Gameplay.

The controls consist of a four-position joystick and a tap handle. The game screen features four bars, each with a keg at one end and a door at the other. Customers enter through the doors and slowly advance toward the kegs, demanding service. The player controls a bartender who must pour drinks and slide them down the bar for the customers to catch. Pushing the joystick up or down instantly moves the bartender to the keg at the next bar in the chosen direction, with the top and bottom of the screen wrapping around to one another, while pushing left or right causes him to run along the bar where he is stationed. When the tap handle is pulled down, the bartender instantly moves to the keg (if he is not already standing there) and fills a mug; releasing it causes him to slide the mug along the bar.  Customers slide back toward the doors upon catching a full mug, and disappear through the doors if they are close enough. If not, they stop after a certain distance, consume the drink, and resume their advance while sliding the empty mug back toward the keg. Customers occasionally leave tips on the bar, which the player can pick up for bonus points. Collecting a tip causes a group of female dancers to appear for a few seconds, distracting a portion of the customers so that they will stop advancing. However, distracted customers cannot catch drinks, and any customers who are either drinking or being pushed back at the start of the dancers' show will never be distracted.  One life is lost whenever any of the following occurs:  Each screen is completed when the bar is completely emptied of customers. The bartender then pours/consumes a drink of his own with humorous results involving the empty mug, such as getting it stuck on his head or stubbing his toe when he tries to kick it. As the game progresses, the customers appear more frequently, move faster along the bar, and are pushed back shorter distances when they catch their drinks. In addition, the maximum number of customers per bar gradually increases until every bar can have up to four customers at a time.  The player proceeds through four levels, each with its own theme and appropriately dressed customers, and must complete a set number of screens to advance from one level to the next. The levels are:  A bonus round is played after the end of each level, in which six cans of beer (or root beer) are placed on the bar. A masked figure shakes five of the cans, then pounds the bar to shuffle them. Choosing the one unshaken can awards bonus points, while choosing any other results in the bartender being sprayed in the face (the unshaken can then flashes for a moment to show where it was).  After completing all four levels, the player returns to the start of the sequence and continues the game at a higher difficulty level.

Music.

Music and sound effects for the arcade version of "Tapper" were created Rick Hicaro of Marvin Glass & Associates. He used a Synclavier II synthesizer running with custom software written by Richard Ditton. The system interfaced directly to the arcade game system so sounds were true to the capabilities of the hardware.  The game's score includes "Oh! Susanna" (composed by Stephen Foster), "Buffalo Gals" (traditional American folk song), the Budweiser theme, and "Can-Can" by Jacques Offenbach. The rest of the music was written by Rick Hicaro.

Ports.

"Tapper" was ported to the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari 5200, Atari 2600, BBC Micro, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, IBM PC, and Amstrad CPC. Most of the home versions of "Tapper" featured the Mountain Dew logo, while the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions had the Pepsi logo, but they retained the bartender character of the original arcade game instead of the soda jerk in "Root Beer Tapper".

Reception.

"Compute!'s Gazette" called the Commodore 64 version of "Tapper" "one of the most addictive games we've seen lately... not only fun to play, but also immensely challenging, graphically entertaining, and full of action". The magazine stated that "it's a very well-designed strategy game", and concluded that it was "near the top in entertainment value".

Legacy.

The art style is almost identical to a previous game called "Domino Man", and the following game "Timber". In fact, the main character in "Timber" is a rework of the main character in "Tapper". The art is based on Mike Ferris, an artist who taught Scott Morrison art.

Re-releases.

"Root Beer Tapper" has been included in several compilations. It was in the Nintendo 64 version of "Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits", "" for the PlayStation, "Midway Arcade Treasures" for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Microsoft Windows, and "Midway Arcade Origins" for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.  A modern reinterpretation of the game for mobile devices, titled "Tapper World Tour", was released in 2011.

Clones.

Novasoft published a clone in 1984 called "Brew Master" for the TRS-80 Color Computer. A clone called "Nuka Tapper" is included in "Fallout 76" as a minigame with "Fallout" themed graphics. A slightly altered version appears under the name "Milk Bar" as a minigame in the "Barnyard" video game.

In popular culture.

"Tapper" is one of the featured games in Disney's computer-animated film "Wreck-It Ralph" (and its sequel "Ralph Breaks the Internet") with the bartender voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

Competition.

Officially recognized competition on Tapper first reached marathon status by Michael Ward whose score of 9,068,625 was verified by Twin Galaxies on July 3, 1985. Ward held the record for 18 years until Gregory Erway, on June 20, 2003, surpassed that record with a score of 9,100,175.  Erway held the record for 2 years until December 5, 2005 when Kelly Tharp of Louisville, KY achieved a score of 9,100,175 in Humble, TX at Totally Amused. This was at a Twin Galaxies sponsored event called "The Golden Age Showdown". This marathon game was authenticated by videotape and also by Twin Galaxies referees Dwayne Richard of Canada and Walter Day of Ottumwa, IA.  Tharp held the record for 10 years until William 'Snowflake' Rosa of Vermilion, OH achieved a score of 10,361,550 on October 18, 2015 which was officially recognized 10 days later on the 8th. The marathon lasted 19 hours, 42 minutes, and 24 seconds and took place at Full Blast Arcade in North Ridgeville, OH. As with previous scores, this was certified by Twin Galaxies.  Rosa held the record for 2 years until the current Lauren Featherstone completed a game with a score of 14,000,600. This game took place at Free Play Arcade in Arlington, TX on July 15, 2017. Rosa reclaimed the world record on February 16, 2019 when he completed a game with a score of 14,826,200.

Tapper, also known as Root Beer Tapper, is a 1983 arcade game developed by Marvin Glass and Associates and released by Bally Midway. "Tapper" puts the player in the shoes of a bartender who must serve eager, thirsty patrons (before their patience expires) while collecting empty mugs and tips.


History.

Originally called Robinsons Ferry, it was renamed Bridgeport when a bridge was built across the Van Duzen River in 1875. The post office rejected Bridgeport as a name because of another Bridgeport (in Mono County), and the Bridgeville post office opened in 1877. Robinsons Ferry was named in honor of William Slaughter Robinson, local rancher.  The town became famous in 2002 for being the first in history to be put up for auction on eBay. It was originally sold for $1.77m but the buyer backed out of the deal only for it to be bought by businessman Bruce Krall for $700,000.  Krall put the town up for sale again in 2006 for a starting price of $1.75m. According to the BBC News website, the price included three cows, eight houses, and a post office.  Los Angeles-based entertainment manager and college student Daniel Thomas La Paille, 25, purchased the town on August 3, 2006 from Krall. La Paille paid $1.25 million, the money coming from his own entertainment management work as well as from his mother and grandmother.  In an interview with the Times-Standard, La Paille said, “(Community) is very important in every aspect. We all have to live together. Bridgeville is going to be an example. We're going to... show that we can be environmentally conscious, good neighbors and just create a special little community.”  According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, Daniel La Paille committed suicide November 9, 2006. The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the chest.  On June 29, 2007, Bridgeville was on the market with a $1.3 million price tag for at least several months. This was the third time that Bridgeville had been listed for sale within five years.  In June 2013, Steve Farzam the COO of the prominent Shore Hotel in Santa Monica California and entrepreneur offered to purchase Bridgeville for $900,000 from Daniel La Paille's mother. Steve Farzam had his development team visit the town where they met with the County Board of Supervisors. Steve Farzam had vast plans to redevelop this town as "America's Greenest City" since sustainability is at his forefront as it was when he developed and operates Shore Hotel which currently holds a Gold LEED certification. Steve Farzam stopped the deal since the owner wanted over $1,000,000 and the economics didn't pencil out.  However, according to Humboldt County Supervisor, Estelle Fennell, Farzam wanted to start his own police force in Bridgeville, for which he would need the approval of the county sheriff. According to one of Farzam's colleagues, Farzam said he would not buy the town if he was unable to start a police department. According to Fennell, the sheriff was adamant that there would be no changes to law enforcement in Bridgeville and the deal never materialized.

Geography.

The Van Duzen River flows through Bridgeville.  The ZIP Code is 95526. The community is inside area code 707.

Climate.

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bridgeville has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Education.

Bridgeville is the seat of the Bridgeville Elementary School District, and home of the Bridgeville School, a public K-8 school.

Politics.

In the state legislature, Bridgeville is in, and.  Federally, Bridgeville is in.

Bridgeville (formerly Robinsons Ferry and Bridgeport) is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located north-northeast of Weott, at an elevation of 636 feet (194 m). Bridgeville is north of San Francisco, with a population of about 25.


Career.

Seymour was born in Fremantle, Western Australia. His father was killed in a wharf accident when Alan was nine, and his mother, a Cockney from London, died a few months later. After that he was brought up by his sister May and her husband, Alfred Chester Cruthers. He was educated at Perth Modern School, leaving at 15 after failing to complete the Junior Certificate. He found work as a radio announcer in a commercial radio station 6PM. During his two years there he wrote a number of short radio plays that were broadcast live. In 1945 he moved to Sydney, New South Wales, where he worked as an advertising copy-writer with 2UE.  He returned to Perth after the war where he worked as a free-lance writer for ABC Radio. Seymour became ABC Radio's film critic. He joined a commercial radio station 6KY as an announcer and copy-writer and after six months was offered an announcing post at the ABC. In 1949 he met Ron Baddeley, a RAAF veteran, and they were to become life partners.  In November 1949, Seymour returned to Sydney where he became an educational and freelance drama writer for ABC Radio and later television. From 1953 to 1957 he was theatrical director for the Sydney Opera Group. His first play, "Swamp Creatures", premièred by the Canberra Repertory Society, was a finalist in the London "Observer" play competition in 1957.  Seymour left Australia in 1961 and worked in London as a television writer, producer and commissioning editor with the BBC, and as a theatre critic for "The London Magazine". From 1966 to 1971 he lived in İzmir, Turkey, where Ron Baddeley had gained employment as an English teacher. There Seymour wrote a novelisation of "The One Day of the Year", and another novel "The Coming Self-Destruction of the United States of America", as well as stage plays and magazine articles. From 1974 to 1981, he was a script editor and occasional producer with BBC Television, after which he returned to freelance writing. He won a BAFTA award for his adaptation of John Masefield's novel "The Box of Delights" (1984).  Seymour and Baddeley returned to Australia in 1995 and lived in Darlinghurst, Sydney. In 2003, after a partnership of almost 55 years, Ron Baddeley died, aged 80. Seymour was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2007, and died in an aged care facility in Elizabeth Bay in 2015, aged 87.

