History.

The Royal Greenland Trading Department was founded in 1774 as a successor to the failed General Trade Company ("") which had previously managed the Dano-Norwegian whaling stations and Lutheran and Moravian missions in Greenland.  At first, it possessed a monopoly on trade near the Danish trading stations and missions but, in 1776, this was expanded to a monopoly on all trade in Greenland whatsoever between the 60th and 73d parallels north. The change in protection led to a sharp downturn in new settlements and, after a brief abortive attempt to manage a government-owned Scandinavian whaling fleet, led the company to focus on trade with the local Inuit hunters. The Instruction of 1782 divided the colony into northern and southern halves, forbade senior management from intermarriage with native or racially mixed women and lower-ranking employees from intermarriage with native or European women, and banned further attempts to urbanize the Inuit or alter their traditional way of life through improved employment opportunities or sales of luxury items. Large premiums were charged on goods such as sugar and coffee in order to prevent the Inuit from'softening' and abandoning their demanding work.  Repeated attempts to end the department's monopoly on trade were defeated, notably by an impassioned defense of the company's practices by its director Hinrich Rink, but local councils were established in 1857 with authority over one-fifth of each station's profits and the valuable trade in cryolite extracted from Ivigtut was granted to a different company in 1864. In 1908, the Ministry of the Interior took over general administration and, in 1912, the entire trading operation was brought under its supervision as well.

Fleet.

The Royal Greenland Trading Department began with a gift of three ships from the king: the large frigate "Kongens Gave" ("King's Gift"), the smaller frigate "Holsteinsborg", and the galiot "Den Gloende". In 1776, its fleet consisted of the "Bernstorff", the "Eichsted", the "Godthaab", the "Holsteinsborg", the "Island", the "Kongenshaab", the "Krag Juul Wind", the "Lovisenborg", the "Mariakirke", the "Sankt Croix", the "Sankt Peter", the "Schack Rathlau", the "Schimmelmann, Skatmester", the "Strat Davis", and the "Taasinge Slot". The next year, only 10 vessels returned: the "Bernstorff", the "Eichsted", the "Gregers Juul", the "Guldberg", the "Holsteinsborg", the "Kongenshaab", the "Krag Juul Wind", the "Schack Rathlau", the "Schack", and the "Schimmelmann, Skatmester".  In 1781, a royal order granted a number of privileges to crew members of the Royal Greenland fleet. They were made exempt from regular military service except for times of utter need. Furthermore, crew members were freed from any civil obligations, which included tax-free trading for personal provisioning before and after a voyage and a deferral of heritage fees for the families of crew members deceased during a voyage.  The Department began purchasing its own trading vessels again in 1790. Ships operated by the trading department included the "Mariane", "Tjalfe", "Godthaab", "Gertrud Rask", "Gustav Holm", and "Ceres". From 1792, the armed vessel "Dorothea" served as a coastal patrol in northern Greenland in order to prevent illegal trading between the Inuit and foreign ships and to discourage whaling by other nations in the area. The department also operated the commercial whaler s/s "Sonja" between 1924 and 1958, with a six-year hiatus during World War II.

Disestablishment.

The company's monopoly was finally ended in 1950, as the two halves of Greenland were reunited in preparation for the island's full integration with the Kingdom of Denmark, which occurred in 1953. The Home Rule Government was introduced in 1979 and gained control of the company in 1986, renaming it Kalaallit Niuerfiat (Kalallisut: "Greenland Trade"). In 1992, it was reorganized into the KNI conglomerate. The Royal Greenland fishing company was spun off in 1990, the Royal Arctic Line shipping company in 1993, and the Pisiffik retail chain in 2001.

The Royal Greenland Trading Department (, KGH) was a Danish state enterprise charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in Greenland. The company managed the government of Greenland from 1774 to 1908 through its Board of Managers in Copenhagen and a series of Royal Inspectors and Governors in Godthaab and Godhavn on Greenland. The company was headquartered at Grønlandske Handels Plads at Christianshavn.


Background.

In 1979, at the age of 24, Kiranjit left her home of Chak Kalal in Punjab to travel to the United Kingdom after marrying her husband, Deepak—a man she had only met once. She stated that she had suffered from domestic abuse for ten years, including physical violence, food deprivation, and marital rape.  When Kiranjit looked to her family for help, they reprimanded her, saying it was a matter of family honour that she remain with her husband. She ultimately tried running away from home, but was found by her husband and brought back. During her marriage, Kiranjit had two sons who she claimed often bore witness to the violence she endured. However, neither boy gave evidence supporting this in court or police interviews prior to the trial.  One evening in the spring of 1989, Kiranjit was allegedly attacked by her husband. She later accused him of trying to break her ankles and burn her face with a hot iron, apparently trying to extort money from her extended family. Later that night, while her husband lay sleeping, Kiranjit fetched some petrol and caustic soda mixture from the garage and mixed it to create napalm. She poured it over the bed and set it alight, and ran into a garden with her three-year-old son.  In a later interview she stated: "I decided to show him how much it hurt. At times I had tried to run away, but he would catch me and beat me even harder. I decided to burn his feet so he couldn't run after me." She also claimed: "I wanted to give him a scar like those he had given me, to have him suffer pain as I had."  Deepak suffered severe burns over 40% of his body and died 10 days later in hospital from complications of severe burns and subsequent sepsis. Kiranjit, who could only speak broken English at the time, was arrested and ultimately charged with murder.

Trial and conviction.

Kiranjit was convicted of murder in December 1989. At the trial, the prosecution argued that although on the night of the event she had been threatened with a hot poker, the fact that she waited until her husband had gone to sleep was evidence that she had time to "cool off" and weigh to a nicety her actions. In addition the prosecution claimed her prior knowledge to mix caustic soda with petrol to create napalm was not common knowledge and was proof that she had planned her husband's murder. Her counsel did not make any claims about the violence she later claimed she had endured, while the prosecution suggested that Kiranjit was motivated by jealousy due to her husband's repeated affairs. She was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Appeal and release.

Her case eventually came to the attention of the Southall Black Sisters who pressed for a mistrial. Kiranjit's conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992 on grounds of insufficient counsel—Kiranjit had not been aware that she could plead guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. In addition, it was brought to light that she was suffering from severe depression when she lashed back at her husband, which her new counsel argued had altered her decision-making abilities at the time. After the mistrial was declared, the Crown Prosecution Service did not attempt another prosecution.

Impact.

Kiranjit's case helped raise awareness of domestic violence in families of non-English speaking immigrants to Western countries, as well as changing the laws for domestic abuse victims in the United Kingdom.  Her case, known in British legal textbooks as "R v Ahluwalia", changed the definition of the word "provocation" in cases of battered women, so as to reclassify her crime as manslaughter instead of murder, and in the same year as her appeal, lead to the freeing of Emma Humphreys and Sara Thornton.  Kiranjit was honored in 2001 at the first Asian Women Awards in recognition of her "strength, personal achievements, determination and commitment" in helping to bring to light the subject of domestic violence.  She wrote an autobiography with co-author Rahila Gupta, Circle of Light.  Gita Sahgal made a film called "Unprovoked" for the British television investigative documentary programme "Dispatches" on the subject of Kiranjit's experience.  The story was fictionalised in the film "Provoked", which was screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Naveen Andrews played Deepak and Aishwarya Rai played the role of Kiranjit. During the screening at Cannes, Kiranjit sat next to Rai, holding her hand and sobbing during the most violent scenes.

Kiranjit Ahluwalia (born 1955) is an Indian woman who came to international attention after burning her husband to death in 1992 in the UK. She claimed it was in response to ten years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. After initially being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Ahluwalia's conviction was later overturned on grounds of inadequate counsel and replaced with voluntary manslaughter. Although her submission of provocation failed (under "R v Duffy" the loss of control needed to be sudden, which this was not), she successfully pleaded the partial defence of diminished responsibility under s.2 Homicide Act 1957 on the grounds that fresh medical evidence (which was not available at her original trial) may indicate diminished mental responsibility.


Construction and design.

The British Admiralty ordered the first two ships of the new s under the 1913–14 Construction Programme. Flotilla Leaders were large destroyer-type vessels intended to lead flotillas of smaller destroyers in action. The two ships, and "Marksman", were intended to lead the 1st and 3rd Destroyer Flotillas, and so had names to match the L and M-class destroyers that would equip these flotillas.  The "Marksman"-class ships were long overall, at the waterline and between perpendiculars. They had a beam of and a draught of. The design displacement was normal and full load, with a displacement of stated for "Marksman" in 1919. Three sets of Brown-Curtis steam turbines were fed by four Yarrow three-drum boilers, rated at, which gave a speed of. Cruising turbines were fitted to the outer shafts. Four funnels were fitted. Up to 515 tons of oil fuel could be carried, giving a range of at.  The ship's main gun armament consisted of four QF Mk IV guns mounted on the ships centreline, with two of the guns positioned between the ship's funnels. An anti-aircraft armament of two 1-pounder (37 mm) "pom-pom" autocannons was planned, but during construction the 1-pounder pom-poms were diverted to the British Expeditionary Force when it deployed to France at the start of the First World War, and the ship completed with two 2-pounder (40-mm) "pom-pom"s instead. Torpedo armament consisted of two twin 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The ship's crew was 104 officers and men.  "Marksman" was laid down at Hawthorn Leslie's Newcastle upon Tyne shipyard on 20 July 1914, was launched on 12 May 1915 and completed on 18 November 1915.

Service.

