Cy Endfield

Cyril Raker Endfield (November 10, 1914 – April 16, 1995) was an American screenwriter, director, author, magician and inventor. Having been named as a Communist at a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing and subsequently blacklisted, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1953, where he spent the remainder of his career.
Early life.
Endfield was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a Jewish immigrant father whose business was hit hard by the Great Depression. He attended Yale University.
Career in the U.S..
Endfield began his career as a theatre director and drama coach, becoming a significant figure in New York's progressive theatre scene. It was largely through a shared interest in magic that Orson Welles became aware of him, and recruited him as an apprentice for Mercury Productions (then based at RKO Pictures). One of his independent films was "Inflation" (1942), a 15-minute commission for the Office of War Information that was rejected as being anti-capitalist.
The debacle surrounding the production of "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942) ended with the expulsion of the Mercury team from the RKO lot. Endfield signed on as a contract director at MGM where he directed a variety of shorts (including the last films in the long-running "Our Gang" series), before freelancing on low-budget productions for Monogram and other independents. He served in the Army during World War II.
It was with the film noir "The Underworld Story" (1950), a United Artists independent production, that Endfield first received significant critical and studio attention. The film was a major leap from anything he had previously produced in regards to budget and social commentary, constituting a coruscating attack on press corruption which could equally be taken as a wider attack on the McCarthyite ideology of the times. He followed this with the film often cited as his masterpiece, "The Sound of Fury" (aka "Try And Get Me!") (1950), a lynching thriller based on a true story. Except for the lynching scene, the film was not well received by critics. It was with these two films that Endfield's signature approach to character developed, pessimistic without being uncompassionate.
Career in the United Kingdom.
In 1951 Endfield was named as a Communist at a HUAC hearing. Subsequently blacklisted and without work, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1953, where, under various pseudonyms (to avoid complications with releases in the U.S.), he continued his career. He would often cast fellow blacklistees in his films, such as Lloyd Bridges and Sam Wanamaker. Three films - "The Limping Man" (1953), "Impulse" (1954), and "Child in the House" (1956) - list Charles de la Tour (a documentary filmmaker) as co-director because the ACT (Association of Cinematograph Technicians) insisted Endfield, who was not a full member of the union, could only direct in the UK if he had a British director on set as a standby." Hell Drivers" (1957) was the first project he released under his real name and earned him his first BAFTA nomination, for Best British Screenplay. His 1961 film "Mysterious Island" featured special effects by Ray Harryhausen.
One of his most notable films was "Zulu" (1964), a war epic depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War of the 1870s. This was followed by "Sands of the Kalahari" (1965) with Susannah York. After a few more independent productions he withdrew from directing films in 1971, his final film being "Universal Soldier", in which he made a cameo appearance alongside Germaine Greer. In 1979 he wrote the non-fiction book "Zulu Dawn", which tells the story of the disastrous Battle of Isandlwana and the events which led up to the battle. A film adaptation of the book was released that same year, co-written by Endfield and directed by Douglas Hickox.
Death.
Endfield died in 1995 at the age of 80 at Shipston-on-Stour, in Warwickshire, England. His body was buried at Highgate Cemetery in London.
Legacy.
Endfield is co-credited with Chris Rainey for a pocket-sized/miniature computer with a chorded keypad that allows rapid typing without a bulky single-stroke keyboard. It functions like a musical instrument by pressing combinations of keys that he called a "Microwriter" to generate a full alphanumeric character set. It is currently under further development, as "CyKey", for PC and Palm PDA, by Endfield's former partner, Chris Rainey and Bellaire Electronics. CyKey is named after Cy Endfield.
British magician Michael Vincent credits Endfield as one of his biggest influences. The classic "Cy Endfield's Entertaining Card Magic" (1955), by Lewis Ganson, includes a variety of Endfield's creations in card magic.


Microcassette

The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969. It uses the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a much smaller container. By using thinner tape and half or a quarter the tape speed, microcassettes can offer comparable recording time to the compact cassette. The original standard microcassette, the MC60, gives 30 minutes recording per side at its standard speed of 2.4 cm/s, and double that duration at 1.2 cm/s; an MC90, giving 45 minutes per side @ 2.4 cm/s, is also available from a few manufacturers. Unlike the Compact Cassette, a choice of recording speeds was provided on the original recorders and many others; the tape also spools in the opposite direction, from right to left. For transcription purposes, continuously variable speed was provided on many players.
Microcassettes have mostly been used for recording voice. In particular, they are commonly used in dictation machines and answering machines. Microcassettes have also been used in computer data storage and to record music. For the latter purpose, devices for recording in stereo were produced in 1982 and, for higher fidelity, microcassettes using Type IV ("metal", i.e. coated with pure metal particles rather than oxide) tape were sold. This was an attempt by Olympus to cash in on the burgeoning Walkman market; one model, the Olympus SR-11, had a built-in radio and offered a stereo tie-clip microphone as an accessory, which made the unit somewhat popular with concert-goers who wanted to record the concerts they attended without drawing attention to themselves with larger, bulkier full-sized cassette recorders. Both of these "high-fidelity" microcassette recorders and the special Type IV blanks they required were relatively expensive and of limited availability, so the system was not widely adopted and Olympus phased them out after two years on the market. (Battery life also was a problem, because the high bias currents required by Type IV tape, combined with the state of battery technology at the time, meant that brand-new alkaline batteries might give out in two hours when the unit was in recording mode.) "Standard" microcassettes are still used in the underground-music circuits for recording and distributing experimental music and field recordings/sound collage, mostly because of their lo-fi qualities.
Comparable products to the microcassette include the minicassette, produced by Philips, and the picocassette, produced by Dictaphone. Of the three formats, the microcassette is the most common. In 1992, Sony released the NT memo recording system, which employs a small cassette for digital recording.
Microcassettes equalisation time constant: Type I (Ferric) at 200μs and Type IV (Metal) at 120μs.


