Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Lynn Rhimes (born January 13, 1970) is an American television producer, screenwriter, and author. She is best known as the showrunner—creator, head writer, and executive producer—of the television medical drama "Grey's Anatomy", its spin-off "Private Practice", and the political thriller series "Scandal". Rhimes has also served as the executive producer of the ABC television series "Off the Map", "How to Get Away with Murder", "The Catch", and "Station 19".
In 2007, Rhimes was named one of "TIME" magazine's 100 People Who Help Shape the World. In 2015, she published her first book, a memoir, "Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person". In 2017, Netflix said that it had entered into a multi-year development deal with Rhimes, by which all of her future productions will be Netflix Original series. Netflix had already purchased the streaming rights to past episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal".
Early life.
Rhimes was born in Chicago, Illinois, as the youngest of six children of Vera P. (Cain), a college professor, and Ilee Rhimes, Jr., a university administrator. Her mother attended college while raising their six children and earned a PhD in educational administration in 1991. Her father, who holds an MBA, became chief information officer (CIO) at the University of Southern California, serving until 2013.
Rhimes lived in Park Forest South (now University Park, Illinois), with her two older brothers and three older sisters. She has said she exhibited an early affinity for storytelling. While in high school, she served as a hospital volunteer, which inspired an interest in hospital environments.
Rhimes attended Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. At Dartmouth College, she majored in English and film studies and earned her bachelor's degree in 1991. At Dartmouth, she joined the Black Underground Theater Association. She divided her time between directing and performing in student productions, and writing fiction.
She also wrote for the college newspaper. After college, she relocated to San Francisco with an older sibling and worked in advertising at McCann Erickson. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California and study screenwriting. Ranked at the top of her USC class, Rhimes earned the Gary Rosenberg Writing Fellowship. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
While at USC, Rhimes was hired as an intern by Debra Martin Chase. Rhimes credits her early success, in part, to mentors such as Chase, a prominent African-American producer. She also worked at Denzel Washington's company, Mundy Lane Entertainment. Chase served as a mentor to Rhimes: they worked together on "The Princess Diaries 2".
Personal life.
Rhimes adopted her first daughter in June 2002 and adopted another girl in February 2012. In September 2013, Rhimes welcomed her third daughter via gestational surrogacy.
In 2014, Rhimes gave a commencement address at her alma mater, Dartmouth College, where she received an honorary doctorate.
In September 2015, Rhimes revealed she had lost 117 pounds via exercise and dieting.
Activism
In April 2017 Rhimes joined the national board of Planned Parenthood.
In 2019 Shonda Rhimes joined the organization When We All Vote as a co-chair.This organization was founded to get out the vote prior to the 2020 general election.
Career.
Career beginnings: 1995–2004.
After graduation, Rhimes was an unemployed scriptwriter in Hollywood. To make ends meet, Rhimes worked at a variety of day jobs, including as an office administrator, and then a counselor at a job center that taught job skills to people with housing instability and mental illness. During this period, Rhimes worked as research director on the documentary, "" (1995), which won the 1995 Peabody Award. In 1998 Rhimes made a short film, "Blossoms and Veils", starring Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeffrey Wright, which is her only credit as a film director. New Line Cinema purchased a feature script of hers. Rhimes received an assignment to co-write the HBO movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge" (1999). It earned numerous awards for its star, Halle Berry.
In 2001, Rhimes wrote "Crossroads", the debut film of pop singer Britney Spears. Despite being panned by critics, the film grossed more than $60 million worldwide.
Rhimes next worked on writing Disney's sequel to its popular movie, "The Princess Diaries" (2001). Although "" (2004) did not score as well at the box office, Rhimes later said that she treasured the experience, if only for the opportunity to work with its star, Julie Andrews. In 2003, Rhimes wrote her first TV pilot for ABC, about young female war correspondents, but the network turned it down.
"Grey's Anatomy", "Private Practice", "Scandal" and other projects with ABC.
Rhimes is the creator and currently executive producer and head writer of "Grey's Anatomy". The series debuted as a mid-season replacement on March 27, 2005. The series features the surgical staff at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital (later to be named Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital), in Seattle, Washington. The series features an ensemble cast with Ellen Pompeo serving as titular character Meredith Grey, who provides narration for a majority of the series' episodes.
In 2007, Rhimes created and produced the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off series "Private Practice", which debuted September 26, 2007, on ABC. The show chronicled the life of Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) as she left Seattle Grace Hospital for Los Angeles to join a private practice. The series also featured an ensemble cast, including Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Audra McDonald and Taye Diggs among others. The first season was shortened because of a writers' strike; it has nine episodes. In May 2012, ABC picked up "Private Practice" for the 2012–13 television season with 13 episodes. The series finale was aired January 22, 2013.
In 2010, Rhimes created a new pilot for ABC called "Inside the Box", a female-centric ensemble drama set in a Washington, D.C. network news bureau. The lead character was Catherine, an ambitious female news producer who, with her colleagues, pursued "the story" at all costs while juggling their personal animosities and crises of conscience. It was not picked up by the network.
In 2011, Rhimes served as executive producer for the medical drama, "Off the Map", which was created by "Grey's Anatomy" writer, Jenna Bans. It focused on a group of doctors who practice medicine at a remote clinic in the Amazon jungle. The series was officially cancelled by the ABC network on May 13, 2011.
In May 2011, ABC ordered Rhimes' pilot script "Scandal" to series. Kerry Washington stars as Olivia Pope, a political crisis management expert. The character is partially based on former Bush administration press aide Judy Smith. The series debut aired on April 5, 2012.
In 2012, Rhimes developed a pilot for a period drama, "Gilded Lilys", but it was not picked up to series.
In December 2013, ABC ordered a pilot for a new Rhimes series, "How to Get Away with Murder". Actress Viola Davis joined the cast as the lead character in February 2014. It was officially picked up to series on May 8, 2014.
In March 2016, ABC premiered "The Catch", a comedy-drama led by Rhimes based on a treatment by British author Kate Atkinson. It starred Mireille Enos and Peter Krause. Later that month, "Scandal", "How to Get Away with Murder" and "Grey's Anatomy" were respectively picked up for their sixth, third and 13th seasons. The following year, it was announced that "Scandal" would conclude after its upcoming seventh season, while "The Catch" was cancelled after its second.
Netflix deal.
On August 14, 2017, Netflix announced that it had entered into an exclusive multi-year development deal with Rhimes, under which all of her future productions will be Netflix Original series. The service already had purchased U.S. streaming rights to past episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal". Chief content officer Ted Sarandos described Rhimes as being a "true Netflixer at heart", since "she loves TV and films, she cares passionately about her work, and she delivers for her audience".
Of the deal, Rhimes said that
[Sarandos] understood what I was looking for — the opportunity to build a vibrant new storytelling home for writers with the unique creative freedom and instantaneous global reach provided by Netflix's singular sense of innovation. The future of Shondaland at Netflix has limitless possibilities.
The deal was considered to be a coup for Netflix due to Rhimes' prominence at ABC; it was also considered to be a counter toward the effort by Disney, ABC's parent company, to reduce the availability of their content on Netflix in favor of a planned subscription streaming service of their own.
As of October 2020 she was working on more than 12 projects for Netflix, including the period drama "Bridgerton".
Shondaland.
Shondaland is the name of Rhimes's production company. Shondaland and its logo also refer to the shows Rhimes has produced and to Rhimes herself. Shows included in Shondaland are:
Awards and nominations.
Shonda Rhimes has won a Golden Globe award and was nominated for three Emmy Awards. She has also won awards from the Writer's Guild of America, Producer's Guild of America, and Director's Guild of America. Below is a more complete list.


Home Country Direct

Home Country Direct is a telecommunications service to facilitate calling one's home country while traveling abroad. It made it possible to speak with an operator familiar with the language of the traveler. The Home Country Direct number is usually a domestic toll-free number, and is specific to the pairing of originating and receiving countries.
The first such services were established in the early 1980s by AT&T as "USA Direct"; reciprocal services from the United States were later established, and other countries also established the services, such as Canada Direct established by the former Telecom Canada alliance.
As the services long predated international freephone service +800, it was required to establish a toll-free number in each country that conformed to that country's method of establishing such a service. Since many countries had not yet migrated their freephone services to the better known 800 area code, it made for a variety of different numbers, including short dialing codes. The service might also be limited to payphones, and might require pre-pay using coins or a card. Once the number was dialed, the call was routed through the international switch, over overseas circuits, directly to an operator in the country being called.
Sometimes, at a premium rate, one could call a third country instead of the home country.
Before home country direct services were established, callers trying to call home were limited in their ability to make a call. While a few countries allowed reciprocal collect calls, most only allowed such calls "to" Canada or the United States, often at person-to-person rates, and even fewer nations permitted calls using a foreign telephone calling card. Many countries did not permit charge transfers at all, forcing the caller to pay directly to the service provider at the point the call originated.