"The One Day of the Year".

His best-known play, "The One Day of the Year" was written in 1958 for an amateur playwriting competition, inspired by an article in the University of Sydney newspaper "Honi Soit" lambasting Anzac Day.  The play met with huge controversy on its release. Initially it was rejected by the Adelaide Festival of Arts Board of Governors in 1960, but was first performed on 20 July 1960 as an amateur production by the Adelaide Theatre Group. In April 1961, at the first professional season at the Palace Theatre in Sydney, a bomb scare during a dress rehearsal forced police to clear the theatre. Later that year the production was staged at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in London. Since then it has been staged regularly throughout Australia and internationally. It is also studied in various school curricula.

Alan Seymour (6 June 192723 March 2015) was an Australian playwright and author. He is best known for the play "The One Day of the Year" (1958). His international reputation rests not only on this early play, but also on his many screenplays, television scripts and adaptations of novels for film and television.


Major figures.

Nobushige, Nobumitsu, Nobuyoshi, Nobutora, Harunobu (Shingen), Katsuyori

History.

Origin.

The Takeda are descendants of Emperor Seiwa (858–876) and are a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji), by Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (1056–1127), son of the "Chinjufu-shōgun" Minamoto no Yoriyoshi (988-1075), and brother to the famous Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039–1106). Minamoto no Yoshikiyo (1075–1149), son of Yoshimitsu, was the first to take the name of Takeda.

Kamakura to early Azuchi–Momoyama periods.

In the 12th century, at the end of the Heian period, the Takeda family controlled Kai Province. Along with a number of other families, they aided their cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo against the Taira clan in the Genpei War (1180–85). When Minamoto no Yoritomo was first defeated at Ishibashiyama (1181), Takeda Nobuyoshi (1128–86) was applied for help and the Takeda sent an army of 25,000 men to support Yoritomo. Takeda Nobumitsu (1162–1248), son of Nobuyoshi, fought against the Taira, and distinguished himself in the Battle of Ichinotani (1184). He also fought against Kiso Yoshinaka (1184), against the Northern Fujiwara (1189) and against Wada Yoshimori (1213). During the Jōkyū War, he helped the Hōjō, and led 50,000 soldiers as Daishogun of the Tosando, and in reward received the governorship of Aki province (1221). Takeda Nobuhide (1413–40), eldest son of the Takeda Nobushige (1390–1465) shugo of Aki, helped the 6th shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394–1441) against the revolt of Isshiki Yoshitsura (1440) and was granted the governorship of Wakasa province. Takeda Nobukata (1420–71) inherited the titles of shugo of Wakasa from his brother Nobuhide who died childless, and that of shugo of Aki from his father Nobushige. During the Ōnin War (1467–77) he occupied Tango province that belonged to Isshiki Yoshinao, and was appointed shugo of Tango (1469) by the bakufu. His brother Takeda Kuninobu (1437–90) received the titles of shugo of Aki, Wakasa and Tango provinces, but lost Tango in 1474. Until the Sengoku period, the Takeda were "shugo" of Kai, Aki and Wakasa provinces.

Sengoku period.

Immediately prior to the Sengoku period, the Takeda helped to suppress the Rebellion of Uesugi Zenshū (1416–1417). Uesugi Zenshū (d. 1417) was the "kanrei" chief advisor to Ashikaga Mochiuji, an enemy of the central Ashikaga shogunate and the Kantō kubō governor-general of the Kantō region. Mochiuji, lord of the Uesugi clan, made a reprisal against the Takeda clan in 1415. This reprisal began a rivalry between the Uesugi and Takeda clans which would last roughly 150 years until the destruction of the Takeda clan at the end of the Sengoku period. While this rivalry existed, the Takeda and the Uesugi still had a huge amount of respect for one another.

Takeda Shingen.

Takeda Harunobu (1521 – 1573) succeeded his father Nobutora in 1540 and became "shugo" lord of Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. In this period the Takeda began to quickly expand from their base in Kai Province. In 1559, Harunobu changed his name to the better-known Takeda Shingen. He faced the Hōjō clan a number of times, and most of his expansion was to the north, where he fought his most famous battles against Uesugi Kenshin. This series of regional skirmishes is known as the Battles of Kawanakajima. The battles began in 1553, and the best known and severest among them was fought on September 10, 1561.  Shingen is famous for his tactical genius, and innovations, though some historians have argued that his tactics were not particularly impressive nor revolutionary. Nevertheless, Shingen is perhaps most famous for his use of the cavalry charge at the Battle of Mikatagahara. The strength of Shingen's new tactic became so famous that the Takeda army came to be known as the "kiba gundan" (騎馬軍団), or'mounted army'. Up until the mid-16th century and Shingen's rise to power, mounted "samurai" were primarily archers. There was already a trend at this time towards larger infantry-based armies, including a large number of foot archers. In order to defeat these missile troops, Shingen transformed his "samurai" from archers to lancers.

Decline of the Takeda clan.

Shingen died in on May 13, 1573, at age 53 from illness. His son Takeda Katsuyori (1546–1582) effectively succeeded Shingen though the nominal head of the family was his grandson Takeda Nobukatsu; Katsuyori continued Shingen's aggressive expansion plan south and westward and was initially successful, briefly achieving the largest extent of Takeda rule. However, he was defeated in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu.  After Nagashino, the Takeda clan fell into sharp decline as it had lost many of its most notable samurai during the battle. Katsuyori's position within the clan also became precarious (as he did not fully inherit the clan leadership position); in 1582, two of his relatives defected to the Oda/Tokugawa alliance and Nobunaga succeeded in destroying the Takeda clan shortly thereafter. The campaign saw most of the Takeda followers simply abandoning Katsuyori and the other Takeda family members to their fate. The clan was effectively eliminated, although descendants of the Takeda clan would take prominent positions in the Tokugawa shogunate, established in 1603.

Modern period.

Takeda is also a fairly common family name in modern Japan, though it is unlikely that everyone with the Takeda name is descended from this noble house (several divisions of the family have the Takeda name).  In fact, most of the real descendants of the Takeda had a different name when they created a cadet branch. During the Tokugawa period, several "daimyō" families were direct descendants of the Takeda.  In 1868, these "daimyō" families were :  In 1868, two branches named Takeda were also ranked among the "Kōke" (the High Families). This title was given to descendants of great dispossessed "daimyo" families of the Kamakura period to Sengoku period such as the Takeda, the Kyōgoku, the Rokkaku, the Ōtomo, the Toki, the Isshiki and the Hatakeyama clans. They received a pension from the shogunate, and had privileged missions confided to them.

Cadet branches.

Three major branches of the Takeda clan were established across Japan along with other smaller branches. Due to the establishment of cadet branches, the main Takeda clan in Kai Province is also referred to as the Kai Takeda clan.

Aki Takeda.

The Aki Takeda clan, established in Aki Province in the present-day western part of Hiroshima Prefecture. Takeda Nobumitsu (1162–1248) received the governorship of Aki province in 1221. Takeda Nobutake († 1362) was the last Takeda "Shugo" of the two provinces of Kai and Aki. His elder son Nobunari received Kai and the younger Ujinobu received Aki province.

Wakasa Takeda.

The Aki Takeda were granted the governorship of Wakasa province in 1440. The Wakasa Takeda clan was established in Wakasa Province in present-day southern Fukui Prefecture, and separates from Aki in 1500, when Takeda Motonobu (1461-1521) ruled Wakasa, while his uncle Takeda Mototsuna (1441-1505) ruled Aki. The Wakasa Takeda were known for their patronage of the arts and developing the Takeda school of military etiquette.

Kazusa Takeda.

The Kazusa Takeda clan, established at the beginning of the Sengoku period in Kazusa Province in the present-day central area of Chiba Prefecture. Along with the Satomi clan of Awa Province in the southern part of present-day Chiba Prefecture the two clan replaced the dominance of the Chiba clan in the region. The Kazusa Takeda are also known as the Mariyatsu Takeda, a reference to their base of power, Mariyatsu Castle.

Clan literature.

The "Kōshū Hatto", composed at some point in the 15th century, is the code of law of the Takeda family, while the "Kōyō Gunkan", composed largely by Kōsaka Masanobu in the mid-16th century, is an epic poem recording the family's history and Shingen's innovations in military tactics.

Popular culture.

Takeda is a playable faction in "" and "Shogun 2".  Takeda is a playable nation in "Europa Universalis IV".  Takeda Shingen and his peasant doppelgänger are the main subjects of "Kagemusha", directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film was partly financed and produced with the help of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, who were shocked to discover that Kurosawa had difficulty securing funding in his native country.

The was a Japanese clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan was known for their honorable actions under the rule of Takeda Shingen, one of the most famous rulers of the period.


Biography.

