Plot.

Arthur Harris is the grumpy husband of Marion, who is terminally ill yet continues to participate with enthusiasm at her local seniors' choir, The OAP'Z. The choirmaster is a young teacher, Elizabeth who is preparing the choir to enter a local musical choir competition called "Shadow Song". Arthur is also estranged from his son, James. Marion's health deteriorates over time until one night when she dies in her sleep. Arthur initially takes this loss severely and cuts himself from his family and the choir. Eventually he agrees to take Marion's place in the choir. The transition proves to be a challenge for Arthur thanks to the unconventional songbook that includes racier songs such as Salt-N-Pepa's "Let's Talk About Sex" and Motörhead's "Ace of Spades". However he grows to enjoy spending time in the choir.  On the eve of the competition, Arthur has an argument with James in a failed attempt to rebuild their relationship and pulls out of the choir. The choir participates in the competition without Arthur. He arrives later but before he can perform with the choir, they are eliminated from the competition by the judges. The choir are on their way to return home in defeat when Arthur stops the bus and storms the musical competition's stage shortly joined by the rest of the choir. They perform again with Arthur singing a solo of "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)". The choir finishes in third place and returns home triumphant. Arthur and his son, James (who watched him perform in the competition) reconnect on the journey home with James leaving an answering phone message confirming this later.

Soundtrack.

The film is accompanied by a song titled "Unfinished Songs" written by Diane Warren and performed by Celine Dion. The song was included in Dion's 2013 album "Loved Me Back to Life" but with different vocal and musical arrangements.  The song "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)", performed by the main character in the film, is a Billy Joel song.  The score was composed by Laura Rossi. Lost In The Multiplex's Soundtrek section deemed Rossi's score "lovely", but opined that the OAP'Z songs "aren't particularly funny, they're not that fun to listen to either."

Reception.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 5.91/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "It's unabashedly sentimental, but thanks to reliably powerful performances from a well-rounded veteran cast, "Unfinished Song" proves a sweetly compelling character piece." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Production.

Although the film is set in London it was primarily shot on location in Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham. Filming took place over some six weeks in July and August 2011, and locations included St Francis Community Centre (next to Freeman Hospital), Newcastle City Hall, Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre and Durham Johnston Comprehensive School.  The 2007 documentary film "Young@Heart" also deals with a choir of seniors performing contemporary music.

Song for Marion is a 2012 British-German comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams and starring Terence Stamp, Gemma Arterton, Christopher Eccleston and Vanessa Redgrave. The film was released as Unfinished Song in the United States.


Early life.

Anderson was born November 5, 1938, in Altheimer, Arkansas, where she was raised. She is the fourth child, and only girl, in a family of six children. In an interview with Jeanette E. Brown, she explains that she did not feel different, despite being the only girl, because "I mostly played sports along with them, like basketball, softball, and that kind of stuff. (...) My youngest brother would play dolls with me and the rest of them would not, but you know, I really didn't think too much about it."  She is the daughter of Elsie Lee Foggie Long, a seamstress, and Charles Long, a sharecropper, with a tenth and third grade education, respectively. They lived in a mixed-race, segregated farming community. Later, both her parents worked at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, her mother in the Armament Division and her father as a janitor. Growing up, she was expected to help with farm work, and years later, explained: "In those days we didn't know we were living in poverty."  However, her parents prioritized her education (in fact, three of her brothers also attended the University of Arkansas). They allowed her to start elementary school at the age of four ("they didn't check very carefully in those days"), by which time she had already learned to read. She attended segregated public schools, including the Altheimer Training School. She was an excellent student who skipped grades, graduating high school valedictorian at age 16, in 1954. The faculty at Altheimer Trainer School was entirely African American, and was highly encouraging of their students. She explained that the teachers "pushed us to succeed, to excel, because they had a vested interest in turning out successful, well-educated students. They cared, intimately, about us doing well." The school offered very little science education, and very little math.  Very few jobs were available for African American women in Altheimer, so Anderson chose to attend college, hoping to pursue a career. She hadn't planned to pursue a career a science, and had instead considered careers in physical education and interior decorating.

Education.

Bachelor's Degree.

Anderson started studying at the Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College, a state-supported school for African Americans. She received a small scholarship in her first year, followed by a Rockefeller Foundation College Scholarship between 1956 and 1958 in recognition of her stellar grades. As part of the scholarship, she worked as a teaching assistant, helping in the chemistry classes. She also worked during the summer, working in a candy factory in Chicago between her junior and senior years. Despite not having studied chemistry in high school, she had initially signed up to the chemistry courses on a dare, because chemistry was considered to be the most difficult major. She graduated with a degree in Chemistry and Mathematics in 1958, as the valedictorian, "summa cum laude," first in a class of 237. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the commencement speaker at her graduation, and he was a source of inspiration throughout her life.  Though she was accepted to graduate school at Stanford University, she was unable to study there for lack of funding. She was then rejected for a position at the Ralston Purina Company as a chemist because she was African-American. She later said that "they did me a favor by not hiring me, but I didn't realize it at the time."

Master's Degree.

With no other options, Anderson taught geography, reading and arithmetic in seventh grade at a school in Altheimer for six months (even though, by her own admission, "I didn't even know any more about geography than the students did"). She was then offered a National Science Foundation grant by Kimuel Alonzo Huggins, the chair of the Atlanta University chemistry department, to study for a Master's degree in chemistry. Upon her marriage to Leonard Sinclair Anderson in 1960, she almost dropped out of the program due to financial difficulty, despite the fellowship. Dr. Kimuel Huggins intervened again, and provided her with research funding so that she could continue studying in his lab. She accepted, even she "didn't particularly like" his research topic. Anderson earned her Master's degree in organic chemistry at Atlanta in 1961, with a thesis supervised by Dr. Huggins on a novel synthesis process of butadiene, titled: "Studies on 1-(4-Methylphenyl)-1,3-Butadiene".  She taught for a year at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg. Anderson then moved back to Atlanta, to Morehouse College. She was contacted by Henry Cecil Ransom McBay, the "father of black chemists in the United States", who had made it his mission to seek out and train talented African American chemists. Anderson worked for him as a chemistry instructor and research assistant for two years. In her own words, Anderson "loved teaching organic chemistry, because, first of all, I learned a whole lot of organic chemistry while I was teaching it." McBay encouraged her to pursue her doctoral studies.

PhD.

Anderson began her doctoral studies at the University of Chicago (McBay's alma mater) in 1965, and received a research and teaching assistantship. In her first year, she was the only Black, full-time organic chemistry student. She tutored white women chemistry students in her first year, but decided to focus on herself when she realized that, due to the prevalent racism of the time, they had advantages she did not have. In her interview with Jeannette E. Brown, she recounts an incident in which she failed a first-year exam (prelims, "the first time I had ever failed anything in my life") and received the recommendation that she should not take it over. Though everyone in the class had failed the prelim, most of them received the recommendation to take it over. When she confronted her advisor, he told her that she had achieved the second highest score in the group. Because of this, Anderson spent the summer looking for a job in Chicago, and poring through her physical organic chemistry textbook. She later received a phone call from the University of Chicago, with a job offer to work with Dr. Leon M. Stock as a research assistant. To test her skills, he set her the assignment which none of his students had so far managed to complete: to make 9-fluora-anthracene from a procedure detailed in a French paper. Anderson, never having studied French, went to the bookstore, bought a French dictionary, translated the paper, and carried out the experiment successfully on her first try. She later took the prelim test again, and passed.  She had enjoyed her experience in Dr. Stock's lab, so she continued her research with him, working on the nuclear magnetic resonance and CF infrared frequency shifts of fluorine-19, and published at least one paper before she had completed her dissertation (which they wrote "over the weekend"). Anderson would work in the lab during the day, then on her dissertation at night at home. She was a pioneer in the field of fluorine Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy ("didn't nobody know how to operate it but me"). Throughout her time at the University of Chicago, she was mentored by Thomas Cole (who later became president of Clark Atlanta University). Cole was working as a teaching assistant, and was the one who taught her the basics of NMR. Anderson received her physical organic chemistry Ph.D. in 1968. Her thesis was titled: "19F Chemical Shifts For Bicyclic and Aromatic Molecules". In the paper which resulted from her thesis, she coins the term "substituent chemical shift".

Career.

Academia.

Anderson chose to conduct her post-doctoral research at a historically Black college ("it didn't make a difference which one") in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination that year, and considered this her contribution to the United States' Civil Rights Movement. She knew at the time that this choice was considered by some of her friends to be "professional suicide", and she herself believes that she could have accomplished much more in a different setting. However, she was firm in her resolution, and turned down offers from majority white universities over the course of her career. In her interview with Jeannette E. Brown, she explained her motivation: "I wanted to go to a Black college to allow the students to have the opportunity to get the kind of education that I had gotten; because I felt coming from where I came from that it was almost impossible for me to get the kind of training I had gotten. (...) I squeezed through the wire mesh fence." On Dr McBay's advice, Anderson applied for the position of chair at Morris Brown College's department of chemistry in Atlanta. She was awarded the position, and became associate professor at the college. As chair of the chemistry department, she made substantial improvements so that it could be approved by the American Chemical Society. Despite receiving other offers of employment, Anderson chose to remain at Morris Brown because "of the educational philosophy at Morris Brown, in that Morris Brown takes in some of the brightest students there are, but at the same time, Morris Brown allows students who are not in upper echelon to come in here." On top of her teaching commitments, starting in the summer of 1969 Anderson carried out post-doctoral research at the Georgia Institute of Technology, working with Dr. Charles L. Liotta on "Studies on the mechanism of epoxidation".  Anderson explains that when she joined Morris Brown, the Vice President of Academic Affairs told her that it was a teaching institution, and that if she wanted to carry out research, "you do that on your own time." So, she says: "I did it in on my own time. I worked in the evenings and on Saturdays and Sundays. (...) I was determined to do [research]. But more importantly, I love research, and I still love research." Anderson continued her research continued on fluorine-19 and its interactions with other atoms, using it to probe synthesis reactions. Anderson's research has also covered epoxidation mechanisms, solid-fuel rocket propellants, antiviral drug synthesis, fluoridated pharmaceutical compounds, and substituted amantadines. Her work has been applied to antiviral drugs. She received patents for her work in 2001 and 2009.  Throughout her career, she struggled to receive funding, and attributes much of this to the racism of the time. She used money from her own salary to fund her research. In her 2009 interview with Jeanette E. Brown, she explains: "it became clear to me that if I was at Morris Brown College, a college with did not have a history of research in chemistry or biology like that, that nobody was going to give me any money for research. (...) So, I decided, well, I'm going to do research no matter what. (...) I paid [students] out of my pocket, and I charged that on my credit card. Even today, I don't know how much I owe the patent lawyers, but I have paid for all those patents stuff, myself."  In 1973, she became the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry and Chair, which she returned to in 1990 after serving as Dean of Academic Affairs from 1984 to 1989. Anderson worked as a National Science Foundation Research Fellow (1981) and Research Consultant (1982) for the Lockheed Georgia Corporation, and later as SCEE Faculty Research Fellow for the U.S Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at the Edwards Air Force Base (1984). She also worked as a consultant for IPECS Holland, a Dutch chemical and pharmaceutical research company (1990).  Anderson became Morris Brown's interim president twice, from 1992 to 1993 and in 1998, and was Dean of Science and Technology from 1995 to 1997. Since 1999 and, she is the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry. Twice, she served as interim president of Morris Brown. As of 2011, Anderson works as assistant to the president of Morris Brown College.  Anderson was named among the brightest scientists in Atlanta, Georgia in 1983 by "Atlanta Magazine". She was also named among the Outstanding Black Educators in Atlanta in the 1991 edition of SuccessGuide.