Tony Parkes

Anthony Parkes (born 5 May 1949) is an English former professional footballer. After retiring, he became a coach. He was most recently caretaker manager at Blackpool. It was the seventh such role of his coaching career, having performed the role on six occasions for Blackburn Rovers. As of 2011 he worked as a scout for Blackburn Rovers.
Playing career.
Parkes was a midfielder who started his career in non-League football at Buxton in 1969 before moving to Blackburn Rovers in 1970 where he spent the rest of his playing career. He played a total of 350 league games and scored 38 goals for Rovers before retiring in 1982.
Coaching career.
After retiring Parkes stayed with Blackburn, joining their coaching staff under Bobby Saxton, where he became assistant manager. He stood in as caretaker manager for the club six times in less than 20 years. He took over from Bobby Saxton (December 1986 – February 1987), Don Mackay (September–October 1991), Ray Harford (October 1996 – June 1997), Roy Hodgson (November–December 1998), Brian Kidd (November 1999 – March 2000) and Graeme Souness (September 2004) after their departures.
During this time Rovers experienced something of a revolution. During his first caretaker spell, they were a struggling Second Division club who had not tasted top flight football for some 20 years. Five years later, during his second caretaker spell, they had just been taken over by local steel baron Jack Walker and were a wealthy, ambitious side building for a challenge for promotion to the new FA Premier League – which was ultimately achieved at the end of the season under new manager Kenny Dalglish. By the time of his third caretaker spell five years later, barely 18 months had passed since their Premier League title triumph – the club's first top division title since 1914. His fourth spell came in 1999 after Rovers' shock relegation from the top-flight; while Parkes hoped to secure promotion and the manager's position on a full-time basis, this in fact proved to be his least successful stint as caretaker, and he was replaced by Graeme Souness in March 2000 with the club looking in danger of a second successive relegation. However, Parkes still remained at the club as Souness's assistant.
He left Rovers in November 2004, after 34 years at the club, following then-manager Mark Hughes' decision to bring in his own backroom team. Parkes criticised the club after he learned of his sacking from his daughter, who had heard the news on the radio, saying, "Usually Blackburn do it the right way, but they got it wrong. I think I deserve a bit more respect than to have my daughter telling me she's just heard it on the radio." Parkes was given a testimonial match in May 2005, a game which attracted back many former Rovers' favourites such as Alan Shearer and Colin Hendry.
Parkes became Blackpool's assistant manager in December 2005, shortly after Simon Grayson was appointed as caretaker manager, and he helped the club win promotion to the Football League Championship in the 2006–07 season after a successful play-off final against Yeovil Town at Wembley. On 4 March 2008, he signed a new contract, keeping him at Bloomfield Road until 2010.
In December 2008, Parkes was installed as a caretaker manager for the seventh time in his career, after Grayson resigned from his position as Blackpool manager to join Leeds United. Blackpool's first-team coach, Steve Thompson, took over Parkes' role as assistant manager. After his first game in charge, a 1–1 Boxing Day draw against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, Parkes revealed that the Blackpool board was willing to give him the job full-time, with Thompson continuing as his assistant, if the team continued to perform as they did under Grayson. Blackpool finished the 2008–09 season in 16th place in The Championship. The Blackpool board met in mid-May to discuss his position. After discussions with the club chairman Karl Oyston — resulting in a disagreement over finances – Parkes left Bloomfield Road. Parkes claims he deserved a better deal than the one offered. "I felt the offer was unjust and there was no way that I could accept it. I don't want to cause a scene or a major problem, because I don't want to go down that road of people saying I'm bitter and twisted. We had some terrific results and some great days and they will stick with me for the rest of my life. I can't understand why I had that kind of offer after what I'd done. That will be the thing that will always concern me."
Personal life.
In 2020, Parkes revealed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.


Arno Schirokauer

Arno Fritz Kurt Schirokauer (20 July 1899 – 24 May 1954) was a German-Jewish literary scholar, best known for his biography of Ferdinand Lassalle.
In 1939, Schirokauer managed to travel to Havana, Cuba and on to Memphis. There he taught at Southwestern College as a Visiting Lecturer in Medieval Studies - his salary provided by other Jews in Memphis, since college rules prohibited non-Christian faculty - until he moved on to the Carl Schurz Foundation of Philadelphia. He taught at Yale University from 1941 to 1943, at Kenyon College from 1943 to 1944, at Yale again 1944 to 1945, and at Johns Hopkins University from 1946 until his death in 1954.


Hermann Weigert

Hermann Weigert (20 October 1890 in Breslau – 2 April 1955 in New York City) was a German vocal coach, pianist, and conductor. He was a vocal coach and accompanist for the Metropolitan Opera for thirteen years. Recognized as an authority on the works of Richard Wagner, he served as a consultant to the Bayreuth Festival from 1951 until his death four years later. He was the husband, accompanist and, voice teacher of Swedish soprano Astrid Varnay, whose career he managed to international success. He also served as accompanist and vocal coach for soprano Kirsten Flagstad for many years.
Life and career.
Trained at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, Weigert began his career working as a vocal coach at the Magdeburg Opera and at Theater Lübeck. He left those posts to join the conducting staff at the Berlin State Opera in 1920 where he worked with Dimitri Mitropoulos, Otto Klemperer, George Szell, and Heinz Tietjen. While conducting in Berlin, he simultaneously worked as a professor at the Royal Berlin Academy of Music.
Due to his Jewish ancestry and the rise of the Nazi party in Berlin, Weigert resigned from his post at the Berlin State Opera in 1934. After working for a brief period in South Africa, he joined the staff of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he worked as the chief vocal coach and accompanist for the German repertoire. At the Met he became known as an expert on the works of Richard Wagner, and became the primary vocal coach to sopranos Kirsten Flagstad and Astrid Varnay; the latter of whom he married in 1944.
In 1948 Weigert left his post at the Met and returned to Europe with Flagstad and Varnay where he helped orchestrate a successful international launch to his wife's career, beginning with the Royal Opera House in London. In 1951 Varnay made an acclaimed debut at the Bayreuth Festival where she appeared annually for the next seventeen years. Weigert served on the musical staff of the Bayreuth Festival from 1951-1955.
In addition to managing his wife's career, Weigert worked as a guest conductor at numerous German opera houses from 1948-1955; including conducting several performances with his wife in the cast. He notably conducted recordings of his wife portraying the roles of Isolde in "Tristan and Isolde", the title role in "Salome", and Brünnhilde in "Götterdämmerung"; the latter of which won the Grand Prix du Disque.
Weigert died of a heart attack at the age of 65 in Manhattan.


Wolfgang Iser

Wolfgang Iser (22 July 1926 – 24 January 2007) was a German literary scholar.
Biography.
Wolfgang Iser was born in Marienberg, Germany. His parents were Paul and Else (Steinbach) Iser. He studied literature in the universities of Leipzig and Tübingen before receiving his PhD in English at Heidelberg with a dissertation on the world view of Henry Fielding ("Die Weltanschauung Henry Fieldings", 1950). A year later, Iser was appointed as an instructor at Heidelberg and in 1952 as an assistant lecturer at the University of Glasgow. There, Iser began to explore contemporary philosophy and literature, which deepened his interest in inter-cultural exchange. He subsequently lectured in many other parts of the world, including Asia and Israel. He died in Constance.
He was married to Lore Iser.
Hermeneutics.
Iser is known for his reader-response criticism in literary theory. This theory began to evolve in 1967, while he was working in the University of Konstanz, which he helped to found in the 1960s. Together with Hans Robert Jauss, he is considered to be the founder of the Constance School of reception theory. In his approach to reader-response theory, Iser describes the process of first reading, the subsequent development of the text into a 'whole', and how the dialogue between the reader and text takes place. In his study of Shakespeare's histories, in particular "Richard II", Iser interprets Richard's continually changing legal policy as expression of the desire for self-assertion. Here he follows Hans Blumenberg, and attempts to apply his theory of modernity to Shakespeare. In this theory of modernity is self-assertion, which responds to the destruction of scholastic rationalism in the nominalist revolution (with William of Ockham).
For Iser, meaning is not an object to be found within a text, but is an event of construction that occurs somewhere between the text and the reader. Specifically, a reader comes to the text, which is a fixed world, but meaning is realized through the act of reading and how a reader connects the structures of the text to their own experience. To illustrate this, Iser uses the example of constellations: "The impressions that arise as a result of this process will vary from individual to individual, but only within the limits imposed by the written as opposed to the unwritten text. In the same way, two people gazing at the night sky may both be looking at the same collection of stars, but one will see the image of a plough, and the other will make out a dipper. The 'stars' in a literary text are fixed; the lines that join them are variable". A literary work, which for Iser is created when a reader and a text "converge, consists of two "poles": the artistic (the object, the text created by the author) and the aesthetic (the realization accomplished by the reader). Both of these poles contribute to the two central points of Iser's theory: the concept of "implied reader" and narrative "gaps".
When an author is composing a text, they have a particular reader in mind, which is in part represented in the text. This reader is not identical to a real, flesh-and-blood reader, but is "a textual structure anticipating the presence of a recipient without necessarily defining him…the concept of the implied reader designates a network of response-inviting structures, which impel the reader to grasp the text". Iser separates the concept of implied reader into two "interrelated aspects: the reader’s role as a textual structure, and the reader’s role as a structured act".
The textual structure refers to the reader’s point-of-view as found within the text. This standpoint is multifaceted, because the narrator, the characters, the plot, and the fictitious reader all offer sides of it. Further, the reader’s role as a textual structure is defined by the "vantage point by which he joins [these perspectives], and the meeting place they converge". All, as component parts, operate together to shape the reader’s role as found within the text.
The reader's role as a structured act refers to how a reader fulfills the textual structures by causing them to converge within their imagination. In other words, the textual structures are connected and come to life when a reader takes part in the reading process. This does not mean that the "real" reader simply accepts this role, but rather they exist in tension between their own historical reality and experience, and the acceptance of their role as reader. "The concept of the implied reader as an expression of the role offered by the text is in no way an abstraction derived from a real reader, but is rather the conditioning force behind a particular kind of tension produced by the real reader when he accepts the role". The differences between the real reader, and the role of the fictitious reader, produce a tension that allows for different connections and readings.
For Iser, a literary work is composed of both written and unwritten portions of a text. As a reader begins the reading process, the sentences that make up a work not only inform the reader of the literary movement, but produce certain
expectations within the mind of the reader. However, these expectations are rarely fulfilled, as a text is "full of unexpected twists and turns, and frustrations of expectations…Thus whenever the flow is interrupted and we are led off in unexpected directions, the opportunity is given to us to bring into play our own faculty for establishing connections—for filling in the gaps left by the text itself". These gaps are the unwritten portion of the text that calls for the reader's participation. Different readers will decide to fill in the various gaps in different ways, allowing for inexhaustible realizations of the text within its provided interpretive limits. As the reader reflects on what they have read previously in the text, or if they reread the text, new light is shed on the happenings within the narrative as "certain aspects of the text will assume a significance we did not attach to them on a first reading, while others will recede into the background".
Thus, the structure of a text brings about expectations, which are interrupted by surprising unfulfillment, producing gaps, which require filling by the reader to create a coherent flow of the text. These gaps then, in turn, cause the reader to reread prior events in the text in light of those gap fillings. However, these gaps cannot be filled arbitrarily, but through interpretive limits given in the text by an author. Iser finds this experience to be the breakdown of the subject-object division, in that "text and reader no longer confront each other as object and subject, but instead the 'division' takes place within the reader himself". In the act of reading, a text becomes a living subject within the reader.


