James Gleason

James Austin Gleason (May 23, 1882 – April 12, 1959) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter born in New York City. Gleason often portrayed "tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold."
Life and career.
Gleason was born in New York City, the son of Mina (née Crolius) and William L. Gleason. Coming from theatrical stock, as a schoolboy he made stage appearances while on holiday. He began earning his living at the age of thirteen, being a messenger boy, printer's devil, assistant in an electrical store and a lift boy. He enlisted in the United States Army at age 16 and served three years in the Philippines.
On discharge, he began his stage career, later taking it up professionally. He played in London for two years and following his return to the United States, he began in films by writing dialogue for comedies. He wrote a number of plays, several of which were performed on Broadway. He also acted on Broadway, including in a couple of his own plays. When World War I broke out, Gleason reenlisted in the United States Army and served to the end of the war.
His film debut was in "Polly of the Follies" (1922), starring Constance Talmadge. Balding and slender with a craggy voice and a master of the double-take, Gleason portrayed tough but warm-hearted characters, usually with a New York background. He co-wrote "The Broadway Melody", the second film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and had a small uncredited role in it. He also co-wrote and briefly appeared as a hot dog vendor in the 1934 Janet Gaynor vehicle "Change of Heart". He performed in a number of films with his wife Lucile. In "The Clock" (1945), he played a milk cart driver who gives lessons in marriage to the characters played by Judy Garland and Robert Walker, while Lucile played his wife. The same year, he played the bartender in the film adaptation of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". In the Frank Capra classic "Meet John Doe", he played the cynical, "hard boiled" editor brought in to pump up the newspaper that runs with the "John Doe" story.
Gleason was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as boxing manager Max "Pop" Corkle in the 1941 film "Here Comes Mr. Jordan". He starred in two movie series, playing police inspector Oscar Piper in six Hildegarde Withers mystery films during the 1930s, starting with "The Penguin Pool Murder", and Joe Higgins in the first seven of nine films about the Higgins Family, in which his wife Lucile and son Russell played Lil and Sydney Higgins. One of Gleason's best-known roles is Uncle Birdie, the kind-hearted ship captain plagued by alcohol and the memory of his deceased wife, in Charles Laughton's film noir classic "The Night of the Hunter" (1955).
Gleason also performed in other media. In 1931, he co-starred with Robert Armstrong in the radio sitcom "Gleason and Armstrong". His television credits include several episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", the Reed Hadley legal drama "The Public Defender" and ABC's "The Real McCoys". In "The Child", the Christmas 1957 episode of John Payne's "The Restless Gun" on NBC, Gleason and Anthony Caruso played Roman Catholic priests who run an orphanage. Dan Blocker, just launching his acting career, also guest starred in the episode.
For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Gleason has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7038 Hollywood Boulevard.
Family.
James and Lucile Gleason had a son, actor Russell Gleason. On December 26, 1945, the younger Gleason was in New York City awaiting deployment to Europe with his regiment, when he fell out of a fourth story window in the Hotel Sutton — which the army had commandeered to house the troops — resulting in his death. Reports varied, some saying the fall was accidental, while others stating it was a suicide. Russell's most prominent role had been as Muller in the Academy Award-winning version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930). Russell Gleason was married to Cynthia Hobart (later becoming Cynthia Lindsay), a swimmer and stunt woman who later wrote a biography of family friend Boris Karloff.
James Gleason was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.


Daniel Webster (academic)

Daniel W. Webster (born 1960) is an American health policy researcher and the director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University. He is also the deputy director for research at the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence, and the first Bloomberg Professor of American Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2016, he became the director of the Johns Hopkins-Baltimore Collaborative for Violence Reduction, a joint crime-fighting effort between Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore Police Department.
Education.
Webster received his MPH from the University of Michigan in 1985 and his ScD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1990. His ScD thesis was entitled, "Determinants of pediatricians' firearm injury prevention counseling practices".
Research.
Webster is known for his research into gun violence and laws, and he has published numerous articles on these and related subjects. In 2015, he and his colleagues published a study that found that the passage of a permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law in Connecticut was associated with a 40% reduction in firearm homicides in the state in the ten years after the law's enactment in 1995. Later that year, Webster co-authored another study looking at changes in such laws in Connecticut and Missouri, the latter of which repealed its permit-to-purchase law in 2007. This study found that the enactment of Connecticut's PTP law was associated with a 15.4% reduction in firearm suicide rates in the state, while Missouri's repeal of its PTP law was associated with a 16.1% increase in these rates. A previous study by Webster et al. had found that the repeal of Missouri's PTP law was associated with increased annual murders of 0.93 per 100,000 people, or about 55 to 63 per year. In October 2016, he and his Johns Hopkins colleagues released a report claiming that arguments in support of campus carry laws are based on flawed assumptions, and that such laws could make college campuses less safe.
Views.
Webster has said that gun laws, rather than focusing on making guns illegal, should focus on restricting access to guns with respect to those who are most likely to commit gun crimes. He has described gun violence as a public health issue, saying, "Like so many public health problems, you may have some communities or individuals with very low risk, but some communities where it truly is the most important public health problem that they have to deal with." He has also said that a 2013 law in Maryland that requires handgun buyers get a license from the police and pass a background check might be effective, but that as of September 2015, there is not enough data to say what its full effect is.


Gerald R. Beaman

Gerald Roger Beaman (born 1952) is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy and an ex Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
His last assignment was as commander of the U. S. 3rd Fleet in San Diego, California. He was relieved by Vice Admiral Kenneth Floyd on June 3, 2013.
Beaman is a native of Hammond, Indiana and is a graduate of Marquette University.
Military career.
Beaman was originally commissioned as an ensign in May 1974 and following designation as a Naval Flight Officer flew in the F-4J Phantom II with Fighter Squadron (VF) 121 at NAS Miramar, California before transferring to VF-124 and transitioning to the F-14A Tomcat in 1976. His sea assignments include VF-32 (1976–79), and VF-33 (1986–88), embarked aboard USS "John F. Kennedy" (CV-67), USS "Dwight D. Eisenhower" (CVN-69), USS "America" (CV-66) in support of Operation El Dorado Canyon, and USS "Theodore Roosevelt" (CVN-71). During Operation Desert Storm, he served as officer in charge of the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) Detachment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and flew combat missions from the Persian Gulf. He commanded the VF-211 Fighting Checkmates (1995–96) aboard USS "Nimitz" (CVN-68). He was the assistant chief of staff for operations for commander, Carrier Group 7 (1998–99), and he assumed command of Carrier Air Wing 2 (2000–01) aboard USS "Constellation" (CV-64) in support of Operation Southern Watch.
Beaman's shore tours include flag lieutenant and aide to Commander, Operational Test and Evaluation Force (1979–81), VF-101 program manager for the squadron augmentation unit (1984–86), Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) where he served as maintenance officer, operations officer and executive officer (1988–92); U.S. Space Command, as chief, Global Engagement Division; and as commander, Space Control Center, Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center (1996–98). Beaman was selected as a CNO Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Fellow for SSG XXI (2001–02) and was chief of staff to commander, Naval Air Forces (2002–04). He holds a master's degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College at Newport, R.I. (1992–93).
Beaman initially left active duty in the Navy in January 1981 and served as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (1981–84). During this time, he received seven letters of commendation for his performance, including two from the then-Director of the FBI, the Hon. William H. Webster. Since the FBI restricts its special agents from serving in any of the reserve components of the U.S. armed forces, Beaman was unable to obtain a reserve commission with the Naval Reserve during this period. He later resigned from the FBI and received a reserve commission as a Lieutenant (O-3) in the Naval Reserve in the spring of 1984, assigned as a full-time active duty officer in the Training and Administration of the Reserve (TAR) program, during which time he requalified in the F-14 with VF-101 at NAS Oceana, Virginia. He augmented to the Regular Navy in January 1986.
Selected for flag rank in 2004, Beaman's first flag assignment was as commander, Naval Network and Space Operations Command in Dahlgren, Va., and was then subsequently appointed as the director of operations, Naval Network Warfare Command (2005–06). He assumed command of Strike Force Training Pacific in June, 2006 (2006–08). His next assignment was deputy chief of staff operations, Allied Joint Forces Command-Naples, Italy beginning in January 2008 (2008-2009). In September 2009 (2009-2011), he reported to U.S. Fleet Forces Command as deputy chief of staff Global Force Management, Joint Operations and Fleet/Joint Training (N3/N5/N7). In April 2011, he assumed command of U. S. 3rd Fleet, headquartered in San Diego.
Awards.
VADM Beaman wears the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (5), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Strike/Flight Air Medal (2), the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (3), the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and various unit, campaign and service awards.