Outside of academia.

Outside of academia, Anderson was appointed by President Richard Nixon for a six-year term on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's (CPB) board in 1972. In actuality, she served seven years because of a delay in the confirmation of her successor. While at the CPB, she also served as chair for committees on Minority Training, Minorities and Women, and Human Resources Development, and later as vice chair of the board from 1977 to 1979. Anderson actively worked to encourage positive portrayals of minorities in public broadcasting.  Throughout her career, Anderson has held many board and committee leadership positions, including as chair of the Greater Atlanta Public Broadcasting Study Committee (1974-1976), as Vice president of the Public Broadcasting Atlanta Board (1980-1982), and at Morris Brown College, Chair of the Promotion and Tenure Ad Hoc Appeals Committee (2000), Chair of the Academic Planning Task Force (2003), Chair of the Faculty Retention Task Force (2003) and Chair of the Academic Affairs Council (2004). She has also been on an advisory committee for the U.S Food and Drug Administration.

Personal Life.

She married Leonard Sinclair Anderson, a schoolteacher in 1960. In Chicago, while Anderson was studying for her PhD, Leonard attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music, graduating with a Master's degree. Talking about her marriage, Anderson said: "at that time, you know, we had not been liberated, so we didn't know we weren't supposed to be cooking and cleaning and all that. I did all that, as well as I went through graduate school. I was married. I came home. I cooked and I cleaned and ironed and all of that when I was married."  Leonard and Gloria divorced in 1977. Anderson has one son, Gerald (b. 1961).  In her interview with Jeanette E. Brown, Anderson explained: "I have always had to prove myself wherever I went. I had to prove myself in Chicago. When I proved myself, I didn't have any m ore trouble. When I went to Georgia Tech as a post-doc, I had to prove myself. After I proved myself, I didn't have any problem. (...) The point is, they didn't pay me attention, because they didn't know I knew anything. They didn't think I knew what I was talking about. It has always been that way whenever I present myself in chemistry."  Anderson is quoted as saying, to a group of young scientists, "[You] can do anything that you want to do. You can be anything that you want to be. However, you must be determined. You must work hard. You must not let anyone define who you are and what you can do." She adds, "As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said at my college commencement, and I paraphrase, 'Don't go out to be the best black scientist, Go out to be the best scientist.' "

Honors.

Anderson is a member of the American Chemical Society, the National Institute of Science, and the National Science Teachers Association.  She has received numerous honors and awards, including:  She received many teaching awards while at Morris Brown College, including:  A number of appreciation plaques have also been dedicated in her honor:

Gloria Long Anderson (born November 5, 1938) is the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry at Morris Brown College, and its Vice President for Academic Affairs. She has served as Interim President of Morris Brown, and as Vice Chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was a pioneer in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and is known for her studies of fluorine-19 and solid rocket propellants.


Club career.

Early years.

Vernon was born in Jocelyn Avenue, Belfast and when he left school he initially entered the family butcher business. He would eventually return to the same trade after retiring as a player. Vernon also played as a junior with both Spearmint and Dundela. His performances attracted the interest of Liverpool but he rejected their approach and opted to sign for Belfast Celtic instead.

Belfast Celtic.

Together with Jimmy McAlinden, Billy McMillan, Tommy Breen and Charlie Tully, he was a prominent member of the Celtic team managed by Elisha Scott. This team dominated the Irish League during the Second World War era. He played his last game for Celtic on 8 February 1947 against Linfield. Both West Bromwich Albion and Glasgow Celtic declared an interest in signing Vernon but the Celtic manager, Jimmy McGrory, would not meet Belfast Celtic's £8,000 valuation.

West Bromwich Albion.

Vernon eventually signed for West Bromwich Albion in February 1947 for a club record fee of £9,500. In 1949 he captained a West Brom team that also included Davy Walsh and Reg Ryan to promotion from the English Second Division. In the same season he also scored his only goal for the club, on Christmas Day in a 1–0 win against Sheffield Wednesday. On 8 June 1947, together with Davy Walsh, Vernon guested for Shamrock Rovers in a friendly against Everton.

Crusaders.

In 1952 Vernon returned to the Irish League and became player-manager at Crusaders, the club that in 1949 had replaced Belfast Celtic in the league. In 1954 he guided the club to victory in the Ulster Cup, their first ever senior trophy. He left the club at the end of that season and returned to the butcher trade.

International career.

When Vernon began his international career in 1944 there were in effect, two Ireland teams, chosen by two rival associations. Both associations, the Northern Ireland – based IFA and the Ireland – based FAI claimed jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland and selected players from the whole island. As a result, several notable Irish players from this era, including Vernon played for both teams. In addition Vernon also played twice for a Great Britain XI.

IFA XI.

Between 1944 and 1951, Vernon made 21 appearances for the IFA XI. He made his debut in an 8–4 defeat against a "Combined Services XI" at Windsor Park on 9 September 1944. This team was basically a Great Britain XI and featured, among others, Matt Busby, Stanley Matthews, Tommy Lawton and Stan Mortensen. During the 1945–46 season he also played in the three Victory internationals. On 27 November 1946 he helped the IFA XI gain a 0–0 draw with Scotland. The draw helped the IFA XI finish as runners-up in the 1947 British Home Championship. Vernon also helped the IFA XI gain some further respectable results, including a 2–0 win against Scotland on 4 October 1947 and a 2–2 draw with England at Goodison Park on 5 November 1947. On 12 May 1951 he also helped the IFA XI gain a 2–2 draw with France. Vernon played his last game for the IFA XI on 20 November 1951 in a 2–0 defeat to England.

FAI XI.

In 1946 Vernon also made 2 appearances for the FAI XI. He was one of several players born in Northern Ireland who benefited from the FAI's attempts to establish an all-Ireland influence. In June 1946 when the FAI organised an Iberian tour, Vernon, together with Jimmy McAlinden, Billy McMillan and Paddy Sloan, was one of four Northern Irish players called up. Vernon subsequently played in both the 3–1 defeat to Portugal on 16 June and then helped the FAI XI gain a 1–0 victory against Spain on 23 June.

Great Britain XI.

On 10 May 1947, Vernon, together with Stanley Matthews, Wilf Mannion, Tommy Lawton and Billy Liddell, played for a Great Britain XI against a Europe XI at Hampden Park. The game was arranged to celebrate England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland rejoining FIFA. On 3 December 1951 at Ninian Park he also captained a Great Britain XI against Wales as the Football Association of Wales celebrated their 75th anniversary.

Honours.

As a player.

Belfast Celtic  West Bromwich Albion  Ireland

As player-manager.

Crusaders

John Joseph Vernon (26 September 1918 – 24 August 1981) also referred to as Jackie Vernon, was an Irish footballer who played for, among others, Belfast Celtic and West Bromwich Albion. Vernon was a dual international and played for both Ireland teams – the IFA XI and the FAI XI. He also played on two occasions for a Great Britain XI.


Background.

Thuận Tông was born in 1378 as Trần Ngung, youngest son of the Retired Emperor Trần Nghệ Tông, and his wife, the Queen Thục Đức. After the dethronement and forced suicide of Trần Phế Đế in December 1387, Prince Chiêm Định Trần Ngung, only ten at that time, was chosen by his father for the position of successor as Trần Thuận Tông. The new era name under Thuận Tông's reign was Quang Thái (光泰, 1388–1398).

As emperor.