Labile verb

In general linguistics, a labile verb (or ergative verb) is a verb that can be either transitive or intransitive, and whose subject when intransitive corresponds to its direct object when transitive. Labile verbs are a prominent feature of English, but they also occur in many other languages.
Terminology.
The terminology in general linguistics is not stable yet. Labile verbs can also be called "S=O-ambitransitive" (following R.M.W. Dixon's usage), or "ergative", following Lyons's influential textbook from 1968. However, the term "ergative verb" has also been used for unaccusative verbs, and in most other contexts, it is used for ergative constructions.
Labile verbs in English.
In English, most verbs can be used intransitively, but ordinarily this does not change the role of the subject; consider, for example, "He ate the soup" (transitive) and "He ate" (intransitive), where the only difference is that the latter does not specify what was eaten. By contrast, with a labile verb the role of the subject changes; consider "it broke the window" (transitive) and "the window broke" (intransitive).
Labile verbs can be divided into several categories:
Some of these can be used intransitively in either sense: "I'm cooking the pasta" is fairly synonymous with both "The pasta is cooking" (as an ergative verb) and "I'm cooking", although it obviously gives more information than either.
Unlike a passive verb, a nominalization, an infinitive, or a gerund, which would allow the agent to be deleted but would also allow it to be included, the intransitive version of a labile verb normally requires the agent to be deleted:
Indeed, the intransitive form of a labile verb can be used to suggest that there is no agent. With some non-labile verbs, this can also be achieved using the reflexive voice:
This use of the reflexive voice can be used to indicate the lack of any agent, but it can also be used in cases when a specific agent is unknown. For example, the phrases "John broke the window, or maybe Jack did — at any rate, the window broke" and "John solved the problem, or maybe Jack did — at any rate, the problem was solved" both have quite naturally understandable meanings, though they're slightly idiomatic.
Another way to construct the reflexive voice is:
This use of the reflexive voice indicates that the subject of the sentence "is" the causative agent; the phrase "John solved the problem, or maybe Jack did — at any rate, the problem solved itself" is literally self-contradictory, though idiomatic usage does not always follow this prescription. Accordingly, some grammarians would consider both "The window broke" and "The problem solved itself" to be examples of a distinct voice, the middle voice.
The significance of the labile verb is that it enables a writer or speaker not only to suppress the identity of the outside agent responsible for the particular process, but also to represent the affected party as in some way causing the action by which it is affected. This can be done neutrally when the affected party can be considered an institution or corporate entity and the individual member responsible for the action is unimportant, for example "the shop closed for the day". It can also be used by journalists sympathetic to a particular causative agent and wishing to avoid assigning blame, as in "Eight factories have closed this year."
In Norwegian.
The labile verbs in Norwegian have one conjugation pattern for when the verb is transitive and another one for when the verb is intransitive:
In French.
French is another language that has them, developed from lack of distinguished sense in Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin:
However, note that the use of the reflexive form of the verb to express the anticausative meaning is more common.
Further, verbs analogous to English "cook" have even more possibilities, even allowing a causative construction to substitute for the transitive form of the verb:
In Dutch.
In Dutch, labile verbs are used in a way similar to English, but they stand out as more distinct particularly in the perfect tenses.
In the present, the usage in both languages is similar, for example:
However, there are cases where the two languages deviate. For example, the verb "zinken" (to sink) cannot be used transitively, nor the verb "openen" (to open) intransitively:
and
In this last case, one could say: "De deur gaat open." (lit. "The door goes open"), while the former would be stated as "De marine liet het schip zinken." (lit. "The navy let the ship sink").
A difference between Dutch and English is that typically the perfect tenses of intransitives take "zijn" (to be) as their auxiliary rather than "hebben" (to have), and this extends to these verbs as well.
Perfect labile innocence.
Labiles are verbs of innocence, because they imply the "absence" of an actor who could possibly be blamed. This association is quite strong in Dutch and speakers tend to treat verbs such as "forgetting" and "losing" as ergatives in the perfect tenses even though they typically have a direct object and are really transitive verbs. It is not unusual to hear sentences such as:
Something similar happens with compound verbs such as "gewaarworden" ('become aware (of something)'). It is a separable compound of "worden" ('become'), which is a typical 'process'-verb. It is usually considered a copula, rather than an ergative, but these two group of verbs are related. For example, copulas usually take "to be" in the perfect as well. A verb such as "blijven" ('stay') is used both as a copula and as an ergative and all its compounds ("nablijven" ('stay behind'), "bijblijven" ('keep up'), "aanblijven" ('stay on') etc.) are ergatives.
"Gewaarworden" can take two objects, a reflexive indirect one and one that could be called a "causative object". In many languages the causative object would take a case such as the genitive, but in Dutch this is no longer the case:
The perfect usually takes "to be" regardless of the objects:
In Hebrew.
Hebrew does have a few labile verbs, due in part to calques from other languages; nonetheless, it has fewer labile verbs than English, in part because it has a fairly productive causative construction and partly distinct mediopassive constructions. For example, the verbs (active) and (its mediopassive counterpart) both mean "to break", but the former is transitive (as in "He broke the window") and the latter is intransitive (as in "The window broke"). Similarly, the verbs (active) and (its causative counterpart) both mean "to pass", but the former is intransitive (as in "He passed by Susan") and the latter is transitive (as in "He passed the salt to Susan")


