Puss Gets the Boot

Puss Gets the Boot is a 1940 American animated short film and is the first short in what would become the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon series, though neither were yet referred to by these names. It was directed by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and Rudolf Ising, and produced by Rudolf Ising and Fred Quimby. It was based on the Aesop's Fable, The Cat and the Mice. As was the practice of MGM shorts at the time, only Rudolf Ising is credited. It was released to theaters on February 10, 1940, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In this first short, the cat is named Jasper, and appears to be a mangy, battle-hardened street cat, more malicious than the character that Tom would develop into over time. The unnamed mouse (known as Jinx) was similar to the ultimate Jerry character, just a bit skinnier. The basic premise was the one that would become familiar to audiences; in "The Art of Hanna-Barbera", Ted Sennett sums it up as "cat stalks and chases mouse in a frenzy of mayhem and slapstick violence. Though the studio executives were unimpressed, audiences loved the film and it was nominated for an Academy Award.
Synopsis.
A cat named Jasper takes great pleasure in tormenting a mouse named Jinx (not referred to in name on-screen), who is trying to run away from Jasper while he keeps grabbing Jinx's tail to keep him from running anywhere. Eventually, Jinx breaks free but goes into Jasper's mouth, narrowly escaping. Jasper then draws a mouse hole on the wall to trick Jinx into entering it. Jinx bangs against the wall so hard that it knocks him silly. Jasper revives him using water from the fish tank and picks him up. Having slowly realized the situation, Jinx punches Jasper in the eye, causing him to yelp and screech in pain. The angered cat chases Jinx and accidentally bumps into a Greek pillar, where it breaks upon falling onto him along with the flowerpot that was standing on it. Mammy Two Shoes enters the room and scolds Jasper for his unacceptable behavior, issuing him an ultimatum that if she catches him making one more mess, he will get kicked out of the house. Jasper sulks off, Jinx chuckles at him and this causes Jasper to chase him, but when Jinx holds a glass over the edge of the table, Jasper backs off after seeing a furious Mammy walking away with the remains of the broken flowerpot, fearing that he will get himself into trouble again.
After Jinx puts the cup down, seeing his chance, Jasper rushes at him, but he holds back Jasper by threatening to drop the glass again. Then Jinx drops the cup and Jasper rushes to catch it. Jinx throws more cups, making it very hard for Jasper to catch them all. As Jinx walks away with the last cup, feeling pretty smug that he has the advantage, Jasper gets the idea: he drops a bunch of pillows on the ground. When Jinx tries to humiliate Jasper by dropping the cup, it stays intact when it lands on the soft surface of one of the pillows. Jinx tries to escape but Jasper catches him by the tail. Jasper inadvertently throws Jinx onto a shelf, where he escapes and begins pelting him with several dishes, making sure that in order to blackmail Jasper, he will force him to immediately "get the boot". Jasper begins to feel tired of holding all the dishes, after which, in humiliation, Jasper can only watch as Jinx drops one last dish on the ground, breaking it, and thus alerting Mammy to thinking Jasper violated her ultimatum.
Mammy once again enters the room in frustration just as Jinx swims in Jasper's milk bowl, uses his tail as a towel and finally kicks Jasper, causing Jasper to drop all of the dishes, creating a huge mess and forcing him to take the blame. Enraged, Mammy hits and throws Jasper out of the house and shuts the door. As soon as Jasper is kicked out from the house, Jinx waves to him, sticks his tongue out, puts a "HOME SWEET HOME" sign in front of his hole, and enters it.
Production and release.
In June 1937, animator and storyman Joseph Barbera began to work for the Ising animation unit at MGM, then the largest studio in Hollywood. He learned that co-owner Louis B. Mayer wished to boost the animation department by encouraging the artists to develop some new cartoon characters, following the lack of success with its earlier cartoon series based on the "Captain and the Kids" comic strip. Barbera then teamed with fellow Ising unit animator and director William Hanna and pitched new ideas, among them was the concept of two "equal characters who were always in conflict with each other". An early thought involved a fox and a dog before they settled on a cat and mouse. The pair discussed their ideas with producer Fred Quimby, then the head of the short film department who, despite a lack of interest in it, gave them the green-light to produce one cartoon short.
The short, "Puss Gets the Boot", featured a cat named Jasper and an unnamed mouse, named Jinx in pre-production, and an African American housemaid named Mammy Two Shoes. Leonard Maltin described it as "very new and special [...] that was to change the course of MGM cartoon production" and established the successful "Tom and Jerry" formula of comical cat and mouse chases with slapstick gags. It was released onto the theatre circuit on February 10, 1940, and the pair, having been advised by management not to produce any more, focused on other cartoons including "Gallopin' Gals" (1940) and "Officer Pooch" (1941). Matters changed, however, when Texas businesswoman Bessa Short sent a letter to MGM asking whether more cat and mouse shorts would be produced, which helped convince management to commission a series. A studio contest held to rename both characters was won by animator John Carr, who suggested Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse after the popular Christmastime cocktail, itself derived from an 1821 stage play by William Moncrieff, itself an adaptation of 1821 Pierce Egan's book titled "Life in London" that originating those name, itself based on George Cruikshank's, Robert Cruikshank's, Isaac Richard's, and Egan's true story. Carr was awarded a first place prize of $50. "Puss Gets the Boot" was a critical success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1941 despite the credits listing Ising and omitting Hanna and Barbera.
After MGM gave the green-light for Hanna and Barbera to continue, the studio entered production on "The Midnight Snack" (1941). The pair would continue to work on "Tom and Jerry" cartoons for the next fifteen years of their career.
Reception.
"Motion Picture Exhibitor" reviewed the short on March 6, 1940: "Puss teases the mouse but when the latter learns that breakage in the house will lead to Puss being thrown out, the fun begins. Windup has the crockery crashing, the mouse victorious, Puss getting the boot."


Frank William La Rue

Frank La Rue (born 1952) is a Guatemalan labor and human rights law expert and served as UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, from August 2008 to August 2014. Along with American Human Rights attorneys, Anna Gallagher and Wallie Mason, Mr. La Rue is the founder of the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights (CALDH) and has been involved in the promotion of human rights for over 25 years. He was nominated for (but did not win) the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish peace activist and 1976 laureate. Mr La Rue was previously the Executive Director of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Europe. He currently serves as Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO.
Biography.
La Rue was born in Guatemala. Born legally blind, he nevertheless enrolled in and graduated from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala with a law degree. La Rue served as legal adviser to the Central General de Trabajadores de Guatemala, the country's largest labor federation, from 1975 to 1980, during which time he had occasion to defend numerous labor union personnel and clergymen amid the country's worsening Civil War. He was consequently marked for death, and in 1981 he and his family sought exile in the United States. He served until 1989 as attorney and political analyst for numerous Guatemalan political exiles, including Rigoberta Menchú (1992 Nobel Peace Prize laureate), and in 1990 co-founded the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights (CALDH). LaRue obtained a postgraduate degree in U.S. foreign policy from Johns Hopkins University in 1985.
The 1993 Guatemalan constitutional crisis, triggered by President Jorge Serrano's self-coup, prompted La Rue to return to his country in 1994, where he reestablished CALDH in Guatemala. CALDH became the first Guatemalan NGO to bring cases of human rights violations to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. La Rue brought the first genocide cases against former Guatemalan military dictatorships by filing charges against General Fernando Romeo Lucas García in 2000, and against General Efraín Ríos Montt in 2001; these cases resulted in numerous threats and attacks against CALDH.
He directed a news magazine "Debate" (1998–2004); hosted numerous radio programs in the U.S. and Guatemala on the subject of political rights; participated in the Migrant Workers Rights Program at the University of Chicago in 2002; served as Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala for President Oscar Berger (2004–08); as Human Rights Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala; President of the Governing Board of DEMOS (the Central American Institute for the Study of Social Democracy); and as consultant to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Freedom of expression.
La Rue was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of expression in August 2008 and served until August 2014. In that capacity, he monitored and exerted his influence on notable civil liberties controversies of the day, including supporting proposed corporate limits on the number of media licenses in Argentina against the opposition of the country's largest media groups, and by indicating in May 2011 that unrestricted and undisturbed access to the Internet is a fundamental human right. He also drew on his personal experience to propose the enactment that November of an international Treaty for the Blind.
La Rue later published a report on how state surveillance undermines freedom of expression and illegal monitoring of communication undermines human rights; this report was filed to OHCHR two days before Edward Snowden publicized NSA's warrantless surveillance program in June 2013. Several computers and documents belonging to the Special Rapporteur were stolen from his office located at the DEMOS Institute in Guatemala City on July 31 in as-yet unclear circumstances.
In 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave La Rue a Pioneer Award in recognition of his work in support of free expression around the world. Following his term as Special Rapporteur, La Rue was appointed a member of the International Board of Trustees of ARTICLE 19, the Global Campaign for Free Expression in 2015.
La Rue has lectured extensively in his fields of expertise, including teaching a seminar on freedom of expression at the American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law as a visiting scholar in the summer of 2012.
La Rue also served as Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, working on freedom of expression and, in particular, press freedom issues.