Chenery was born in Barbados to John Chenery, a West Indies merchant. He was educated at Eton and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Immediately after taking an ordinary degree in 1854, he was recruited by Mowbray Morris to work for "The Times", and was sent to Istanbul. On arrival in March 1854, he soon proved himself an excellent diplomatic correspondent, covering the Crimean War, mainly from Istanbul, but occasionally from the front, where he relieved William Howard Russell. It was while he was in Istanbul that Chenery met Percy Smythe, who sparked his interest in philological studies, a field in which he would later gain prominence.  After the war, Chenery returned to London, where he served as a leader writer for "The Times" for many years, while continuing his Oriental studies. Among the languages he spoke were Arabic, Hebrew, modern Greek, and Turkish. He was one of the panelists involved in preparing the Old Testament portion of the Revised Version of the Bible. Chenery's translation of the first 26 chapters of the Arabic classic "The Assemblies of Al-Hariri" led to an appointment as Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford, where he also served as secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society.  In 1877 John Walker selected Chenery as John Thadeus Delane's successor as editor of "The Times". He was then an experienced publicist, particularly well versed in Oriental affairs, and an indefatigable worker with a rapid and comprehensive judgment, although he lacked Delane's sociability and intuition for public opinion. Nonetheless, he introduced a number of innovations, bringing in more writers with scholarly backgrounds to employ their respective expertise. His background as a diplomatic correspondent and his choice of capable reporters for foreign postings revived the paper's reputation for international news coverage.  Despite his position as editor, Chenery was unable to prevent the increasingly partisan slant of the paper imposed by Walter, a member of the Conservative Party. This shift was furthered in 1880 by the appointment of George Earle Buckle, Walter's hand-picked candidate, as assistant editor. Buckle assumed more duties in 1883 as ill health reduced Chenery's ability to play an active role as editor, though he continued in the post until his death on 11 February 1884.  He is buried in Brompton Cemetery.

Thomas William Chenery (1826 – 11 February 1884) was an English scholar and editor of the British newspaper "The Times". His diplomatic background and choice of capable reporters helped to revive the paper's reputation for international news.


History.

After the end of the ice age the region of the present Artland became a vast glacial meltwater basin that was filled with alluvial sand by the local river, the Hase and its predecessor. This produced a rich farmland that has dominated the countryside for centuries up to the present day.  The first record of name of this region as the "Artland" is in 1309. It continued to be used over the centuries but it never had a clear and permanent boundary.  A prerequisite for the economic independence of the Artland were its good natural regional conditions and the highly fertile soil in the Quakenbrück Basin. The gentle gradient of the River Hase in the lowlands below Bersenbrück facilitated the deposition of fertile alluvial sands from the Osnabrück Upland, resulting in very fertile farmland. The higher-lying "Esch" terrain was improved by fertilising it with plaggen soils taken from the rich pastures. Alongside the keeping of livestock, which was the dominant form of farming throughout the Osnabrück Land until the Thirty Years' War, arable farming has always been carried out in the Artland which, in addition to oats and rye, also supported the more demanding and sought-after barley crops. Nowadays, however, the cultivation of maize is pre-eminent, as it is in the rest of the Weser-Ems region. This fertile arable soil, which contrasted with that of the rest of the Osnabrück Land where there were often shortages of grain, led in the "Corn chamber of the Bishopric of Osnabrück" to the development of a wealthy, landed upper class with numerous individual farmsteads which, together with hedges, copses and oak groves ("Hofeichenkämpen"), resulted in a park-like countryside.  The collective municipality of Artland, founded in 1972, covered Quakenbrück, Menslage and Badbergen, which represented only a part of the original heartland of the region, to which Gehrde also belonged and which, like Menslage, Quakenbrück and Badbergen, benefited from the fertile lowlands of the Hase river. Nortrup, by contrast, was not part of the Artland heartland. It first became politically and ecclesiastically independent of Ankum in the early 20th century, the first Roman Catholic parish being founded in 1908. Even Ankum is often counted as part of the Artland (Artland Cathedral), the village was however the centre point of the Farngau for centuries, to which Nortrup also belonged.

Tourism.

Not until the 1990s did the features of Artland culture and countryside begin slowly to appear. To support the economy and tourism of the region the Artland Economic Agency ("Wirtschaftsagentur Artland", WAAL) and "ARTour" (Artland Touristik) were founded. Every year on the "Open Day" ("Tag des offenen Denkmals") (second weekend in September) many farms and other buildings in Artland may be visited.  In Quakenbrück the 142-kilometre-long holiday road, the Artland Route, begins and ends. The sights of the Artland may also be enjoyed on special cycleways, the Gable Tour ("Giebeltour"), the Art Tour ("Kunsttour") and the Garden Tour ("Gartentour").

Sport.

The name of the Quakenbrück basketball team is the Artland Dragons, named after the characteristic - and unique to the Artland Region - tradition of dragon head carvings on oak house beams and old decorative furniture.

The Artland lies in the North German district of Osnabrück in the state of Lower Saxony and covers an area of around 180 km2 that, today, includes the collective municipality of Artland (which in turn consist of the municipalities of Quakenbrück, Badbergen, Menslage and Nortrup) as well as the municipality of Gehrde. When one refers to the Artland as a single landscape unit, it lies within an arc of ice age end moraine that today forms the Damme and Bippen Hills.


History.

The university was founded in 1899 by Alice Salomon, a strong advocate for women's rights and social justice. During its early years it was named the "Social School for Women". In 1925, she created an initiative to train women in pedagogy and social work. Though students were mostly from Germany, the school admitted some foreign students, like Rayna Petkova, who would become one of the first professionally trained social workers of Bulgaria. The curricula included both theoretical training and required practical experience. Among the courses offered were family problems, pedagogy, population analysis and change, psychology, social health organization, social work as a profession, youth services, among others. Some of the teachers of the courses, besides Salomon, included Käthe Bonikowsky, Margarethe Freiin von Erffa, Elly Heuss-Knapp, Hilde Lion, Elisabeth Nietzsche, and Helene Weber, among others.  It admitted only women applicants until 1945. It was renamed the Alice Salomon School in 1932 in commemoration of Salomon's 60th birthday. In 1933, the Nazi Party came to power and Alice Salomon was banned from the school and a large number of instructors of Jewish descent were fired. In 1937, Alice Salomon was expelled from Germany and emigrated to the United States. It was not until 1954 that the school reinstated the name "Alice Salomon School".  The school was recognized as a State University of Applied Sciences for Social Work and Social Pedagogy in 1971 and was granted the right to confer degrees, although it once again lost the name "Alice Salomon". In 1991, the 'Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences' was established as the official name of the university.

Today.

The Alice-Salomon University is now Germany's oldest and largest training institution of higher education in social work. It is recognized as one of Germany's most research-intensive universities of applied sciences in the social field. One of the cornerstones of the University is applied research.  The modern university building is situated in the district of Berlin named Hellersdorf, nicknamed "Helle-Mitte" (Bright Centre). The square on which the building is located is named after Alice Salomon. Cooperation between the University and the district of Hellersdorf include community projects involving children and youth and the issue of urban development.

The Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin (, or ASH) is a vocational university for social work, public health and early childhood education in Berlin, Germany.


Biography.

Max Bodenheimer was born on 12 March 1865 in Stuttgart to an assimilated Jewish family. He studied at Tübingen, Strassburg, Berlin and Freiburg universities from 1884 to 1889.  In 1890 he moved to Cologne to start a law practice. In 1891 he published his first Zionist article in the weekly "Die Menorah" (Hamburg). In Cologne he met David Wolffsohn and the two became close friends. Bodenheimer and Wolffsohn participated in various Zionist groups and activities in Cologne and also established a Zionist group named “Zion”. At that time Bodenheimer began correspondence with Theodor Herzl. In 1893 he helped found the Jüdische Humanitätsgesellschaft.  In 1896 he married Rosa Dalberg and had three children: Simon Fritz, a professor of zoology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Henrietta Hannah, who wrote a biography of her father, and Ruth, a lawyer.  When Bodenheimer died, the national institutions flew flags at half staff and a eulogy was delivered by Ussishkin, president of the Jewish National Fund.

Zionist activity.

Bodenheimer participated at the 1st Zionist Congress and was elected to be a member of the Inner Actions Committee. In 1898 he visited Palestine as a member of the delegation which accompanied Herzl to meet the German Emperor, Wilhelm II. Bodenheimer took part in the Zionist Congresses, helped to write the constitution of the Zionist movement and the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and was the chairman of the Board of Directors of the JNF in Germany. When the First World War broke out, he moved the JNF offices from Cologne to The Hague.  In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, he submitted an "Exposé on the Synchronization of German and Jewish Interests in the World War" to German military headquarters in Cologne. He set out his vision to Count Hutten-Czapski of the General Staff, chief of sabotage operations on the eastern front. With support from the General Staff and the Wilhelmstrasse, he established the German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews, together with 6 German Zionist colleagues, on 17 August 1914. He resigned his chairmanship of the Jewish National Fund. Bodenheimer wanted the German army to assault the power of the Tsarist empire in the Baltic States, Poland, White Russia and the Ukraine, where he hoped for an 'East European Federation' in which 'all ethnic groups were to enjoy national autonomy', including the Jews, in the Pale of Settlement. It seems like he was the author of the conception of the establishment of the League of East European States - a German client state with autonomous Jewish cooperation, later referred also as Judeopolonia.  Like other veterans from the Herzl period, Bodenheimer's status declined after the First World War, and he was not re-elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the JNF. In August 1929, joins the Revisionist party led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Bodenheimer attended the 17th Zionist Congress as a representative of the Revisionist party. During the Congress, a sharp controversy arose between the majority and the Revisionist party concerning the "ultimate goal" of Zionism, and the Revisionists left the Congress. This was the last Zionist Congress in which Bodenheimer participated.  In 1935 Bodenheimer immigrated to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, where he began writing his memoirs. He died in July 1940.

