King Britt

King Britt (born 1968) is an American educator, DJ, composer and record producer from Philadelphia.
Biography.
Britt is a 1986 graduate of Central High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1987 he started working at Tower Records, as a buyer for the singles/import section. His extensive knowledge of dance music made him an in demand buyer in the company. He went on to make many connections in the music community, bringing in records and new labels from all over the world. King attended Temple University.
In 1990, King Britt began his first DJ residency at the "Silk City" in Philadelphia and the now defunct "Revival". These two DJ residencies would help change the course of dance music in Philadelphia and lay the foundation for King's musical future. In collaboration with music partner Josh Wink, King also produced his first commercial release "Tribal Confusion" on dance label Strictly Rhythm. Their musical partnership continued until 2001.
In 1992 he started touring worldwide for the Grammy Award winning group Digable Planets for two years with a three-month opening slot with Sade. In 1994 Britt and Josh Wink started the label Ovum Recordings. Their first release was a collaboration between King and wordsmith/singer Ursula Rucker called "Supernatural". The song went on to become a staple tune in the US rave scene and is revered as a classic in many countries. Ovum Recordings is still in operation but King resigned from his position in 2001.
In early 1998, under the name "Sylk130," King released the neo soul album "When The Funk Hits the Fan" on Ovum/Columbia Records. This album went to sell over 500,000 copies worldwide and was scheduled to be re-released in 2012 as part of a box set collection for Sylk130. In a favorable review of the 1998 album "When the Funk Hits the Fan", "Billboard" compared his sound to that of Soul II Soul and De La Soul.
In 2001, Britt released "Sylk130 Re-Member's Only", which features Alison Moyet, Martin Fry from ABC, Kathy Sledge, Grover Washington Jr, De La Soul and others. It was his last album for Ovum Recordings and Columbia Records as he began to pursue doing more production work.
King Britt released "Adventures in Lo Fi" on London's BBE label in 2003. Guests on the album included Madlib as Quasimoto, De La Soul, Dice Raw, Ivana Santilli and Butterfly from Digable Planets. He produced "" in 2005. A recreation of self-proclaimed bride of christ, Sister Gertrude's original Preservation Hall album gets new life. The record was included in the Michael Mann's 2006 film "Miami Vice", on the AdBusters compilation, "Live Without Dead Time" and the HBO television show "True Blood". Still continuing to DJ/produce, King changed his direction and began focusing on techno music and in 2006 released Interpretation under the moniker "The Nova Dream Sequence". Released on Munich based label Compost, this record was praised by Derrick May and Carl Craig, including many of the songs in their sets. May also contributed to the liner notes.
King Britt won the Pew Fellowships in the Arts|Pew Fellowship in the Arts]] for composition in 2007.
King Britt and multimedia artists Rucyl, started the project 'Saturn Never Sleeps' in 2009. It is an electronic improvisational group as well as a label. They came together to curate an evening of music for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia to coincide with a Sun Ra exhibit, that was touring. They soon took the concept further, while they were residents at The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. Saturn Never Sleeps went on to become a band, label and is curated monthly in Philadelphia.
The "Intricate Beauty" by King Britt was released in 2010 on Nervous Recordings. Special guests included Lady Alma, RYAT and Astrid Suryanto, who sings on the club hit "Now". Tim Conley aka MAST plays guitar on the title track "Intricate Beauty". King Britt also produced Canadian rock stars, Bedouin Soundclash on the album "Light the Horizon".
King Britt has remixed musicians Tori Amos, Miles Davis, Saul Williams and Meredith Monk and Wendy & Lisa.
In 2014, he produced and composed "The Phoenix" by Fhloston Paradigm for the Hyperdub label. 2016 brought two album projects, "Donna" by Cassy and "Pendulous Moon" by the German singer, Clara Hill.
2017 saw the return of the Fhloston Paradigm project with an album "After..." It featured guest appearances by Nosaj Thing, Ryat, Jacqueline Constance, Moor Mother, Pia Ercole, Stephanie Yu, Alexa Barchini, Kate Faust, Petra, Puerto Rican Space Program and Tim Motzer. In 2017, he also contributed to Gonjasufi's album "Mandela Effect".
Curatorial.
In 2014, King curated a day at the MoMA PS1 called "Moondance: A Night in the Afrofuture". Since then, his curatorial pursuits have included a series of music inspired events for FringeArts in Philadelphia.