Soldier (The Salvation Army)

A soldier is a Salvationist who is at least 14 years of age and has, with the approval of The Salvation Army Pastoral Care Council in each local Salvation Army corps (formerly called the Census Board), been enrolled as a warrior in the Christian denomination called The Salvation Army – after signing the "Soldier's Covenant" (see "Salvation Army Articles of War"). The soldier expresses his or her commitment in every area of life, but more specifically through the ministry and work of a local Salvation Army corps.
Covenant.
Salvationist Soldiers are considered by their peers to be covenanted warriors exercising 'holy passion' to win the world for Jesus. The covenant, known as the Soldier's Covenant, is a lifelong commitment to God through The Salvation Army that is fleshed out by a full book of Orders and Regulations called "Chosen to Be a Soldier" published by the International Headquarters of The Salvation Army. There is also a complete book, formerly called the "Handbook of Doctrine", reprinted as "Salvation Story" in 1998, and in 2010 became "Handbook of Doctrine" available as a free download that explains the doctrines to which the soldier subscribes.
The text of the covenant, which is quoted below, reflects the Army's determination to remain faithful to its standards and principles. All Soldiers (including officers of all ranks) are urged from time to time to re-read the solemn undertakings to which they have set their hand and to reaffirm before God their dedication to Him and to The Salvation Army, so that their lifestyle and service will be in keeping with the Soldier's Covenant.
Enrollment of Soldiers.
Having completed 'recruits classes', been approved by the Pastoral Care Council and having signed their Articles of War, a soldier is publicly enrolled under The Salvation Army flag usually as part of worship of a Salvation Army corps. The soldier makes a public declaration by reading the articles aloud and will often first wear a Salvation Army uniform on this day. An Officer of The Salvation Army, usually the corps officer of the corps into which the soldier is being enrolled, normally conducts this ceremony.
Uniform.
Soldiers are encouraged to wear the uniform as a sign of covenant community. The uniform is a visible profession of faith in Jesus Christ and identifies the wearer with the Christian faith. The uniform also identifies the wearer as being a person who can be called upon to discover more about the Christian faith.
The uniform differs according to rank, nationality, and activity engaged in.
The Basic Uniform for most territories is
Men
White Shirt,
Navy Blue Jacket,
Navy Blue Trousers,
Navy Blue Tie,
Navy Blue Peaked Cap,
Ladies
White Blouse
Navy Blue Jacket,
Navy Blue Skirt,
A white or blue gilded brooch,
Navy Blue Bowler style hat,
In Summer (May - September) Soldiers wear Summer Uniform which involves Ladies opting to wear an open neck blouse. Men wear short sleeves. All Soldiers wear epaulettes which are Navy blue for Soldiers and pale blue for Songsters and Bandsman. Some Female soldiers now opt to wear trousers in lieu of a skirt. In most countries it is expected that Men remove their caps when indoors and Ladies keep their hats on whether indoors or out. However, there has been a decline in recent years of both men and women wearing headdress. It is likely in coming years that the cap and hat will be phased out.
Criticisms.
Many Christians (including Salvation Army adherents) object to the tradition of soldiership for various reasons. The most prominent objection is the age at which children may be enrolled, i.e.: 14 years of age, even though this is the age many young people in other denominations are confirmed in their faith and become official members of the church. Such opponents argue that it is immoral or deceptive to ask a child to sign a lifelong covenant at that age, particularly when they are too young to legally engage in some of the activities singled out in the Articles of War (consuming alcohol, smoking, etc.).
Junior Soldiers.
The Salvation Army takes seriously the capacity of children to have an authentic Christian experience. A Junior Soldier is a boy or girl who, having professed conversion, having signed the junior soldier’s promise, and being between the age of 7 and 13, becomes a Salvationist.
In some places Junior Soldiers also wear a form of uniform which differs according to the locality.
A Junior Soldier uniform for a boy would be a white collar shirt, navy blue dress pants, black shoes, navy socks, Junior Soldier pins and tie. A Junior Soldier uniform for a girl would be a white collar shirt, navy blue skirt/skort, navy tights, black shoes, Junior Soldier pins. In Australia Junior soldiers have opted to wear a polo shirt reflecting the colours of The salvation Army flag (either blue, yellow or red). This gives the Juniors Soldier a sense of individuality while still belonging to the Junior corps. Often a uniform is not worn, but a Junior Soldier wears a badge (pin) with rings to indicate which level of activity or projects each Junior Soldier has attained (similar to a bar on a military medal).
The 'Junior Soldier promise' reads this:
"I know that Jesus is my Saviour from sin.
I have asked him to forgive my sins, and I will trust him to keep me good.
By his help, I will be his loving and obedient child, and will help others to follow him.
I promise to pray, to read my Bible, and to lead a life that is clean in thought, word and deed.
I will not use anything that may injure my body or my mind, including harmful drugs, alcohol and tobacco."
Enrollment statistics.
According to The Salvation Army Year Book 2008 as of 1 January 2007 there are 360,222 junior soldiers and 1,082,166 senior soldiers in The Salvation Army.
Additionally, in the 2010 Year Book numbers have increased - Junior Soldiers total 378,009 and Senior Soldiers total 1,122,326 internationally. In 2017 Junior Soldiers number 411,327, while there are 1,182,100 Soldiers.
As at 2010 The Salvation Army was active in 120 countries, and by 28 October 2016 that had increased to 128 countries.


OOCRE

OOCRE (Owner Occupied Commercial Real Estate) is typically a commercial property of one of the following types:
Unimproved land, Multifamily Homes, and Residential Income Homes are not recognized by most banks or lending institutions as OOCRE.
OOCRE is a description utilized to describe the use or utility that the owner will have with the property. Typically an operating entity (Corporations, Partnerships, LLC, etc...) will own the property with the purpose of running business operations out of it or interacting with customers in there.
Financing.
OOCRE is distinct from commercial investment property and is viewed differently. In investment properties, the building generates cash flow that services the debt with banks. The duration, dollar amount, and credit quality of the tenants determine in part a bank's willingness to lend. In OOCRE lending, the cash flow to service the bank debt is typically driven by the cash flow of the underlying business. Therefore, in lieu of reviewing leases, a bank reviews the health of the business through financial analysis.
Typical Bank loan terms on an OOCRE:


