Navvab Safavi

Sayyid Mojtaba Mir-Lohi (,  1924 – 18 January 1956), more commonly known as Navvab Safavi (), was an Iranian Shia cleric and founder of the Fada'iyan-e Islam group. He played a role in assassinations of Abdolhossein Hazhir, Haj Ali Razmara, Hossein Ala' and Ahmad Kasravi. On 22 November, after an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hosein Ala', Navvab Safavi and some of his followers were arrested. In January 1956, Safavi and three other members of Fada'iyan-e Islam were sentenced to death and executed.

Early life
Born in Ghaniabad, Tehran into a well-known religious family in 1924, he received his primary education in Tehran and left school after eighth grade when his father died. His father, Seyyed Javad Mir-Lohi, was a cleric who was put in jail many years for having slapped Reza Shah's Minister of Justice, Ali Akbar Davar, in the face, and thus the young Navvab was raised by his maternal uncle, Seyyed Mahmood Navvab Safavi, whose name he eventually adopted. It was said that "the family name was changed to Navvab Safavi (deputies of the Safavids) to identify with the famous Shi'ite dynasty of the Safavids, who in the sixteenth century made Shi'ism the state religion of Iran." Growing up during this period of militant secularization, after briefly (for few months) working in Abadan's petroleum installations in Khuzestan Province, for the British-owned Iranian Oil Company, he decided, in 1943, to pursue religious studies at Najaf. He is said to have been known for his striking looks and his "mesmerizing" speaking ability, and compared his own charisma and magnetism over the masses to that of Hassan-i Sabbah, the leader of the Assassins.

Career
Safavi founded the Fada'iyan-e Islam organization in 1945, and began recruiting like-minded individuals. Like the Muslim Brotherhood, a group he was in deep connection with and even met Sayyid Qutb later in 1953. Navvab Safavi believed that Islamic society needed to be purified. To do this he organized carefully planned assassinations to rid Islam of "corrupting individuals," often prime ministers of Iran's government.

Amir Taheri claims that Safavi was "the man who introduced Ayatollah Khomeini to the Muslim Brotherhood and their ideas," who "spent long hours together" with Khomeini in discussion, and visited him in Qom on a number of occasions during 1943 and 1944.

He and his organization were responsible for the attempted and actual assassinations of politicians Abdolhossein Hazhir, Hossein Ala' (he survived the attempt), Prime Minister Haj Ali Razmara, and historian Ahmad Kasravi.

Safavi and his group were closely associated with Abol-Ghasem Kashani and supported but were not members of Mohammad Mosaddegh's National Front. Safavi worked with Kashani, helping organize bazaar strikes against Premier Ahmad Qavam, public meetings in support of Palestinian Arabs, and a violent demonstration in 1948 against Premier Abdolhossein Hazhir. When the Shah appointed National Front leader Mohammed Mossadegh to the post of prime minister, Safavi expected his objectives would be furthered. He demanded the government drive the British out, and that it release "with honour and respect" the assassin of Razmara. When that didn't happen, Safavi announced "we have broken away irrevocably from Kashani's National Front. They promised to set up an Islamic country according to the precepts of the Koran. Instead, they have imprisoned our brothers." He later warned, "there are others who must be pushed down the incline to hell", words which would pass on to Mossadegh and further alienate him.

Thus relations between Kashani and Safavi, not to mention Mosaddegh, became "strained."  On 10 May 1951, Navvab Safavi declared, "I invite Mosaddegh, other members of the National Front and Ayatollah Kashani, to an ethical trial.'

Arrest and execution
Prime Minister Mosaddegh, who was preoccupied with the nationalization of the oil industry, found these activities "disruptive." On 8 June 1951, he ordered the arrest of Safavi, who stayed there until his release in February 1953. Six months later Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d'état. Like Kashani, Safavi supported the coup against Mosaddegh and "in the years immediately following the coup Navvab Safavi enjoyed a close association with the court and the government of Prime Minister General Fazlollah Zahedi." By 1955 it became clear the regime would not be instituting strict enforcement of Shariah law and Islamization of Iran, and was instead becoming more pro-Western. On 22 November, after an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hosein Ala', Navvab Safavi and some of his followers were arrested. Following a summary trial Safavi and three other members of Fada'iyan-e Islam were sentenced to death on 25 December and executed in the morning of 18 January 1956. The clerical establishment did not attempt to intervene on their behalf.

Ideology
The main work detailing his vision of the world is Barnameh-ye Enqelabi-ye Fada'ian-e Eslam (The Revolutionary Programme of Fada'ian-e Eslam), "published in October/November 1950, in the heat of the debates over the nationalization of the oil industry", where he exposes a paradigm close to that of the utopian socialists like Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier or Robert Owen.

