kerner, and Scheurebe. The best-known white wine area is the Rhine Terrace near Oppenheim and Nierstein. Some red varieties are grown, particularly around Ingelheim and Gundersheim, including Pinot noir, Blauer Portugieser, Dornfelder, and the recently established Regent.

Rhenish Hesse or Rhine-Hesse () is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, made up of those territories west of the Upper Rhine river that from 1816 were part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and of the People's State of Hesse until 1945. The hilly countryside is largely devoted to vineyards, comprising the Rheinhessen wine region.

La Hesse rhénane (en ) est une région historique en Allemagne qui s'étend sur la rive gauche du Rhin Supérieur autour des villes de Mayence et Worms. Appartenant à la Franconie rhénane au haut Moyen Age, c'était l'une de trois provinces du Grand-duché de Hesse à partir de 1816, puis de l'État populaire de Hesse qui lui succéda après la Première Guerre mondiale. Elle appartient maintenant à l'État fédéré de Rhénanie-Palatinat.


History.

Early lives.

Craig Reid and Charles Reid were born in Leith on 5 March 1962 and grew up in Edinburgh, Cornwall and Auchtermuchty. When they lived in Auchtermuchty they attended Bell Baxter High School.

Pre-Proclaimers (1970s–1982).

Alluding to the early careers of Craig and Charles Reid in 1989, Bill Wyman of "Chicago Reader" commented that the pair "got into music through punk". After Craig received a beat-up drum kit and Charlie a guitar, the pair played in punk rock bands named Black Flag, Hippy Hasslers and Reasons for Emotion. Craig Reid, in a 2016 interview with "Esquire Middle East", relayed that he held dear the influence of punk acts such as The Clash.

Formation and "This Is the Story" (1983–1987).

Becoming cognisant of the potential of playing as a duo, the Reids established the Proclaimers as an acoustic duo in 1983. In allusion to the their early sound, actor Peter Mullan said that the Proclaimers played "a mix of post-punk and folk". During this time, the duo attracted a regional fan-base, with Inverness having an especially dedicated community of supporters. Many of the duo's songs, such as "Letter from America" which was written in 1984 and reflected unemployment rates of the day, were conceived in this period.  The Proclaimers recorded a demo album with the assistance of Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners. The demo fell into the hands of English indie pop band the Housemartins, who invited the Proclaimers to support them on their 1986 tour. First opening at the Hummingbird in Birmingham, the tour afforded the duo the opportunity to perform on Channel 4 pop programme "The Tube" in January 1987, and Chrysalis Records quickly signed the pair.  In 1987, the duo John Williams-produced debut record "This Is the Story" was released through Chrysalis, and displayed a minimalist sound lauded by Timothy Monger as "sparse but spirited". For release as a single, the album-track "Letter from America" was remixed by Gerry Rafferty, embellishing the song with a full-band sound. The single peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart, as the duo appeared on "Top of the Pops" for the first time on 12 December 1987, while the album "This Is the Story" went gold. On their 1987 breakthrough, Neil McCormick of "The Telegraph" opined that the pair "stuck out like a pair of sore thumbs" amidst the "ersatz glamour of Eighties pop".

"Sunshine on Leith" (1988–1993).

The follow-up album, "Sunshine on Leith", was released in 1988 and featured a rock-driven sound as the Proclaimers worked with a band for the first time. Ranging in lyrical-themes from familial joy to Scottish nationalism, the record featured the singles "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", which went to number one in Australia and New Zealand, and "I'm On My Way". The album was a particularly big hit in Australia in 1989, being that year's 12th biggest-seller, reaching No. 2, and attaining a 2× multi-platinum certification by the ARIA. Craig Reid described this success as their "biggest ever". Attaining certifications of 2× multi-platinum in Canada, at the time of June 2009 "Sunshine on Leith" had sold a worldwide total of 2 million copies. The album was a critical success, with "Rolling Stone" in May 1989 lauding it "a wonderfully guileless treasure of an album".  "Sunshine on Leith"'s following concert tour included a performance at the 1989 Glastonbury Festival, playing to an audience of over 65,000.  The Proclaimers had a hit with their EP "King of the Road", which reached number nine in the UK in 1990. The EP's titular song, a Roger Miller cover, was included in the 1990 film "The Crossing".  "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" belatedly peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1993, after appearing in the movie "Benny & Joon", becoming their only chart single in the United States. This popularity saw the Proclaimers supporting American glam metal band Bon Jovi, alongside 10,000 Maniacs, at the Madison Square Garden concert on their I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Tour. "Sunshine on Leith" peaked at No. 31, shifting close to 700,000 units in the US by 2001.