AG Securities v Vaughan

 were two House of Lords cases decided in the same ruling, which together clarified and confirmed as pivotal the role of exclusive possession in identifying what constitutes a lease (including a tenancy) for the purposes of English land law.
Facts and prior Court of Appeal rulings.
In the first case, AG Securities, an unlimited company, owned 25 Linden Mansions, Hornsey Lane, London: four bedrooms and communal areas (for the bedrooms' occupants). It rented (let) these to Nigel Vaughan and three others. Each moved in at different times from 1982, signing independent agreements. In May 1985 AG Securities terminated the agreements. They claimed they jointly held a tenancy (a lease) and therefore had statutory protection. The judge held there was no lease, this was a licence. The Court of Appeal held the reverse, but Sir George Waller dissented.
In the second case, Mr Antoniades owned 6 Whiteley Rd, Upper Norwood, London, with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, and rented it to Mr Villiers and Miss Bridger. They moved in together and signed identical agreements on 9 February 1985. These stated that the Rent Acts did not apply and that ‘the licensor is not willing to grant... exclusive possession’ and that the use of the flat was ‘in common with the licensor and such other licensees or invitees as he may permit from time to time’. Clause 16 said that other people could use the rooms. In 1986 Mr Antoniades claimed possession. Statute would limit the power to remove them. Judge held they did have a lease. The Court of Appeal held they were licensees.
These cases were appealed to the House of Lords.
House of Lords.
The House of Lords held that Mr Vaughan with his co-tenants were licensees only and not tenants, because none had exclusive possession and their rights could not be amalgamated to give a joint lease, while Mr Villiers and Ms Bridger did have exclusive possession of their room - albeit jointly - and therefore did have a lease, despite the wording of their agreements which identified them as having only a licence (to occupy).
In discussing these cases, Lord Templeman observed that tenants could be described as those people entitled to be protected with security of tenure and maximum rents since the Rent Act 1915, up to the Rent Act 1977. People could not contract out of such laws, which were intended to protect the vulnerable from harm and to prevent consent to substandard treatment by means of coercion, nor could they be avoided by choosing words that did not match the reality. If that were possible, then sham wordings would merely become the norm, and the protective intent of the law would be unachieved:


Maritime Search and Rescue (Mexico)

The Maritime Search and Rescue is the Mexican Navy's SAR unit. It is responsible for improving the quality and effectiveness of the Navy's response to Mexico's maritime emergencies. The Mexican Navy historically has been responsible for the search and rescue operations using its available resources. However, aware of the importance of safeguarding human life at sea and the growing demand of sea rescue, the High Command of the Navy established a separate, specialist arm for the task.
Organization and operations.
The Mexican Search and Rescue primary missions are SAR operations within 50 miles of the Mexican coast line, to accomplish search and rescue operations in a timely manner, It utilizes 5 current active Naval Stations. There are two types of Search and Rescue Naval Stations ("Estaciones Navales de Búsqueda y Rescate", ENSAR). Type A (Alfa) Naval Stations are equipped with one 47-Foot Motor Lifeboat and two 33-foot Defender-class boats. Type B (Bravo) are equipped with 33-foot Defender-class boats. The first Naval Station to be active was opened on April 6, 2007 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. In total the Maritime SAR unit goal is 19 ENSAR stations—six Type As, and 13 Type Bs.


East Bay Regional Park District

The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which is the largest urban regional park district in the United States. The administrative office is located in Oakland.
As of 2020, EBRPD spans with 73 parks and over of trails. Some of these parks are wilderness areas; others include a variety of visitor attractions, with opportunities for swimming, boating and camping. The trails are frequently used for non-motorized transportation such as biking, hiking, and horse riding. More than of paved trails (identified as Interpark Regional Trails) through urban areas link the parks together.
History.
A destructive grass fire that broke out in Wildcat Canyon blew west into Berkeley on September 27, 1923, and burned down 640 structures (mostly) homes. The East Bay Water Company was harshly criticized for its failure to deliver enough water to successfully fight the fire. Much of the problem arose from having a system of small private water companies who obtained water either from their own wells or from runoff, then pumped the water to the water companies wells, Chabot and Temescal. A state law was passed that enabled citizens of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to create a special district that could obtain water from the Mokelumne River and pump it directly to customers. The East Bay Municipal District (EBMUD) was formed and approved by the electorate.
The EBRPD was founded in 1934, and acquired its first land two years later, when the East Bay Municipal Utility District sold of its surplus land. The founders of the district included Robert Sibley, a hiking enthusiast, Hollis Thompson, then Berkeley City Manager, and Charles Lee Tilden, among others. William Penn Mott Jr. served as director of the agency from 1962 to 1967, and oversaw a doubling of the system's acreage from 10,500 to 22,000.
In June 2013, EBRPD purchased a tract of land formerly known as Roddy Ranch in east Contra Costa County. The tract lies south of Antioch and west of Brentwood. The cost was reported as $14.24 million. Funding will also be provided by California Wildlife Conservation Board and an unidentified private foundation. The acquisition does not include Roddy Ranch Golf Club or about 240 acres of privately owned land inside the project boundary. The East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy will install gates, fencing and signs around the tract in the coming year, while the sale is in escrow. The new area will likely be named Deer Valley Regional Park.
In 2016, Vargas Plateau Regional Park in Fremont was the first park ever to have been shut down as the result of legal action in the more than 80-year history of EBRPD. During 2014, EBRPD cut park hours on a temporary and interim basis to reduce public access to Mission Peak in Fremont, using a media strategy designed by political consultant George Manross.
2020 California Wildfires.
The parks in the East Bay Regional Park District was badly affected by the various lightning complex fires plaguing the Bay Area in August 2020. The fires have enveloped the Bay Area in a layer of smoke and forced the closures of many national parks within the Bay Area including all parks in the East Bay Regional Parks District.
Notable parks.
The parks administered by the EBRPD vary greatly in size and character. Particularly notable are the string of parks along the Berkeley Hills above and east of both Berkeley and Oakland, including Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Tilden Regional Park, Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve, and Redwood Regional Park.
There are also bay shore parks such as the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline north of Richmond, the Coyote Hills Regional Park near Fremont, the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline on San Leandro Bay, and the Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline south of the Oakland International Airport.
The district also includes a former farm, a former coal mine, an extinct volcano, and one of the biggest dog-walking parks in the country. Redwood Regional Park contains the largest remaining natural stand of coast redwood in the East Bay.
Interpark Regional Trails.
Interpark Regional Trails connect various Regional Parks. Their routes may take them through other parks, along creeks and channels, or even down streets and sidewalks in urbanized areas. The list below does not include trails that exist inside single parks.
Planned expansions.
Vargas Plateau Regional Park.
Around 1995, EBRPD acquired of the Vargas Plateau in Fremont, with of the Bay Area Ridge Trail and of other trails. Subsequently, park use was pushed back. As of 2007, the opening was expected by 2010. In 2010, EBRPD directors were expecting it would open soon. In 2011, EBRPD put the start in 2012. As of January 2015, EBRPD pointed to late 2015; while as of May 2015, the district pointed to spring 2016.
A 2012 settlement agreement between EBRPD and the owners of two large nearby ranches required the construction of improvements to park access roads. EBRPD and the city of Fremont agreed in 2013 to undertake them jointly, using $260,000 of funding by EBRPD and performed by the city. The park opened on May 5, 2016.
However, the park was closed by a court-issued preliminary injunction on July 13, 2016. The court found that the park district “did not complete the improvements required by the settlement agreement prior to opening,” which had “very specific road widening requirements.” The order applied to access by motor vehicles, as well as to access by non-motorized users for hiking, bicycling and horse riding, with immediate effect. “The park could remain closed for months or years,” until the improvements are completed.
On May 2, 2017, EBRPD announced that it had settled the lawsuit, and that the park would reopen on May 15, 2017. EBRPD said that it agreed to construct a paved shoulder along Vargas Road, and a vehicle turnaround on the upper part of Morrison Canyon Road. It also announced that the City of Fremont had agreed to contribute part of the necessary funds.
Open space (land banks).
One quarter of the District is designated as “land banks,” with no public access. The conversion of that open space to public use as regional parks has no fixed time line, and may span decades. Some parcels may never be converted.
Doolan Canyon tracts.
Early in March 2019, EBRPD announced that it had finalized the purchase of in unincorporated Contra Costa County, from the Grove family. Funding of $1.24 million was provided by Measure WW. The parcel is about northwest of Livermore, and is bounded on the south by the proposed Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve. The other sides are bounded by private ranches and farmland. A park spokesman said that the parcel, "... will protect the upper reaches of Doolan Canyon for 'habitat protection, open space preservation, and potential recreational opportunities.'"
According to Sciacca's article, EBRPD had already purchased adjacent to the Grove tract with funding from Altamont County (Altamont Landfill Open Space Landfill Fund, the City of Livermore, East Bay Community Foundation and Measure WW The price was $6.4 million.
EBRPD says that the Doolan Canyon area is habitat for the endangered species Alameda whip snake and red-legged frog. It also supports other "special status" species and some rare alkali soil plants.
The parcel will remain in land bank status until a land-use plan is written and approved. Making it into a park will require environmental assessments and community input, which could take many years, according to EBRPD. Meanwhile, EBRPD's holdings are known as Doolan Canyon Regional Preserve
Suncrest Homes/Antioch Holdings LLC property.
EBRPD acquired a hillside in Antioch, between Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve and Contra Loma Regional Park, and bought near Byron Vernon Pools Regional Preserve for $520,000. The 50-acre hillside, valued at $3.5 million, was donated to EBRPD by Suncrest Homes and Antioch Holdings LLC, a Suncrest land-holding subsidiary. The Byron tract is being purchased through the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy, a joint-powers authority created by the county, Brentwood. Oakley, Pittsburg and Next Era Energy.<ref name="Press_12/23/16"> Szymanski, Kyle. "East Bay Regional Park District purchases more land in Antioch, Byron." "Brentwood Press". December 23, 2016.] Accessed May 22, 2018.</ref>
Hanson Hills property.
EBRPD announced in September 2016 that it had finalized the purchase of of ranch land east of Mount Diablo, near Antioch and Brentwood. The tract was identified only as the Hanson Hills property, which had previously been bought by the Save Mount Diablo conservation group. EBRPD reported that it had paid $730,000 for this property, which it intends to include in the Deer Valley Regional Park. The East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy contributed $547,000 to the purchase, and the remainder was supplied from the regional park Measure WW bonds approved by East Bay voters. Deer Valley Regional Park remains in Land Bank status and is closed to the public.
Roddy Ranch parcel.
In 2013, EBRPD began acquiring Roddy Ranch a additional tract in east Contra Costa County. The new acquisition will create a nearly continuous offer zone of undeveloped land in eastern Contra Costa County from Black Diamond Mines Regional Park to Marsh Creek.
Dainty Ranch parcel.
In 2013, EBRPD announced plans to acquire of grazing land southwest of the Roddy Ranch tract for $5 million. It will provide hiking and recreation services, and protect habitat for rare species such as the California red-legged frog. The combined Dainty and Roddy tracts will form the future Deer Valley Regional Park near Antioch and Brentwood.
James Ball Dainty, a rancher and coal miner, acquired Dainty Ranch in 1872.
Mollar Ranch parcel.
Antioch Unified School District agreed to sell a 192-acre tract known as Mollar Ranch to EBRPD. The tract adjoins the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve on Somerville Road in Antioch, California. EBRPD plans to use the property to create a northern entrance to the preserve. The price agreed upon is $305,000. Funding is expected to come from the California Wildlife Protection Act and East Bay Regional Parks Measure WW funds.
Wildcat Canyon addition.
EBRPD announced on February 17, 2014, that it had acquired of woodland on the east side of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, which will be added to the existing park. The property is hilly with a mixture of laurels, oaks and native grasses. Fauna include mountain lions, coyotes, deer and hawks. The property had been owned by a developer who had intended to build 36 houses on it, before the recent collapse of real estate prices.
Eddie's Flat acquisition (Brushy Peak Regional Preserve).
On April 3, 2014, two conservation groups, Center for Biological Diversity and the Alameda Creek Alliance, announced the acquisition of a land parcel known as "Eddie's Flat, adjacent to the western boundary of Brushy Peak Regional Preserve.
Public safety and support organization.
The district maintains a police department and a fire department.
A volunteer organization that supports the work of EBRPD, the Regional Parks Foundation raises funds for the improvement of the parks. The EBRPD is a member of the Bay Area Open Space Council.
Lifeguards.
East Bay Lifeguards can work at eleven different facilities.
Staff members.
Full-time aquatic employees.
Aquatic Manager.
General function
.Oversee 11 open water, lagoons, and pools within Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The Aquatic Manager reports back to the Chief the East Bay Regional Park District Fire Department.
Program Lieutenant.
General function
To assist in planning, developing, conducting and overseeing a wide range of lifeguard training, including emergency medical services, water safety, and lifeguard operations. To development and administration of aquatic recreation programs and promotional efforts. The job also entails supervising and evaluating aquatic programs staff.
The Program Lieutenant reports to the North Captain.


