Ku Klux Klan in Maine

Although the Ku Klux Klan is most often associated with white supremacy, the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In the U.S. state of Maine, with a negligible African-American population but a burgeoning number of French-Canadian and Irish immigrants, the Klan revival of the 1920s was mainly a Protestant nativist movement directed against the Catholic minority. For a period in the mid-1920s, the Klan captured elements of the Maine Republican Party, even helping to elect a governor, Owen Brewster.
The Klan tapped into a long history of fraught relations between Maine's Protestant 'Yankee' population (those descended from the original English colonials) and Irish-Catholic newcomers, who had begun immigrating in large numbers in the 1830s. The rise of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s had resulted in the burning of a Catholic church in Bath, Maine, and the tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest, Father John Bapst, in Ellsworth. Catholic complaints about Protestant-oriented public schools had helped motivate the mob that attacked Bapst. The main front in the war on immigrants before the American Civil War, however, was temperance legislation. The Maine law of 1851 was the first statewide prohibition ordinance in the country, and was perceived by Maine's Irish-Catholic population as an attack on their culture. With the growing influence of Democratic Irish-Catholic and French-Canadian municipal politicians in cities like Bangor, Lewiston, and Portland, ethnicity and religion increasingly helped to draw party lines.
Blaine Republicanism and Catholics.
James G. Blaine, a leader of the Maine and national Republican parties following the Civil War, and the party's candidate for U.S. president in 1884, helped deepen the rift between his party and Irish-American voters by sponsoring, while still Speaker of the House of Representatives, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would have outlawed the use of tax money to pay for parochial schools. While defeated in the Senate, "Blaine Amendments" were inserted into the constitutions of all but eleven states, one of which was, ironically, Maine. The absence of a Maine Blaine Amendment would be exploited by the Klan in the 1920s, as they made the spectre of state support for Catholic schools one of their wedge issues. Blaine's 1884 presidential run is generally credited with having been defeated, in part, by Irish Catholic voters angered when a prominent Blaine supporter referred to the Democratic Party as "the party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion". Ironically, Blaine's mother was Catholic and his sister was a nun.
Maine and the Klan revival of the 1920s.
The sudden growth of the Klan in the 1920s in Maine followed national trends, but was particularly strong in comparison to Klan activity elsewhere in the Northeast. Partly it revived much older Protestant/Irish-Catholic divisions, but it was mainly fueled by a newer wave of Catholic French-Canadian immigrants who worked mainly in Maine's textile mill cities, such as Lewiston, Saco, Biddeford, Brunswick, etc., and Italian, Polish, Lithuanians, and other mostly Catholic immigrants who went to work in paper mills in northern Maine cities like Millinocket and Rumford. Irish Catholics had also made gains in municipal politics, along with a small urban Jewish community, while rural areas had declined at the expense of a few cities such as Portland, Bangor, and Lewiston. Maine's small African-American communities in Portland and Bangor had formed NAACP chapters in 1920, and the one in Bangor had protested against the third local showing of the Klan-themed film "The Birth of a Nation", successfully negotiating with a local theatre-owner to edit out the most provocative scene.
The King Kleagle (chief recruiter) of the Maine Klan was the charismatic F. Eugene Farnsworth, a former barber, stage magician (or hypnotist, accounts differ), and failed motion picture studio owner. Farnsworth was born in the eastern Maine town of Columbia Falls, but traveled widely outside the state, and likely returned to Maine as an employee of the national Klan organization. Beginning in 1922–23 Farnsworth began a statewide speaking tour that drew huge crowds—from 1,000 to even 5,000 at a time—many of whom were afterward inducted into the secret society after paying a $10 membership fee. Farnsworth would usually share the stage with a Protestant minister, and they would rail against what they perceived as growing Catholic political power in Maine. Besides existential targets like the Pope, the Jesuits, and the Knights of Columbus, they specifically attacked the growth of Maine's Catholic school system, as well as the presence of Catholics (and Jews) on public school boards. They credited this last development with "taking the Bible out of schools", as the Catholic population increasingly objected to the reading of the King James Bible in state-supported classrooms.
The Klan and the Portland referendum of 1923.
The Maine Klan scored its first political victory in 1923 when it threw its support behind a Portland referendum to abolish the mayor-and-alderman form of municipal government, which allowed Irish-Catholic and Jewish neighborhoods some influence in city politics, and substituted a city manager and councilors elected at large, which diluted the power of minorities. Portland's NAACP tried to create a united front among Irish, Jewish, African-Americans, and labor unions in opposition to the change, but it was unsuccessful. Although the measure had lost by only 200 votes in a previous try (before the Klan was formed) the overwhelming margin of victory after the Klan became involved (it won by 4,000 votes) convinced local and national politicians alike that the Maine Klan was a force to be reckoned with. Maine may also have been targeted by the national Klan organization precisely because it was considered a bellwether state in national elections ("as Maine goes, so goes the nation" was the phrase at the time). Even before the victory in Portland, Farnsworth had declared that the Klan would elect the next governor of Maine.
The Klan on parade, and cross burnings.
Although a secret society, the Klan maintained a very public image in Maine from the time recruitment started in earnest in 1923. Farnsworth's speeches were made in large open halls and sometimes reprinted in full in local papers. In September, 1923, the Mayor of Portland refused a Klan request for a public parade on Columbus Day, but daylight parades by hooded Klansman did take place in Portland, Sanford, Gardiner, Brewer, Milo, Dexter, East Hodgdon, and Kittery. 400 participated, ending their parade at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Brownville Junction among other places. In the Piscataquis County town of Milo, Farnsworth claimed "everybody" belonged to the Klan: 600 citizens, town officials, and the sheriff. The Klan parade in Milo in 1923 was the first in New England, and the first in the U.S. to take place in broad daylight. The first State Convention of the Klan was held in the forest outside Waterville later in 1923, and attracted 15,000. Burning crosses were in abundance. That same year the Klan purchased a large estate in Portland (the Rollins Estate on Forest Avenue) for its headquarters, and 3,000 Klansmen from around the state gathered for the opening ceremony in February, 1924, initiating 200 new members under a burning cross. The Portland 'klavern' (chapter) was named after Dr. W. H. Witham, the Grand Klud (religious leader) of the Realm of Maine. The Klan also claimed to have opened a 'tabernacle' in Bangor.
In some cities and towns, groups of Catholics (mostly French-Canadians) opposed Klan marches forcefully. In 1924, French-Canadians turned back a Klan march in Greenville, fought the Klan with rocks and clubs in Fairfield (before tearing down a burning cross), and defended a bridge in Biddeford.
Klan ministers.
Many of Maine's Protestant ministers spoke at Klan rallies and at least one, Methodist pastor Arthur F. Leigh of Randolph, Maine, openly declared himself a Klansman. While testifying at a public hearing of the Maine Senate in 1925 on the Barwise Bill, a measure which the Klan supported, Leigh shouted "I am a Klansman, get it!?" at which the public gallery, also packed with Klansmen, erupted. Other ministers associated with the Maine Klan included the Rev. George S. Robinson of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lewiston, Maine, the Rev. Nathaniel French of Auburn, Maine, the Rev. E.V. Allen, who was described as "The Grand Klaliff (Vice Dragon) of Maine", and the Rev. Judson P. Marvin of Portland. (Marvin's obituary in the "Portsmouth (NH) Herald", March 20, 1933, p. 7, states that he "held one of the high offices within that organization" (i.e. the Klan). Marvin was from Portsmouth, and the son of a former mayor.) In 1926 the Rev. Milton Charles Bennett of Bangor sued Klansmen F. Herbert Hathorn of Brewer and D.D. Terrill of Bangor because he was discharged as pastor of the "Klan Church" of Bangor and Brewer. Bennett was awarded compensation. Klan ministers were most often Methodists, and sometimes Baptists, while the Congregational and Unitarian churches openly opposed the organization.
The Klan and the Maine Republican Party.
The arrival of the Klan on the local political scene split the Maine Republican Party. An old-guard element loyal to Gov. Percival Baxter and U.S. Senator Frederick Hale staunchly opposed the Klan. As early as 1922, Baxter had called it "an insult and an affront to American citizens" and said "I believe Maine people prefer the light of day to deeds of darkness". The Klan found champions, however, in state senators Mark Alton Barwise and Owen Brewster, who sponsored legislation seeking to outlaw state aid to parochial schools. Brewster refused to denounce Klan support in his own run for the governorship in 1924. The Democrats picked, as their candidate to oppose Brewster, William Robinson Pattangall, a descendant of Mayflower Yankees, who had attempted (unsuccessfully) to insert an anti-Klan plank into the platform of the Democratic National Convention that same year. Pattangall campaigned almost entirely on anti-Klan sentiment, while Brewster said nothing about the society. Brewster won by a large margin, seeming to fulfill Kleagle Farnsworth's promise that the Klan would select the next governor. The following year the Maine Klan elevated DeForest H. Perkins, the former Portland School Superintendent, as the state's own Grand Dragon. King Kleagle Farnsworth, who by this time had broken with the Klan over its refusal to accept Canadian immigrants (who were prominent in the Maine ranks), died suddenly of an illness in 1926. He was replaced as King Kleagle of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont by Dr. Edward W. Gayer, an Indiana-born physician and graduate of Purdue University.
On the county, municipal, and town levels, Klansmen captured several offices and influenced many other elections. Avowed Klansmen became mayors of Saco (John G. Smith), Westbrook (Charles S. Tuttle Jr) and Rockland. The Klan "figured prominently" in the election of mayor Allen M. Irish of Bath. In 1923, the Klan were beginning "to take an active part in the politics" of Brewer, and the following year Kleagle Farnsworth declared that "all Klan candidates" on the ballot had won in the town of Dexter, Maine (Gov. Brewster's home town). In 1928 the "New York Times" referred to Newport and Kennebunkport as "old Ku Klux capitals" Other political figures whose elections were reportedly endorsed by the Klan included Androscoggin County sheriff E.E. , Auburn mayor Fred E. Walton, Lisbon Falls state representative Louis A. Jack, and president of the Maine State Senate Hodgdon Buzzell.
The 1926 special senatorial election.
A 1926 special election for U.S. Senator from Maine following the death of Sen. Bert M. Fernald saw the Klan issue played out again. This time the Republican candidate, Arthur R. Gould, ran on an explicitly anti-Klan platform, winning with the help of large numbers of Democrats who crossed over to send a message to the Klan faction of Republicans. Governor Brewster took the unprecedented step of denouncing the senatorial candidate of his own party, which only helped Gould's cause. For the first time in a Maine senatorial election, Gould won every county and city in the state. The Chairman of the Republican State Committee declared that with Gould's victory, "the sinister influence of an oath-bound organization no longer threatens the welfare of Maine".
Other Maine Republicans who took uncompromising stances against Klan influence in their party during the 1920s included state representatives Clyde Smith (husband of future Senator Margaret Chase Smith); Robert Hale (cousin of U.S. Sen. Frederick Hale and a future U.S. Congressman); and former Penobscot County sheriff Maj. Arthur L. Thayer, who mounted a primary challenge against Brewster in 1926.
Decline of the Maine Klan.
Even before the Gould election revealed the limits of Klan influence, the organization began to weaken in other ways. In May 1926, Mayor Ernest L. McLean of Augusta (a Democrat) caused the cancellation of a large Klan rally and parade in the state capital by prohibiting marchers from wearing hoods or otherwise covering their faces. The national Klan itself would prohibit the wearing of face-covering hoods by its members in 1928, a measure which accelerated the decline in membership. Also in February 1926 the sprawling headquarters of the Maine Klan in Portland was seized by the city for unpaid taxes, with the organization's affairs being described by one newspaper as "muddled". By 1928 the "New York Times" reported that Klan strength in Portland had fallen from 900 to 200–300. This mirrored the decline of the Klan nationally.
An area Farnsworth tried but ultimately failed to develop was the recruitment of women. His desire was for a branch of the Klan to stem the growth of Catholics in public education and strengthen moralistic teachings in the home. For him women were the answer. Mrs. Gertrude Witham was promoted to Major Kleagle of the Maine Women of the KKK. However Farnsworth and Witham failed in effectively recruiting new women members. It also became apparent as timed passed that some of the female Klan members were foreign-born (i.e. Canadian). This resulted in the dismissal of these women and their suing of the Klan to recover their initiation fees and dues. On top of this Farnsworth continued to charge $10 as an initiation fee, instead of the agreed-upon fee by the national women's organization of $5. These efforts outside of the guidelines of the national Klan, along with other perceived misconduct, would eventually lead to Farnsworth's resignation as King Kleagle of Maine.
A 1928 Republican senatorial primary fight was the last time the Klan campaigned openly for a candidate, in this case for Owen Brewster against incumbent Frederick Hale. Ex-governor Baxter, also a Republican, openly accused Brewster of Klan membership, claiming he had joined the organization and sworn an oath in front of the Imperial Wizard in Washington, D.C. Baxter further testified that Brewster had offered him 25,000 Klan votes, which "he absolutely controlled" if he (Baxter) would enter the gubernatorial campaign that same year. Baxter made these and other charges in a long newspaper interview, in which he also accused Brewster of "political treachery and double-dealing" and being "unworthy of the confidence of the Republican Party".
In the Republican primary for governor that same year, the mayor of Saco, Maine, avowed Klansman John C. Smith, lost to old-guard Republican William Tudor Gardiner. The victories of Hale and Gardiner, this time without the help of Democrats, proved that the Maine Klan was a spent political force, and led to the resignation of Grand Dragon Perkins.
Brewster was eventually elected to the House of Representatives, and then the Senate, where he became a close ally of Wisconsin's Joseph McCarthy, a Roman Catholic (they were united largely by anti-communism).
In 1928 the Catholic Diocese of Maine struck a triumphalist note by naming its newly opened high school in Bangor after father John Bapst, the priest who had been tarred and feathered in Ellsworth during a previous period of anti-Catholicism.
Klan Klaverns (local chapters) lingered on in some Maine towns years after the national and state organizations had dissolved, partly kept alive by their women's auxiliaries. In Kittery, the "ladies of the Klan" held a baked bean and salad supper at the local Grange Hall in 1931, and Kittery's Klavern (no. 5) sponsored a booth at a Depression-era "Unemployment Bazaar" in 1933, alongside the Lion's Club, garden clubs, and even the local Catholic Church. At this last event, the names of all six booth-tenders were published in the newspaper, suggesting that the "Invisible Empire" was trying to adapt to the role of local fraternal organization. By the mid-1930s, however, references to the KKK in the Maine press had all but disappeared.
1987 Rumford rally.
As part of a recruitment campaign, on September 26, 1987, about two dozen Klan members burned a cross on a farm about 15 miles from Rumford, Maine. A Klan spokesman, James W. Farrands, said that Rumford was chosen just for its central location. Anti-klan rallies were held in Portland, Bangor, Augusta, Lewiston, and Kennebunkport, and there were 150–200 anti-Klan demonstrators in Rumford, including representatives of the governor and Maine's two senators. To show their displeasure, neighbors surrounded the farm with chicken manure.