Andrew Bird

Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing music, indie rock, and folk music. He is primarily known for his unique style of violin playing, accompanied by loop and effect pedals, whistling, and voice. In the 1990s, he sang and played violin in several jazz ensembles, including Squirrel Nut Zippers and Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six. He went on to start his own swing ensemble, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, which released three albums between 1998 and 2001. "Weather Systems" (2003) was his first solo album, and a departure from jazz music into indie music. Bird's 2019 album "My Finest Work Yet" was nominated for "Best Folk Album" at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Beyond his own record releases, he has collaborated with various artists, including The Handsome Family, Dosh, Fiona Apple, and Nora O'Connor.
He has also had a career in film, as a soundtrack composer as well as an actor. He appeared as "Dr. Stringz" in a 2007 episode of Jack's Big Music Show. In 2010, he appeared on a TED Talk performing his music. He wrote and performed "The Whistling Caruso" for "The Muppets" movie in 2011, and composed the score for the television series "Baskets", released in 2016. In 2019, Andrew Bird was cast for the fourth installment of "Fargo", playing, "a character, written specifically for him, named 'Thurman Smutney.'" In 2020 he released a "Meditative Story" about the musical turning point in his life that led up to making Weather Systems, scored with original music.
Biography.
Early life and the Bowl of Fire (1973–2002).
Trained in the Suzuki method from the age of four, Bird graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1991 and Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in violin performance in 1996. That same year he self-released his first solo album, "Music of Hair". Vastly different from his later work, this album showcased his violin skills and paid tribute to his fascination with both American and European folk traditions, as well as jazz and blues. Following this, his initial commercial exposure came through collaborative work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers, appearing on three of their albums ("Hot", "Sold Out", and "Perennial Favorites") between 1996 and 1998.
Taking on the role of bandleader, Bird released "Thrills" on Rykodisc in 1998 with his group Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, shortly followed by second album "Oh! The Grandeur" in 1999. Both albums were heavily influenced by traditional folk, pre-war jazz, and swing, with Bird relying on the violin as his primary musical instrument, as well as providing vocals along with his trademark verbose lyrics. The Bowl of Fire featured musicians from Bird's home town of Chicago, including Kevin O'Donnell, Joshua Hirsch, Jon Williams, Nora O'Connor, Andy Hopkins, Jimmy Sutton, Colin Bunn, and Ryan Hembrey. During this period, Andrew Bird was a member of the jazz group Kevin O'Donnells Quality Six, for which he was the lead singer and violinist and contributed to arrangements and songwriting for the albums "Heretic Blues" (Delmark 1999) and "Control Freak" (Delmark 2000) (both Delmark albums were produced by Raymond Salvatore Harmon).
In 2001, the Bowl of Fire released their third album, "The Swimming Hour", a dramatic departure from their previous recordings. It featured a mixture of styles, from the zydeco-influenced "Core and Rind" to more straightforward rock songs such as "11:11". Due to this eclectic nature, Bird has often referred to it as his "jukebox album". Although gaining critical praise ("The Swimming Hour" received a 9.0 from indie music website Pitchfork), the band failed to attain commercial success or recognition, playing to audiences as small as 40 people. In 2002, Bird was asked to open for a band in his hometown of Chicago, but fellow Bowl of Fire members were unavailable for the date. The reluctant Bird performed the gig alone, and the surprising success of this solo show suggested potential new directions for his music.
Early solo career (2003–2005).
The Bowl of Fire unofficially disbanded in 2003, and Bird went on to radically re-invent himself as a solo artist. His two subsequent albums were released on Ani Difranco's Righteous Babe Records label. 2003's "Weather Systems" (originally released on Grimsey Records) was a sparse record with a dramatic change in musical direction. It featured the tracks "Skin" and "I", proto-versions of songs that would later become "Skin Is, My" ("The Mysterious Production of Eggs") and "Imitosis" ("Armchair Apocrypha"). On May 10, 2004 Andrew appeared on the Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour where he performed "First Song" and "Action Adventure" both from the Weather Systems album. He discussed and demonstrated looping, which was how he could perform solo and still have a fully finished sound.
"The Mysterious Production of Eggs" (2005) continued a progression towards an eclectic indie–folk sound, and both records formed a stark stylistic break with Bird's earlier work, swapping the lush backing of a full band for carefully layered samples of sound constructed using multitrack recorders and loop pedals. As his sound changed, Bird made increasing use of guitar, glockenspiel, and whistling in his songwriting, in addition to his traditional violin and vocals.
Bird is noted for improvising and reworking his songs during live performance, as can be seen in his series of self-released live compilations entitled "Fingerlings", "Fingerlings 2", "Fingerlings 3", and "Fingerlings 4", the first of which was released in 2002. Each "Fingerlings" EP was released prior to a studio album, and presented a mixture of live performances from different shows, including old tracks, covers, and previously unreleased songs, some of which have since appeared on studio albums. "Fingerlings 3", released in October 2006, also featured studio outtakes. Fingerlings 2 provided Bird with an unexpected boost in recognition in 2004 when it was named album of the month by "Mojo".
In 2005, co-collaborator Martin Dosh joined Bird's line-up, adding percussion and keyboards to his sound. Jeremy Ylvisaker was later added to the group on bass and backup vocals.
Signed to Fat Possum Records (2006–2011).
In September 2006, Bird signed to Fat Possum Records, and in March 2007 he released his third post-Bowl of Fire album, "Armchair Apocrypha". The album was recorded in collaboration with electronic musician Martin Dosh, and includes a track composed by Dosh (with lyrics by Bird) entitled "Simple X". This song first appeared without Bird's lyrics as "Simple Exercises" on Dosh's 2004 release "Pure Trash". The album was produced by Ben Durrant (who had worked on Dosh's "The Lost Take"), and also featured Haley Bonar and Chris Morrissey. In advance of the March release date, "Armchair Apocrypha" was leaked to the Internet in January 2007. The album went on to sell over 100,000 copies.
As publicity for "Armchair Apocrypha", Bird made his network television debut on April 10, 2007, performing "Plasticities" (from the new album) on the "Late Show with David Letterman". He also appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on June 14, 2007, performing "Imitosis" from the same album. In April 2007, he did a "Take-Away Show" acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. These appearances were accompanied by an extensive tour, which ended with sell-out performances at the Beacon Theater, New York and the Orpheum Theater, Los Angeles.
In January 2007, Bird made an appearance on the Noggin television network's "Jack's Big Music Show", playing the part of Dr. Stringz and appearing in order to mend Mary's broken dulcimer. Bird sang a brief song called "Dr. Stringz", written specially for the show. He now often plays it live as an introduction to the song "Fake Palindromes".
On May 20, 2007, National Public Radio aired a live concert by Bird from Washington, D.C.'s He also worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for his 2007 spring tour.
Five of his songs – "Banking on a Myth" from "The Mysterious Production of Eggs," a medley of "I" from "Weather Systems" and "Imitosis" from "Armchair Apocrypha," and "Skin" and "Weather Systems" from "Weather Systems" – have been licensed for use by Marriott Residence Inn.
Since March 2008, Bird has contributed to "Measure for Measure," a "New York Times" blog in which musicians write about their songwriting process. In it, he has charted the development of the song "Oh No," previewing samples at various stages of development through to the finished album recording. He also discussed the conception of the song "Natural Disaster," the recording of instrumental piece "Hot Math," and previewed "Master Sigh." The first two songs were later released on Bird's 2009 album "Noble Beast", whilst the latter two appeared on its bonus disc "Useless Creatures". "Oh No" was featured in the show Billions.
In November 2008, he appeared in the second series of Nigel Godrich's "From the Basement" alongside Radiohead and Fleet Foxes. His performance included a preview of new song "Section 8 City," a ten-minute re-imagining of "Sectionate City," which originally appeared on the "Soldier on" EP.
Bird's fifth solo album, "Noble Beast," was released on January 20, 2009, and contained fourteen new songs, with bonus tracks available for download from iTunes and eMusic. "The Privateers" is a re-imagining of a very early song entitled "The Confession" from 1999's "Oh! The Grandeur." A limited deluxe edition of the album included alternate packaging and artwork, as well as an all-instrumental companion disc entitled "Useless Creatures." The entirety of "Useless Creatures" was made available via Bird's website during the run-up to the release. "Noble Beast" has been met with generally favourable reviews, receiving a score of 79 out of 100 from review collation site Metacritic.
In 2009, he contributed a cover of the song "The Giant of Illinois" to the HIV and AIDS benefit album "Dark Was the Night" produced by the Red Hot Organization. On May 11, 2009, Bird released the EP "Fitz and the Dizzy Spells." It contains "Fitz and the Dizzyspells" from "Noble Beast," as well as other songs from that album's recording sessions. Some of the songs on the EP were previously available for download from iTunes and eMusic as bonus tracks to "Noble Beast."
He also did a La Blogoteque performance at a house party in Paris, collaborating with St. Vincent.
In 2010, Bird recorded with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, contributing vocals and violin on a cover of "Shake It and Break It" on "Preservation: An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program." In August 2010, Bird contributed a charity T-shirt to the Yellow Bird Project to raise money for the Pegasus Special Riders Fund, which provides therapeutic horse riding activities for adults and children with special needs.
"Break It Yourself" (2011–2015).
In late 2011 Bird signed to the record label Mom + Pop Music. Andrew Bird's first release for the label was the soundtrack to the film Norman, which included his original score as well as songs by other artists. Bird sequenced the soundtrack to flow as a stand-alone album rather than a compilation of music from the film. Its music supervisor, Peymon Maskan, told HitQuarters: "The best compliment I've heard is that without having seen the film, you can imagine it by listening to the soundtrack. The sequence is a big part of that effect."
On December 6, Bird announced a new album "Break it Yourself", the follow up to 2009's "Noble Beast".
In 2011 "Andrew Bird: Fever Year", a feature-length concert documentary on Bird's year-long tour, had its World Premiere at Lincoln Center with the prestigious New York Film Festival. The film's festival-only run closed in 2013 after screening in over ninety international festivals and winning nine awards. "Fever Year" depicts Bird and his band during final months of a tour during which he reportedly suffered from constant fever. When asked on her website if the film will be released on DVD, director Xan Aranda stated that the film was commissioned by and belongs to Bird, thus the release is up to him to decide. "Andrew Bird: Fever Year" also features Martin Dosh, Michael Lewis, Jeremy Ylvisaker, and St. Vincent (Annie Clark).
In September 2012, Bird announced "Hands Of Glory", a companion EP to "Break it Yourself". The album was released on October 30.
In 2014, Andrew Bird's song "Pulaski at Night" was featured in the second-season premiere episode of "Orange Is the New Black". "Pulaski at Night" was also featured in the first season of Paolo Sorrentino's "The Young Pope".
On June 10, 2014, Andrew Bird released his album "Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of…", an album of covers of The Handsome Family and Bird's first record that does not contain any of his own compositions.
"Are You Serious" (2016–2018).
On April 1, 2016, Bird released his tenth solo album, "Are You Serious" with Loma Vista Recordings. The album featured guest vocals from Fiona Apple and includes Bird's earlier track, "Pulaski at Night", now renamed "Pulaski." A total of 6 songs from the album have been released as singles as of August 2017.
Andrew Bird toured in support of "Are You Serious" through much of 2016 and 2017.
He appeared in episode 14 of the Hulu series "The Path", February 8, 2017, playing "Roma Fade" as part of a "private concert".
On Nov. 2, 2018, he released the single "Bloodless" backed with "Capital Crimes".
"My Finest Work Yet" (2019–present).
On March 22, 2019, Bird released "My Finest Work Yet" via Loma Vista Recordings. The album features singles "Sisyphus" and "Manifest". My Finest Work Yet was recorded live to tape at Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles, CA. Produced by Paul Butler, Bird and the band went for a Rudy Van Gelder jazz room sound where the instruments bleed into all the mics in just the right way. Piano plays a strong role on these songs and most of the melodies are tinged with a gospel-jazz-1960s soul feel while the lyrics are direct and risk-taking, cutting to the quick of what is happening in our world. The album includes a previous single, "Bloodless," which debuted in November 2018. "My Finest Work Yet" was nominated for "Best Folk Album" at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Influences.
Growing up, Bird was surrounded by classical music. As a child, he was interested in Irish tunes and bluegrass. He also cites English and Scottish folk music as an early influence. His early jazz influences were Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, and Fats Waller. He has also had a number of classical influences such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Béla Bartók. Other influences included jazz, swing, calypso, and folk. Bird has stated that, at 22, he found a lot of indie rock and pop music repetitive and boring, but now understands it better.
The Handsome Family.
Andrew Bird appears to have a close relationship with The Handsome Family, an Americana band from Illinois. Covers of their songs have appeared in several of his albums, including "When The Helicopter Comes," on "Hands of Glory", "Tin Foiled," on "Fingerlings 3", and "Don't Be Scared," from "Weather Systems". His album, "Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of…" is a ten-song cover album, with a strong country feeling.
The album's liner notes contain a response from Rennie Sparks, the band's lyricist and singer: "Hearing Andrew's version of our songs feels like suddenly spotting a new and shining doorway in the midst of a room I have spent my life in. It's like finding a stairway in the forest leading upward to the sky. His recasting of our work gives me the strange and wonderful pleasure of understanding my own songs better by hearing him perform them."
Instruments and gear.
One of Bird's primary instruments is a violin which he acquired when he was 16. His "first serious violin," it was custom made by a Polish luthier in Chicago, and Bird had to audition to prove he was worthy of playing it. In 2017, following the release of "Are You Serious", he commissioned Peter Seman to build a 5-string violin. The custom instrument features a lower C string (giving it the range of a viola), a unique scroll which bends backwards, and has no corners.
For looping, Andrew Bird uses two Line 6 DL4 delay pedals: one for rhythmic pizzicato, and the other, "is dedicated to the ambient bowed strings." The DL4, on top of being able to loop, can also slow down and speed up loops, lowering or raising the pitch of a recording by an octave in the process. This feature occurs in many of Bird's songs, as well as live performances. He also uses an octave pedal to give the violin the range of a bass.
He began using loop pedals to compensate when performing alone on stage, but later found that looping helped him to "embrace repetition," and compose his songs in a more straightforward manner, since he felt his writing style was too chaotic.
Band members and associated acts.
Bird does not have a regular band that he plays with, and personnel changes with each album. Throughout his career, he has performed with a rotating cast of musicians. However, some musicians have appeared on several different albums, and performed with Andrew Bird on multiple tours.
Hands of Glory.
Originally "supposed to be a lark, kind of a between records thing,", the Hands of Glory was an old-time band started by Andrew Bird. The group toured and recorded one eponymous album under the name in 2012.
Personal life.
Andrew Bird currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Katherine and their son Sam.


Washington Magnet Elementary School

Washington Magnet Elementary School is a historic school and building located at Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina. It was built in 1923–1924 to serve African-American students in Raleigh and is now a magnet elementary school.
History.
From 1924 until 1953, Washington served as the only secondary education institution for black students in Raleigh. This changed with the establishment of John W. Ligon Junior-Senior High School, which assumed that role.
In 1982, Washington became an elementary school involved with the magnet program and Gifted & Talented curriculum.
Washington was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 as the Washington Graded and High School. In 2003, it received designation as a Local Historic Site by the City of Raleigh's Historic Preservation Association.
Building.
Washington Graded and High School was originally constructed in 1923-1924 as part of the city of Raleigh's plans to expand the education system in order to accommodate increasing numbers of school-aged children. The project was funded by a portion of the money from a million dollar bond issued by the school board on April 4, 1922. At the time of its completion in 1924, The original building is a two-story, brick building with Tudor Revival style design elements. A three-story rear addition was built in 1927, a track in 1942, a gymnasium in 1949, and other additions were made in 1996 and 2000. The building was renovated from 2002–2003.