On commissioning, "Marksman" joined the newly established 12th Destroyer Flotilla of the Grand Fleet as leader. By May 1916, the arrival of saw "Marksman" being relegated to second in command of the Flotilla, with the Captain (D) transferring to "Faulknor".  "Marksman" was still part of the 12th Destroyer Flotilla at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May-1 June 1916, operating in support of the Grand Fleet. During the night of the battle, the flotilla was still largely intact, with "Faulknor" leading eight destroyers and "Marksman" following with a further four (,, and ). At about 01:43 hr Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (02:43 CET), "Faulknor" spotted a group of German battleships and manoeuvred to set up a torpedo attack. While doing so, "Faulknor" carried out a 180 degree turn which resulting in steering towards "Marksman" and her destroyers. In avoiding collision, "Marksman" lost touch both with the enemy and her four destroyers, and so did not take place in the flotilla's torpedo attack, which resulted in the German pre-dreadnought battleship being sunk. "Marksman" later (at between 02:15 and 02:25 GMT) joined up with the cruiser and some destroyers of the 13th Flotilla, and at about 03:25 got into a brief exchange of fire with four German destroyers, during which several torpedoes fired at the British ships missed, while one of the German destroyers () was damaged by "Champion"s fire. "Marksman" picked up a single survivor, the ship's captain, from the sunken destroyer, with two more picked up by the destroyer. At 06:00 the badly damaged destroyer was encountered and "Marksman" attempted to take her under tow, but this failed. After taking off "Sparrowhawk"s crew, "Marksman" scuttled "Sparrowhawk" with gunfire.  In mid-July 1916, in response to an intelligence report that a German commerce raider was about to set out on a raid, a large scale operation was launched by the Royal Navy to prevent a breakout into the Atlantic involving 14 cruisers, 13 armed merchant cruisers and 18 destroyers. As part of these operations, "Marksman" and sister ship patrolled the Fair Isle channel between the Orkneys and Shetland Islands from 11 to 13 July. Nothing was found by these operations.  "Marksman" remained part of the 12th Flotilla well into 1917, transferring to the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, part of the Dover Patrol, on 26 August 1917. Large destroyers and leaders like "Marksman" tended to be employed on patrols along two routes to protect the Dover Barrage, the West Barrage Patrol and the East Barrage Patrol. On the night of 14/15 February 1918, "Marksman" and were on the West Barrage Patrol while a further four destroyers formed the East Barrage Patrol, when seven German torpedo boats (equivalent to British destroyers) attacked the Dover Barrage. None of the defensive forces managed to interfere with the German attack, which sank one trawler and seven drifters while severely damaging a further one trawler, five drifters and one minesweeper.  On 23 March 1918, "Marksman" left the 6th Destroyer Flotilla and rejoined the Grand Fleet as part of the 11th Destroyer Flotilla. In July 1918, "Marksman" transferred to the Northern Patrol and on 12 July 1918 she led a major operation to intercept the homewards bound German cruiser submarine between the Shetland and Faeroe Islands. The submarine was detected by hydrophones of the force near the island of Suðuroy and the destroyer dropped depth charges twice, but "U-151" escaped unharmed. "Marksman" remained with the Northern Patrol force until the end of the war. On 1 November 1918, "Marksman" collided with the Naval trawler off Kirkaldy, Scotland. "Charles Hammond" sank early in the morning of the next day, while "Marksman" was under repair at Leith until 31 December 1918.

Disposal.

"Marksman" was paid off at Devonport on 25 November 1919, and was sold for scrap on 8 November 1921 and broken up in Germany.

HMS "Marksman" was a of the British Royal Navy. Construction at Hawthorn Leslie's Newcastle upon Tyne shipyard began in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, and the ship was launched and completed in 1915. She took part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and survived the war. She was sold for scrap in 1921.


Success in London.

Carlo had moved to London by 1847 at the latest, and lived in the Italian community in Holborn. At first, he ran a stall selling waffles and chestnuts. In 1849, he began to run a café and restaurant with partners. They specialised in selling chocolate and ice cream. They put a chocolate-making machine in the window to attract business, and took ice for the ice cream from Regent's Canal under a contract with the Regent's Canal Company. Their shop was the first to sell ice cream to the public; previously, ice cream was an expensive treat confined to rich people with access to an ice house.  Gatti exhibited his chocolate-making machine, imported from France, at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Also in 1851, Gatti opened a stand in Hungerford Market, near Charing Cross, to sell pastries and ice cream. A portion of ice cream was sold for one penny served in a shell, perhaps the origin of the penny lick.  Gatti built a large ice warehouse, capable of storing tons of ice in two large ice wells, in the Battlebridge Basin off the Regent's Canal, near King's Cross. He began importing ice from Norway from around 1860, shipping the ice from Norway, up the Thames, then transferring it to canal barges at the Regent's Canal Dock (today the Limehouse Basin) and via the canal to his ice warehouse. Starting with a single ice well in 1857, he built a second ice well around 1862, and became the largest ice importer in London. Today the ice warehouse houses the London Canal Museum. He began to run a fleet of delivery carts, supplying ice for domestic iceboxes.  Hungerford Market was damaged when the adjoining Hungerford Hall burned down in 1854, but Gatti was insured, and used the proceeds to build a music hall, known as Gatti's, which opened in 1857. He sold the music hall to South Eastern Railway in 1862, and the site became Charing Cross railway station.  With the proceeds from selling his first music hall, Gatti acquired a restaurant in Westminster Bridge Road, opposite the Canterbury Music Hall. He converted the restaurant into a second Gatti's music hall, known as "Gatti's-in-the-Road", in 1865. It later became a cinema. The building was badly damaged in the Second World War, and was demolished in 1950.  In 1867, he acquired a public house in Villiers Street named "The Arches", under the arches of the elevated railway line leading to Charing Cross station. He opened it as another music hall, known as "Gatti's-in-The-Arches".  Members of his family were involved in his businesses, and he spent most of his time in Switzerland after 1871. He married a second wife, aged only 23. He is buried in Switzerland.  His family continued to operate the music hall, known for a period after Gatti's death the Hungerford or Gatti's Hungerford Palace of Varieties. It became a cinema in 1910, and the Players' Theatre in 1946.

Carlo Gatti (1817–1878) was a Swiss entrepreneur in the Victorian era. He came to England in 1847, where he established restaurants and an ice importing business. He is credited with first making ice cream available to the general public. He moved into music halls. He returned to Switzerland in 1871, leaving his businesses in the hands of members of his family. He died a millionaire.


Early life and career.

Sinha was born in Ambedkar Nagar near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Her father was an engineer in Indian Army and her mother was a supervisor in health department. She had an elder sister and a younger brother. Her father died when she was 3 and her sister's husband started to take care of her family.  Arunima liked cycling, football and also was a national volleyball player. She wanted to join paramilitary forces. She got a call letter from CISF and faced her life changing accident while travelling to Delhi in its response.

Train accident.

Sinha, a former national volleyball and football player, boarded the Padmavati Express train at Lucknow for Delhi on 12 April 2011, to take an examination to join the CISF. She was pushed out of a general coach of the train by robbers wanting to snatch her bag and gold chain. Recounting the incident, she said:  Immediately, as she fell on the railway track, another train on a parallel track crushed her leg below the knee. She was rushed to the hospital with serious leg and pelvic injuries, and lost her leg after doctors amputated it to save her life.  She was offered compensation of by the Indian Sports Ministry. Following national outrage, the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken announced an additional Rs. compensation as medical relief, together with a recommendation for a job in the CISF. Indian Railways also offered her a job.  On 18 April 2011, she was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for further treatment, spending four months at the Institute. She was provided a prosthetic leg free of cost by a private Delhi-based Indian company.  An inquiry by the police into the incident threw her version of the accident into doubt. According to the police, she was either attempting suicide or met with an accident while crossing the railway tracks. Arunima claimed that the police were lying. Contrary to the police claims the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court ordered Indian Railways to pay a compensation of to Arunima Sinha.

Mount Everest ascent.

Planning and training.

While still being treated in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, she resolved to climb Mount Everest. She was inspired by cricketer Yuvraj Singh (who had successfully battled cancer) and other television shows, "to do something" with her life. She excelled in the basic mountaineering course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, and was encouraged by her elder brother Omprakash to climb Everest. She climbed Mt Everest with a prosthetic leg, which was arranged by raising funds with the help of a swami of Ramakrishna Mission, Vadodara.  She contacted Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest, in 2011 https://getyourmotivationalquotestory.blogspot.com/2020/03/arunima-sinha-untold-story-of-woman-on.html When she meet Bachendri pal and Arunima told her story to Bachendri pal then Bachendri pal said to Arunima :-  And after that Arunima join basic Mountaineering course from NEHRU INSTITUTE OF MOUNTAINEERING and TATA Steel Adventure (TSAF) 2012, in Uttarkashi (India) and she was encouraged or motivated by her elder brother Omprakash to climb Mount Everest.  Sinha climbed Island Peak (6150 metres) in 2012 as preparation for her ascent of Everest  Sinha and Susan Mahout, a USAF instructor, who had together climbed Mount Chaser Sangria () in 2012 under the guidance of Hendrick Pal started their ascent of Mount Everest. After a hard toil of 17 hours, Sinha reached the summit of Mount Everest at 10:55 am on 21 May 2013, as part of the Tata Group-sponsored "Eco Everest Expedition", becoming the first female amputee to scale Everest. She took 52 days to reach the summit. She wrote a small message thanking the Almighty on a wrapped cloth and pressed it in the snow. Recounting the incident, she said:

After the climb.