Battle of Chinkiang

The Battle of Chinkiang () was fought between British and Chinese forces in Chinkiang (Zhenjiang), Jiangsu province, China, on 21July 1842 during the First Opium War. It was the last major battle of the war. The Chinese force consisted of a garrison of Manchu and Mongol Bannermen. In command of the British forces was Sir Hugh Gough. Leading one brigade was future British field marshal Sir Colin Campbell. The British capture of this stronghold allowed them to proceed to Nanking. Fought near the confluence of the Grand Canal and Yangtze River, the battle effectively blocked operation of the Caoyun system, a transport network vital for the movement of grain throughout the empire. As a result, the Daoguang Emperor decided to sue for peace and agreed to sign the Treaty of Nanking, which brought hostilities to an end. Mass suicide was committed by the Manchu Bannermen who were defending the city.
Battle.
In mid July, the British ships concentrated on Chinkiang and blocked the route between the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal. On the morning of July 21, the British attacked Chinkiang City in three directions with four brigades. With the support of artillery brigade, 2,310 soldiers of the first brigade attacked the Qing army guarding the outside of Chinkiang City; 1,832 soldiers of the second brigade attacked the west gate with the support of navy; 2,155 soldiers of the third brigade attacked the north gate. At this time, there were 1,583 Bannermen in Chinkiang and 2,700 Green Standard Army in the southwest suburb. The Green Standard Army were transferred from other provinces after the fort outside the city was attacked and the situation in Chinkiang was tense. The Green Standard Army, who were temporarily concentrated, were not familiar with the terrain of Chinkiang. Their weapons are all swords and spears, except for a small number of muskets.
At 7 a.m. the British third brigade landed in Beigu mountain, and then attacked the north gate, which was covered by the British ship's heavy artillery. The Bannermen guarding the north gate immediately shot with muskets, hitting and injuring two British captains. The Bannermen dismantled some battlements and temporarily set up artillery to counterattack the British army. More than an hour after the fierce battle, the artillery of the Bannermen was destroyed, and the British troops rushed to the battery from the side. The garrison fought with the British on the wall of the city.
Before dawn, the first brigade successfully landed and occupied the highlands near Jinshan. At 8 a.m., the British began their attack on the Green Standard Army stationed outside the city. These Green Standard Army came to reinforce the city from afar. Because of their tired journey and lack of food, they were defeated by the British army after fierce battle. Many Green Standard Army soldiers became deserters. The commander of Green Standard Army saw the fire in Chinkiang City and thought that the city had been lost, so he ordered the remaining soldiers to retreat.
The west gate is the main battlefield for the British to attack the city. Shortly after the battle between the north gate and the southwest suburb, the second brigade began to attack the west gate. The British soldiers of the two regiments occupied some houses outside the city to shoot at the garrison under the cover; meanwhile, the transport ship carrying the British marines drove along the canal to the west gate, where they planned to attack the city. The west gate garrison fired at the British Army on land and the Marine Corps in the canal, injuring 16 sailors, 8 gunners and an officer and forcing the British army to withdraw from the canal within 10 minutes. After that, the British army sent another 200 Marines to cooperate with the land force to attack Chinkiang city again, this time they successfully occupied part of the city buildings. The defenders fought fiercely with the British Army on the city buildings. At noon, the British army sent a team of engineers to blow up the west gate with gunpowder. At the same time, the third brigade of the British Army occupying the north gate rushed to the west gate to fight, and finally the Qing's defense was broken. However, the garrison and the British army had a fierce street battle in the city. At least 40 British officers and soldiers were injured or killed in the street war. After the British army completely seized the city, Hai Ling, the supreme commander of the Qing army, and his family committed suicide.


Aljoscha Rompe

Arthur Alexander "Aljoscha" Rompe (20 October 1947 in Berlin-Buch – 23 November 2000 in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg) was the lead singer of the East German band Feeling B. The band began in 1983 as part of the second wave of underground punk acts operating outside the state-sanctioned music scene. By the time East Germany (the GDR) imploded in 1989, Feeling B had become one of the country's most popular bands.
Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rompe co-founded the political party Wydoks, which wanted to reclaim public property on former GDR soil and fight against the takeover of the country by "money people," i.e. West Germans. He and like-minded members of the punk scene squatted several buildings in the East Berlin districts of Mitte and Prenzlauerberg. Rompe made films, ran pirate radio stations, and squatted for long periods of his life. He also spent long periods of time camping on Hiddensee, in the Baltic Sea, with his bandmates, playing gigs, selling drinks and organizing underground festivals. He was of Swiss origin and died in Berlin in the year 2000 (aged 53), following a severe asthma attack. Christian "Flake" Lorenz, Rompe's friend and bandmate in Feeling B who later found fame with Rammstein, said "he knew how money was able to corrupt people, he didn't want to be successful in a monetary sense either, neither of us wanted to, as we were all punks."


Yaoya Oshichi

, literally "greengrocer Oshichi", was a daughter of the greengrocer Tarobei, who lived in the Hongō neighborhood of Edo at the beginning of the Edo period. She was burned at the stake for attempting to commit arson. The story (see below) became the subject of "joruri" plays. The year of her birth is sometimes given as 1666.
Biography.
In December 1682, she fell in love with Ikuta Shōnosuke (or Saemon), a temple page, during the great fire in the Tenna Era, at Shōsen-in, the family temple (danna-dera). The next year she attempted arson, thinking she could meet him again if another fire occurred. She was caught by the police and burnt at the stake in Suzugamori for her crimes.
The magistrate at her trial, though knowing she was sixteen years old, asked her, ”You must be fifteen years old, aren't you?” At the time, boys and girls under the age of sixteen were not subject to the death penalty, and since strict family registration systems were not yet widely implemented, confirmation of age by a bureaucrat was sufficient. Misunderstanding the magistrate's intentions to try her as a minor, she replied that she was sixteen. At a loss, the magistrate asked her firmly again, ”You must be fifteen years old, are you not?” Not taking the hint again, she honestly stated her age as sixteen, leaving the magistrate no alternative but to sentence her to burn at the stake.
Legacy.
There is a memorial to Oshichi at Enjō-ji in Tokyo. Daien-ji in Tokyo has a "Hōroku Jizō" (ほうろく地蔵, hot pot Jizō) with a cooking pot on his head to symbolically take away the heat from the fire of the stake that Oshichi was sentenced upon. Cooking pots and origami cranes are still offered to this day.
In the calendar then used in Japan, a year is known by five elements, and one of 12 animals. Oshichi was born in 1666, the year of the fire horse ("Hinoe Uma"), which recurs every 60 years. Since then, it has been thought inauspicious for a girl to be born in the year of the fire horse – and in Japan, fewer children are born in such years (the most recent being 1966).
Novels.
Three years later, Ihara Saikaku described this case in the book "Kōshoku Gonin Onna" (English translation, "Five Women Who Loved Love").
Twenty years after Yaoya Oshichi's death, a playwright, Ki no Kaion, took great liberties with the story to create a play for the traditional puppet theater entitled "Yaoya Ohichi". In 1773, three playwrights (Suga Sensuke, Matsuda Wakichi, and Wakatake Fuemi further revised Ki no Kaion's play to produce "Date musume koi no higanoko". In these two versions, Oshichi does not commit arson, instead she climbs a fire tower on a snowy night to ring the alarm bell to open the city gates in order to save the life of her lover, whom she cannot otherwise reach because of the nightly curfew. The penalty, however, for sounding a false fire alarm is death, a fate Oshichi chooses to face. In the puppet plays, the character of Oshichi is presented not as the seemingly impetuous, foolish girl of the historical record, but instead as a noble figure whose selfless devotion saves the man she loves. Later playwrights developed Oshichi's story for the stage: Tamenaga Tarobei in "Junshoku Edo Murasaki", and Tsuruya Nanboku in "Katakiuchi Yagura daiko".
"Bunraku" and "Kabuki".
A "kabuki" play about her uses the technique called "ningyo buri", where the actor moves around as if a puppet. This in turn is taken from the "bunraku" play.


Robert G. Gillespie

Robert G. Gillespie (1903 – January 31, 1983) was an FBI agent who participated in the capture of bank robber John Dillinger, and who later became a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Born in Madison, Alabama, Gillespie was raised in Mississippi. He briefly attended the University of Alabama Law School, but was unable to afford the program, instead dropping out and reading law to be admitted to practice in Mississippi, in 1927. He spent less than a year in the FBI, from 1934–1935, but during that time he participated in the ambush leading to the death of infamous bank robber John Dillinger. He left the FBI after contracting tuberculosis, from which he recuperated in Mississippi.
Gillespie practised law in Meridian, Mississippi with Thomas L. Bailey, and was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1954, by Governor Hugh L. White. He became Chief Justice in 1971, holding that office until his retirement from the court on August 1, 1977. After his retirement from the court, he taught at the Mississippi College School of Law until 1981.


Anastasia Dualla

Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, portrayed by Kandyse McClure, is a fictional character in the reimagined "Battlestar Galactica."
Character history.
A native of Sagittaron, Anastasia Dualla joined the Colonial Fleet against the wishes of her father; her decision to enlist caused a rift between them not healed by the time of the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies.
For the mini-series, first season, and up until the last episode of the second season, Petty Officer Crew Specialist 2nd Class Dualla was a communications NCO working in the CIC on board the Battlestar "Galactica". One of her prime functions in this role is to act as a "bridge" between the "Galactica"'s command staff and other spacecraft, including the fleet's combat air patrol.
Dualla expresses a romantic interest in President Laura Roslin's aide Billy Keikeya shortly after their first encounter aboard "Galactica". This interest blossoms into a relationship between the two, but is brought to an end when Billy proposes marriage and Dualla realizes she is not really in love with him, due in part to her attraction to "Galactica's" CAG, then-Captain Lee Adama. Billy is killed shortly thereafter in a terrorist attack aboard "Cloud Nine", saving her life from a terrorist that was about to kill her. In the year between the discovery of New Caprica and the Cylon invasion of the colony, Dualla's position in the fleet changes considerably. She is involved in the failed conspiracy with Tory Foster and Saul Tigh to fraudulently ensure Laura Roslin's presidential election victory over Gaius Baltar. Despite this, within four months, Dualla is commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. On the day after the colony's ground-breaking ceremony, Rear Admiral William Adama approves her transfer to the Battlestar "Pegasus", and Dualla accepts the marriage proposal from her new commanding officer, then-Commander Lee Adama. By the time of the Cylon invasion, she serves as executive officer of "Pegasus".
Following the destruction of "Pegasus" above New Caprica, Dualla returns to duty aboard "Galactica", working in CIC (in an as-yet unspecified capacity).
At the time of the Cylon invasion of New Caprica, Dualla is at least slightly aware of Lee Adama's feelings towards Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, and there is noticeable bad feeling between Dualla and Thrace. Following Adama and Thrace's fight after "Galactica"'s boxing competition, "the dance", she is visibly saddened by their reconciliation. Later in the season Lee reaffirms his love for her and the two greatly strengthen their relationship.
After Lee Adama questions President Roslin during Gaius Baltar's trial, Dee leaves Lee. When Lee departs "Galactica", Dee honours him with a plaque containing his CAG badges. Lee embraces Dee and jokes she "got the house". Their split is amicable and she works closely with Lee during his acting presidency and tense negotiations with the rebel Cylons holding President Roslin hostage.
After the discovery of the nuclear wasteland, Earth, she reconciled with Lee and experienced a moment of joy. Wishing to hold on to that joy as a last memory, she abruptly shoots herself in the head in front of her locker, her blood spraying over a photo of herself and Lee Adama.