Japanese script reform

The Japanese script reform is the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word, which began during the Meiji period. This issue is known in Japan as the . The reforms led to the development of the modern Japanese written language, and explain the arguments for official policies used to determine the usage and teaching of kanji rarely used in Japan.
History.
Pre-World War II reforms.
A misconception is held that Japanese script reform originated from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers during the Occupation of Japan, but in fact, a plan had already been put into place prior to the occupation. Reform efforts date back to at least 1900, and proposals to reform kanji usage had been developed in the 1920s.
In the 1900 kana usage reforms, hentaigana (old variant forms of kana) were eliminated, though historical kana orthography (dating to the Heian period, a millennium before) was retained. A separate character for "n" was also prescribed; previously it had been written as (the same as "mu") and was a hentaigana for both these sounds. A proposal to eliminate certain kanji from use was implemented in a number of regions and overseas territories in the 1920s, near the end of the Taishō period.
In November 1922, the , the precursor to the Japanese Language Council, now the Japanese Language subdivision of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, selected and approved a list of 1,962 kanji characters for daily use. This group of characters formed the basis for the "tōyō kanji" list, which eventually developed into the modern "jōyō kanji" list. In December 1923, the committee approved a set of reforms for kana usage; the prototype for the modern kana system.
Reforms.
The reforms made after the Second World War have had a particularly significant impact on accepted kanji usage in the modern Japanese language.
On 12 November 1945, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper published an editorial concerning the abolition of kanji, and on 31 March 1946, the first American Education Delegation arrived in Japan at the invitation of the SCAP and issued its first report. The report pointed out the difficulties concerning kanji use, and advocated the use of rōmaji, which they considered more convenient. As a result, the gradual abolition of kanji became official policy for the SCAP, and the "tōyō kanji" list and modern kana usage proposals were drawn up in accordance with this policy.
"Tōyō kanji".
The "tōyō kanji" list, containing 1850 characters, was published by the cabinet on 16 November 1946 with the intention of completely abolishing the use of kanji in the future. The list reduced the number of kanji deemed appropriate for daily use, and categorized certain kanji for specific use in official publications and documents.
Prior to this reform, an attempt had already been made to standardise several kanji, known as "kyūjitai", with other forms, known as "shinjitai", but was not conducted systematically. For new character forms, changes were only made to several characters with minimal modifications.
Another separate attempt was made to limit the number of kanji readings, but the first list proved much too restrictive. For instance, the character for fish had its readings limited to "gyo" and "uo" when the most common reading, "sakana," was not officially recognized by the list. These shortcomings were acknowledged in the revised list of "tōyō kanji," published on 28 June 1972.
On 5 July 1956, the Japanese Language Council announced a list of substitute characters for words that contained characters not on the official list in an effort to ease the implementation of "tōyō kanji". This use of alternative, common kanji in place of rarer ones was called .
Different characters for words were unified using characters from the "tōyō kanji" list. The list below shows some examples, with the non-"tōyō kanji" placed in brackets.
Jargon and other specialized words that could be written in more than one way were generally written using characters from the list.
Other words that used kanji that were not included in the list were given phonetic substitutes.
For kanji compounds with characters that could not be reasonably substituted, the recommendation was to write the "missing" kanji in kana instead, a practice known as .
However, the recent prevalence of computers has made it easier for Japanese speakers to identify and use rarer characters, and the idea of having a list of approved characters has come under reconsideration. Japanese media have increasingly used non-approved kanji with furigana to aid the reader in place of "mazegaki".
Kanji for names.
On 16 February 1948, 881 of the "tōyō kanji" were designated to be taught during primary education, and became known as the "kyōiku kanji" (education kanji).
In the same year, Article 50 of the family register law made it illegal to name a child using characters not on the official list. When this law first came into effect, the Ministry of Justice declared that all newborn babies must be registered in the "koseki" (the Japanese family registry) with a name that used only hiragana, katakana or "tōyō kanji". However, in 1951, an additional 92 characters were approved by the government as "jinmeiyō kanji"; kanji acceptable for use in names. This list was modified in 1997 to increase to a total of 285 characters. At the time, eight characters from the original "jinmeiyō kanji" list were added to the "jōyō kanji" (daily use) list, and were removed from the group of "jinmeiyō kanji".
On 27 September 2004, another 488 kanji were approved for use in names, partly as a result of the ruling by the Sapporo High Court that it was unacceptable for so many common characters to be excluded from use in names simply because they were not part of the official list. 578 characters were initially added, though some characters unsuitable for names such as (grudge, resent), (haemorrhoids) and (corpse) were removed as a result of public feedback.
Criticisms.
The "tōyō kanji" list, which was created as a step towards the abolition of kanji, has undergone frequent criticism by scholars. In 1958, Tsuneari Fukuda wrote an article in the magazine "Koe" pointing out that it was impossible to restrict kanji use, and in 1961, several prominent anti-reformists walked out of the Japanese Language Council general meeting in protest of the dominance of the phoneticists, who were always re-elected to their positions on the council.
The following year, Japanese Language Council member Tomizō Yoshida argued that the council should base their reforms on standardising the current writing system using a mixture of kanji and kana, and in 1965, Morito Tatsuo, the then chairman of the council, announced that the complete abolition of kanji was now inconceivable and that Yoshida's suggestion would become official policy.
Modern kana usage.
On 16 November 1946, historical kana usage underwent official reform to reflect modern pronunciation as . In addition, two kana, "wi" and "we", were officially declared obsolete, as the pronunciations they represented had dropped from the language many centuries before.
Some reformers wished to eliminate kanji altogether, and have a phonetic written language only using kana, but this was decided against, and further reforms were halted.
Modern kana usage still has one or two incongruities, as reform was halted at an intermediate stage. On 1 July 1985, the government confirmed that no further reforms would be made in the near future.
Reintroduction of older kanji in mass media.
When reporting the lawsuits regarding cases of Minamata disease in 1970, the non-tōyō kanji "on", "grudge", was used to refer to the feelings of the bereaved families. As a result of this widespread coverage, this kanji was reintroduced into popular usage, which opened the door for many more kanji to be rehabilitated.
"Jōyō kanji" and the JIS.
The "jōyō kanji" list, consisting at that time of 1,945 characters, was published by the Japanese government in 1981 to serve as a replacement for the "tōyō kanji" list. This newer list was based on the older "tōyō kanji" list, though "jōyō kanji" was more of a guide to kanji usage while "tōyō kanji" was created to gradually eliminate kanji usage.
Around the same time, the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JIS) also attempted to create a standardised kanji character set for use in computing and word processing, and to assign a unique character code to each kanji for data processing. This character set was, like the "jōyō kanji", merely a subset of the thousands of documented kanji, and became known colloquially as the JIS kanji set. The character set has undergone several revisions since its inception. The first of these, officially known as JIS C 6226, or more commonly as the old JIS kanji set, was published in 1978 and contained 6802 characters. After the creation of the "jōyō kanji" list in 1983, the old set was expanded to contain 6877 characters, including some non-kanji characters. This is known as the new JIS kanji set, and was designated as JIS X 0208 in 1987.
Approximately 200 characters were changed from their traditional form to their simplified form in the change from the old JIS to the new JIS set, meaning that word documents written on computers using the old character set would not display the same characters when displayed on a computer that used the new character set.
The JIS character set makes no distinction between the forms of characters, so it is not possible to distinguish between traditional and simplified forms. However, some characters, such as , , and , are distinguished within the character set, despite being variations of the same character.
Gaiji.
Increased use of kana to kanji conversion on word processors and computers during the mid-1980s brought drastic changes to the amount of Japanese written by hand. As a result, the use of kanji outside the "jōyō kanji" increased, reversing the prior trend of using fewer kanji. These characters were called "gaiji" (lit. "outside characters")
The preface to the Japanese Language Council internal report on the "jōyō kanji" states that the council's decision on the forms of characters not on the approved list is pending, and will await research from each field. The new JIS character set extends kanji simplification to "gaiji", creating a discrepancy between the standard forms of characters used in literature and materials produced on a computer or word processor. There is pressure for the Japanese publishing industry to adopt the new JIS character set abbreviations, and the resulting variation in "gaiji" led the Japanese Language Council, in their final report in December 2000, to produce a list of standard forms for many of these kanji to be used as a guideline. This list is called the in Japan.
This list was compiled by researching the various gaiji forms used in printed materials, and 1022 major characters were given standard forms to be used in print type face. 22 of these characters were simplified common forms, and the abbreviated forms of three radicals were acknowledged as permissible alternatives for these characters. However, the general policy of the list was to use traditional forms for all gaiji.
Though newspaper publishers had been firm advocates for reducing the number of kanji, the release of the "gaiji" list forced them to reduce "mazegaki" in newspaper print. Subsequent issues of the tended to increase the number of permissible characters, so that former "mazegaki" words could be written as kanji (for example, the use of in place of or in place of ). As newspapers began to use computerised typesetting, some newspapers reintroduced ruby characters to indicate the reading of uncommon kanji. Though not a unified movement, there was a general trend towards increased kanji use. Other mass media organizations followed suit, and the also reduced the amount of "mazegaki" used.
There were substantial discrepancies between the "gaiji" list and JIS forms, but these discrepancies were corrected in 2004 with the release of JIS X 0213, which brought the JIS in line with the Japanese Language Council. The changes in jinmeiyō kanji made by the Ministry of Justice during the same year also conformed to this standard printed form, with being an exception. Computers have also moved towards a standard form following the printed character forms. However, JIS X 0213 subsumes personal place names and other proper nouns that were excluded from the "gaiji" list, so confusion may still result for characters like , where the character form differs between the printed standard and naming standard.
"Jōyō kanji" and "jinmeiyō kanji" (list as of 2000) were not included on the "gaiji" list, so the standards for those characters are the forms used in the jinmeiyō kanji list. Similarly, and , which were added to the jinmeiyō kanji list in 1990, remain the standards forms for the same reason, even though traditional forms exist for those characters (a dot in the middle of for , and a double-dotted radical for ). These kanji remained unchanged in the alterations made to the list in 2004. On the other hand, the characters 堵 and 逢, which were added to the jinmeiyō kanji list in 2004, do have a standard printed form with a dot in the middle of and two dots on the radical, and were amended accordingly in JIS X 0213.
Historical advocates for reform.
The use of kanji as part of Japanese orthography has been a matter of debate since at least the end of the Edo period. The use of kanji has been criticised for various reasons, the main criticisms being:
These criticisms led to arguments that reduction or eradication of kanji was a matter of national interest. The idea of abolishing kanji is often referenced to Maejima Hisoka's report titled , which was submitted to the "shōgun" Tokugawa Yoshinobu in 1866. The report argued that kanji should be abolished because the process of learning kanji was inefficient; however, in recent years the existence of this report has come into question. Other advocates of kanji reform include the following:
The romaji issue is still occasionally pushed by fringe writers, for example the 2011 book by Katsuhiko Tanaka ().
Current issues.
Character-related issues.
Current opinion favors the inclusion of the character under the Jōyō Kanji list in order to promote the more positive word for handicapped person, , because the current word for handicapped, , uses the character , which has a secondary derogatory meaning of "harm or evil influence".
"Mazegaki".
The current issue of "mazegaki", mixing kanji and kana to write a single word, originated with the modern reforms, particularly the introduction of the "tōyō kanji" list. Though the intention was to have words requiring characters that were not included on the list to be substituted with a suitable synonym, in reality, the rule was circumvented by writing these kanji in kana and making "mazegaki" commonplace. One of the most commonly seen examples is ("takara-kuji" lottery), which is traditionally written . Foods commonly written either just in kana or in mazegaki include ("shōyu" soya sauce) and ("miso"). Other words commonly written as "mazegaki" include 改ざん, , , , , and where the traditional forms are , , , , , and respectively. Note that in some cases the unused kanji is very complicated ( has 23 strokes), while in other cases the character may be relatively simple but not on the official list (e.g. has only 9 strokes). This is also common for medical terms, which often use rare kanji, as in for .
"Mazegaki" is not enforced and is rarely used in literature, where traditional forms are often used, although it is common in media outlets such as newspapers and television broadcasts, since non-Jōyō kanji are not supposed to be used in these contexts. In extreme cases, "jōyō kanji" may be written in this way in television programmes or manga aimed at younger children or language learners – for example ("tomodachi" "friend") may be written as or ("honyūrui" "mammal") as . "Mazegaki" may also be used in signs, possibly as katakana – for example, ("hifuka" dermatologist) may be written as to improve legibility from a distance.
At the time of the introduction of the "tōyō kanji" list, the use of ruby characters, also known as furigana, led to high printing costs for newspaper companies due to difficulties in typesetting, and "mazegaki" eliminated the need for furigana. The resulting reduction in printing costs caused the restriction or abolition of kanji to give serious economic advantages to newspaper companies, and they became heavily involved in decisions made by the Japanese Language Council.
"Kakikae".
The use of common kanji in place of uncommon ones with the same reading is known as "kakikae" ("changed writing"). One of the most common examples is the use of instead of , both pronounced "sai", when writing ages, as in rather than . Another common example is "chūsen" (lottery), which is often written as , in addition to the mazegaki mentioned above. A rarer example is the word "chinden" 'settlement (of sediment)', which is a combination of the characters 'to sink' and 'sediment', so the meaning is evident from the kanji. However, in modern writing the uncommon character has been substituted with 'Mr, lord' (omitting the 3-stroke water radical on the left), a similar character with the same pronunciation but a different meaning, yielding the combination , which could now be construed to mean 'sinking lord'.
Various hybrid simplifications also exist, using simpler non-standard characters. This is generally used in handwriting instead of print, and these characters are known as "ryakuji" ("abbreviated characters"). For example, replacing with , both pronounced "to", is "kakikae", as these are both standard characters, but replacing with the non-standard character (: contained in ) is a "ryakuji".
Controversy on "mazegaki" and "kakikae".
Advocates of the method explain that it makes content easier to read and will attract a wider audience, while critics argue that it is sloppy and erodes traditional culture. Further, mazegaki is criticized because in some respects it makes the text more difficult to read, as it is not clear that the hiragana are part of a content word, and not okurigana or performing a grammatical function (inflection or particles).
As they are phonetic substitutions, one of the problems with using "mazegaki" and "kakikae" is that the original meaning of the word is not clear from the characters. Kanji have both sound and meaning, and most compounds are created by combining both (ateji usually use only sound, however). For example, the of "hatan" means 'rip', but the is kana "tan" and does not carry any meaning. Furthermore, "mazegaki" may cause problems in discerning the intended reading; for example, the word "shinshi" ("sincerity"), when written as , may be misconstrued as *"mashi" or *"masashi", causing momentary confusion.
Although there are some examples where "kakikae" uses a simpler character with a similar or related meaning and is generally not criticized, for the most part the substitutions have been purely phonetic and the practices of "mazegaki" and "kakikae" have been criticised for legitimising sloppy Japanese and eroding part of Japanese culture.
Variant characters in Microsoft Windows.
In 2005, Microsoft announced that the fonts Meiryo, MS Gothic, and MS Mincho in the Windows Vista operating system would comply with JIS X 0213:2004. Though this removed incompatibilities with the accepted "gaiji" forms in the Windows environment, it did raise concerns that the characters would be displayed differently depending on the version of Windows system used, re-creating the problems that occurred in the shift from the old to new JIS character set. Microsoft allayed these fears by announcing that the standard Japanese fonts on Vista would be OpenType compatible, and old character forms could also be used by converting between variant forms. In actuality, the Adobe Systems applications InDesign, Illustrator and the JustSystems application Ichitaro allow conversion of variant forms in software that have full support for OpenType. However, there are few other applications released for Windows Vista that support OpenType, and Office 2007 does not support conversion of variant kanji forms.