Continuity announcers in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, continuity announcers are people who are employed to introduce programmes on radio and television networks, to promote forthcoming programmes on the station, to cross-promote programmes on the broadcaster's other stations where applicable and, sometimes, to provide information relating to the programme just broadcast.
The six pre-digital terrestrial television channels in the UK (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5) make use of continuity announcers, and for most of the time, continuity announcements are presented live. Continuity announcers can also be found on digital and satellite channels, but most of these channels make use of pre-recorded announcements.
BBC.
The BBC mainly uses live announcers on its flagship television channels BBC One and BBC Two, and mainly uses pre-recorded announcements on its digital channels (apart from BBC News and BBC Parliament, which do not use announcers at all). Separate continuity for BBC One and BBC Two in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is provided by local announcers who also double as transmission directors.
Presently, the only national radio station to use continuity announcers is BBC Radio 4, where many of the announcing staff also act as newsreaders and also introduce the station's Shipping Forecast. Until about 1990, BBC Radio 2 used continuity announcers (separate from newsreaders) for its weekend and evening output, but these have since disappeared. Similarly, BBC Radio 3 has downgraded the former role of its announcers in favour of a new style of presenter. Continuity announcers played a much heavier role on the pre-1967 BBC Home Service, BBC Light Programme and BBC Third Programme (and other services on the last-named's frequency). Announcing staff for BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Wales double as newsreaders and technical operators.
Continuity announcements for BBC television channels are broadcast from Red Bee Media at the White City Media Village in West London, with separate continuity teams for the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland based in the broadcasting centres in Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow, providing links for the local variations of BBC One and BBC Two.
CBBC and CBeebies continuity now airs from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays – up until September 2011, CBBC presentation was broadcast from a small studio in the East Tower of BBC Television Centre while CBeebies presentation was pre-recorded at Teddington Studios. The announcing team for BBC Radio 4 work from a suite of studios on the 7th floor of Broadcasting House in London.
Historically, BBC announcers mostly spoke with Received Pronunciation, but the range of accents heard has widened considerably in recent years, and the general tone has become more informal.
In-vision continuity.
Early continuity.
Andrew Martin, an expert from the BBC archives, described continuity announcements as "an essential part of television," which "actually tell us quite a lot about the style, the kind of attitudes of television in their particular era."
In-vision continuity announcers, who appeared on screen between programmes, were a staple part of television broadcasts from the very earliest days of television, because "there was a need for linking material between programmes just to kind of announce them." In the early days of television, it was almost like a variety bill in the theatre... [and when] an item would come on, somebody had to say what it was often listing an entire evening's up-coming programming in one link.
The early announcers became "celebrities in their own right," often receiving considerable amounts of fan mail, as they were among the most recognisable on-screen individuals, appearing every day, at the start of an era when television celebrity was really invented. Early in-vision announcers included Jasmine Bligh, Elizabeth Cowell and Leslie Mitchell, formerly a newsreel announcer who famously re-opened the television service in 1946. The early continuity announcers were auditioned, as "they had to look good but they also had to speak well", not solely because of the class divide, but because clear speaking was crucial to their role.
Later continuity.
It is believed that in-vision continuity was last used during the peak viewing hours on BBC TV in the early 1960s, with a link into the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 the last-known example of the corporation's use of in-vision continuity (as well as existing out-of-vision continuity) across the national network.
Between the late 1960s and circa 1980, many of the BBC's English regions provided their own continuity on weekday evenings, including in-vision presentation – particularly at closedown. Regional in-vision continuity was still used by BBC South in Southampton, BBC Midlands in Birmingham and BBC North West in Manchester by the time English regional continuity was phased out. From 1998 to 2001, the Northern Ireland regional service on BBC Choice used in-vision continuity links.
Children's continuity.
The presentation of children's programmes had in-vision continuity from its instigation until 1965. The best-known children's in-vision continuity face was that of schoolgirl Jennifer Gay, one of the Children's Hour announcers, who introduced such favourites as Muffin the Mule between 1949 and 1953.
In-vision continuity was re-introduced as part of Children's BBC/CBBC) on 9 September 1985. From then until 1994, this came from the main BBC1 continuity suite itself, referred to as "the broom cupboard" and introduced by various presenters including Andy Crane, Andi Peters and Phillip Schofield; Since then, it has come from larger, specialised studios. Children's BBC Scotland used in-vision continuity from 1992 - 1996, but this was omitted in favour of out-of-vision continuity from 1997 - 2000. As of September 2011, presentation for both CBBC and CBeebies originates from the BBC's MediaCityUK studios in Salford Quays, following the BBC Children's department move from London.
Modern continuity.
In February 2008, BBC Three introduced in-vision continuity links, in the form of live links with presenter Jose Vanders and recorded links with BBC Three viewers. For a time, the BBC Three website offered viewers the opportunity to record links for programmes. The live in-vision links were dropped after only a few months although live out-of-vision continuity during peak time returned in September 2011.
On 19 September 2008, the Scottish Gaelic-language digital channel BBC Alba launched with in-vision continuity from the channel's sole announcer, Fiona MacKenzie. A second in-vision announcer, Moira MacDonald, was appointed in July 2009. All continuity links are pre-recorded in Stornoway and transmitted from BBC Scotland's headquarters in Glasgow.
ITV.
All announcements for ITV plc-owned stations on ITV, UTV and for ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe originate from the company's main transmission facilities at Technicolor in Chiswick. CITV is the only ITV channel not to use continuity announcers.
A separate team of announcers for the separately-owned STV is based at the company's headquarters in Pacific Quay, Glasgow.
Most announcements broadcast on ITV are conducted live, while overnight announcements, regional opt-out continuity and links for ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 are usually pre-recorded. All of ITV plc's announcers work on a freelance basis.
STV uses live continuity during the evening (between around 5pm and midnight) with daytime announcements pre-recorded by the duty prime time announcer during their shift. STV-branded presentation is used throughout the station's broadcast hours with transmission manned by technical staff in Glasgow 24 hours a day.
The consolidation of ITV companies during the 1990s and 2000s led to the closure of transmission and continuity facilities at some ITV company studios:
In-vision continuity.
The use of on screen continuity announcers was common on ITV when each region was run by an independent company with their own transmission and continuity facilities. During the 1980s and 1990s, many regional companies abandoned the use of in-vision continuity announcers:
The only ITV companies which have never used in-vision continuity are Carlton Television (London) and Westcountry Television, who both began broadcasting on 1 January 1993.
Granada Television, for its first 20 years or so, never used in-vision continuity as its CEO, Sidney Bernstein, considered it frivolous for a station that was trying to match the BBC in image and respectability (despite the BBC employing in-vision announcers at the time of Granada's launch) and felt that having a mere functionary would cheapen the station. This decision was reversed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, following Sidney Bernstein's retirement.
Channel 4.
Channel 4 employs continuity announcers on its network of stations; 4seven, Channel 4, E4, Film4 and More4. All announcements come from Red Bee Media at White City Media Village in West London. Since 2009, Red Bee have provided playout facilities for Channel 4. On 4seven, E4 and More4, announcements during evening primetime are now commonly broadcast live, with recorded announcements at other times; most announcements on Channel 4 are live. Announcements for 4Music programming, where used, are usually pre-recorded.
In-vision continuity.
Channel 4 used links featuring the announcer on-screen for a brief period following its launch in 1982, mainly at closedown. The station briefly reprised the use of in-vision continuity links for a short period from 1996, used mainly in evening transmissions.
S4C.
S4C announcers provide live out-of-vision continuity links from the channel's headquarters in Llanishen, Cardiff.
In-vision continuity.
S4C used in-vision continuity throughout broadcast hours from launch in November 1982 until around 1991.
In-vision presentation continues to be used during S4C's children strands, Cyw (for young children) and Stwnsh (for older children). Stwnsh links are mostly conducted live whereas Cyw links are mostly pre-recorded. Characters and presenters from S4C's Cyw output occasionally appear to provide continuity links.
Children's presentation is produced by independent production companies Boomerang (Stwnsh/Cyw in-vision links) and Cwmni Da (Cyw).
Channel 5.
Channel 5 use announcers on its network of stations; 5*, 5USA and Channel 5. All announcements come from Channel 5's transmission facility in London.
In-vision continuity.
Channel 5 has only used on-screen announcers as part of its children's strand, Milkshake! which comes from studios at Hawley Crescent, London.
Sky1.
Sky1 out-of-vision continuity is broadcast live in the evening with pre-recorded links broadcast during the day and overnight.
Sky Witness.
Sky Witness out-of-vision continuity is live, as of January 2016.
Sky Movies.
Sky Movies out-of-vision continuity is live, since January 2016.


The Great Schlep


Thomas Doty


World Assembly of Youth (film)

World Assembly of Youth is a documentary film created in 1952 for the US State Department. It is believed to be lost but evidence for it was discovered on an early resume sent by Stanley Kubrick to veteran New York film critic Theodore Huff in February 1953. In the resume and covering letter, Kubrick lists working on this film alongside his other documentaries, "The Seafarers", "Day of the Fight", and "Flying Padre". The résumé was uncovered by John Baxter, while doing research for his own book, "Stanley Kubrick: A Biography".
Baxter's research found that the film was sponsored by the United States Department of State and was one of a series of films intended to mobilize college-aged youngsters to carry out socially worthy projects. This initiative ultimately led to the formation of the Peace Corps.
Kubrick's actual role in the film is uncertain. Following the publication of Baxter's book, some readers misinterpreted the story as to believe there was an undiscovered film directed by Stanley Kubrick; this can be seen in myriad internet pages that credit Kubrick as director of "World Assembly of Youth". Baxter himself has stated that his knowledge of Kubrick's involvement in this film is no more than the reference in his letter to Ted Huff. Baxter speculates that Kubrick may have worked on the project as a cameraman or even simply a stills photographer.


Make up stamp

A make-up stamp is a postage stamp issued by postal authorities to make up the difference in the cost of postage when rates have been increased and stamps are not yet available in the new denomination and no other values exist for that purpose. There are two types:
Examples of denominated make up rate stamps.
Australia.
In Australia, six different 30¢ make-up stamps, three showing kangaroos and three depicting koala bears, all inscribed “Adelaide 2016” at the bottom, were on sale for just two days in January 2016. At the end of 2015, Australia Post decided that from 4 January 2016, they would increase the domestic rate from 70¢ to $1.50 but introduce a new rate for "standard letter", a slower service which was $1.00, 30¢ more than the previous first class rate. The supply of regular 30¢ Crocodile definitive stamps that customers could use to make up the new $1.00 rate were in short supply, so the Adelaide general post office pressed into service a slow 22-year-old CPS machine normally only used annually for stamp show souvenir stamps, etc., to print a quantity of 30¢ peel-and-stick stamps. The only retained machine was in Adelaide though all states had them from 1994.
Several of these 2016 Australian make-up stamps have been offered for sale on eBay at up to 1,000 times face value as well as used copies on covers.
Canada.
Also in 2014, Canada Post issued a make-up stamp denominated 22¢ to make to allow use of the previous rate 63¢ stamps when the rate was increased to 85¢. It joined the existing definitive insect issue which did not have this value at that time and was printed in panes of 50 stamps.
Germany.
Deutsche Post added two Internet-only make-up rate stamps, valued €0.02 to their website to allow customers to use up their Internet-purchased €0.58 stamps when the rate was increased to €0.60 for domestic mail and a €0.10 for registered mail and some international rates on 1 January 2014 but were no longer available after 31 March 2014.
United States.
United States Postal Service issued a new 3¢ definitive stamp, illustrating a star with red and blue points, specifically as a make up stamp in June 2002.