Uttar Pradesh then-incumbent chief minister Akhilesh Yadav honored Arunima sinha and handed over two cheques for an amount of Rs. 25 lakh in a function organised at her residence in Lucknow. This included a cheque of Rs. 20 lakh from the state government and a cheque of Rs. 5 lakh on behalf of the Samajwadi Party. Chief minister said Sinha by her hard work and determination had climbed the Mount Everest and created history. She was congratulated by the Indian Sports Minister Jitendra Singh on her achievement.  Arunima Sinha is now dedicated towards social welfare and wants to open a free sports academy for the poor and differently abled people. She is donating all the financial aids she is getting through awards and seminars for the same cause. The academy would be named Shaheed Chandra Shekhar Vikalang Khel Academy.  She wrote the book "Born again on the mountain", launched by Prime minister of India Narendra Modi in December 2014.  She was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, in 2015. She was Awarded Tenzing Norgay Highest Mountaineering Award in India same as Arjun Award.

Antarctic Expedition.

After climbing the Mount Everest Arunima Sinha's next goal was to climb all the seven highest peaks in all seven continents. She covered six peaks, i.e. in Asia, Europe, South America, Australia, Africa and North America by 2014. She summited Mt. Elburs of Russia (Europe) Elevation 5,642 m (18,510 ft), Prominence 4,741 m (15,554 ft) and Kilimanjaro of Tanzania(Africa)Elevation 5,895 m (19,341 ft) and Prominence 5,885 m (19,308 ft). On 4 January 2019, she climbed the seventh peak on Antarctica and became world's first female amputee to climb Mount Vinson.

References.

https://getyourmotivationalquotestory.blogspot.com/2020/03/arunima-sinha-untold-story-of-woman-on.html ARUNIMA SINHA'S LIFE : AFTER THE CLIMB

Arunima Sinha is an Indian mountain climber and sportswoman. She is a seven time Indian volleyball player, mountaineer and the World's first female amputee to scale Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Mount Elbrus (Russia), Mount Kosciusko (Australia), Mount Aconcagua (South America), Carstensz Pyramid (Indonesia) and Mount Vinson.


Life and career.

Chauncy was born into the elite Puritan merchant class that ruled Boston, Massachusetts. His great-grandfather, Charles Chauncy, after whom he was named, was the second president of Harvard College. His father was a successful Boston merchant. Chauncy was educated at the Boston Latin School and at Harvard, where he received both his undergraduate degree and his master's in theology. In 1727, Chauncy was ordained as an assistant minister of Boston's First Church, the oldest Congregational church in the city and one of the most important in New England. In 1762, Chauncy became pastor of First Church. He served the congregation for 60 years until his death.  Chauncy was an opponent of the First Great Awakening, which split the Congregational churches between Old Light and New Light factions. As a leader of the Old Lights, Chauncy spoke out against religious enthusiasm stirred up by revival preachers. Chauncy was also a leader of the opposition against appointing an Anglican bishop for the American colonies. During the American Revolution, he supported the Patriot cause through sermons and pamphlets. According to religious studies scholars Norman and Lee Gibbs, Chauncy deserves the title "theologian of the American Revolution".  Chauncy was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780) and was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Edinburgh. He was recognized by the Massachusetts Historical Society (when his portrait was hung there) as "eminent for his talents, learning, and lover of liberty, civil and religious."

Theology.

Despite his Puritan heritage, Chauncy opposed Calvinism and its doctrine of total depravity. He held liberal Arminian views on free will, believing that human beings have God-given "natural powers" that were meant to be nurtured toward "an actual likeness to God in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness". Chauncy and fellow liberal Congregationalists Jonathan Mayhew and Ebenezer Gay were influenced by Enlightenment thought. They called for a "supernatural rationalism" that affirmed both reason and divine revelation as contained in the Bible.  The traditional view among scholars has been that Chauncy deviated from orthodox Trinitarian theology and that his Christology was Arian. Norman and Lee Gibbs, however, argue that Chauncy's views have been misunderstood and misrepresented. They argue Chauncy's theology was Trinitarian, not Arian, and that he had a kenotic theology in regards to the Incarnation.  In 1785 (two decades after completion), Chauncy anonymously published his major theological work, "The Mystery Hid from Ages and Generations". In it, Chauncy presented 400 pages of biblical support for universal salvation, the belief that God wills and ensures the salvation of all humanity. Chauncy is seen as an important figure in the development of the American Unitarian tradition and Liberal Protestantism.

Charles Chauncy (1 January 1705 – 10 February 1787) was an American Congregational clergyman. He is known for his opposition to the First Great Awakening and his contributions to the development of Unitarianism and Liberal Protestantism, particularly his insistence on rational religion and defense of universal salvation.


Career.

Born in Kaiserslautern, Koch first studied music and German pedagogy, graduating with a focus on organ playing and choral conducting. He continued his studies at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt, organ with Daniel Roth, and orchestral conducting. He trained as a conductor with the "Dirigentenwerkstatt Interaktion" in Berlin with players of the Berliner Philharmoniker, among others. In 2005, he was a finalist of the Bad Homburg international conducting competition. He was an assistant of Wojciech Rajski and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot. Koch was a lecturer of orchestral conducting at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts from 2003 to 2013.  From 2003, Koch has been the church musician at the Protestant Unionskirche in Idstein, responsible for the deanery as Dekanatskantor. He has conducted the concert choir Idsteiner Kantorei since, and founded in 2003 the orchestra Nassauische Kammerphilharmonie for choral and orchestral concerts. The historic church features an organ buit in 1912 by Walcker, retaining the case ("Prospekt") of a from 1783.

Concerts.

In the Idstein region, Koch has conducted symphonic concerts at the Unionskirche, regularly on the "Tag des offenen Denkmals" (European Heritage Day), including a cycle of all Beethoven symphonies. The cycle was completed in 2012 with the Ninth Symphony, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Idsteiner Kantorei, and the centenary of the organ. Koch has conducted choral concerts, two to three per year at the Unionskirche, and others also at St. Martin, Idstein, and in smaller churches in the deanery. In 2010, he conducted Verdi's "Messa da Requiem" at St. Martin in an ecumenical project of three choirs. In 2015, he conducted the same joined choirs in and by Karl Jenkins. In an international collaboration also with the Belgian choir De Wase Kantorij from the sister town Zwijndrecht, he conducted Haydn's "Die Schöpfung" in 2016, both in Idstein and in Zwijndrecht. In 2017, his first concert back in the Unionskirche after extended restoration work included Ola Gjeilo's "Sunrise Mass" and Eric Whitacre's "Five Hebrew Love Songs". In 2018, he shared Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" with his colleague, Franz Fink of St. Martin, in concerts at the Unionskirche.

Carsten Koch (born 1975) is a German organist, choral conductor and academic. He is the church musician at the Unionskirche in Idstein, Hesse, conducting the concert choir Idsteiner Kantorei and the orchestra Nassauische Kammerphilharmonie that he founded. He lectured orchestral conducting at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.


Early life.

Angela Jurdak was born in Shweir, Ottoman Syria (Modern day Lebanon) the daughter of Mansur Hanna Jurdak, a mathematician and astronomer on the faculty of the American University of Beirut, and Leah Abs Jurdak. Angela Jurdak attended the American Junior College for Women and then the American University of Beirut, completing undergraduate studies in 1937 and a master's degree in 1938, in sociology. Later in life, she earned a PhD in international relations, from American University in Washington D.C.  As a young woman, Jurdak was a member of the Lebanese national tennis team, played piano in concerts, and was known as a long-distance swimmer.

Career.

Angela Jurdak taught sociology at the American University of Beirut beginning in 1938, the university's first woman instructor. She served as assistant director of the Allied Powers Radio Poll for Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine during World War II. After the war, she joined the Lebanese delegation to the United Nations and was a member of the Legation of Lebanon based in Washington, D.C. She was the first woman diplomat from Lebanon. She was Lebanese consul in New York for a time, and served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women at its founding in 1946. She resigned from her work with the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1966.  She was a professor of government at George Mason University from 1967 until she retired in 1982.

Honors.

Angela Jurdak Khoury was awarded the National Order of the Cedar by the Lebanese government in 1959. The Angela J. Khoury Award for Outstanding Senior in Government and International Politics is awarded at George Mason University in her memory.

Personal life.

Angela Jurdak married lawyer Shukri Issa Khoury in 1949. They had two sons, Philip and George. She was widowed when Shukry Khoury died in 1985. Angela Jurdak Khoury died in 2011, aged 95 years, in Washington D.C. She lived in her later years with her sister Salma Mansur Jurdak, also a diplomat based in Washington D.C.; Salma Jurdak died in 2017 at age 97.

Angela Jurdak Khoury (September 24, 1915 - May 29, 2011) was a Lebanese diplomat and college professor based in Washington, D.C.


History.

1000 km lenktynės at Palanga Circuit, then known as "Horn Grand Prix", was first held in 2000. A total of 18 teams entered the race. It was won by Vytautas Venskūnas, Vladas Laurinavičius, and Eugenijus Tumalevičius. In 2004, the number of participants increased to 34, in 2005 to 37. In the same year, the race distance was increased to 1003 km to honor new title sponsor TV3, and the race was renamed to TV3 "1003 kilometrų lenktynės".  The number of participants continued to increase in the following year as the race was officially included in the list of FIA sanctioned events and the race began to attract teams and race drivers from other countries. In 2006 41 teams entered the race and in 2007 the number of participants increased to maximum 60.  In 2008 total 75 teams submitted their entries, but only 60 entered the race, as other teams, who failed to qualify, had to compete in support 100 laps race. A new title sponsor was introduced in 2008, as Omnitel replaced TV3. Therefore, the race reverted to its original 1000 km format. Omnitel pulled off its support before 2013 edition of the race, and the race became known simply as "1000 kilometrų lenktynės" until ENEOS became a title sponsor in 2015.  In 2017 race organizers introduced a Hankook as mandatory tyre, and it also became one of the race sponsors and race name was renamed to: "ENEOS 1006 km powered by Hankook", and in 2018 race was renamed again when the main sponsor entered and the event became - "Aurum 1006 km powered by Hankook".