In philosophy and moral psychology, he proposed that "the human mind is the arena of a continual confrontation between the desires of the soul (nafs) and the restraining force of reason ('aql)", and the latter should refrain the carnal desires of the former, like fornication or drinking alcohol.

In education, he favoured "compulsory elementary education for five years, and high school would train students in the areas of students' specialization. Only courses such as chemistry, physics, natural sciences, mathematics, and medicine, which are useful for society, would be taught" so "in this way those students who do not make it to college would have learned a trade when they complete high school", while he also promoted single-sex education, all of which would influence the educational policies of Ayatollah Khomeini.

In economy, he proposed a Third Position, refuting both western capitalism and communism for an Islamic vision, which is similar to Ayatollah Khomeini's anti-Soviet and anti-US position. His ideology has been characterized as "a Sismondian capitalism of shopkeepers and artisans where altruism, charity, and religious taxes (zakat and khoms) act as levelling devices in a society that would honour everyone equally and would provide for all their needs", "the shopkeepers and artisans would be living in a world of total harmony with the wealthy and fortunate merchants, while the corrupt and arrogant capitalist thieves and embezzlers of public funds would be done away with", whereas the government "would carry on certain responsibilities. It would maintain law and order and would make sure that Islamic codes of conduct are strictly enforced. It would educate the youth (public education by government is accepted) and carry out other social responsibilities."

In geopolitics, like many Iranian nationalists of his time, he's particularly critical of Great Britain and the Soviet Union, yet another feature Ayatollah Khomeini made his own. He was also strongly anti-Zionist, proclaiming that "the pure blood of the brave devotees of Islam is boiling to help the Moslem Palestinian brothers." In fact, apart from the obvious pan-Islamic tones of the movement, he was also somehow a nationalist in the sense that "the Fada'iyan's ideology combined religious zeal and belief in the supremacy of Shi'ite Islam with elements of Iranian nationalism. The Fada'iyan sought to 'purify the Persian language' and hoped to bring the Iranian-Shi'ite lands together and establish an Islamic government."

The main difference with the later founder of the Islamic Republic, though, and a radical one, is that he never advocated for a theocracy, as he accepts the monarchy, where "the Shah is viewed as the father of the family. He should be benevolent and fatherly in ruling the people. His faith and virtues should be such that people learn from him religious faith and virtues. He, as a father, should know how everyone is doing and that no one will go hungry or lack clothing. Then, 'as long as there is anyone alive in the family no one would dare to be disrespectful toward him, not to mention wanting to expel him from his home and family. Yes! The Shah must be a father, to be a father and the Shah.'".

Apart from Ayatollah Khomeini, Navvab's vision would influence many other important players of the Islamic Republic, for instance the scholar Morteza Motahhari, or being, with Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Ahmad Fardid, one of the main ideological pillars of the former conservative president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, goes as far as saying "I have no doubt that it was Navab Safavi who first kindled the fire of revolutionary Islam in my heart."


Roger Stott

Roger Stott,  (7 August 1943 – 9 August 1999) was a British Labour Party politician.

Biography
Stott was born in Rochdale, the first child of Richard and Edith Stott. He is of Scottish  descent. He went to school in Rochdale and when he was 15 he joined the Merchant Navy. He then worked as an engineer for the Post Office and became local councillor for the Labour Party in Rochdale, where he was the Chair of the Housing Committee. He married Irene Mills on 17 June 1969 from which he had two sons Andrew (1970) and Joe (Stott) Mills (1972). The marriage ended in 1982 and he married again for a second time to a teacher Gillian Pye on 30 March 1985 and later had two children Daniel and Ciara. When Stott was not working, he loved to play sport, he was a great rugby league fan and went to watch it whenever he had the chance. He was also a great fan of cricket.

Political career
Stott represented the North West Region on the National Committee of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1969, following Peter Kent. He contested Cheadle in 1970, coming third.

Stott was first elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westhoughton at a by-election in 1973, following the death of the sitting Labour MP Tom Price. He was sponsored by the Post Office Engineering Union (POEU). He held that seat at three subsequent general elections before the constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election.

He was then elected MP for the Wigan constituency in Greater Manchester, and held that seat at the next three general elections.  His death in office in 1999 made him the fourth Wigan MP in the twentieth century to die in office (the others being John Parkinson, Ronald Williams and William Foster).

Stott was a longtime joint chairman of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to James Callaghan during his administration.  He later served as a junior opposition spokesman.