Thomas Beck (actor)

Thomas Beck (December 29, 1909 – September 23, 1995) was an American film and stage actor during the mid to late 1930s, who first attracted attention playing juvenile leads in several Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films.
Born in New York City, Beck entered college with the intention of becoming a doctor but abandoned that for engineering. His first professional work was in a stock company and he later played on Broadway. His work interested film executives who sent him to Hollywood. Beck was featured in 28 films in his career, with notable roles in several Charlie Chan films: "Charlie Chan in Paris" (1935), "Charlie Chan in Egypt" (1935), "Charlie Chan at the Race Track" (1936), and "Charlie Chan at the Opera" (1936). He also worked opposite Will Rogers in "Life Begins at 40" (1935), in which he played the spoiled son of a landowner; appeared as a French legionnaire in "Under Two Flags" (1936), played Pastor Schultz, the village priest, in Shirley Temple's 1937 film "Heidi"; and appeared opposite Temple's counterpart Jane Withers in "Can This Be Dixie?" (1936). He was seen to good advantage in two 1936 Fox motion pictures, in which he had leading roles: as a pilot in Peter Lorre's first American film, the espionage thriller "Crack-Up" and as a rich socialite in "Champagne Charlie".
He also worked to promote the Screen Actors Guild to improve working conditions for actors, and when his career seemed ready to take off he suddenly left movie work in 1939 after the studio tried to reduce his wages. He then served in the Army, serving in the Pacific theatre during World War II, finishing as a major in 1945. He briefly returned to the theatre in 1946, appearing with Blanche Yurka in "Temper the Wind", in New York City.
Beck died after battling Alzheimer's disease and heart conditions in Miami Shores, Florida on September 23, 1995. He is buried in Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.


Software4Students

Software4Students is an online programme that provides academic software from leading software manufactures to students. The programme has been running since 2006 in the UK and Ireland. Full software versions from software companies such as Microsoft, Kaspersky and Adobe are available for students at massively discounted prices. Software4Students is the original and largest programme for supplying discounted software to school and college students, teachers and parents in the UK.
Software4Students is a Microsoft Education Large Account Reseller.
History.
Software4Students was launched in the UK and Ireland in 2006. The Software4Students programme started out solely helping disadvantaged schools. Due to its success in helping bridge the digital divide, the Software4Students programme is now available to all students, their parents and teachers in the United Kingdom. Students can now access software at an affordable price for use in the classroom and at home. Teachers can also avail of this offer.
It has partnered with academic institutions to enable students to access academic pricing on software. Partners listed on the website include NAACE the NUS, EduServ, C2K and the NCTE.
In 2008 Microsoft launched the Dreamspark programme, enabling students to access free design and development software for free. Software4Students worked with Microsoft to bring this to students, and were used by Microsoft in Ireland to verify students in Irish colleges.
In April 2011 a German version of the programme was launched.
The programme has been featured in a number of mainstream publications such as the Guardian highlighting the positive impact it is having for students.
Eligibility.
Students can obtain full version products under academic licensing rules. The software is available to anyone in full-time education. Parents or Guardians can purchase on behalf of a student but the student remains the license holder. Students can choose between download or media versions depending on the product range.


Ontong Java language

Ontong Java (or "Leuangiua", "Lord Howe", "Luaniua") is a Polynesian language located on the Ontong Java Atoll, also known as the Luangiua Atoll or Lord Howe island, in the Solomon Islands. Two dialects, Luangiua and Pelau, are also spoken on the island. Ontong Java is commonly used by all speakers, young and old. There is approximately 2,370 residents of Ontong Java Atoll and has approximately 2,400 (estimated) speakers living on the atoll.
Classification.
Ontong Java is closely related to the Ellicean languages of Polynesia and to Sikaiana, Takuu, and Nukumanu in Papua New Guinea.
Phonology.
The phoneme inventory of this language is poorly studied, and many sources have conflicting phoneme inventories.
An older source lists two additional vowels, and .
Grammar.
Ontong Java word order is normally VSO and SVO.


Lele language (Papua New Guinea)

Lele is an East Manus language of the Austronesian language family spoken in the northeastern part of Manus Island, New Guinea. It has an SVO word order.