Carey Act

The Carey Act of 1894 (also known as the Federal Desert Land Act) allowed private companies in the U.S. to erect irrigation systems in the western semi-arid states, and profit from the sales of water. The Carey Act was enacted into law by Congress by the Act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat. 422), as amended (43 U.S.C. 641 et seq.). It was a new approach for the disposal of public desert land, as the federal government decided this task was too large for individual settlers. Through advertising, these companies attracted farmers to the many states which successfully utilized the act, notably Idaho and Wyoming.
Senator Joseph Maull Carey of Wyoming introduced the bill in 1892 but it was not passed by Congress until 1894 when it was attached as a compromise measure to the 1894 Civil Appropriations Bill. The Act established the General Land Office, which was controlled by the federal government. This land office assigned as many as one million acres (4,000 km²) of land for each western state. Each state then had to regulate the new land, selecting private contractors, selecting settlers, and the maximum price they could charge for water. Potential settlers who met specific requirements were granted each. Projects were financed by the development companies, who eventually handed over control to an operating company.
In most states, settlers had to pay an entry fee, plus a small amount for the land, and meet several guidelines. In Iowa, for example, settlers had to cultivate and irrigate at least one sixteenth of their parcel within one year from the date which water became available. After another year, one eighth had to be cultivated, and by the third year — had the settler lived in the land, and paid all necessary fees — they would receive the deed to that parcel.
In general, the act was not as successful as intended, because few western states had the financial resources to make it effective. However, both Idaho and Wyoming achieved some successes. In 1908 Idaho received an additional two million acres (8,000 km²) and Wyoming received an additional one million acres (4,000 km²) of land to develop under the Carey Act. Today, approximately 60% of the Carey Act lands irrigated in the United States are in Idaho. Examples of successful Carey Act projects include Boise, Minidoka and Twin Falls. Wyoming was home to some of the first projects under the Carey Act, including the Cody Canal financed by a group of investors led by William F. Cody and supported by then state engineer Elwood Mead. Many of Wyoming's irrigation projects also began following World War II. Wyoming senator Francis E. Warren was also responsible for bringing the Carey Act to effect.


U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) was established "To protect the rights and address the needs of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide and support their transition to a dignified life."
History.
The International Institute movement began in 1911 in New York City as the brainchild of Edith Terry Bremer. Over the next six years, the movement spread across the nation with offices opening in Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. In 1922 the organization began publishing Interpreter Releases, a weekly immigration law update with 48 issues/year. In 1924 the National Origins Act, severely restricting the number of immigrants entering the country was passed as well as the Labor Appropriation Act which officially established the Border Patrol.
By 1924 the number of International Institutes had grown to 55 and reached across the country to Los Angeles.
Activities.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) administers domestic programs related to refugee resettlement and placement, foreign-born victims of human trafficking, and unaccompanied immigrant children. Its international programs focus on defending the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. It is a partnership between USCRI and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Each child helped by the Center is under age 18 and without a parent or resources in the United States. The Center holds pro bono trainings throughout the United States for potential volunteer attorneys.
World Refugee Survey.
The "World Refugee Survey" is an annual USCRI report presenting information on refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers. The country-by-country analysis is based on information collected from governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and field visits. Each country profiled in the "Survey" is given a grade. Countries are rated according to refugees' enjoyment of rights under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and are graded on: 1) Refoulement/Physical Protection 2) Freedom of Movement and Residence 3) Detention/Access to Courts 4) Right to Earn a Livelihood and 5) Public Relief and Education.
On June 19, 2008, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and its research partners released the World Refugee Survey 2008 with events around the world. Within the annual publication, USCRI released a list of the Ten Worst Places for Refugees. Countries and regions were graded based on their commitment to standards outlined in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. As determined by the Committee, the 'Ten Worst Places' were: Bangladesh, China, Europe, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Russia, Sudan, and Thailand. Sixty countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees were profiled in the 2008 survey. In 2009, the 'Worst Places for Refugees' were South Africa, Gaza, Thailand, Kenya, Malaysia, Egypt and Turkey
On June 20, 2008, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak of Malaysia stated, "Malaysia strongly disagrees with the newly released World Refugee Survey 2008."