Trixie Lulamoon


Angelos Chaniotis

Angelos Chaniotis (, born November 8, 1959) is a Greek historian and Classics scholar, known for original and wide-ranging research in the cultural, religious, legal and economic history of the Hellenistic period and the Roman East. His research interests also include the history of Crete and Greek epigraphy. Chaniotis is a Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
He is a member of the German Archaeological Institute and an editor of the Classical Studies journal "Mnemosyne".
Education and career.
Chaniotis got his B.A. at the University of Athens in 1982. He got his Ph.D. at Heidelberg University in 1984 and received Habilitation at that same institution in 1992. He was a Visiting Professor at New York University in 1993–1998. He was a Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2006–2010. He taught at Heidelberg University from 1987-2006 and was the Chair of that school's Department of Ancient History from 1998–2006. In 2008 he joined the faculty as an Ancient History and Classics Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Awards.
In 2000 the German state of Baden-Württemberg awarded Chaniotis its State Research Prize. In 2001 the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation gave him the Anneliese Maier Research for Pure Research. In 2014 the government of Greece awarded him the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Phoenix.


Charles Crawford Gorst

Charles Crawford Gorst (1885 - 1956) was an American performer, educator and a noted bird-call imitator. He called himself "The Bird Man" and travelled across the United States, giving talks to bird clubs, church gatherings, the Chautauqua assemblies, and at educational institutions from around 1915 to around 1924. His talks included his own paintings of birds made on large charts, entertaining anecdotes and whistled bird imitations. He claimed to be able to imitate more than 250 birds and he also made musical compositions that included his bird imitations.
Little is known of Gorst's early life but he was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Reverend William Gorst (of the Methodist church) and Agnes Campbell Crawford. He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1908 studying English and Philosophy at the Nebraska Wesleyan University and received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Boston in 1911. He also served as a laboratory assistant in ornithology at the Nebraska Wesleyan University. He married Grace Dishong in 1908. He was awarded the 1936 John Burroughs Medal for his "unusual art of interpreting bird songs". Around the same time the technology for recording bird song in the field improved making whistled imitations, often of doubtful accuracy, less popular. His own promotional brochure claimed that he frequently spoke at the American Museum of Natural History. He claimed that his use of large paintings held before flood lighting was more effective than lantern slides. He made numerous claims that he could strike up a chorus of birds in silent woods by his imitations, that he had imitated a young bird which led the mother to bring him a worm and that migrating birds called out to him. In 1917 the American Ornithologists' Union elected Gorst as an associate. In 1922 he promoted the protection of bobwhite quail in Mississippi claiming that it helped control boll weevils.
His claims were poetically rendered on stage to large audiences who bought tickets at 75 cents a person:


Jen language

Dza, Jen, is an Adamawa language of Nigeria.


List of composers and their preferred lyricists

Most (classical) composers had one or a few lyricists with whom they preferred to work:


Dolors Lamarca

Dolors Lamarca y Morell (Granollers, Vallès Oriental, 19 October 1943) is a Catalan librarian and philologist. She has led the Service of Libraries and Bibliographic Heritage of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and has directed the National Library of Catalonia.
Biography.
Lamarca studied Classical Philology at the University of Barcelona, and library science at the Library School. On 5 November 1974, she joined the faculty of Archivers, Librarians and Archaeologists (Library Section) at the University of Barcelona.
Lamarca led the Service of Libraries and Bibliographic Heritage of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1 August 1980 until 2 March 1983. During these years, she established the bases of the current Catalan library system, adapting the normative catalog through the Catalan Institute of Bibliography, and opening new libraries to give more service to the population. Later, she was director of the Library of the University of Barcelona (1984-2000), achieving important milestones as the head of this network of libraries, like the modernisation of the structures and buildings, as well as computerisation.
From 12 February 2004 until June 2012, she directed the National Library of Catalonia. During these seven years, she managed a fund of more than three million diverse documents. She created digitalisation processes to allow heritage diffusion at a global level for the Library of Catalonia. Under her direction, she made numerous purchases, and improved internal processes


Wolfgang Kayser

Wolfgang Kayser (born 24 December 1906 in Berlin; died 23 January 1960 in Göttingen) was a German Germanist and scholar of literature.
Biography.
Kayser earned his doctorate in 1932 with a thesis on the poetry of Baroque poet Harsdörffer, and his habilitation in 1935, writing about the history of the German ballad. During the Nazi era he showed allegiance to the Nazi Party. In 1933 he joined the SA and in 1937, the NSDAP
In 1938 he became a Privatdozent in Leipzig. In 1941 he was appointed director of the German Cultural Institute in Lisbon, which role he described as that of "an adjunct professor in the Imperial Service." He also held a lectureship in German at the University of Lisbon. During that period he was already at work on what would become his pioneering textbook, "Das Sprachliche Kunstwerk: Eine Einführung in Die Literaturwissenschaft Zehnte Auflage" ("The Language of Art: An Introduction to the Literature").
Dismissed from service after 1945, he thereafter worked mainly as a freelance lecturer, author and translator. In 1948 "The Language of Art" was published, which had a strong influence on post-war German literature. In 1950 he received a professorship at the University of Göttingen, where he worked until his death in 1960.
As German literary studies shook off the control of the politicization that had held sway during the Nazi era, and scholars turned toward increasingly European and multidisciplinary literary scholarship, Kayser gained an international reputation. In 1954 he was made a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature in Darmstadt.


Washington State University Global Campus

Washington State University created its Global Campus on July 2, 2012. It combines the university's online-based instructional programs and offerings, and adds programs designed to bring online education to a wider audience.


FS-VDSL

The Full Service-VDSL Committee (FS-VDSL) was founded in July 2000 with the aim of rapidly specifying a low cost, high capability end-to-end multi-service network based on VDSL Frequency Band Plan 998 which can be quickly and economically deployed to enable customers, focusing principally on consumer market, to benefit from competition. It was a non-profit international organization based in Switzerland.
FS-VDSL was closed, according to its statutes, after 3 years of activity. Its specifications, downstreamed to ITU-T Study Group 16 became international standards as Recommendations H.610 and H.611.
At closing time, FS-VDSL was composed of 106 members, including Telcos, Telecommunication manufacturers, chip manufacturers, service providers.
Specifications.
The FS-VDSL Specifications are composed of 5 parts :
FS-VDSL and ITU-T.
The Full Service VDSL Specifications were published on June 5, 2002. This means that anybody can access them from this web site, that any vendor can implement them, provided they comply with IPR rules, and that any operator can use them to provide services on their network.
This forum has therefore achieved the first objective foreseen when the FS-VDSL Committee was set up in 2000. The normal result should have been to wind up the forum on expiry of its work. However, the FS-VDSL specifications are only private documents, with no legal basis and despite their technical value, they cannot be referenced in official procurements in the same way as recognised standards - only official recognised standards have such status.
The Telecommunication Standardisation Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), a multi-governmental entity which is part of the United Nations, has now facilitated this forum to join their efforts to promote global standards. The FS-VDSL Management Committee has agreed to form a specialised group tasked with publishing ITU-T specifications or Recommendations based on the work done so far.
This group has been accepted by the ITU-T management as the FS-VDSL Focus Group. The creation of the Focus Group was formally approved by Study Group 16 at its meeting in October 2002. The parts 2 and 3 of the specifications was reformated by the Focus Group as Recommendation H.610 and part 5 as Recommendation H.611


Submandibular ganglion

The submandibular ganglion (or submaxillary ganglion in older texts) is part of the human autonomic nervous system. It is one of four parasympathetic ganglia of the head and neck. (The others are the otic ganglion, pterygopalatine ganglion, and ciliary ganglion).
Location and relations.
The submandibular ganglion is small and fusiform in shape. It is situated above the deep portion of the submandibular gland, on the hyoglossus muscle, near the posterior border of the mylohyoid muscle.
The ganglion 'hangs' by two nerve filaments from the lower border of the lingual nerve (itself a branch of the mandibular nerve, CN V3). It is suspended from the lingual nerve by two filaments, one anterior and one posterior. Through the posterior of these it receives a branch from the chorda tympani nerve which runs in the sheath of the lingual nerve.
Fibers.
Like other parasympathetic ganglia of the head and neck, the submandibular ganglion is the site of synapse for parasympathetic fibers and carries other types of nerve fiber that do not synapse in the ganglion. In summary, the fibers carried in the ganglion are:


Northwestern University Center for Talent Development

Center for Talent Development (CTD), established in 1982, is a direct service and research center in the field of gifted education and talent development based at Northwestern University.
CTD offers in-person and online educational programs for students age 3 through grade 12, and resources for their families, and educators, including:
CTD also works with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support their scholarship programs, which are designed to advance the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need.
History.
CTD began as a research and talent assessment program and soon after grew to include educational programs in several different forms. Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska, CTD's founder and former director, started the Midwest Talent Search Project at Northwestern University in 1982. LetterLinks, a distance education program (later known as Gifted LearningLinks), began the same year and transitioned from mail correspondence to online courses in 2002. Summer and weekend enrichment programs were launched in 1983. Northwestern University officially established the Center for Talent Development in 1984. In 1999, the Civic Education Project joined CTD, introducing service-learning, civic engagement, and leadership to the curriculum. The Center has since added programs and services for families, educators, and schools.
CTD’s current director, Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, has served in her role since 1987. She served as president of the National Association for Gifted Children from 2011 to 2013, from whom she received the Early Scholar Award in 1987, the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2009, and the "Gifted Child Quarterly" Paper of the Year Award in 2011. She received the Mensa Award for Excellence in Research in 2013. Olszewski-Kubilius has been interviewed by "Education Week" and "The Boston Globe" for her research in the field of gifted education and talent development. Her work has been published by the Association for Psychological Science, Prufrock Press, "Scientific American", "Roeper Review", "Journal of Secondary Gifted Education", "Asian Pacific Education Review", "Parenting for High Potential", and "Gifted Child Quarterly".
Talent Search.
Northwestern University’s Midwest Academic Talent Search (commonly referred to as "NUMATS") is the above-grade-level assessment program within Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development. Originally called the Midwest Academic Talent Search (MATS), NUMATS was started in 1982 by Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska. This research-validated program aims to provide families and educators with insights into participants’ academic strengths, measure growth, and help connect students with supplemental enrichment, accelerated programs, and appropriate school-based curricula and courses.
Above-grade-level assessments (using tests intended for older students) and interpretive information, such as that provided by NUMATS and similar talent search programs, give a more accurate measurement of aptitude than grade-level assessments for higher-achieving students, particularly for those students who are scoring at the highest end of their grade-level standardized assessments. NUMATS above-grade-level assessment is based on the work of Dr. Julian Stanley at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Stanley was an advocate of accelerated education for academically advanced or gifted children. He founded the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins and initiated a related research project, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), which is an ongoing, longitudinal study of the talent development of individuals identified as gifted. Further research continues to support the model and explore its applications for identification, placement, and academic acceleration. Published in 2004, a report titled "A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students" found above-level testing to be useful in identifying candidates for acceleration and eliminating the ceiling effect many high-ability students experience on grade-level tests.
Through NUMATS, students in grades 3 through 6 take the PSAT™8/9 (a test designed for students in grades 8 and 9). Students in grades 6 through 9 may take the SAT® and/or ACT® (tests designed for students in grades 11 and 12).
Uses and Applications.
Above-grade-level test results provide insights into academic abilities, can serve as a benchmark for growth, and help in predicting readiness for acceleration. They are also used to select courses and instruction matched to students’ assessed abilities in their domains of talent (placement in services and appropriate instruction).
Above-grade-level assessments are also used by at the state level to identify gifted students (see Colorado and Ohio), and by researchers and in school-based programs to evaluate the efficacy of academic interventions aimed at gifted and advanced students. In 2017, a study of data collected from past talent search participants examined how demographics, educational experiences, and personal interest impacted the likelihood of pursuing a college degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. The study found that experience in a talent search and supplemental gifted programs helped students intensify their interests in STEM. In 2019-2020, a program called Project OCCAMS (Online Curriculum Consortium for Accelerating Middle School) utilized above-grade-level testing to implement accelerated curriculum for bright underserved students in Columbus City Schools. Developed in collaboration with Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William & Mary, and Columbus City Schools, Project OCCAMS has been funded by the Jacob K. Javits Federal Grant Program and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.
Eligibility.
Eligibility for NUMATS is determined by meeting grade-level assessment criteria in either verbal/reading or math on a nationally normed or state achievement test; past participation in above-grade-level testing; participation in a school gifted program or advanced academic services; or and/or recommendation by a parent or teacher. Students with scores at the 90th percentile or above in at least one category or subcategory on a state achievement test may also qualify for NUMATS.
Developmental approach.
Academic researchers and programs endorse different definitions of intellectual giftedness and approaches to gifted education. CTD’s educational philosophy is based on the talent development model, a framework looking beyond IQ and emphasizing personal growth, the development of non-cognitive traits such as psychosocial skills, and the impact of the educational environment on student performance.
Research.
In addition to programs, the Center for Talent Development contributes research to the fields of talent development and gifted education. Notable publications include:
Affiliated Organizations.
Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy


Brda dialect

The Brda dialect ("briško narečje", "briščina") is a Slovene dialect in the Littoral dialect group, spoken northwest of Gorizia and Nova Gorica in Slovenia and Italy.
It is spoken on a territory with around 6,000 Slovene speakers, most of whom have a degree of knowledge of the dialect.
Geographical extension.
The dialect is spoken west of the Soča River in the Gorizia Hills ( or "Brda"), extending from north of Anhovo to north of Gorizia.
In Slovenia, the dialect is spoken in most of the territory of the Municipality of Brda (except for its northwesternmost strip, where the Natisone Valley dialect is spoken) and in the westernmost part of the Municipality of Kanal ob Soči.
In Italy, it is spoken in the northeastern area of the Province of Gorizia, in the municipalities of San Floriano del Collio, and in part of the municipalities of Cormons and Dolegna del Collio. It is also spoken in the western suburbs of the town of Gorizia (Podgora, Piuma, Oslavia).
Phonological and morphological characteristics.
The Brda dialect does not have pitch accent, unlike the nearby Natisone Valley and Torre Valley dialects. The dialect shows the development of "ə" > "a" and "e", and nasal "e" > "a", and some degree of influence from the Karst dialect. The dialect shows general features associated with Venetian Slovenian dialects such as soft "ľ" > "j" and "-m" > "-n". The sequence "čre-" is pronounced "čere-", and the 3rd-person plural verbal ending "-ojo" is typical.


Esmond Wright

Esmond Wright (5 November 1915, Newcastle upon Tyne – 9 August 2003, Masham, North Yorkshire) was an English historian of the United States, Director of the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London from 1971 to 1983, a television personality, author, and a Conservative politician.
Wright had a grammar school education in Newcastle upon Tyne, before winning an open scholarship to Durham University and, in 1938, a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship to the University of Virginia. Wright joined the University of Glasgow in 1946 as a lecturer in History. In 1957 he was appointed Professor of Modern History, a post he held until his election to parliament ten years later. His students at Glasgow included future Labour Party Leader John Smith and Donald Dewar, later the first First Minister of Scotland. During this time he became known in both Scotland and England with his obituary in "The Independent" describing him as one of Britain's 'early "media dons"'.
In a 1967 by-election, he was returned as a Conservative Member of Parliament for the previously Labour-held seat of Glasgow Pollok. Wright defeated Dick Douglas, who would later have two spells as a Labour MP and defect to the Scottish National Party. Wright reportedly had 'no strong political ambitions' and had apparently not expected to win the contest. He was defeated by Labour's James White in the 1970 General Election. Tam Dalyell believed had Wright retained his seat, he might well have been a Treasury minister in the Heath Ministry.
After his defeat Wright returned to academia becoming Director of the Institute of US Studies and Professor of American History at the University of London in 1971, a post he held until 1983. He was also Principal of Swinton Conservative College in Masham form 1972 until 1976.
He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1988, reportedly, the award that gave him 'greatest pleasure'. In 1981 he delivered the British Academy's Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American Literature and History.
Works.
Wright's publications include:


Len Ackland

Len Earl Ackland (born 1944) is a journalist and retired journalism professor from the University of Colorado Boulder. He was founding director of the Center for Environmental Journalism in 1992.
He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor's degree in history, and from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies with a Master's degree.
He was a humanitarian worker, RAND researcher and freelance writer during the Vietnam War in 1967-68.
He was a reporter for the "Chicago Tribune" and the "Des Moines Register," where he won The George Polk Award in 1978 for a series on discriminatory mortgage lending, or "redlining."
He was editor of the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" when it won the 1987 National Magazine Award for a special issue on the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In 1991 he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder.


Tolmin dialect

The Tolmin dialect (, "tolminščina") is a Slovene dialect in the Rovte dialect group. It is spoken in the watersheds of the Bača and lower Idrijca rivers, as well as the reaches of the Soča River in that area, bounded on the west by a line west of Tolmin and Most na Soči. Other settlements in the dialect area include Grahovo ob Bači.
Phonological and morphological characteristics.
The Tolmin dialect lacks pitch accent, except in Čiginj, where this is partially retained. It has short vowels resulting from accentual retraction of the type "nàga" < "nogà" 'foot', vowel reduction as in the central Slovene dialects, "b" < "v" (known as "betacizem" in Slovene), and innovative Slovenian palatalization (e.g., "ščìra" < "sekira" 'axe'). Long "i" and "u" have shortened, restricting the long vowel inventory to "ie", "uo", and "a". The dialect has undergone complete akanye and the lenition of "g" > [ɦ].


Emergency Stand Alone

Emergency Stand Alone (ESA) is a term used by the vendors of telephone equipment such as Nortel DMS-100, Lucent 5ESS or GTD-5.
Typically, small towns or communities have telephone services provided from a "remote switching unit" which is controlled by the more powerful host switching complex. ESA occurs when the host/remote links are severed, thus leaving the region in “community isolation”. While in the ESA mode, the town/community is limited to only receiving or placing calls within that community/town.
Larger towns/regions may have several remote switching units which required “backdoor trunking” to connect all remote units during ESA within the same town/community. Special translations can be implemented to allow 911 to be redirected to a local number such as the local police station or fire hall that resides within that same community/town.


50th Writers Guild of America Awards

The 50th Writers Guild of America Awards, given on 21 February 1998, honored the best writers in film and television of 1997.
Film.
Best Adapted Screenplay.
"L.A. Confidential" – Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland
Best Original Screenplay.
"As Good as It Gets" – Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks
Television.
Best Episodic Drama.
 "Entrapment" - "Law & Order" - Rene Balcer and Richard Sweren
Best Episodic Comedy.
 "The Fatigues" - "Seinfeld" - Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin
1997 Daytime Serials
Winner- "All My Children": Agnes Nixon; Lorraine Broderick; Hal Corley; Fredrick Johnson; Gail Lawrence; Jeff Beldner; Christina Covino; Courtney Sherman; Millee Taggart; Karen Lewis; Elizabeth Smith; Michelle Patrick; Bettina F. Bradbury; Judith Donato; Kathleen Klein; Jane Owen Murphy
Other Nominees:
"General Hospital": Claire Labine; Matthew Labine; Robert Guza, Jr.; Karen Harris; Michele Val Jean; Meg Bennett; Ralph Ellis; Mary Ryan; Jane Atkins; Stephanie Braxton; Judith Pinsker; Lynda Myles; Elizabeth Korte; Patrick Mulcahey; Lisa Lieberman


Geoffrey Moore

Geoffrey Moore (born 1946) is an American organizational theorist, management consultant and author, known for his work "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers".
Biography.
Moore received a bachelor's degree in American literature from Stanford University (1967) and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Washington (1974).
Moore began his professional life as an English professor at Olivet College in Michigan, before moving his family to California, where he took a job as a corporate trainer and executive assistant at a technology company.
Prior to working with the McKenna Group, Moore was a sales and marketing executive at Rand Information Systems, Enhansys, and Mitem. He heads his own consulting firm, Geoffrey Moore Consulting, and is a venture partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures and Wildcat Venture Partners as well as managing director at Geoffrey Moore Consulting.