Guardian (video game)

Guardian is a 3D shoot 'em up video game. It was released in 1993 for the Amiga CD32 game console and later converted to the Amiga 1200. Originally previewed in the press under the name "SibWing" with similarities to the Super NES game "Star Fox", the final game was a 3D update of the 1981 arcade game "Defender".
"Guardian" is one of the few Amiga CD32 games to be programmed for the CD32 first and then ported in stripped-down form to the Amiga computers.
Reception.
"Guardian" was lauded by "Amiga Power". In the penultimate issue of the publication in August 1996, "Guardian" was rated the third best Amiga game ever in a Top 100 feature compiled by "Amiga Power" staff past and present.


Charlie Bit My Finger

"Charlie bit my finger - again !", more simply known as "Charlie Bit My Finger" or "Charlie Bit Me", is a 2007 internet viral video famous for formerly being the most viewed YouTube video. As of December 2020, the video has received over 878 million views.
The 56-second-long video, which was uploaded on YouTube in May 2007, features Harry Davies-Carr (who was aged three) and Charlie Davies-Carr (aged one), two brothers from the United Kingdom. The two are seen sitting in a chair when Harry puts his finger into Charlie's mouth and gets bitten. "Charlie bit me," he observes and puts his finger back into Charlie's mouth, which gets it bitten harder. Harry, who is hurt, says "Ouch" repeatedly and his brother begins to giggle. Afterwards, Harry smiles and repeats "Charlie bit me. And that really hurt."
Background.
Howard Davies-Carr, the father of the boys, said the video was "simply an attempt to capture the boys growing up". While watching the finger-biting scene on his camera after recording it, it "didn't particularly stand out". It was not until he transferred the video onto his computer a few weeks later and played it again that he found it to be comedic.
The Davies-Carr family lives in the United Kingdom. Howard uploaded the video onto YouTube so that it could be watched by the boys' grandfather, who was living in the United States. He chose YouTube because the size of the video file was so big that it could not be sent by email. Originally the video was set to private and he mentions, "I was just about to remove (the video) before it exploded. but once it had (exploded) I had lost control of the clip anyway so I left it." Howard commented on the video: "The clip only went up as I wanted to share it with the boys' grandfather. I was naive about the whole YouTube thing. It became viral and once that happened there was nothing I could do. People have sent lovely comments and messages and I now upload a new video of the boys every six weeks."
Views.
"Charlie Bit My Finger" had received 2.6 million views on YouTube by the start of February 2008 and 12 million views by March 2008. In December 2008, it was the twelfth most viewed video on YouTube with 65 million views. By April 2009, the video had received 92 million hits. It became the second most viewed video in August 2009, and took over the title as the most viewed video ever at the end of October 2009, when it surpassed "Evolution of Dance". By November 2009, "Charlie Bit My Finger – Again!" had received over 130 million views. In addition to being the most viewed, it was also the "most favourited" and the second "most discussed" video on the website in the United Kingdom. In a May 2009 report compiled by Visible Measures, which measures video hits across 150 video-sharing websites, "Charlie Bit My Finger" was the thirteenth most viewed viral video on the Internet.
By the end of 2011, it had been surpassed by music videos Justin Bieber's "Baby", Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance", Eminem feat. Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie", Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" and Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull's "On The Floor", becoming the 6th most viewed video on YouTube. Despite being able to regain its position to number 3 (and becoming the third YouTube video to reach 800 million views), it has been since surpassed by many other videos, dropping out of 30 most viewed YouTube videos. As of December 2020, the video had reached 878 million views, with over 2 million likes.
Legacy.
As a result of the video's inadvertent fame, the boys gained recognition. Following the video, multiple clips were uploaded by their father to YouTube. They feature Jasper, the third child in the family. Shelley Davies-Carr, their mother, commented on the success: "Susan Boyle has never had the hits we have had. The video got on to a college networking site in the U.S. and from there it went viral. I think the British accents have helped make it so globally viewed." According to a 2008 interview with Shelley, the boys feel embarrassed when they see themselves on television. She also noted that in 2008 they were "shy about their new fame." Howard commented in 2009 that his sons "are now almost legendary. People want their autographs, it's just crazy."
In their list of YouTube's 50 greatest viral videos, "Time" ranked "Charlie Bit My Finger" as number one.
The video's lasting impact was underscored by the Davies-Carr family's appearance as mystery guests on Channel 4's "Big Fat Quiz of the '00s" on 30 September 2012. Among the references to the video includes an episode of the U.S. television series "The Office".
In a 2012 interview Howard Davies-Carr discussed the pitfalls of his sons' accidental fame saying, "There are an awful lot of unscrupulous people out there who will try and take advantage of people that don't understand what they have." When it comes to the topic of the boys getting older, the boys' father has reflected, "When the boys get to 18, I'd like them to think back and think, 'O.K., I've got something in my life which is more than just what I was when I did the 'Charlie Bit Me' video."
The parents have passed on invitations to talk shows and on making public appearances in media outlets.
In 2014, during his "After The Oscar's Special" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Jimmy Kimmel enlisted the help of many big-name celebrities to showcase some of YouTube's greatest videos. The first video to be showcased was "Charlie Bit My Finger" and was parodied in a video entitled "Bitman Begins" and featured Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and brothers Chris & Liam Hemsworth. Chris played the role of Harry, while Liam played the role of Charlie. The video was a mock trailer for a film featuring the actors. The climactic scene takes place on the roof of a building where Harry wants revenge on Charlie for biting his finger. "Harry" screams the line "Charlie bit me, Charlie bit my finger!" They fall off the roof onto the street below. "Harry" then utters the famous line "Ouch Charlie, that really hurt" while "Charlie" just laughs.
In an April 2015 interview, Charlie said he thought it was "a bit odd that loads of people have watched it." Also according to the interview, Charlie and Harry's parents have made "thousands" from the video through advertising and sponsorship.
The Davies-Carr family now includes two additional sons, Jasper and Rupert.
Osama bin Laden had the video in his computer's audio/visual collection.
A sound-clip from this video features in the first track ("Pulse 8") of the 2015 album Integrity by grime MC Jme.
Auction.
In 2021, it was reported that the video would be auctioned off as a NFT or non-fungible token for its 14th anniversary, after which the video will be removed from YouTube.
Financial impact.
It was reported that in 2011 the family made over £100,000 in advertising revenue from the video. The profit from the video was enough that the family could afford to purchase a new house.
Their success has been compared to winning a lottery, a so-called "meme lottery". Since the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video was posted, other videos of babies have gone "viral" on YouTube and the families are monetising them, often making over US$100,000.
In response to requests from viewers online the family created "Charlie Bit My Finger" T-shirts, mugs and limited edition calendars.
The family signed into a partnership with a Viral Spiral, a viral meme video management company specialising in viral videos, which has helped place the viral video in meme advertisements for companies like Sprint and helped to create a viral meme brand. There was also news of a web series featuring the boys in the works.