Francis M. Mullen

Francis M. "Bud" Mullen, Jr. (born 14 December 1934 in New London, Connecticut) is a former Executive Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Biography.
Mullen began his life in New London, Connecticut, where after graduating from Central Connecticut State College (B.S. 1962) he served in the United States Air Force from 1953 to 1957. He became a police officer in New London, before being appointed as a FBI Special Agent in 1962.
Service with the DEA 1981-1985.
In July 1981, Mullen was designated Acting Administrator of the DEA. However, it was not until 21 January 1982 that President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to nominate Mullen as DEA Administrator, succeeding Peter Bensinger. Mullen served in an acting capacity from July 1981 until he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 30 September 1983 and sworn in as the DEA's third Administrator on 10 November 1983. He served until 1 March 1985.
After DEA.
After retiring from DEA on 1 March 1985, Mullen became the director of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Commission in Uncasville, Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun Casino. He has since retired from that position.


Jarvis Williams (defensive back)

Jarvis Eric Williams, Sr. (May 16, 1965 – May 25, 2010) was an American college and professional football player who was a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Williams played college football for the University of Florida, and was recognized as an All-American. Thereafter, he played professionally for the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants of the NFL. Williams died unexpectedly at the age of 45.
Early years.
Williams was born in Palatka, Florida in 1965. He attended Palatka High School, and was a key player for the Palatka Panthers high school football team that won the Florida Class 3A state championship in 1981.
College career.
Williams accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in nearby Gainesville, Florida, where he played cornerback for head coach Galen Hall's Florida Gators football teams from 1984 to 1987. As a freshman and sophomore, he was part of two of the best teams in Gators history; the team posted identical 9–1–1 overall win-loss records in 1984 and 1985, and the best-in-the-SEC records of 5–0–1 and 5–1 during those same seasons. Williams is often remembered for the hard-hitting tackle that he delivered to Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Melvin Bratton in 1986—a hit that left Bratton temporarily unconscious. He was named a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1986 and a first-team All-American in 1987. Williams started forty-five consecutive games over four seasons (the second-highest total in Gators history), had ten career interceptions, and led the team in tackles (77) and punt returns (20 for 222 yards) during his senior season.
He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2001.
Professional career.
Williams was chosen by the Miami Dolphins in the second round (forty-second pick overall) of the 1988 NFL Draft, and played safety for the Dolphins from to . In Miami, Williams was reunited with his former Gators teammate Louis Oliver when the Dolphins drafted Oliver in ; together they were the Dolphins' starting safeties for five seasons. In his first five NFL seasons with the Dolphins, Williams recorded fourteen interceptions, including one he returned forty-two yards for a touchdown in .
He played his final NFL season for the New York Giants in . During the season, he recorded sixty tackles and two interceptions in thirteen games.
During his seven-season NFL career, Williams played in 104 regular season games and started in ninety-five of them; he recorded 575 tackles and sixteen interceptions, with one touchdown return.
Life after the NFL.
Williams worked as a volunteer assistant football coach at Interlachen High School in Interlachen, Florida, and as an assistant coach at Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala, Florida.
Williams' son, Jarvis Eric Williams, Jr., was the starting fullback from 2009 to 2010 for the Jacksonville University Dolphins football team, and was named the 2007 Pioneer Football League Newcomer of the Year by "Street & Smith's College Football" annual as the starting Linebacker for the Dolphins in his freshman season. Williams' former Gators teammate, quarterback Kerwin Bell, was the coach of JU at the time.
Williams died suddenly and without prior warning from an acute asthma attack just before midnight on May 25, 2010; he was 45 years old.


Phoui Sananikone

Phoui Sananikone (6 September 1903 in Laos – 4 December 1983 in Paris) was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Laos on two occasions in 1950 to 1951 and again from 1958 to 1959, and also served as Foreign Minister and President of National Assembly on multiple occasions.
Early life.
Born in 1903, he was part of the Sananikones, a powerful Laotian aristocratic family. He was elected President of National Assembly from 1947 to 1950.
Premiership.
Souvanna Phouma lost a vote of confidence in the National Assembly and was forced to resign. Phoui succeeded Souvanna Phouma, and formed a new cabinet with the support of Committee for the Defence of the National Interests (CDNI) members. The Pathet Lao were no longer represented in the new pro-American government. After taking up office, Sananikone and his ministers shifted Lao policy to the right, dissolved the National Assembly, and denounced the 1954 Geneva truce. Attempts were also made to disperse and neutralize Pathet Lao soldiers who had been integrated into the Royal Lao Army (RLA) a few months earlier. He resigned under right-wing military pressure and handed all power to General Phoumi Nosavan, the head of the RLA.
Post-premiership.
He was re-elected President of National Assembly from 1963 to 1965, and from 1968 to 1974. In May 1975 he left for France after the communist takeover. In September that year was sentenced to death in his absence. He died in Paris, aged 80.


Emanuel de Witte

Emanuel de Witte (1617–1692) was a Dutch perspective painter. In contrast to Pieter Jansz Saenredam, who emphasized architectural accuracy, De Witte was more concerned with the atmosphere of his interiors. Though few in number, de Witte also produced genre paintings.
Life.
De Witte was born in Alkmaar and learned geometry from his father a schoolmaster. He joined the local Guild of St Luke in 1636. After a stay in Rotterdam, he moved to Delft and studied with Evert van Aelst. In 1651 de Witte settled in Amsterdam where his first wife, Geerje Arents, died in 1655. He then married a 23-year-old orphan, Lysbeth van der Plas, who exercised a bad influence on de Witte's adolescent daughter. In December 1659 both were arrested for theft from a neighbour. Lysbeth, pregnant, had to leave the city for a period of six years; she lived outside the city walls and died in 1663.
Following the arrest of his wife and child, de Witte was forced to indenture himself to the Amsterdam notary and art dealer Joris de Wijs, surrendering all of his work in exchange for room, board, and 800 guilders annually. De Witte broke the contract, was sued by the dealer, and forced to indenture himself further as a result. Several patrons provided de Witte with support, but these relations did not work out well, for he tended to shout at his clients and at people watching him at work in churches. Records tell of his gambling habit and a fight with Gerard de Lairesse. Around 1688 he moved in with Hendrick van Streeck, in exchange for training him as a painter of church interiors. According to Arnold Houbraken, after an argument about the rent, de Witte hanged himself from a canal bridge in 1692. The rope broke and de Witte drowned. Because the canal froze that night, his corpse was not found until eleven weeks later.
De Witte initially painted portraits as well as mythological and religious scenes. After his move from Delft to Amsterdam in 1651, de Witte specialized more and more in representing church interiors, and also he painted the old church in Amsterdam from almost every corner. He sometimes combined aspects of different churches to depict interiors of ideal churches, populating them with churchgoers, sometimes accompanied by a dog. De Witte's excellent sense of composition combined with his use of light created a powerful sense of space. According to Walter Liedtke, de Witt's "main interest was the space itself – its light, color, sheer extent, and mood – not the architecture for its own sake"; the careful arrangement of light serves to "intensify the sensation of being within a great but at the same time sheltered space."