Although being the Emperor of Vietnam, Phế Đế only reigned in name because it was Nghệ Tông and Hồ Quý Ly who held the real power. In January 1389, Thuận Tông married the eldest daughter of Hồ Quý Ly as Queen Thánh Ngâu.  Less than one year from Thuận Tông's coronation, Chế Bồng Nga continued to attack Đại Việt in October 1389. Under the command of Hồ Quý Ly, Đại Việt's army suffered a heavy defeat in Thanh Hóa which made Hồ Quý Ly fled from the battle and left the position for his subordinate. After this event, Hồ Quý Ly resigned from the military leader and general Trần Khát Chân was appointed by Nghệ Tông to take charge of stopping Champa. In January 1390, Trần Khát Chân had a decisive victory over Champa which resulted in the death of Chế Bồng Nga and thus the stable situation in southern border of Đại Việt. At home, Trần's Dynasty also had to face with several revolts ignited by famine and Chế Bồng Nga's stimulation. In December 1389, the revolt led by monk Phạm Sư Ôn even attacked Thăng Long and forced Nghệ Tông and Thuận Tông flee to Bắc Giang before general Phụ Thế brought his troops from the front line with Champa back to pacify the revolt and kill Phạm Sư Ôn. During the reign of Thuận Tông, Hồ Quý Ly gradually eliminated all opponents in royal court such as Nguyễn Đa Phương, who was forced to commit suicide in 1389, Prince Trang Định Trần Ngạc, who was killed by order of Quý Ly in 1391 or Trần Nhật Chương who was killed after Nghệ Tông's decision in 1392. Trần Nghệ Tông deceased on December 15 of Lunar calendar, 1394 at the age of 73 and left royal court in the total control of Hồ Quý Ly. He began to reform the administrative and examination systems of Trần Dynasty and eventually obliged Thuận Tông to change the capital from Thăng Long to Thanh Hóa in January 1397.  On March 15 of Lunar calendar, 1398, under pressure of Hồ Quý Ly, Thuận Tông, had to cede the throne to his three-year-old son Trần An, now Trần Thiếu Đế, and held the title Retired Emperor at age 20. According to "Đại Việt sử kí toàn thư", actually Hồ Quý Ly wanted to overthrow Thuận Tông but before his death, Nghệ Tông made Quý Ly promise him supporting the Emperor therefore Hồ Quý Ly decided to force Thuận Tông resign before taking over the throne from the new emperor.  Finally, Hồ Quý Ly ordered a general to kill Thuận Tông in 1399 and buried the Retired Emperor in Yên Sinh Lăng. Two powerful figure in royal court Trần Khát Chân and Trần Hãng were also killed not long after the death of Thuận Tông and Trần Dynasty collapsed in 1400 when Hồ Quý Ly established his own dynasty, Hồ Dynasty.

Family.

Trần Thuận Tông had one wife, Queen Thánh Ngâu who was Hồ Quý Ly's daughter and one son, Crown Prince Trần An who became the Emperor Trần Thiếu Đế, the last emperor of Trần Dynasty.  |- style="text-align: center;"

Trần Thuận Tông, (1378–1399), given name Trần Ngung, was the eleventh emperor of the Trần Dynasty who reigned in Đại Việt from 1388 to 1398. He was chosen to succeed to this position by his father, the Retired Emperor Trần Nghệ Tông, after Nghệ Tông decided to dethrone and force Trần Phế Đế to commit suicide. Although holding the position emperor for ten years and retired emperor for one more year, Thuận Tông's reign was totally under the control of Nghệ Tông and Hồ Quý Ly. It was Hồ Quý Ly who obliged Thuận Tông to change the capital from Thăng Long to Thanh Hóa, Hồ Quý Ly was also responsible for the resignation of Thuận Tông as emperor and his death afterward. Only one year after Thuận Tông's death, the Trần Dynasty collapsed while Hồ Quý Ly established his own dynasty, Hồ Dynasty.


Before the Castle.

The Viking sea-king, Tomrair mac Ailchi, built the first permanent Viking stronghold on Inis Sibhtonn (King's Island) in 922. He used the base to raid the length of the River Shannon from Lough Derg to Lough Ree, pillaging ecclesiastical settlements. In 937 the Limerick Vikings clashed with those of Dublin on Lough Ree and were defeated. In 943 they were defeated again when the chief of the local Dalcassian clan joined with Ceallachán, king of Munster and the Limerick Vikings were forced to pay tribute to the clans. The power of the Vikings never recovered, and they were reduced to the level of a minor clan, however often playing pivotal parts in the endless power struggles of the next few centuries.

Early history.

The arrival of the Anglo-Normans to the area in 1172 changed everything. Domhnall Mór Ó Briain burned the city to the ground in 1174 in a bid to keep it from the hands of the new invaders. After he died in 1194, the Anglo-Normans finally captured the area in 1195 under John, Lord of Ireland. In 1197, Limerick was given its first charter and its first Mayor, Adam Sarvant. A castle, built on the orders of King John and bearing his name, was completed around 1210. The castle was built on the boundary of the River Shannon in order to protect the city from the Gaelic kingdoms to the west and from any rebellion by Norman lords to the east and south. Under the general peace imposed by the Norman rule, Limerick prospered as both a port and a trading centre, partly due to the castle acting as a watchdog on any cargo passing through the port of Limerick. By this time the city was divided into an area became known as "English Town" on King's Island, while another settlement, named "Irish Town" had grown on the south bank of the river. The town of Limerick became so wealthy during this era King John set up a mint in the North West corner of the castle, with pennies and half pennies from this time available to see in Limerick museum today. A 1574 document prepared for the Spanish ambassador attests to its wealth:  Luke Gernon, an English-born judge and resident of Limerick, wrote an equally flattering account of the city in 1620:

Siege of Limerick.

The walls of the castle were severely damaged in the 1642 Siege of Limerick, the first of five sieges of the city in the 17th century. In 1642, the castle was occupied by Protestants fleeing the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and was besieged by an Irish Confederate force under Garret Barry. Barry had no siege artillery so he undermined the walls of King John's Castle by digging away their foundations. Those inside surrendered just before Barry collapsed the walls. However, such was the damage done to the wall's foundations that a section of them had to be pulled down afterward.

2013 Redevelopment.

Between 2011 and 2013, the castle underwent a massive redevelopment, with €5.7 million spent to improve the visitor facilities of the castle. Among the improvements were a brand new visitor centre, interactive exhibitions with computer generated animations, and a cafe with views onto the courtyard and the river.

King John's Castle () is a 13th-century castle located on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland, next to the River Shannon. Although the site dates back to 922 when the Vikings lived on the Island, the castle itself was built on the orders of King John in 1200. One of the best preserved Norman castles in Europe, the walls, towers and fortifications remain today and are visitor attractions. The remains of a Viking settlement were uncovered during archaeological excavations at the site in 1900.


Plot.

A mysterious outlaw, known only as The Sidewinder (Victor Jory), is terrorizing Arizona settlers. A rancher whose property was raided, Tex McCloud (Sterling Hayden), and a U.S. Cavalry officer named Blaine (Forrest Tucker) both decide to seek justice. They even make a friendly wager over which one will get to The Sidewinder first.  A wealthy saloon entertainer, Carolina (Arleen Whelan), tries to persuade Tex to also go after Lucky Lee, a mine owner who owes her $20,000. She also tries to seduce Tex, but he's not interested.  After he changes hotel rooms with Lucky's longtime sweetheart, Nora Logan (Barbara Rush), an ambush is attempted by gambler Showdown Calhoun (Richard Arlen) and his partner, who come to the wrong room. Nora is the one they're after, and she becomes a kidnap victim on the stagecoach. For the second time, though, Tex rides to her rescue.  Nora explains that she's involved with Lucky only out of gratitude for one saving her from a similar assault. Lucky offers a theory that Tombstone Jack is the notorious Sidewinder, but after Carolina sneaks up on Tombstone and kills him, Tex and Blaine begin to suspect that Lucky is the man they're after. Turquoise (Carol Thurston), a Ute woman who loves Lucky, knows for a fact he's the outlaw.  Now the marshal for the territory, Tex and a posse go after Lucky, who has snatched Nora and ridden off to a hideout. Lucky conspires with a band of Utes to attack the posse. Carolina and Showdown are killed. Tex and Blaine get to the hideout, but the jealous Turquoise has already killed Lucky, beating them to the punch. The men call off their wager.

Flaming Feather is a 1952 Technicolor Western film directed by Ray Enright and starring Sterling Hayden. The film was shot on location around Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, Arizona, and at the Montezuma Castle National Monument near Sedona. The local Yavapai Indians, who were employed as extras on the production, refused to enter the cliff-dwellings because they represented the "dwelling place of the dead." Consequently, production was delayed while a band of Navajos was brought in from a reservation 137 miles away to replace them.


Career.

Television.

Jackson appeared in 159 episodes of the TV series "Baywatch", more than any other actor apart from David Hasselhoff, playing Hobie Buchannon from season 2 through season 10 (1991–1999).

Music career.

Jackson was introduced to music by David Hasselhoff, who starred on "Baywatch", on which Jackson appeared. Jackson later supported Hasselhoff on his 1993 European tour and Jackson was signed to Edel Records by Peter Lopez. An Australian musician, Mark Holden, who was working with Hasselhoff, wrote a number of songs and produced the album.

Other.

Jackson was featured in "Vanity Fair's" Hollywood Issue in March 2006. He has been referred to as "Mr. MySpace" and was a guest on "The Tyra Banks Show". Jackson has performed in clubs from London to Las Vegas. Jackson endorsed Ed Hardy Clothing, and has hosted fashion shows around the world for the fashion house.  He appeared on VH1's "Confessions of a Teen Idol", a reality show in which former teen idols attempt to revitalize their careers. In one episode, he claimed he beat out Leonardo DiCaprio for the part of Hobie Buchannon; this was later verified by David Hasselhoff. The show is co-produced by Scott Baio and Jason Hervey.  In 2012, Jeremy worked with PhilaDreams Films on the unreleased independent movie, "Dreams", which was filmed by Thomas J. Walton and Vaughn Goland.  In January 2015, Jackson participated in the United Kingdom reality television series "Celebrity Big Brother" on Channel 5. After four days, producers removed him from the house for opening fellow housemate Chloe Goodman's dressing gown against her will. Jackson was later cautioned by the Hertfordshire Police following their investigation into common assault.

Personal life.

In 2008, a sex tape of Jackson and adult video star Sky Lopez was offered for sale. Jackson asserted that he was physically threatened into giving the tape to men who claimed they represented Lopez.  In an interview on the E! TV special "Child Star Confidential" Jackson stated that problems with drugs contributed to his departure from "Baywatch", but that he had overcome his addiction following rehabilitation. In 2011, Jackson was a fifth-season cast member on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew", which depicted his recovery from steroid addiction.  In 2017, as part of a plea bargain, Jackson was sentenced to 270 days in jail for a 2015 stabbing.

Jeremy Dunn Jackson (born October 16, 1980) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Hobie Buchannon on the television show "Baywatch".


Biography.