Simon Tian

Simon Tian (born February 24, 1994) is a Canadian businessman, inventor, entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and CEO of Fonus, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Neptune, and co-founder of Globle. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Tian dropped out of pre-university college at the age of 17 to start Neptune, and, as of late 2017, has raised around $7 million from private investors as well as a total of more than $2 million from crowdfunding sources alone. Tian is a 2015 Thiel Fellow, having been awarded $100,000 by PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel through the Thiel Foundation, and was named one of the top 30 Quebecers under 30 by Les Affaires in 2014.
Early life.
Tian was born to Chinese Canadian parents in Montreal, Quebec, in 1994. He was raised in Brossard, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, and attended secondary school at Jean de la Mennais College, a French-speaking school in La Prairie, Quebec. Tian is fluent in English, French, and Mandarin. Tian is also a classically-trained pianist, having won first place in piano performance at the Canadian Music Competition in 2008 at age 13.
Career.
Tian started Neptune, a wearable technology company, in January 2013, while he was 17 and still studying at Marianopolis College, in Westmount, Quebec. Before building a prototype or incorporating the company, Tian posted some conceptual drawings of a smartwatch, the Neptune Pine, on the internet and issued a press release announcing the product's launch. He received more than 20,000 orders for the device in a few weeks. Following the interest in his conceptual drawings, Tian dropped out of school and travelled to China to meet with manufacturers to have the device developed. In November 2013, he launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance the product's development. Within 27 hours, the campaign surpassed its funding goal of $100,000, and went on to raise more than $800,000 in 30 days.
The Pine was prominently featured in the 2017 film The Fate of the Furious, the CBS TV series Extant produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Halle Berry, as well as the music video for the song Smartphones by Trey Songz. The device received mixed reviews from the press, with many criticizing its large size and functionality.
In November 2015, Tian was invited by the Mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre to attend the 2015 Montreal Trade Mission to China as one of the city's representatives.
In November 2019, Tian announced the launch of Fonus, an American telecommunications company based in Santa Monica, California, operating as a mobile virtual network operator on AT&T’s network. The company offers a single monthly prepaid plan as opposed to the usual multi-plan offerings of other carriers, providing users with unlimited data, unlimited calls and texts worldwide, and free roaming in the United States, Canada and Mexico at a fixed monthly fee. The data operates on AT&T's cellular network in the United States, whereas the calls and texts are provided through Fonus' proprietary voice over IP (VoIP) application. As of April 2021, Fonus is one of the top 10 best-rated mobile network operators worldwide on TrustPilot.
Controversies.
Tian raised US$1.15 million dollars for the Neptune Suite in 2015, estimating the products would be ready for shipping in April 2016. However, by December 2019, Tian still had not shipped the product to the company's backers, leading ZDNet to claim the company had "jilted" backers. Tian claims that the project ultimately needed more financing in order to be realized, and that the funds he had raised were not sufficient to complete development of the product.


6th Writers Guild of America Awards

The 6th Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best film writers of 1953. Winners were announced in 1954.
Winners & Nominees.
Film.
Winners are listed first highlighted in boldface.


James Surowiecki

James Michael Surowiecki ( ; born April 30, 1967) is an American journalist. He was a staff writer at "The New Yorker", where he wrote a regular column on business and finance called "The Financial Page".
Background.
Surowiecki was born in Meriden, Connecticut, and spent several childhood years in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, where he received a junior high-school education from Southwestern Educational Society (SESO). He is a 1984 graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall and a 1988 alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar. Surowiecki pursued Ph.D. studies in American history on a Mellon Fellowship at Yale University from 1988 to 1995, but did not complete his studies and did not receive a doctoral degree. In 1995, he founded the now-defunct e-magazine "Rogue" and began a career in journalism. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and is married to "Slate" culture editor Meghan O'Rourke.
Career.
Surowiecki's writing has appeared in a wide range of publications, including "The New York Times", the "Wall Street Journal", "The Motley Fool", "Foreign Affairs", "Artforum", "Wired", "MIT Technology Review", and "Slate".
Before joining "The New Yorker", he wrote “The Bottom Line” column for "New York" magazine and was a contributing editor at "Fortune".
He got his start on the Internet when he was hired from graduate school by Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner to be the Fool's editor-in-chief of its culture site on America Online, entitled "Rogue" (1995–1996). As The Motley Fool closed that site down and focused on finance, Surowiecki made the switch over to become a finance writer, which he did over the succeeding three years, including being assigned to write the Fool's column on "Slate" from 1997 to 2000.
In 2002, Surowiecki edited an anthology, "Best Business Crime Writing of the Year", a collection of articles from different business news sources that chronicle the fall from grace of various CEOs. In 2004, he published "The Wisdom of Crowds", in which he argued that in some circumstances, large groups exhibit more intelligence than smaller, more elite groups, and that collective intelligence shapes business, economies, societies and nations. In an article in the Huffington Post in November 2013, Internet entrepreneur and researcher Neil Seeman drew on social media trends over the time since the publication of "The Wisdom of Crowds" to observe that Mr. Surowiecki wrote his observations about collective intelligence "prior to the proliferation of Facebook and Twitter and 'social filtering'; today, online, we increasingly do not reach any wisdom of any independently-minded crowds. We speak to our friends."


Pangseng language

Pangseng is an Adamawa language of Taraba State, Nigeria. It is spoken in Jinlàri (Jimleri), located on the Zing-Lankaviri road.
Varieties include Komo, Jega, and others.


Sergey Gulev

Sergey Konstantinovich Gulev (; born November 29, 1958) is a Russian climate scientist. He is head of the ocean-atmosphere interaction laboratory at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences and is a professor of oceanology and meteorology at Moscow State University. In 2011, he was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He served as a lead author of the 2007 and 2014 IPCC Scientific Assessment Reports on Climate Change, and is currently (as of 2018) coordinating lead author in the forthcoming Sixth Assessment Report.
Awards.
He was a Humboldt Fellow 1992/1993 at the Institut für Meereskunde Kiel, now called GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.


Reverse power feeding

Reverse power feeding (RPF) is a new technology being standardized by ETSI and the Broadband Forum TR-301. It allows sending power from the customer premises to a distribution point (DP), in order to power the distribution point unit (DPU). The DPU includes typically a DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) that can support up to 24 users and an optical network terminator (ONT), which connects the DPU to a central office (CO) where the optical line terminator (OLT) is located. This topology is also known as fiber to the distribution point (FTTdp). RPF is a critical technology for the upgrade of VDSL2 subscribers to the new G.fast standard, which has a maximum range (at high speeds) of 250m. Given that only a small number of subscribers is located at a radius of 250m from a DPU, the number of DPUs required to deploy G.fast infrastructure greatly increases, compared to VDSL2 and older xDSL technologies. RPF reduces installation cost by removing the need to connect the DPU locally to the power grid, as well as the need to monitor its power consumption with a smart meter.
Unlike PoE, which defines worst case power losses on a cable that is well defined, RPF defines a maximum safety power envelope, and allows implementations to squeeze as much power as possible from the line. This important difference comes from the fact that PoE was defined with enterprise networks in mind (where the maker of the powered device (PD) needs to interoperate with any power sourcing equipment (PSE)), while RPF is defined for networks that are closed by nature, deployed by a service provider.


Wilhelm Kubitschek

Wilhelm Kubitschek (28 June 1858, in Preßburg – 2 October 1936, in Vienna) was an Austrian classical historian, epigrapher and numismatist.
From 1875 he studied history, epigraphy and archaeology at the University of Vienna, where his teachers included Otto Hirschfeld and Otto Benndorf. Afterwards, he furthered his education in Berlin as a student of Theodor Mommsen. From 1881 he taught classes at gymnasiums in Hollabrunn and Vienna, and in 1887 qualified as a university lecturer in ancient history. In 1896 he became an associate professor at the University of Graz, and during the following year, returned to Vienna as curator of the Imperial Coin Collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In Vienna, he also taught classes in Roman history, epigraphy and numismatics at the university. In 1916 he succeeded Eugen Bormann as a full professor of Roman archaeology and epigraphy.
In 1903 he was appointed conservator to the "Zentralkommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denkmale" (Central Commission for the Study and Preservation of Art and Historical Monuments). From 1907 to 1913 he was editor of the periodical "Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde". He was the author of many articles in the "Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft".
He was awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1923.


Eugene Vale

Eugene Vale (11 April 1916 – 2 May 1997) was a best-selling American novelist. He was also a screenwriter, a playwright, and the author of an influential volume on screenwriting.
Biography.
Vale was born in Switzerland, but worked in Paris during the 1930s. He moved to the United States after the outbreak of World War II. Vale worked in Hollywood and also as a lecturer on film and television writing at the University of Southern California. In Joseph McBride's biography of Frank Capra, Vale is quoted as saying that he wrote much of Capra's 1971 autobiography The Name Above the Title ("I'm responsible for the book").
In 1997, Vale died at home in Los Angeles at age 81.
Works.
Screenplays.
Vale's screenplays included "The Second Face" (1950), Francis of Assisi" (1961) and A Global Affair" (1964). His 1956 short documentary, "The Dark Wave", was nominated for an Academy Award.
As well as writing screenplays, Vale in 1944 wrote a textbook, "The Technique of Screen & Television Writing". In this book, Vale provided many rules for writing screenplays, including that the "primary purpose of every film scene is to transition into the future".
Novels.
Vale's debut novel, "The 13th Apostle" (pub. 1959) was reviewed favorably in "The New York Times". The reviewer said in part "Mr. Vale is the only contemporary novelist of recent years, to my knowledge, who has made so ambitious an attempt to encompass in a single fabric every clue to modern man's devious retreat from engagement.
The novel immediately following, "Chaos Below Heaven" (pub. 1966), was also a best seller.
Plays and television.
Vale's play "Devils Galore" was produced on Broadway in 1945. He also wrote for several early television shows, including "Four Star Playhouse", "The 20th Century Fox Hour", and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.