Death
Stott died of liver cancer on Monday, 9 August 1999, two days after his 56th birthday. He had been ill for some time. After his death many people, including Ian McCartney and Jack Cunningham, wrote tributes to him and the work he had done while he was MP.

External links


Lake Zumpango

Lake Zumpango was an endorheic lake formerly located in the Valley of Mexico. It was important area for Mesoamerican cultural development in central Mexico.

The endorheic basin located in the north of State of Mexico, in the borough of municipality of Zumpango and bordering the municipality of Teoloyucan in the State of Mexico.

Lake Zumpango and the other Mexican great lakes (the brackish lakes Chalco, Texcoco and Xaltocan and the freshwater Xochimilco) formed the ancient Basin of Mexico lake system. These lakes were home to many Mesoamerican cultures including the Toltecs and the Aztecs.

Lake Zumpango was the original habitat of the axolotl, an amphibian which is now critically endangered and possibly extinct in the wild due to urban destruction.


Mayabazar

Mayabazar () is a 1957 Indian epic fantasy film directed by Kadiri Venkata Reddy. It was produced by B. Nagi Reddy and Aluri Chakrapani under their banner, Vijaya Vauhini Studios. The film was shot in both Telugu and Tamil with the same title, but with a few differences in the cast. The story is an adaptation of the folk tale Sasirekha Parinayam, which in turn is based on the epic Mahabharata. It revolves around the roles of Krishna (N. T. Rama Rao) and Ghatotkacha (S. V. Ranga Rao), as they try to reunite Arjuna son Abhimanyu (Telugu: Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Tamil: Gemini Ganesan) with his love, Balarama daughter (Savitri). The Telugu version features Gummadi Venkateswara Rao, Mukkamala, Ramana Reddy, and Relangi Venkata Ramaiah in supporting roles, with D. Balasubramaniam, R. Balasubramaniam, V. M. Ezhumalai, and K. A. Thangavelu playing those parts in the Tamil version.

The first mythological film produced by their studio, Mayabazar marked a milestone for Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani. In addition to the technical crew, 400 studio workers – including light men, carpenters, and painters – participated in the development of the film. Director Reddy was meticulous with the pre-production and casting phases, which took nearly a year to complete. Though Rama Rao was initially reluctant to play the lead role, his portrayal of Krishna received acclaim and yielded more offers to reprise the same role in several unrelated films. The soundtrack features twelve songs, with most of the musical score composed by Ghantasala. Telugu lyrics were written by Pingali Nagendrarao and Tamil lyrics were written by Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass. Four of the songs were composed by S. Rajeswara Rao prior to his unexplained departure from the project. One of them was accompanied by the first illusion of moonlight in Indian cinema, shot by cinematographer Marcus Bartley.

Mayabazars Telugu version was released on 27 March 1957; the Tamil version was released two weeks later, on 12 April. Both were critically and commercially successful, with a theatrical run of 100 days in 24 theatres, and it became a silver-jubilee film. The Telugu version of Mayabazar was also dubbed into Kannada. The film is considered a landmark in both Telugu and Tamil cinema, with praise for its cast and technical aspects, despite the limitations of technology at the time. Mayabazar was screened at the Public Gardens in Hyderabad for its 50th anniversary on 7 April 2007. Raavi Kondala Rao novelized the film's script based on Venkata Reddy's screenplay. A May 2013 CNN-News18 poll selected Mayabazar as the greatest Indian film of all time.

Mayabazar became the first Telugu film to be digitally remastered and colourised, at an estimated cost of 75 million (valued at about US$1.7 million in 2010), after Hyderabad-based company Goldstone Technologies acquired world negative rights to fourteen films including that of Mayabazar in late November 2007. The updated version was released on 30 January 2010 in 45 theatres in Andhra Pradesh. It was a commercial success that generated mostly positive reviews, one critic only expressing a preference for the original.

Plot

Subhadra (the sister of Balarama and Krishna) marries a Pandava named Arjuna. Their son Abhimanyu falls in love with Balarama's daughter, Sasirekha. The families consent to their marrying when they reach adulthood. When Abhimanyu and Sasirekha have grown up, Krishna introduces them to each other. One day, the Pandavas are invited by Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas to join in a game of dice. Duryodhana's uncle, Shakuni, manipulates the results of the game, thereby costing the Pandavas their wealth, their liberty and their wife Draupadi. Duryodhana's brother, Dushasana, attempts to disrobe Draupadi. He is seen by Krishna, who, furious, comes to her rescue. On hearing what happened to the Pandavas, Balarama decides to teach the Kauravas a lesson and travels to their capital Hastinapuram. Shakuni and Duryodhana approach Balarama with an insincere respectful manner, then seek his approval of a marriage between Sasirekha and Duryodhana's son Lakshmana Kumara. Their true goal is to force Balarama and Krishna to support them if the Pandavas wage war. Unaware of their real intentions, Balarama agrees to the marriage.