Max Isidor Bodenheimer (; 12 March 1865 in Stuttgart – 19 July, 1940 in Jerusalem) was a lawyer and one of the main figures in German Zionism. An associate of Theodor Herzl, he was the first president of the Zionist Federation of Germany and one of the founders of the Jewish National Fund. After his flight in 1933 from Nazi Germany, and a short sojourn in Holland, he settled in Palestine in 1935.


Denmark.

In 2018, new specialist ranks were introduced to the Danish Home Guard. These new ranks were created to remove the need for leadership training at the lower ranks, as the selected functions no longer require actual leadership.

Republic of China (Taiwan).

Specialist ( "shàngděngbīng", "upper-rank soldier") is a rank in the Republic of China Army next to the rank of corporal, and has NATO equivalent code of OR-3.

United States.

U.S. Army.

Trades and specialties (1902–1920).

In 1920, the Army rank and pay system received a major overhaul. All enlisted and non-commissioned ranks were reduced from 128 different insignias and several pay grades to only seven rank insignias and seven pay grades, which were numbered in seniority from seventh grade (lowest) to first grade (highest). The second grade had two rank titles: first sergeant, which was three stripes, two rockers, and a lozenge (diamond) in the middle; and technical sergeant, which was three stripes and two rockers. By World War II, the rank of first sergeant had been elevated to first grade and a third rocker was added, with the lozenge in the center to distinguish it from master sergeant. The wearing of specialist badges inset in rank insignia was abolished, and a generic system of chevrons and arcs replaced them.

Private/specialist (1920–1942).

From 1920 to 1942, there was a rating (not a rank) for men of the sixth and seventh grades designated "private first class, specialist, or "private, specialist," that was graded in six classes (the lowest being sixth class and the highest being first class). They were considered the equal of a private first class or private in authority, but drew additional pay in relationship to the specialist level possessed on top of their base pay. The classes only indicated competency, not authority, and a specialist did not outrank another man of his respective non-specialist rank.  Officially, specialists wore the single chevron of a private first class because no special insignia was authorized to indicate their rank. Unofficially, a specialist could be authorized, at his commander's discretion, to wear one to six additional rockers (one rocker for sixth class, and a maximum of six rockers for first class) under their rank chevron to denote specialty level. Such insignia was commercially available through catalogs or the base Post Exchange (PX) and could also be ordered with inset trade badges.

Technician (1942–1948).

On 8 January 1942, the rank of technician was introduced to replace the private/specialist rank, which was discontinued by 30 June 1942. This gave technical specialists more authority by grading them as non-commissioned officers rather than senior enlisted personnel. They were parallel to pay grades of the time, going up in seniority from technician fifth grade, technician fourth grade, and technician third grade. A technician was paid according to his grade, and was senior to the next lowest pay grade; however, he was outranked by the corresponding non-commissioned officer grade and had no direct supervisory authority (that is, that of a private) outside of his specialty. To reduce the confusion this caused in the field, an embroidered "T" insignia was authorized for wear under the chevrons on 4 September 1942. The rank was finally discontinued on 1 August 1948.

Specialist (1955–present).

On 1 July 1955, four grades of specialist were established: Specialist third class (E-4 or SP3), specialist second class (E-5 or SP2), specialist first class (E-6 or SP1), and master specialist (E-7 or MSP). The insignia was yellow on a dark blue background. It was the same smaller size as women's NCO stripes—to differentiate specialists from NCOs, they were the same shape as NCO stripes—but were inverted to distinguish them, and the General Service Army Eagle was set in the center. The senior specialist ranks of SP2 (E5), SP1 (E6), and MSP (E7) were indicated by one, two, or three yellow arcs over the Eagle, respectively.  In 1956 the Army Green uniform was adopted. The enlisted stripes were changed from yellow on a blue backing to Goldenlite Yellow on a green backing. The specialist insignia was redesigned to be larger, broader, and more rounded.  In 1958 the DoD added two additional pay grades to give enlisted soldiers more opportunities to progress to a full career with additional opportunities for promotion. Thus the recognition was changed to six specialist ranks, and the pay grade was tied into the rank designation: specialist four (E-4), specialist five (E-5), specialist six (E-6), specialist seven (E-7), specialist eight (E-8), and specialist nine (E-9). The "Super Grades" of Spec./8 and Spec./9 were respectively given one and two Goldenlite chevrons below the Eagle.  CSM Daniel K. Elder goes on to explain, "In 1968 when the Army added the rank of command sergeant major, the specialist ranks at E-8 and E-9 were abolished", because they were notional rather than actual. "In 1978 the specialist rank at E-7 was discontinued and in 1985, the specialist ranks at E-5 and E-6 were discontinued."  These specialist ranks were created to reward personnel with higher degrees of experience and technical knowledge. Appointment to either specialist or non-commissioned officer status was determined by military occupational specialty (MOS). Different military occupational specialties had various transition points. For example, in the band career field (excluding special bands at D.C. and West Point), a bandsman could not achieve non-commissioned officer status until pay grade E-6 was attained. In some military occupational specialties, a soldier was appointed either a specialist or non-commissioned officer depending on which particular position or "slot" that he filled in his organization. A cook was a specialist, while a mess steward held the rank of sergeant (E-5 through E-7).  Specialist grades paralleled the corresponding grades of non-commissioned officer (E-4 through E-7) only in terms of pay. The specialist grades, although they outranked the enlisted grades (E-1 to E-3), were outranked by all non-commissioned officers (E-4 to E-9) and lacked the authority conferred on an NCO. This is the major differentiation between a specialist and a "hard striper".  Only the lowest specialist grade survives today and the rank of specialist 4 simply became known as "specialist", which is how it is referred to today. While the official abbreviation was changed from "SP4" to "SPC" upon the elimination of the SP5 and SP6 ranks, the SIDPERS database was initially authorized to continue using SP4 until such time as the change could be made at little or no additional expense in conjunction with other system upgrades. The continued use of SP4 on automatically produced documents (transfer orders, leave and earnings statements, unit manning reports, "inter alia"), hampered the adoption of the new abbreviation (and, to a lesser extent, the absence of "-4" in the non-abbreviated rank) by individual soldiers who viewed the computer-produced documents as the final word on what the proper term was.  Today, the rank of specialist is the typical rank to which privates first class are promoted after two years of service, although PFCs may be waived into the rank of specialist after 18 months' time in service and six months' time in grade. It is granted far more often than corporal (E-4), which is now reserved for personnel who have either passed the Basic Leader Course or have been assigned low-level supervisory duties (with two or more soldiers under direct command).  Specialists were informally called "specs" (pronunciation IPA: /ˈspɛk/ ) plus the numerical grade of their rank. Thus, a specialist 4 was called "spec 4". As of July 2016 the rank of Specialist is the most common rank in the U.S. Army, being held by 115,033 of the Army's 473,844 soldiers. This force wide prevalence has led to the humorous description of this pay grade as the "E-4/Spec4 Mafia".

Recruits with college degrees and Officer Candidates.

New recruits enlisting into the United States Army who have earned a four-year degree, and those with civilian-acquired job skills, will enter as a specialist (pay grade E-4). Typically, newly recruited officer candidates hold the rank of specialist when enlisted and during BCT (basic combat training) prior to their official enrollment into OCS (Officer Candidate School) where they will be administratively promoted to the pay grade of E-5 but are referred to as "officer candidate" (OC) as opposed to sergeant (SGT).

United States Navy (1941–1974).

Specialists (1941–1948).

Between 1941 and 1948, the United States Navy maintained an enlisted rate of Specialist in the petty officer pay grade structure. This was to absorb directly appointed civilian experts needed in the rapidly expanding Navy. A seaman would typically be known as a specialist followed by a letter indicating what field the specialty was held. For instance, a Specialist (C) served as a "classification interviewer", while a Specialist (T) was a "navy teacher", among several other specialist designations.  The concept was first proposed in late 1941 and was approved by the Secretary of the Navy sometime in November or December of that year. The Navy started with four specialties in February 1942, expanding to twenty-two specialties and their associated sub-specialties by the war's end in 1945. The Coast Guard added an additional five exclusive specialties in 1943 (D, CW, PR, PS and TR); four were awarded double letters to avoid duplication. The WAVES added Specialist (U) for "Utility"—a general purpose title that was abolished in 1944 and merged with the similar Specialist (X), for "Specialist (Not Elsewhere Classified)".  The trade badge was an embroidered diamond-shaped border inset with the specialty letter and set between the US Navy Eagle and the rank chevrons. Specialists 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Class (Grades 4, 3, and 2; equivalent to Petty Officers 3rd, 2nd and 1st Class) had 1 to 3 downward red chevrons. A Chief Specialist (Grade 1; equivalent to a Chief Petty Officer) had the US Navy Eagle perched on a red rocker over three red chevrons, with the diamond trade badge inset between the stripes.

Specialties (1942–1948).

Source:

Emergency Service ratings (1948–1974).

The Navy's use of the specialist grade was reorganized in 1948 to integrate them into the petty officer structure. The assigned letters and job titles changed several times in the rank's history.  Some positions were reclassified as "Emergency Service Ratings" (ESRs) from 1948 to 1957 and "Emergency Ratings" (ERs) from 1957 to 1965. All personnel holding an Emergency Service rating were members of the Naval Reserve subject to activation only in time of war or national emergency. Their specialty letters had a prefix of "ES" added and were different than that of those in regular service.  A pruning and absorption or discontinuing of specialty ratings commenced between 1957 and 1964 and nearly all of the remaining specialties were discontinued in 1965. The sole remaining specialty was ESK (ES Specialty (K) – "Telecommunications Censorship Technician"). It was renamed "Information Security Specialist" in 1972 and disestablished in 1974.