Hambi bleibt


Christophe Bruno

Christophe Bruno (born 1964) is a French visual artist who works particularly in the medium of internet art, and described as the world's first "Human Browser".
Moreover, Nabilla Benattia, the famous star of French reality TV, mentions this artist in her book "Allô! Non mais allô, quoi!" appeared in July, 2013. She develops a Cartesian analyze about Christophe Bruno.
Background.
Christophe Bruno was born in 1964 in Bayonne, France. He lives and works in Paris France. He began his artistic activity in 2001, influenced by the net.art movement. His artworks include "Iterature", "Logo.Hallucination", "The Google Adwords Happening" and many other pieces.
His work has been shown at many international festivals, museums: FIAC Paris, ARCO Madrid, Biennale of Sydney, Diva Fair in New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Art Cologne, MoCA Taipei, Modern Art Museum of the city of Paris, New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Tirana Biennale of Contemporary Art, Gallery West in The Hague, Vooruit Arts Center in Ghent, Share Festival in Turin, Transmediale in Berlin, Laboral Cyberspaces in Gijon, Galerie Sollertis in Toulouse, ICC in Tokyo, Nuit Blanche de Paris, File Festival in São Paulo, Rencontres Paris-Berlin, f.2004@shangai, ReJoyce Festival in Dublin, P0es1s.net in Berlin, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival in Hong Kong, Read_Me Festival in Dortmund and Aarhus, Vidarte in Mexico City.
To date, he has been awarded the ARCO (Madrid's International Contemporary Art Fair) new media prize in 2007, and a prize at the Prix Ars Electronica 2003.
He divides his time between his artistic activity, curating, teaching, lectures, and publications.
Work.
Bruno's thesis is that through the web, and especially through the ability to search and monitor it thoroughly by means of Google, we are heading towards a global text that among other things enables a new form of textual, semantic capitalism, which he explores in his work.
Bruno's works include:
Exhibitions.
FIAC Paris, ARCO Madrid, Biennale of Sydney, Diva Fair in New-York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, ArtCologne, MoCA Taipei, Modern Art Museum of the city of Paris, New Museum of Contemporary Art in New-York, Tirana Biennale of Contemporary Art, Gallery West in The Hague, Vooruit Arts Center in Gent, Share Festival in Torino, Transmediale in Berlin, Laboral Cyberspaces in Gijon, galerie Sollertis in Toulouse, ICC in Tokyo, Nuit Blanche de Paris, File Festival in São Paulo, Rencontres Paris-Berlin, f.2004@shangai, ReJoyce Festival in Dublin, P0es1s.net in Berlin, Microwave Media Art Festival in Honk-Kong, Read_Me Festival in Dortmund and Aarhus, Vidarte in Mexico City ...
Awards.
Christophe Bruno has won the following awards, and has been awarded the following grants:


CNW Group

CNW Group Ltd., also called Canada Newswire and CNW, is a commercial press release service owned by Cision. Cision Distribution services in Canada are powered by Canada Newswire. The service is offered stand-alone or as part of its flagship Cision Communications Cloud platform for PR professionals.
History.
CNW was founded in 1960 as Canada News Wire, by Joseph Adair Porter Clark (1921-2013) who became CEO and President of the news service. (Clark is the father of television journalist Tom Clark)
CNW originally delivered text news releases to news media outlets on behalf of paying clients. This model expanded over time to include provision of ancillary services required by investor relations and public relations professionals, including translation, photography, webcasts, media database and media monitoring.
Canada Newswire distribution switched to using XHTML instead of ANPA-1312, allowing for more formatting of releases. which enables transmission of text. In 2003, CNW entered into a commercial endorsed deal with TSX for its newswire and webcast services through paid sponsorship agreement.
CNW was acquired by US-based PR Newswire in 2013. PR Newswire was subsequently acquired by Cision in 2016. Cision was most recently acquired by Platinum Equity, announced October 22, 2019.
On March 19, 2021 Business Insider reported Cision may be looking to spin off its NewsWire unit.


Pandit Kanshi Ram

Pandit Kanshi Ram (13 October 1883 – 27 March 1915) was an Indian revolutionary who, along with Har Dayal and Sohan Singh Bhakna, was one of the three key members in founding the Ghadar Party. He served as the treasurer of the party from its foundation in 1913 to 1914. In 1914, Ram returned to India as a part of the Ghadar Mutiny, which attempted to trigger mutinies in the British Indian Army during World War I. He was arrested in the aftermath of the failed February plot and later tried in the Lahore conspiracy trial. Ram was charged, along with Kartar Singh Sarabha and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, and executed on 27 March 1915.