Anthony Barbaro


Robert A. Futterman

Robert Allen Futterman (1928–1961) was an American real estate investor, developer, author, and founder of the Futterman Corporation – a publicly traded New York-based real-estate holding and development company, which he built into a $100 million nationwide enterprise prior to his sudden death in November 1961 at age 33.
From headquarter offices located in the World Diamond Building (then "Empire Trust Company Building") at 580 Fifth Avenue, Futterman operated and managed 43 properties in 23 cities, refining a real estate concept he called "double diversification" — balancing a real estate portfolio across both geographies and industries.
Futterman was a widely cited expert on urban renewal, having authored "The Future of Our Cities," published in August 1961 by Doubleday & Co — with an introduction by architect Victor Gruen. The book gives a global survey metropolitan development and redevelopment and an analysis of 17 specific U.S. cities, with a "dramatic documentation of the economic dependence of major urban centers on defense contracts and military installations."
For the breadth of work within his brief professional career, the Akron Beacon Journal in June 2008 called Futterman a real estate "boy genius."
Background.
Futterman was born in Yonkers, New York to Russian immigrants and naturalized citizens Ida and Samuel Futterman, the latter a businessman and real estate investor. Futterman was raised Jewish and after attending public high school, he attended and graduated from the University of Wisconsin "magna cum laude" in 1948. He was known to have a near photographic memory.
After graduation, Futterman married fellow University of Wisconsin student, Rosalie Schreiber (July 27, 1928 – May 26, 2010), daughter of Adolph H. Schreiber; founder of A.H. Schreiber Company and Jewish philanthropist of Rockland County. The Futtermans lived in a house designed by Rosario Candela in Harrison, NY with their five children; Shari, Michael, Evan, Miryam and Joel.
Robert Futterman died in November 1961, at age 33, suffering a heart attack after choking on a piece of meat (reported variously as a sandwich) at a dinner party at the home of friends in New York. Rosalie Futterman Goodman died at age 81 in 2010. Futterman's brother, Philip G. Futterman (1934–), became a noted New York retail specialist.
Robert A. Futterman is not related to Robert K. Futterman, Chairman & CEO of Robert K. Futterman & Associates, a New York-based real estate investment company which holds no business interest in the now defunct Futterman Corporation.
Professional career.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Futterman worked in numerous fields, including in an advertising agency, as a salesman for a dress pattern company, and as a trainee in a manufacturing and distribution concern.
His real estate career began in 1952 with a New York law firm, where he assisted in managing client properties, beginning with rent collection in several buildings razed for the Lincoln Square Project. In 1955, after going to work as a rent collector, he worked as a supervising agent for several major office buildings in New York and Philadelphia operated by the Margolin Realty Management Corporation. Futterman, along with principals from Margolin, took part in buying a midtown office building. In 1955 when he left Margolin, Futterman's had tripled his initial investment.
He subsequently he began purchasing office buildings with his own associates, forming the Futterman Corporation in 1959. Futterman would initiate a real estate deal by parameters of a city where he was considering a property, rather than focusing on a possible rate of return, saying to "never buy arithmetic, always buy basics," such factors as viewing "a city as a socioeconomic organism, with its industries, municipal policies, citizens' views of their civic duties, and the means of getting in and out of town."
In 1960 in downtown Akron, Ohio, Futterman recommended closing side streets to create pedestrian malls, the strategic placement of a 20-story office tower, and the city's first ever pedestrian bridge or "sky-walk." The sky-walk opened in June 1960, spawning a system of pedestrian bridges, siphoning pedestrian traffic from the lower streets, and contributing ultimately to the decay of the city's downtown.
His project in Norfolk, Virginia, The Golden Triangle Motor Hotel (aka Golden Triangle Center) received the 1960 National Municipal League Award.
Subsequent to his death, the Futterman Corporation became a division of Titan Industries (1966), which in turn became the Titan Group (1967), which in turn became Hannover Companies Incorporated (1985).


Bom Jesus (ship)

The Bom Jesus was a Portuguese "nau" and Indiaman that set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on Friday, March 7, 1533. Its fate was unknown until 2008, when its remains were discovered during diamond mining operations on the coast of Namibia, near Oranjemund. Today, the "Bom Jesus" is the oldest known and most valuable shipwreck ever discovered off the coast of Sub-Saharan Africa.
History of the "Bom Jesus".
Origin.
The "Bom Jesus" was a Portuguese trading vessel constructed in the early 1500's during a period of intensive expansion of the Portuguese Empire under Manuel I of Portugal. While little is known about the history of the "Bom Jesus" itself, it is speculated that the ship was part of a class of naval vessels that were larger, more efficient, and more durable than previous Portuguese and Spanish vessels in order to facilitate the longer-distance expeditions carried out by Portuguese fleets during this time. Based on the contents of the shipwreck, including an array of luxury items and currencies, archaeologist Dieter Noli and other scholars believe the ship was on course for western India from its home port in Lisbon, Portugal around the southern tip of Africa, a common route for similar Portuguese "nau" during this time that carried the same cargo. These "naus" commonly sailed in between Portugal and China, India, and Japan, often carrying valuable and exotic cargo to and from these markets such as gold, copper, spices, ivory, weaponry, and silks.
Shipwreck.
It is speculated that the "Bom Jesus" sank when it was pulled too closely to shore in a storm off the coast of Namibia, causing the ship's hull to collide with a rock and lean over, capsizing the vessel. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the coin chest from the captain's quarters of the ship were found at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of the site, likely due to the chest falling out after the hull was opened up by the initial collision. As the "Bom Jesus" moved towards shore, the superstructure and hull likely broke apart and scattered the ship and its contents across the coastline, which became accidentally scattered further during construction of the large sand retaining walls around the site. The condition that the ship was found in suggest that the storm that caused the shipwreck was especially violent, although an absence of human remains (besides a few scattered bone fragments) in the site suggest that most of the crew on board survived the wreck or died at sea.
Discovery.
Initial Discovery.
On April 1st, 2008, employee Kaapanda Shadika of the De Beers diamond company discovered a collection of copper ingots and remnants of elephant ivory while excavating an inshore area licensed to the company. Upon further inspection, archaeologist Dieter Noli, a contractor of the De Beers company, concluded that the shipwreck was of ancient origin and enlisted the help of maritime archaeologist Bruno Werz of the South African Institute of Maritime Archaeology (SAIMA). With the financial and logistical support of the Namibian government, an emergency excavation of the site began immediately, enlisting the help of SAIMA archaeologists as well as local archaeologists and conservators interested in the rarity of the discovery.
Initial Conditions of the "Bom Jesus".
Upon its initial discovery, the remains of the ship were scattered in three large sections running along the coast. According to archaeologist Francisco Alves, the contents of the shipwreck were all covered in a moist,1 meter-thick layer of "orange-layered concretion" built up from chemical, biological, and sedimentary processes in the coastal soil, helping to preserve much of the hull and wooden structure of the ship in the seawater-rich ground. A majority of the cargo was initially found scattered loosely between the three large digging sites, including copper ingots, ivory, nautical tools, and cannons that were easily able to be dug out of the sand. The remainder of the cargo discovered, such as iron ingots, weaponry, and fragments of the wooden hull, were found encased in lime and hard-packed sandy concretions. While these conditions helped to preserve and protect the contents of the ship, this concretion made their identification and recovery especially difficult for archaeologists on-site.
Excavation Efforts.
About a month after initial archaeological digging and surveying began, Bloomberg announced the discovery of the shipwreck on the internet, bringing international attention to the site and its significance, specifically the discovery of a rare Portuguese "cruzado" coin by on-site archaeologist Paulo Monterio. This international publicity put pressure on the Namibian government to seek out external sources of archaeological and scientific assistance given the urgency of the site's integrity, a result of the large sand retaining walls around the shipwreck that protected the site from ocean water, which were at risk of being eroded due to seasonal weather and damaging the ship's hull. As a result, a meeting was held between the Namibian government and other organizations interested in involvement with the excavation of the site, including delegates Filipe Castro and Donny Hamilton of the anthropology department of Texas A&M University, and representatives of the Portuguese and Spanish government who agreed to terms with the Namibian government in order to find out the true origin of the "Bom Jesus", which at this time was unknown. After brief deliberation, an Oranjemund Statement was drafted, stating that the Namibian government would allow representatives of the Texas A&M archaeology department and the Portuguese government to collaborate in the excavation of the ship, while the Namibian government would subsidize the reconstruction of the surrounding retaining walls.
Identification and Analysis of Cargo.
Catalog of Cargo.
Among the over 40 tons of cargo retrieved from the excavation site, thousands of different artifacts were recovered and cataloged, including cannons, firearms, swords, lead, tin, textiles, and astronomical devices. However, the most bountiful discoveries of the shipwreck were the collection of 1,845 copper ingots weighing approximately 16-17 tons, over 2,000 gold and silver coins from multiple contemporary maritime powers, and 105 different elephant tusks weighing close to 2 tons. The discovery was unusual in that all of the ship's contents were able to be recovered and cataloged without interference from scavengers due to the highly secure nature of De Beers mining operations in the area.
Copper Ingots.
A majority of the copper ingots found in the shipwreck have a hemispherical shape and are relatively standardized in both weight and size, leading archaeologists on the site to conclude that these copper ingots originated mostly from the same location and smelting processes. Because these copper ingots were so well preserved, as a result of their protection from ocean water by the hull of the ship, archaeologists on-site were able to study an unusual trident-shaped mark on the aged metal. These stamped trademarks on the copper ingots were found to belong to Anton Fugger of the Fugger family, tracing their origins to the Fugger Trading Company of Augsburg, Germany, one of Renaissance Europe's wealthiest companies in the world at the time. Historical documentation surrounding the Fugger Trading Company during this time indicate that Lisbon and other major Portuguese centers of trade were heavily involved in commerce with the Fugger family, explaining the discovery of such a large load of these copper ingots on board. Historical accounts of this period, as well as geochemical analyses of the copper onboard, indicate that these copper ingots were produced by the Fugger-Thurzo company in the Slovak Ore Mountains of Slovakia.
Elephant Ivory.
Because of how well the shipwreck and its contents were preserved, archaeologists and geneticists on-site were able to successfully sequence DNA from 71 percent of the 105 different elephant tusks on board using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analysis. Using isotope analysis, as well as studying the relative sizes and densities of the tusks, archaeologists concluded that these ivory sampled likely originated from West African forests and savanna elephants, corroborating with the locations of Portuguese Ivory trading posts in Africa during this time.These genetic results also indicate that the ivory aboard the "Bom Jesus" originated from around 17 different "herds" of elephants in this region. As Portugal rose to prominence as a world trading power during this time, they would follow suit of other European powers and pay for Asian commodities with African ivory, leading many scholars to believe that the ivory on board the "Bom Jesus" was on course for Indian and other Asian markets, although no records exist to prove this. As well, Portuguese merchant ships at this time were often forbidden to make stops on the West African coast to curb illegal and unregulated trade on the way to Asia, leading to many scholarly hypotheses that the ivory onboard was actually boarded from European markets and not picked up on the African coast. The establishment of a Portuguese fort at the mouth of the Dahomey Gap in Benin in 1482 suggest that ivory hunted in this region was sent to the islands of Cape Verde and São Tomé to be processed before being shipped to Lisbon, where it would embark on its journey to Asian markets.
Coinage.
Of the collection of 2,159 coins recovered from the "Bom Jesus", a majority were Spanish "Excellentes," although Portuguese, Venetian, French, and Moorish coinage was recovered as well. The presence of such a great amount of Spanish coinage onboard initially led archaeologists to believe the ship was of Spanish origin, but this hypothesis was quickly abandoned after further inspection by Portuguese archaeology crews. The inscriptions and designs on the Portuguese coinage, portraying the emblem of John II of Portugal, helped archaeologists to date the shipwreck back to the 1530's upon its initial discovery. However, the identification of the ship is approximate, due to the Portuguese archives of maritime trade activity during this time being completely destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
Preservation of the "Bom Jesus".
Currently, work is underway to preserve and display the remains of the ship and all of its cargo in a public museum in Lisbon, Portugal. However, a lack of funding and permission from Namibian authorities has kept the ship's remains on-site in Oranjemund, storing a majority of the cargo and hull of the "Bom Jesus" in saltwater tanks for preservation until they can be safely transported.