Specialist (abbreviated "SPC") is a military rank in some countries' armed forces. In the United States military, it is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army, above private first class and equivalent in pay grade to corporal. Unlike corporals, specialists are not considered junior non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Specialist E-4 is the most common rank that is held by US Army soldiers.


Biography.

Early life and ordination.

Jorge Urosa was born in Caracas to Luis Manuel Urosa Joud and Ligia Savino del Castillo de Urosa. He studied humanities at Colegio De La Salle Tienda Honda, and philosophy at the Interdiocesan Seminary of Caracas. From 1962 to 1965, he studied theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  Urosa then attended the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he obtained his doctorate in dogmatic theology, until 1971. During his time at the Gregorian, he returned to Caracas to be ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal José Quintero Parra on August 15, 1967.

Professor.

After concluding his Roman studies in at the Pius Latin American Pontifical College, Urosa served as a professor and the rector of the Seminary San José in Caracas. He later served as rector of the Interdiocesan Seminary in Caracas as well. Before becoming vicar general of the Archdiocese of Caracas, he was President of the Organization of Latin American Seminaries and founded a parochial vicariate in a "chabolas" neighborhood of Caracas.

Bishop.

On July 6, 1982, Urosa was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Caracas and Titular Bishop of Vegesela in Byzacena by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 22 from Archbishop José Lebrún Moratinos, with Archbishops Domingo Roa Pérez and Miguel Salas Salas, CIM serving as co-consecrators. Urosa was named Archbishop of Valencia on March 16, 1990, and Archbishop of Caracas on September 19, 2005.  He was elected as the second Vice-President of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference on January 10, 2006.

Cardinal.

Pope Benedict XVI created him Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria ai Monti in the consistory of March 24, 2006. Urosa is the fifth member of the College of Cardinals from Venezuela.  Besides his native Spanish, he speaks English, Italian, French, and Latin.  As of October 2011, he was the Honorary President of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference.  He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.  Pope Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop on 9 July 2018.

Views.

Cardinal Urosa rejected the creation of the Reformed Catholic Church in Venezuela, whose representatives were introduced in July 2008, as in line with the Bolivian socialism of President Hugo Chávez. He called the group as "an irregular association".  Urosa and his auxiliary bishops have warned against using the Mass for political purposes and declared that the Mass at which a blessing was given to the President-elect of Paraguay, former bishop Fernando Lugo, was not authorized by the archdiocese.

Jorge (Liberato) Urosa (y Savino) (born August 28, 1942) is a Venezuelan Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Caracas from 2005 to 2018. He was made a cardinal in 2006.


Biography.

Bonk began his career at BSG Motor Nema Netzschkau as a track and field athlete and set the East German youth record for the shot put in 1967 with 17.82 m. To build up the necessary strength for shot putting, he regularly lifted weights. After participating in weightlifting contests and having greater successes in it than in shot putting, he shifted his focus completely towards weightlifting in 1969 at SC Karl-Marx-Stadt, Chemnitz. His coach was Klaus Kroll, a former top weightlifter of the GDR. In 1971 Bonk became GDR super heavyweight champion (with a bodyweight above 110 kg). During the Baltic-Cup, in Lübeck in the same year, he had his international debut, where he made three failed pressing attempts. Being a top lifter, he was never able to beat Vasiliy Alekseyev from the Soviet Union or Rudolf Mang from Germany up to 1980. His specialty was the clean and jerk, where he set two world records. In 1980 he once more placed third at the European Championships and even lifted 430 kg (180–250) in a smaller competition. Because he was not nominated for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, he stepped back from professional weightlifting.  Bonk lived in Limbach/Vogtland as a pensioner. He was one of the prominent victims of doping in East Germany reporting in 2003 that he had "diabetes, a failing liver and his feet are numb, among a host of signs of a failing body".  In 2002 he was awarded the Georg von Opel Prize for Silent Winners in the category "Special Warriors".

World records.

Bonk set two world records in clean and jerk:

GDR Championships.

Bonk was East German champion in 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1979 and won another 15 East German champion titles in clean and press (until 1972), snatch and clean and jerk.

Gerd Bonk (26 August 1951 – 20 October 2014) was a weightlifter active for East Germany from 1969 to 1980 who during his career won a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics, a bronze medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics, set two world records and achieved numerous other top-three ranks at World Championships and European Weightlifting Championships. He was also a master mechanic.


Life.

Dang began studying the piano in Hanoi with his mother, Madame Thai Thi Lien, then a professor at the Vietnam National Academy of Music. He was discovered by a Russian pianist, Isaac Katz, on a visit to Vietnam in 1974. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia. In Moscow, he studied with Vladimir Natanson, a pupil of Samuil Feinberg, and subsequently with Dmitri Bashkirov.  Dang has performed in more than 40 countries and on concert stages such as Lincoln Center, Barbican Center (London), Salle Pleyel (Paris), Herculessaal (Munich), Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Sydney Opera House (Sydney) Suntory Hall (Tokyo).  He has played with numerous world-class orchestras such as The Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, St-Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Czech Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic Oslo Philharmonic, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, NHK Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Hungarian State Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Russian National Symphony, as well as Virtuosi of Moscow, Sinfonia Varsovia, Vienna Chamber, Zurich Chamber, Royal Swedish Chamber Orchestras, and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Also, he has appeared under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pinchas Zukerman, Mariss Jansons, Pavvo Jarvi, Ivan Fisher, Frans Bruggen, Vladimir Spivakov, Dimitri Kitaenko, Sakari Oramo and John Nelson among others.  In the field of chamber music, he has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Octet, the Smetana String Quartet, Barry Tuckwell, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Pinchas Zukerman, Boris Belkin, Joseph Suk, Alexander Rudin, and he has played duo-piano with Andrei Gavrilov.  Other career highlights include a New Year's Day concert (1995) with Yo Yo Ma, Seiji Ozawa, Kathleen Battle, and the late Mstislav Rostropovich, in a major international event produced by the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation NHK; in January 1999, a Gala-concert opening the Chopin year, where he was the only foreign artist invited to appear as soloist with the Warsaw National Opera Theatre Orchestra; concerts in Isaac Stern's last festival in Miyazaki, Japan in 2001, which included three performances with Pinchas Zukerman; a special performance in 2005 as the only guest artist at the Opening Gala Concert of the XVth International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, where he was also a member of the jury; and on Chopin's 200th Birthday, March 1st, 2010, he played at the Gala Concert the Concerto in f-minor with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under the direction of Frans Bruggen at the Warsaw National Opera Theatre.  Dang Thai Son is frequently invited to give master classes around the world - such as the special class in Berlin in October, 1999, where he taught alongside Murray Perahia and Vladimir Ashkenazy. He has sat on the juries of prestigious competitions such as the Warsaw International Chopin Piano Competition (2005, 2010, 2015), Cleveland (USA), Clara Haskil (Switzerland), Artur Rubinstein (Tel-Aviv), Hamamatsu, Sendai (Japan), Piano Masters of Monte Carlo, Sviatoslav Richter (Moscow), Prague Spring International, Montreal International Piano Competition, and Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition among others.  During the 2012-2013 season, Dang Thai Son toured around the world with an ambitious program of all five Beethoven's piano concertos, the Beethoven Marathon. This colossal project was considered the most significant since his winning at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1980.  He was a visiting professor at the Kunitachi Music College (Tokyo), and has been teaching at the Universite de Montreal (Canada) for the last 20 years. Dang joined the piano faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2018 and will be teaching at the New England Conservatory in the Fall of 2020. He was named as Specially appointed Professor of Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Chinese National School of Music and China Conservatory of Music. In June of 2019, he was invited to be the honorary Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China as well as visiting professor at the Taiwan National Normal University.  Dang is the winner of the Prix Opus in the 2016 "Concert of the Year" category for his concert presented by the Fondation Arte Musica at the Musee de Beaux Arts' Bourgie Hall in Montreal, Canada..  In September of 2018, Dang Thai Son received the Gold Medal "Zasluzony Kulturze Gloria Artis" (Medal for Merit to Culture) from the Ministry of Culture of Poland. This is the highest level of distinction awarded to people for their distinguished contributions to Polish culture and national heritage.  Dang Thai Son has received the "Doctor Honoris Causa" from the Music Academy in Bydgoczsz, Poland.

Discography.

Dang Thai Son has recorded for Deutsche Grammophone, Melodya, Polskie Nagrania, CBS Sony, Analekta, Victor JVC, and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.  Mr. Dang's album "Chopin's Concertos" on Fryderyk Chopin Institute label was awarded in 2013 a Platinum Disc by the Polish Association of Audio-Video Producers for sales of over 10,000 copies. This disc features recordings of the Chopin Piano Concertos on a 1849 Erard piano and period instruments under the baton of the late Frans Bruggen and his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, documenting two memorable events in the festival "Chopin and his Europe" in 2005 and 2006.  Two exciting recording projects were released in 2017. The first one is a Schubert recording with Victor Kenwood Japan, a company that Dang Thai Son has worked with since 1995. The second recording devotes to Paderewski's compositions which includes the Piano Concerto in a minor and a selection of Paderewski's solo works. The Piano Concerto on this CD was recorded live with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy during the "Chopin and his Europe" Festival in Warsaw on August 29th, 2015. This recording was selected as "La clef du mois" (Disc of the Month) by ResMusica (Paris, France.)  Dang Thai Son was chosen by Deutsche Grammophone, in partnership with The Frederyk Chopin Institute, to be featured as one of the artists in their recently released 2-volume recording of music of Chopin on period instruments.

Đặng Thái Sơn (born July 2, 1958 in Hanoi, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese-Canadian classical pianist. He was the Gold Medalist of the Tenth International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland in 1980, and became the first pianist from Asia to achieve this prize.


Plot.