Dorothea Waddingham

Dorothea Nancy Waddingham (1899 – 16 April 1936) was an English nursing home matron who was convicted of murder in the United Kingdom.
Life.
Dorothea Waddingham was born Dorothy Nancie Merelina Allan Chandler, with her parents marrying a year after her birth - Waddingham being her father’s surname. Dorothea was born on a farm near Nottingham. She has been referred to as "Nurse" Waddingham, because the two murders she was accused and convicted of were committed in a nursing home she ran near Nottingham in England. However, she was not a qualified nurse and the only medical training she received was as a ward-maid at an infirmary near Burton-on-Trent. In 1925 under the name of Dorothea Nancy Waddingham she married Thomas Willoughby Leech. He was twice her age and dying of cancer. During their marriage she served two prison terms, for fraud and for theft. The couple had three children, Leech died in 1933, at which time Waddingham was seeing another man named Ronald Joseph Sullivan. Sullivan had fought in World War I and had been awarded the Military Medal for gallantry and also served in Ireland after the war. Although they never married they had two children. Whilst living with Sullivan she began to take in elderly and infirm patients, and turned her home at 32 Devon Drive, Nottingham into a nursing home.
Activities.
Mrs Blagg, the Honorary Secretary of the County Nursing Association, approved of Waddingham's work, and arranged for Mrs Baguley who was 89 and her daughter Ada, who had multiple sclerosis or "creeping paralysis", to become patients. In February 1935 another patient named Mrs Kemp died from an illness which required large dosages of morphine. Plenty of the drug remained on the premises of Waddingham's nursing home.
Ada Baguley had made a will leaving her estate of £1,600 in trust for her mother after her death, and with the rest to be divided between two cousins, Lawrence Baguley and Fred Gilbert, after her mother died. Ada had been informed that it was likely she would precede her mother in death. However, this will was destroyed by Ada in May 1935, and a new will created that left all the money to Dorothea Waddingham and Ronald Sullivan when Ada and her mother both died (it being in recompense for the nurse's care of them). The elderly Mrs Baguley died in the second week of May.
Ada lasted through the spring and summer of 1935. Later it was said that Waddingham was quite attentive to her. In September 1935 Ada received a visit from an old family friend, Alice Briggs, who spent an afternoon cheering her up. Briggs told Waddingham that she would have Ada over for tea at her home in a couple of days. But on 11 September (the next day) Sullivan advised H. H. Mansfield that his patient Ada was in a coma. Mansfield came and found Ada was dead. As this was expected the doctor was not suspicious, and after getting further details from Waddingham he filled out a death certificate that Ada died of cardiovascular degeneration.
Ada had given her permission to be cremated and if the cremation had gone through it is probable that Waddingham could not have been proved guilty of Ada's death. But for the body to be cremated needed two doctors to sign the certificate, and this could only be done after the family of the deceased was notified. Ada had noted in her will a request not to notify her relatives. Waddingham said there were no relatives, which was a lie.
Unfortunately for Waddingham, the man in charge of cremations was Cyril Banks, who was also the Medical Officer for Health in Nottingham. Banks had never thought highly of Waddingham's establishment as a so-called "nursing home", and knew there was no State Registered Nurse on the staff (as there should have been). He became suspicious at the note from Ada Baguley that authorised cremation and ordered a post-mortem. The post-mortem found no traces of anything connected to Ada's physical conditions that could have immediately caused death. This led to an analysis of the organs of the deceased by W. W. Taylor, Senior Assistant to the Nottingham Analyst. He found considerable traces of morphine (over three grains) in her stomach, liver, kidneys and her heart.
Suspicions were now raised about the death of Mrs Baguley, and an exhumation ordered by the Home Office occurred. This was supervised by Roche Lynch, who found the mother had also died of morphine poisoning. This led to the arrests of Waddingham and Sullivan for the two murders.
Trial.
Waddingham's trial started on 4 February 1936 before Mr Justice Goddard. Her barrister was Mr Eales, with the prosecution by Norman Birkett (a rarity, for Birkett normally handled criminal defence). Birkett brought out much damaging testimony, including how Ada Baguley's last meal was heavy and rich for a woman in her condition: Waddingham admitted that she gave Ada pork, baked potatoes, kidney beans and two portions of fruit pie. It was suggested as an effort to disguise the cause of death and showed a lack of concern for the patient's welfare. The result was that Waddingham was convicted of using morphine to poison Mrs Baguley and Ada. The purported motive behind the murders was to gain the Baguleys' estate. It was also revealed that Waddingham claimed that Dr Mansfield gave her surplus morphine tablets for Ada Baguley, which that doctor denied. In trial, Sullivan was discharged for insufficient evidence, although the so-called note from Ada Baguley regarding cremation was written by him.
Waddingham was found guilty on 27 February. Despite recommendation of mercy, due to her being a mother of several young children, she was hanged on 16 April 1936, having confessed to the crime shortly before her execution. Her execution was carried out at Winson Green Prison and her hangman was Thomas Pierrepoint, assisted by his nephew Albert Pierrepoint.
Waddingham was a mother of five and was still breastfeeding her 3-month old baby at the time of her execution. 10,000 people gathered outside the gaol to demonstrate against the execution, chanting "Stop this mother murder!". The protests were led by the prominent abolitionist Violet Van der Elst.
The fiancé of Ada Baguley, Mrs Baguley's daughter, committed suicide after her death.
Popular culture.
The execution is dramatised in the 2005 film "Pierrepoint", in which Waddingham is played by Elizabeth Hopley. Although the film shows Timothy Spall as Albert Pierrepoint carrying out the execution, in fact the hangman was Thomas Pierrepoint (Albert's uncle); Albert acted as his uncle's assistant. Furthermore, the execution took place at Birmingham's Winson Green prison, not Holloway Prison in London as is implied in the film. The film is also incorrect in that it depicts the execution taking place during the war years.


Mercha kefula

Mercha kefula (מֵרְכָא כּפוּלָ֦ה, with variant English spellings) is a rare cantillation mark that occurs 5 times in the Torah (once in Genesis, once in Exodus, once in Leviticus, and twice in Numbers) and once in the Haftarah (for Behaalotecha and for the intermediate Shabbat for Chanukah, in the Book of Zechariah.)
The Hebrew words מֵרְכָא כּפוּלָ֦ה translate into English as "double mercha". This name is given since the mark that is used appears like two merchas.
Purpose.
Dr. David Weisberg suggested that the merkha kefula mark is found on words that refer to an aggadic tale. For instance, he claimed that the merkha kefula of is meant to remind the reader of the aggadic legend that the high priest Joshua was literally thrown into a furnace (as recorded in the ).
Occurrences.
The Merkha kefula mark appears in the following locations in the Torah:
It also occurs in the Haftarah at , read on the (first, if there are two) Shabbat for Chanukah and for Parashat Behaalotecha.
Total occurrences.
The Merkha kefulah note occurs a total of 14 times according to the Leningrad Codex. They are:


Benjy (film)

Benjy is a 1951 American short documentary film directed by Fred Zinnemann. It won an Oscar in 1952 for Documentary Short Subject.
Production.
Henry Fonda narrates this short film about a boy who was handicapped from birth. An orthopedic pediatrician wants to provide a therapeutic regimen that could cure the child, a scoliosis patient, but first he needs to convince the boy's parents, who have rejected the child because of his disabilities.
Zinnemann and the film's production crew worked gratis on this project, which was originally designed to be used as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital.
In his 1992 book "An Autobiography", Zinneman noted that Paramount Pictures arranged for the crew on this production, and that the union members connected to the production turned their salaries back to the hospital. Henry Fonda also volunteered his services for the film.
Although the film extensively used dramatized sequences to tell its story, it was successfully entered in the Academy Award category for Best Documentary Short Subject.