Classes.

Touring cars, GT and prototypes can enter the race if they comply with technical regulations of the race. Open top cars, such as Radical SR8, were banned from the race after the 2014 event due to safety reasons. From 2019 class system where changed: cars that satisfy Technical Regulations and are not faster than FIA GT3 will be classified and divided into classes according to the Technical regulations of the Event.

Individual race history.

2010.

2010 Omnitel 1000 kilometrų lenktynės was an 11th installment of 1000 kilometrų lenktynės. It was held on July 15–17, 2010.  The race was won by Steve Vanbellingen, Benny Smets and Ward Sluys from Belgium with BMW M3 Silhouette, who drove for KS Motorsport team. Oktanas Racing drivers Robertas Kupčikas, Nemunas Dagilis and Nerijus Dagilis finished second with Porsche 997 GT3, two laps down. Fuchs MP Sport Star Moto team's drivers Maciej Marcinkewicz, Maciej Stanco and Pawel Potocki finished third with Ferrari F430 GT3 Scuderia, 15 laps down.  Only 34 cars from 42 finished the race. Fastest lap was recorded by Robertas Kupčikas, with a laptime of 1.21:032.

2012.

2012 Omnitel 1000 kilometrų lenktynės was the 13th installment of 1000 kilometrų lenktynės. It was held on July 19–21, 2012.  The race was won by South Africans Sun Moodley, Andrew Culbert and Manogh Maharaj, who drove Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for Oktanas Racing, despite running out of fuel in the final lap. JR Motorsport team drivers took second with BMW M3 Silhouette. RIMO team with BMW 3 Series finished third and also took victory in diesel-powered cars class.  Race favourites BOD-Bauer Racing took pole position with a laptime of 1:30.204, but soon after the start their Aquila CR1 developed a brakes issue and finished only in 28th position. During the race weekend team also set the fastest Palanga Circuit laptime of 1:17.270, which is still the best lap time on the old configuration circuit.

2014.

2014 1000 kilometrų lenktynės was the 15th installment of 1000 kilometrų lenktynės. It was held on July 17–19, 2014. This was the first time when the race was held in shortened circuit. This was also the second time in a row when the race did not had a title sponsor after Omnitel pulled off its support in 2013.  The race was red flagged for the first time in history due to heavy rain after 303 laps from 373. Victory was awarded to Liqui Moly Racing Team Lithuania and its drivers Jonas Gelžinis, Ignas Gelžinis and Edvinas Arkušauskas with BMW M3. "INTER RAO Lietuva" finished second, 13 seconds behind with another BMW M3. Final podium position was taken by "Macrofinance" racing team with third BMW M3.  Qualification was dominated by sports car drivers. Speed Factory Racing driver Konstantin Calko with Radical SR8 took pole position with a laptime of 1:07.046. "15min-GSR-Telsiu statyba" with Radical SR5 was second, 2.344 seconds behind. BarBar'a-Bauer by Algirdai took third, 2.892 behind, but due to technical problems they all finished outside the top 10.

"Aurum 1006 km powered by Hankook" formerly known as "ENEOS 1006 km powered by Hankook", "ENEOS 1006 km lenktynės", "Horn Grand Prix", "TV3 1003 kilometrų lenktynės" and "Omnitel 1000 km lenktynės" for sponsorship reasons) is a touring car and GT endurance racing event held annually in Lithuania, at Palanga circuit, two kilometers away from the resort town of Palanga. The race was first held in 2000.


Plot.

Bradley Morahan (James Mason) is an Australian artist who feels he has become jaded by success and life in New York City. He decides that he needs to regain the edge he had as a young artist and returns to Australia.  He sets up in a shack on the shore of a small, sparsely inhabited island on the Great Barrier Reef. There he meets young Cora Ryan (Helen Mirren), who has grown up wild, with her only relative, her difficult, gin-guzzling grandmother 'Ma' (Neva Carr Glyn). To earn money, Cora sells Bradley fish that she has caught in the sea. She later sells him a chicken which she has stolen from his spinster neighbour Isabel Marley (Andonia Katsaros). When Bradley is suspected of being the thief, he pays Isabel and gets Cora to promise not to steal any more. To help her save enough money to fulfil her dream of becoming a hairdresser in Brisbane, he pays her to be his model. She reinvigorates him, becoming his artistic muse.  Bradley's work is disrupted when his sponging longtime "friend" Nat Kelly (Jack MacGowran) shows up. Nat is hiding from the police over alimony he owes. When Bradley refuses to give him a loan, Nat invites himself to stay with Bradley. After several days Bradley's patience becomes exhausted, but Nat then focuses his attention on romancing Isabel, hoping to get some money from her. Instead, she unexpectedly ravishes him. The next day, he hastily departs the island, but not before stealing Bradley's money and some of his drawings.  Ma subsequently catches Cora posing nude for Bradley and accuses him of carrying on with her underage granddaughter. Bradley protests that he has done nothing improper. Finally, he gives her the little money he has left to get her to go away.  When Cora discovers that Ma has found her hidden cache of money, she chases after her. In the ensuing struggle, Ma falls down a hill, breaks her neck, and dies. The local policeman sees no reason to investigate further, since the old woman was known to be frequently drunk.  Later that night Cora goes to Bradley's shack, but is disappointed when he seems to view her only as his model. When she runs out, Bradley follows her into the water, and he finally comes to view her as a desirable young woman.

Production.

Norman Lindsay's novel had been published in 1938 and was banned in Australia. A film version was announced in 1961 by producer Oscar Nichols, who said he wanted Dan O'Herlihy and Glynis Johns to star. In 1962 Michael Pate had the rights and he eventually brought in Michael Powell. They hired Peter Yeldham to write the adaptation.  Several changes were made from Lindsay's novel, including shifting the location from New South Wales to the Barrier Reef and making the artist a success instead of a failure. The bulk of the budget was provided by Columbia Pictures in London.  Before filming began on "Age of Consent", director Michael Powell said about it:My next film is the story of a painter who believes that he will no longer paint and of a girl who persuades him to begin again...He will probably end up painting her; but to see a painter sit down and paint a girl, this could be exciting, but I had the hardest time explaining to my scriptwriter that this didn't excite me at all. What interested me was the problem of Creation and the fact that this creation in the case of the painter was very physical. He will have to struggle, to fight, even more strongly than he will move away from reality. It will be a slightly bitter comedy that I will produce with James Mason who will play the leading role. Powell and Mason had wanted to work together in the past, on "I Know Where I'm Going!", but had not been able to come to an agreement on billing, and Mason was unwilling to go on location to Scotland. After "Age of Consent" Powell tried to recruit Mason for his version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", a project which never came to fruition.  It originally was intended to cast an unknown 17-year-old Australian actress opposite Mason but in the end 22-year-old Helen Mirren was chosen.  James Mason met his future wife Clarissa Kaye on this film; she played the part of Meg, Bradley's ex-girlfriend in Australia. Their scene together was filmed in bed, and Kaye, who was recovering from pneumonia, had a temperature of. After the filming, Mason began corresponding with Kaye, and the two were married in 1971, and remained so until Mason's death in 1984. She was sometimes referred to as Clarissa Kaye-Mason.  Filming began in March 1968 in Albion Park racecourse and elsewhere in Brisbane, with location filming on Dunk Island and Purtaboi Island on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, and interiors shot at Ajax Film Centre in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.  Underwater moving picture photography was undertaken by Ron & Valerie Taylor as their first work for a feature film.

Censorship.

Although "Age of Consent" was released without cuts in Australia, and passed the British Board of Film Classification without any demands for cuts, the distributor, Columbia Pictures, decided to cut the opening bedroom scene between James Mason and Clarissa Kaye, and also some of Mirren's nude scenes, thus shortening the film from 106 minutes to 98 minutes before it was released to the UK and US audiences. The Columbia executives also disliked Peter Sculthorpe's original score, so it was replaced with one by Stanley Myers. The original Sculthorpe score was reinstated when the film was restored in 2005.

Reception.

Box office.

"Age of Consent" was a huge success in Australia, where it received generally favourable reviews, and drew sizeable audiences; it ran continuously for seven months at Sydney's Rapallo. The film took AUD 981,000 at the box office in Australia, which was equivalent to AUD 9,711,900 in 2009. It was the 13th most popular film in Australia in 1969.

Critical.

Outside Australia critics were not very positive. Penelope Mortimer in "The Observer" wrote "I tremendously admire James Mason and believed, until I saw "Age of Consent", that he could do no wrong...It is best forgiven and forgotten". The reviewer in "Variety" said "The film has plenty of corn, is sometimes too slow, repetitious and badly edited...Yet [it] has immense charm, and the photography and superb scenery make it a good travelog ad for the Great Barrier Reef". Michael Powell thought the film had turned out to be too comic: "A sensual comedy. Not a big success, but interesting anyway."

Restored version.

At the 2005 Sydney Film Festival, a fully restored version of the film was shown, with both the original score and the cut scenes reinstated. The restoration had been instigated by Martin Scorsese, a huge fan of Michael Powell, and was done by The Film Foundation, as part of their work to restore all of Powell's films, under the supervision of film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who was Powell's wife from 19 May 1984 until his death in 1990. The restored version was released in the US on DVD in January 2009 as part of a double set of Powell films, paired with "A Matter of Life and Death". The restored version is available on DVD in the UK, released by Sony Pictures, rated "12" by the BBFC and has the original score. It was also shown on TV. It premiered on Film Four in the UK in December 2012.  Umbrella Entertainment released a DVD of the restored version in Australia in July 2012 with special features including Martin Scorsese on "Age of Consent", audio commentary with historian Kent Jones, the making of "Age of Consent", Helen Mirren: A Conversation with Cora, and Down Under with Ron and Valerie Taylor.