Democracy for peace, security, and development


Know justice, know peace


Hakainde Hichilema

Hakainde Hichilema (born 4 June 1962) is a Zambian businessman and politician who has been President of the United Party for National Development, an opposition political party, since 2006.
He is a perennial presidential candidate, having contested five times and lost all: in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2015 and 2016.
Early life and career.
Hichilema was born in a village in Monze District in present-day Zambia. He received a scholarship to study at the University of Zambia and graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration. He thereafter pursued an MBA in Finance and Business Strategy at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
He served as the chief executive officer of both Coopers and Lybrand Zambia (1994–1998) and Grant Thornton Zambia (1998–2006).
Political career.
He is a member of the opposition United Party for National Development, a liberal political party. Following the death of Anderson Mazoka in 2006, he was elected as the party's new President. He also served as the leader of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), an alliance of three opposition political parties.
In the 2006 election, Hichilema was the candidate of the UDA and ran against incumbent president Levy Mwanawasa of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy and Patriotic Front candidate Michael Sata. He received the endorsement of former President Kenneth Kaunda. The election was held on 28 September 2006 and Hichilema took third place with about 25% of the vote.
Hichilema ran as the UPND candidate in the 2008 election, which was called following the death of President Levy Mwanawasa. He came 3rd with 19.7% of the vote. In June 2009, Hichilema's party, the UPND, formed a pact with Michael Sata's Patriotic Front (PF) to contest the 2011 election together. However, indecision on the pact candidate, deep mistrust and accusations of tribalism from both sides resulted in the collapse of the pact in March 2011.
He was one of the two main candidates in the January 2015 presidential election, which he lost by a narrow margin of just 27,757 votes (1.66%) against the ruling party's candidate, Edgar Lungu. Hichilema denounced the election as a sham and urged his supporters to remain calm. He again faced Lungu as the main opposition candidate in the August 2016 presidential election, and was again narrowly defeated.
In April 2017, he was arrested on suspicion of treason and charged with attempting to overthrow the government. He was in prison for 4 months before being given a Nolle prosequi.
Arrest & treason charge.
Hichilema was arrested on 11 April 2017. On the night of the 11th of April 2017 the Zambian Police broke and entered Hakainde Hichilema's compound to arrest the country's main opposition leader, ordered by President Edgar Lungu’s government and charged with Treason after he was accused of endangering the president's life after his motorcade allegedly refused to give way to the one transporting President Lungu, a case which many viewed as a minor traffic offense and not one that could amount to Treason. Hichilema strongly denied the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of death penalty.
Police misconduct during arrest.
The police used excessive force to enter Hichilema's residence damaging his home and property, beat up all his workers, stole colossal sums of money, jewelry, as well as underwear, shoes, speakers, blankets, carpets and food from the Kitchen and defecated on Mr Hichilema's bed.
Teargas canisters were thrown inside Hichilema's home gassing him out including his asthmatic wife and children who collapsed several times due to inhaling Tear Gas.
Condemnation of arrest.
Hichilema's arrest was widely condemned. The United States, the European Union and the European Parliament denounced the arrest. The Africa Liberal Network condemned the arrest as an attempt by President Lungu to silence dissent and opposition. The Catholic bishops strongly condemned the arrest and said Zambia had become a dictatorship under President Edgar Lungu. Julius Malema, the leader of South Africa's EFF party, accused Zambia's president Edgar Lungu of apartheid style repression for detaining Hichilema on treason charges and called president Lungu a “Coward”. Mmusi Maimane, the leader of South Africa's DA party, who was denied entry into Zambia to visit Hichilema in Jail (stopped from exiting the plane at Lusaka's Kenneth Kaunda International Airport) strongly denounced the trumped up charges against Hichilema.
Time in jail.
Hichilema said in an interview on HARDtalk that during his time in prison he was held in solitary confinement for 8 days without food, water, light or visitation, was tortured by having his private parts pepper sprayed and accused president Lungu of having tried to kill him.
His wife Mutinta was turned away by prison officials when she took food for him.
Hichilema's arrest was the subject of the episode of Al Jazeera's The Stream TV program titled "Is Zambia's democracy in danger" which aired on 30 May 2017.
High-profile jail visitations.
Zambia's first president Kenneth Kaunda was turned away by prison officials when he visited Hichilema in Prison.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance (South Africa) was also turned away by Zambia Police when he came to Zambia to attend Hichilema's court appearance, he was not allowed to disembark from the plane, had his phone confiscated and was roughed up. This prompted South Africa's Foreign Ministry to summon Zambia's Ambassador to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba to explain the actions of the Zambian regime.
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo visited Hichilema in Prison.
Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland visited Hichilema in Prison twice.
State of emergency.
While Hichilema was in Jail, President Lungu imposed a state of emergency, a move critics saw as an effort to tighten his grip on power.
Protests.
Protests broke out in Zambia, South Africa and the United Kingdom demanding the release of Hichilema and condemning Edgar Lungu's authoritarian rule and deteriorating human rights in Zambia.
Release from prison.
Jubilant celebrations broke out throughout Zambia when Hichilema was released from Prison on 16 August 2017 and scores of people lined up the roads of Lusaka to have a glimpse of Hichilema as his motorcade left prison with Hichilema emerging through the Sunroof of his vehicle to wave at the cheering crowds.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, congratulated the Zambian authorities for dropping the treason charges against Hichilema and releasing him from Prison.
Thanksgiving Prayers were held to celebrate Hichilema's release from jail at the Cathedral of Holy Cross in Lusaka on 29 August 2017 and Hichilema was present at the event which drew large crowds and was aired live on Television. The event was originally scheduled to take place the previous week on 24 August but was blocked by heavily armed state police who sealed off the venue.
Hichilema became more popular after his release and was awarded the Africa Freedom Award in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was invited to speak at Catham House in London and was also invited to speak in South Africa by Democratic Alliance Members of Parliament and was featured on BBC's HARDtalk.
A book about Hichilema's time in Prison called "Hakainde Hichilema's Prison Diary" was released on 29 September 2017 by Journalist Fredrick Misebezi. Hichilema endorsed the book and urged the public to read it.
Police warning and caution in 2020.
On 23 December 2020, Hichilema received a warning and caution at the Zambian Police Headquarters in Lusaka for an alleged offence of "conspiracy to defraud contrary to section 313 of the Penal Code, Cap 87 of the Laws of Zambia", relating to the purchase of a property in 2004. As Hichilema arrived for questioning, police clashed with UPND supporters. In an attempt to disperse the crowd, police reportedly shot dead a State Prosecutor and a UPND supporter.
Awards.
Hichilema was conferred with the Africa Freedom Award by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom on 27 October 2017 at an event held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Interviews.
Hichilema was featured on the popular BBC television program HARDtalk on 1 November 2017 and was interviewed by Stephen Sackur. He was the first Zambian opposition political leader to be hosted on HARDtalk and the second Zambian Politician featured after former President Levy Mwanawasa.
On 17 December 2017 Hichilema featured on ZNBC's Sunday Interview making him the first opposition political leader to be hosted on that program. This was after management at ZNBC had granted a request by the UPND through its spokesman Charles Kakoma who had written to ZNBC Director General Richard Mwanza requesting that Mr. Hichilema is featured on the Sunday Interview on 17 December. The programme was prerecorded on a Thursday before at 10:30hrs and was aired on Sunday evening.
Speeches.
Hichilema was invited to speak at The Royal Institute of International Affairs, commonly known as Chatham House, on 31 November 2017. He was the first Zambian to speak at Chatham House.
Personal life.
Hichilema is married to Mutinta and has three children. He is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Hichilema is a millionaire and the second-largest cattle rancher in Zambia.
In December 2014, he denied being a Freemason and labelled people accusing him as malicious. He also sued Bishop Edward Chomba of the Orthodox Church for defamation after the former called him a Satanist and a Freemason.


Joe must go


Alexander Knox

Alexander Knox (16 January 1907 – 25 April 1995) was a Canadian actor on stage, screen, and occasionally television. He was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance as Woodrow Wilson in the film "Wilson" (1944).
Although his liberal views forced him to leave Hollywood because of McCarthyism, Knox had a long career. He starred in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (1979 BBC mini-series) as Control, Chief of the Circus and George Smiley's mentor. He was also an author, writing adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century as well as plays and detective novels.
Life and career.
Knox was born in Strathroy, Ontario, where his father was the minister of the Presbyterian Church. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to perform on stage with the Boston Repertory Theatre. After the company folded following the stock market crash of 1929, Knox returned to London, Ontario, where, for the next two years, he worked as a reporter for "The London Advertiser" before moving to London, England, where, during the 1930s, he appeared in several films. He starred opposite Jessica Tandy in the 1940 Broadway production of "Jupiter Laughs" and, in 1944, he was chosen by Darryl F. Zanuck to star in "Wilson" (1944), the biographical film about American President Woodrow Wilson, for which he won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. However, during the McCarthy Era, his liberal views and work with the Committee for the First Amendment hurt his career, but he was not blacklisted, and he returned to Britain.
Knox had major roles in "The Sea Wolf" (1941), "None Shall Escape" (1944), "Over 21" (1945), "Sister Kenny" (1946), "Europa '51" (1952), and "The Vikings" (1958), as well as supporting roles late in his career, such as in "The Damned" (1963), "Nicholas and Alexandra" (1971), "Joshua Then and Now" (1985; his last film role) and the miniseries "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy".
He depicted Governor Hudson Inverest in "The Latin Touch", the second episode of the first season of "The Saint" in 1962.
He wrote six adventure novels: "Bride of Quietness" (1933), "Night of the White Bear" (1971), "The Enemy I Kill" (1972), "Raider's Moon", "The Kidnapped Surgeon" and "Totem Dream". He also wrote plays and at least three detective novels under a pseudonym before 1945.
Personal life.
Knox was married to American actress Doris Nolan (1916–1998) from 1944 until his death in 1995. They starred together in the 1949 Broadway play "The Closing Door", which Knox also wrote. They had a son Andrew Joseph Knox (born 1947; died by suicide in 1987) who became an actor and appeared in "Doctor on the Go", and who was married to Imogen Hassall.
Alexander Knox died in Berwick-upon-Tweed from bone cancer.
References.
Notes