Alois Wolf

Alois Wolf (12 September 1929 – 1 November 2020) was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies. He was Professor of German Philology at the University of Freiburg.
Biography.
Alois Wolf was born in Micheldorf in Oberösterreich, Austria on 5 September 1939. He studied German and English at the universities of Innsbruck and Vienna, and received his Ph.D. at Innsbruck in 1953 with a thesis on the Middle High German author Gottfried von Strassburg.
Wolf subsequently studied Old Norse, and lectured from 1955 to 1959 at the universities of Hull, Strasbourg, Innsbruck and Salzburg. He completed his habilitation at Salzburg in March 1965 with a thesis on Medieval German literature. He was subsequently a professor at the universities of Münster and Kiel. From 1973 to 1994, Wolf was Professor of German Philology at the University of Freiburg. During this time he held visiting professorships at the universities of Wisconsin–Madison and Fribourg.
Wolf specialized in Germanic studies. He received the Theodor Körner Prize in 1961, the in 1996, and was a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was married and had two children.
Wolf retired from the University of Freiburg in 1994. He died in Freiburg on 1 November 2020.


University High School (Tucson)

University High School (UHS) is an accelerated public high school located in Tucson, Arizona. Originally known as "Special Projects High School" (SPHS), University High School is in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The mission statement of UHS identifies it as "a special function high school which serves students who are academically focused and intellectually gifted and provides curriculum and social support not offered in the comprehensive high school."
Location and features.
The school currently shares a centrally located campus with Rincon High School. UHS was located at the Tucson High School campus before moving to Rincon's campus at the beginning of September 1985.
The mascot at UHS is the penguin. When it was known as Special Projects High School, the mascot was the skunk. Both mascots give the school its reputable colors of black and white.
While UHS is a public school, entry is based upon a combination of exam scores (CogAT) and 7th and 8th grade GPAs. Entry is competitive into UHS.
Relationship with Rincon.
University High students and Rincon students share fine arts and athletics, competing under the name of Rincon University.
However, the two are different high schools, with separate academic programs.
AP curriculum.
UHS students graduate after taking a minimum of eight Advanced Placement (AP) classes (including AP English, AP US History, AP US Government and Politics, AP Physics, AP Environmental Science, etc.). However, many opt to take additional AP courses, with some students completing as many as 16. In 2004, the school had the greatest percentage of students passing the AP exams for United States History, Comparative Politics, and English Language of any high school in the world. Also, nearly all of students continue on to college, with 50 to 75% achieving one or more scholarships.
As of 2009, the following AP courses are offered (28 of the 31 that the College Board offers):
Honors as a college preparatory school.
US News and World Report has identified UHS as one of "America's Best High Schools" out of approximately 20,487 schools nationwide.
In 2014, the Washington Post recognized UHS at No. 28 in its review of "America's Most Challenging High Schools," which ranked the 1,900 highest-performing high schools nationally.
In 2013, the Daily Beast listed UHS at No. 19 in its annual list of the "Best 2,000 High Schools in the Nation.
In May 2006, Newsweek named UHS as one of "The Public Elites," schools that, "NEWSWEEK excluded...from the list of Best High Schools because so many of their students score well above average on the SAT and ACT."
On January 30, 2013, Jonathan Rothschild, the mayor of Tucson, Arizona, declared January 30 as University High School Day.
In 2005, it was honored as a Blue Ribbon school.


Republic Bashkir Boarding School

The Republic Bashkort Boarding School (RBBS) is an educational institution for gifted students aged 12–16, located in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia.
History.
The school was founded in 1992 as Republic Bashkort-Turkish Lycee. The school very soon became extremely popular and many talented students were enrolled after passing admission tests on mathematics, IQ, Russian and Bashkort language. First graduation took place in 1996 in the building of Bashkort State Philarmony.
Single-gender education. Only boys are admitted to the school, though at some point three experimental girl classes were formed. They graduated in 2006 and 2007 and experiment was closed, because female department of school was not provided with separate building needed to maintain high-quality education standards, although Local Education Authority has promised to do so before. Nowadays, RBBS continues to be boys only school.
Curriculum.
The school implements content and language integrated learning (CLIL) method for delivering curriculum for several main subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science. Medium of instruction is English, so by graduation students are fluent in English, Turkish, Russian and Bashkort.


Signaling protocol

A signaling protocol is a type of communications protocol for encapsulating the signaling between communication endpoints and switching systems to establish or tear down a connection, and to identify the state of connection.
The following is a list of signaling protocols:


Elye Spivak

Eliyahu "Elye" Spivak (, ; 10 December 1890 – 4 April 1950) was a Soviet Jewish linguist, philologist, and pedagogue.
Biography.
Spivak was born to a religious Jewish family in Vasilkov, Kiev Governorate in the Russian Empire. He survived the 1919 Vasilkov pogroms, in which Symon Petliura's armies massacred over fifty Jews. Spivak worked as a teacher in various cities, including Vasilkov, Glukhov, Kiev, and Kharkov, and was appointed professor of Yiddish linguistics at the Odessa Pedagogical Institute in 1925. Spivak published some fifty Yiddish textbooks and teaching aids, in collaboration with David Hofstein and others, and co-edited the pedagogical journal "Ratnbildung" ('Soviet Education') from 1929 to 1931.
Following Nochum Shtif's death in 1933, Spivak was appointed director of the linguistics section of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture () and editor of its journal, "Afn shprakhfront" ('On the Language Front'). The Institute was closed down in early 1936 amid the Great Purge, with many of its staff members arrested on charges of Trotskyism. The smaller Office for the Study of Soviet Jewish Literature, Language, and Folklore was created in its place, with Spivak as director. Along with the rest of the Office, Spivak was evacuated to Ufa, Bashkiria with the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, and returned in 1944.
Spivak, a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was arrested in January 1949 under charges of Jewish nationalism. He died on 4 April 1950 in the Lefortovo Prison in Moscow from an intracerebral hemorrhage while under interrogation.
Work.
Spivak played a major role in Soviet Yiddish language planning. He sought to compromise between Russification of Yiddish and the purported nationalism of the use of words of Hebrew-Aramaic origin, and wrote in favour of a partial de-Hebraization of Soviet Yiddish. Spivak opposed new coinages based on Hebraic elements not present in pre-revolutionary Yiddish, promoting instead the introduction of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian internationalisms.
While at the Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture, Spivak put forward the idea of compiling a comprehensive Russian-Yiddish dictionary, a project which began in 1935. Though completed in 1948, the dictionary's manuscript and other research materials were confiscated by the Soviet security organs upon the arrest of Spivak and its other authors. The dictionary was published posthumously in 1984.
Publications.
The following is a partial list of Spivak's publications (not including textbooks):