Age of Consent (also known as Norman Lindsay's Age of Consent) is a 1969 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Michael Powell. The film stars James Mason (co-producer with Powell), Helen Mirren in her first major film role, and Jack MacGowran, and features actress Neva Carr Glyn. The screenplay by Peter Yeldham was adapted from the 1938 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Norman Lindsay, who died the year this film was released.


History.

The reproducibility of animal test results in biomedical research has been questioned repeatedly in the past. Discussions about this replication crisis have already reached the public. In clinical research, the call for transparency led to the introduction of clinical trial registries that disclose the experimental design of clinical trials before the study is conducted. In order to increase the transparency and the quality in the field of preclinical and basic research, the establishment of so-called centralized Animal Study Registries was suggested. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), as a scientifically independent research institution, has decided to provide an international freely accessible platform for the pre-registration of studies involving animal experiments.

Goal.

The causes for the replication crisis in biomedical research are being intensively discussed within the scientific community. The publication bias was identified as one main reason for the lack of reproducibility of research results. This means, only significant and novel results are published while null results are never revealed, which leads to a distorted view of the state of research. Furthermore, poor study design, poor statistical planning and incomplete method description were, among others, identified as further reasons for non-reproducibility.  The purpose of an Animal Study Registry is to register animal experiments with detailed information on methods, working hypotheses and biometric planning prior to the start of the study. Registration of the study plan could reduce the publication bias and prevent practices like data dredging. Indeed, Scientists would have to justify in the future why they differed from the original project planning or why some results were not published. The detailed query of the methods as well as the statistical planning supports the scientists in the study preparation and can thus increase the quality of as well as the reproducibility of the animal experiments. Results from animal experiments that are not published or whose informative value is impaired due to poor study quality can lead to animal experiments being unnecessarily repeated.

The Animal Study Registry is an online registry for the pre-registration of research studies involving animals. Since January 7, 2019, the Animal Study Registry is online and can be used by scientists worldwide.


History.

Sir Valentine Browne and his son, also Valentine Browne, were the first members of the family to settle in Ireland being appointed Surveyor General of Ireland in 1559. Sir Valentine Browne made an agreement with MacCarty Mór for a lease on the lands of Coshmang and Ross in 1588, the year of the Armada. Unlike most of the English settlers since the Reformation, the Brownes soon reverted to the old religion and the family continued to be given the royal title "Viscounts Kenmare" by King James II of England in 1689. It may be remarked here that this title is derived from Kenmare Castle, near Hospital, part of the County Limerick estate of the Browne family, and not, as might naturally be supposed, from the town of that name, which is not actually on the Browne estate. The family's first residence in Killarney was Ross Castle.  The original Kenmare House was built in 1726, after the estates were recovered by the 5th Baronet and 3rd Viscount Kenmare. It was a grandiose structure with the characteristics of a French chateau, perhaps influenced by the Brownes' time spent in France with King James II in exile at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The house was part of the 137, 000 acre estate of the Brownes, who remarkably retained their lands during the Penal Laws as Catholics.  Viscount Kenmare designed the house himself. The house was two stories high and had dormered attics and steep, slated roofs. There were thirteen bays in front of the house, with three bays on each side of the centre breaking forward. A servants’ wing was added around 1775.  It is the 4th Viscount Kenmare, Thomas Browne, who is credited with bringing tourism to Killarney. He was also the head of the Catholic Committee. In the years that followed poets such as Tennyson and Wordsworth, and, writers such as Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen all visited Killarney.  Early writers praised the house: Smith (1756) praised the seat and gardens as did Coquebert (1790), who mentioned that the chimneys were made of marble (rose-coloured and grey and black). O'Donovan (1846) thought it a handsome house, beautifully shaded with trees and shrubs.  On 26 August 1861, Valentine, Lord Castlerosse played host to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Killarney. The royal visit put Killarney on the map as a tourist resort and set the scene for the prosperity and popularity it enjoys today. It must also have been the Queen and Prince's last tour together, as the Prince died in December 1861. During the visit of Queen Victoria to Kenmare House, she chose the site of Killarney House, a vast Victorian-Tudor mansion, which was the successor to Kenmare House. In June 1866 King Leopold II of Belgium visited the Kenmares at Killarney.  The original house was demolished in 1872 by the fourth Earl. The succeeding house was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1913 and never rebuilt; instead, the stable block of the original Kenmare House was converted into the present Killarney House, although the Brownes called it Kenmare House. During this time Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and, later, George V and Queen Mary paid visits to the Kenmares in the years before the First World War.  Sir Edwin Lutyens (the architect for Lady Kenmare's brother, the 3rd Lord Revelstoke, at Lambay Castle on Lambay Island, County Dublin) advised Lord Kenmare to build the second Kenmare House in 1915. This house was later abandoned and sold in 1956 to John McShain when a new Kenmare House was built by the heir to the Browne estates, Mrs Beatrice Grosvenor CBE (granddaughter of the Duke of Westminster).  Less than twenty years later, in 1974, the new manor which was confusingly constructed on the site of the former Killarney House by Mrs Grosvenor in 1956 was replaced. This last Kenmare House was built on the Killorglin Road, beside the Killarney golf course and the Castlerosse Hotel.  The sale of Kenmare House in 1985 to native Kerryman Denis P. Kelleher effectively marked the end of the Kenmare family's proprietary connection with Killarney after 450 years.  A €7 million restoration was announced by Leo Varadkar in 2011.

Kenmare House is located on the east shore of Lough Leane and was the principal residence of the Brownes of Killarney, Earls of Kenmare.


Habitat.

The big-belly seahorse is found among algae, seagrasses, and rocky reefs in shallow water, and attached to sponges and colonial hydroids in deeper areas. They also attach to jetty piles and other manmade objects, and can be found in estuaries. They usually inhabit waters less than deep, but have been found as deep as. Juveniles are pelagic or attached to drifting seaweed.

Description.

The big-belly seahorse has a forward-tilted, a long-snouted head, a distended but narrow pot belly, and a long, coiled tail. It swims using its dorsal fin with a vertical stance; when not swimming, it coils its prehensile tail around any suitable growth, such as seaweed, waiting for planktonic animals to drift by, when they are sucked up by the small mouth set at the tip of the snout much like a vacuum cleaner. Seahorses are voracious feeders, eating mainly crustaceans, such as shrimp, and other small animals living among the seaweed, such as copepods and amphipods. They do not chew, so they can eat to excess because of their small gut tract. Each eye moves separately, making it easier for them to see food and predators.  Distinguishing males from females is easy: The male has a smooth, soft, pouch-like area at the base of its abdomen where the stomach meets the tail on the front side. Males also have a fin there, but it is less obvious. The female has more of a pointed stomach with a very obvious fin at the base of it.

Reproduction.

In the wild, breeding can commence when the seahorses are about one year old, and this can be reduced to about eight months when in captivity. Breeding in big-belly seahorses year-round, with peaks in the warmer months.  Courtship initiation involves a series of colour changes and postural displays. Dilating the opening of the brood pouch slightly, the male inflates the pouch to balloon-like proportions with water by swimming forwards, or by pushing his body forwards in a pumping action, then closing the pouch opening. At the same time, he lightens his pouch in colour to white or light yellow. The male also brightens his overall body colouration, typically intensifying the yellow. A male repeatedly approaches his selected female with his head tucked down, and dorsal and pectoral fins rapidly fluttering. If the female is not receptive, she ignores the male, which then looks for another potential mate. If no females are receptive, the male stops displaying and deflates the pouch by dilating the pouch opening and bending forwards, expelling the water inside. If a female is receptive to a courting male, she reciprocates with her own color changes and head tucking, typically intensifying the lighter colours such as yellow and white, highlighting the contrast between these colours and her overall darker blotching and banding patterning. A series of short bursts of swimming together in tandem then ensues, sometimes with tails entwined, or with the female tightly rolling her tail up. This has often been described as ‘dancing’. After coming to rest, the male attempts to get the female to swim towards the water surface with him by repeatedly pointing his snout upwards.  If the female responds by also pointing her snout upwards, then the final stage of courtship follows. This involves both the male and female swimming directly upwards towards the water surface with both their heads pointing upwards and tails pointing straight down. If they reach the water surface, one or both seahorses can often be seen and heard to snap their heads. To transfer her eggs to the male, the female faces the male, slightly above him. Pressing the base of her abdomen against the male's pouch, she then squirts her eggs through the opening in the front of his dilated pouch.  The male seahorse brood 300-700 young at a time, and can have up to four broods in summer. Their colouring is a variable shade of brown, mottled with yellow-brown and with darker splotches. The tail is often circled with yellow bands. In deeper water where the tail is anchored to other colourful forms of life, such as sponges and hydroids, they often take on these colours.

Aquaculture.

The big-belly seahorse is a popular aquarium species and dried specimens are sold as traditional medicine in Asia. Stocks come from the wild or are aquarium-reared. They are easy to keep in aquariums and feed on small shrimp and crustaceans.

The big-belly seahorse or pot-bellied seahorse, "Hippocampus abdominalis", is one of the largest seahorse species in the world with a length of up to, and is the largest in Australia. Seahorses are members of the family Syngnathidae, and are teleost fishes. They are found in southeast Australia and New Zealand, and are listed on Appendix II of CITES.


Military career.