On a Northeastern United States college campus. Derrick Webb, Cathy Jones (referred to as simply "Jones") and Travis are students as well as roommates. They all take a Communications class with Professor Goodwin, in which the subject of gossip is brought up. For their final project, the three decide to start a rumor and track the results.  One night, while at a nightclub, they run into Naomi Preston and her boyfriend Beau Edson. It is common knowledge through the campus that Naomi is saving her virginity for marriage. Jones, in particular, has a problem with Naomi's wealth and sense of entitlement. Furthermore, Naomi seems to have started a rumor about Jones having sex with Goodwin.  While at the party, Derrick meets a girl and brings her upstairs. At this point, the girl becomes ill; Derrick then notices Beau and Naomi in the adjacent room kissing. Beau attempts to have sex with Naomi but is rejected. Derrick, Jones and Travis proceed to begin a rumor that Naomi and Beau had sex. Naomi soon discovers the rumor, but denies it to her friends and becomes convinced she was raped by Beau; under the encouragement of her friends, she reports it to the police. As a result, Beau is expelled.  It is eventually revealed that Derrick and Naomi came from the same hometown and were a couple in high school; much like Beau, Naomi refused Derrick and Derrick raped Naomi. He denied the allegation and said Naomi made it up so her father wouldn't be upset with her; as a result, his popularity at school skyrocketed, so he moved after graduation and intentionally wanted to spread a rumor about Naomi as revenge. Beau learns this, and the two fight. Derrick manages to manipulate Beau into thinking they're both victims of Naomi's lies. Derrick goes to Naomi's dorm to confront her, but she attacks him and he leaves.  The next day, Naomi is pronounced dead and, because of Derrick and Naomi's past (plus the new marks on Derrick's face), campus police accuse Derrick of killing her. Investigators come to his apartment to search for clues and their suspicions intensify. Under the overwhelming psychological pressure, Derrick confesses to raping Naomi to Travis. The investigation was proven to be a setup by Jones, Travis and Goodwin. To Derrick's surprise, following his admission, Naomi steps forward.

Reception.

"Gossip" received negative reviews from critics and currently holds a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 65 reviews.

Box office.

The film opened at #12 at the North American box office making $2.3 million USD in its opening weekend. The film suffered a 59% decline in box office earnings the following week, descending to #17.

Gossip is a 2000 American teen psychological thriller film directed by Davis Guggenheim and featuring an ensemble cast including James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, and Kate Hudson.


Life.

Emma was born into the Saxon noble family of the Immedinger, descendants of Widukind. She was the daughter of Count Immed (or Imad) from the diocese of Utrecht and also, according to Adam of Bremen, the sister of Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn. She married Liudger, a son of the Saxon duke Hermann Billung and brother of Bernard I, Duke of Saxony. Emperor Otto III made the couple a present in 1001 of the "Pfalz" or "palatium" in Stiepel (now Bochum-Stiepel), where in 1008 Emma had a church built dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which later became a popular place of pilgrimage. The only child of the marriage was Imad, consecrated Bishop of Paderborn in 1051.  After the early death of her husband by going to Russia and getting a rare sickness. in 1011, Emma withdrew to the estate of Lesum (now Bremen-Burglesum) and with her fortune generously supported Bremen Cathedral, where Unwan, Archbishop of Bremen, was another of her relatives, and granted the cathedral chapter her property at Stiepel with its church. She was portrayed as a great benefactress of the church, and indeed founded a number of churches in the Bremen area, although her greatest care was for the poor.  Emma was later venerated as a saint, although there is no evidence that she was formally ever either beatified or canonised. She was buried in Bremen Cathedral, where her tomb was still to be seen in the 16th century. Her tomb is one of the biggest in the cemetery.  There is a stained glass window of her in the Roman Catholic church of St. John's at Schnoor in Bremen. Her feast day is 3 December or 17 April, although some sources name 19 April instead. When the tomb was opened, her body had crumbled to dust except for her right hand (the hand that dispensed gifts). That relic was placed in the abbey of Saint Ludger at Werden.

Legend of the meadow.

There is a well-known Bremen legend concerning her gift of meadow to the town in 1032. When a delegation of the townspeople approached her with a request for more meadowland, Emma promised them as much meadow as a man could run round in an hour. Her brother-in-law Bernard or Benno, duke of Saxony, with an appraising eye on his inheritance, suggested mockingly that she might as well give them as much land as a man could run round in a day. Emma agreed to this, but Bernard asked to choose the man who was to do the running, and when Emma agreed to that too, picked out a legless cripple past whom they had just walked. This man proved however to have extraordinary strength and endurance and by the end of the day had succeeded in making his way round a very substantial area, bigger even than the present Bremen town meadow.  This story has been current in various forms since at least the 18th century, although there is no documentary evidence for it, and gives a whole new possible meaning to the inclusion of the figure of the "cripple" at the feet of the statue of Bremen Roland.

Naming.

In Bremen the "Emmasee" (Lake Emma) and a café in the main park are named after Emma, besides streets in the districts of Bremen-Burglesum and Bremen-Schwachhausen.  In Bochum-Stiepel there is a Gräfin-Imma-Strasse ("Countess Emma Street"), a Countess Emma church ("Gräfin-Imma-Kirche"), as well as a primary school ("Gräfin-Imma-Grundschule") and a kindergarten ("Gräfin-Imma-Kindergarten"), named after her.

Emma of Lesum or Emma of Stiepel (also known as Hemma and Imma) (ca. 975-980 – 3 December 1038) was a countess popularly venerated as a saint for her good works; she is also the first female inhabitant of Bremen to be known by name.


Background.

Paul Stewart was born in London in 1955. His family lived first in Muswell Hill, North London and later in Morden, South London, where he went to school. His favourite subject at school was English and he hated Mathematics. When Paul left school, he went travelling, spending several months in Greece, where he took various jobs, including picking oranges and grapes, and whitewashing hotels.  From 1974 to 1977, Paul studied at the University of Lancaster, majoring in English, (which included a Creative Writing unit) with a minor in Religious Education. On graduation, he went travelling again, before enrolling in 1978 to do an M.A. in Creative Writing with Angela Carter and Malcolm Bradbury at the University of East Anglia. He went to Heidelberg, Germany in 1979 for three years, both as a teacher of English and as a student at Heidelberg University, learning German. In 1982, he went to Sri Lanka to teach English as a foreign language returning to the UK a year later where he continued to teach (1983–90) before becoming a full-time writer.  Paul Stewart's first book to be published was "The Thought Domain" (1988) which was then followed by a number of other children's and young adult novels, chiefly in the thriller, horror and SF/Fantasy genres. Paul Stewart's only adult book to date, "Trek", was published in 1991.

Literary influences.

Paul Stewart's favourite books when a child were "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster, Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", "Rupert Bear" Annuals, and the works of Alan Garner, especially "Elidor". He also read a lot of science fiction.  Paul Stewart started writing at a very young age. At the age of seven he was writing a series about a snail called Oliver and he started a sequel to "The Phantom Tollbooth" at ten. Some of the ideas from this early work were later developed and became the basis of "The Thought Domain" which was published in 1988.

Collaboration with Chris Riddell.

Paul Stewart first met Chris Riddell in 1993, through having children at the same school. Chris was looking for someone to write texts that he could illustrate. Paul had already had a number of books published. Their first collaborative work were the "Rabbit and Hedgehog" books (published 1998–2003 by Andersen Press). The inspiration for The Edge Chronicles came from a map Chris Riddell drew of an imaginary world in 1994 and then challenged Paul to write about it. The first book in the sequence, "Beyond the Deepwoods", was commissioned by Transworld Publishers (now part of the Random House Group) on the basis of the map and the first four chapters. The book then took three years to write as Paul and Chris worked out both the plot and how best to work together. Originally commissioned as a single book, Paul and Chris hoped that it might become a trilogy. The series has now extended to fifteen full-length novels, five short stories, a book of maps and a now-defunct blog called "Weird New Worlds". The final book, "The Descenders", was released in 2019.  When writing together, Paul and Chris work on the development of plots and characters together, sometimes starting from a bit of writing, sometimes from an illustration on one of Chris's sketchbooks. They have long conversations over many days, during which the novels emerge. They don't always agree and the debates can become quite heated but they have remained good friends. Following these discussions, Paul normally writes a first draft, which Chris will edit or rewrite before Paul produces a final draft.  As well as "The Edge Chronicles", Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell have also collaborated on a trilogy of shorter adventures, "Freelance"; a quartet of younger books, "The Far Flung Adventures", the first of which, "Fergus Crane", won the Nestle Smarties Gold Prize in 2004; "The Blobheads" series (2000–2004); "Muddle Earth" (2003), and a further quartet, "Barnaby Grimes" (2007–2009). Their latest novel, "Wyrmweald", was published by Doubleday Children's Books in April 2010.

Awards.

These three books constitute the Far Flung Adventures series, written by Stewart and illustrated by Riddell.

Bibliography.

Fiction co-authored with Chris Riddell.

The Blobheads.

All London: Macmillan

Paul Stewart (born June 1955) is a writer of children's books, best known for three series written in collaboration with the illustrator Chris Riddell: "The Edge Chronicles", the "Free Lance" novels, and the "Far Flung Adventures" series. Paul Stewart lives in the British seaside city of Brighton with his wife and children.


History.