James Sassoon, Baron Sassoon

James Meyer Sassoon, Baron Sassoon, FCA (born 11 September 1955) is a British businessman and politician. After a career in the financial sector he served in various roles in HM Treasury, the UK's finance ministry, from 2002 to 2008, at which point he began advising David Cameron on financial issues. From May 2010 to January 2013, Sassoon was the first Commercial Secretary to the Treasury and was appointed to the House of Lords as a Conservative. In January 2013, he became an executive Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings and of Matheson & Co.. He is also a director of Hongkong Land, Dairy Farm and Mandarin Oriental and Chairman of the China-Britain Business Council.
In November 2017 he was mentioned in the Paradise Papers as one of the beneficiaries of a tax exempt Cayman Island trust fund worth 236 million$ in 2007 and defended it as being of non UK origin. Sassoon was President of the international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering 2007–2008.
Early life and education.
Sassoon is a member of the Sassoon family, and was born in London, the son of Hugh Meyer Sassoon (first cousin of Siegfried Sassoon) and Marion (née Schiff); he is the great-great grandson of Sassoon David Sassoon.
He was educated at Sunningdale School, a junior boarding independent school in the village of Sunningdale in Berkshire, where he was a friend of David Profumo, the son of John Profumo. Thereafter he attended Eton College, a senior boarding school, also in Berkshire, followed by Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Career.
Finance.
In 1977 Sassoon began his career in finance at Thomson McLintock & Company. In 1985, he joined S.G. Warburg & Co. (later UBS Warburg). He became a director in 1995, leading the firm's privatisation business, and from 2000 to 2002 he served as Vice-Chairman of Investment Banking.
Sassoon served as a director of the following organisations: Partnerships UK, 2002–06; Merchants Trust, 2006–10 (chairman 2010); the ifs School of Finance, 2009–10 (chairman) and the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, 2008–2010.
He was a trustee of the National Gallery Trust, 2002–09 and of the British Museum, 2009–10 and 2013–present.
Since 2013 he has been a member of the Global Advisory Board of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. In January 2013, he became an executive Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings and of Matheson & Co.. He is also a director of Hongkong Land, Dairy Farm International Holdings and Mandarin Oriental and Chairman of the China-Britain Business Council.
Government and politics.
In 2002, he joined HM Treasury, becoming managing director of Finance, Regulation and Industry, and served until 2006. Sassoon then became the Chancellor's Representative for Promotion of the City. In 2007, he was named President of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, also responsible for combating terrorism financing. He continued in both roles until 2008. Sassoon received a knighthood in the 2008 New Year Honours. At that time, he began advising David Cameron, then the Leader of the Opposition, and George Osborne, then the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and became a member of the Shadow Cabinet's Economic Recovery Committee.
In 2009, he wrote "The Tripartite Review", a review of the adequacy of the UK's three financial regulators -the Financial Services Authority, HM Treasury, and the Bank of England-), especially as regards financial stability.
In May 2010, he was named Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, a minister whose portfolio includes financial services and business. In consequence, it was announced he would be made a life peer, and on 3 June 2010 he was introduced in the House of Lords as Baron Sassoon, of Ashley Park in the County of Surrey.
In the 2012 Cabinet reshuffle it was announced he would be replaced by Lord Deighton in January 2013 as Commercial Secretary to the Treasury and in line with Sassoon's desire to return to the private sector.
In November 2017, he was mentioned in the Paradise Papers as one of the beneficiaries of a tax exempt Cayman Island trust fund worth 236 million$ in 2007, and defended its assets as being of non-UK origin contributed only by his grandmother, who had died more than 40 years prior.
Personal life.
In 1981, Sassoon married Sarah Barnes, daughter of the former ambassador to Israel and the Netherlands, Sir Ernest John Ward Barnes and Lady Cynthia Barnes of Hurstpierpoint. They have a son and two daughters.


Tifcha

Tifcha (, also spelled "Tifkha", "Tipcha" and other variant English spellings) is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted. In Sephardic and Oriental traditions, it is called Tarcha, meaning "dragging" or "effort".
The Tifcha is found in both the Etnachta group as the second member of that group, and in the Sof passuk group, though the melody varies slightly in each. While it is a weak sound, it is considered to be stronger than a Tevir
The Hebrew word טִפְחָ֖א translates into English as "diagonal". It is related to the word tefach ("טפח", measurement of the palm). The tifcha does not have a separating value of its own, as it is in the middle of a set of words.
Tifcha occurs in the Torah 11,285 times, more than any other trope sound. Tifcha is the only trope sound to appear more than 10,000 times in the Torah.
The first word of the Torah בראשית ("Bereshit") is on a Tifcha.
Melodies.
Melodies for tifcha, as for all other cantillation marks, is different in different traditions. The diagrams below show the Polish-Lithuanian tradition.
Occurrence rules.
In the Etnachta group, the tifcha will always occur, regardless of whether or not there is a Mercha. Before a Sof Passuk, the Tifcha can only occur in conjunction with a Mercha.


Minolta helps you keep the peace


Aria Dean

Aria Dean (born 1993) is an American artist, critic, and curator. Until 2021, Dean served as Curator and Editor of Rhizome. Her writings have appeared in various art publications including "Artforum", "e-flux", "The New Inquiry", "Art in America", and "Topical Cream". Dean has exhibited internationally at venues such as Foxy Production and American Medium in New York, Chateau Shatto in Los Angeles, and Arcadia Missa in London. Dean also co-directs As It Stands LA, an artists project space that opened in 2015. Dean lives and works in New York City and Los Angeles. She is represented by Greene Naftali.
Early life and education.
Dean was born in 1993. Dean graduated from Oberlin College in 2015.
Work.
After graduating from Oberlin College, Dean was appointed social media coordinator for the Museum of Contemporary Art.
In September 2016, "ARTnews" announced that Dean had been appointed assistant curator of net art and digital culture for Rhizome. Dean helped Rhizome's efforts to preserve, present, and re-perform works of net art from the 1980s to the present day (called "Net Art Anthology"), organize events, and publish articles online. Dean stepped down as Editor and Curator in January of 2021 to pursue her solo practice and a new project.
Dean's first solo exhibition, "Baby Is A Cool Machine", opened at American Medium in 2017. The exhibition, according to the gallery's website, "hones in on her materially-driven examination of the situation of blackness in the United States." The show was critically praised by James Hannaham at "4Columns" and selected by Kat Herriman as a Critic's Picks for "Artforum". In 2018, Aria Dean was named one of "Cultured Magazine"'s 30 artists under 35.
In late 2017, Dean curated "New Black Portraitures" as part of Rhizome's "Net Art Anthology". The online exhibition included visual artists Manuel Arturo Abreu, Hamishi Farah, Juliana Huxtable, Rindon Johnson, Pastiche Lumumba, N-Prolenta (Brandon Covington), Sondra Perry, and Redeem Pettaway and, "explored the changing status of black portraiture in relation to strategies for visibility, concealment, and self-representation online."
In early 2018, Dean wrote and directed a play for the Swiss Institute in New York.
Her second solo exhibition, "lonesome crowded west", featured sculptural objects and installation that "shuttle between experiences as personally lived and the sweeping generalizations of the media and historical modernism" according to critic Matt Stromberg of "Hyperallergic". In an interview with Travis Diehl, Dean revealed sourcing the clay in her painting-like sculpture from Mississippi, and that the series speaks to her "proximity and distance in relation to that place." Other works featured crowd shots from hip-hop videos, a two-channel installation that explore the loneliness of black existence in predominantly-western contexts.
"They index the sort of relationship that I was interested in, subsuming oneself into this particularly black crowd where individuals that already don’t exist so distinctly as "proper" western individual subjects get subsumed into this other object. The show title is from a Modest Mouse album, The Lonesome Crowded West (1997), and I’m not a huge Modest Mouse fan, but I like the album. I latched onto that phrase. "The Lonesome Crowded West" is my situation in relationship to the objects. I am the lonesome crowd, in the west…"
Exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions
Selected two-person exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions
Selected lectures/presentations
Bibliography.
Essays


Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: "The Young Lions" (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely.
Personal life.
Shaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City, to Jewish immigrants from Russia. His parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw, became a noted Hollywood producer and writer. Shortly after Irwin's birth, the Shamforoffs moved to Brooklyn. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college. He spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
He began screenwriting in 1935 at age 21. In 1939 he married actress and producer Marian Edwards, daughter of silent film actor Snitz Edwards. The couple divorced in 1967, remarrying two years before Irwin's death in 1982.
During World War II, he was approached by William Wyler to join his film unit. Unable to be commissioned as an officer due to his age and 1-A draft status, Shaw decided to enter the Regular Army. Later, the Army, noting his background, sent him to George Stevens' film unit. He was one of four writers attached to Stevens' command, in which he became a warrant officer. After the war, he returned to his career as a writer.
Shaw died in Davos, Switzerland on May 16, 1984, at age 71, after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.
Career.
Drama.
In the 1930s, Shaw wrote scripts for several radio shows, including "Dick Tracy", "The Gumps" and "Studio One". He recaptured this period of his life in his short story "Main Currents of American Thought," about a hack radio writer grinding out one script after another while calculating the number of words equal to the rent money:
Shaw's first play, "Bury the Dead" (1936) was an expressionist drama about a group of soldiers killed in a battle who refuse to be buried. His play "Quiet City", directed by Elia Kazan and with incidental music by Aaron Copland, closed after two Sunday performances.
During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including "The Talk of the Town" (a comedy about civil liberties), "The Commandos Strike at Dawn" (based on a C.S. Forester story about commandos in occupied Norway) and "Easy Living" (about a football player unable to enter the game due to a medical condition). Shaw married Marian Edwards (daughter of well-known screen actor Snitz Edwards). They had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction.
Shaw summered at the Pine Brook Country Club, located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut, which became the 1936 summer home of the Group Theatre (New York), whose roster included Elia Kazan, Harold Clurman, Harry Morgan, John Garfield, Frances Farmer, Will Geer, Clifford Odets and Lee J. Cobb.
Novels and Miniseries.
"The Young Lions", Shaw's first novel, was published in 1948. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was very successful and was adapted into a 1958 film. Shaw was not happy with the film, feeling it soft-pedaled some of the serious issues from his book, but it did well at the box office.
Shaw's second novel, "The Troubled Air", chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in 1951. He was among those who signed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo convictions for contempt of Congress, resulting from hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Accused of being a communist by the Red Channels publication, Shaw was placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the movie studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe, where he lived for 25 years, mostly in Paris and Switzerland. He later claimed that the blacklist "only glancingly bruised" his career. During the 1950s he wrote several more screenplays, including "Desire Under the Elms" (based on Eugene O'Neill's play) and "Fire Down Below" (about a tramp boat in the Caribbean).
While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably "Lucy Crown" (1956), "Two Weeks in Another Town" (1960), "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1970) (for which he would later write a less successful sequel entitled "Beggarman, Thief") and "Evening in Byzantium" (made into a 1978 TV movie).
"Rich Man, Poor Man" was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries with six 2-hour episodes shown for February 1 to March 15, 1976. The series ranked third in the seasonal Nielsens and garnered twenty-three Emmy nominations. A further adaptation, which Shaw had very little to do with, "Rich Man, Poor Man--Book II" was aired from September 21, 1976, to March 8, 1977. This was not as successful as the first. There was a third sequel "Beggar Man, Thief" in 1978, which belated included the Jordache's sister Gretchen who had been a prominent character in the original book.
His novel "The Top of the Hill" was made into a TV movie about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, starring Wayne Rogers, Adrienne Barbeau, and Sonny Bono.
His last two novels were "Bread Upon the Waters" (1981) and "Acceptable Losses" (1982).
Short stories.
Shaw was highly regarded as a short story author, contributing to "Collier's", "Esquire", "The New Yorker", "Playboy", "The Saturday Evening Post", and other magazines; and 63 of his best stories were collected in "Short Stories: Five Decades" (Delacorte, 1978), reprinted in 2000 as a 784-page University of Chicago Press paperback. Among his noted short stories are: "Sailor Off The Bremen", "The Eighty-Yard Run", and "Tip On A Dead Jockey". Three of his stories ("The Girls in Their Summer Dresses", "The Monument", "The Man Who Married a French Wife") were dramatized for the PBS series "Great Performances". Telecast on June 1, 1981. This production was released on DVD in 2002 by Kultur Video.
In 1950, Shaw wrote a book on Israel with photos by Robert Capa named "Report on Israel."
Awards.
During his lifetime Shaw won a number of awards, including two O. Henry Awards, a National Institute of Arts and Letters grant, and three Playboy Awards.


Leonid Mikhelson

Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson (; born 11 August 1955) is a Russian billionaire businessman, CEO, chairman and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek.
According to "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", his net worth was estimated at US$28.2 billion as of 9 April 2021 ranking him the 48th richest person in the world and second richest in Russia.
Biography.
Born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, Mikhelson began his career as an engineer after graduating with a degree in Industrial Civil Engineering from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering in 1977. He started working as a foreman at a construction and assembling company in the Tyumen area of Siberia. One of his initial projects was work on the Urengoi-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline. In 1985, he was appointed as Chief Engineer of Ryazantruboprovodstroy. In 1987, he became General Director of Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy. In 1991, Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy was one of the first companies to undergo privatization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Mikhelson continued as Managing Director at the company, which has been renamed NOVA, until October 1994. He then became General Director of its holding company, Novafinivest, which later became known as NOVATEK. From 2008 until 2010 Mikhelson was Chairman of the Board of Directors for OAO Stroytransgas and OOO Art Finance. He currently holds the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of ZAO SIBUR and serves on the Supervisory Board of OAO Russian Regional Development Bank.
SIBUR is a gas processing and petrochemicals company operating 26 production sites across Russia with headquarters in Moscow. Mikhelson owns 57.5% interest in Sibur. He also holds a 25% stake in Novatek.
He also owns the megayacht Pacific.
Mikhelson has a strong interest in art, stating that “99 per cent” of his interest is in Russian and contemporary art. He also established his own foundation, the V-A-C Foundation, which promotes contemporary Russian art, and has international ties with the New Museum in New York, the Tate museums in the UK, and London's Whitechapel gallery. In May 2017, the foundation also opened an exhibition space in Venice and work is underway to develop V-A-C's first major art centre in Moscow, whose main site is an historic power station on the banks of the Moskva River. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the new centre for contemporary arts and culture in Moscow is due to open in 2019.
Notable Partnerships.
Mikhelson often partners with Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko on business and investment projects. They are partners and majority shareholders in Novatek and Sibur. In 2013, Mikhelson and Timchenko sold 12% of Sibur to management partners. Both Mikhelson and Timchenko appear on the Forbes list of billionaires. In 2012, Mikhelson was listed as the second-richest Russian in a number of articles including Bloomberg. Mikhelson and Novatek are the main sponsors of the Russian Football Union.
Mikhelson is the recipient of the Russian Federation's Order of the Badge of Honor.
Personal life.
Mikhelson is married, with two children, and lives in Moscow. His daughter Victoria studied art history at New York University and London's Courtauld Institute. His VAC Foundation Victoria, the Art of Being Contemporary, is named after her.
Mikhelson is one of many Russian "oligarchs" named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017.


Eco 4 the World

Eco 4 the World is a 13-episode Singaporean documentary television series featuring positive environmental stories from around the world. Stories include projects and initiatives businesses, ordinary people, celebrities and others involved in to make a difference in the environment around the world. The business stories highlight various companies' corporate social responsibility initiatives.
The series is in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme.
In association with the TV series, an online social network was also developed. It grew rapidly, but was not maintained and has been closed down.
Production.
Produced by Singapore-based Big Durian Productions, the half-hour show is hosted by environmental model Summer Rayne Oakes and Andrew Patterson
Stories for the series were shot in countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Italy, France, Azerbaijan, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Brazil and more.
The host links were shot in a studio in Singapore.
Celebrities.
The series has featured various celebrities including Sting, Alicia Keys, David Duchovny, Ryan Seacrest, Simple Plan, Hoobastank, Simon Webbe, Desmond Tutu, Ian Thorpe, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Bart Conner, Daryl Hannah, Gavin Newsom, Amy Smart, Ed Begley, Jr., Julia Butterfly Hill and more.
The celebrity features range from clips of them making short appearances to full interviews with footage of them involved in various environmental activities and projects. For example, Sting tells of his project in Costa Rica to protect the rainforests, while Ed Begley, Jr. shows the features of his eco-friendly home.
Corporate Social Responsibility.
Each Eco 4 the World episode features what various large businesses around the world are doing to have a positive impact on the environment. Featured corporations include DHL, Arla Foods, ING, Scania, Petronas, Ebara Corporation, Sodexo, Aarhus United Denmark, Yara International, Johnson & Johnson and more.
Distribution.
Eco 4 the World is distributed by Symbiosis Licensing Pte Ltd, a TV content and software distributor from Singapore.
The series was first shown on Arts Central in Singapore and subsequently on CNBC in the US and Europe. As of Spring 2008 it was still being aired there. The series was also shown in various other parts of the world including on RTM1 in Malaysia (where it is still being aired), and on Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines flights.
Eco 4 the World Foundation.
This foundation is a non-profit organization designed to empower young people towards positive environmental action. The foundation has participated in a number of projects and activities in conjunction with UNEP. These include Champions of the Earth, Focus on Your World, Passage of Hope and the Burned Tree Exhibition.
Champions of the Earth.
The foundation helped organise this annual UNEP award ceremony in Singapore.
Burned Tree Exhibition.
In April, 2007 the Eco 4 the World Foundation launched this art exhibition in Singapore. The event featured burned trees that had been made into sculptures by Philippe Pastor.
Focus on Your World.
The foundation organized this photo exhibition showcasing hundreds of photos of environmental conditions and events around the world.