Ernest Nathan Morial

Ernest Nathan Morial, known as Dutch Morial (October 9, 1929 – December 24, 1989), was an American political figure and a leading civil rights advocate. He was the first African-American mayor of New Orleans, serving from 1978 to 1986. He was the father of Marc Morial, who subsequently served as Mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002.
Biography.
Early life and education.
Morial, a New Orleans native, grew up in the Seventh Ward in a French-Creole Catholic family.. His father was Walter Etienne Morial, a cigarmaker, and his mother was Leonie V. (Moore) Morial, a seamstress. He attended Holy Redeemer Elementary School and McDonogh No. 35 Senior High School. He graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1951. In 1954, he became the first African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Career.
Morial came to prominence as a lawyer fighting to dismantle segregation and as president of the local from 1962 to 1965. He followed in the cautious style of his mentor A.P. Tureaud in preferring to fight for Civil and political rights in courtroom battles, rather than through sit-ins and demonstrations.
After unsuccessful electoral races in 1959 and 1963, he became the first black member of the Louisiana State Legislature since Reconstruction when he was elected in 1967 to represent a district in New Orleans' Uptown neighborhood. He ran for an at-large position on New Orleans' City Council in 1969 and 1970, and lost narrowly. He then became the first black Juvenile Court judge in Louisiana in 1970. When he was elected to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in 1974, he was the first black American to have attained this position as well.
Mayorship.
In the election of 1977 he became the first African American mayor of New Orleans by defeating City Councilman Joseph V. DiRosa, a fellow Democrat allied with former Mayor Victor Schiro, by a vote of 90,500 to 84,300. Morial won with 95 percent of the black vote and 20 percent of the white vote, which came mainly from middle and upper class Uptown precincts. He won this election without the support of major local black political organizations, like SOUL and COUP. During most of the election campaign, Morial was viewed by most commentators as a spoiler candidate with little chance of victory.
Morial was a polarizing figure as mayor of New Orleans.
Morial waged long-standing political battles with the City Council, led by his archrival Sidney Barthelemy, and with COUP, Barthelemy's political organization. He spent much of his time as mayor trying to increase the strength and influence of the mayor's office over independent, state-chartered governmental bodies, like the Sewerage and Water Board and the Dock Board (the supervisory body for the Port of New Orleans), an effort he described as a democratization of city governance. He built a powerful patronage machine using unclassified city employees and used it to defeat opponents in the state legislature — including Hank Braden, Louis Charbonnet, and Nick Connor — by personally sponsoring little-known challengers. In 1978, Braden and Charbonnet competed over a vacant state senate seat, which Braden claimed by a 14-vote margin.
In his first term, Morial faced a sanitation workers’ strike and a police strike which led him to cancel the 1979 Mardi Gras parade season. The police union wagered, among its membership, that a strike coinciding with Mardi Gras would force the city to grant many of their demands, but Morial refused to give in and was supported by leaders of many of the city's Carnival krewes. The New Orleans krewes either canceled their parades that year or moved them to suburbs in other parishes. Emblematic of Morial's hard-line stance toward the police strikers was the Napoleonic gesture he made by placing his arm inside his coat and striking a characteristically pugnacious pose at the announcement that he was canceling Mardi Gras .
Most of Morial's achievements occurred in his first term as mayor. Expanding upon the efforts of his predecessor Moon Landrieu, Morial redoubled the city's commitment to affirmative action in hiring city workers and introduced minority hiring quotas for city contractors. The proportion of black employees on the city's workforce increased from 40% in 1977 to 53% in 1985 under Morial's tenure. Under Morial's administration the number of black officers in the NOPD was increased to make up one third of the force. But continued incidents of police brutality — most notably the police killing of four blacks in Algiers in 1980 — damaged Morial's reputation in the black community.
Morial was responsible for getting federal Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) funding for several major projects, including Canal Place and the Jax Brewery development in the French Quarter. He continued to support previous mayor Moon Landrieu’s emphasis on tourism and tried to diversify the economy by developing the Almonaster-Michoud Industrial District in New Orleans East, now called the New Orleans Regional Business Park. Downtown New Orleans underwent an impressive building boom, with multiple office towers constructed to house the headquarters, or large regional offices, for companies such as Freeport-McMoRan, Pan American Life Insurance, Exxon, Chevron, Gulf Oil, Amoco, Mobil, Murphy Oil and Texaco. By the mid-1980s these firms, with other large employers, such as Royal Dutch Shell, Louisiana Land and Exploration and McDermott International, employed thousands of white collar workers downtown, with thousands more employed by others providing services to them. Due to a multitude of factors, including the Oil Bust (1986), inexorable corporate mergers and downsizings, and less-than-effective support from subsequent administrations' economic development departments, none of these firms, or their successors, maintain a large presence in New Orleans today — apart from Shell and Pan American Life Insurance.
Morial won his second term in a March 1982 runoff election with fellow Democrat, Ron Faucheux, a young white Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from New Orleans East. Morial prevailed, 100,703 votes (53.2 percent) to Faucheux's 88,583 (46.8 percent). Faucheux later became a nationally known political consultant and pundit.
By Morial's second term the city's economy was slowing and increased conflict with the City Council led to a decrease in the ability of the Morial administration to govern effectively. The 1984 World's Fair, which transpired midway through Morial's second term, was an embarrassing financial debacle that was negatively remarked upon nationally. The World's Fair declared bankruptcy while still operating and failed to pay many contractors, mortally wounding numerous New Orleans-based design and construction companies. More generally, the financial failure of the World's Fair severely undermined the community's morale and ominously presaged the hard times of 1986's Oil Bust.
Later life and death.
After serving two terms as mayor, Morial was prevented by the city charter from seeking a third term. He twice tried to convince voters to change the charter to allow him to run again, but both proposals were soundly defeated.
Morial's political strength did not end after he left City Hall in 1986. He considered running for mayor again in the election of 1990, and his sudden death in 1989 during the election campaign influenced Mayor Barthelemy's re-election, since Morial died before he could endorse an opponent.
Legacy.
New Orleans renamed its convention center, which spans over 10 blocks, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in 1992 for the late mayor. The convention center has been a major economic engine for the city's large tourist industry and, in 2005, became a highly publicized national symbol when it served as a makeshift evacuation center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
In 1997, the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center posthumously honored Morial with the dedication of the Ernest N. Morial Asthma, Allergy and Respiratory Disease Center. The facility is Louisiana's first comprehensive center for the education, prevention, treatment and research of asthma and other respiratory diseases. "Dutch" suffered and eventually died from complications associated with asthma.
Morial was the 23rd general president of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans.
In 1993, Morial was named one of the first thirteen inductees into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, the first African American so honored.
A public school in New Orleans East was named after him: Ernest N. Morial Elementary.