Don Featherstone (artist)

Donald Featherstone (January 25, 1936 – June 22, 2015) was an American artist most widely known for his 1957 creation of the plastic pink flamingo while working for Union Products. Featherstone resided in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he kept 57 plastic flamingos on his back lawn. Featherstone and his wife Nancy dressed alike for over 35 years.
Biography.
Featherstone was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1936 and grew up in nearby Berlin. After graduating from the Worcester Art Museum's art school, in 1957, he was offered a job designing three-dimensional animals for Union Products, Inc. Over his years at Union Products, Featherstone sculpted over 750 different items, the first two of which were a girl with a water can and a boy with a dog. When Featherstone was asked in 1957 to sculpt a duck, he purchased one, which he named Charlie, and later released the bird in Coggshall Park. Later that year, he was asked to carve a flamingo. The now iconic pink flamingo went on sale in 1958, when the color pink was popular.
In 1996, Featherstone was awarded the 1996 Ig Nobel Art Prize for his creation of the pink flamingo, and he also began his tenure as president of Union Products which he held until he retired in 2000.
On June 22, 2015, Featherstone died from Lewy body dementia at the age of 79.
Pink flamingo.
Featherstone based his creation on photographs of flamingos from National Geographic, as he was not able to obtain real flamingos to use as models. As time went on, the plastic flamingo became more popular. They appeared across the country and even as parts of various art exhibits. In 1987, Donald Featherstone inscribed his signature in the original plastic mold. This was apparently to help distinguish between original and "knock-off" pink plastic flamingos. Featherstone's signature stayed on the bird until 2001 when it was removed. The signature was quickly replaced due to a small boycott of the unsigned birds.
In November 2006, Union Products closed and production of the flamingo stopped. Shortly thereafter, a New York company purchased the molds for Featherstone's flamingos and subcontracted production to a Fitchburg company, Cado Products. In 2010, Cado Products purchased the copyrights and plastic molds for the pink flamingos and continues to manufacture them. They are generally sold in sets of two—one holding its head erect, nearly high, the other bending over as if looking for food.


Voice modem command set

A voice modem is an analog telephone data modem with a built-in capability of transmitting and receiving voice recordings over the phone line. Voice modems are used for telephony and answering machine applications. Similar to the Hayes command set used for data modems, in which the host PC commands the modem via a series of commands known as AT commands, there exists a well-defined set of common voice AT commands that are somewhat consistent throughout the industry.
Implementation problems.
Because voice mode is not the typical use for a modem, many modems on the market have poor or buggy support for their voice modes. Characteristics of a good voice modem depend greatly upon the intended application, and include:
Plus versus Hash.
Each voice modem platform tends to support either one of two sets of voice commands—in particular, one flavor of the command set contains a plus (+) sign, and the other contains a hash (#) sign.
Detecting voice mode.
Support for voice mode can be detected on a modem by issuing the following command: AT+FCLASS=?
This command is usually supported containing the plus sign whether a modem supports "plus" or the "hash" command set, because the command (which stands for "fax class") is part of the industry-standard fax commands which "always" use the plus.
A modem supporting voice will respond with a comma-delimited list of numbers that includes the number 8. A modem not supporting voice will respond with ERROR, or with a list of numbers not including 8. (Many modems will report "0,1,2" indicating support for data (0), and class 1 and 2 faxes—this is an indication that voice support is not present.)
Modems supporting the "hash" command set usually respond to AT#CLS=? as well.
Entering voice mode.
The command AT+FCLASS=8 or AT#CLS=8 will put the modem in voice mode. Most modems still remain on-hook and respond with OK. Once this command has been accepted, most modems will respond with Data Link Escape (DLE) messages instead of or in addition to normal modem responses. For example, instead of reporting a phone line ringing with the RING message, many modems will instead send the DLE ASCII character, followed by the letter R. The specific set of DLE events reported by each modem is specific to its chipset and documented in its reference guide.
Querying the modem's capabilities.
The command AT+VLS=? or AT#VLS=? usually returns a list of operating modes that are specific to each modem. Each of these numbered modes determines the telephone line's on-hook or off-hook status, as well as sound routing between each of the following:
Many chipsets offer a listing of all the possible combinations of modes even if the specific modem board doesn't support them all. That's because the board manufacturer is almost always different from the chipset maker, and the chipset comes pre-configured to support all possible hardware, even if not implemented on the circuit board.
Example of response to AT+VLS=? from a modem on the market in 2006:
 AT+VLS=?
 0,"",0000000000,0000000000,B084008000
 1,"T",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 2,"L",0884008000,0CE4008000,0884018000
 3,"LT",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 4,"S",0084008000,0484008000,3084018000
 5,"ST",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 6,"M",0084008000,04E4008000,3084008000
 7,"MST",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 8,"S1",0084008000,0484008000,3084018000
 9,"S1T",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 10,"MS1T",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 11,"M1",0084008000,04E4008000,3084008000
 13,"M1S1T",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 14,"H",0084008000,04E4008000,3084018000
 15,"HT",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,0B8419E000
 16,"MS",0084008000,04E4008000,3084018000
 17,"MS1",0084008000,04E4008000,3084018000
 19,"M1S1",0084008000,04E4008000,3084018000
 20,"t",0B8418E000,0FE418E000,BB8419E000
While every modem is different, usually mode 0 means on-hook (hung up) and mode 1 is sufficient to pick up the phone, record/playback audio, and detect DTMF (touch tones).
The command AT+VSM=? or AT#VSM=? usually returns a list of audio data formats supported by the modem. Each format includes a name (such as PCM, ADPCM, μ-law, A-law), a number of bits per sample (usually 2, 3, 4, 8, or 16) and an audio sampling rate (usually 7,200, 8,000, or 11,025 Hertz). These are industry-standard audio codecs whose implementations are well published. The ADPCM standard is an exception. Modems claiming to support ADPCM almost always support Dialogic ADPCM, also known as "VOX", which is similar but not compatible with other ADPCM implementations, including Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) ADPCM as well as MS ADPCM (a Microsoft implementation used in WAV files). Modems may support these as well, if a qualifier is listed—otherwise, by default, ADPCM means Dialogic.
Example response to AT+VSM=? from a modem on the market in 2006:
 AT+VSM=?
 1,"UNSIGNED PCM",8,0,8000,0,0
 129,"IMA ADPCM",4,0,8000,0,0
 130,"UNSIGNED PCM",8,0,8000,0,0
 140,"2 Bit ADPCM",2,0,8000,
 141,"4 Bit ADPCM",4,0,8000,0,0
The desired audio data format is selected using the same command but with a number instead of a question mark. It is used for both sending and receiving.
Answering calls.
Answering calls is usually done with either the AT+VLS=n or AT#VLS=n commands, where "n" is a number representing the modem's mode. For the vast majority of modems, this number will be 1 to answer a telephone call, and 0 to hang up; other numbers activate other functionality when present, such as speakerphone. Some modems answer in response to ATA—the standard data-mode answer command—but other modems will interpret this as a command to actually answer in data and not voice mode.
Transmitting audio data.
To begin transmitting audio data, the host sends the command AT+VTX or AT#VTX. This results in a response from the modem of CONNECT or VCON. (Modems using the "plus" command set usually respond CONNECT, while those using the "hash" set respond VCON, which stands for voice connect.)
From then on, the modem interprets any data sent from the computer as wave audio data, using the codec selected by the AT+VSM or AT#VSM command.
The audio data is always sent to the modem slightly faster than it can play it, so the modem may buffer a small portion of it and play it smoothly with no clicks or pops caused by delays in the computer's operating system. For example, during playback of an 8 kHz audio file at 8-bit resolution (which creates 8,000 bytes, or 80,000 bits when including start/stop bits, per second), the data must travel over the serial port at a minimum of 115,200 bits per second. (115,200 bit/s is the first setting of a typical computer serial port that's greater than 80,000.) In addition, due to some extra overhead involved in doubling DLE bytes in the stream (mentioned below), a small amount of extra bandwidth is mandatory to allow for this.
When the modem wants the computer to temporarily pause so the playback can catch up, it temporarily lowers the CTS (Clear to Send) signal on the RS-232 serial port. The modem re-raises the signal in time for the computer to resume sending audio data before the playback buffer becomes completely empty.
When the computer wants to signal the end of audio data, most modems expect to see an ASCII DLE character (0x10), followed by the ! character.
Because the DLE byte can and often does occur in normal audio data, it must be sent twice to the modem when it is to be interpreted as a byte of audio data.
Most modems also accept a sequence of DLE + CAN (cancel) as a signal to "cancel" audio playback. The distinction is that the modem is to understand that it is to immediately abort playback now, rather than let remaining data in the playback buffer run to completion.
When the modem is done playback, it responds OK.
Throttling playback.
During playback, it is necessary to send the audio data at a rate that keeps the audio playing smoothly, but without sending it faster than the modem can handle it. It is also desirable to make sure the modem can always abort playback and discard any buffered audio in case a message is to be canceled. Message cancellation is expected by callers who already know the answers to voice prompts and provide their answer early (and who would become irritated at being forced to listen to a prompt they've already responded to).
There are several ways to keep the computer sending audio data to the modem at a rate to keep up with playback without overrunning the audio buffer.
The most straightforward is to use CTS flow control. The following caveats exist.
A second way to throttle playback involves polling a "tick" timer provided by the host computer's operating system and based on a hardware clock that's independent of the host's CPU load. This may or may not be available, and it depends entirely on the host operating system. However, when available, it is extremely reliable. It is reasonable to assume that the PC needs to stay ahead of the playback by a couple of hundred bytes and that the modem will buffer this. (The commands AT+VBQ or AT#VBQ on voice modems will often reveal the size of the buffer in bytes, and 1 to 2 kilobytes is a typical response.)
A third way to throttle playback involves inserting dummy DLE messages into the output stream such that the audio data takes a known amount of time to transmit through the serial port, and the playback is essentially clocked by the UART in the serial port.
For example, when considering using dummy DLE stuffing, a few things must first be noted. In a typical scenario, one second of audio might be 8,000 one-byte samples, and with a small percentage of the samples being equal to the DLE byte and must be doubled, a typical second of audio might be 8,050 bytes. The trick involves inserting enough meaningless DLE messages into the bytes that the modem will discard (that is, a DLE followed by a byte without any specific meaning) so that there are exactly 11,520 bytes (assuming a serial port locked at 115,200 bit/s) which will take exactly 1 second to transmit through the serial port. Although it is possible that interrupt latency on the host PC may cause slightly less than 11,520 bytes to be sent per second, most voice modems will buffer enough bytes before actually starting playback to permit a small skew here. Also the PC can be programmed to convert a second of audio into slightly fewer than 11,520 bytes (all voice modems will buffer a small overrun without the need for flow control as long as it is no more than a few hundred bytes).
Dummy DLE stuffing is unlikely to work with "Winmodems" that have no physical UART. It makes sense only with external serial modems that are physically clocked to a specific bit rate by a clock generator behind the external serial port.
Recording audio data.
The method for recording audio data is the same, except that the command is AT+VRX, or AT#VRX, and the modem transmits audio data while the computer receives it. The RTS/CTS flow control are not used here (the computer must accept all the audio data it receives, and the modem automatically paces its transmission to match the audio sampling rate).
The modem never stops transmitting until the computer tells it to stop, which is usually with CTRL-C. The data is always terminated with DLE+!, and all DLE bytes naturally occurring in the stream are sent twice to differentiate them from normal DLE messages.
Before, during, and after recording, the modem may notify the computer host of specific events including, but not limited to, the following:
When the modem wants to tell the host about these, it sends a DLE byte, plus a (usually) 1-byte message describing the event. The list of supported events varies by modem, but usually a digit (as well as * and #) mean touch-tones pressed, and the letter "s" means silence detected. Some modems report only one event for each touch-tone keypress, while others report a keypress repeatedly until the key is released, and then a special "key released" event.
Terminating a voice call.
Any of the following commands usually cause the modem to hang up and terminate a voice call: AT+VLS=0, AT#VLS=0, ATH, ATZ. Dropping the RS-232 DTR (data terminal ready) signal often accomplishes this as well. The modem remains in voice mode (except in the case of ATZ).
Voice modems do not automatically hang up even when the caller on the other end does. They may report the hangup, dialtone, or silence events, but it is up to the computer to act upon them. If when the modem is recording, the caller hangs up and the computer doesn't react, the modem will continue providing the audio recording everything else heard on the line, such as dial tones, telephone company error messages, and so forth.