Wo Weihan

Wo Weihan (; 1949 – November 28, 2008), a native of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, was a Chinese scientist and entrepreneur of Daur nationality. He was executed at the age of 58–59 on November 28, 2008, by firing squad, along with missile expert Guo Wanjun, 66, for passing sensitive information to a Taiwanese NGO. Weihan was interrogated for ten months in 2005 and allowed access to a lawyer in 2006. His trial was held in secrecy in 2007.
Charges.
The case against Wo related to alleged passing of sensitive national security information, which China argued justified special handling of the case.
It was claimed that Wo became a spy for Taiwan intelligence agency with the codename "YANG DONG". He got to know Mr Guo during a wedding ceremony in early 1990s. The Taiwan intelligence agency also invested (USD) $300,000 to help Wo's first wife, to set up a restaurant in Austria.
Mainland Chinese media and portals, including Global Times and Sina, released details of Wo and Guo's spying activities after the execution. In the early nineties, Wo Weihan bought critical information and documents on DF-31, from Guo Wanjun, a missile expert who had participated in the design of DF-31. Mr. Wo and Guo's activities resulted in the leakage of the top secret information of the DF-31, including internal design and structure of the missile, causing significant impact on Chinese national security. They both were accused of spying for Taiwan and US intelligence agencies by selling sensitive information on intercontinental ballistic missiles. Neither Taiwan nor US have made an official statement in this regard.
According to the verdict released by the High Court of Beijing after the sentencing in March 2008, the charges Wo Weihan was convicted of included: "...discussing the health of senior Chinese leaders." In PRC, the health status of senior leaders is declared top secret. Also included in the verdict were convictions of the smuggling of secret information of PLA's night time equipment. Wo was also accused of copying military photos from a magazine, which was public at the time but later declared classified.
Disputes.
The execution took place on the final day of the China-EU Human Rights Dialog in Beijing. The US, for whom Wo spied, and the EU strongly condemned the execution.
“We are deeply disturbed and dismayed by reports that the Chinese government has carried out the death penalty against Wo Weihan,” Susan Stevenson, a spokeswoman at the US embassy in Beijing said.
She said that Wo's arrest and trial had fallen short of international standards for due process. “Reportedly Mr Wo did not have access to legal counsel until after the prosecuting officials completed their investigation. His confession was coerced and the charges against him were questionable.”
Their executions came at a time when China had been presenting itself as a reformed and more humane state, particularly on the eve of China's Olympic debut. The EU and US response to the executions indicate that the executions severely challenged the credibility of the SPC death penalty review reform, which aimed to reduce the number of executions in China (estimated at 7000 per year). Wo's two daughters, both Austrian citizens, resorted to Austria and EU to first request a fair and transparent trial for their father, and later pleaded for amnesty as the deficiencies in the prosecution of the case became clear. Diplomatic efforts made behind the curtains had no result for three years. Media coverage and an expanded advocacy campaign which included pleas by Condoleezza Rice, President Heinz Fischer of Austria and the EU Troika were also in vain.
Family.
Wo Weihan's wife and younger daughter saw Wo Weihan on the morning of November 27. None were given official confirmation that the sentence had been approved and that an execution was pending. Wo's elder daughter expected to be able to see her father that week after the Chinese Ministry Foreign Affairs promised to the Austrian Embassy in Beijing that a second visit would be allowed for her. However, Wo was executed on the morning of November 28. This led to very strained relations between the Austrian and Chinese Ministries of Foreign Affair; Austria viewed it as an intentional affront.
According to Qin Gang, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,"...Wo Weihan is a Chinese citizen... He could not be treated in a different way only because he has some foreign relatives."
Guo's family were not allowed to visit Guo during the years of imprisonment, and only five days after the execution, which they had found out about through Wo's family, did they receive a notice that they could pick up Guo's ashes.


Chau Nguyen

Chau Nguyen (born 1973) is a former Vietnamese-American news anchor most recently seen with KHOU-TV, before stepping down in December 2007.
Chau's family fled after the fall of Saigon, South Vietnam when she was 2 years old and her family settled in Houston, Texas.
Career path.
Chau graduated from Katy High School in 1991, and attended the University of Texas Austin.
Beginning in 2003, she worked as a morning news anchor at KHOU in her native Houston, Texas.
In late 2007, the Houston Chronicle website reported that she gave notice and quit her job at KHOU. It is reported that she will travel the world for several months before returning home, to find work in a field outside of television journalism.
In 2007, she was chosen by the Vietnamese American National Gala (VANG) to be the Master of Ceremonies.
That same year she was named "Best Reporter" by the Houston Press .
In December 2007, she anchored her last Saturday morning broadcast for KHOU. According to her blog, she walked away on her terms because she wanted a change: "That's 15 years in TV news. I'm ready to pursue a new challenge. I loved working in TV, and I'll miss the friends I've made here, but I want a normal life. I don't want to work weekends. I want holidays off. I want to take Christmas off. TV news doesn't fit who I am now. I'm not a glamour girl. I'm an introspective person. Fifteen years is a long time to do only one thing."
In 2008, she returned to graduate school to pursue her Masters in Social Work from the University of Houston. She graduated in May 2010. She then began pursuing a new career as a social worker and psychotherapist.
Since then, Chau has appeared several times on various local news stations to offer her therapeutic expertise about children and teens.
In 2013, Chau accepted a position at The Women's Home as a Manager of Community Involvement. In her role, Chau has made several public appearances, often serving as a spokesperson for the organization.
in January 2016, Chau was the Mistress of Ceremony at the 2016 City of Houston Mayor and Elected Officials Inauguration at downtown's Jones Hall.
In April 2016, Chau was named Chief Marketing Officer at the Houston Area Women's Center (www.hawc.org)


Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, "Porgy and Bess" cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some US libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel.
Early life.
Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis.
At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.
Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother. Angelou recalls attending the Lafayette County Training School, in Stamps, Arkansas, a Rosenwald School." I went downtown sometimes, and I saw the white school, which was four times larger, and bricks and all that. But I don't remember envying that. I thought my school was grand!" Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again. Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and career, as well as Black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.
When Angelou was fourteen and her brother fifteen, she and her brother moved in once again with their mother, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. At the age of 16, she became the first Black female cable car conductor in San Francisco. She wanted the job badly, admiring the uniforms of the operators — so much so that her mother referred to it as her "dream job." Her mother encouraged her to pursue the position, but warned her that she would need to arrive early and work harder than others. In 2014, Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed “Women Who Move the Nation.”
Three weeks after completing school, at the age of seventeen, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).
Career.
Adulthood and early career: 1951–61.
In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother. She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal Black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful. Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.
After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music. Up to that point, she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at The Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). It was a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera "Porgy and Bess". She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages. In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, "Miss Calypso", which was reissued as a CD in 1996. She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film "Calypso Heat Wave", in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.
Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time. In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary" "Cabaret for Freedom" to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. According to scholar Lyman B. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective". Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time. She had joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he first entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem New York during United Nations 15th General Assembly on 19 September 1960.
Africa to "Caged Bird": 1961–69.
In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play "The Blacks", along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married. She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper "The Arab Observer". In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for "The African Review", a freelance writer for the "Ghanaian Times", wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana's National Theatre. She performed in a revival of "The Blacks" in Geneva and Berlin.
In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the US in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career. She moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. Working as a market researcher in Watts, Angelou witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays, and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time. Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but postponed again, and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate", he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4). Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius". Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated "Blacks, Blues, Black!", a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and Black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S." for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", published in 1969. This brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Later career.
Released in 1972, Angelou's "Georgia, Georgia", produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, was the first produced screenplay by a Black woman. She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having very little additional input in the filming of the movie. Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of writer Germaine Greer, in San Francisco in 1973. Over the next ten years, as Gillespie has stated, "She [Angelou] had accomplished more than many artists hope to achieve in a lifetime." Angelou worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack, and composing movie scores. She wrote articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry. She produced plays and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. She was "a reluctant actor", and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in "Look Away". As a theater director, in 1988 she undertook a revival of Errol John's play "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl" at the Almeida Theatre in London.
In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series "Roots". She was given a multitude of awards during this period, including more than thirty honorary degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world. In the late 1970s, Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's close friend and mentor. In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced.
She returned to the southern United States in 1981 because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was one of a few full-time African-American professors. From that point on, she considered herself "a teacher who writes". Angelou taught a variety of subjects that reflected her interests, including philosophy, ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing. "The Winston-Salem Journal "reported that even though she made many friends on campus, "she never quite lived down all of the criticism from people who thought she was more of a celebrity than an intellect...[and] an overpaid figurehead". The last course she taught at Wake Forest was in 2011, but she was planning to teach another course in late 2014. Her final speaking engagement at the university was in late 2013. Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries". The recording of the poem won a Grammy Award. In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, "Down in the Delta", which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. Also in 1996, she collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their album "Been Found". The album was responsible for three of Angelou's only "Billboard" chart appearances. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. She responded to critics who charged her with being too commercial by stating that "the enterprise was perfectly in keeping with her role as 'the people's poet'". More than thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography "A Song Flung Up to Heaven", in 2002.
Angelou campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries, giving her public support to Hillary Clinton. In the run-up to the January Democratic primary in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign ran ads featuring Angelou's endorsement. The ads were part of the campaign's efforts to rally support in the Black community; but Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, finishing 29 points ahead of Clinton and taking 80% of the Black vote. When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Obama, who went on to win the presidential election and became the first African-American president of the United States. After Obama's inauguration, she stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism."
In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of more than 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis. In 2011, Angelou served as a consultant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. She spoke out in opposition to a paraphrase of a quotation by King that appeared on the memorial, saying, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit", and demanded that it be changed. Eventually, the paraphrase was removed.
In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, entitled "Mom & Me & Mom", which focuses on her relationship with her mother.
Personal life.
Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa. In 2008, a DNA test revealed that among all of her African ancestors, 45 percent were from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent were from West Africa. A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After Savin was indicted for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite the discovery that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little black girl, physically and mentally bruised".
The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic Mary Jane Lupton has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently but informally and "with no time chart in front of her". For example, she was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she had been married, "for fear of sounding frivolous"; according to her autobiographies and to Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951 and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. Angelou held many jobs, including some in the sex trade, working as a prostitute and madam for lesbians, as she described in her second autobiography, "Gather Together in My Name". In a 1995 interview, Angelou said,
Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she described in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren, and, according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family. Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991 and her brother Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after a series of strokes; both were important figures in her life and her books. In 1981, the mother of her grandson disappeared with him; finding him took four years.
In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and, according to Angelou, concern among her friends and family worldwide. In 2013, Angelou told her friend Oprah Winfrey that she had studied courses offered by the Unity Church, which were spiritually significant to her. She did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference to be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. She owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone" in Harlem, which was purchased in 2004 and was full of her "growing library" of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. "The Guardian" writer Gary Younge reported that in Angelou's Harlem home were several African wall hangings and her collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work entitled "Maya's Quilt Of Life".
According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food". "The Winston-Salem Journal" stated: "Securing an invitation to one of Angelou's Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas tree decorating parties or birthday parties was among the most coveted invitations in town." "The New York Times", describing Angelou's residence history in New York City, stated that she regularly hosted elaborate New Year's Day parties. She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book "Hallelujah! The Welcome Table", which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up in 2010 with her second cookbook, "Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart", which focused on weight loss and portion control.
Beginning with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", Angelou used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, "Roget's Thesaurus", and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. She went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the "Sturm und Drang"". She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences such as her rape in "Caged Bird", in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She said, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it—ha! It's so delicious!" She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth".
Death.
Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014 at the age 86. She was found by her nurse. Although Angelou had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances, she was working on another book, an autobiography about her experiences with national and world leaders. During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that despite being in constant pain due to her dancing career and respiratory failure, she wrote four books during the last ten years of her life. He said, "She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension."
Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton. Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to." The week after Angelou's death, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" rose to number 1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list.
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her. On June 7, a private memorial service was held at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The memorial was shown live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site with speeches from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years. Rev. Cecil Williams, Mayor Ed Lee, and former mayor Willie Brown spoke.
Works.
Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas" marked the first time a well-known African-American autobiographer had written a third volume about her life. Her books "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US, and take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In her fifth autobiography “All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes” (1986) Angelou tells about her return to Ghana searching for the past of her tribe. She published her seventh autobiography "Mom & Me & Mom" in 2013, at the age of 85. Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first", with "Caged Bird" receiving the highest praise. Angelou wrote five collections of essays, which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House; he retired in 2011 and has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors." Angelou said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers."
Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie" (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she was chosen by US President Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.
Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, including her appearance in the television mini-series "Roots" in 1977. Her screenplay, "Georgia, Georgia" (1972), was the first original script by a Black woman to be produced, and she was the first African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, "Down in the Delta", in 1998.
Reception and legacy.
Influence.
When "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" was published in 1969, Angelou was hailed as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African-American women who were able to publicly discuss their personal lives. According to scholar Hilton Als, up to that point, Black female writers were marginalized to the point that they were unable to present themselves as central characters in the literature they wrote. Linguist John McWhorter agreed, seeing Angelou's works, which he called "tracts", as "apologetic writing". He placed Angelou in the tradition of African-American literature as a defense of Black culture, which he called "a literary manifestation of the imperative that reigned in the black scholarship of the period". Writer Julian Mayfield, who called "Caged Bird" "a work of art that eludes description", argued that Angelou's autobiographies set a precedent for not only other Black women writers, but also African-American autobiography as a whole. Als said that "Caged Bird" marked one of the first times that a Black autobiographer could, as he put it, "write about blackness from the inside, without apology or defense". Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women. It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer", and "a major autobiographical voice of the time". As writer Gary Younge said, "Probably more than almost any other writer alive, Angelou's life literally is her work."
Als said that "Caged Bird" helped increase Black feminist writings in the 1970s, less through its originality than "its resonance in the prevailing Zeitgeist", or the time in which it was written, at the end of the American Civil Rights Movement. Als also claimed that Angelou's writings, more interested in self-revelation than in politics or feminism, have freed other female writers to "open themselves up without shame to the eyes of the world". Angelou critic Joanne M. Braxton stated that "Caged Bird" was "perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing" autobiography written by an African-American woman in its era. Angelou's poetry has influenced the modern hip-hop music community, including artists such as Kanye West, Common, Tupac Shakur, and Nicki Minaj.
Critical reception.
Reviewer Elsie B. Washington called Angelou "the black woman's poet laureate". Sales of the paperback version of her books and poetry rose by 300–600% the week after Angelou's recitation Random House, which published the poem later that year, had to reprint 400,000 copies of all her books to keep up with the demand. They sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1200% increase. Angelou famously said, in response to criticism regarding using the details of her life in her work, "I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money'." Younge, speaking after the publication of Angelou's third book of essays, "Letter to My Daughter "(2008), has said, "For the last couple of decades she has merged her various talents into a kind of performance art—issuing a message of personal and social uplift by blending poetry, song and conversation."
Angelou's books, especially "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", have been criticized by many parents, causing their removal from school curricula and library shelves. According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, some parents and some schools have objected to "Caged Bird"s depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence. Some have been critical of the book's sexually explicit scenes, use of language, and irreverent depictions of religion. "Caged Bird" appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA's 2000–2009 list.
Awards and honors.
Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie," a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play "Look Away", and three Grammys for her spoken word albums. She served on two presidential committees, and was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1994, the National Medal of Arts in 2000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Angelou was awarded more than fifty honorary degrees.
Uses in education.
Angelou's autobiographies have been used in narrative and multicultural approaches in teacher education. Jocelyn A. Glazier, a professor at George Washington University, has trained teachers how to "talk about race" in their classrooms with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and "Gather Together in My Name". According to Glazier, Angelou's use of understatement, self-mockery, humor, and irony have left readers of Angelou's autobiographies unsure of what she left out and how they should respond to the events she described. Angelou's depictions of her experiences of racism have forced white readers to either explore their feelings about race and their own "privileged status", or to avoid the discussion as a means of keeping their privilege. Glazier found that critics have focused on the way Angelou fits within the genre of African-American autobiography and on her literary techniques, but readers have tended to react to her storytelling with "surprise, particularly when [they] enter the text with certain expectations about the genre of autobiography".
Educator Daniel Challener, in his 1997 book "Stories of Resilience in Childhood", analyzed the events in "Caged Bird" to illustrate resiliency in children. He argued that Angelou's book has provided a "useful framework" for exploring the obstacles many children like Maya have faced and how their communities have helped them succeed. Psychologist Chris Boyatzis has reported using "Caged Bird" to supplement scientific theory and research in the instruction of child development topics such as the development of self-concept and self-esteem, ego resilience, industry versus inferiority, effects of abuse, parenting styles, sibling and friendship relations, gender issues, cognitive development, puberty, and identity formation in adolescence. He found "Caged Bird" a "highly effective" tool for providing real-life examples of these psychological concepts.
Poetry.
Angelou is best known for her seven autobiographies, but she was also a prolific and successful poet. She was called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans. Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with her rape as a young girl, as described in "Caged Bird". According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affected Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she became, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".
Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry. Although all her books have been best-sellers, her poetry has not been perceived to be as serious as her prose and has been understudied. Her poems were more interesting when she recited and performed them, and many critics emphasized the public aspect of her poetry. Angelou's lack of critical acclaim has been attributed to both the public nature of many of her poems and to Angelou's popular success, and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a verbal, performed one. Zofia Burr has countered Angelou's critics by condemning them for not taking into account Angelou's larger purposes in her writing: "to be representative rather than individual, authoritative rather than confessional".
Style and genre in autobiographies.
Angelou's use of fiction-writing techniques such as dialogue, characterization, and development of theme, setting, plot, and language has often resulted in the placement of her books into the genre of autobiographical fiction. Angelou made a deliberate attempt in her books to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Scholar Mary Jane Lupton argues that all of Angelou's autobiographies conform to the genre's standard structure: they are written by a single author, they are chronological, and they contain elements of character, technique, and theme. Angelou recognizes that there are fictional aspects to her books; Lupton agrees, stating that Angelou tended to "diverge from the conventional notion of autobiography as truth", which parallels the conventions of much of African-American autobiography written during the abolitionist period of US history, when as both Lupton and African-American scholar Crispin Sartwell put it, the truth was censored out of the need for self-protection. Scholar Lyman B. Hagen places Angelou in the long tradition of African-American autobiography, but claims that Angelou created a unique interpretation of the autobiographical form.
According to African-American literature scholar Pierre A. Walker, the challenge for much of the history of African-American literature was that its authors have had to confirm its status as literature before they could accomplish their political goals, which was why Angelou's editor Robert Loomis was able to dare her into writing "Caged Bird" by challenging her to write an autobiography that could be considered "high art". Angelou acknowledged that she followed the slave narrative tradition of "speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we'". Scholar John McWhorter calls Angelou's books "tracts" that defend African-American culture and fight negative stereotypes. According to McWhorter, Angelou structured her books, which to him seem to be written more for children than for adults, to support her defense of Black culture. McWhorter sees Angelou as she depicts herself in her autobiographies "as a kind of stand-in figure for the Black American in Troubled Times". McWhorter views Angelou's works as dated, but recognizes that "she has helped to pave the way for contemporary black writers who are able to enjoy the luxury of being merely individuals, no longer representatives of the race, only themselves". Scholar Lynn Z. Bloom compares Angelou's works to the writings of Frederick Douglass, stating that both fulfilled the same purpose: to describe Black culture and to interpret it for their wider, white audiences.
According to scholar Sondra O'Neale, Angelou's poetry can be placed within the African-American oral tradition, and her prose "follows classic technique in nonpoetic Western forms". O'Neale states that Angelou avoided using a "monolithic Black language", and accomplished, through direct dialogue, what O'Neale calls a "more expected ghetto expressiveness". McWhorter finds both the language Angelou used in her autobiographies and the people she depicted unrealistic, resulting in a separation between her and her audience. As McWhorter states, "I have never read autobiographical writing where I had such a hard time summoning a sense of how the subject talks, or a sense of who the subject really is". McWhorter asserts, for example, that key figures in Angelou's books, like herself, her son Guy, and mother Vivian do not speak as one would expect, and that their speech is "cleaned up" for her readers. Guy, for example, represents the young Black male, while Vivian represents the idealized mother figure, and the stiff language they use, as well as the language in Angelou's text, is intended to prove that Blacks can use standard English competently.
McWhorter recognizes that much of the reason for Angelou's style was the "apologetic" nature of her writing. When Angelou wrote "Caged Bird" at the end of the 1960s, one of the necessary and accepted features of literature at the time was "organic unity", and one of her goals was to create a book that satisfied that criterion. The events in her books were episodic and crafted like a series of short stories, but their arrangements did not follow a strict chronology. Instead, they were placed to emphasize the themes of her books, which include racism, identity, family, and travel. English literature scholar Valerie Sayers has asserted that "Angelou's poetry and prose are similar". They both rely on her "direct voice", which alternates steady rhythms with syncopated patterns and uses similes and metaphors (e.g., the caged bird). According to Hagen, Angelou's works were influenced by both conventional literary and the oral traditions of the African-American community. For example, she referenced more than 100 literary characters throughout her books and poetry. In addition, she used the elements of blues music, including the act of testimony when speaking of one's life and struggles, ironic understatement, and the use of natural metaphors, rhythms, and intonations. Angelou, instead of depending upon plot, used personal and historical events to shape her books.