XBRL GL

The XBRL Global Ledger Taxonomy Framework (XBRL GL) is a holistic and generic XML and XBRL-based representation of the detailed data that can be found in accounting and operational systems, and is meant to be the bridge from transactional standards to reporting standards, integrating the Business Reporting Supply Chain.
XBRL GL is developed by the XBRL GL Working Group of XBRL International.
XBRL GL can be used by Computer programs for information interchange of accounting General ledger balances (summarized information) as well as complete accounting ledgers (payables, receivables, inventory, payroll, order entry, purchasing, banking) supporting object oriented accounting, quantity accounting and transparency support. The instance documents (XML files) can also be viewed in Web browsers using XSL or programmatically; it can also be carried in Inline XBRL. XBRL is designed to standardize the data, processes and rules of Business Reporting as a whole, although most implementations focus on financial reporting. XBRL GL can support the detail and integrate to all manners of reporting, financial, tax, sustainability, statistics and otherwise, and carry both quantitative and qualitative information.
Relation to UN/CEFACT accounting and SIE.
There are a number of other efforts that seek to standardize parts or all of the data in an ERP system, although most focus on the general ledger. Amongst the competing/complementary efforts in the space are UN/CEFACT, OECD Standard Audit File and SIE (file format) accounting interchange file formats.
XBRL GL is an XML focused format. UN/CEFACT is UML (Unified Modeling Language)-based, with standard naming and design rules to convert it to an XML file format. In Sweden the elder (1992) domestically SIE (file format) is a tagged text file format. The XML technology is much better suited to work with modern HTML and WEB-based technology and tools. The XML files are in the range 20-50 times larger than SIE files on the hard disk.
Due to the needs of the tax community in many countries, the Standard Audit File is generic, but an example of a proprietary XML format is provided.
The XML format abilities (such as validation capabilities) and the huge activities around XBRL and UN/CEFACT have created a huge potential and expectations of modern accounting technologies. XBRL GL is certainly formed from its origins, the audit and financial reporting societies in the USA and globally. UN/CEFACT is working on trade administration theme and accounting is the terminal point of trade administration and its file format is designed from a trade administration point of view. The Standard SIE is designed from a local Swedish vendor society’s own market interests.
All three file formats are however transparent and independent of any charts of accounts and tax regulations.
Accounting information interchange issues - The accounting file standard stand-off.
Is a common international accounting file format possible?
There has been quite some file format debate. However differences in Chart of accounts between countries, represents a much bigger compatibility problem of information interchange between accounting and financial reports between accounting cultures. Tax regulations also make huge differences in the actual content of accounting and financial report information between countries.
The basic issue is if it is possible to transfer accounting data over governmental boundaries and the data would be understood by the receiver? Will it be possible for someone to read a balance sheet with a foreign chart of accounts and understand it? Will it make any difference to transfer it by computer files in standardized file formats?
The EU commission has spent large efforts into the field of tax administrative harmonisation and for instance is the main intention latest version of the EU VAT directive to achieve this and to support electronic trade documents like electronic invoices better in cross border trade especially within the European Union Value Added Tax Area. But there is still a huge way to real compatible charts of accounts and international accounting information interchange.
One question is if international trade agreements have much value without a global harmonisation in VAT tax administrative legislation between the agreeing parts. The EU-agreements with countries like Norway do not include VAT union membership. And so goods are stuck in customs (to large costs) for VAT declaration and administratively it requires a lot of work. Work and halting not happening within the EU VAT union. With global VAT legislation administrative harmonisation a lot is suddenly possible.
Procurement - Being a standard organisation or not?
Another problem is the EU government procurement regulations in demands of standards organisations specifications, of recognition of the private market efforts from many initiatives being made so far. It actually stops governmental administration to take part, contribute and use the work being done so far. UN/CEFACT is an official UN standards organisation, but UN/CEFACT have big problems finalizing its project and few if any, understand the general idea on how to apply UN/CEFACT accounting, UN/CEFACT(EDIFICAS) being asked can't/don't tell. This is one of the main problems for tax authorities to make demands/providing service for the companies on electronic interchange of data. (A question is how long the world can afford modern procurement?) However XBRL looks for recognition as standards organisation.
The benefit of the data producer?
XBRL has a general problem being designed for the receiving users of information like audits and analysers and it doesn’t look to be enough really convincing arguments for the information producers (companies doing the actual accounting) to pay for the XBRL GL file producing features in commercial software. And without support of the information producers there will be no data for the analysers and audits in XBRL GL format, and so no market for commercial software for them either.
What defines accounting boundaries and accounting file contents?
Accounting is originally manual work and parts of it has been computerised using accounting commercial software. But a commercial aspect of accounting is its boundaries and what should be included in accounting commercial software feature packages.
The accounting work is making accounting vouchers with entries and then check the entries are right. The major checking tools are the bank account statements to and cash (register) lists, to prove that every monetary transaction is accounted for in the accounting. Still this checking is to a large extent manual very labour-intensive work computers do much better. Secondly proving that there are evidences for what the transactions consist of by the voucher documentation. Vouchers that are incoming and outgoing invoices (and receipts), in practice a physical voucher folder. (Still the EU VAT directive and many countries VAT legislation demands keeping physical paper folders of vouchers making scanned vouchers not that smooth to work with. This despite the EU commission has a vision of electronic vouchers. Same legislation makes problems with electronic invoices and integration with accounting. So there are still much to solve.)
Another way of looking it are the legal demands and 95% of all legal demands of accounting comes from VAT legislation where the EU VAT directive (European Union value added tax) is the most fully covering documentation. In that perspective it's obvious that invoices and receipts are first and foremost accounting documents (required by the VAT legislation), secondly civil law documents and thirdly they are general trade documents. The accounting documentation required by the VAT legislation is the main regulating law of the entire accounting requirements.
To make benefits for the producer of the data it is most likely in this field integration and atomisation features that are worth paying for by the paying customer of commercial software producing accounting information files (like XBRL GL SIE and UN/CEFACT). To do that invoices (with Accounts payables and Accounts receivables) and bank account statements could be considered as accounting documents, and included in a standard file format solution. None of the present file formats do that but would open up the market for third party automation software using AI.
The lack of accounting integration is also the most likely reason for electronic invoice formats still having very low market penetration and progress is slow. Mainly because the electronic invoice formats are not in first place designed for accounting and VAT legislation demands, but in unregulated trade document perspectives.
Interesting is that there are no standard file formats for bank account statements and it is not (according to the UN/CEFACT banking group TBG5) in the interest of the banks, but for accounting to have, making automatic matching possible with accounting. However an international standard file format for bank account statements would make huge benefits in developing internet banking pages with new features benefitting the bank customers. Especially if integration with a standard invoice (receipt) format would be included.
Applied use instruction set to be understood - making a commercial software market possible.
XBRL GL is also without an additional use instruction set, not tight/clear enough in of its file format, still making it very uncertain, in how to use XBRL GL. That a reading party would actually understand what data in an external XBRL GL file, really stands for.
The situation is like agreeing on using a common writing alphabet without agreeing on what language to use it for. If someone sends a letter in Portuguese in Latin letters to a Dutchman often the Dutchman do not understand Portuguese, even though he can read Latin letters. We have the same problem here. And with no general solution, agreements between every writing and reading user must be made, and that is not a smooth solution getting volumes and a market for commercial software.
An issue SIE as a vendor organisation is able to solve but a standards organisation ethics do not allow UN/CEFACT or XBRL to handle. SIE could be a key player here, supplying an applied instruction layer to XBRL GL (and UN/CEFACT accounting). But at the SIE year meeting 2013 after studying XBRL GL for a year, and a representative of XBRL GL international present at the meeting, the main members argued “who is the paying customer?” and the project of making a SIE XBRL GL implementation ran into the sand.
There are a number of articles in the branch would press about very expensive XBRL projects with very sparse results of volume use. The contradiction between standards organisation ethics and applied technology (a common implementation instruction set) issues, is a hard thing to solve to make such projects more successful.
In 1992, SIE solved the issue for the SIE (file format) as a non-standards organisation vendor society. All members but one large vendor, agreed to a common implementation, including an implementation instruction set, and made it available for all vendors in the market. All other (national, future and international) vendors in the domestic Swedish accounting related commercial software market had to, by customer demand, follow the standard to sell any volumes. Actually the existence of the common format showed the market very good arguments for the data producing users real strong benefits. especially the daily interaction between the company, accounting consultant and audit, being very rational and benefitted in possible daily information feedback. Benefits and features are almost impossible to convince paying customers before the features are actually available, and this is a huge commercial problem for XBRL GL and UN/CEFACT to solve, not being a vendor interest group society. It is interesting to note that the starting vision of SIE was about the same as XBRL, export accounting data to tax declaration commercial software. But it is possible to find special benefit points data for producers, and by it make them pay to get the features of the accounting standard file format, but it is a hard commercial design issue.
There is a general stand-off situation in this market field. And how XBRL will solve it, is the major future question.
XBRL International's Global Ledger Taxonomy Framework.
XBRL GL, the familiar name for XBRL International's Global Ledger Taxonomy Framework, is a series of modular taxonomies developed by XBRL International and a framework for its extension for representing the information found in a typical Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system using XML and the XBRL Specification".
Formal models and XBRL GL.
XBRL GL is the modeling of the semantics of information found in ERP systems using the XBRL Specification. Additional efforts to reuse the semantic of the Global Ledger using other syntaxes are also being explored.
Tax organization interest in XBRL GL.
XBRL GL was designed to be generic and holistic, and serve as a bridge between transaction space and reporting. As such it has gained interest from many sectors, including tax administrators in OASIS (organization) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). XBRL GL has been adopted by the Turkish government for the standard for electronic bookkeeping for tax purposes. XBRL GL uniquely can track and reconcile the book-tax differences found in direct taxation regimes, including permanent and timing differences.