P.G. Sittenfeld

Alexander Paul George Sittenfeld (born October 1, 1984) is an American politician from Ohio serving as a suspended member of the Cincinnati City Council. Elected at age 27 in 2011, he was the youngest person to ever be elected to the body. Sittenfeld’s political career came with no private sector or public sector experience according to his resume. In December of 2020 he was suspended from council due to his arrest on federal bribery charges against him and currently awaits federal trial. Sittenfeld, 36, was indicted on two counts of honest services wire fraud, two counts of bribery and two counts of attempted extortion by a government official. In January 2015, he announced his 2016 bid for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Rob Portman. On March 15, 2016, Sittenfeld lost the Senate Democratic primary election to former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. On July 12, 2020, Sittenfeld announced that he would run in the 2021 Cincinnati mayoral election. On November 19, 2020, Sittenfeld was arrested on charges of corruption and bribery and later suspended from council.
Early life and education.
P.G. Sittenfeld was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, the youngest of four children. His mother, Betsy, is a retired school teacher who served as a librarian and art history teacher at Seven Hills School. Sittenfeld's father, Paul, started his career at Procter & Gamble, before leaving to work at Planned Parenthood, later running the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund, and finally transitioning to become a family investment advisor. Sittenfeld's mother is Catholic and his father is Jewish.
Sittenfeld is the youngest of four siblings. One of his older sisters, Curtis Sittenfeld, is a novelist known for "Prep" and "Eligible".
For high school, Sittenfeld attended The Seven Hills School, an elite private school, where he was an all-city basketball player. During this time he also wrote a monthly column for "The Cincinnati Enquirer" and an advice column in Seventeen.
Sittenfeld matriculated to Princeton University, where he served as the president of his freshman class. He remained involved in journalism, including as a columnist for the "Daily Princetonian", and as a student stringer through the University Press Club for publications including "The New York Times", "Trenton Times", and "Princeton Alumni Weekly". He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2007, he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English, and was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to attend graduate school in the United Kingdom.
As a Marshall Scholar, Sittenfeld attended a master's program in English literature at Oxford University. There, he lived at Magdalen College, and studied the works of John Steinbeck.
Career.
Cincinnati City Council.
In 2011, at age 27, Sittenfeld became the youngest person ever elected to Cincinnati City Council with no actual career job experience only two internships. He received the second most votes of the 23 candidates. He was sworn into office on December 1, 2011.
He was re-elected to the council in 2013 and was the leading vote-getter among the 21 candidates.
Legislation.
Sittenfeld sponsored legislation creating the Vacant Foreclosed Property Registry to require banks and lenders to maintain vacant foreclosed houses under their control. Since its creation, the program has generated $4,000,000 for the City of Cincinnati, and mandated the upkeep of more than 4,000 homes.
Sittenfeld started an initiative known as the "Golden Cincinnati Initiative", the purpose of which was to provide support to Cincinnati's elderly community. The initiative included the creation of the City's Chief Advocacy Officer for Aging and Accessibility, a role in the city administration tasked with assisting in the creation and implementation of policies with older Cincinnatians and those with accessibility needs in mind. In November 2018, the Over-the-Rhine Senior Center – which primarily serves low-income, older residents in the neighborhoods around Over-the-Rhine – was set to close due to a reduction in funding. Sittenfeld worked with Cincinnati Area Senior Services, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, and the Office of Aging and Accessibility, to direct city funding to keep the center operational. In January 2019, Sittenfeld advocated for the city's human services budget to incorporate resources for senior citizen services, which had not previously qualified for funding. The legislation adding senior services as a human services budget priority passed unanimously.
In 2020, Sittenfeld sponsored the first "renter's choice" legislation in the United States, allowing apartment-renting tenants alternatives to cash security deposit.
In 2019, working with the AMOS Project, the University of Cincinnati Law School, Northern Kentucky University Law School, and the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, Sittenfeld sponsored legislation ending the City of Cincinnati Law Department's prosecutorial division’s policy of requesting cash bail when prosecuting defendants. Sittenfeld later introduced legislation allowing prospective job-applicants to the City of Cincinnati with prior marijuana possession charges on their records to not be denied employment. In 2020, with Council Member Greg Landsman, Sittenfeld introduced legislation to move toward a policy of citations to court, instead of arrests, for low level offenses.
Sittenfeld sponsored legislation creating Cincinnati's first-ever bus-only lane to provide dedicated avenues for Metro buses to traverse city streets, with an emphasis on the Central Business District, to reduce congestion and improve travel times. In 2019, Sittenfeld sponsored an amendment to the city charter which allowed for a regional funding mechanism for the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's Metro bus system, which previously had only received direct local funding from the city’s earnings tax. Voters approved Sittenfeld's charter amendment with 75% support in the November 2018 election.
Beginning in 2017, Sittenfeld began an effort with councilmember Chris Seelbach to establish an annual commitment in the city's budget directing $500,000 toward city-wide pedestrian safety improvements. In 2019, that allocation funded 70 projects, such as enhanced lighting and signs, improved crosswalks, and "bump-outs" which reduce the width of streets at key, pedestrian-heavy intersections.
Sittenfeld sponsored city funding for a new health and wellness center in the neighborhood of Evanston, which serves immigrant students and families. He has also advocated for additional school nurses in the city budget.
Sittenfeld has advocated for reproductive rights. In April 2019, after the Ohio Senate passed Senate Bill 23, a bill which would ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, Sittenfeld introduced legislation requiring the City of Cincinnati's Law Department to file an amicus curae brief with the court in opposition to the legislation, challenging the bill's constitutionality.
Sittenfeld has participated in efforts to convert Cincinnati into a smart city, including sponsoring legislation to create the city's open data portal, expanding wireless internet access to a low-income Cincinnati neighborhoods, creating the city's Government Technology Advisory Council, and calling for implementation of technology tools that can be deployed for public safety, such as ShotSpotter.
Texting scandal.
In 2018, Sittenfeld was caught leading the "Gang of Five", a group of five city council members who communicated via secret text messages attempting to undermine the mayor and bypass public meetings and debates.
In March 2019, the Gang of Five agreed to turn over their text messages in order to settle a lawsuit filed by a local anti-tax activist. Among the text messages were juvenile discussions of city employees' sexuality, messages mocking members of the public who attended council meetings or contacted the city council. The text messages were made searchable and posted on the website of the law firm that brought the suit against the Gang of Five. The Agreed Judgment Entry resolving the case has been made available online at the Scribd website.
In June 2019 additional text messages were released as a result of a lawsuit filed by Sinclair Media reporter Angenette Levy in which it was revealed that Sittenfeld encouraged the then-city manager, Harry Black, to work with African American community leaders to avoid being fired. This release also included text messages in which Sittenfeld discussed his concern over Black's need for counseling, and Sittenfeld and other council members discussing Black's habit of making late night drunken phone calls to city officials and reporters. Text messages also revealed that Black had engaged in efforts to suppress dissent among city employees, including chastising a city employee after she testified before council about the death of a teenager when 911 operators and Cincinnati police were unable to locate the teen. Despite all these concerns, Sittenfeld opposed efforts to fire Black.
The Gang of Five's efforts cost the City approximately $500,000 as it resulted in additional costs to fire a city manager, and costs to hire outside lawyers to defend the lawsuit and ultimately in paying the fines and attorney fees as part of the agreed order resolving the lawsuit.
Arrest.
On November 19, 2020, Sittenfeld was arrested by federal agents on charges of accepting bribes in exchange for favorable votes on developmental deals. Two other Cincinnati councilmembers Tamaya Dennard and Jeff Pastor were arrested under corruption charges earlier in the same year.
U.S. Senate campaign.
On January 22, 2015, Sittenfeld announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by current Republican United States Senator Rob Portman in 2016. Sittenfeld lost in the Democratic Party primary to former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.
Throughout his primary campaign, Sittenfeld focused heavily on gun control issues, claiming he would support reforms such as a federal ban on assault weapons and more comprehensive background checks for gun purchasers. On January 28, 2016, Sittenfeld announced a proposed amendment to the Ohio legislature to restore home-rule authority on gun control. His proposal would allow city governments within Ohio to enact their own gun control laws, a power which was removed by a 2006 state law.
Mayoral campaign.
On July 12, 2020, Sittenfeld announced that he was running in the 2021 Cincinnati mayoral election to succeed incumbent Mayor John Cranley. He faced another city councilman, David S. Mann.
Sitenfield is no longer an active candidate for the mayoral race due to the federal charges brought against him.
Personal life.
Sittenfeld’s main residence is a mansion in the Keys Crescent subdivision of the East Walnut Hills neighborhood. Currently the property is valued at over $1,300,000.


Ronald Bottrall

(Francis James) Ronald Bottrall (2 September 1906, Camborne, Cornwall – 25 June 1989) was a Cornish poet. He was praised highly by F.R. Leavis and Martin Seymour-Smith.
Botttral was educated at Redruth Grammar School and at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Personal life.
He was the father of Anthony Bottrall, the diplomat, expert in developmental agriculture and politician.


Manjak language

Manjak or Manjack (, ; ) or Njak is a Bak language of Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. The language is also known as Kanyop.
In 2006, the total number of speakers was estimated at 315,300, including 184,000 in Guinea-Bissau, 105,000 in Senegal and 26,300 in The Gambia.
Dialects.
The Manjak dialects below are distinct enough that some might be considered separate languages.
The Manjak dialects listed by Wilson (2007) ar:
Writing system.
The Manjak alphabet in Senegal established by the Senegal government in 2005 is as follows.


James Martin Charlton

James Martin Charlton (born 29 July 1966) is an English playwright, theatre director and filmmaker. He was born in Romford, Greater London, United Kingdom in 1966.
Career.
His play "Fat Souls" won the 1992 International Playwriting Festival at Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, where it premièred in 1993. "Fat Souls" and the plays which followed it - "Groping in the Dark" and "Coming Up" - use verse dialogue, soliloquies and emblematic characterisation all strapped to contemporary stories. The spiritual/anarchist strain in his writing continued in "Divine Vision", a biographical play about the relationship between William Blake and his patron, William Hayley, and a stage adaptation of John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress".
In 2001, his play "ecstasy + GRACE" attracted media attention due to its portrait of paedophilia and moral degeneracy. The play went on to receive a mauling by leading critics, although other reviewers were more enthusiastic. Charlton's subsequent plays include "I Really Must be Getting Off", a contemporary gay version of the country house play, "Fellow Creature", a short play produced by The Miniaturists and "Coward", a speculative play about Noël Coward, first performed in 2012.
Since 1996, Charlton has been Artistic Director of Friendly Fire Productions. Friendly Fire's productions include "Gob" by Jim Kenworth starring ex-Take That star Jason Orange at The King's Head Theatre in 1999, which Charlton directed. He has also directed shows with casts of prisoners at HMP Maidstone, including The Who's Tommy.
His short film "Apeth" was shown at a number of international film festivals.
He currently lectures in scriptwriting and is Head of Media Department at Middlesex University.