Hambleton was born in Canada to an English father and he held dual citizenship, Canadian and British. He studied in the United Kingdom and in Canada, including Lisgar Collegiate Institute, in Ottawa, and also spent part of his childhood in France, where his father was a press correspondent.  In 1944 and 1945, he was with the Free French Forces in Algiers and served as liaison agent with the United States Army. In 1945, he integrated the Intelligence Branch of the Canadian Army.  In 1952, he was recruited by a Soviet agent. In 1954, he studied economics at the Sorbonne. In 1956, he began working for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in Paris. He worked there for five years, during which he provided information to the Soviet Union. In 1961, he studied at the London School of Economics, where he obtained a doctorate. In 1964, he became professor of economics at Laval University. He had some contacts with teachers of University Laval among them, Henri Dorion, specialist of Soviet Union and with some elements of Liberal party.  In 1977, his Soviet supervisor, known under the pseudonym Rudolf ("Rudy") Herman, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. In 1978, Hermann became an informant of the FBI and revealed the identity of Soviet spies in America, including Hambleton. Information about Hambleton was also provided by defector Anatoliy Golitsyn. On November 5, 1979 Hambleton's home was searched and spying material was found. Hambleton was questioned multiple times over many years by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but he was not arrested. In the early 1980s, Canadian media made the Hambleton affair public. Members of Parliament asked questions about it in the Canadian House of Commons, but the Canadian government invoked the necessity of secrecy.  In June, 1982 Hambleton was arrested in the United Kingdom, during a transit there. He was tried in the United Kingdom, under the British "Official Secrets Act". He pleaded guilty and, on December 7, 1982 he was sentenced by Mr Justice Croom-Johnson to ten years in prison. He spent jail time in Gartree Prison, in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He was transferred to a prison in Canada in June, 1986. He was liberated under surveillance in March, 1989 and died in 1995.

Hugh George Hambleton (1922–1995) was a Canadian and British economist and a spy in the service of the Soviet Union.


Films.

"Blade" (1998).

Blade grows up to become a Vampire Hunter, swearing vengeance on the creatures that killed his mother. He teams up with a man called Whistler, a retired vampire hunter and weapons expert.  Meanwhile, in the urban underworld, a feud is started between "pure-blood" vampires and those who had been human, but were "turned." Blade becomes aware of this and investigates further, uncovering a plot to raise the blood god La Magra, something he must stop at all costs.

"Blade II" (2002).

A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community. "Reapers" are vampires so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. Now their quickly expanding population threatens the existence of vampires, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler and an armory expert named Scud are curiously summoned by the Shadow Council. The council reluctantly admits that they are in a dire situation and they require Blade's assistance. Blade then tenuously enters into an alliance with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires who were trained in all modes of combat to defeat Blade. They'll use their skills instead to help wipe out the Reaper threat. Blade's team and the Bloodpack are the only line of defense which can prevent the Reaper population from wiping out the vampire and human populations.

"Blade: Trinity" (2004).

In the final installment of the series, the vampires succeed in framing Blade for the killing of a human (who was in fact a familiar being used as bait). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI, has to join forces with the Nightstalkers, a human clan of vampire hunters. Blade, Hannibal King, and Abigail Whistler go after Danica Talos, who has succeeded in locating and resurrecting Drake, also known as Dracula, the first vampire and by far the most powerful. In order to stop him, Blade has to release a virus that will wipe out all vampires, but being a dhampir, he must face the possibility of also dying as a result.

Reboot.

In October 2008, "Blade" director Stephen Norrington was confirmed to be developing on a prequel trilogy to "Blade", featuring Stephen Dorff reprising his role as Deacon Frost. However, by August 2012, the film rights to Blade had reverted to Marvel Studios. In May 2013, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Marvel had a working script for Blade. By July 2015 Wesley Snipes stated that he had discussed the possibility of reprising his role from the first three films with Marvel Studios. In October 2016, star of "Underworld" film series Kate Beckinsale, stated that a crossover film between the franchises had been discussed as a sequel to "Blade: Trinity" with Snipes returning, but was declined because Marvel Studios had plans to implement the character into the MCU.  In July 20, 2019 at the San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios announced that it would be rebooting the character and integrating Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Mahershala Ali being cast as the title character. Feige later revealed that Ali called Marvel Studios, proposing to portray the role with a pitch to make a new "Blade" film. The actor previously portrayed Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of "Luke Cage" TV series.

Television.

"Blade" (2006).

In 2006, Spike TV aired a thirteen-episode series set after the events of "Blade: Trinity", with Sticky Fingaz portraying Blade, replacing Snipes.

Blade is a film and television franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics superhero of the same name, portrayed by Wesley Snipes in the film series and Sticky Fingaz on the television series. The films were written by David S. Goyer (who directed the third film and also served as a co-writer for the TV series in the first two and last episodes), based on the comics by Marv Wolfman, and Gene Colan. The three films were directed by Stephen Norrington, Guillermo del Toro and Goyer respectively, and distributed by New Line Cinema.


Early life.

Josh was born in Wooster, Ohio to Lisa and Ron Krajcik. Josh has an older brother named Zack. He began taking piano lessons at an early age and has indicated that he had one piano teacher that taught him basic music theory as well as how to read music, while another piano teacher taught him how to play by ear. Josh was in junior high when he began playing guitar. He received his first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, from his dad, Ron, when he was 12 years old. His father also plays guitar and the two have been known to often jam together.

Triway High School.

While Josh's hometown is Wooster, he did not attend Wooster City Schools. Josh attended nearby Triway Local Schools where he graduated from Triway High School in 1999. Josh was a member of the choir during his high school years and is still an ardent supporter of the arts in education, specifically the Triway Local Schools Music Boosters.

Performing career.

Early years.

Some media outlets have reported that Josh began performing in front of live audiences during his teenage years. Josh himself admits to lying about his age in order to get early gigs at bars around Wayne County, Ohio. His first gig was at a bar near Lodi, Ohio, called The Shady Glen. Despite being only 16 at the time, Josh convinced the owners he was 22 and received $100 for the gig. After high school, Josh fronted a number of bands and projects while living in the Wooster, Ohio, area. Unreleased tracks are in limited circulation from Josh's time with ""Etherface" " and "Love Lies Bleeding".  He has played various venues in Ohio, including in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron, Bowling Green, Wooster and others.

Josh Krajcik Band.

After years of performing solo and in bands, Josh was introduced to bass player Mitch Pinkston in Bowling Green, Ohio. Once Mitch graduated from Bowling Green State University, he moved to Columbus. Josh would visit and play acoustic shows with Mitch. In 2005, Josh booked a full band show at a venue called The Blues Station (now The Garage Bar) without having a drummer for the band. Josh asked the sound engineer at the club, Eric French, if he knew anybody that could sit in and play drums for the show. Eric introduced Josh to local drummer Corey Gillen, and the three would continue performing together as Josh Krajcik Band through 2011, with rhythm guitar player, Eric French, added to the band in early 2011.  After the formation of Josh Krajcik Band, Josh promptly recorded the band's first record "Ghosts" (2005) with Joe Viers at Schwab Studios in Columbus, Ohio. Shortly after, the band went on tour to support Hollywood Records artist, and fellow Ohio native, Gran Bel Fisher. On tour they opened for such prestigious artists as: Corinne Bailey Rae, Brandi Carlile, and The Fray. After performing at Bonnaroo in 2006, they appeared on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and NPR's renowned "World Cafe" in 2007.  Upon their return to Ohio, Josh Krajcik Band continued building its fan-base in the mid-west by playing live shows in Columbus (Comfest), Wooster (Javapalooza, WoosterFest), Cleveland (Brother's Lounge), Cincinnati (Mt Adams Music Festival), Toledo, Newport (Southgate House), and Nashville (The Billy Block Show). They also began working on songs for their second record, "Atavistic." Looking to build upon the feel and mood of "Ghosts," they again worked with co-producer/engineer Joe Viers, this time at Sonic Lounge Studios in Grove City, Ohio. A release party was held for "Atavistic" on February 11, 2011, at Victory's in the Columbus, Ohio, Brewery District.

"The X Factor".

Josh auditioned for the first season in Chicago, Illinois of Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" USA in front of Cowell, Paula Abdul, Cheryl Cole and L.A. Reid. Josh performed "At Last" at his audition. The video of his audition has been viewed over 15 million times on YouTube. He went on to become one of the Top 32 and performed in the Judges Houses round "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in front of special guest Enrique Iglesias and mentor Nicole Scherzinger (who replaced Cole). From there, he moved on to become one of the finalists (Final 16), qualifying for the live shows in the Over-30s category mentored by Scherzinger. During the live shows, he gave the following performances:

After "The X Factor".

After finishing "The X Factor", Josh began working on his album and touring regionally in the midwest. Recording for the album took place between Los Angeles and London. Throughout the recording process Josh worked with producers Eg White, Steve Robson, Steve Kipner, Andrew Frampton, and more. He continued to play sold-out shows throughout the midwest while the album was mixed and mastered.  On November 29, 2012, Krajcik performed as a guest artist on "The X Factor". He performed his song "One Thing She'll Never Know" and released a 4-song EP on iTunes, titled Josh Krajcik EP, that same night. In recent interviews Josh has stated that he will continue to tour and release a full-length album in Spring 2013. On February 8, Krajcik confirmed the release of his first album "Blindly, Lonely, Lovely", it was released April 2, 2013.  Josh released his first solo independent album - "Oblivion" - on May 18, 2017. Co-written and co-produced with Bill Patterson (The Wet Darlings) the six song EP "traded in horn sections and other big-budget production flourishes (of "Blindly, Lonely, Lovely") for an up-close, personal sound".  In December 2018 Krajcik released a cover of the Etta James song that won him a spot on The X Factor - At Last.

Joshua Andrew Krajcik ( ) is an American singer-songwriter who currently resides in Columbus, Ohio. He began his career as a solo artist and later went on to form the Josh Krajcik Band with Corey Gillen and Mitch Pinkston. He was the runner-up in the first season of "The X Factor USA" in 2011.


Plot summary: 1939 edition.