Lester Cole

Lester Cole (June 19, 1904 – August 15, 1985) was an American screenwriter. Cole was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors who were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted for their refusal to testify regarding their alleged involvement with the Communist Party.
Biography.
Born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Polish immigrants to the United States, his father was a Marxist garment industry union organiser, and Cole was a dedicated socialist from childhood.
Lester Cole began his career as an actor but soon turned to screenwriting. His first work was "If I Had a Million". In 1933, he joined with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz to establish the Writers Guild of America, and in 1934 joined the American Communist Party.
Between 1932 and 1947, Cole wrote more than forty screenplays that were made into motion pictures.
Blacklisting.
In 1947, he became one of the Hollywood Ten, who refused to answer questions before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about their Communist Party membership. Cole was convicted of Contempt of Congress, fined $1,000 and sentenced to twelve months' confinement at the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, of which he served ten months.
As a result of his refusal to testify, Cole was blacklisted by studio executives, after which just three of his screenplays were made into films - submitted under the names Gerald L.C. Copley, Lewis Copley, and J. Redmond Prior.
His best-known screenplay was that for the highly successful "Born Free" (1966), credited to Gerald L.C. Copley.
Later life.
In 1981, Cole published his autobiography, entitled "Hollywood Red: The Autobiography of Lester Cole". In it, he recounted a 1978 incident when he called into a radio talk show on which ex-Communist Budd Schulberg was a guest. According to Cole, he berated Schulberg (who had testified before HUAC as a friendly witness) on the air as a "canary" and a "stool pigeon" before he was cut off:
About this incident, Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley ("Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry") comments, "Whether this actually happened is uncertain, but one can guess."
Lester Cole died of a heart attack in San Francisco, California, in 1985. Ronald Radosh, Emeritus Professor of History at City University of New York, wrote that Cole "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death.


Thomas McNamee

Thomas McNamee (born Charles Thomas McNamee III, July 31, 1947) is an American writer and Guggenheim Fellow. He has written four nonfiction books in the field of natural history and conservation, as well as a novel. He has also written biographies of notable culinary figures Craig Claiborne and Alice Waters.
McNamee's essays, poems, and natural history writing have been published in Audubon, The New Yorker, Life, Natural History, High Country News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Saveur, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, and a number of literary journals. He wrote the documentary film "Alexander Calder", which was broadcast on the PBS American Masters series in June 1998 and received both a George W. Peabody Award and an Emmy. Many of his book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review. In 2016 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for a book in progress, "The Inner Life of Cats." McNamee was interviewed by the podcast "Criminal" in 2020 for their episode, "Wolf 10."
Career.
In 1969 he joined Columbia Records in New York, and in 1971 produced the double album "Music to Eat" by the Hampton Grease Band, which was initially a flop but gradually gained fame and was reissued as a CD on its twenty-fifth anniversary.
His published books in the field of natural history and conservation include "The Grizzly Bear" (1984), "Nature First: Keeping Our Wild Places and Wild Creatures Wild" (1987), "The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone" (1997), and "The Killing of Wolf Number Ten" (2014). He has published one novel, "A Story of Deep Delight" (1990).
Thomas McNamee has also published two biographies of notable culinary figures. In 2007, he published the first authorized biography of Chef Alice Waters, "Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution" (2007). The book focuses on the founding and development of her restaurant Chez Panisse. He also published the first serious biography of New York Times restaurant critic, Craig Claiborne: "The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance" (Free Press, 2012).
Personal life.
Thomas McNamee (full name Charles Thomas McNamee III) was born on July 31, 1947, in Memphis, Tennessee, to mother Gladys Runyan McNamee and father Charles Thomas McNamee Junior. McNamee grew up mainly in Memphis, with an interlude of three years—ages three to seven—in New York City. McNamee attended Yale, where he won top prizes for both fiction and poetry and studied writing as a Scholar of the House under the tutelage of Robert Penn Warren. He graduated in 1969, magna cum laude.
In 1970 he married Louise Rossett of Memphis, from whom he was divorced in 1993. In the same year he moved to the West Boulder Ranch in Park County, Montana. In 1996 he married Elizabeth Yates of San Francisco. In 1998 they moved from Montana to San Francisco. In April 2021 they moved to Livingston, Montana, where they now reside.
Charitable activities.
From 1986 to 1992 McNamee served as a member of the board of directors of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and as its chairman from 1987 to 1989. The latter period included the Yellowstone fires of 1988 —a trying time for conservation in the Rockies, because the role of natural fire in ecological succession was poorly understood even by many conservationists. He was an active participant for more than a decade in the effort to return the gray wolf to the Yellowstone ecosystem.
McNamee was a member of the board of the conservation group Rare from 1998 to 2004.
From 2007 to 2009 McNamee served on the board of directors of the Center for Education about Sustainable Agriculture in San Francisco, which operates the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market & Ferry Building Marketplace and carries out a variety of educational programs.


Hannah Perry

Hannah Perry (born 1984) is a British artist working mainly in installation, sculpture, print and video. She blends personal references with popular culture to create videos, sounds, images and objects.
Biography.
Perry was born in Chester, England. She attended Goldsmiths, University of London receiving a BFA in Fine Art in 2009. She went on to complete an M.A. in Fine Art at The Royal Academy of Arts in 2014. She lives and works in London.
Career.
Perry's work is interdisciplinary, spanning video, installation, sculpture, painting, screen printing and performance. In 2011, she was first recognised for her video performance work on South London art collective LuckyPDF's TV project for Frieze Art Fair. In 2014, a performance work called "Deja Vu!" was presented at the Serpentine Galleries Park Nights, a performance collaboration where she brought together various creatives including composer Mica Levi and British poet Sam Riviere, whom she continues to work with. Her largest solo presentation of artwork was "GUSH!", an exhibition at Somerset House, London in October 2018. This included a sound-sculpture installation and 360 degree video. Perry presented another performance artwork during the exhibition in collaboration with musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra, and music producers Coby Sey and Mica Levi who played a live score soundtrack to the dance piece.
She has been part of various group exhibitions with artists such as Ed Atkins, Trisha Baga, Ed Fornieles, Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, Jon Rafman and Ryan Trecartin.
Perry's work "My Pharmaceuticals" featured in Channel 4 "Random Acts Random Acts" in partnership with Arts Council England in 2016.
Work.
Much of Perry's practice is centred around ideas of class and gender. Curator and critic Jonathan Griffin described Perry's works as "messy, emotive work that synthesizes snatches of material sourced online and from her daily life. She melds it all together in videos, which she typically displays on monitors attached to sculptural installations, often supported by steel scaffolding poles beside hanging curtains of fabric or vinyl." From sources such as psychotherapy papers, narrative writing, secretly recorded sessions with a therapist and her personal emails, Perry's video and installations explore several stereotypes generally associated with women, notably the stereotypes around female hysteria. She works with low-resolution images associated with femininity and hysteria, machismo and industrialism and juxtaposes them to trance music and materials such as latex, mirrors and hair.


Kadma (trope)

Kadma (Hebrew קַדְמָ֨א, with variant English spellings) is a common cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It can be found by itself preceding certain trope groups, or together with a Geresh, in which case, the pair is known as "Kadma-V'Azla."
Kadma has the same symbol as the Pashta, though Kadma is distinct from Pashta in the placement of the symbol. In a Kadma, the symbol is always placed on the accented syllable, while Pashta is placed on the last letter and also on the accented syllable if the last syllable is not the accented one.
The symbols for "Kadma V'Azla" are designed to resemble the fingers of an outstretched hand in a curved position.
The Kadma-V'Azla pair occurs 1733 times in the Torah.
The word "Kadma" is related to the Hebrew קדמה ("kedma"), east. It is also related to the root קדם, "front". The combination of these words translates to "going away".
Melody.
Kadma V'Azla.
The melody for a Kamda V'Azla is a continual string of notes without a break as follows:


Osha Gray Davidson

Osha Gray Davidson (born 1954), is an author, free-lance writer, photographer and podcaster. He was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and grew up in Iowa, studying at the University of Iowa.
Osha Gray Davidson is an author of six books of non-fiction and more than a hundred articles on a range of topics. He covered the environment for "Rolling Stone" magazine and blogged on renewable energy at Forbes.com. His freelance work has also appeared in "InsideClimate News", "Grist", the "New York Times", the "Washington Post", "Salon", "Mother Jones" and other publications. Davidson co-wrote the screenplay for the IMAX documentary "Coral Reef Adventure" and his photographs have appeared in "Rolling Stone", "InsideClimate News", "Forbes.com", and elsewhere.
He is the producer and host of the popular podcast, "The American Project: Deep reporting on a democracy in the works." Season 1 (starting in January 2020) looks at the issue of reparations for slavery and its legacy.
His book, "The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South," was first published in 1996 and reissued in paperback in 2007. It was adapted into a play by Mark St. Germain in 2011. A film adaptation will be released in April 2019, starring Sam Rockwell and Taraji Henson.
His "Rolling Stone" article about Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat fighting for the United States, was nominated for a National Magazine Award for feature writing. He was a finalist for both the Natural World Book Award (UK) and the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. "Coral Reef Adventure" was the highest grossing documentary film of 2003 and was voted Best Picture of 2003 by the Giant Screen Theatre Association. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and a Fellow at the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights.
Davidson lives in Phoenix, Arizona.