Francis William Billado

Francis William Billado (March 3, 1907 – September 13, 1966) was a Vermont attorney and military officer who served as Adjutant General of the Vermont National Guard.
Early life.
Francis W. Billado was born in Rutland, Vermont on March 3, 1907. He graduated from Norwich University in 1933, and was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity. He then studied law, attained admission to the bar, and became an attorney in Rutland.
Start of military career.
Billado joined the Vermont National Guard's 172nd Infantry Regiment, 43rd Infantry Division in 1923. He continued to serve during his high school and college years, and received his commission in 1933. He maintained his membership in the military after beginning his law practice.
He was mobilized for World War II and commanded 1st Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment. He also carried out staff assignments with the 43rd Infantry Division, War Department General Staff, I Armored Corps in the North African Campaign and Seventh United States Army during the invasion of Sicily.
Post-World War II.
After the war Billado returned to practicing law in Rutland. A Republican, he served in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1947, 1953, and 1955. He also served in local offices, including President of the Rutland School Board.
Billado also continued to serve in the National Guard, becoming Lieutenant Colonel and second in command of the 172nd Infantry Regiment in 1946.
Billado's military education included completion of the United States Army Command and General Staff College.
Adjutant General.
In 1955 the Vermont General Assembly elected Billado Adjutant General. (Since the 1860s, the Vermont General Assembly elects the Adjutant General for a two-year term. Elections take place in February of each odd-numbered year, and terms start in March.) He was promoted to Major General, and served until his death. Billado resided in Burlington after becoming Adjutant General.
In 1957 Billado made national headlines when he called for the firing of Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson after Wilson called the National Guard a haven for "draft dodgers" during the Korean War.
Death and burial.
Billado died suddenly at his home in Burlington on September 13, 1966 as the result of accidentally choking on a piece of food. He was buried in Colchester's Fort Ethan Allen Cemetery, across the road from the Vermont National Guard headquarters at Camp Johnson.
Awards.
Billado was a recipient of the Legion of Merit, Army Commendation Medal, and Vermont Distinguished Service Medal. In addition, he received the American Campaign Medal, American Defense Medal, World War II Victory Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with Battle Star, and Armed Forces Reserve Medal with gold and bronze hourglass devices.
Additional honors.
The National Guard armory in Williston, Vermont was named for him.
Billado was a member of the Lake Champlain Yacht Club. In his honor the club created the Billado Trophy, awarded annually to the club member whose boat finishes first on corrected time in the seasonal handicap races sailed with novice crews.
Family.
In 1938 Billado married Ruth Bourquin (1908–2005). They had three children: Francis William, Barrie Lynne (Cohen), and Virginia Helen (Farrell).


Mass suicide

Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves.
Overview.
Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of depressed or hopeless people. Mass suicides have been used as a form of political protest, which shows that they can also be used as a statement making tool.
Attitudes to mass suicide change according to place and circumstance. People who resort to mass suicide rather than submit to what they consider an intolerable oppression sometimes become the focus of a heroic myth. Such mass suicides might also win the grudging respect of the victors. On the other hand, the act of people resorting to mass suicide without being threatened – especially, when driven to this step by a charismatic religious leader, for reasons which often seem obscure – tends to be regarded far more negatively.
Religiously motivated suicides.
Known suicides.
Peoples Temple (1978).
On November 18, 1978, 918 Americans died in Peoples Temple–related incidents, including 909 members of the Temple, led by Jim Jones, in Jonestown, Guyana. The dead included 276 children. A tape of the Temple's final meeting in a Jonestown pavilion contains repeated discussions of the group committing "revolutionary suicide", including reference to people taking the poison and the vats to be used.
On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Member of Congress Leo Ryan, NBC reporter Don Harris and three others at a nearby airstrip. When members apparently cried, Jones counseled "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity." At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: "We didn't commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."
The people in Jonestown died of an apparent cyanide poisoning, except for Jones (who died of an injury consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound) and his personal nurse. The Temple had spoken of committing "revolutionary suicide" in prior instances, and members had previously drunk what Jones told them was poison at least once before, but the "Flavor Aid" drink they ingested at that time contained no poison. Concurrently, four other members died in the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown. Four months later, Michael Prokes, one of the initial survivors, also committed suicide.
Solar Temple (1994–97).
From 1994 to 1997, the Order of the Solar Temple's members began a series of mass suicides, which led to roughly 74 deaths. Farewell letters were left by members, stating that they believed their deaths would be an escape from the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world". Added to this they felt they were "moving on to Sirius". Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over $1 million to the group's leader, Joseph Di Mambro.
There was also another attempted mass suicide of the remaining members, which was thwarted in the late 1990s. All the suicide/murders and attempts occurred around the dates of the equinoxes and solstices, which likely held some relation to the beliefs of the group.
Heaven's Gate (1997).
From March 24 to 27, 1997, 39 followers of Heaven's Gate died in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, which borders San Diego to the north. These people believed, according to the teachings of their group, that through their suicides they were "exiting their human vessels" so that their souls could go on a journey aboard a spaceship they believed to be following comet Hale–Bopp. Some male members of the group underwent voluntary castration in preparation for the genderless life they believed awaited them after the suicide.
In May 1997, two Heaven's Gate members who had not been present for the mass suicide attempted suicide, one succeeding, the other becoming comatose for two days and then recovering. In February 1998, the survivor, Chuck Humphrey, committed suicide.
Adam House.
In 2007, in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, a family of nine, all members of a novel "Adam's cult", committed mass suicide by hurling themselves under a train. Diaries recovered from the victims' home, "Adam House", related they wanted a pure life as lived by Adam and Eve, freeing themselves from bondage to any religion and refused contact with any outsiders. After leaving Islam, they did not partake in Christian ceremonies and they even used to worship Kali sometimes, practically out of boundaries of any particular religion.
Burari Deaths
The Burari deaths, also "Burari case" and "Burari kand", refers to the deaths of eleven family members of the Chundawat family from Burari, India, in 2018. Ten family members were found hanged, while the oldest family member, the grandmother, was strangled. The bodies were found on 1 July 2018; in the early morning after the death. The police have ruled the deaths as mass suicide, with an angle of shared psychosis being investigated.
Disputed religiously motivated suicides.
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (2000).
On March 17, 2000, 778 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in Uganda. The theory that all of the members died in a mass suicide was changed to mass murder when decomposing bodies were discovered in pits with signs of strangulation while others had stab wounds. The group had diverged from the Roman Catholic Church in order to emphasize apocalypticism and alleged Marian apparitions. The group had been called an inward-looking movement that wore matching uniforms and restricted their speech to avoid saying anything dishonest or sinful. On the suicide itself locals said they held a party at which 70 crates of soft drinks and three bulls were consumed. This version of events has been criticized, most notably by Irving Hexham, and a Ugandan source states that even today "no one can really explain the whys, hows, whats, where, when, etcetera."
Training centre for release of the Atma-energy.
This sect was originally a splinter group of the Brahma Kumaris and is known for a police and media scare in which an alleged attempt to commit ritual suicide took place in Teide National Park in Tenerife in 1998.


Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.
Human Rights Watch in 1997 shared in the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and it played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions.
The organization's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011, $69.2 million in 2014, and $75.5 million in 2017.
History.
Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein and Aryeh Neier as a private American NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor the then-Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of publicly "naming and shaming" abusive governments through media coverage and through direct exchanges with policymakers. By shining the international spotlight on human rights violations in the Soviet Union and its European partners, Helsinki Watch says it contributed to the democratic transformations of the region in the late 1980s.
Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody civil wars engulfed Central America. Relying on extensive on-the-ground fact-finding, Americas Watch not only addressed perceived abuses by government forces but also applied international humanitarian law to investigate and expose war crimes by rebel groups. In addition to raising its concerns in the affected countries, Americas Watch also examined the role played by foreign governments, particularly the United States government, in providing military and political support to abusive regimes.
Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1988) and Middle East Watch (1989) were added to what was known as "The Watch Committees". In 1988, all of these committees were united under one umbrella to form Human Rights Watch.
Profile.
Pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Human Rights Watch (HRW) opposes violations of what are considered basic human rights under the UDHR. This includes capital punishment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. HRW advocates freedoms in connection with fundamental human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press. HRW seeks to achieve change by publicly pressuring governments and their policymakers to curb human rights abuses, and by convincing more powerful governments to use their influence on governments that violate human rights.
Human Rights Watch publishes research reports on violations of international human rights norms as set out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and what it perceives to be other internationally accepted, human-rights norms. These reports are used as the basis for drawing international attention to abuses and pressuring governments and international organizations to reform. Researchers conduct fact-finding missions to investigate suspect situations also using diplomacy, staying in touch with victims, making files about public and individuals, and providing required security for them in critical situations and in a proper time generate coverage in local and international media. Issues raised by Human Rights Watch in its reports include social and gender discrimination, torture, military use of children, political corruption, abuses in criminal justice systems, and the legalization of abortion. HRW has documented and reported various violations of the laws of war and international humanitarian law.
Human Rights Watch also supports writers worldwide, who are being persecuted for their work and are in need of financial assistance. The Hellman/Hammett grants are financed by the estate of the playwright Lillian Hellman in funds set up in her name and that of her long-time companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammett. In addition to providing financial assistance, the Hellman/Hammett grants help raise international awareness of activists who are being silenced for speaking out in defence of human rights.
Each year, Human Rights Watch presents the Human Rights Defenders Award to activists around the world who demonstrate leadership and courage in defending human rights. The award winners work closely with HRW in investigating and exposing human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch was one of six international NGOs that founded the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998. It is also the co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global coalition of civil society groups that successfully lobbied to introduce the Ottawa Treaty, a treaty that prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines.
Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a global network of non-governmental organizations that monitor censorship worldwide. It also co-founded the Cluster Munition Coalition, which brought about an international convention banning the weapons. HRW employs more than 275 staff—country experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics—and operates in more than 90 countries around the world. Headquartered in New York City, it has offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, Seoul, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Zürich. HRW maintains direct access to the majority of countries it reports on. Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Iran, Israel, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Venezuela are among the handful of countries that have blocked access for HRW staff members.
The current executive director of HRW is Kenneth Roth, who has held the position since 1993. Roth conducted investigations on abuses in Poland after martial law was declared 1981. He later focused on Haiti, which had just emerged from the Duvalier dictatorship but continued to be plagued with problems. Roth's awareness of the importance of human rights began with stories his father had told about escaping Nazi Germany in 1938. Roth graduated from Yale Law School and Brown University.
Comparison with Amnesty International.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are the only two Western-oriented international human rights organizations operating in most situations of severe oppression or abuse worldwide. The major differences lie in the group's structure and methods for promoting change.
Amnesty International is a mass-membership organization. Mobilization of those members is the organization's central advocacy tool. Human Rights Watch's main products are its crisis-directed research and lengthy reports, whereas Amnesty International lobbies and writes detailed reports, but also focuses on mass letter-writing campaigns, adopting individuals as "prisoners of conscience" and lobbying for their release. Human Rights Watch will openly lobby for specific actions for other governments to take against human rights offenders, including naming specific individuals for arrest, or for sanctions to be levied against certain countries, recently calling for punitive sanctions against the top leaders in Sudan who have overseen a killing campaign in Darfur. The group has also called for human rights activists who have been detained in Sudan to be released.
Its documentations of human rights abuses often include extensive analyses of the political and historical backgrounds of the conflicts concerned, some of which have been published in academic journals. AI's reports, on the other hand, tend to contain lesser analyses, and instead focus on specific abuses of rights.
In 2010, "The Times" of London wrote that HRW has "all but eclipsed" Amnesty International. According to "The Times", instead of being supported by a mass membership, as AI is, HRW depends on wealthy donors who like to see the organization's reports make headlines. For this reason, according to "The Times", HRW tends to "concentrate too much on places that the media already cares about", especially in disproportionate coverage of Israel.
Financing and services.
For the financial year ending June 2008, HRW reported receiving approximately US$44 million in public donations. In 2009, Human Rights Watch stated that they receive almost 75% of their financial support from North America, 25% from Western Europe and less than 1% from the rest of the world.
According to a 2008 financial assessment, HRW reports that it does not accept any direct or indirect funding from governments and is financed through contributions from private individuals and foundations.
Financier and philanthropist George Soros of the Open Society Foundations announced in 2010 his intention to grant US$100 million to HRW over a period of ten years to help it expand its efforts internationally: "to be more effective," he said, "I think the organization has to be seen as more international, less an American organization." He said, "Human Rights Watch is one of the most effective organizations I support. Human rights underpin our greatest aspirations: they're at the heart of open societies." The donation increases Human Rights Watch's operating staff of 300 by 120 people. The donation was the largest in the organization's history.
Charity Navigator gave Human Rights Watch a three-star rating overall for 2018. Its financial rating increased from three stars in 2015 to the maximum four as of June 2016. The Better Business Bureau said Human Rights Watch meets its standards for charity accountability.
Human Rights Watch published the following program and support services spending details for the financial year ending June 2011.
Human Rights Watch published the following program and support services spending details for the financial year ending June 2008.
Notable staff.
Some notable current and former staff members of Human Rights Watch:
Publications.
Human Rights Watch publishes reports on many different topics and compiles an annual "World Report" presenting an overview of the worldwide state of human rights. It has been published by Seven Stories Press since 2006; the current edition, "World Report 2020", was released in January 2020, and covers events of 2019. "World Report 2020", HRW's 30th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, includes reviews of human rights practices and trends in nearly 100 countries, and an introductory essay by HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth "China's Global Threat to Human Rights". Human Rights Watch has reported extensively on subjects such as the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Democratic Republic of the Congo and US sex offender registries due to their over-breadth and application to juveniles.
In the summer of 2004, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York became the depository institution for the Human Rights Watch Archive, an active collection that documents decades of human rights investigations around the world. The archive was transferred from its previous location at the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The archive includes administrative files, public relations documents, as well as case and country files. With some exceptions for security considerations, the Columbia University community and the public have access to field notes, taped and transcribed interviews with alleged victims of human rights violations, video and audiotapes, and other materials documenting the organization's activities since its founding in 1978 as Helsinki Watch. However, significant parts of the HRW archive are not open to researchers or to the public, including the records of the meetings of the board of directors, the executive committee, and the various subcommittees, limiting historians' ability to understand the organization's internal decision-making.
Criticism.
HRW has been criticized for perceived bias by the national governments it has investigated for human rights abuses, by NGO Monitor, and by HRW's founder, and former Chairman, Robert L. Bernstein. Bias allegations have included undue influence by United States government policy, and claims that HRW is biased against Israel (and focuses undue attention on the Arab–Israeli conflict). HRW has also been criticized for poor research methodology and lax fact-checking, and ignoring the human-rights abuses of less-open regimes. HRW has routinely publicly addressed, and often denies, criticism of its reporting and findings.
According to Democracy Now, HRW has also been criticized for having a 'revolving door' with the U.S. government, a charge which HRW disputes.
In 2020, the HRW Board of Directors discovered that Human Rights Watch accepted a $470,000 donation from Saudi real estate magnate Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, owner of a company HRW "had previously identified as complicit in labor rights abuse", under the condition that the donation not be used to support LGBT advocacy in the Middle East and North Africa. The gift was returned and Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying that accepting the funding was a "deeply regrettable decision" in response to investigative reporting from The Intercept regarding the donation.
In August 2020, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth was sanctioned—together with the heads of four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers—by the Chinese government for supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The leaders of the five organizations saw the sanctioning, whose details were unspecified, as a tit-for-tat measure in response to the earlier sanctioning by the U.S. of 11 Hong Kong officials. The latter step had in turn been a reaction to the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law at the end of June.


The Primrose Path (Stoker novel)

The Primrose Path is an 1875 novel by Bram Stoker. It was the writer's first novel, published 22 years before "Dracula" and serialized in five installments in "The Shamrock", a weekly Irish magazine, from February 6, 1875 to March 6, 1875.
Plot summary.
Jerry O'Sullivan, honest Dublin theatrical carpenter, moves to London, seeking a better job. Against the better judgement of the people surrounding him, Jerry decides to go to the metropolis with his faithful wife Katey. O'Sullivan is hired as head carpenter in a squalid theatre in London, but after several misfortunes he is strongly tempted by and eventually brought down by alcohol. Unjustly suspecting his wife of infidelity, he murders her with a hammer and then cuts his throat with a chisel.


French cruiser Sully

The French cruiser "Sully" was one of five armored cruisers of the that were built for the French Navy () in the early 1900s. Fitted with a mixed armament of and guns, the ships were designed for service with the battle fleet. Completed in 1904, "Sully" joined her sister ships in the Northern Squadron (), although she was transferred to the Far East shortly afterwards. The ship struck a rock in Hạ Long Bay, French Indochina in 1905, only eight months after she was completed, and was a total loss.
Design and description.
The "Gloire"-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding by Emile Bertin. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of . They displaced . Their crew numbered 25 officers and 590 enlisted men.
The sisters' propulsion machinery consisted of three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft, using steam provided by water-tube boilers, but the types of machinery differed between them. "Sully" had three-cylinder engines fed by 28 Belleville boilers that were designed to produce a total of intended to give them a maximum speed of . During her sea trials on 23 May 1903, the ship reached from . The cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of at a speed of .
Armament and armor.
The main battery of the "Gloire" class consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 194 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns mounted in single-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised eight QF 164.7 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns and six QF Canon de Modèle de 1893 guns. Half of the 164.7 mm guns were in two singe-gun wing turrets on each broadside and all of the remaining guns were on single mounts in casemates in the hull. For defense against torpedo boats, they carried eighteen and four Hotchkiss guns, all of which were in single mounts. The sisters were also armed with five torpedo tubes, of which two were submerged and three above water. Two of these were on each broadside and the fifth tube was in the stern. All of the above-water tubes were on pivot mounts. The ships varied in the number of naval mines that they could carry and "Sully" was fitted with storage for 10.
The "Gloire" class were the first French armored cruisers to have their waterline armored belt made from Harvey face-hardened armor plates. The belt ranged in thickness from . Because of manufacturing limitations, the thinner end plates were nickel steel. Behind the belt was a cofferdam, backed by a longitudinal watertight bulkhead. The upper armored deck met the top of the belt and had a total thickness of while the lower armored deck curved down to meet the bottom of the belt and had a uniform thickness of .
The main-gun turrets were protected by of Harvey armor, but their barbettes used plates of ordinary steel. The face and sides of the secondary turrets were thick and the plates protecting their barbettes were thick. The casemates protecting the 100-millimeter guns also had a thickness of 102 millimeters. The face and sides of the conning tower were 174 millimeters thick.
Construction and career.
"Sully", named after the statesman Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, was authorized in the 1898 Naval Program and was ordered from Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée on 24 May 1899. The ship was laid down on that same day at their shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer, launched on 4 June 1901, and completed in June 1904.
The ship was sent to French Indochina for her first commission. On 7 February 1905 "Sully" struck a rock in Hạ Long Bay; her crew was not injured. Her guns and equipment were salvaged, but the ship broke in two and was abandoned as a total loss.


Emanuel Mohn

Emanuel Meyer Mohn (15 February 1842 – 26 April 1891) was a Norwegian educator, mountain climber and illustrator. He was known for writing about and illustrating mountains in Norway.

Biography.
He was born in Bergen to Albert Henrik Mohn (1811–1894) and Ida Neumann (1814–1864). He was a brother of Henrik and Jakob Mohn, and on the maternal side he was a grandson of bishop Jacob Neumann. He did not marry. He was a grand-uncle of Frank and Albert Henrik Mohn, and an uncle-in-law of Nils Yngvar Ustvedt.
He enrolled in higher education during 1864 at the University of Christiania and graduated with the cand.mag. degree in 1869. He worked as a school teacher in Bergen, Stavanger, Christiania and Aalesund before holding his final job at Bergen Cathedral School from 1884 to 1889. He is best known as a contributor to the popularity of outdoors life in Norway, specifically mountaineering. He wrote in the yearbook of the Norwegian Trekking Association between 1871 and his death, and was also an illustrator. He ascended several mountains, but one of the downpoints came when he, trekking together with William Cecil Slingsby, did not manage to first ascend the Store Skagastølstind. He does hold co-credit for the first ascent of other mountains, such as Torfinnstindene.
Mohn also travelled to other countries, partly in order to improve his health. He still struggled, however, with both physical and mental problems. He committed suicide by drowning in April 1891 in Utne.