"Hit the Highway" and hiatus (1994–2001).

The Proclaimers' third studio album, "Hit the Highway", was released in 1994. Continuing in the band-oriented rock direction of "Sunshine on Leith", "Hit the Highway" fell short of previous successes. Irrespective, the record spawned the hit "Let's Get Married", charting in the United Kingdom, Canada and Austria.  The Proclaimers recorded a cover of "Get Ready" by the Temptations for the 1994 screwball comedy film "Dumb and Dumber". Cameron Matthews of "Vice" praised the song "a rocking cover" which gave "a Scottish twist to the... original".  In 1994, the Proclaimers appeared at Canadian alternative music festival Edgefest alongside Toad the Wet Sprocket and the Lemonheads.  The Proclaimers kept out of the public eye for much of the late 1990s.

Return and "Persevere" (2001–2002).

After seven low-profile years, they released their comeback album "Persevere" in 2001. Lauded by Canadian culture publication "Exclaim!" as a "remarkable comeback", "Persevere" was to-date the only album of theirs to be recorded in the United States, and saw the duo tour North America in support of Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies.  "The Best of The Proclaimers" the duo's first greatest hits album, was released on 15 April 2002. The album was hailed by Hal Horowitz as "a near-perfect summary" of their material. Reaching No. 5 and being certified platinum in the UK, the compilation also charted in New Zealand.

"Born Innocent" (2003–2004).

The Proclaimers' fifth studio effort, "Born Innocent", was released in 2003. Their first release on their own label, Persevere Records, the record was hailed as "a return to form" and saw the duo work with Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins. "Born Innocent" was ranked at No. 26 for "Mojo Magazine"'s "Albums of the Year".  "Finest", the duo's second greatest hits album, was also released in 2003. Released through EMI that September, the compilation was received less favorably than its predecessor, "The Best of The Proclaimers", James Monger noting its omission of such songs as "Letter from America" and "Throw the 'R' Away". The compilation was nonetheless certified silver in the UK.

"Restless Soul" and "Life With You" (2005–2008).

The sixth studio effort, "Restless Soul", was released in 2005.  In March 2007 a new version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", recorded for Comic Relief, reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. The revival of the hit featured guest vocals from sitcom characters Andy Pipkin (portrayed by Matt Lucas) and Brian Potter (Peter Kay), of "Little Britain" and "Phoenix Nights", respectively.  A seventh studio album, "Life with You", was released on 3 September 2007 in the UK, and April 2008 in the US. The lead single, "Life with You", reached No. 58 in the UK, having been the only new Proclaimers single to chart since 1994, while the record itself was their highest-charting in 13 years, peaking at No. 13. "Life with You" enjoyed a generally praising critical reception, with "Boston Globe" praising the record's politically-edged content, remarking that "the Proclaimers are best when [...] proclaiming".  "Life with You"'s US release was promoted by an American tour, including performances in Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Solano Beach in April and May 2008.

"Notes & Rhymes" (2009–2011).

"Notes & Rhymes", the eighth Proclaimers studio album, was released in June 2009 on the W14 label. They signed to Cooking Vinyl thereafter.  The duo were one of the B-52s' touring partners on their Funplex tour in Australia and New Zealand in November 2009, alongside Mental as Anything.  They featured in VH1's 100 greatest one hit wonders, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" having been their only US hit single.

"Like Comedy" (2012–2014).

"Like Comedy", in 2012, was the Proclaimers' ninth studio effort and their first to be released on Cooking Vinyl records. In its sound a foray into blue-eyed soul, the record enjoyed a "generally favourable reception".  The Proclaimers toured the United States in April 2013, performing as an acoustic duo once again. That summer, the duo toured music festivals in the UK and Canada.  A third compilation, "", was released on 9 July 2013. Peaking at No. 80 on the UK Albums Chart, the compilation was certified gold in the UK in June 2019.  In 2014, the "Sunshine on Leith" track "Cap in Hand", noted for its nationalist stance, came to prominence in the wake of the Scottish Independence Referendum that September. The song reached No. 6 in Scotland and No. 62 on the UK Singles Chart.