Radiocontrast agent

Radiocontrast agents are substances used to enhance the visibility of internal structures in X-ray-based imaging techniques such as computed tomography (contrast CT), projectional radiography, and fluoroscopy. Radiocontrast agents are typically iodine, or more rarely barium sulfate. The contrast agents absorb external X-rays, resulting in decreased exposure on the X-ray detector. This is different from radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine which emit radiation.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) functions through different principles and thus MRI contrast agents have a different mode of action. These compounds work by altering the magnetic properties of nearby hydrogen nuclei.
Types and uses.
Radiocontrast agents used in X-ray examinations can be grouped in positive (iodinated agents, barium sulfate), and negative agents (air, carbon dioxide, methylcelluose).
Iodine (circulatory system).
Iodinated contrast contains iodine. It is the main type of radiocontrast used for intravenous administration. Iodine has a particular advantage as a contrast agent for radiography because its innermost electron ("k-shell") binding energy is 33.2 keV, similar to the average energy of x-rays used in diagnostic radiography. When the incident x-ray energy is closer to the k-edge of the atom it encounters, photoelectric absorption is more likely to occur. Its uses include:
Organic iodine molecules used for contrast include iohexol, iodixanol and ioversol.
Barium (digestive system).
Barium sulfate is mainly used in the imaging of the digestive system. The substance exists as a water-insoluble white powder that is made into a slurry with water and administered directly into the gastrointestinal tract.
Barium sulfate, an insoluble white powder, is typically used for enhancing contrast in the GI tract. Depending on how it is to be administered the compound is mixed with water, thickeners, de-clumping agents, and flavourings to make the contrast agent. As the barium sulfate doesn't dissolve, this type of contrast agent is an opaque white mixture. It is only used in the digestive tract; it is usually swallowed or administered as an enema. After the examination, it leaves the body with the feces.
Air.
As in the picture on the right where both air and barium are used together (hence the term "double-contrast" barium enema) air can be used as a contrast material because it is "less" radio-opaque than the tissues it is defining. In the picture it highlights the interior of the colon. An example of a technique using purely air for the contrast medium is an air arthrogram where the injection of air into a joint cavity allows the cartilage covering the ends of the bones to be visualized.
Before the advent of modern neuroimaging techniques, air or other gases were used as contrast agents employed to displace the cerebrospinal fluid in the brain while performing a pneumoencephalography. Sometimes called an "air study", this once common yet highly-unpleasant procedure was used to enhance the outline of structures in the brain, looking for shape distortions caused by the presence of lesions.
Carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide also has a role in angioplasty. It is low-risk as it is a natural product with no risk of allergic potential. However, it can be used only below the diaphragm as there is a risk of embolism in neurovascular procedures. It must be used carefully to avoid contamination with room air when injected. It is a negative contrast agent in that it displaces blood when injected intravascularly.
Discontinued agents.
Thorotrast.
Thorotrast was a contrast agent based on thorium dioxide, which is radioactive. It was first introduced in 1929. While it provided good image enhancement, its use was abandoned in the late 1950s since it turned out to be carcinogenic. Given that the substance remained in the bodies of those to whom it was administered, it gave a continuous radiation exposure and was associated with a risk of cancers of the liver, bile ducts and bones, as well as higher rates of hematological malignancy (leukemia and lymphoma). Thorotrast may have been administered to millions of patients prior to being disused.
Nonsoluble substances.
In the past, some non water-soluble contrast agents were used. One such substance was iofendylate (trade names: Pantopaque, Myodil) which was an iodinated oil-based substance that was commonly used in myelography. Due to it being oil-based, it was recommended that the physician remove it from the patient at the end of the procedure. This was a painful and difficult step and because complete removal could not always be achieved, iofendylate's persistence in the body might sometimes lead to arachnoiditis, a potentially painful and debilitating lifelong disorder of the spine. Iofendylate's use ceased when water-soluble agents (such as metrizamide) became available in the late 1970s. Also, with the advent of MRI, myelography became much less-commonly performed.
Adverse effects.
Modern iodinated contrast agents - especially non-ionic compounds - are generally well tolerated. The adverse effects of radiocontrast can be subdivided into type A reactions (e.g. thyrotoxicosis), and type B reactions (hypersensitivity reactions: allergy and non-allergy reactions [formerly called 'anaphylactoid reactions']).
Patients receiving contrast via IV typically experience a hot feeling around the throat, and this hot sensation gradually moves down to the pelvic area.
Contrast induced nephropathy.
Iodinated contrast may be toxic to the kidneys, especially when given via the arteries prior to studies such as catheter coronary angiography. Non-ionic contrast agents, which are almost exclusively used in computed tomography studies, have not been shown to cause CIN when given intravenously at doses needed for CT studies.
Thyroid dysfunction.
Iodinated radiocontrast can induce overactivity (hyperthyroidism) and underactivity (hypothyroidism) of the thyroid gland. The risk of either condition developing after a single examination is 2-3 times that of those who have not undergone a scan with iodinated contrast. Thyroid underactivity is mediated by a phenomenon called the Wolff–Chaikoff effect, where iodine suppresses the production of thyroid hormones; this is usually temporary but there is an association with longer-term thyroid underactivity. Some other people show the opposite effect, called Jod-Basedow phenomenon, where the iodine induces overproduction of thyroid hormone; this may be the result of underlying thyroid disease (such as nodules or Graves' disease) or previous iodine deficiency. Children exposed to iodinated contrast during pregnancy may develop hypothyroidism after birth and monitoring of the thyroid function is recommended.


Luis Moreno (footballer)

Luis Moreno (born 19 March 1981) is a Panamanian football defender who plays for Tauro.
He gained notoriety after violently kicking an injured barn owl that had landed on the pitch during a league match between Junior de Barranquilla and Deportivo Pereira. The barn owl died due to the kick.
Club career.
Born in Panama City, "Lucho" Moreno began playing football with Venezuelan side Deportivo Italia. He was signed by first division club Tauro in 2001. He had a brief spell with Colombian side Envigado during 2005 and 2006, before returning to Tauro. Peruvian side Universitario de Deportes attempted to sign him in 2006, but he stayed with Tauro.
In January 2007, Moreno returned to the Colombian league, joining Independiente Santa Fe. The club terminated his contract in May 2007, after a disciplinary incident. He returned to Tauro, but shortly after joined Mexican Primera División A side Tiburones Rojos.
Moreno was loaned to Deportivo Pereira in January 2011, but returned to Tauro later that year, where he would help the club win its tenth league title in 2013.
International career.
Moreno made his debut for Panama in a June 2000 friendly match against Venezuela and has earned a total of 76 caps, scoring no goals. He represented his country in 17 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and has been a key member of the side, participating in the 2005, 2007 and 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup finals.
His final international was a September 2011 friendly match against Paraguay.
Owl kicking incident.
During a February 2011 league match between Junior de Barranquilla and Deportivo Pereira, Junior's unofficial mascot owl landed on the field during play and was struck by a pass. As the owl lay stunned on the field, Moreno, from the opposing team, kicked it approximately 3 meters (~10 feet) to the touchline. Shortly after, he claimed he was prompting it to fly away but in a later interview he admitted "The kick was a product of tension on the field at the time." The owl was treated for its injuries at a local veterinary clinic, but later died of stress related to the incident. Moreno received a two-match ban, a $560 fine from Colombian football's governing body in addition to veterinary costs for the owl's treatment and was ordered to do community service at a zoo.


Wharf Rats

Wharf Rats are a group of concert-goers who have chosen to live drug and alcohol free. They arose out of the environment around the rock group The Grateful Dead and their followers the Deadheads, both of which were rooted in the drugs-embracing counterculture of the 1960s.
Their primary purpose is to support other concert goers who choose to live drug-free, like themselves. They announce their presence with yellow balloons, signs, and the Wharf Rats information table. At a set break during Grateful Dead (and related) concerts they hold self help style meetings but are not affiliated specifically with any 12-Step organization and have no requirement for attendance at one of their meetings besides providing some helpful drug free fellowship. Like Deadheads, members of Wharf Rats come from all walks of life. By 1990, the Wharf Rats mailing list had some 3,000 names.
The Wharf Rats began during the early 1980s as a group of Deadheads under the name "The Wharf Rat Group of Alcoholics Anonymous". The Wharf Rats originally came from a small group of Narcotics Anonymous members who went to a Grateful Dead concert in Philadelphia and located each other by their Yellow balloons with the NA symbol drawn on in Magic Marker. However due to operational differences they soon split off from Narcotics Anonymous, and are not affiliated with them, NA, or any other twelve-step program, though many of members of the Wharf Rats are members of AA, NA or other 12-step programs. The Wharf Rats see themselves as "a group of friends sharing a common bond, providing support, information and some traction in an otherwise slippery environment." The relationship between the Wharf Rats and more traditional such groups has been studied in the academic journal "Deviant Behavior".
While the Wharf Rats originated at Grateful Dead concerts, they now have a presence at other jam band concerts as well. Similar groups named The Phellowship for Phish, The Gateway for Widespread Panic, The Jellyfish for The String Cheese Incident, Much Obliged for Umphrey's McGee, Happy Hour Heroes for moe., the Digital Buddhas for The Disco Biscuits, Better Than Before for The Werks and the Hummingbirds for Bassnectar all based on the Wharf Rats. But the Wharf Rats remain the best known of all of them.
The name of this group comes from the 1971 Dead song "Wharf Rat" (written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter and appearing on "Skull & Roses"), which contains the self-told story of August West, a down-and-out dockside wino. At least by one interpretation, the song was aimed partly at Deadheads.


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