Piggy Piggy

"Piggy Piggy" is the sixth episode of the of the television series "American Horror Story", which premiered on the network FX on November 9, 2011. The episode was written by supervising producer Jessica Sharzer and directed by Michael Uppendahl. This episode is rated TV-MA (LV).
Piggy Piggy was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special, and for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie.
In this episode, Ben (Dylan McDermott) sees a patient who fears an urban legend about a man who slaughters those who say a special mantra into a mirror. Eric Stonestreet guest stars as Derek, Ben's patient.
Plot.
Flashing back to 1994, Tate shoots and kills several students in a school shooting, including the five teenagers seen in the previous episode. A SWAT team later storms the Langdon household, looking to arrest Tate. Tate pulls a gun and is shot dead by the SWAT team. All this occurs in the Murder House (then owned by Constance).
After Violet finds out that Tate killed the teenagers, Constance introduces her to a medium, Billie Dean Howard. Billie and Constance explain that Tate is unaware that he is dead; Constance has been sending him to Ben, hoping it will help him pass on and they need Violet’s help.
Ben sees a new patient, named Derek, who is terrified by urban legends, including "Piggy Man", who will slaughter anyone who repeats a specific mantra in the mirror. Ben also begins noticing that Vivien has developed an attraction to the security officer Luke.
Constance and Moira convince Vivien to eat sweetbreads to help with the pregnancy. Vivien contacts the ultrasound technician who fainted during the ultrasound, who claims that she saw that the baby is the Devil.
Taking Ben's advice to face his fear, Derek repeats the mantra in his bathroom mirror, but is shot and killed by an armed burglar hiding in his shower. Violet tries to confront Tate in the basement, but is mobbed by the other ghosts. Overwhelmed, she attempts suicide by taking several sleeping pills, but Tate attempts to save her by forcing her to vomit the pills.
Later, Tate tearfully confesses that he loves her and cannot understand why she has turned cold towards him. He plans to leave her alone if that's what she wants, but she comforts him. Constance speaks to Addie through Billie Dean and learns that Addie is glad she was not revived as a ghost because she now fears to be near Tate, after learning what he did.
Cultural references.
The scene in which Tate puts a finger gun to his head when the SWAT team storms his bedroom is a reference to the 1976 film "Taxi Driver", in which the film's protagonist Travis Bickle does the same when found by police following his shooting spree.
Production.
The episode was written by supervising producer Jessica Sharzer, and directed by Michael Uppendahl.
On creating the character of Billie Dean and her "gift", series co-creator Ryan Murphy relates his own experience with a medium, "When we created her, all of us in the writer's room have had some experience with psychics or not. I'm somebody that was very skeptical until I went to a woman who [asked] me out of nowhere, 'Is your father ill?' and I said, 'No. He just had a physical and he's fine.' She said, 'You need to tell him to go back.' So he did go back and they found prostate cancer and he died two years later. So Billie Dean was inspired a large part by that experience. We are saying that, yes, she is legitimate."
Reception.
Rotten Tomatoes reports an 89% approval rating, based on 9 reviews. Carissa Pavlica of TV Fanatic gave the episode 4.7 out of 5 stars, saying, "I have absolutely no idea what is happening on "American Horror Story" and I love every moment of it." "The Star-Ledger" James Queally said, ""Piggy Piggy" contains more good than bad, but it also has a lot of scenes that require me to take a wait-and-see approach."
In its original American broadcast, "Piggy Piggy" was seen by an estimated 2.83 million household viewers and gained a 1.6 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.


The Girl with Nine Wigs

The Girl with Nine Wigs () is a 2013 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Marc Rothemund, based on the autobiography "Heute bin ich blond: Das Mädchen mit den neun Perücken" by .


Suicide in Switzerland

Switzerland had a standardised suicide rate of 10.7 per 100,000 (male 15.5, female 6.0) as of 2015.
The actual (non-standardised) rate was 12.5 (male 18.5, female 6.6) in 2014.
Statistics.
The 2015 Swiss suicide rate of 10.7 (male 15.5, female 6.0) published by the World Health Organization is "age-standardised", attempting to control for differences in age structure for the purposes of international comparison.
The standardised Swiss suicide rate is similar to the rates of neighbouring France (12.7; male 19.0, female 5.9), Austria (11.7; male 18.5, female 5.3) and Germany (9.1; male 14.5, female 4.5). It is somewhat below the European average of 11.93, and close to the global average of 10.67.
The raw (non-standardised) Swiss suicide rate is somewhat higher; in 2014, 1,029 people committed non-assisted suicide (754 men, 275 women), for a rate of 12.5 per 100,000 (18.5 male, 6.6 female).
Not included are 742 assisted suicides (320 men, 422 women); most of the assisted suicides concerned elderly people suffering from a terminal disease.
The Swiss statistics of causes of death by years of potential life lost (YPLL) as of 2014 estimates suicides at 12,323 YPLL for men (12% of YPLL from all causes of death) and 4,750 YPLL for women (8% of YPLL from all causes of death). Standardised rates of YPLL per 100,000 people relative to the 2010 European standard population (Eurostat 2013) are 327.0 for men (29 hours per capita) and 128.6 (11 hours per capita) for women.
The suicide rate has declined steadily during the 1980s to 2000s, down from 25 in the mid 1980s. Since ca. 2010, the downward trend has stopped and there has been no further significant reduction in suicide rates.
The peak in the 1980s was preceded by a historically low rate of 17 in the 1960s.
The male-to-female gender ratio has been reduced from 6:1 in the late 19th century to about 2.5:1 today. In 1881, male suicide rate was at 42, close to 2.5 times the modern value, while female suicide rate was at 7, comparable to the modern value.
The Swiss cantons with the highest suicide rates for the period 2001–2010 were Appenzell Ausserrhoden for men (37) and canton of Schaffhausen for women (10); the canton with the lowest suicide rate was Italian-speaking Ticino (male 14, female 5), consistent with lower rates in southern Europe, but still notably higher than the rate in neighbouring Italy (at 5.4 as of 2015).
A statistic of suicide methods compiled for the period of 2001–2012 found that the preferred suicide method for men was by shooting (29.7%), followed by hanging (28.7%), poison (16.5%), jumping from a height (9.8%) and by train (7.9%). The statistics for women are markedly different, the most preferred method being poison (38.8%), and higher rates for jumping from a height (16.0%) and suicide by train (9.5%), but lower rates for hanging (18.5%) and shooting (3.0%).
Assisted suicide.
In 2014, a total of 742 assisted suicides (320 men, 422 women) had been recorded, or 1.2% of deaths in the resident population of Switzerland.
This amounts to an increase of more than 250% compared to 2009; while the total suicide rate has been declining since the 1980s, assisted suicides have increased significantly since 2000.
In 94% of cases, the people opting for assisted suicide were above 55 years of age, and in the majority of cases they were suffering from a terminal disease (42% cancer, 14% neurodegeneration (e.g. Parkinson's), 11% cardiovascular diseases, 10% musculoskeletal disorders). The rate was highest in the canton of Zürich (1.4% of deaths), followed by Geneva (1.3%).
Assisted suicide has been legal since 1941 if performed by a non-physician without a vested interest in that individual's death.
The law prohibits doctors, spouses, children, or other such related parties from directly participating in one's death.
Many citizens from other countries cross over into Switzerland to end their lives. In 2011, a proposed ban of this practice of "suicide tourism"
was rejected by popular vote in the canton of Zürich with a 78% majority.
The laws regulating assisted suicide do not limit the practice to the terminally ill, it is only necessary that the person seeking assisted suicide does so while in full possession of their decision-making capacity (and indeed the statistics on assisted suicide show a minority of cases citing depression as relevant illness).
The Swiss government in 2011 nevertheless announced its intention to seek a change in its laws "to make sure it was used only as a last resort by the terminally ill". Dignitas, a Swiss group that facilitates suicide, requires that patients provide specific doctor's proof and prognosis in writing specifying terminal illness.
Publicized cases.
In January 2006 British doctor Anne Turner took her own life in a Zurich clinic having developed an incurable degenerative disease. Her story was reported by the BBC and later, in 2009, made into a TV film "A Short Stay in Switzerland".
In July 2009, British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan died together at a suicide clinic outside Zürich "under circumstances of their own choosing". Sir Edward was not terminally ill, but his wife was diagnosed with rapidly developing cancer.
Cantonal referendums.
In May 2011, Canton Zurich held a referendum that asked voters whether (i) assisted suicide should be prohibited outright; and (ii) whether Dignitas and other assisted suicide providers should not admit overseas users. Zurich voters heavily rejected both bans, despite anti-euthanasia lobbying from two Swiss social conservative political parties, the Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland and Federal Democratic Union. The outright ban proposal was rejected by 84% of voters, while 78% voted to keep services open should overseas users require them.


Piet Alexander Tallo

Piet Alexander Tallo (27 April 1942 - 25 April 2009) was an Indonesian politician. He was governor of East Nusa Tenggara in 1998-2008. Because he was seriously ill since 2007, the governor often handed tasks over to his vice governor, Frans Lebu Raya, who was elected as governor through the election in 2008. He received a law degree from the Gadjah Mada University in 1970. Tallo also served as regent of South Central Timor Regency in 1983-1993. Tallo died from an acute asthma attack on 25 April 2009.