Nancy and her friends Bess and George stumble across a Persian cat on the road. They return the cat to Annie Carter, an elderly woman who keeps twenty-five cats in her house. The girls befriend the kindly Miss Carter, but while at her house, they are disrupted by neighbors who are annoyed with the cats. It is here that Nancy uncovers her next mystery. Fred Bunce, one of the neighbors, had taken care of a boy named Gus Woonton, who was reportedly mentally and physically challenged. Miss Carter took a liking to the boy while he was with Fred Bunce and his wife, so she paid for him to live at the Riverside Institution, in hopes of Gus receiving proper care for his ailments. Miss Carter receives a telegram that Gus Woonton has died, and Fred Bunce seems quite eager to pay for funeral expenses, which makes Nancy suspicious.  Once the neighbors leave, Nancy meets a man in front of Miss Carter’s home asking for a Lady Violette. Nancy informs him that there is no such person at this address, only to be informed that Miss Carter, a former actress, played a character named Lady Violette in one of her past plays. Nancy quickly tracks down the man, Horace St. Will, and he and Miss Carter are happily reunited. Mr. St. Will tells Nancy that he used to know a Ralph Woonton, which was the name of Gus’s father. Mr. St. Will gives Nancy and her father some old letters from Ralph Woonton, however he tells them that Ralph Woonton and his wife never had a son. Nancy believes that Gus Woonton received an inheritance in trust from his parents, which was stolen by Fred Bunce. Her suspicions grow stronger when she trails Bunce into a stock market firm, where she sees the considerable amount of money he has lost in faulty stocks. But soon after the episode, the Bunces mysteriously leave their apartment. Nancy, Bess and George investigate the vacated apartment, where they find two of Miss Carter’s Persian kittens, and returns them to her.  Miss Carter has very little money, as she sends regular checks to a young actress named Beverly Barrett in New York City. Miss Carter injured her leg when she first met Nancy, so the girl detective engages Mrs. Bealing, a cousin of Hannah Gruen’s, to take care of her and her cats. The action soon takes Nancy to New York and a cruise ship, where she meets further peril in her attempt to restore the child's funds, and help restore Miss Carter's financial position. Nancy's tapping becomes the means by which she is rescued after being kidnapped, and leads to finding the missing child.

1969 revision.

Nancy is appearing as a tap dancer in a charity show. Along with chums Bess and George, she begins investigating strange tapping sounds at the elderly Mrs. Purdy's home. Mrs. Purdy is a cat enthusiast who owns mostly valuable breeding stock. Nancy determines a hoax is afoot, attacks are occurring at the charity show, and the mysterious tapping sounds continue. Could they be coded messages?

Artwork.

The original Russell H. Tandy cover art shows an animated and visibly angry Nancy accompanied Bess and George. They are seizing a ladder at Nancy's house by moonlight. Discussions among collectors draw the conclusion that elements of this depiction were incorrect because the publisher's art department dictated that the scene must show Nancy with her friends. Also, the house does not match the description of Nancy Drew's home. The revised cover artwork by Rudy Nappi for the 1962 picture cover shows the same scene, corrected to match the actual text, but lacking action. Nancy, alone, sees the ladder outside her home at night. For the 1969 revised edition, the cover art is very vivid and somewhat psychedelic, with images of Nancy tap dancing, and a head shot beneath a large Persian cat head, all on a sunflower-yellow background. This version was also painted by Nappi.

Critique.

Adult collectors of nostalgia and juvenile series fiction often discuss book titles in fanzines or list serves. The original "Clue of the Tapping Heels" places much focus on cats, and also on a "lost love" subplot involving Miss Carter and her former leading man. A minor element of political incorrectness exists in that one crook, wearing partial make-up and wigs is described as a freckle-faced, colored man. Incense is used as a drug against Nancy and George, an element removed from the revision, as drugs were popular in teen culture at the time. Further, a young boy suffering from developmental and intellectual disabilities regains his full faculties after surgery, which is highly unlikely.  The revision also draws criticism, mostly from liberal circles, due to what some feel are overt placements of Nancy commenting on her desire to attend church as often as she can, and contains much physical action and danger, but is generally somewhat more believable in tone.

The Clue of the Tapping Heels is the 16th volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1939. An updated, revised, and largely different story was published under the same title in 1970. A facsimile edition of the 1939 version was published by Applewood Books., this title is still in print.


Plot summary.

More than a year has passed since the previous book, "The Darkest Hour". Bramblepaw, Tigerstar's son, has received his warrior name, Brambleclaw. Firestar has had two kits with Sandstorm, named Squirrelpaw and Leafpaw. Squirrelpaw is apprenticed to Dustpelt, and Leafpaw is apprenticed to Cinderpelt, in training to become the next medicine cat of ThunderClan. While Leafpaw and Cinderpelt search for herbs, StarClan, the cats' ancestors, sends Cinderpelt an ominous warning in some burning bracken, a picture of a tiger running through fire, which she interprets to mean that fire and tiger will destroy the forest. Cinderpelt concludes that the warning must be about Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw, the daughter of Firestar and the son of Tigerstar. They share the warning with Firestar, who later decides to keep Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw separated.  In a dream, StarClan tells Brambleclaw, Feathertail (Graystripe's daughter), Crowpaw, and Tawnypelt (formerly Tawnypaw, Brambleclaw's sister) to listen to what "midnight" has to say. Eventually, they begin a journey in the direction of the setting sun. Squirrelpaw tags along and Stormfur insists on accompanying them to protect his sister, Feathertail, as the six cats trek into the unknown world. On their journey, they meet an old loner named Purdy who helps the Clan cats get to the sun-drown place (ocean). Eventually, they reach the sun-drown-place and enter a cavern inhabited by a highly intelligent American badger known as Midnight, able to speak the languages of cats, foxes and rabbits, who reveals to them that humans will destroy the forest and that the cats must either leave the forest or die. She also tells them that a dying warrior will lead the Clans to their new home. The book ends with a short epilogue back in the forest, where the humans begin to destroy ThunderClan's territory.

Publication history.

"Midnight" was first released in the US and Canada in hardcover on May 10, 2005. It was released in the UK on October 25, 2006. It was released in paperback on April 4, 2006. It was also released for the Amazon Kindle on November 6, 2007.

Critical reception.

The reception of "Midnight" was mixed. Children's Literature gave a negative review. Points raised in the review include the demotion of Firestar to a simple spokesman, the huge volume of characters, and the "wimpy" group of traveling cats. However, the review did praise the character of Squirrelpaw. On the other hand, Kirkus Reviews said the novel was "structurally solid". BookLoons called the new generation "engaging".

Inspiration and influences.

The forest depicted in the book is based on New Forest, a forest in southern England. The herbs that the cats use for healing is based on information found in "Culpeper's Herbal" by Nicholas Culpeper.

Midnight is a fantasy novel, the first book in Erin Hunter's "Warriors: The New Prophecy" series. Following "The Darkest Hour" and "", and preceding "Moonrise", it was released May 10, 2005. The novel centers on a group of feral cats living in four Clans: ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan.


Pre-release.

In April 2012, lead singer, Ben Bridwell, revealed that Band of Horses' fourth studio album was scheduled for release in late 2012, with production by Glyn Johns. In June 2012, via Facebook and YouTube, the band shared a video preview of a new song, "Dumpster World," and confirmed a September 2012 release for the album.  On July 10, 2012, the fourth album's title was confirmed as "Mirage Rock", and the track listing and artwork were also unveiled. Bridwell has stated that there is no such place as Mirage Rock and explained that the name "is a total piss take." Prior to the official launch of "Mirage Rock" on September 18, "Knock Knock" and "Slow Cruel Hands of Time" were released as previews of the album. On September 10, 2012, the entire album was streamed on both the Band of Horses SoundCloud page and the official website.  Just prior to the album's release, the track "Mirage Rock" was made available on the internet. Although this is billed as the "title track" it does not appear on the regular version of the album, but is one of five tracks on the deluxe edition of "Mirage Rock". These five tracks were recorded at the Sonic Ranch studios in Texas.

Recording.

Bridwell explained that Johns recorded "Mirage Rock" with both "analogue and live" technology, with the album having "a looser vibe than our previous records." He described the album as "haphazard...loose and raw at times...letting our hair down," with "more humour" and a "celebratory vibe."

Reception.

"Mirage Rock" has received generally favourable reviews. It currently has an aggregate score of 68 out of 100 from 29 professional reviews on the Metacritic website.  The album was ranked number 50 on "American Songwriter"s and number 19 on "Rolling Stone"s lists of the top 50 albums of 2012. "Rolling Stone" said, "They conjure the embroidered-blue-jean countryrock of The Eagles (whose first LPs were helmed by Johns) and spike it with punk noise and a 21st-century bloodshot optimism."  The album debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200, number 4 on the Alternative Albums chart and number 7 on the Rock Albums chart, selling around 24,000 copies in the first week. It has sold 75,000 copies in the United States as of May 2016.  The single "Knock Knock" was a minor hit in Belgium, reaching number 73 in the singles chart. The follow-up single "Slow Cruel Hands of Time" peaked at number 68.

Sonic Ranch Sessions.

The deluxe version of the album includes an EP, titled "Sonic Ranch Sessions". It was recorded in El Paso, Texas at Sonic Ranch Studio and produced by the band.

Album credits.

Band of Horses  Additional musicians  Recording personnel  Artwork  Sonic Ranch Sessions

Mirage Rock is the fourth studio album by Band of Horses and was released on September 18, 2012 on Columbia Records. Produced by Glyn Johns, the album was preceded by the single, "Knock Knock".


History.

Landover was named for the town of Llandovery, Wales.  The former CDPs of Landover, Dodge Park, Kentland, and Palmer Park, defined as such by the U.S. Census Bureau in the 1990 U.S. Census, were consolidated into the Greater Landover CDP as of the 2000 U.S. Census. This amalgamated area was renamed the Landover CDP as of the 2010 U.S. Census.

Geography.