Decoded Feedback was formed in 1993 by the Italian Marco Biagiotti and the Hungarian Yone Dudas (both live in Canada). After the release of their "Decoded Feedback" demo tape and a subsequent review by the Belgian industrial music magazine "Sideline", they were signed to the European label, Hard Records, which released their first full-length CD, "Overdosing", and gained the attention of another European record label, Zoth Ommog. The latter released Decoded Feedback's second disc, "Technophoby", in 1997. This attracted the attention of the American industrial music distributors Metropolis Records, who released domestic versions of all subsequent Decoded Feedback releases. "Bio-Vital", released in 1998, was the first Decoded Feedback album to enter the German Alternative Charts (DAC). In the same year, they released a second album with new tracks and remixes called "Evolution". In 2000, Biagiotti and Dudas signed to the record label Bloodline to release "Mechanical Horizon", which was preceded by the first ever Decoded Feedback single, "Reflect in Silence". Three years later, Decoded Feedback switched to their current record label, Out of Line, and released "Shockwave", which again was preceded by a single, "Phoenix". In 2005, they released "Combustion" as well as the soundtrack for the Cindy Murdoch's short zombie film, "Red Men Rising". "Aftermath" was released in 2010 and "disKonnekt" in 2012.

Live.

Decoded Feedback have played several live shows in Europe. The band spent the greater part of 2001 touring with Noisex and Sonar and again in 2003 with Haujobb. They have played the M'era Luna Festival, the Blacksun Festival in the USA, Infest 2005, and the Out of Line Festival, as well as touring with fellow Metropolis Records bands God Module and Blutengel. In Toronto, Canada, at the EBM Fest 2008, they played as a DJ set because the singer was not present.

Philosophy and style.

Biagiotti and Dudas originally experimented with the fusion of punk and electro, but over time developed a more cold, industrial-oriented sound. By the time "Evolution" was released, they had attempted to create a blend of industrial and electronic body music, with "interwoven dance floor textures and symphonic melodies". This sound culminated with "Mechanical Horizon", but turned sharply with "Shockwave", an album that was seen as something of a return to an older style. "Combustion" continued this trend.  Both members have also cited the tensions that exist between sexes and international boundaries, as well as their unique backgrounds, as a driving force behind their music - especially in an attempt to create their own unique style. Decoded Feedback's music is popular within the darker electronic music scene, especially among fans of electro-industrial music. Comparable artists include fellow Metropolis Records acts Haujobb, Wumpscut, Suicide Commando and Front Line Assembly, as well as Zoth Ommog acts X Marks the Pedwalk and Evil's Toy.  The above soundtracks have not been released in any format other than in the movies themselves. "Hyberia" is a short 3 minute film by Francist (who directed the music videos for the Decoded Feedback songs "Phoenix" and "Hyberia", the latter of which uses audio elements from the soundtrack). "Red Men Rising" is a 15 minute film about zombies, the soundtrack to which was done by Yone Dudas.

Decoded Feedback is a Canadian musical project which incorporates styles of electro-industrial and aggrotech. The duo currently releases music on the North American distributor Metropolis Records, and the European record label Out of Line.


History.

1960s.

In the 1950s and 1960s, some artists who had performed in the bands of Franco Luambo and Grand Kalle formed their own groups. Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr. Nico Kasanda formed African Fiesta and transformed their music further by fusing Congolese folk music with soul music, as well as Caribbean and Latin beats and instrumentation. They were joined by Papa Wemba and Sam Mangwana, and classics like "Afrika Mokili Mobimba" made them one of Africa's most prominent bands. Congolese "rumba" eventually evolved into soukous. Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr Nico Kasanda are considered the pioneers of modern soukous. Other greats of this period include Koffi Olomide, Tshala Muana and Wenge Musica.  While the rumba influenced bands such as Lipua-Lipua, Veve, TP OK Jazz and Bella Bella, younger Congolese musicians looked for ways to reduce that influence and play a faster paced soukous inspired by rock n roll. A group of students called Zaiko Langa Langa came together in 1969 around founding vocalist Papa Wemba. Pepe Kalle, a protégé of Grand Kalle, created the band Empire Bakuba together with Papy Tex and they too became popular.

East Africa in the 1970s.

Soukous now spread across Africa and became an influence on virtually all the styles of modern African popular music including highlife, palm-wine music, taarab and makossa. As political conditions in Zaire, as the Democratic Republic of Congo was known then, deteriorated in the 1970s, some groups made their way to Tanzania and Kenya. By the mid-seventies, several Congolese groups were playing soukous at Kenyan night clubs. The lively "cavacha", a dance craze that swept East and Central Africa during the seventies, was popularized through recordings of bands such as Zaiko Langa Langa and Orchestra Shama Shama, influencing Kenyan musicians. This rhythm, played on the snare drum or hi-hat, quickly became a hallmark of the Congolese sound in Nairobi and is frequently used by many of the regional bands. Several of Nairobi's renowned Swahili rumba bands formed around Tanzanian groups like Simba Wanyika and their offshoots, Les Wanyika and Super Wanyika Stars.  In the late 1970s Virgin records produced LPs from the Tanzanian-Congolese Orchestra Makassy and the Kenya-based Super Mazembe. One of the tracks from this album was the Swahili song "Shauri Yako" ("it's your problem"), which became a hit in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Les Mangelepa was another influential Congolese group that moved to Kenya and became extremely popular throughout East Africa. About this same time, the Nairobi-based Congolese vocalist Samba Mapangala and his band Orchestra Virunga, released the LP "Malako", which became one of the pioneering releases of the newly emerging world music scene in Europe. The musical style of the East Africa-based Congolese bands gradually incorporated new elements, including Kenyan benga music, and spawned what is sometimes called the "Swahili sound" or "Congolese sound".

1980s and the Paris scene.

Soukous became popular in London and Paris in the 1980s. A few more musicians left Kinshasa to work around central and east Africa before settling in either the UK or France. The basic line-up for a soukous band included three or four guitars, bass guitar, drums, brass, vocals, and some of them having over 20 musicians. Lyrics were often in Lingala and occasionally in French. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Parisian studios were used by many soukous stars, and the music became heavily reliant on synthesizers and other electronic instruments. Some artists continued to record for the Congolese market, but others abandoned the demands of the Kinshasa public and set out to pursue new audiences. Some, like Paris-based Papa Wemba maintained two bands, Viva La Musica for soukous, and a group including French session players for international pop.  Kanda Bongo Man, another Paris-based artist, pioneered fast, short tracks suitable for play on dance floors everywhere and popularly known as "kwassa kwassa" after the dance moves popularized by his and other artists' music videos. This music appealed to Africans and to new audiences as well. Artists like Diblo Dibala, Jeannot Bel Musumbu, Mbilia Bel, Yondo Sister, Tinderwet, Loketo, Rigo Star, Madilu System, Soukous Stars and veterans like Pepe Kalle and Koffi Olomide followed suit. Soon Paris became home to talented studio musicians who recorded for the African and Caribbean markets and filled out bands for occasional tours.  In the 1980s, the fast tempo zouk style popularized by the French Antilles band Kassav' became popular across much of Paris and French Africa. In the 1980s and early 1990s, a fast-paced style of soukous known as kwassa kwassa, named after a popular dance, was popular. Today, soukous mixes the kwasa kwasa with zouk and Congolese rumba. A style called ndombolo, also named after a dance, is currently popular.

Ndombolo.

The fast soukous music currently dominating dance floors in central, eastern and western Africa is called soukous ndombolo, performed by Dany Engobo, Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabélé, Mav Cacharel, Koffi Olomide and groups like Extra Musica and Wenge Musica among others.  The hip-swinging dance of the fast paced soukous ndombolo has come under criticism on claims that it is obscene. There have been attempts to ban it in Mali, Cameroon and Kenya. After an attempt to ban it from state radio and television in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000, it became even more popular. In February 2005, ndombolo music videos in the DR Congo were censored for indecency, and video clips by Koffi Olomide, JB M'Piana and Werrason were banned from the airwaves.

Soukous (from French "secousse", "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from the Congo Basin. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s and gained popularity in the 1980s in France. Although often used by journalists as a synonym for Congolese rumba, both the music and dance associated with soukous differ from more traditional rumba, especially in its higher tempo, longer dance sequences. Notable performers of the genre include African Fiesta, Papa Wemba and Pépé Kallé.


Geography.

Big Timber is located at (45.833224, -109.950361).  According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which, is land and is water.

Climate.

Big Timber has a cool semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk") bordering on a humid continental climate ("Dfb"). Although winters can be frigid, frequent chinook winds will raise temperatures above on an average twenty days between December and February, and have raised them to or above on ten occasions during these months since 1894. The chinooks mean Big Timber's 31.3 days per year failing to top freezing is among the fewest in Montana, with the average window for such maxima being from November 11 to March 18. In the absence of chinooks, temperatures fall to on seventeen mornings during an average winter, although such temperatures were reached just once in 1999/2000 but as many as thirty-four times during the very cold winters of 1935/1936 and 1978/1979. The average window for zero temperatures is from December 4 to February 25. The coldest temperature in Big Timber has been during the notorious 1936 cold wave on February 15, whilst February 1936 was also the coldest month on record at, shading January 1916 which averaged.  Spring is typically windy with temperatures nearly so variable as in winter: the last frost typically arrives on May 19, but temperatures have reached as early as March 22 of 1928 and have fallen to zero Fahrenheit as late as April 13, 1928 and April 12, 1997. Late in spring thunderstorms increase in frequency and during late spring and early summer these provide most of Big Timber's annual precipitation. The wettest calendar year since 1894 has been 1957 with and the driest 1939 with, whilst the wettest single month has been May 1981 with  During the summer, days can be very hot, with maxima of on 28.5 afternoons and over on 1.1, although mornings very rarely stay above. The record hottest temperature is on July 21, 1931 and the hottest morning on July 31 of 1936.  The fall season is usually short and variable, with snow occasionally falling in September, but at other times hot weather can extend into October or even November.

Demographics.

2010 census.

As of the census of 2010, there were 1,641 people, 751 households, and 429 families residing in the city. The population density was. There were 933 housing units at an average density of. The racial makeup of the city was 95.9% White, 0.1% African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8% of the population.  There were 751 households, of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.5% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 42.9% were non-families. 38.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.82.  The median age in the city was 45.5 years. 23.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 5.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 20.8% were from 25 to 44; 25.2% were from 45 to 64; and 25.2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.5% male and 51.5% female.