World Gone Wild

World Gone Wild is a 1988 science fiction film directed by Lee H. Katzin and starring Bruce Dern, Catherine Mary Stewart and Michael Paré.
Plot.
In the nuclear-ravaged wasteland of Earth in the year 2087, water is as precious as life itself. The isolated town of Lost Wells, an outpost that survived the holocaust, is led by Ethan (Bruce Dern), a Moses-like guru and the last schoolteacher on the planet, Angie (Catherine Stewart). The inhabitants of the town guard the secret of their existence and source of their water from the outside world. The "town" consist of a Mobil station surrounded by a wall of old cars. The school takes place in an old school bus. One of the few books still in existence and held by the town is an unabridged book on etiquette by Emily Post.
An evil cult of pseudoreligious renegades led by Derek (Adam Ant), a group following the teachings in a book on Charles Manson discovers the existence of the water source and wants control of the town's valuable water supply. As the villagers are no match for Derek's brute military force, they hire mercenaries living in a distant city. That group includes Nitro, Ten Watt and they are led by George Landon. The townspeople and the mercenaries team up to stage a last ditch defense of the town. "
Reception.
The film was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1989. The movie received 2 out of 5 stars in Creature Feature. The performance of Dern was praised, as was director Lee H. Katzin's work but the source material was found lacking. The movie was found to be a mix of Mad Max and "The Magnificent Seven". Similarly, The Washington Post found the script lacking. The New York Times found the movie to be a standard-issue, post-apocalyptic film in the vein of Mad Max, although the attempts at dark humor were appreciated. Similarly, Kim Newman found the movie to stand out over other post-apocalyptic works due to its offbeat humor and its use of western motifs. The LA Times likes the movie, citing the Seven Samurai homage and finding it surprisingly reflective. They likewise appreciated the humor and musical score of the movie.


Master Hands

Master Hands is a 1936 sponsored documentary film short which shows what work is like in a Chevrolet automobile factory. It was produced by the Jam Handy Organization, a pioneer in industrial film production.
Credits.
Notables for this film include original music by Samuel Benavie, cinematography by Gordon Avil, and film editing by Vincent Herman.
Legacy.
In 1999, "Master Hands" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Albert Craig (footballer)

Albert Hughes Craig (born 3 January 1962) is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a midfielder.
Career.
Craig began his career with Dumbarton in 1981 and made over 150 appearances for the "Sons" over a five-year period. A move to Hamilton Academical in 1986 was quickly followed by a further transfer to Newcastle United for £95,000 just six months later after impressing in the "Accies"' win away at Rangers in the 1986–87 Scottish Cup; however he played just ten times for the "Magpies". Loan spells back at Hamilton and also with Northampton Town preceded a move back to Scotland with Dundee in 1989.
Craig spent three years at Dens Park before moving to Partick Thistle in August 1992, where he went on to make over 100 league appearances. In 1996, Craig moved to Falkirk before year-long spells with Stenhousemuir and a return to Partick Thistle to finish his career.
Personal life.
Off the pitch, Craig received a twelve-month prison sentence in July 2005 after admitting stealing over £40,000 from the Royal Mail in a postal fraud.


No Blade of Grass (film)

No Blade of Grass is a 1970 British-American apocalyptic science fiction film co-written, directed and produced by Cornel Wilde and starring Nigel Davenport, Jean Wallace, and John Hamill. It is an adaptation of John Christopher's novel "The Death of Grass" (1956) and follows the survivors of a plague that has hit London in the not too distant future. When London is overwhelmed by food riots caused by a global famine, a man tries to lead his family to safety in Westmorland.
Plot.
The film opens with a montage of pollution, which, as implied by the narrator, is the cause of a virulent new disease arising in Asia, a virus that strikes all members of the grass family, including wheat, rice and maize. It spreads to Africa, Europe and South America, bringing starvation, anarchy and cannibalism in its wake. Hundreds of millions die. The Chinese use nerve gas on their own population, killing 300 million, in their desperate attempts to survive.
A year after the start of the disaster, John Custance, his family and his daughter Mary's boyfriend, scientist Roger Burnham, leave London during rioting just before roadblocks are set up. They head for his brother David's farm in the north.
They stop at Mr. Sturdevant's shop to obtain firearms. When Sturdevant refuses to sell them any without the proper permits, John and Roger overpower him, but are held at gunpoint by his assistant, Andrew Pirrie. However, when John explains the situation to Pirrie, he shoots his employer, and he and his wife Clara join them.
To get past an Army roadblock, they are forced to shoot three soldiers. Later, the party become separated when Roger and Pirrie race each other in their cars. John's car is stopped by a gate at a train crossing and he is knocked out, and his wife and 16-year-old virgin daughter are taken away and raped nearby by three men. John and the others find them and shoot two of the men, but one gets away.
Later, they are stopped by vigilantes guarding their settlement and robbed of everything useful, including their vehicles and guns. Fortunately, they are only away from their goal. Now afoot, they come upon an isolated farmhouse. They kill the farmer and his wife and take their guns. While staying in an abandoned factory Pirrie's wife Clara attempts to seduce John and is shot by her husband. Mary and Pirrie become close as Mary believes Pirrie can protect her. Next, they encounter a larger group trudging the other way. John offers to take them along to his brother's easily protected valley. Their leader objects and goes for his gun, so Pirrie shoots him. The others decide to join John's party.
As they walk beside a road, a motorcycle gang rides by. John's wife Ann recognizes one of them as the escaped rapist. The armed gang mount a series of mounted attacks, but are killed in the ensuing gun battle, as are some of John's people.
When they finally reach David's place, they see that it is well protected by a stone wall and a machine gun. David tells John privately that he cannot let such a large number of people in — the valley cannot feed so many — and suggests John sneak away from his group in the night with his family and Roger. Instead, John mounts a night attack. Pirrie shoots David, who is manning the machine gun, but is himself killed. The attack is successful, and John takes charge of the valley.
Controversy over the rape scene.
The original cut of "No Blade of Grass" contained a graphic scene where a group of three biker men abduct and rape Ann Custance (played by Jean Wallace) and her 16 year old virgin daughter, Mary (played by Lynne Frederick). The intense graphic nature and sexual violence of the scene generated some mild controversy from critics who felt it was gratuitous. Compounding matters was that Lynne Frederick, who was one of the rape victims in the scene, was only 15 at the time and questions over the use of a body double remain a controversial topic to this day.
In response to the controversy, re-releases of the film on VHS trimmed the rape sequence down by about a minute and a half. The uncut version appeared on DVD in numerous budget priced editions. In 2011, the Warner Archive Collection released "No Blade of Grass" with the rape scene intact from its original release.


Digital Research News - For Digital Research Users Everywhere


Prover9

Prover9 is an automated theorem prover for first-order and equational logic developed by William McCune.
Description.
Prover9 is the successor of the Otter theorem prover also developed by William McCune. Prover9 is noted for producing relatively readable proofs and having a powerful hints strategy.
Prover9 is intentionally paired with Mace4, which searches for finite models and counterexamples. Both can be run simultaneously from the same input, with Prover9 attempting to find a proof, while Mace4 attempts to find a (disproving) counter-example. Prover9, Mace4, and many other tools are built on an underlying library named LADR ("Library for Automated Deduction Research") to simplify implementation. Resulting proofs can be double-checked by Ivy, a proof-checking tool that has been separately verified using ACL2.
In July 2006 the LADR/Prover9/Mace4 input language made a major change (which also differentiates it from Otter). The key distinction between "clauses" and "formulas" completely disappeared; "formulas" can now have free variables; and "clauses" are now a subset of "formulas". Prover9/Mace4 also supports a "goal" type of formula, which is automatically negated for proof. Prover9 attempts to automatically generate a proof by default; in contrast, Otter's automatic mode must be explicitly set.
Prover9 was under active development, with new releases every month or every other month, until 2009. Prover9 is free software, and therefore, open source software; it is released under GPL version 2 or later.
Examples.
Socrates.
The traditional "all men are mortal", "Socrates is a man", prove "Socrates is mortal" can be expressed this way in Prover9:
 formulas(assumptions).
 man(x) -> mortal(x). % open formula with free variable x
 man(socrates).
 end_of_list.
 formulas(goals).
 mortal(socrates).
 end_of_list.
This will be automatically converted into clausal form (which Prover9 also accepts):
 formulas(sos).
 -man(x) | mortal(x).
 man(socrates).
 -mortal(socrates).
 end_of_list.
Square root of 2 is irrational.
A proof that the square root of 2 is irrational can be expressed this way:
 formulas(assumptions).
 1*x = x. % identity
 x*y = y*x. % commutativity
 x*(y*z) = (x*y)*z. % associativity
 ( x*y = x*z ) -> y = z. % cancellation (0 is not allowed, so x!=0).
 % Now let's define divides(x,y): x divides y.
 % Example: divides(2,6) is true because 2*3=6.
 divides(x,y) <-> (exists z x*z = y).
 divides(2,x*x) -> divides(2,x). % If 2 divides x*x, it divides x.
 a*a = 2*(b*b). % a/b = sqrt(2), so a^2 = 2 * b^2.
 (x != 1) -> -(divides(x,a) &
 divides(x,b)). % a/b is in lowest terms
 2 != 1. % Original author almost forgot this.
 end_of_list.