John Augustine Hearst

John Augustine Chilton Hearst (born October 24, 1952) is an American business and media executive, film producer and philanthropist. He plays a leadership role in the family-owned Hearst Corporation, one of America's largest diversified media companies where he has been a member of the board of directors since 1990. Hearst is also vice president of special projects for Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the operating group responsible for the Hearst Entertainment interests in cable television networks, including ESPN, Lifetime, A&E and HISTORY.
Career.
Hearst is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Chestnut Holdings LLC, a private equity and agricultural development company. He partnered with architect Philippe Stark and hotelier Alan Faena to develop the Faena Hotel+Universe in Buenos Aires. The investment into the building, first built in 1902 as a grain storage facility, was in excess of $100 million. With Christopher Burch, he completed the development of a $19 million luxury home developments in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
In fashion, Hearst was one of the first investors in Tory Burch. Other investments in the sector included Candela, Fashion Tech Forum, Jack Rogers, Soludos, and Bikyni. In 2015, he launched with his wife designer Gabriela Perezutti Hearst, Gabriela Hearst. In consumer products, he has been an initial investor in Jawbone and Tipa Bags among others. As a principal and founder of Bridge Builders Collaborative, he's made investments in the mind fitness sectors included Headspace, eMindful, Happify, Pear Therapeutics, and Interaxon.
Philanthropy.
Hearst is actively involved in a wide range of civic, philanthropic and global humanitarian causes, including early childhood development projects with Save the Children and the government of Bhutan, and community agricultural projects in South Sudan. He is on the board of directors of Save the Children USA, an organization he has been closely involved with for more than 20 years. He was awarded The National Humanitarian 2014 Award. Hearst also serves on the board of advisors of the Blue School, and Karuna-Shechen, a non-profit humanitarian organization focused on providing education, healthcare and social services in the greater Himalayan region.
Personal life.
Hearst's father was William Randolph Hearst Jr., chairman of the Hearst Corporation in New York; his mother was Austine McDonnell, a columnist for The Washington Times-Herald. Hearst is a grandson of the late William Randolph Hearst, the editor and publisher. He has three children and is married to fashion designer and Uruguayan rancher Gabriela Hearst. His previous marriage to Christine Mularchuk, the current wife of Stephen Schwarzman, ended in divorce.


Ocey Snead

Oceana Wardlaw Martin Snead (September 1885 – November 29, 1909) also known as Ocey Snead, was an American woman who was drugged and drowned in East Orange, New Jersey by her own family to collect $32,000 () in insurance money.
Birth and family.
Oceana was born in September 1885, probably in New York City, to Caroline Belle Wardlaw (1848–1913), and Colonel Robert Maxwell Martin, who had fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Her mother had a career in education, at one point being removed from a position due to unstable behavior. Ocey was the common accepted nickname in that time for Oceana.
Caroline Belle Wardlaw had three sisters. Mary Elizabeth Long Wardlaw (1849–1937) married Fletcher Tillman Snead (1829–1891). Together they produced a son, Fletcher Wardlaw Snead (1875–1955), who was Ocey's first cousin and would become her husband. The second sister was Virginia Oceana Wardlaw (1852–1910), who never married. Both sisters were also involved in education and were also implicated in Ocey's murder. The third sister, who was not implicated in the death, was Bessie Gertrude Wardlaw (1867–1954) who married Richard Spindle (1855–1928). There were two brothers, a John Banks Wardlaw (1854-1881) who was a journalist and also taught at the Christiansburg school with his aunt and sisters, and who was married to Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Davidson (1857-1880). Both John and Lizzie died while living in Christiansburg, and while John was working at the school as a professor of English Language. The second brother was Albert Goodall Wardlaw (1856-1936), a reverend who married Harriett Lee Field. Albert did not have any involvement with the school.
The siblings were the children of Martha Elizabeth Wardlaw, née Goodall (1828–1910), and John Baptist Wardlaw (1817–1896), a minister and South Carolina Supreme Court justice. Caroline, Mary, and Virginia were known for dressing in black and for their secretive behavior. Several strange deaths followed the women in their later lives.
Marriage.
Ocey married Fletcher Wardlaw Snead, her first cousin, in 1906 in Louisville, Kentucky. The wedding took place in secret because the family was originally opposed to the union. A second ceremony was held on January 13, 1908, at Jersey City, New Jersey after the sisters had been "won over", shortly before the birth of their first child. Together they had two children: Mary Alberta Snead (1908); and David Pollock Snead (1909–1910). Fletcher was the son of Mary E. Long Wardlaw and Fletcher Tillman Snead and he had two siblings: John Wardlaw Snead (1878 – February 1906) and Albert Charles Snead (1880–1978). In 1880 Fletcher was living in Oglethorpe, Georgia, with his parents. Fletcher was previously married to Vashti Gordon McLaurin (1872–1953) who was born in Old Lynnville, Tennessee. Fletcher and Vashti had one child together: Robert Tillman Snead (1900–1954). Vashti moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma by 1920; by 1930 she was living in West Palm Beach, Florida with her son. She returned to Tennessee and died there, while her son remained in Florida and raised a family.
After they received word that Ocey was pregnant, the three sisters chased her to Canada and sent her against her will to Brooklyn, New York. Subsequent to this, Ocey's mother told her that Fletcher had died. In fact, Fletcher was alive and well and in contact with his mother and aunts.
Montgomery College.
Montgomery College, originally established in 1853 as the Montgomery Collegiate Institute, located in Christiansburg, Virginia, was founded and owned by the Christiansburg Presbyterian Church, and operated out of the old Church building on the corner of 1st and Franklin Streets. In 1860, a new school was built on the present site, and renamed Montgomery Female Academy. Oceana Seaborn Goodall Pollock, Martha Eliza Wardlaw's sister, purchased the school in 1876, when it was sold at public auction, and while she was a teacher at the school. The 1880 Census shows Mrs. Pollock and her niece Virginia Wardlaw, nephews John B and Albert G Wardlaw all living at the school, with Virginia listed as a teacher there. Within a year, John and his wife Lizzie would be dead, both in their 20s. Virginia and Mary returned to Tennessee shortly after that. They returned to Virginia shortly after 1900. Virginia's younger sister, Bessie Spindle, was already living in the area with her husband, Richard, a prominent local businessman, and in 1900 was the Principal at the Academy. Around this time, Mrs. Pollock, aged and infirm, deeded the school to her sister, Martha Wardlaw and niece Virginia. Virginia and Mary had inherited the real property of their father, and mother Martha had received all the cash, so there was money to apply to the school. They renamed it Montgomery Female College. All was well for a time; the school's dormitories were refurbished, the curriculum updated, and Virginia had returned to her love of teaching. Soon, however, Mary Snead arrived, followed by two of her sons, Fletcher and John. The trio's arrival created no problems. However, when Caroline Martin arrived, accompanied by her daughter Ocey, things swiftly went awry as Caroline took over administration of the school. She made sudden changes to the curriculum, moved students from one classroom to another for no apparent reason, and instilled suspicion and secrecy by installing up to three padlocks on some doors. All three sisters took to roaming the halls, surprising the residents with their sudden appearances.
Fletcher and John moved to Lynnville, Tennessee, opening a sawmill together and courting the women who would become their wives in a double wedding, both daughters of a prominent local lawyer named J. R. McLaurin. John married Anna Laird McLaurin in 1903, and Fletcher had married her sister, Vashti in 1899. Around 1906, Caroline Wardlaw visited John in Lynnville and insisted that John return with her to Christiansburg to teach at the school. John's wife pleaded with him to stay, and he refused his aunt's demands, even having police remove her from his house. He told his neighbors he wouldn't allow Caroline to wreck his home. Caroline returned in a few weeks, however, and John accompanied her back to the school in Christiansburg, leaving his wife behind. She wrote letters, but John was now under the thumbs of his aunts; Anna's health soon declined and she was placed in a sanitarium.
John's spirits also declined. On two occasions it was suspected that he attempted suicide—one when he fell off a train near Roanoke during a trip with Caroline. They insisted it was an accident, but the brakeman felt he had witnessed a suicide attempt. A few weeks later, John was pulled from an open cistern just in time to save his life. This time, Virginia Wardlaw raised the alarm and subsequently explained the accident—John had been taking measurements to provide a water supply for the school. A week later, Virginia again raised an alarm at eight o'clock in the morning. John was found thrashing about on the floor of his room at the college, his nightclothes on fire. Three hours later, he died of first-degree burns. The three sisters insisted it was an accident, not a suicide, and eventually received an insurance settlement in the amount of $12,000 (). It later emerged they had doused him with kerosene and burned him alive while he slept to collect the insurance.
While John's last months were playing out, Caroline traveled to Lynnville and insisted that Fletcher accompany her to Louisville concerning some family property. Vashti later learned that he had fallen very ill in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Vashti traveled to Chattanooga but was refused permission to see Fletcher by Caroline, who claimed that he was too ill. A week later, when Fletcher did not return as Caroline had promised, Vashti made a second trip to Chattanooga and discovered that Fletcher had been "moved from one boardinghouse to another by a woman answering to the description of Mrs. Martin". She returned home and, after a period of time, obtained a divorce. Fletcher then came to the college and married Ocey.
The three sisters entered into several fraudulent business deals in Christiansburg and the surrounding communities, eroding any trust the residents of that area had in them and sparking much speculation about their habits. Rumors spread in town that the sisters were engaged in secret rituals at Christiansburg's Sunset Cemetery, around the graves of their brother John and his wife Lizzie. Attendance at the school dropped, and chaos reigned in the classrooms. By 1904, the Montgomery Male Academy had closed, and male students were now also attending the Montgomery Female Academy, the name of which was now Montgomery Hall. Vandals wreaked extensive damage on the school and, by 1908, all three sisters, along with Fletcher and Ocey Snead, left Christiansburg for New York City and New Jersey.
Treatment and death.
For some unknown reason, after the death of their first child, and while Ocey was early in her pregnancy with their second, Fletcher Snead moved to Canada under an assumed name, and never contacted his wife again, but left her in the care of these women.
Ocey had apparently always been the object of scorn from her mother and aunts, who deliberately tried to starve her to death virtually from the day she was born. Subsequent to the departure of her husband, Ocey's health began to fail. Dr. William Pettit was called in to look at the sickly pregnant woman. He found her suffering from depression, "general weakness", and malnutrition. "She seemed depressed and indeed afraid of those about her," he told police later.
Pettit visited the Wardlaw household several times and repeatedly found that his instructions for Ocey's care were not being followed. Because the sisters were not cooperating, nor were they paying him, he stopped visiting. The sisters called another doctor, who smuggled food to Ocey when he saw her condition. Not long after Ocey's baby was born, he sneaked through a window to check on her, but Virginia threw him out. A lawyer subsequently told him there was nothing that could be done. Several months later, Pettit was once again summoned and found Ocey to be even weaker than before, and no longer pregnant. The baby, named David, had been taken to a hospital, where he was in poor health. He was later placed in an orphanage by the sisters; however, he died when just 9 months old and is buried next to his mother.
Virginia told Pettit to inform Ocey that she was dying and to tell her to make a will. Instead, Pettit had a nurse brought in to care for Ocey; the nurse stayed just one day before being removed by the sisters. Rather than pay the $100 bill presented by the doctor, the sisters offered to make him a $1,000 beneficiary in Ocey's will. He declined and decided to take steps against the family, believing that Ocey was "under some hypnotic influence." What he did not know was that Ocey was being given regular but unnecessary doses of morphine for her post-partum pain by her mother and aunts. When Pettit returned to check on Ocey before he reported the strange case to police, he found the place abandoned and the sisters gone.
The family next surfaced in another Brooklyn neighborhood in September 1909, when Virginia, wearing a thick layer of black veils, visited Julius Carabba, a New York attorney, and asked him to help a dying woman prepare a will. Carabba came to Ocey's bedside while her mother and aunts chanted prayers over her. After the prayers, Virginia asked Ocey if she wanted to make a new will, to which Ocey agreed. Carabba told the women that Ocey needed a doctor and some food. The sisters said they could afford neither. Carabba offered to write them a check and, while the sisters left the room in search of a pen, talked to Ocey. She told him that she was dying, reached under her pillow and gave him her will, in which she left everything to her grandmother and asked him to make himself executor. The sisters offered Carabba $7,000 () to make them the beneficiaries. Carabba refused and the sisters dropped him as their attorney.
In October 1909, Virginia was served as defendant in a lawsuit for nonpayment of the price of a new piano. Her response to the plaintiff was "wait until we bury our dead." At this time, Ocey was near death from lack of food and medical care and was moved to an apartment at 89 East 14th Street, East Orange, New Jersey. There was no heat or gas for cooking and the place was furnished with just two cots, a rug, a chair, and a barrel for a table. The police were called by the family on November 29, 1909, and told there was an "accident". The police then sent a physician to their home. Virginia led Dr. Herbert M. Simmons, the Assistant County Physician, to an upstairs bathroom where Ocey's naked body was sitting in a tub of water with her head tilted under the faucet.
A suicide note pinned to her clothes was beside the bathtub. It read as follows:
Ocey was buried on December 7, 1909, at Mount Hope Cemetery, beside her father, 7 year old brother, and 2 day old infant daughter Mary Alberta, in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York. Her infant son, David Pollock Snead, who had been taken by the sisters shortly after birth and placed in an orphange, died July 18, 1910, at the age of 9 months, and is buried with his family.
Investigation and trial.
Virginia's answers to Simmons were deemed suspicious and the police were called to investigate. Ocey's death was identified as drowning, with starvation as a contributing cause. Suspicion for the death quickly focused on her family, particularly her mother and two aunts. The investigator who originally arrived at the home noted that it was cold and appeared unoccupied, and that the victim had been dead for at least 24 hours, prompting investigators to wonder why there was a delay in discovering the body. The evidence against the sisters consisted of several life insurance policies that had been taken out on the young woman, and several suicide notes found in the possession of Ocey's mother that were written in the same hand and similar style as the note alleged to have been Ocey's suicide note, and the family's treatment of Ocey prior to her death. All three were arrested and charged with murder. Virginia Wardlaw starved herself to death in prison in 1910, while awaiting trial. Caroline Martin, late into her trial, finally pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was taken to jail, then transferred to an insane asylum, where she died in 1913. Mary Snead was released on a technicality, since there is no charge for accomplice to manslaughter, and went to Colorado to live with her youngest son, Albert Charles Snead. They later moved to California, where she died in 1937.
Further reading.
 Books
 Periodicals