"Let's Hear It for the Dogs" (2015–2017).

A tenth studio album, "Let's Hear It for the Dogs", was released in April 2015.

"Angry Cyclist" (2018–present).

Their latest album, "Angry Cyclist", was released in August 2018. Noted for its politically-angled libretto arraigning Brexit and the Trump administration, "Angry Cyclist" attracted a favourable reception, "AllMusic"'s Marcy Donelson lauding the record "one of [their] best", and "The Skinny" praising the album-track "Classy" as "lyrical genius".  During "Angry Cyclist's" accompanying promotional tour, they performed in the United Kingdom, Asia, Canada and Australia, to over 400,000 people. The Proclaimers also opened at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival.

Activism.

The Reids are well-known supporters of Scottish independence and have been activists for the Scottish National Party, expressing such views during their promotional tour of Britain in March 2007.  On 16 May 2006, the twins announced their participation in a campaign to free a fellow Scot, Kenny Richey, from his death row sentence in Ohio, United States, including an appearance at a charity concert. In December 2007, Richey accepted a plea bargain, which led to his release from death row and return to Scotland on 9 January 2008. Also, in March 2010 they participated with Billy Bragg in a show at the Electric Palace, Bridport, supporting Reprieve, a charity that seeks to end the use of the death penalty.

Influences and style.

Influences.

Craig Reid has acknowledged 1970s punk rock as a major influence, citing the Clash, the Jam, the Damned and the Sex Pistols as inspirational. On the punk influence, "Stuff New Zealand" remarked that punk bands galvanized the Proclaimers into making "whatever music they liked, in their own way, using their own accents". Other notable influences included 1960s music, such as the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Beatles, as well as later acts such as Dexys Midnight Runners and Bruce Springsteen.  When exploring lyrical influences in a 2012 interview with "The Scotsman", the Proclaimers preconized Dexys' Kevin Rowland, The Blockheads' Ian Dury, Joe Strummer of the Clash, the Smiths vocalist Morrissey and Merle Haggard as their "favourite lyricists".

Style.

Described by Timothy Monger of "AllMusic" as a "charismatic amalgam", the Proclaimers' style of music incorporates elements of country, folk, new wave, pop, punk rock, rock, rockabilly and soul. Stylistically, the Proclaimers have been typified as alternative folk, alternative rock, celtic pop, country folk, folk rock, post-punk, rhythm and blues, and roots rock.  The vocals in the Proclaimers' music are characterized by thick Scottish accents. Describing this to "The Courier" in 2018, Craig Reid commented "it was a conscious thing, because we were singing about where we live, our experiences and it just felt stupid to sing in an English or American accent".  In comparing the respective styles of other artists, "Last.fm" has adjudged many, including Dire Straits, R.E.M. and Squeeze, to be "similar artists" to the Proclaimers.

Impact and influence.

Many bands and artists have cited the Proclaimers as an influence or inspiration, including the Balconies, Barenaked Ladies, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, the Concretes, Jens Lekman, Sondre Lerche, Lonely Dear, Oppenheimer, Peter Bjorn and John and the Weepies.  Recalling feeling an immediate kinship with the Proclaimers after discovering "This Is the Story", Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies commented that "[the album] was perfect for us because it was exactly what we were; two guys with acoustic guitars, singing in harmony. It had all the energy of punk rock but just with acoustic guitars and voices".  Many acts have performed cover versions of Proclaimers songs, including Imagine Dragons, L7, and Todd Rundgren.  "Sunshine on Leith", a stage musical spotlighting the songs of The Proclaimers, was named in renown of the group's second studio album and its title track. The TMAAward-winning musical debuted in 2007, and the film adaptation, starring Peter Mullan and Jane Horrocks, was completed in 2013, grossing over US$4.7 million after debuting at No. 3 in the UK box office.

The Proclaimers are a Scottish rock duo formed in 1983 by twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid, who were born 5 March 1962. They came to attention with their 1987 single "Letter from America", which reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom, and the 1988 single "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", which topped charts in Australia, Iceland and New Zealand. The Proclaimers have sold over 5 million albums worldwide.