Resort Radio

Resort Radio (99FM) was a radio station in Queenstown on 99.2FM, 100.0FM and 1359AM. Originally this station was owned by Radio Otago until Radio Otago was sold to RadioWorks in 1999. During the nineties programming during the evenings and nights was a simulcast of Foveaux FM in Southland with Southland advertisements. Foveaux announcers would read out the weather for Queenstown during the evenings especially for Resort Radio listeners. After Radio Otago was sold to RadioWorks local programming was brought back to Resort Radio during the evenings and overnight.
In 2004 Resort Radio was rebranded as More FM when RadioWorks rebranded the majority of their LocalWorks stations to More FM.
With the station now part of the More FM network, the station is now only local between 6am-1pm Weekdays and 6am-10am Weekends. Out of these times the station is networked from Auckland. The current breakfast show is hosted by Margo Berryman and Henry Youngman (6am-10am) & Janey Newlands hosts the workday show (10am-1pm). Philippa Collins, Jono and Jo Blick rotate on weekends.


Ray Raphael

Ray Raphael (born April 19, 1943) is an American historian and author of twenty books. He is noted for his work on the American Revolution, the Constitution, and the regional history of Northern California.
American Revolution.
In 2001, Raphael's "People's History of the American Revolution" synthesized the "bottom-up" history that grabbed the attention of scholars in the field since the 1960s. Howard Zinn, author of "People's History of the United States", endorsed the book and used it to initiate his "People's History" series, published by The New Press. While both Raphael and Zinn view common people as significant historical agents, Zinn's focus is decidedly more political, focusing on dissent and protest, while Raphael deals with everyday experiences as well as social movements.
In 2002, in "The First American Revolution", Raphael chronicled the overthrow of British authority in the hinterlands of Massachusetts in 1774, the year before Lexington and Concord. The dynamics of the buildup to war have been generally overlooked in America's core national narrative, but Raphael showed how the citizens of Massachusetts, in response to being disenfranchised by the Massachusetts Government Act, seized political and military power throughout the province in dramatic form. In the town of Worcester, 4,622 militiamen from 37 towns throughout the county — half the adult male population — lined both sides of Main Street and forced the British appointed officials to walk the gauntlet between them, hats in hand, reciting their resignations 30 times apiece. Similar takeovers occurred in every county seat outside Boston, which was garrisoned by British troops. These events, well documented at the time but dropped from the national narrative since the mid-19th century, provide fuller context for the outbreak of war. Raphael demonstrated that the British march on Lexington and Concord, rather than "starting" the Revolution, signaled a counteroffensive to regain control of a province that American patriots had already seized.
Alerted by the disappearance of the 1774 Massachusetts rebellion from history texts, Raphael explored the underpinnings of our national storytelling. In 2004, his "Founding Myths" examined thirteen time honored tales — Paul Revere's Ride, the Winter at Valley Forge, "Give me liberty or give me death," etc. — and detailed their etymology in the 19th century, when an emerging nationalism and narrative demands combined to alter the historical record.
In 2009, in "Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation", Raphael developed an original synthesis of the Founding Era, blending his previous bottom-up approach into the traditional national narrative. His seven lead characters — some high, some low — include both General George Washington and Private Joseph Plumb Martin, and both Robert Morris, so rich that he bailed out the bankrupt nation, and Thomas Young, a peripatetic revolutionary who spread rebellion in seven states.
Constitution.
Raphael next turned to histories of the Constitution: "President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive" (2012) and "Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get It Right" (2013). His "The U. S. Constitution: The Citizen's Annotated Edition" (2016) walked readers through the document clause-by- clause and amendment-by- amendment. What was the intent of the framers? How was it understood back then, and how is it interpreted today? Interweaving historical and contemporary contexts, he translated "Constitution-ese" for our time. Working with the Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource), Raphael has developed a series of interactive lesson plans—"Choosing to Make a Nation"—in which students participate in debates as delegates to the Constitutional Convention or members of Congress in the Early Republic.
Early books.
Raphael's first books focused primarily on the history and regional issues of Northern California, where he has lived since the late 1960s. His "Everyday History of Somewhere", an earthy treatment based on interviews with old-timers that intermingled natural with human history, won the California Commonwealth Club award for best book on California for 1974. In "Edges: Human Ecology of the Backcountry"; "Tree Talk: The People and Politics of Timber" (and its sequel, "More Tree Talk: The People, Politics, and Economics of Timber"); and "Cash Crop: An American Dream?", he explored issues of contemporary local concern (development, timber, marijuana) in a unique journalistic style, interweaving Studs Terkel-style interviews with narrative history and analysis. In 2007, with Freeman House (author of Totem Salmon), Raphael wrote an in-depth exploration of white-Indian conflicts of the mid-19th century in Northwest California, titled "Two Peoples, One Place".
Raphael has also written a book on male initiation rites in contemporary American culture ("The Men from the Boys"), a study of the careers of teachers ("The Teachers' Voice)", and with his son Neil, a juvenile mystery ("Comic Cops"). His play on John and Jessie Freemont played to audiences across Northern California.
Editorial work.
In 2006 Raphael edited an issue on the Founders for Forum magazine that included original contributions from scholars Gary Nash, Alfred Young, Gordon Wood, Pauline Maier, Richard Beeman, Woody Holton, Carol Berkin, and Jack Rakove. In 2011, with Gary Nash and Alfred Young, he edited "Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformer in the Making of the Nation", a collection of original biographical essays by twenty-two scholars. He is currently an associate editor for Journal of the American Revolution.
Personal life.
A native of New York City, Raphael moved west after graduating high school. He holds BA and MAT degrees from Reed College and an MA from the University of California at Berkeley. He spent the summer of 1962 in North Carolina registering black voters and integrating public facilities and the summer of 1964 with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi. His work in the "Movement" of the sixties influenced his grassroots journalistic style and his bottom-up telling of history.
Raphael settled in rural Northern California, where he raised two sons with his wife, Marie. (One of Marie's brothers, Robert Guillemin, is Boston's well-known street artist, Sidewalk Sam, whose bottom-up approach to art resembles Raphael's treatment of history.) Since age 50, Raphael has been a recreational whitewater kayaker.
For fifteen years Raphael taught all subjects except foreign language at a one-room public high school in his remote neighborhood. He also taught at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods. Known for his lucid style, Raphael blends teaching skills with strict academic discipline, writing works of scholarly importance in language accessible to lay readers.
Published works.
Raphael's books have been published in the United Kingdom and translated into German, Portuguese, and Korean.


They Were There

They Were There (also known as IBM Centennial Film: They Were There - People who changed the way the world works) is a 2011 documentary short film directed by Oscar winner Errol Morris. It is a centennial film about the company IBM.


E.A.R.T.H. Force

E.A.R.T.H. Force is an American action adventure television series starring Gil Gerard. The series aired 3 episodes on CBS from September 16 to September 29, 1990, before being canceled due to low ratings. However all episodes (including the ones skipped by CBS) were aired by some non-English TV stations (like TVP in Poland as an example).
Premise.
The series is about an elite group, the Earth Alert Research Tactical Headquarters (E.A.R.T.H.), that was brought together by a dying millionaire to prevent environmental disasters around the world.
Production.
"E.A.R.T.H. Force" was filmed in Queensland, Australia. Working titles for the series include "The Elite" (the title under which it aired internationally) and "The Green Machine".
Reception.
Howard Rosenberg of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the "forgettable" series the "Big Greenback Award", "for foisting formulaic cretinous TV on viewers under the guise of environmentalist drama". Scott D. Pierce of the "Deseret News" called the show an "absolute stinker". "Bad writing. Bad acting. Bad directing. "E.A.R.T.H. Force" has it all." Ray Richmond of "The Orange County Register" said the series is "painfully banal" and that it "resemble a kind of socially conscious knockoff of "The A-Team". The acting is stiff, the plot contrived". Richmond also speculated that CBS was never confident in the series to begin with since they only ordered six episodes, rather than the usual 13, and they scheduled the premiere against the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards. CBS also scheduled the series on Saturday nights, a near certain death sentence. John Martin of "The Providence Journal" called the series "pretentious" while noting the obvious conflict between the message and its medium. Martin said "saving the environment can only be accomplished by changing the habits of consumption". "In television, encouraging consumption is Job One". "Don't look for a TV series to point the finger at its advertisers".