Landover is located at. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it has an area of, of which, or 0.13%, is water. Landover residents have the postal zipcode of 20785. Since Landover is an unincorporated community in Prince George's County, residents of Landover have Hyattsville postal addresses though they live in Landover and not Hyattsville. Landover does not have its own postal zipcode.  Landover consists of several small subdivisions which are notably Ardwick Park, Kentland, Kenmoor, Dodge Park, Brightseat, Palmer Park, Columbia Park, Village Green, White House Heights, and Summerfield. Landover has been home to the Fedex Field Stadium, which the Washington Redskins NFL Football team have played at since it opened in 1997. It is also home to the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex, WMATA's Landover Metrobus Division, WMATA's Carmen E. Turner Maintenance Facility, Giant Food Corporate Office, Giant Food Corporate Plant, National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery, and Ardwick Industrial Park. WMATA Metrorail's Orange Line from New Carrollton to Vienna, MARC train Line to the BWI Light Rail Station to Washington D.C.'s Union Station, Cargo Trains, and Amtrak's Train Line from Washington D.C.'s Union Station to New York's Penn Station via Wilmington and Philadelphia, all go through Landover. Landover Hills is a separate, incorporated community just across the Orange Line train tracks and John Hanson Highway (U.S. Highway 50) to the north. Landover is the birthplace of the late Len Bias. From 1960 to 1972, Landover was the home of jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, author, and jazz educator Steve Rochinski.  For the 2000 census, Landover was delineated by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Greater Landover census-designated place.

Economy.

Giant Food has its headquarters in a location in unincorporated Prince George's County in the Ardwick Industrial Park area, near Landover. The Giant Food Headquarters is located next to the New Carrollton Metro Station. It is served by the F13 metrobus shuttle that goes from the Cheverly Metro station to Washington Business Park.

Arts and culture.

Beall's Pleasure and Ridgley Methodist Episcopal Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A Harlem Renaissance Festival occurs at Kentland-Columbia Park Community Center in Landover every year in May. In 2014, the National Archives for Black Women's History was controversially relocated from Washington, D.C., to 3300 Hubbard Road in Landover.

Sports.

FedExField is a football stadium for the Washington Redskins of the NFL in the neighboring CDP of Summerfield and has a Landover postal address. See also Raljon, Maryland.  The Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex is also in Summerfield CDP, located on approximately adjacent to FedExField.

Government.

Prince George's County Police Department headquarters, which is also District 3 Station, is in the Palmer Park area in Landover CDP.  The U.S. Postal Service operates the Landover Post Office in the CDP.

Education.

Public education.

Landover is a part of the Prince George's County Public Schools system.  Elementary schools serving sections of the Landover CDP include: Columbia Park, Dodge Park, Cooper Lane, Gladys Noon Spellman, Highland Park, and William Paca. Middle schools serving sections of the Landover CDP include: G. James Gholson, Kenmoor, and Charles Carroll. Senior high schools serving sections of the Landover CDP include: Fairmont Heights, Charles Herbert Flowers, DuVal, and Bladensburg. The schools serving the 1990 CDP are: Cooper Lane and Gladys Noon Spellman elementaries, Charles Carroll Middle, and Bladensburg High.  When desegregation busing began in 1972, PG County school officials bused many black children in Landover to schools with large numbers of white students in other areas of the county. Since then many schools in the Landover area had closed. David Nakamura of the "Washington Post" stated that many Landover residents believed that desegregation busing contributed to the socioeconomic decline of Landover. In 1998 the busing program was abolished due to a settlement in federal court.  Matthew Henson Elementary School was previously in the CDP. It was scheduled to close in 2009. In 2012 EXCEL Academy agreed to open a charter school in the former Henson space, and it moved from its previous campus in Riverdale.  Other area schools:

Colleges and universities.

Landover had career-based colleges, such as Fortis College, that offer programs including bio-technician, medical assisting, and medical coding and billing.

Infrastructure.

Transportation.

Landover is one of the few regions in the Washington, D.C. area that is served directly by two separate Washington Metro rail lines. Landover is served by both the Orange and Blue lines (many DC area suburbs are not served directly by Metrorail at all). The Landover Washington Metro station serves the northern portion of Landover on the Orange Line. The Landover Metro Station is also the primary metro station that serves the Landover area. The Morgan Boulevard Metro station, constructed in 2004, serves the southern portion of Landover on the Blue Line and is the main rail terminus providing access to FedExField, which is home to the Washington Redskins in addition to many other sporting and entertainment events. Landover also has a special Metrobus Division also houses many metrobuses that serve routes in Prince George's County, Maryland.  In addition to the Landover and Morgan Boulevard Metro Stations that primarily serve the Landover area, Landover residents have access to other metro stations nearby, such as the New Carrollton Metro Station, Cheverly Metro Station, Largo Town Center Metro Station, and Addison Road-Seat Pleasant Metro Station.  I-495/95, the Capital Beltway, crosses U.S. Route 50 in Landover. The Beltway also has junctions with Maryland Route 202 (Landover Road) and Brightseat Road, which leads directly to FedExField.

Shopping.

Landover was the home of Landover Mall, owned and operated by Lerner Enterprises. Built in 1972, it was the first enclosed mall in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to house four high-end retail anchor stores: Garfinkel's, Hecht's (owned by the May company), Woodward and Lothrop (popularly known as Woodies), and Sears. The mall also housed a multiplex movie theater located in the basement of the northeast corridor of the building. Located at the Capital Beltway and Landover Road, the mall neighbored the towns of Palmer Park, Ardmore, Glenarden, and Largo. Palmer Park was the hometown of Olympic boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Garfinkel's closed in 1990, Woodies closed in 1995 and was replaced with a J.C. Penney store that lasted from 1996 to 2001, and Hecht's closed in 2002 with the opening of the Bowie Town Center located in Bowie. The entire mall officially closed in 2003 and was demolished in 2006, with the exception of Sears. Sears closed in 2014 and was later demolished.  With the arrival in 1997 of FedExField, the home stadium for the Washington Redskins, the mall's parking lot is used for overflow parking. In 2007, according to the "Washington Post", Prince George's County officials were in the midst of developing plans to transform the area where Landover Mall once stood. County officials propose to build luxury townhouses, trendy stores, and office buildings. The goal of the project is to transform the area into a residential and cultural hub that replicates the Bowie Town Center, and The Boulevard at the Capital Centre; the latter is in Lake Arbor CDP and has a Largo postal address. Woodmore Towne Centre, featuring Costco and Wegmans, opened in 2010 in nearby Glenarden.

Parks and recreation.

The Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation operates the Kentland Community Center and the Palmer Park Community Center.

Landover is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Landover is located very close to Washington, although it does not directly border Washington D.C. unlike its neighboring communities, Chapel Oaks and Fairmount Heights, which directly border Washington D.C. and go all the way up to/touch the Maryland/ D.C. line. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 23,078.


Belgium and the Crisis of 1870.

The Treaty of London in 1839 had recognized Belgium as a sovereign state but committed it to a policy of perpetual neutrality. Its independence was intended to be guaranteed by the Belgian Army and the military intervention of the Treaty's signatory powers. However, there were doubts that the Treaty would be honoured in Belgium was attacked especially in the aftermath of the Luxembourg Crisis of 1867.  The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War led King Leopold II and the government of Jules d'Anethan, installed only two weeks before the war's outbreak, to fear that Belgium would be invaded. A career staff officer, Major General Guillaume, was appointed as a non-partisan expert Minister of War in the new cabinet. The gold reserves of the National Bank were hurried to the National Redoubt at Antwerp before the news became public. When this leaked out, it caused panic.  The Belgian Army was called up on the 15 July, the same day that both French and German armies mobilised. The Belgian troops were divided into two armies; the Army of Antwerp (15,000 men) was tasked with guarding the fortresses at Antwerp and across Belgium while the Army of Observation (55,000 men) was tasked with defending the national borders.  Many military leaders feared that, even after the outbreak of hostilities, as both French and Prussian armies manoeuvred on the Belgian border, one of them would seek a strategic advantage by an outflanking attack through Belgium, and most believed the army incapable of fending off any such attack. Indeed, in the early part of the war, French Marshal Canrobert brought an entire Army Corps (4 infantry divisions) to Châlons-sur-Marne in northern France as a reserve and to guard against any Prussian advance through Belgium. Despite key battles taking place very close to Belgian territory, including the Battle of Sedan just a few miles from the border, Belgium was never actually attacked.  In order to avoid giving the impression of belligerence in the conflict, Leopold requested that the French not commit Belgian members of the French Foreign Legion during the conflict. The French agreed and Belgian legionnaires remained in their base in French Algeria while their comrades were deployed to the front. The decision outraged the other legionaries and the Legion's march, "Le Boudin", makes repeated reference to the fact that the Belgians "[only] shoot from their rear-end" (""tireurs au cul"") because of it.

Legacy.

The Franco–Prussian War made Belgians acutely aware of the precarious situation of their country in the event of another war between the two powers. In the years following the conflict, there was widespread modernisation of the military. The system of "Remplacement" (whereby wealthy Belgians conscripted into the military could pay for a "replacement" to do their military service instead), which had been viewed as a crucial personal liberty by many Belgians was abolished, and an improved system of conscription implemented. These reforms, led by d'Anethan and under pressure from Leopold II, divided Belgian politics. The Catholics united with the Liberals under Frère-Orban to oppose them, and the reforms were finally defeated when d'Anethan's government fell during an unrelated scandal.  Eventually, the military was reformed. The 1909 System abolished the inefficient system of "Remplacement", instituting compulsory military service of eight years' service in the front lines and five years in the reserves. This swelled the size of the Belgian army to over 100,000 well-trained men. Construction of a chain of forts along Belgium's borders was intensified, and led to a series of very modern fortifications, including the so-called "National redoubt" at Antwerp, at Liège and Namur, many of them designed by the great Belgian fortress architect, Henri Alexis Brialmont.  A commemorative medal, the 1870–71 Commemorative Medal, was inaugurated to the veterans of the conflict in 1911.

Belgium was not a belligerent in the Franco–Prussian War (1870–71) but was heavily influenced by the social and political effects of the conflict. An invasion of Belgian territory by either side was widely feared in 1870 and the Belgian Army was mobilised. The inadequacies which this revealed in Belgium's military and defensive preparations led to calls to reform the system of conscription and for a programme of fortification-building which would greatly influence the early phases of World War I.


Plot summary.