2000 census.

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,650 people, 711 households, and 430 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,752.6 people per square mile (677.7/km). There were 812 housing units at an average density of 862.5 per square mile (333.5/km). The racial makeup of the city was 96.61% White, 0.79% Native American, 0.30% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.73% from other races, and 1.52% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.70% of the population.  There were 711 households, out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.2% were married couples living together, 5.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. 34.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.92.  In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.7% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 22.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 96.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.  The median income for a household in the city was $30,595, and the median income for a family was $38,869. Males had a median income of $29,000 versus $17,596 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,569. About 9.3% of families and 10.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.9% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.

Big Timber is a city in, and the county seat of Sweet Grass County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,641 at the 2010 census.


Life.

Frear was born October 29, 1863 in Grass Valley, California. His father, Reverend Walter Frear, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York August 16, 1828, graduated from Yale in 1851, came to the Kingdom of Hawaii as a missionary, and then lived in California when he was born. His mother was Frances Elmira Foster. The family returned to Honolulu in 1870, where his father was pastor of the Fort Street Church until 1881. He graduated from Punahou School in 1881, Yale with a B.A. in 1885, and Yale law school in 1890. On August 1, 1893 he married Mary Emma Dillingham, the daughter of industrialist Benjamin Dillingham. They had two daughters: Virginia (1900–?) and Margaret (1908–?).  He was appointed as circuit judge on January 1, 1893 by Queen Liliuokalani. On March 7, 1893 he was promoted to serve on the Supreme Court of the Provisional Government. After the death of Albert Francis Judd, on July 5, 1900 he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of what was then the Territory of Hawaii.  Frear was appointed governor after George R. Carter by President Theodore Roosevelt on August 15, 1907. Alfred S. Hartwell replaced him as Chief Justice. He was a member of the Republican Party of Hawaii. After the election of Woodrow Wilson, Frear was replaced by the first governor from the Democratic Party of Hawaii, Lucius Pinkham in November 1913. He died January 22, 1948 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The Frears founded the Mary D. and Walter F. Frear Eleemosynary Trust to sponsor educational projects. Frear Hall, a dormitory building built in the 1950s on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, was named after Governor Frear's wife Mary Dillingham Frear, a member of the University's Board of Regents from 1920–1943. The aging structure was demolished in 2006, to make way for a new dorm facility also called Frear Hall completed in the Summer of 2008.  The Frear Center, located at 1132 Bishop Street, was named after Walter and Mary Frear. It is a classroom building of Hawaii Pacific University, and was designed for information systems and computer science courses. The trust also supported Chaminade University of Honolulu.

Walter Francis Frear (October 29, 1863 – January 22, 1948) was a lawyer and judge in the Kingdom of Hawaii and Republic of Hawaii, and the third Territorial Governor of Hawaii from 1907 to 1913.


Coat of arms.

Salouf's coat of arms depicts a shield with a black background, in the middle a white fleur-de-lys. In each corner and at the bottom is one six pointed silver star. The design is from the shield of Benedict Fontana (a hero of Graubünden) who lived in Salouf.

History.

Salouf is first mentioned in 1160 as "Salugo".

Geography.

Salouf had an area,, of. Of this area, 42.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (28.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).  The former municipality is located the Surses sub-district of the Albula district. The village lies on a ledge on the east side of Piz Toissa (). It consists of the village of Salouf and the hamlets of Mulegn und Del. Until 1943 Salouf was known as Salux.

Demographics.

Salouf had a population (as of 2014) of 216., about 1.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -3.2%. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The age distribution,, in Salouf is; 7 people or 19.4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old. 2 people or 5.6% are 10 to 14, and 2 people or 5.6% are 15 to 19. Of the adult population, no one is between 20 and 29 years old. 6 people or 16.7% are 30 to 39, 6 people or 16.7% are 40 to 49, and 3 people or 8.3% are 50 to 59. The senior population distribution is 3 people or 8.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 5 people or 13.9% are 70 to 79, there is 1 person or 2.8% who is 80 to 89, and 1 person or 2.8% who is 90 to 99.  In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 40.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (25.6%), the SPS (16.4%) and the FDP (14.6%).  In Salouf about 69.5% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule").  Salouf has an unemployment rate of 0.57%., there were 39 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 40 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 5 businesses in this sector. 32 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 7 businesses in this sector.  The historical population is given in the following table:

Languages.

The main language of the local people is the Surmiran dialect of Romansh. Its use has declined in recent decades, though to a lesser degree than in neighbouring communities. In 1880 it was 99.1% and 88.54% in 1980., most of the population still speaks Rhaeto-Romance (77.6%), with German being second most common (19.5%) and Portuguese being third ( 1.5%).

Heritage sites of national significance.

The "Tgesa Fontana" or Hotel Fontana is listed as a Swiss heritage sites of national significance.

Salouf (until 1943 officially called Salux) is a village and former municipality in the Sursés in the district of Albula in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. On 1 January 2016 the former municipalities of Bivio, Cunter, Marmorera, Mulegns, Riom-Parsonz, Salouf, Savognin, Sur and Tinizong-Rona merged to form the new municipality of Surses.


Orbit and classification.

Located close to the region of the stony Eunomia family (), "Faïna" is a non-family asteroid of the main belt's background population when applying the modern synthetic hierarchical clustering method (HCM) by Nesvorný as well as Milani and Knežević (AstDys). However, in the 1995 HCM-analysis by Zappalà, "Faïna" is the parent body of the tiny Faïna family, which is not recognized by modern analysis. The HCM-method is based on an object's proper orbital elements to group asteroids into families.  "Faïna" orbits the Sun in the central asteroid belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,489 days; semi-major axis of 2.55 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 16° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Vienna Observatory on 8 May 2013, or two weeks after its official discovery observation by Grigory Neujmin at Simeiz.

Naming.

This minor planet was named after Faina Mikhajlovna Neujmina, the first wife of the discoverer. Astronomer Lutz Schmadel compiled this, based on his private communication with "N. S. Samojlova-Yakhontova", as neither the Minor Planet Circulars nor "The Names of the Minor Planets" give any information about this asteroid's name.

Physical characteristics.

In the Tholen classification, "Faïna" is a common, carbonaceous C-type asteroid, while in the Bus–Binzel SMASS classification, it is a hydrated carbonaceous Ch-type.

Rotation period.

In late 1988, a rotational lightcurve of "Faïna" was obtained from photometric observations by Richard Miles at the Manley Observatory near Chester in northwest England. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of magnitude (). Alternative observations by Roberto Crippa, Federico Manzini (2006) as well as by Bruno Christmann (2019) determined a period of + and () hours (or half the period) with an amplitude of and magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo.

According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), "Faïna" measures (), () and () kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo of (), () and (), respectively.  The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" adopts the results from IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.0497 and a diameter of 110.50 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 8.66. The WISE team also published several alternative mean-diameters of (), (), (), () and (), with a corresponding albedo of (), (), (), (), and ().  On 28 March 2007, an asteroid occultation of "Faïna" gave a best-fit ellipse dimension of () with a quality rating of 2, indicating its irregular, elongated shape. Another occultation on 21 October 2012, gave an ellipse of (). These timed observations are taken when the asteroid passes in front of a distant star.

751 Faïna ("prov. designation:" "or" ) is a very large background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 28 April 1913, by Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The elongated C-type asteroid (Ch) has a rotation period of 23.7 hours. It was named after Faina Mikhajlovna Neujmina, colleague and first wife of the discoverer.


Legal loophole.

Marriages of convenience are often contracted to exploit legal loopholes of various sorts. A couple may wed for one of them to gain citizenship or right of abode (This has been depicted in TV shows such as "On the Wings of Love"; where marriage is purposely undertaken to gain residency), for example, as many countries around the world will grant such rights to anyone married to a resident citizen. In the United States, this practice is known as a green card marriage. In Australia, there have been marriages of convenience to bring attention to the government's Youth Allowance laws. On 31 March 2010 two students were publicly and legally married on the University of Adelaide's lawn so that they could both receive full Youth Allowance.  Because they exploit legal loopholes, sham marriages of convenience often have legal consequences. For example, U.S. Immigration (USCIS) can punish this with a US$250,000 fine and five-year prison sentence.

Homosexuality.

Another common reason for marriages of convenience is to hide one partner's homosexuality in places where being openly gay is punishable or potentially detrimental. A sham marriage of this type, sometimes called a lavender marriage, is intended to hide the appearance of homosexuality. Such marriages may have one heterosexual and one gay partner, or two gay partners: a lesbian and a gay man married to each other. In the case where a gay man marries a woman, the woman is said to be his "beard". In recent years, such marriages are conducted to make a political point about the absence of marriage equality in a particular country.

Metaphorical usage.

The phrase "marriage of convenience" has also been generalized to mean any partnership between groups or individuals for their mutual (and sometimes illegitimate) benefit, or between groups or individuals otherwise unsuited to working together. An example would be a "national unity government", as existed in Israel during much of the 1980s or in Great Britain during World War II. More specifically, cohabitation refers to a political situation which can occur in countries with a semi-presidential system (especially France), where the president and the prime minister belong to opposed political camps.

Political marriage.

Marriages of convenience, often termed marriages of state, have always been commonplace in royal, aristocratic, and otherwise powerful families, to make alliances between two powerful houses. Examples include the marriages of Agnes of Courtenay, her daughter Sibylla, Jeanne d'Albret, and Catherine of Aragon (twice).

A marriage of convenience is contracted for reasons other than that of relationship of love. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. Some cases in which those married do not intend to live together as a couple, typically marry only for one of them to gain the right to reside in a country.