Selca dialect

The Selca dialect ("selško narečje", "selščina") is a Slovene dialect in the Upper Carniolan dialect group. It is spoken in the Selca Sora Valley, north of a line from Porezen to Mount Lubnik (1025 m), and south of a line running west of Zgornje Bitnje to north of Dražgoše to west of Zgornja Sorica.
Phonological and morphological characteristics.
The Selca dialect is essentially a subdialect of the Upper Carniolan dialect. It has mostly preserved pitch accent, has Upper Carniolan vowel characteristics (but short "i" and "u" in place of long), and considerable Upper Carniolan consonantal features (but without hard "l" > "v" and without "k g h" > "č ž/j š"). Voicing of obstruents is preserved in final position and the clusters "tk" and "tc" are preserved. Syncope is sometimes more pronounced than in the Upper Carniolan dialect, and syllabic "l m n" are found.


Henry Lamar Crosby

Henry Lamar Crosby (May 17, 1880 – March 20, 1954), known as H. Lamar Crosby, was an American classicist who served as dean of the graduate school of the University of Pennsylvania.
Crosby graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas. While at Texas, due to a paucity of funds, he supported himself as a day laborer and dairy farm hand. The financial generosity of an uncle allowed him to attend Harvard University, from which he received his Ph.D. After stints at the University of Missouri and Princeton University, Crosby began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania and, from 1928 to 1938, was dean of its graduate school. With John Nevin Schaeffer he was the author of "Introduction to Greek", which later became a popular textbook on the subject, remaining in print for the 20 years after publication. In 1925 he spent a year as annual professor at the American School of Classical Research in Athens, participating in the archaeological excavation of the Athenian market.
He was invested into the Royal Order of George I at the rank of commander, and was a member of the Archaeological Institute of America. His son, Oliver S. Crosby, was United States Ambassador to Guinea from 1977 to 1980.


Marian and Vivian Brown

Marian B. Brown (January 25, 1927 – November 20, 2014) and Vivian A. Brown (January 25, 1927 – January 9, 2013) were American identical twin actresses who also appeared on television talk shows and television commercials. They became celebrity icons in San Francisco, known as the "San Francisco Twins", renowned for their appearance in media with signature identically bright snappy outfits and hats atop meticulously coiffed hair. They were voted second as San Francisco's "Best Local Character" in 2000. They often ate dinner at one of the front tables at Uncle Vito's restaurant, just below the crest of Nob Hill, San Francisco.
Biography.
Marian B. Brown and twin sister Vivian A. Brown were born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Vivian was the elder by eight minutes. They grew up in Mattawan, Michigan, where they attended Mattawan High School and in 1945 graduated as co-valedictorians, giving the valedictory speech together. They went on to earn matching degrees in business education from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and then worked as teachers for three years.
At the age of 43, the Browns left Michigan for San Francisco in 1970 with the intent of escaping the hot summers and long, cold winters. After they arrived in San Francisco, Vivian became a legal secretary and Marian worked at a bank.
In Kalamazoo, the Brown twins were often seen in the Kalamazoo Mall, dressed identically. Both were petite at tall and weighing . They were always seen together. They dressed alike, walked in lockstep and ate at the same speed, even lifting their forks in unison. Neither married, but they said they had double-dated twins they met at a twins' convention.
They never broke suit until Vivian was diagnosed with forgetfulness due to Alzheimer's disease. After a slip and fall in the summer of 2012, she ended up in Davies Hospital and her condition deteriorated. The costs of medical care caused financial problems for the twins, and San Franciscans and charities united to help keep them together. On January 9, 2013, Vivian died aged 85 at the Rhoda Goldman Plaza Assisted Living Centre in the Western Addition of San Francisco. Marian died on November 20, 2014, at a hospice in San Mateo, California, aged 87.
Celebrity.
For more than 40 years, the Brown twins were an entertainment fixture of the San Francisco social scene. They appeared in public in identical outfits, becoming neighborhood celebrities. They gained wide exposure in a 1988 television advertisement for Reebok, which led to appearances in talk shows and modeling in advertisements. They appeared on television with Richard Simmons, Tom Snyder and Vicki Lawrence. They were featured in over 25 television advertisements over the years. Corporate advertisements in which they appeared included IBM, "San Francisco Chronicle", Pay Less, Virgin Atlantic, Joe Boxer, Macy's, AT&T, Dell Computers, and Apple Inc. The Brown Twins appear in an establishing shot in the film "9 to 5", ostensibly set in Los Angeles.


The John Berne School

The John Berne School, previously known as the Berne Education Centre is in Lewisham, Sydney, Australia. The school caters for students in Years 7–10 from mainstream schools in the Sydney area and who have behavioural or emotional problems or who are otherwise at risk of not completing their education.
Berne shares a large campus (formerly St Thomas Boys High School) with 2 other small schools: the Catholic Intensive English Centre and a small satellite school of Trinity Grammar (pre Kindergarten–Year 2).
The school opened on 28 April 1998, with a staff of five teachers and two support staff. The initial enrolment consisted of 28 students. It replaced the Benedict Community School, which had been in operation since 1976.
Berne is a registered special school and founding member of the Association of Catholic Special School Services (ACSSS). It provides an education to those young people who are at risk of not completing their School Certificate (the basic level of qualification in New South Wales). Mainstream classes are unsuitable for most of the students because of behavioural, emotional, and familial reasons.
The John Berne School is owned and operated by the Marist Brothers, an order founded in France during the early 19th century by St Marcellin Champagnat.
Culture.
The school caters for students who may be experiencing problems due to physical, psychological, emotional and/or familial reasons. They may also have learning difficulties and/or disorders. Their placement at Berne could be short term, where the aim is to work on the student’s behavioural or emotional issues in order to reintegrate them back into their mainstream school, or long term, where the aim is to continue to educate them through to the School Certificate.
The school’s culture has been designed to defuse a lot of the behavioural triggers the students were experiencing in mainstream schools. For example, there is no uniform and there is no set homework.
The student-teacher relationship is unusual compared to mainstream schools. Students address staff by their first name, and even eat meals together. All staff are expected to get involved in all school activities, such as camps, excursions and personal development activities.
There is a strong focus on reducing the derailing effects of learning difficulties and disorders by having small class sizes (of about five or six students per class), and by streaming students based on ability. The lower ability classes are purposefully even smaller, usually having only two or three students per teacher.
Special features.
The school is unusual in its very high staff-to-student ratio. It is also distinctive in providing a number of special programs:
Recognition.
In 2006, the John Berne School received a "Highly Commended National Achievement in School Improvement" award from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.
Pete’s Place campus.
The John Berne School has since 2010 operated a second campus, called "Pete's Place School", at Blacktown. Pete's Place operates in a different way from the main campus of the John Berne School: it has a smaller number of students (15 approximately) and the instruction, provided by three full-time teachers and one part-time teacher’s aide, is more individual.