In their last semester at Harvard, Sam Thatcher and his roommate, who is nicknamed "The Lippencott", have grand ideas of seeing the remote corners of the world, they having booked passage on a freighter from New York to Siberia, the trip immediately after they graduate. They plan to live and observe the economic life there for two years before they settle down. They've had such plans since they were freshmen, not wanting to be tied down to the American rat race immediately following graduation. Sam, however, has not mentioned any of these plans to his girlfriend, Alex Benson, also a student in her final semester at the New England College for Women.  Alex wants Sam to attend the college's spring dance with her to be able to show him off to the other girls, the dance a rite of passage to a serious commitment. Sam doesn't want to lead Alex on by attending but also doesn't want to miss one last opportunity to see her. His plan to graduate and attend the dance hits a snag when the sailing is moved up by two weeks, it now at the end of the weekend of the dance. Lipp, who has a mole in a mutual friend named Hat who goes to the college every weekend to visit with his girl, Frances, a friend of Alex's, doesn't trust Sam, who he feels may leave him in the lurch by not going on the trip to Siberia. Knowing that Sam, against his word, will be going to the college to see Alex anyway, Lipp decides to ambush him at the college to make sure he says his goodbyes and heads to New York for the sailing. The weekend thus becomes a race between Alex's friends, who, without Alex's knowledge, do whatever they can to ensure Sam doesn't want to make that ship, and Lipp who knows there's something afoot behind all those feminine curls. Added to the fray is the fact that the dance is being attended by boys from all the Ivy League schools, who have a friendly or not so friendly rivalry with Harvard.

Spring Madness is a 1938 American romantic comedy film based on the play of the same title by Philip Barry. It was directed by S. Sylvan Simon for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and stars Maureen O'Sullivan, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey and Burgess Meredith.


Statement.

A perfect graph is a graph in which, for every induced subgraph, the size of the maximum clique equals the minimum number of colors in a coloring of the graph; perfect graphs include many well-known graph classes including the bipartite graphs, chordal graphs, and comparability graphs. In his 1961 and 1963 works defining for the first time this class of graphs, Claude Berge observed that it is impossible for a perfect graph to contain an odd hole, an induced subgraph in the form of an odd-length cycle graph of length five or more, because odd holes have clique number two and chromatic number three. Similarly, he observed that perfect graphs cannot contain odd antiholes, induced subgraphs complementary to odd holes: an odd antihole with 2"k" + 1 vertices has clique number "k" and chromatic number "k" + 1, which is again impossible for perfect graphs. The graphs having neither odd holes nor odd antiholes became known as the Berge graphs.  Berge conjectured that every Berge graph is perfect, or equivalently that the perfect graphs and the Berge graphs define the same class of graphs. This became known as the strong perfect graph conjecture, until its proof in 2002, when it was renamed the strong perfect graph theorem.

Relation to the weak perfect graph theorem.

Another conjecture of Berge, proved in 1972 by László Lovász, is that the complement of every perfect graph is also perfect. This became known as the perfect graph theorem, or (to distinguish it from the strong perfect graph conjecture/theorem) the weak perfect graph theorem. Because Berge's forbidden graph characterization is self-complementary, the weak perfect graph theorem follows immediately from the strong perfect graph theorem.

Proof ideas.

The proof of the strong perfect graph theorem by Chudnovsky et al. follows an outline conjectured in 2001 by Conforti, Cornuéjols, Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas, according to which every Berge graph either forms one of five types of basic building block (special classes of perfect graphs) or it has one of four different types of structural decomposition into simpler graphs. A minimally imperfect Berge graph cannot have any of these decompositions, from which it follows that no counterexample to the theorem can exist. This idea was based on previous conjectured structural decompositions of similar type that would have implied the strong perfect graph conjecture but turned out to be false.  The five basic classes of perfect graphs that form the base case of this structural decomposition are the bipartite graphs, line graphs of bipartite graphs, complementary graphs of bipartite graphs, complements of line graphs of bipartite graphs, and double split graphs. It is easy to see that bipartite graphs are perfect: in any nontrivial induced subgraph, the clique number and chromatic number are both two and therefore both equal. The perfection of complements of bipartite graphs, and of complements of line graphs of bipartite graphs, are both equivalent to Kőnig's theorem relating the sizes of maximum matchings, maximum independent sets, and minimum vertex covers in bipartite graphs. The perfection of line graphs of bipartite graphs can be stated equivalently as the fact that bipartite graphs have chromatic index equal to their maximum degree, proven by. Thus, all four of these basic classes are perfect. The double split graphs are a relative of the split graphs that can also be shown to be perfect.  The four types of decompositions considered in this proof are 2-joins, complements of 2-joins, balanced skew partitions, and homogeneous pairs.  A 2-join is a partition of the vertices of a graph into two subsets, with the property that the edges spanning the cut between these two subsets form two vertex-disjoint complete bipartite graphs. When a graph has a 2-join, it may be decomposed into induced subgraphs called "blocks", by replacing one of the two subsets of vertices by a shortest path within that subset that connects one of the two complete bipartite graphs to the other; when no such path exists, the block is formed instead by replacing one of the two subsets of vertices by two vertices, one for each complete bipartite subgraph. A 2-join is perfect if and only if its two blocks are both perfect. Therefore, if a minimally imperfect graph has a 2-join, it must equal one of its blocks, from which it follows that it must be an odd cycle and not Berge. For the same reason, a minimally imperfect graph whose complement has a 2-join cannot be Berge.  A skew partition is a partition of a graph's vertices into two subsets, one of which induces a disconnected subgraph and the other of which has a disconnected complement; had conjectured that no minimal counterexample to the strong perfect graph conjecture could have a skew partition. Chudnovsky et al. introduced some technical constraints on skew partitions, and were able to show that Chvátal's conjecture is true for the resulting "balanced skew partitions". The full conjecture is a corollary of the strong perfect graph theorem.  A homogeneous pair is related to a modular decomposition of a graph. It is a partition of the graph into three subsets "V", "V", and "V" such that "V" and "V" together contain at least three vertices, "V" contains at least two vertices, and for each vertex "v" in "V" and each "i" in {1,2} either "v" is adjacent to all vertices in "V" or to none of them. It is not possible for a minimally imperfect graph to have a homogeneous pair. Subsequent to the proof of the strong perfect graph conjecture, simplified it by showing that homogeneous pairs could be eliminated from the set of decompositions used in the proof.  The proof that every Berge graph falls into one of the five basic classes or has one of the four types of decomposition follows a case analysis, according to whether certain configurations exist within the graph: a "stretcher", a subgraph that can be decomposed into three induced paths subject to certain additional constraints, the complement of a stretcher, and a "proper wheel", a configuration related to a wheel graph, consisting of an induced cycle together with a hub vertex adjacent to at least three cycle vertices and obeying several additional constraints. For each possible choice of whether a stretcher or its complement or a proper wheel exists within the given Berge graph, the graph can be shown to be in one of the basic classes or to be decomposable. This case analysis completes the proof.

In graph theory, the strong perfect graph theorem is a forbidden graph characterization of the perfect graphs as being exactly the graphs that have neither odd holes (odd-length induced cycles) nor odd antiholes (complements of odd holes). It was conjectured by Claude Berge in 1961. A proof by Maria Chudnovsky, Neil Robertson, Paul Seymour, and Robin Thomas was announced in 2002 and published by them in 2006.


Preparation.

Dioxygen difluoride can be obtained by subjecting a 1:1 mixture of gaseous fluorine and oxygen at low pressure (7–17 mmHg (0.9–2.3 kPa) is optimal) to an electric discharge of 25–30 mA at 2.1–2.4 kV. A similar method was used for the first synthesis by Otto Ruff in 1933. Another synthesis involves mixing and in a stainless steel vessel cooled to, followed by exposing the elements to bremsstrahlung for several hours. A third method requires heating a mix of fluorine and oxygen to, and then rapidly cooling it using liquid oxygen. All of these methods involve synthesis according to the equation:  It also arises from the thermal decomposition of ozone difluoride:

Structure and properties.

In, oxygen is assigned the unusual oxidation state of +1. In most of its other compounds, oxygen has an oxidation state of −2.  The structure of dioxygen difluoride resembles that of hydrogen peroxide,, in its large dihedral angle, which approaches 90° and C symmetry. This geometry conforms with the predictions of VSEPR theory.  The bonding within dioxygen difluoride has been the subject of considerable speculation, particularly because of the very short O−O distance and the long O−F distances. The O−O bond length is within 2 pm of the 120.7 pm distance for the O=O double bond in the dioxygen molecule,. Several bonding systems have been proposed to explain this, including an O−O "triple" bond with O−F single bonds which are destabilised and lengthened by repulsion between the lone pairs on the fluorine atoms and the π-orbitals of the O−O bond. Repulsion involving the fluorine lone pairs is also responsible for the long and weak covalent bonding in the fluorine molecule. Computational chemistry indicates that dioxygen difluoride has an exceedingly high barrier to rotation of 81.17 kJ/mol around the O−O bond (in hydrogen peroxide the barrier is 29.45 kJ/mol), this is close to the O−F bond disassociation energy of 81.59 kJ/mol.  The F NMR chemical shift of dioxygen difluoride is 865 ppm, which is by far the highest chemical shift recorded for a fluorine nucleus, thus underlining the extraordinary electronic properties of this compound. Despite its instability, thermochemical data for have been compiled.

Reactivity.

The compound readily decomposes into oxygen and fluorine. Even at a temperature of, 4% decomposes each day by this process:  The other main property of this unstable compound is its oxidizing power, although most experimental reactions have been conducted near. Several series of experiments with the compound resulted in a series of fires and explosions. Some of the compounds that produced violent reactions with include ethyl alcohol, methane, ammonia, and even water ice.  With and, it gives the corresponding dioxygenyl salts:

Uses.

The compound currently has no practical applications, but has been of theoretical interest. One laboratory used it to synthesize plutonium hexafluoride at unprecedentedly low temperatures, which was significant because previous methods for preparation needed temperatures so high that the plutonium hexafluoride created would rapidly decompose.