Cross-field head

A cross-field head, sometimes referred to as X-field, is an additional recording head in a tape recorder that improves the ability to record high-frequency sounds. The concept was first introduced by Tandberg in their TB-6X 1960s, and more widely used by Akai and their US brand, Roberts.
Bias and self-erasure.
A conventional tape recorder uses two heads. The main head is used for both playback and recording. A second head, placed before the main head in terms of the direction of tape movement, is used during recording to erase any previous signal. Additionally, the record head is used to introduce a tape bias signal that improves frequency response.
Generally, lower frequencies are recorded lower in the oxide layer on the tape. In order to get the bias signal into these layers, the signal has to be fairly strong, stronger than what would be needed to write higher frequencies alone. This means there is some stray signal, both from the bias and new high frequency signals being recorded, that "leaks out" of the immediate area of the recording and into the nearby tape. For low frequencies this has no effect because the layer they are recorded in is far from the record head, but for high frequencies it is possible to self-erase a signal just laid down.
This problem is primarily seen at slower tape transport. If the tape is moving at high speed, the previously recorded sounds will quickly move away from the record head and avoid self-erasure. At slower speeds there isn't enough time for this to happen.
Cross-field.
Cross-field recording adds a second head to record the bias signal separately from the signal. It is placed on the "back" of the tape, directly across from the recording head. Since the bias has to reach the deepest layers of the oxide, placing the head on the back of the tape means that reaching these levels does not require it to penetrate right to the front of the tape. This helps reduce self-erasure due to the bias signal.
Additionally, the heads are arranged so the combination of the two signals results in a small "dead zone" directly past the recording head where high frequency signals are blanked out. This prevents subsequent high frequency signals from interfering with those just recorded, by the time they exit the dead zone they are too far from the head to be overwritten.
Although the two-head solution was the first and most common type of cross-field system, there were several other systems of varying complexity and capability. Akai reel-to-reel systems using cross-field, starting with the Akai XIV/Roberts 770, boasted 13 kHz maximum frequency at 1.875 inches per second, greater than similar systems at twice that speed.
The two-head cross-field system also had problems. One was the need to keep the heads in proper alignment, which was tricky for the average user. Additionally, dirt on the tape of record head that lifted the tape away from the record head pushed it closer to the bias head, re-introducing the self-erasure problem. For proper results, cross-field recording needed high quality tapes, to ensure the oxide layer was thick enough to allow the bias signal to imprint on the deeper levels of the oxide without reaching the front surface.


Cathy Mitchell (television personality)

Cathy Hartman Mitchell (born January 1, 1947) is an author and television infomercial host for numerous "As seen on TV" products.
Career.
Cathy is the author of "Dump Cakes", "Dump Dinners" and "Crock Pot Dump Meals", all of which were advertised on the Steve Harvey Show and on HSN. Her newest cookbooks include "Ramen Joy" and "Ramen Nibbles", which are homemade dishes and desserts made with instant ramen noodles.
In August 2008, Cathy appeared in an infomercial parody alongside John C. Reilly on his show "Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule" hosted on Adult Swim.
In 2014, Cathy Mitchell was featured on the Rachael Ray show. She participated in a Coffee Off with fellow pitchman Marc Gill which she lost by 8 cups.