Educated at Repton School and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Reginald Hewetson was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1928. He served in India from 1929 to 1935. During the Second World War he served in France, North Africa and Italy. He was awarded the DSO for his service during the War.  He was Brigadier on the General Staff of the British Army in Austria from 1945 to 1947. In 1953 he was appointed was Commander Royal Artillery within 2nd Division in Germany and in March 1956 he became General Officer Commanding 11th Armoured Division. In April 1956 11th Armoured Division was reformed under his command as 4th Division and in 1958 he became Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley. In 1961 he was appointed Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong and in 1963 he became General Officer Commanding Far East Land Forces, a post he held until 1964 when he became Adjutant General. He retired from the British Army in 1967.  He was also Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery from 1962 to 1973. He was ADC General to the Queen from 1966 to 1967.  He was awarded the CB in 1958, the KCB in 1962 and the GCB in 1966. He was also awarded the OBE in 1943 and the CBE in 1945.  A service to commemorate his life was held on 12 February 1993. He lived in Uckfield, East Sussex.  Hewetson was also a first class cricket player who played for the Europeans in the Bombay Quadrangular in 1929.

Family.

He married Patricia Burkitt. They had 2 children and 9 Grandchildren

References.

General Sir Reginald Hackett Hewetson, (4 August 1908 – 19 January 1993) was a senior British Army officer and a former Adjutant-General to the Forces.


Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Before Eurovision.

Söngvakeppnin 2013.

On 11 September 2012, RÚV announced that they will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 held in Malmö, Sweden. The national final will have two semi-finals (25-26 January 2013) and a final (2 February 2013). The semi-finals will be held in RÚV Studios, but the final will be held in Harpa Concert Hall.

Format.

Six songs will compete in each of the two semi finals. Three songs will be chosen to qualify directly during each semi final night by combination of the televoting public and a professional jury (50/50). In addition to the televoting qualifiers, a jury had the ability to selected an additional wildcard qualifier from the remaining songs in both semi-finals to proceed to the final.  In the final, the first round of voting consisted of the combination of jury voting and televoting, which determined the top two. The top two songs qualified to the second round of voting where televoting determined the winner, and will represent Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2013. All the songs will be performed in Icelandic in both semi finals and the final, but it will be up to the winning composers to decide if their song will be performed in Icelandic or English in Malmö in May 2013.

Competing entries.

Artists and composers could send in their entries to RÚV until 8 October 2012. Foreign songwriters can participate when they work together with an Icelandic songwriter. On 12 November 2012, RÚV revealed the 12 songs that will compete in the contest.

Semi-final 1.

The first semi-final took place on 25 January 2013 where six competing artists presented their entries. The top three entries voted upon by a combination of televoting (50%) and jury voting (50%) proceeded to the final. The qualifiers were "Lífið Snýst" performed by Svavar Knútur Kristinsson & Hreindís Ylva Garðarsdóttir Hólm, "Ég á Líf" performed by Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson and "Meðal Andanna" performed by Birgitta Haukdal.

Semi-final 2.

The second semi-final took place on 26 January 2013 where six competing artists presented their entries. The top three entries voted upon by a combination of televoting (50%) and jury voting (50%) proceeded to the final. The qualifiers were "Til þín" performed by Jógvan Hansen & Stefanía Svavarsdóttir, "Vinátta" performed by Haraldur Reynisson and "Ég Syng!" performed by Unnur Eggertsdóttir.

Final.

The final took place on 2 February 2013 where the seven entries that proceeded from the preceding two semi-finals competed. In the first round of voting, votes from a jury panel (50%) and public televoting (50%) determined the top two entries. "Ég á Líf" performed by Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson and "Ég Syng!" performed by Unnur Eggertsdóttir qualified to the second round. In the second round, televoting solely selected "Ég á Líf" performed by Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson as the winner in the second round.

At Eurovision.

Iceland was allocated to compete in the second semi-final on 16 May for a place in the final on 18 May. In the second semifinal, the producers of the show decided that Iceland would perform 8th, following Bulgaria and preceding Greece.  Iceland qualified from the second semi-final, placing 6th and scoring 72 points. At the second semi-final winners' press conference, Iceland was allocated to perform in the second half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Iceland would perform 19th, following Denmark and preceding Azerbaijan. Iceland placed 17th in the final and scored 47 points. Despite being a favorite to win the contest, the song placed 17th.

Points awarded by Iceland.

Semi-final 2.

Points awarded in second semi-final:

Final.

Points awarded in the final:

Iceland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden, and have selected their entry through a national selection, consisting of two semi-finals and a final, organised by the Icelandic broadcaster RÚV. Eythor Ingi represented Iceland with the song "Ég á Líf", which scored 47 points and finished in 17th place in the grand final on 18 May 2013.


Plot.

The documentary centers on the opioid epidemic, specifically its effect on Huntington, West Virginia, where the overdose rate is 10 times the US average. It follows police, judges, and local nonprofits attempting to help people who struggle with opioid addiction and bring them to recovery as the city grips with a growing number of heroin and prescription painkiller overdoses, and eventually, the much more potent fentanyl. Among them are three women alluded to in the film's name: Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader who, with other emergency responders, treats overdose victims; Cabell County Judge Patricia Keller, who heads the drug court; and Necia Freeman of Brown Bag Ministry, who delivers food to women who resort to prostitution to support their addictions.  The documentary explains the use of naloxone to treat overdose victims, and explores the psychological toll on the county's first responders who see dozens of overdoses a month. It follows first responders to calls as people overdose, including one instance where a woman is revived at the counter of a convenience store while customers continue checking out nearby. There are several dozen interviews with people who have been addicted and are in recovery who discuss the effects of the drug on their lives and their efforts to recover from it.

Production.

Conception.

Sheldon, who grew up in Logan and Elkview, West Virginia, said the opioid epidemic was personal and that she had friends and classmates impacted by addiction. The documentary was produced as a collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting, with a hopeful tone that focuses less on history, statistics and politics, and more on the daily routines of people impacted daily by opioids. Media covering the issue focused heavily on victims and she later said she wanted to create a documentary that focused more on the people helping them. In the process, she said she hoped the documentary would bring attention to addiction as something that impacts people of all demographics.  In making the documentary, she said she sought to change the perception of opioid addiction from a "moral failure" to one of a "medical issue" where recovery is possible. Appalachia has seen problems with opioid addiction for some time before it gained a wider public understanding in the United States. She told "Vanity Fair" that she felt that while government, health care and pharmaceutical companies weren't paying attention to the plight in West Virginia, that the solutions to the opioid epidemic would ultimately come from there, because of how people like the subjects in her film have worked to help one another. Conversely, she said West Virginians have ignored the problem for too long and it needs to be addressed, regardless of the documentary's impact on how others view the state.

Filming.

The documentary was shot between February 2016 and May 2017, off and on. Sheldon and her husband were the only two involved in filming on the ground, which they did off-and-on for a total of 38 days. The Center for Investigative Reporting funded the film through its Glassbreaker initiative.  Sheldon reached out to the city mayor's office about the documentary, and was introduced to Rader, Keller and others. She and her husband subsequently rode along with the Fire Department for about 20 days over a period of six months. Rader later told "Roll Call" she was concerned with members of her department suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as its members see 40 or more dead bodies a year, including friends and classmates. She also said she wanted to highlight the estimated $100 million impact opioids had on Cabell County's economy, as her department responds to five to seven overdoses a day. Though Rader, Sheldon was introduced to a number of people who experience the opioid epidemic every day, and settled on the three women featured in the documentary because they often work with the same people at different parts of their lives.  After filming, the couple approached Netflix which helped them craft the story in editing and post-production. The film's short length helps it as an educational tool, Sheldon said, because community screenings can dedicate an hour to the film — 39 minutes watching it and 20 minutes having a discussion about its contents. The creators built a field guide for screenings so it could be viewed in prisons, rehabilitation centers, and medical schools.  The film debuted at the August 2017 Telluride Film Festival. Netflix released it for streaming the next month. Screenings of the film have followed around the country, particularly in communities impacted by opioid addition.

Reception.

The film was praised for its tone. "Forbes" called it an "optimistic counter-narrative" that focuses on an alternative to harsh or judgmental approaches to understanding the impacts of opioids. "Forbes" said it makes "a powerful case for compassion and for second, third, fourth and 10th chances," though not exploring their causes as deeply as other works such as J.D. Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy". "The Clarion-Ledger" wrote that its "gritty" approach allowed the viewer to understand the daily lives of people trying to help those affected by addiction. "The New York Times" considered it a front-runner for an Oscar because it "addresses an issue in the news — the opioid epidemic — with present-tense reportage and an eye toward putting human faces on the crisis."  Huntington residents interviewed about the film were generally supportive of its contents, noting that it highlights the compassion of people in the community helping others.  Rader attended the 2018 State of the Union Address as a guest of Senator Joe Manchin and during the trip spoke to lawmakers about the opioid epidemic, which has had a substantial impact on Huntington's economy.

Heroin(e) is a 2017 American short documentary film directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon and produced by Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Kerrin Sheldon. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 90th Academy Awards.


Biography.

Early years.

Loury was born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1972, he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Northwestern University. In 1976 he received his Ph.D. in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career.