Dioxygen difluoride is a compound of fluorine and oxygen with the molecular formula. It can exist as an orange-colored solid which melts into a red liquid at. It is an extremely strong oxidant and decomposes into oxygen and fluorine even at at a rate of 4% per day: its lifetime at room temperature is thus extremely short. Dioxygen difluoride reacts vigorously with nearly every chemical it encounters – even ordinary ice – leading to its onomatopoeic nickname "FOOF" (a play on its chemical structure and its explosive tendencies).


Local economic activity.

The agricultural sector consists mainly of subsistence gardening, although some cash crops are grown for export. Industry consists primarily of small factories to process passion fruit, lime oil, honey, and coconut cream. The sale of postage stamps to foreign collectors is an important source of revenue.  The island in recent years has suffered a serious loss of population because of migration of Niueans to New Zealand. Efforts to increase GDP include the promotion of tourism. An initiative into the financial services industry was dropped under pressure from the US Treasury. More recently the sale of Internet domain names under the NU top level domain has brought in some income. These domains are particularly popular in Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands, since "nu" means "now" in Dutch and the Scandinavian languages.

Economic statistics.

GDP: USD$24.938 million (2016)  GDP: purchasing power parity – $10 million (2003),  GDP – real growth rate: 6.2% (2003 est.)  GDP – per capita: nominal - USD$15,586 (2016)  purchasing power parity – $5,800 (2003), $15,066 (2011)  GDP – composition by sector:
"agriculture:" 23% (2003)
"industry:" 27% (2003)
"services:" 50% (2003)  Population below poverty line: 13%  Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:" NA%
"highest 10%:" NA%  Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1% (1995)  Labor force: 450 (1992 est.) 663 (2001 est.)  Labor force – by occupation: Most people work on family plantations; paid work exists only in government service, small industry, and on the Niue Development Board  Unemployment rate: 12% (2001)  Budget:
"revenues:" $15.07 million (FY 04-05) $26 million (FY 18-19)
"expenditures:" $16.33 million  Industries: tourism, handicrafts, food processing  Industrial production growth rate: NA%  Electricity – production: 3 GWh (1998)  Electricity – production by source:
"fossil fuel:" 100%
"hydro:" 0% (2010)
"nuclear:" 0% (2010)
"other:" 0% (1998)  Electricity – consumption: 3 GWh (1998)  Electricity – exports: 0 kWh (1998)  Electricity – imports: 0 kWh (1998)  Agriculture – products: coconuts, passion fruit, honey, limes, taro, yams, cassava (tapioca), sweet potatoes; pigs, poultry, beef cattle  Exports: $3.52 million 2014, USD$1.391 million (2016)  Exports – commodities: canned coconut cream, copra, honey, passion fruit products, pawpaws, root crops, limes, footballs, stamps, handicrafts  In 2014:  Exports – partners: New Zealand 89%, Fiji, Cook Islands, Australia.  In 2014:  Imports: $9 million (2003), $19 million (2014), USD$14.95 million (2016), NZD$21.5 million (2018)  Imports – commodities: food, live animals, manufactured goods, machinery, fuels, lubricants, chemicals, drugs  In 2014: Special Purpose Ships ($5.48M), Refined Petroleum ($2.93M), Large Construction Vehicles ($403k), Prefabricated Buildings ($402k) and Cars ($312k).  Imports – partners: New Zealand 59%, Fiji 20%, Japan 13%, Samoa, Australia, United States  In 2014:  Debt – external: $NA  Economic aid – recipient: $8.3 million (1995), $5.7 million (FY 08-09)  Currency: 1 New Zealand dollar (NZ$) = 100 cents  Exchange rates: New Zealand dollars (NZ$) per US$1 – 1.9451 (January 2000), 1.8889 (1999), 1.8629 (1998), 1.5082 (1997), 1.4543 (1996), 1.5235 (1995)  Fiscal year: 1 April – 31 March

The economy of Niue is heavily dependent upon aid from New Zealand. Government expenditures regularly exceed revenues, and grants from New Zealand make up the shortfall and are used to pay wages to public employees. Niue has cut government expenditures by reducing the public service by almost half.


Teams.

The AFC laid out the procedure for deciding the participating associations, with the final decision to be made by the AFC in November 2012. The following changes to the list of participating associations may be made from the 2012 AFC President's Cup if the AFC approved the following applications made by any association:  The following changes in the participating associations were made compared to the previous year:  Each participating association was given one entry. The following teams entered the competition.

Schedule.

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Group stage.

The draw for the group stage was held on 19 March 2013, 15:00, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four. Each group was played on a single round-robin basis at a centralized venue, with Cambodia, Nepal, and the Philippines selected by the AFC to host the groups. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the final stage.  The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

Group A.

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Group B.

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Group C.

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Final stage.

The final stage was played at a centralized venue. The matches were played at Malacca, Malaysia, from 23 to 29 September 2013 (all times ).  The draw for the final stage was held on 31 July 2013, 15:00, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The six teams were drawn into two groups of three. Each group was played on a single round-robin basis, with the same ranking rules as the group stage. The winners of each group advanced to the final. The final was played as a single match, with extra time and penalty shoot-out used to decide the winner if necessary.

Group A.

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Group B.

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The 2013 AFC President's Cup was the ninth edition of the AFC President's Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "emerging countries" in Asia. Istiqlol were the defending champions, but did not enter the tournament as teams from Tajikistan no longer entered the AFC President's Cup.


History.

Be'lakor formed as a band in 2004, but didn't start playing live shows until 2005. In 2007, the band self-released their debut album, "The Frail Tide", which received generally positive reviews. In 2008, Be'lakor signed with Descent Productions, and re-released "The Frail Tide" in digipack form. In 2009, Be'lakor embarked on a national tour, and signed with Prime Cuts Music. Their second album, "Stone's Reach", was released on 20 June 2009 and received much praise by reviewers. In November 2009, Be'lakor signed with Kolony Records.  In March 2010, Be'lakor's album "Stone's Reach" took first place in Metal Storm's "Best Melodeath/Gothenburg Metal Album" for 2009. Be'lakor also supported Turisas on their national tour of Australia in May. They were the opening act for Alestorm in Melbourne for their "PLUNDER DOWNUNDER” tour in June 2010. The band also performed at the Summer Breeze Open Air Festival in Germany in August 2010.  Be'lakor released their third album "Of Breath and Bone" in June 2012. They began touring Europe, playing Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic. They also performed at the Summer Breeze Open Air Festival in Germany during August 2012. They supported Apocalyptica in Melbourne during their 2012 Australia tour in September, and At the Gates in Melbourne during their tour in November.  In August 2015, the band returned to Europe and played Brutal Assault in Czechia, Rockstadt Open Air in Romania and Summer Breeze. Matt Dodds of Arbrynth took over lead guitar duties for Shaun due to illness.  On 21 September 2015 the band announced that their fourth album would be released in March 2016. Later, on 29 December, drummer Jimmy Vanden Broeck left the band to pursue other musical ventures. He was replaced by Elliott Sansom, who previously worked with Melbourne-based bands Future Corpse, Okera and The Seaford Monster. On 24 June 2016 Be'lakor released "Vessels", the band's fourth album.

Be'lakor is an Australian melodic death metal band from Melbourne, Victoria. The band's name originates from the character "Bel'akor the Dark Master", in the Warhammer Fantasy game setting.


Production.

Rovio announced a TV series based on the "Angry Birds" video game series of 52 short episodes. The series was produced by Finnish animation studio Kombo, which Rovio bought in June 2011. "I am happy to say we are going to roll out a weekly animation series this year of short format content," said Nick Dorra, head of animation at Rovio. The series was made available worldwide on "Angry Birds" apps, selected video-on-demand services, and selected smart TVs.

Home media.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (who coincidentally later released "The Angry Birds Movie" through Columbia Pictures) is the DVD/Blu-ray distributor for the series. While the first season got a Blu-Ray release, later releases starting with season two were only available on DVD.

Specials.

In 2011, prior to the series starting, Nickelodeon showed "Angry Birds: Wreck the Halls", a Christmas special that aired on 17 December 2011; and "Angry Birds Space", an animated prequel to the video game of the same name in March 2012. The former short was included as a bonus feature on the Season 1, Volume 1 DVD.

Spin-offs.

"Piggy Tales".

On 11 April 2014, Rovio released a series titled "Piggy Tales" on their multi-platform broadcasting channel, ToonsTV, with the first episode called "Trampoline". The series show the minion pigs' life, with other exclusive characters to appear in various episodes, but no other pigs or birds were featured.  The first two seasons used clay animation to depict the pigs as they appeared in most "Angry Birds" games, with the latter two seasons shifting to computer-generated imagery and focusing on the pigs as they appeared as in "The Angry Birds Movie".

"Angry Birds Stella".

Based on the puzzle video game spin-off of the same name, the series is based around Stella, the pink bird, along with her friends Luca, Willow, Poppy and Dahlia, as they work their way against Gale, the former friend of Stella, that currently is the queen of the pigs in Golden Island.

"Angry Birds Blues".

Another spin-off series, titled "Angry Birds Blues". The series shows The Blues' life, along with the Hatchlings, and is set between the events of "The Angry Birds Movie" and its upcoming sequel. It premiered on 10 March 2017 on Toons.TV.

"Angry Birds BirLd Cup".

In the summer of 2018, on the eve of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Rovio announced a new series, titled "Angry Birds BirLd Cup", which leverages a partnership with the UK soccer/association football team Everton FC, in which Premier League stars hold a special contest between two teams of children, representing Red and Chuck. The teams compete in special challenges to win the titular "Birld Cup", with the pigs keeping score.

"Angry Birds on the Run".

In the fall of 2018, Rovio announced a new series, titled Angry Birds on the Run, which leverages a partnership with Blink Industries, to create the first live action Angry Birds series. The series shows that Red, Chuck, and Bomb fall out of a girl's phone, and they try to find the kid to get home before Rovio replaces them. The show was released on November 17, 2018 on YouTube. In the Spring 2020, Rovio Entertainment announced the second season for the series with the first episode released on June 13, 2020.

Angry Birds Toons is a 2013-2016 Finnish animated TV series based on Rovio's Angry Birds. This animated series follows the adventures of the birds as they guard their eggs against the piggies who want to steal them for their king to eat, as well as adventures from within each group. Episodes have been released weekly.