Naked DSL

A naked DSL, also known as standalone or dry loop DSL, is a digital subscriber line (DSL) without a PSTN (analogue telephony) service — or the associated dial tone. In other words, only a standalone DSL Internet service is provided on the local loop.
The original concept of DSL was to use existing telephone lines for high speed data communication, with DSL and telephone services coexisting on the same phone line - but increasingly customers may require "only" the Internet service - and see no need for the traditional phone service.
Comparison of Regular and Naked DSL (Standalone DSL).
In Regular DSL, data transmission is carried on inaudible high frequencies on a standard Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) telephone line.
The original idea was to use existing telephone lines for high speed data communication. DSL and telephone service can coexist on the same phone line and do not interfere with each other. From the Telco's point of view, DSL gives them the ability to sell the same telephone line twice, to the same customer. It is an idea that benefits the telco (who makes more money) and the customer (who gets a high speed data connection without the need for installation of expensive new cables.)
Naked DSL is the same as standard DSL, except that there is no voice service. Telephone service is not required for DSL to operate correctly.
The primary advantage of Naked DSL is financial: the customer saves the expense of a phone line, which they may not need.
In terms of equipment, physical setup and speed, there is no difference between Naked DSL and Regular DSL. They are identical, except for the absence of dial tone.
Telco Response to standalone DSL has generally been hostile.
In the United States AT&T allows Standalone DSL for its own customers, but only very reluctantly, and it blocks third parties from providing Standalone DSL over AT&T telephone lines unless those customers also purchase AT&T branded voice services.
Verizon stopped permitting Standalone DSL for its own customers in 2014, but some third parties such as Brand X Internet do still offer it. Verizon's own customers are required to buy Verizon branded voice services in order to purchase any kind of DSL.
In regular DSL, a cable runs from the telephone switch to a piece of equipment called a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) splitter. This splitter separates the DSL and voice bands. Thus the customer will have a dial tone, which allows them to use the telephone line as a regular land line while they are using it to access the Internet on their computer. A cable carrying both services runs from the splitter to the cable head, where it continues on to the customer on outside plant. (See DSLAM.)
In naked DSL, there is no cable from the telephone switch to the POTS splitter. Thus there is no dial tone on the line. However, the customer could still use the line for regular telephone service through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) instead of the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC).
Naked ADSL2 and ADSL2+ provisioned with "all digital mode" Annex I or Annex J can achieve additional 256 kbit/s of upstream data rate.
Availability.
Naked DSL is available in several countries, if not nationwide then via at least one company: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.
Australia.
Amnet was the first ISP in Australia to officially launch a naked DSL product live on 14 November 2007, followed by iiNet a day later. Exetel released naked ADSL2 Services on 1 December 2007. Optus, Australia's second largest telecommunications provider, announced on 2 Mar 2009 that it will also be providing naked DSL services. Other providers include offer Naked DSL are listed at Updated List of Naked DSL ISPs that service Australia.
Many of the smaller players use Optus to deliver their Naked DSL services.
Canada.
Since the CRTC ruling of 21 July 2003, Naked DSL service has been made available in Canada. Bell Canada and other incumbents typically charge an additional fee for dry loop DSL based on the "Band Rate" of the area (ranging from Band A to Band G) to consumers and smaller ISP's who use Bell's phone line.
Croatia.
Several providers offer naked DSL, but as of late July 2012, Iskon Internet is the first one to offer naked DSL nationwide on T-Hrvatski Telekom's existing infrastructure, by unsubscribing from T-Com's analog line and providing telephony service over VoIP.
However, due to T-HT's wholesale policy and prices, higher speeds would be too expensive for end user, and DSL link still operates in Annex B.
Denmark.
Naked DSL is available from the majority of ISPs, as most ISPs have now converted to VoIP solutions. Having 2 different providers for both POTS and DSL is possible.
France.
Several ISPs now offer Naked Unbundled DSL services, which are also called "offres dégroupées". ISPs generally supply their own DSL modem with an FXS (Foreign exchange station) port for a standard phone handset and a set top box to provide television services.
The first ISP to offer Naked DSL was Free with their Freebox.
Germany.
At least one ISP offers Naked DSL service: M-Net and its version, Maxi Pur.
Israel.
Naked DSL (both ADSL and VDSL) is provided by Bezeq telephony company to customers upon request, since most homes use both telephony and DSL lines as default, the service is provided only by demand. It's possible to request to remove the telephony line function at any given time without any restrictions or obligations.
New Zealand.
Chorus Limited is the wholesale provider for the vast majority of phone lines and it provides naked DSL services. All the major internet retailers provide a naked DSL service. It is possible to get the POTS and DSL from different service providers. , Chorus provides 1.091 million ADSL2+ connections, of which 98,000 (9%) are naked, and it has 25,000 VDSL2 connections, of which 5,000 (20%) are naked.
Paraguay.
Naked DSL service is available in Paraguay from State owned COPACO
Philippines.
Bayan Telecommunications, Globe Telecom, EASTERN Communications, and Smart Telecommunications offers that service.
Portugal.
Portugal Telecom offers that service, called Naked, since September 2008 through SAPO (company).
Simplesnet offers that service, called NDSL Simplesnet.
In May 2008, Zon TvCabo announced to its investors that it will offer Portugal's first Naked DSL service.
South Africa.
Naked DSL services have started to become available in South Africa as alternatives to uncapped fiber. Various companies have started to provide the service due to high prices of uncapped fiber.
Switzerland.
Naked DSL service is available in Switzerland from solnet.ch (DSL Solo), green.ch, netstream.ch, origon ag (oDSL), INIT7 AG and SETUP Informatik for ADSL and VDSL.
Swisscom (The operator of the POTS infrastructure) plans to shut down POTS beginning in 2018 and is therefore moving all customers to other solutions (Mainly VoIP, but also mobile services). Therefore, naked DSL is now the default product, some providers like iWay and netstream.ch are also selling bundled service with VoIP (usually integrated into the router).
Thailand.
Only 3BB offer Naked DSL service. 3BB is former Maxnet who previously offer this service too.
Turkey.
In 2011, the regulatory body of Turkish State foreseeing telecommunications have announced whole-sale pricing for government corporation Turk Telekom for providing retailers with Naked DSL. The pricing included additional fees under various labels, such as circuit preparation service (devre hazırlama ücreti) or an additional naked DSL fee (yalın adsl ücreti). Although circuit preparation service fee is one-time, the latter is fixed and can take as much as %20 of the monthly bill. The additional costs was heavily criticized by consumers, as the very slight difference between ADSL+Voice (over fixed-lines) and Naked DSL services has made the latter financially irrelevant. As of 2015, all major broadband retailers offer Naked ADSL service to consumers.
United Kingdom.
Naked DSL service, excluding SDSL, is not widely available in the United Kingdom, but it is possible to get a POTS and DSL from different service providers.. The incumbent network operator, BT plc, have previously claimed there was not sufficient demand from ISPs to provide a Naked DSL service. Openreach are currently trialing a product called SOGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access) which is a VDSL2 Profile 17a service without POTS. Additionally a third party ISP in the UK (LLU) can use SLU (Sub Loop Unbundling) to situate their own external cabinets in the Local Network with xDSL/Optical muxing hardware commonly known as MSANs. Virgin Media provides broadband services without the requirement for a telephone line in HFC cabled areas only, but this is not naked DSL as the service is provided via a coaxial cable using DOCSIS from the street, rather that over a telephone line, active or otherwise. Some ISPs can provide a copper pair (with no telephone service) as part of their DSL package.
United States.
On March 25, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled 3-2 against utilities commissions in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana, which wanted to force BellSouth to unbundle their DSL service from their local phone service. However, in that proceeding, as a compromise between the FCC Commissioners, the FCC released a Notice of Inquiry requesting comment on the "competitive consequences when providers bundle their legacy services with new services, or "tie" such services together"; that proceeding remains open before the FCC. Later that year, during merger proceedings, the FCC required Verizon and AT&T Inc. to offer naked-DSL for a period of two years as conditions to mergers; those conditions have since expired.
AT&T Inc. now provides naked DSL throughout most of the country, and Qwest Communications provides it voluntarily. Verizon Communications also provides it in some areas, although at a higher price than it charges customers who bundle it with regular phone service. Speakeasy also provides this service.
Brand X Internet, a California-based Internet provider, offers naked DSL throughout Verizon territories in California, New York, and a number of other states where Verizon dry loop lines are available. Verizon does not connect dry loop lines to a phone jack, so customers must arrange to have the dry loop line connected to a jack in their office or home.
For Missouri, Socket Telecom Holds a high rate of customers in the NDSL Range.