The Proclaimers est un groupe de musique écossais originaire de Auchtermuchty et se compose de jumeaux, Charlie et Craig Reid (nés le ). Ils sont notamment célèbres pour leurs titres "Letter from America", "I'm on My Way" et "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". Les frères Reid ont grandi à Édimbourg, en Écosse.


48e Match des étoiles de la Ligue nationale de hockey

The International Showdown.

The 48th game was held in the very same year as the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, providing the NHL to show its players from all over the world. To this extent, the NHL had the all-star teams consist of a team of North Americans playing against a team of stars from the rest of the world. These provisions only applied to the players – coaches were still be selected based on which teams were the best from each conference at the time of the break. This was the last All-Star Game to feature Honorary Captains and Commissioner's Selections system that began in the 1985 and 1991 games respectively.  The Canadian Hockey Association took the all-star weekend as a way of assembling their team as a tuneup for the Olympics by inviting all 23 of its players and immersing them in what they would see at the Olympics. As the 1998 Olympics also featured the first-ever Olympic women's hockey tournament, an exhibition game between the Canadian national women's hockey team and the American national women's hockey team was also scheduled as part of the all-star festivities. 14,000 people watched the game, making it the highest attended women's hockey game in the sport's history to that time.  The weekend also saw its usual share of radical ideas and for various hockey persons to vent out their frustrations: most notably, Bob Clarke used it as a way of trying to convince others not to use the neutral zone trap, a system of defensive play. As the NHL was being outclassed in terms of revenue by other major sports, some such as Bob Gainey also proposed to change the rules so that a game consisted of four 15-minute quarters rather than three 20-minute periods, an idea that proved unpopular. Others vented their frustrations about the poor ice quality found in certain arenas, especially in the South, where the ice could melt easily.

Super Skills Competition.

The World All-Stars won the first Super Skills Competition in the new International All-Star format. In the individual events Ray Bourque, Peter Forsberg and Brendan Shanahan would share the victory in the Accuracy Shooting event. Al MacInnis won his second-straight and fourth all-time Hardest Shot event, while Dominik Hasek won his second Goaltenders Competition.

Uniforms.

Prior to the start of the 1997–98 season, the NHL changed its conference logos, replacing the teal and purple previously used by the Eastern and Western Conferences with burgundy and dark blue. Although the All-Star Game would not use a conference format, the uniform colors reflected the updated conference colors - which were similar to the changes in colors made by the host Canucks. The North American team wore burgundy uniforms with white and silver trim, while the World team wore white uniforms with blue and silver trim. Both jerseys featured diagonal striping on the body and sleeves, resembling a stylized spotlight design. The NHL shield featured on the front of the jerseys was rendered in black with silver accents instead of the usual orange, the beginning of a trend that would culminate in the redesign of the shield in 2005.  Following from the previous uniform design, players wore the All-Star Game patch on their right shoulder, and their team logo on their left shoulder. In addition, to mark the new international format of the game, players wore the flag of their country of origin on their right upper chest. The uniform design would be used again in the next All-Star Game in Tampa.

The game.

The North America All-Stars overcame a 3–0 deficit to the World All-Stars, setting the stage for the largest comeback victory in All-Star Game history in the first International showdown. Prior to the 1998 Game, no team had come back from a three-goal deficit to win. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim right winger Teemu Selanne recorded a hat-trick to become the first European player to be named All-Star MVP. Selanne also became the first player from a losing squad to receive the honour since Grant Fuhr accomplished that feat at the 1986 NHL All-Star Game.

The 1998 National Hockey League All-Star Game took place at General Motors Place in Vancouver, home to the Vancouver Canucks, on January 18, 1998.

Le Match des étoiles de la Ligue nationale de hockey fut tenu le dans le domicile des Canucks de Vancouver, le GM Place. L'équipe représentant l'Amérique du Nord l'emporta par la marque de 8 à 7 aux dépens du Reste du Monde. L'étoile de la rencontre fut pour la première fois de l'histoire du Match des étoiles un joueur européen ; Teemu Selänne qui y amassa trois buts et devenait de ce fait le premier joueur de l'équipe perdante à remporter cet honneur depuis Grant Fuhr en 1986.