In 1982, at age 33, he became the first black tenured professor of economics in the history of Harvard University. He resigned that position after two years, feeling that the appointment was a mistake because he "wasn’t yet fully established as a scientist."  In 1984, Loury drew the attention of critics with "A New American Dilemma", published in "The New Republic", where he addressed what he terms "fundamental failures in black society" such as "the lagging academic performance of black students, the disturbingly high rate of black-on-black crime, and the alarming increase in early unwed pregnancies among blacks."  In 1987, Loury's career continued its ascent when he was selected to be the next Undersecretary of Education, a position which would have made him the second-highest-ranking black person in the Reagan administration. However, Loury withdrew from consideration on June 1, three days before being charged with assault after a "lover's quarrel" with a 23-year-old woman. Loury was later arrested for possession of cocaine.  After a subsequent period of seclusion and self-reflection, Loury reemerged as a born-again Christian and described himself as a "black progressive". Loury left Harvard in 1991 to go to Boston University, where he headed the Institute on Race and Social Division. In 2005, Loury left Boston University for Brown University, where he was named a professor in the Economics Department, and a research associate of the Population Studies and Training Center.  Loury's areas of study include applied microeconomic theory: welfare economics, game theory, industrial organization, natural resource economics, and the economics of income distribution. In addition to economics, he has also written extensively on the themes of racial inequality and social policy.  Loury currently hosts "The Glenn Show" on Bloggingheads.tv.  In June 2020, Loury published a rebuttal to a letter Brown University president Christina Paxson sent to students and alumni in response to the police killing of George Floyd. Loury questioned the purpose of Paxson's letter, saying it either "affirmed platitudes to which we can all subscribe, or, more menacingly, it asserted controversial and arguable positions as though they were axiomatic certainties."  He is a supporter of the 1776 Project.  Loury was elected as a member of the Econometric Society in 1994, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2011. Loury is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Glenn Cartman Loury (born September 3, 1948) is an American economist, academic, and author. In 1982, at age 33, he became the first black tenured professor of economics in the history of Harvard University. He is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University.


Synopsis.

The documentary mainly focuses on the evolution of the horror film genre in the United States, how horror films have adapted over time in accordance with the changing fears of the American public, and the connections between major events in the U.S. and the attraction that horror films have to moviegoing audiences. The film features interviews with a number of filmmakers, producers, and historians: Darren Lynn Bousman, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, Dennis Fischer, Mick Garris, Tom McLoughlin, John Kenneth Muir, George A. Romero, Roger Corman, Tony Timpone, and Brian Yuzna.  The silent era of film that thrived until the late 1920s is discussed, with connections being made between World War I soldiers returning home with deformities and films featuring disfigured humans as the antagonists, such as "The Phantom of the Opera". With the dawn of the sound era, European filmmakers like James Whale adapted European horror literature for American audiences, as in the case of "Frankenstein". However, by the advent of World War II and the Atomic Age, widespread paranoia about nuclear weapons gave birth to B movies of the 1950s like "Tarantula" and "Creature with the Atom Brain".  It is stated that horror films of the 1960s and 1970s became more violent and sexually explicit, with films such as "Night of the Living Dead", "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", and various exploitation films being used as examples. It is also noted that the horror film genre garnered mainstream recognition due to works like "The Exorcist" and "Jaws". The horror subgenre of slasher films is then explored. "Videodrome", "The Stuff", and "They Live" are highlighted as satirizing consumerism, commercialism, and the rise of home video in the 1980s. Parallels are drawn between the charisma and actions of villain Freddy Krueger of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.  Films featuring serial killers, like "", "The Silence of the Lambs", "Se7en", and "American Psycho", are raised as examples of works featuring disturbed but mortal and visually human characters, or "inversion[s] of the American Dreamer". Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the commencement of the Iraq War, it is stated that remakes like 2003's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and 2004's "Dawn of the Dead" began to present their monsters as faster and more sadistic than ever before. The documentary concludes by restating the premise that American horror films reflect the fears of the American public, and adapt as history continues to be made.

Critical reception.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on six reviews, with an average score of 7.8/10.  Dennis Harvey of "Variety" called the film a "comprehensive if uncritical overview of the U.S. horror genre", and notes that "while the focus is primarily on well-known titles and directors, the pic does take time to spotlight a few lesser-known gems, such as Bob Clark's "Deathdream" [...] and David Cronenberg's marvelous feature debut, "Shivers", [...]; international horror, however, is just briefly touched on."  In 2019, Chris Coffel of Film School Rejects ranked "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue" #8 on his list of the "10 Best Horror Docs Every Horror Fan Should Watch", writing that it "does a wonderful job providing a high level overview of America's history with the genre." Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting later wrote of the film that, "for an introductory social and history lesson on horror's evolution, constructed in a highly entertaining manner and chock full of nostalgia, it's a well-rounded doc worth watching."

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Andrew Monument, based on the 2004 book of the same name by Joseph Maddrey. The film examines the appeal of the horror film genre to audiences and how the genre has continually evolved to reflect changing societal fears in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries.


Plot.

The film tells the story of two families over about thirty years: Liu Yaojun, Wang Liyun and their son Liu Xing ('Xingxing') together with Shen Yingming, Li Haiyan and their son Shen Hao ('Haohao'). Haohao and Xingxing were born on the same day. Both families were originally close and worked in the same factory, but became estranged in the 1980s.  Following the death of Xingxing, who drowned while playing by a reservoir with Haohao and other children, Yaojun and Liyun moved to another province (Fujian) and adopted a 'new' boy who they rename 'Xingxing', who grows estranged from his foster parents and leaves them as a young teenager. Yingming and Haiyan make a fortune in real estate and Haohao becomes a doctor.  When Haiyan is about to die, she invites Yaojun and Liyun to come back to their home town, which they hardly recognise after so much urban development. At the end, Haohao tells Xingxing's parents that he had forced Xingxing to play in the reservoir because the other kids were laughing at him and he felt embarrassed. Following this revelation, Liu Yaojun and Wang Liyun receive a phone call from their estranged, adopted son to say he is returning to visit them and bringing his new girlfriend.  The film portrays the journey of the two families with non-chronological flashbacks explaining the course of their lives. It speaks of affection, getting married, having and raising children (with the one-child policy), collective dismissal because of economic reform, ups and downs in life, grief and many social changes in China, resulting in complicated life experiences.

So Long, My Son () is a 2019 Chinese drama film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. At the festival, the film won the two main acting awards, with Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei winning the Silver Bear for Best Actor and Actress, respectively.


History.

The precise construction date of the first Kaunas Castle is unknown. Archaeological data suggests that a stone castle was built on the site during the middle of the 14th century. Situated on an elevated bank near the river junction about from the capital city of Vilnius, it served as a strategic outpost and guarded nearby cities as well as trade routes.  A written account states that in 1361, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Winrich von Kniprode issued an order to gather information about the castle, specifically the thickness of its walls, as preparation for an assault on the castle. In March–April 1362, the castle was besieged by the Teutonic Order. During this attack, the Teutonic Knights constructed a siege tower and erected wall-penetration machinery; primitive fire arms might have been used, since gunpowder technology was emerging in Europe. At that time, the castle walls were over high, when its firing galleries are factored in. According to Wigand of Marburg, the castle's garrison consisted of about 400 Lithuanians soldiers, commanded by Vaidotas, son of Duke Kęstutis. After three weeks, the Knights managed to breach the castle's walls, and soon afterwards the castle was taken. On Easter Sunday in 1362, the knights conducted a Mass at the castle to commemorate their victory.  Apparently, of the castle's defense force of 400, only 36 survived. Questions remain with regard to the castle's defenders' lack of support from outside during the siege. In any event, Kęstutis soon regained and rebuilt Kaunas Castle, but it remained a point of contention between Lithuanians and Teutonic Knights for many years. In 1384 Kaunas Castle was re-captured by the Teutonic Knights. At this time Grand Master Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein began reconstruction of Kaunas Castle and renamed it Marienwerder. The presence of the Knights in Kaunas meant that the entire defensive system of castles along the Nemunas was threatened. Confronting this situation, the Lithuanians launched an attack on the castle later the same year.  It seems likely that the Lithuanians mustered an army near Vilnius as a strategic maneuver, since Lithuanians could use the downstream flow of the Neris River to transport artillery and military provisions from Vilnius; the Knights were forced to use overland or upstream transport. During the 1384 assault, the Lithuanians deployed cannons and trebuchets; the besieged Teutonic Knights had also installed cannons in the castle, which apparently destroyed the Lithuanians' trebuchet. Nevertheless, the castle was retaken by the Lithuanians.  After 1398, the Teutonic Knights were no longer able to reconquer the castle. After the Battle of Grunwald, Kaunas Castle lost its strategic military importance and was used as a residence. The castle served administrative purposes after the death of Vytautas the Great. Sigismund Augustus gave this castle to his wife Barbara Radziwill in 1549. During the 16th century, the castle was strengthened and adapted to new defensive purposes by the construction of an artillery bastion near the round tower. The diameter of the bastion was about and the height of the bastion's walls was about ; the wall worked in conjunction with a defensive trench. At the bottom of the bastion a firing gallery was installed, which was linked with the tower.  In 1601, Kaunas Castle housed courts and an archive. At some time in 1611, part of the castle was flooded by the Neris River. Due to its convenient location, it was used by the Swedish military during its war with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, after which its military functions ceased. In the mid-17th century, large portions of the castle were again flooded. The castle was used as a prison in the 18th century; later the Russian administration granted permission for houses to be built in the castle's territory, which resulted in significant damage to the castle itself.  Kaunas city and this castle was mentioned in the famous Lithuanian and Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz poem "Konrad Wallenrod" (1828), by set in the 14th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania.  For many years afterwards, Kaunas castle stood abandoned. In the 1960s the round tower was opened as a museum, but due to the tower's structural deterioration, the museum was transferred elsewhere.

Conservation of the castle.

Protection of the castle began in 1930; nearby houses were demolished, and the territory was examined by archeologists. Further efforts to preserve the castle were made in the 1950s. At this time the round tower underwent some repair; later the firing bastion was excavated from beneath several overlying strata. The excavated bastion was in very good condition. As part of its protection, temporary roofing was put in place there, as well as on the remaining towers and walls. The remaining portions of the round tower were not reconstructed to their original height, nor were the castle walls; the bigger part of them are only remaining foundations of the walls.  Archeological excavations continued at Kaunas Castle, interrupted by periods of inactivity. The evidence gathered from these archeological works suggests that the configuration of the castle, excluding the bastion, has remained in the form it took during its reconstruction in 1376.