Mr. B Natural

Mr. B Natural is a short sponsored film produced in 1956 by Kling Film Productions for the C.G. Conn Company, directed by Phil Patton. It is also the name of the film's main character, played by Betty Luster.
The short was intended to be shown in classrooms and school assemblies to advertise Conn's line of musical instruments for American school bands. It fell into obscurity until it was satirized in an episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" that first aired on November 30, 1991, after which it was celebrated as a prime example of period kitsch.
Titular character.
Mr. B Natural is an androgynous figure, a "hep pixie" who is meant to embody the "spirit of fun in music". In this capacity, the character inspires children to take up band instruments. The name is a pun on the musical notation B♮ (B natural), as the character explains: "that's what your feelings of music are, as natural as you can be." The nickname of Billy Eckstine, a highly popular singer and bandleader at the time, was "Mr. B."
The character also acts as a kind of nascent brand mascot for C.G. Conn musical instruments, though Mr. B Natural made no appearances for the company beyond the one film.
Conn provided details about the film in the Spring 1957 issue of their magazine, "The Baton", distributed to public school music teachers: "Mr. B Natural is the spirit of music in everyone...a sort of LepreCONN who is always no more than an inch away from the fingertips of anyone. Mr. B has a code however, that prohibits him from showing himself for anyone unless he reaches out and calls for the spirit of music. In full color, Mr. B Natural entertainingly answers the call of Buzz, a shy, reticent teen-ager and for twenty-six minutes and forty seconds explains how music and playing a musical instrument will help develop posture, breathing, self-confidence, coordination and in general a young person's character. Mr. B gives both youthful and adult audiences ease to take instruction in the values of music. The Film is being made available by the Band Instrument Division of Conn through Conn dealers everywhere."
In captions for the productions photos included in the three-page essay, the title character is consistently referred to as "he", an indication that Conn intended Mr. B to be of the male gender. However, in an instance of reverse-gender casting similar to the casting of Mary Martin as Peter Pan ("Mary Martin syndrome" as Kevin Murphy said when writing about his experiences with the short film), the role was cast with an actress, Betty Luster, who had been a television musical variety star only a few years before.
Plot.
The action opens upon the musical staff in which Mr. B Natural lives. Mr. B addresses the audience directly, in an effort to appear welcoming, and explains what it means to be a spirit of music. Awaiting a person's call for help, Mr. B evinces sympathy and concern for lonely junior high student Buzz Turner.
Buzz shows an interest in music like the more popular kids at school, but is so shy that he makes excuses to not attend a dance, even when a girl directly invites him. Dejected, Buzz returns home and puts on a record. This magically summons Mr. B into the adolescent boy's bedroom, whereupon the pixie uses magic, music and dance to convince Buzz to take up playing the trumpet.
In visiting the music dealership, Buzz's parents are reassured by the salesman that buying a trumpet is "simply making a small investment in your son's lifetime personality." When Buzz mentions that he didn't care what make his new horn would be, he is reproached by Mr. B Natural, and is treated to a detailed description of the C. G. Conn factory and laboratories.
Through the gift of music and the help of his mysterious friend, Buzz finds the confidence and assertiveness he needs to try out for the school band, impress girls, and play solo at concerts and school dances.
Production.
"Mr. B Natural" was produced by Kling Film Productions, an industrial film producer based out of Chicago, Illinois. The film's sponsor, C.G. Conn, was introducing its new line of "Connstellation" brass instruments in the mid-1950s, which may explain the emphasis on these instruments in the storyline.
Shooting took place in 1956, on 16mm in Technicolor. Which sound stages were used for the production is not known, but the school grounds of Waukegan Elementary School in Illinois and Miami Sr. High School in Florida were used for location shots. Footage of workers at a C.G. Conn plant also appears.
"Mystery Science Theater 3000".
Rediscovery.
In 1991, HBO sought content for its new network, Comedy Central, and employed "ephemeral film" expert Rick Prelinger to locate amusing vintage footage. "Mr. B Natural" was not held in Prelinger's collection, but was licensed for use in "Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K)" from Streamline Film Archives, now F.I.L.M. Archives. F.I.L.M. Archives is the only known holder of this film print today, archived as reel #1133B.
Spoof.
"Mr. B Natural" was featured on "MST3K" as part of episode #319, preceding the film "War of the Colossal Beast", which first aired November 30, 1991. It is celebrated by fans and critics alike as one of the most memorable shorts ever satirized by the show.
In "MST3K's" revisiting of the short, Joel Robinson and the bots mock Mr. B's gender ambiguity and seemingly sinister interest in Buzz. They also pick up on a candid comment of Mr. B Natural, "don't be too sure I wasn't in the Garden with Mr. and Mrs. Adam," making the obvious connection that Adam and Eve's only companion in Eden mentioned in the Genesis story was the serpent. When Mr. B Natural starts a series of bizarre dances, Crow moans "Oh, my God, please say this isn't happening!" while Tom intones "Ladies and gentlemen, please accept our sincere apologies for all of this." Following the short, Joel moderates a mock-serious debate between Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo as to whether Mr. B Natural is a man or a woman. At the end of the film, the trio sing “We’re really white” to the tune of the band playing.
Running joke.
The short was later referenced many times during the show's run. Examples include:
Mr. B was recreated by Bridget Jones in the live broadcast "Turkey Day" host segments of episode #701T "Night of the Blood Beast", on November 23, 1995. Jones's Mr. B has arrived on the show to celebrate Thanksgiving, but becomes the focus of the unwelcome affections of another guest, a drunken Jack Perkins, played by Jones' real-life husband Michael J. Nelson.
RiffTrax.
In 2013, RiffTrax, a comedy website that features three of the stars of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy), wrote and performed an all-new commentary track for "Mr. B Natural." The resulting film with commentary track was released to some sponsors of their Kickstarter crowd-funded campaign. Unlike the truncated MST3K version, the RiffTrax version is a nearly unedited 26 minutes, 7 seconds.


Laila Shereen Sakr

Laila Shereen Sakr (born 1971), known by her moniker, VJ Um Amel, is an Egyptian–American digital media theorist and artist. She is the founder of the digital lab, R-Shief, Inc., an Annenberg Fellow, and Assistant Professor of Media Theory & Practice at University of California, Santa Barbara, where she founded the Wireframe digital media studio.
In her manifesto, she writes, "I reappropriate emerging technologies in processes that are both creatively productive and critically analytical to offer insight into how people from different backgrounds and political actors can not only survive, but also become more empowered to create change in an increasingly networked culture."
She holds an M.F.A. in Digital Arts and New Media from University of California, Santa Cruz, an M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University., and a PhD in Media Arts + Practice from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.
Work.
With a background in documentary film and web development, her current practices include system design, cultural analytics, computational art, video art, and immersive cinema. She is known for building R-Shief, "one of the largest repositories of Arabic-language tweets" and for her predictive analytics of the fall of Qaddafi in Libya in August 2011. This work emerged from her doctoral research and development. For the practical component of her doctoral dissertation, VJ Um Amel archived rare social media collections from the Arab uprising and Occupy movements from 2010–2014. She collaborated with a team of engineers to innovate trending, semantic, sentiment tools that analyze Arabic and seven other languages using machine learning. From the analytics processed from the archives, she created 3D games, documentary video, video remixes, computational drawings, data visualizations, and digital performances.
Her media work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and performances at galleries and museums including the San Francisco MoMA, National Gallery of Art in Jordan, Camera Austria, Cultura Digital in Brazil, Kirchner Cultural Centre in Argentina, Tahrir Cultural Center in Cairo, Fridge Art Gallery in Washington, DC, and 100 Copies in Egypt, among other venues. At UCSB, she co-founded Wireframe, a new digital media studio that supports critical game design and digital arts practice.
She is Co-Editor for the open access journal: Media Theory, and also for After Video published by Open Humanities Press. She collaborates with MIT’s Global Media Technologies & Cultures Lab as a Researcher. At UCSB, she is Faculty Affiliate in the Feminist Studies Department and the Center for Responsible Machine Learning, and serves on the advisory, executive, and steering committees for UCSB Digital Arts & Humanities Commons, Center for Middle East Studies, and Center for Information Technology & Society. Her current book project theorizes “glitch” as an experience of revolution and counterrevolution that occurred across the Arab world and reveals the indispensability, the promises, and the limits of digital communication across borders and languages.
Her journal articles appear in Middle East Critique, Cinema Journal Teaching Dossier, Networking Knowledge: Journal of the Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies, Parson’s Journal for Information Mapping, Thoughtmesh: Critical Code Journal, and Feminist Debates in Digital Humanities.
Before developing her career in digital arts and culture, she published and performed poetry under her maiden name, Laila Shereen. She published in journals, and co-founded a couple spoken word collectives in Washington, D.C. including The D.C. Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency and Word of Mouth from 1999–2007. She worked as Multimedia and Publications Editor at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies during that time. Earlier from 1993–1995, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco where she taught English language and literature to university students in Fez at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University's Faculty of Arts.
Life.
She was born in Alexandria, Egypt to Egyptian parents.


Wonders Never Cease

Wonders Never Cease is a 1952 British Technicolor, sponsored film, starring Ronald Shiner as a Cast Member. It was produced by Lever Brothers.
Premise.
The sponsored film was an advertising film for new washing powder SURF, manufactured by Lever Bros.


K. K. Neelakantan

K. K. Neelakantan (1923 - 14 June 1992) better known by his pen name Induchoodan, was a leading Indian ornithologist. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of the environmental movement in Kerala for popularizing bird study through his books written in Malayalam.
Early life.
Neelakantan was born in 1923 in Kavassery, a village in Palakkad district, in a Tamil Brahmin family. As his father was a veterinary surgeon in the Mysore Government Service, his early schooling was in Chitradurga. The rest of his schooling was done in five different schools in Malabar. He studied for the Intermediate in the Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode and for the B.A. (Hons) in English literature in the Madras Christian College (1941–44).
Career.
He started his career in early 1944 as a tutor in The American College in Madurai. From here he was transferred to the Loyola College Madras, then to Brennen College, Thalassery, then to Rajamundry and again to Victoria College, Palakkad where he continued till 1947. After that he served the Government College, Chittoor, the Women’s College, Thiruvananthapuram, the Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam and University College Thiruvananthapuram. During his term as the Head of the Department of English in the Thiruvananthapuram University College, he retired in 1978.
Works.
His magnum opus "Keralathile Pakshikal" (Birds of Kerala) first published in 1958 is considered to be a classic in Malayalam. Described with illustrations of 261 birds found in Kerala, it is considered a unique work among Indian languages. A collection of his essays on environment, bird watching and birds titled "Pullu Thottu Poonara Vare" won the award of the State Department of Science, Technology and environment for popular Science writing and also the I. C. Chacko Endowment prize by the Kerala Sahitya Academy. "Pakshikalum Manushyarum", his other work on birds and bird watching for children, also has won two awards from the Kerala Government and Kairali Children's Book Trust instituted for Children's literature.
When the editor for Macmillan Publishers approached him for a book on any subject of his own choice in English, he offered instead to write a book on birds and bird watching for children in Malayalam. He started bird watching at a young age when he was living in his ancestral house at Kavassery. He practiced this hobby very seriously at all places wherever he had been working.
In 1949, Induchoodan got the rare good fortune of stumbling upon the largest pelicanry in India. He found it at Aredu some 13 miles from Tadepalligudam in the East Godavari District. This finding was published in 1949. Induchoodan was the president of "Prakriti Samrakshna Samithi" and led the Silent Valley Agitation during the year 1979. He was the founder and President of Kerala Natural History Society and Honorary member of WWF India. He pursued the study of birds until his death at the age of 69.


Cromemco - Specialists in computers and peripherals