Stephen Gilfus

Stephen Gilfus is an American businessman, entrepreneur, architect and engineer. He is a founder of Blackboard Inc. and CourseInfo LLC, where he held executive positions from 1997 to 2007. Stephen is known as the primary business, and technical lead of Blackboard Inc. one of the world's most widely used eLearning systems. In July 2007, Gilfus started a global education think tank in Washington, DC focused on education innovation. He is a global education advisor, mentor, investor and inventor.
Cornell University.
While at Cornell, as an academic scholar, Gilfus focused on the development of new businesses through his studies as a part of a burgeoning new series of studies within Cornell's Entrepreneurship Personal Enterprise program. Early on, his mentor, Professor Deborah Streeter gave him guidance and support in launching a new student club, the Cornell Entrepreneur Organization (CEO), focused on bringing together students from business and engineering in support of new business ideas, this club evolved into an organization now known as CEN (the Cornell Entrepreneur Network). In this capacity, he was a TA for Professor Streeter's (ARME325,) a business planning class of 90 students, mentoring students on the development of new business plans, ideas and approaches, where he met Dan Cane, who was one of his students. Stephen won an award from Cornell for Business Consulting, on a project he did in Streeter's ARME 425 class. During this time he was also an active student participant during the creation of Cornell's Entrepreneurship@Cornell program.
CourseInfo.
In 1997, Gilfus met Daniel Cane, his student, while he was a teacher's administrator for Cornell's entrepreneurship studies assisting Professor Deborah Streeter with her business plan writing classes. That year Cane won an award for a business plan developed in the class called "EleFun" based on an educational website business model. Earlier that year Gilfus had also won an award from Cornell for his work in his business planning and consulting class. Cane approached Gilfus based on his successes at Cornell with the Cornell Entrepreneur Club and the two joined forces to found and develop CourseInfo - 'Making Education Easier'" into a platform for course-based websites or CourseSites as the called them.
CourseInfo LLC was a small cutting edge e-learning company focused on the development of an innovative course management system. As a founder of CourseInfo, Gilfus directed the business's initial vision, writing the company's first business plan and developing its foundational sales and marketing strategy.
On December 8, 1997, Gilfus declared, "It's a Web course-management tool," explains Stephen Gilfus, CourseInfo's co-founder and vice president for marketing. "The entire structure is set up to provide areas where you can input your own information. It supports all file types, including multimedia."
The CourseInfo platform was technologically advanced as it was one of only a few relational database-powered web-based applications launched in the late 1990s. CourseInfo released several product versions including the "Teachers Toolbox" and its foundational first release the Interactive Learning Network v.1. The original product developed at Cornell University was deployed on a Linux BSD system, written in PERL, with an Apache web server, and leveraged MySQL as its relational database, with the front end UI of the system being accessed through a web browser.
One of the first of its kind to use a relational database with a web front end or a "true" web-based application. These deployments are now known a LAMP web application software stack. The CourseInfo team had leveraged MySQL in 1996/1997 just a few short years after the release of the original MySQL database system on May 23, 1995. The Cornell team had unique access to the Cornell Theory Center now the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing and leveraged supercomputing power, one of the key pillars of the internet and ARPANET/NSFNET at the time. NSFNET connected the five advanced supercomputing centers (Princeton, Carnegie-Mellon, UCSD, Cornell, UIUC) to the Internet.
Blackboard.
In 1998, CourseInfo Llc., founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and "Blackboard LLC", founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky merged to form Blackboard Inc. The CourseInfo platform became the foundational technology for future generations to come, and the original business plan that Gilfus wrote became the model that Blackboard adopted. The first e-learning product as Blackboard Inc. was branded "Blackboard's CourseInfo", but the CourseInfo brand was dropped in 2000. Gilfus was one of the primary designers and inventors of the CourseInfo and Blackboard Learning System products as a founder and head of corporate and product strategy for the company.
Product strategy.
Blackboard was one of the first businesses to provide a free offering "Blackboard.com" for instructors to create free "CourseSites". All of Blackboard technology for .com and related services were hosted onsite at 1899 L St NW in secure server rooms run by the company. So much so that the building's owners had to install extra power to support the server rooms on the 11th floor, and add individual AC capability on the rooftop to support the server rooms.
Early on the company needed to support a multi-platform on-premise installation strategy as academic institutions were consuming both Unix based systems and Microsoft systems. Since the platform was built in PERL the company deployed mod_perl an extension to Apached that would also sit as a module to IIS on windows server machines, this allowed the team to create a multi-platform distribution model enhancing its relationships with ALL Unix based and Microsoft based server technologies. While working with the windows mod_perl the Blackboard engineering team found several bugs that then pushed back to Microsoft to fix in their deployment against IIS.
As the company expanded its market and business relationships Stephen along with Matthew Pittinsky (both company co-founders) jointly collaborated and wrote one of the world's first enterprise platform "App Strategies" Blackboard Product Strategy & Vision White Paper on Building Blocks (B2) Initiative outlining the launch of a "Building Blocks Initiative" introducing new thought concepts to extend the Blackboard Platform through plug-ins and 3rd party integrations, and allowing for greater extensibility of the technology as an open platform for allowing for technology extensions.
In 2001 the company (Blackboard Inc.) began to explore "mobile learning" initiatives and Stephen joined a Mobile Steering Committee established and led by the President and CEO of McGraw-Hill Ryerson to answer the question "What can 'anytime, anywhere' access to learning material contribute to the education experience?" Blackboard ended up buying Kayvon Beykpour's company Terriblyclever out of Stanford to deploy Blackboard Mobile Technologies. Kayvon is now known as the founder of Periscope (app) purchased by Twitter.
Consulting services.
From 2004 to mid-2008, Gilfus was head of Blackboard's Global Education Consulting Practice where he built the service's operations and led a team of professionals focused on providing strategic eLearning consulting, training and implementation services. Serving over 2200 academic institutions and implementing and integrating the Blackboard platform into PeopleSoft, Datatel, SunGard and other SIS applications as well as creating custom applications.
Gilfus was one of the key strategists behind Fairfax County Public Schools launch of the Blackboard platform for Fairfax 24/7 Learning.
He also led a core team of individuals that designed and implemented several large publisher white-label enterprise systems based on Blackboard Including:
Gilfus also deployed a specialized services team, within his group, to work on Course Compass and directly with Pearson on their development and deployment of their largest technology efforts the MyMathLab project led by Marjorie Scardino, Will Ethridge, Jim Behnke and Mary Ann Perry. When Bill Hughes was hired on to Pearson to lead the Course Compass project Gilfus interviewed him and proved sign off and approval for the hire.
Education framework.
During this time, around 2004, still with Blackboard, Stephen began to assemble data from the experiences of thousands of Blackboard customers and authored the "Educational Technology Framework", a model used to contemplate organizational, technological, and social impact of educational technologies on academic institutions – sometimes referred to as “The Gilfus Model of Educational Technology Adoption”. The model was updated in 2010.
Investments.
Gilfus is an active angel investor. He has provided market and technology due diligence services to dozens of industry investors, including New Enterprise Associates for LBO's, strategic investments, and strategic acquisitions. Mr. Gilfus is an Advisor and Investor in several Angel Networks and market-specific funds including:
and is frequently asked to participate in new business venture reviews, business judging and investment due diligence. Other investment and advisory or board positions.


Mboi language

Mboi (Mboire, Mboyi) is an Adamawa language of Nigeria. Its name is that of one of its dialects, the other two being Banga and Handa. These are rather divergent, Blench (2004) considers them to be distinct languages.
Blench (2019) lists Gana, Banga, and Haanda as language varieties that are part of the Mboi cluster.


Baga languages

The Baga languages are languages of the Mel family spoken in the coastal region of Guinea. The total number of speakers is about 30,000, of which Landoma speakers make up almost half.
Languages.
The varieties apart from Landoma are sometimes considered dialects of one language, "Baga" or "Barka". Landoma is somewhat more distantly related.
The Baga languages are in turn related to Temne, one of the four official languages of Sierra Leone; together, Baga and Temne belong to the Mel branch of Niger–Congo languages.


Frank H. Pope

Frank H. Pope (March 7, 1854 – January 27, 1927) was an elocutionist and newspaper reporter who served as a State Representative and Massachusetts Auditor from 1914–1915. He served one term as Auditor. He was later the State Commissioner of Small Loans.
Early life and family.
Frank Hinckley Pope was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts on Cape Cod on March 7, 1854 to John W. Pope and Susan Cobb Hinckley.
 The family later moved to Marlboro, Massachusetts and in 1877, Pope married Kate Yeaw.
Career.
Pope became a correspondent for the Boston Globe in 1881 serving in that capacity until he was elected to statewide office in 1914. The Popes moved to Leominster, Massachusetts. In 1906, he wrote "Leominster's Lesson to the Growing Cities of Massachusetts". From 1908 to 1912, he served as member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, elected as a Democrat representing Worcester County, District 11 which included Leominster. He then ran on the Democratic ticket for State Auditor in 1913 and was elected to one term. Pope was appointed Supervisor of Loans for the state by Governor David I. Walsh. He was reappointed to this position by Governor Samuel W. McCall in 1918.
Death.
Pope died on January 27, 1927 in Brookline, Massachusetts.


Vinay Gupta

Vinay Gupta (born 31 March 1972) is an Indian materials scientist and a former senior scientist at the Physics of Energy Harvesting department of the National Physical Laboratory of India. Known for his studies on organic solar cells, carbon nanotubes arrays and Förster resonance energy transfer, Gupta is a former Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to physical sciences in 2017.
Biography.
Born on 31 March 1972 in the Indian state of Rajasthan, Vinay Gupta did his higher secondary studies under the State Education Board and earned his BSc and MSc degrees from Government College, Ajmer in 1990 and 1992 respectively. Subsequently, he enrolled for his doctoral studies at Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, securing a PhD in 1997. His doctoral work in Transport in 2D systems were divided among two institutions, starting with CNRS during 1992–94 and later at National Physical Laboratory of India during 1995–97. He also did post-doctoral work on Lithium-ion battery at Kyoto University as a JSPS fellow between 1998 and 2000 and at Aichi Institute of Technology from 2000 to 2003. The same year, he moved to Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Technische Universität Ilmenau to work on carbon nanotube and graphene where he stayed till 2004. His next assignment was at Kyushu University as a visiting associate professor and he returned to India to take up the position of the deputy general manager at Hindustan Electro Graphite, Bhopal on the New Year's Day of 2008. His stint at Bhopal lasted only a week and he went back to Kyushu University to resume his duties as a visiting faculty, a post he held for two months. In June 2008, he joined his old institution, National Physical Laboratory. Following differences with the institute administration, he resigned from National Physical Laboratory in June 2018 to take up a position of Research Associate at Khalifa University. In between, he had a short stint as an Indo-US fellow at the laboratory of Alan J. Heeger, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, at the University of California, Santa Barbara from August 2012 to July 2013, and visiting Professor at Shizuoka University, Japan from October 2016 to December 2016.
Research.
Gupta is known to have made notable contributions in the fields of organic solar cells, carbon nanotubes and Förster resonance energy transfer. His efforts are reported to have assisted in translating the science into viable technological products. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online article repository of scientific articles, has listed 90 of them. He has also delivered plenary or keynote speeches at various seminars and conferences and is the coordinator of the pre-conference workshop on "Thin Film Solar Cells" scheduled to be held in November 2017, in connection with the "17th International Conference on Thin Films-2017 (ICTF-17)".
Awards and honours.
Gupta has held three major research fellowships; JSPS fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1998–2000), Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2003–04), and Indo-US IUSSTF fellowship (2012-2013). Marquis Who's Who included his biography in their 2002–03 edition and he received a certificate of appreciation from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 2002. He was listed as the highest cited author by Elsevier in 2006 and he was selected as one among the top 10 Indian scientists with the highest number of citations during the period 2010–14 by Thomson Reuters in 2015. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded Gupta the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2017.


Sherston Software

Sherston Software, also known as Sherston Publishing Group, was a British software publisher, producing educational games and learning resources.
Two teachers, Bill and Lou Bonham, started making games for the BBC Micro in 1983 and set up a limited company in 1991. In 2003, Bill and Lou sold Sherston to a four-man management team, which led to the company being called Sherston Publishing Group. In 2008 the offices in Angel House, Sherston, Wiltshire also became home to BLi Education which owned the brands TAG Learning, Economatics Education and SEMERC. TAG Developments (based in Kennington, London) is also part of the group and produced MAPS – Managed Assessment and ePortfolio System – which features some Sherston software content. In difficult trading conditions in the education market in 2010 and 2011, BLi Education went into administration but many of the assets were acquired by Sherston Publishing Group which now operates once again under the 'Sherston' name.
Sherston employs developers in India. An associate company, Sherston Sheshani operates out of an office in Cape Town, South Africa. Sherston also has an office in the US (Sherston America) based in Portland, Oregon. Sherston Software also publishes software in association with partners including BBC Worldwide (now BBC Active), HarperCollins and Oxford University Press.
In 2015, Sherston was acquired by private equity firm Big Clever Learning.