Today.

Major reconstruction work started in 2010 and ended in 2011. In 2011, a branch of the Kaunas City Museum was established in Kaunas Castle. The castle is open to tourism, and hosts occasional festivals. A new sculpture "Freedom Warrior" (or the Vytis) was erected near Kaunas castle on 14 July 2018. The "Freedom Warrior" is almost seven meters high and was cast in Ukraine. A bronze horseman with a horse was placed at the castle of Kaunas on a granite pedestal. The authors of the sculpture are Lithuanian A. Sakalauskas and Ukrainians Boris Krylov and Olesius Sidoruk. In 2019 Kaunas City museum with Kaunas Castle became a new Member of Association of Castles and Museums around the Baltic Sea.

Kaunas Castle is a medieval castle in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. Archeological evidence suggests that it was originally built during the mid-14th century, in the Gothic style. Its site is strategic – a rise on the banks of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Neris River. At the beginning of the 21st century, about one-third of the castle was still standing.


Education.

Mace was educated at the University of Liverpool where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. She was awarded a PhD on the evolutionary ecology of small mammals in 1979 from the University of Sussex for research supervised by Paul H. Harvey.

Research and career.

Her research interests are in measuring the trends and consequences of biodiversity loss and ecosystem change. She started her career at the Smithsonian Institution to study the impact on inbreeding in zoological collections. Mace continued this work and further researched captive population ecology by studying population viability in zoos. Mace commented that "It was exciting to make quantitative scientific contributions to conservation"  She has been President of the British Ecological Society, President of the Society for Conservation Biology, a member of the Science Committee of Diversitas. Mace was editor of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Series B, Biological Sciences)" from 2008 to 2010.  In 2000, Mace became Director of Science at the Institute of Zoology in London, during this time, Professor Mace was instrumental in developing the criteria for listing species in the IUCN Red List, the most comprehensive inventory on the conservation status of the world's species species conservation contributing to the maintenance of global biodiversity and managed by IUCN. Prior to these changes, the Red List was based on nominations from experts rather than data, the changes instigation by Mace and her colleagues took 10 years to be implemented by the IUCN. Many Regional Red List publications are now increasingly based on the same criteria. Since 2002 she and her colleagues have worked to establish methods for evaluating biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, and changes in biodiversity that have been provisionally measured by the Red List Index.  Mace was also actively involved in the biodiversity sections of the "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" which was conducted from 2002 through 2005. Mace continues to work in the field of conservation biology and states that "all the evidence to date is that when societies put their mind to solving a problem, they can generally do it."  In 2006, Mace became director of the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College London. Since 2012 Mace has been the Director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER) at University College London. She is also an Academic Editor of PLOS Biology, the open access online journal and supports open-access policy to scientific publications.

Honours and awards.

Mace was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2007 for services to environmental science, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to science.  Mace was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2002. In July 2007 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Sussex for her work on biodiversity. She was the winner of the 2007 International Cosmos Prize. In 2011 she received the Ernst Haeckel Prize by the European Ecological Federation. In 2016 Mace won the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences. In 2016 she was also awarded, jointly with Sandra Knapp, the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society She received a President's Medal from the British Ecological Society.  She has received the 2018 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the category of Ecology and Conservation Biology, jointly with Gretchen Daily for developing vital tools facilitating science-based policies "to combat species loss".

Dame Georgina Mary Mace, (born 12 July 1953) is a British ecologist and conservation scientist. She is Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystems at University College London. She was previously Professor of Conservation Science and Director of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London (2006–2012) and was Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London (2000–2006).


Plot.

Adopted from war-torn Eritrea, Luce Edgar is an all-star high school athlete and accomplished debater who is adored by other school students and his parents, Peter and Amy Edgar. However, he has animosity toward his history teacher, Harriet Wilson, who got his friend DeShaun kicked off the running team after finding marijuana in his locker and calling the police.  Harriet calls Amy, asking her to meet at school. She shows her Luce's written assignment in which, asked to write from the perspective of a historical figure, he chose Frantz Fanon, a political revolutionary who argued that colonialism can be overcome through violence. Harriet is concerned, as Luce was a child soldier before coming to America, and someone like him writing this could get in trouble. Harriet also tells Amy that she went through Luce's locker and found a bag full of illegal and dangerous fireworks.  Amy shows Peter the paper and the fireworks; both are unsettled, but decide to hide them and not mention anything to Luce. During dinner, the family brings up Harriet again. Luce accuses her of singling out students to make a point. He tells them how Harriet often uses Stephanie Kim, a classmate allegedly sexually abused at a party while drunk, as an example of a victimized woman suffering in silence. Luce is Harriet's shining example of a star black student, which is not how he wants to be seen, arguing that he does not want to be tokenized. Later, Luce finds the hidden paper and fireworks.  The next day, Luce and Harriet discuss the issue of his paper. He acknowledges his wording but says he just did what the assignment asked, dismissing any true belief in violence. He then makes a comment about fireworks that Harriet interprets as a threat, and she notifies Peter. He and Amy confront Luce about the comment plus the fireworks being in his locker. He explains that the track team members share lockers, and the fireworks are not his. Peter thinks Luce is lying, while Amy is not sure what to believe.  Harriet and her sister Rosemary, who suffers from an unspecified mental illness, have an encounter with Luce that unsettles Harriet. Later that night, Harriet finds Rosemary has trashed the house. She takes her sister back to the "doctor." At a team car wash fundraiser, Luce promises DeShaun that he will make things right. Meanwhile, Amy and Stephanie meet at a coffee shop. Stephanie says that she used to date Luce, something Amy never knew, but that they broke up. Stephanie uncomfortably describes being sexually assaulted at a party by several boys but denies Luce's involvement, saying he claimed to have stopped them and comforted her after she awoke. Luce later learns from Stephanie about the visit.  The next day Rosemary arrives at the school and has a breakdown in front of Harriet, Luce, and other students before being apprehended by police. Luce shows a video of the incident to Amy and Peter, which disturbs them. Harriet's home is vandalized that night, and Stephanie arrives shortly after to tell Harriet that Luce sexually assaulted her. Harriet informs the school principal (Dan Towson), and a meeting is organized with them, Luce, and his parents, with Stephanie waiting in another room. Luce quickly disproves Harriet's accusations with video evidence of his whereabouts, and Harriet's harsh questions quickly make Amy and Peter take their son's side over hers.  Harriet brings up the fireworks, and Amy lies, saying that Harriet only told her about them on the phone. Amy even tells Towson that Harriet deliberately went after her. Harriet goes to the room Stephanie was in to discover she has left. Once she returns, Towson accepts Amy's claims, and the meeting ends despite Harriet still trying to argue her side to Towson. At night, exploding fireworks inside Harriet's desk cause a fire. Harriet meets with Towson who puts her on a leave of absence pending investigation due to heavy suspicion against her. After learning of the incident, Amy runs home to find the fireworks, only to discover in horror that they are gone. Peter believes Luce was involved, but Amy insists that they will stand up for their son and not defend Harriet.  Luce confronts Harriet at her house about how she ruined DeShaun's athletic career and put Luce on a pedestal. She defends her position, but Luce believes she stereotyped them. She claims that America stereotyped them and she was trying to protect them. She then accuses Luce of being hypocritical (by using other black students to "run his errands" so he wouldn't get caught) before ordering him out of her house.  Outside, Amy follows Luce to a hideout where he has sex with Stephanie, who sees Amy outside the window but does not react. When Amy returns home to the spot she had originally hidden the fireworks, Luce returns too and reconciles with her. Later, Luce gives a speech at school, where he thanks Amy and Peter for raising him and says how lucky he feels to be an American, with the chance to start over and tell his own story. After, Luce goes on a run, during which his face contorts in rage.

Production.

In November 2017, it was announced Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Tim Roth had joined the cast of the film, with Julius Onah directing from a screenplay by himself and JC Lee. John Baker, Onah, and Andrew Yang served as producers on the film with Rob Feng, Amber Wang, and Lee served as executive producers under their Dream Factory Group banner. In December 2017, Brian Bradley, also known as Stro, joined the cast of the film. Onah spoke about the importance of rehearsal with actors to his process. The actors rehearsed with each other before filming to create deeper familiarity, this includes a rehearsal in which all the young actors joined up in New York to hang out and develop a deeper backstory and understanding of their characters. The film was shot on 35mm film.

Release.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2019. Shortly after, NEON & Topic Studios acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on August 2, 2019.

Reception.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 149 reviews, with an average rating of 7.75/10. The site's critical consensus reads: ""Luce" brings a stellar ensemble to bear on a satisfyingly complex story that addresses its timely themes in thought-provoking fashion." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".  "The Guardian"s Benjamin Lee said of Kelvin Harrison Jr.'s performance, "It's an utterly mesmeric turn, filled with crushing vulnerability and insidious menace, in a brutal, dramatically explosive film that challenges preconceptions and leaves us with difficult, troubling questions to consider." Critic Brian Tallerico of "RogerEbert.com" praises the film commenting, "It reminded me of early Mamet work although with a commentary on race he could never attempt. All of this, and it’s got one of the best ensemble performances of Sundance 2019. This is one to watch for." He went on to specifically praise Harrison Jr.'s performance as "the real deal... flat out brilliant."

Luce is a 2019 American social thriller drama film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Julius Onah. It stars Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Tim Roth. The film was based on the play of the same name by J.C. Lee.