Because of the Pandavas' ruined financial state, Balarama's wife, Revati, refuses to honour her commitment to marry Sasirekha and Abhimanyu and expresses her support for the alliance with the Kauravas. Krishna, who is aware of Duryodhana and Shakuni's real intentions, orders his charioteer Daaruka to take Subhadra and Abhimanyu through the forests to Ghatotkacha hermitage. Ghatotkacha, who happens to be Abhimanyu's brother, at first thinks they are intruders in his forest and attacks them but later apologises for the misunderstanding. When Subhadra explains the change in the marriage arrangements, Ghatotkacha decides to wage war against both the Kauravas and Balarama. At the urging of his mother, Hidimbi, and Subhadra, Ghatotkacha abandons his plans and is advised instead to try some trickery in Dvaraka. With the knowledge of Krishna and Sasirekha's servant, he carries the sleeping Sasirekha in her bed from Dvaraka, and flies to his hermitage. Assuming Sasirekha's form, he returns to Dvaraka and, with the help of his assistants Chinnamaya, Lambu and Jambu, wreaks havoc on her wedding to Lakshmana Kumara, preventing the marriage from being carried out.

With the help of Chinnamaya, Lambu and Jambu, Ghatotkacha creates a magical town consisting of an illusory marketplace and palace. He names the town Mayabazar and invites the Kauravas to stay there. Chinnamaya, Lambu and Jamu introduce themselves to the Kauravas as servants appointed by Balarama to look after them. They manage to trick Sarma and Sastry, Shakuni's lackeys. Ghatotkacha (in Sasirekha's form) makes Duryodhana's wife rethink the marriage arrangement and teases Lakshmana Kumara. He plans the wedding of the real Sasirekha and Abhimanyu in his hermitage which is attended by Krishna. Using his divine powers, Krishna also attends as a guest for the marriage taking place in the Mayabazar.

On the wedding day, Ghatotkacha appears before Lakshmana Kumara in various tantalising form while, at the hermitage, Sasirekha marries Abhimanyu. When Shakuni discovers what has really happened, he blames Krishna. Satyaki, Arjuna's disciple, asks Shakuni to speak standing on a magical box. He proceeds to stand on the box, which makes him involuntarily explain the Kauravas' real intentions behind the marriage proposal. Ghatotkacha then reveals his identity. After humiliating the Kauravas, Ghatotkacha sends them back to Hastinapuram. Sasirekha's parents accept her marriage. They thank Ghatotkacha, who credits Krishna as the mastermind behind everything, including Abhimanyu and Sasirekha's marriage.

Cast
Cast for both Tamil and Telugu versions

 N. T. Rama Rao as Krishna
 S. V. Ranga Rao as Ghatotkacha
 Savitri as Sasirekha (Telugu) and Vatsala (Tamil)
 Akkineni Nageswara Rao (Telugu) and Gemini Ganesan (Tamil) as Abhimanyu
 Gummadi Venkateswara Rao (Telugu) and D. Balasubramaniam (Tamil) as Balarama
 Mukkamala (Telugu) and R. Balasubramaniam (Tamil) as Duryodhana
 C. S. R. Anjaneyulu (Telugu) and M. N. Nambiar (Tamil) as Shakuni
 Rushyendramani as Subhadra
 Sandhya as Rukmini
 Nagabhushanam as Satyaki
 Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy (Telugu) and V. K. Srinivasan (Tamil) as Karna
 Chhaya Devi (Telugu) and Lakshmi Prabha (Tamil) as Revati
 R. Nageswara Rao (Telugu) and E. R. Sahadevan (Tamil) as Dushasana
 Suryakantam (Telugu) and C. T. Rajakantham (Tamil) as Hidimbi
 Ramana Reddy (Telugu) and V. M. Ezhumalai (Tamil) as Chinnamaya
 Relangi Venkata Ramaiah (Telugu) and K. A. Thangavelu (Tamil) as Lakshmana Kumara
 Allu Rama Lingaiah as Sarma
 Vangara Venkata Subbaiah as Sastry
 Madhavapeddi Satyam as Daaruka
 Valluri Balakrishna as Sarathi (Telugu)
 Sachu as young Vatsala (Tamil)

Production

Development
After the success of Pathala Bhairavi (1951), the production company, Vijaya Productions, selected the film's technical crew for an adaptation of Sasirekha Parinayam (1936), also known as Mayabazar. The eighth adaptation of the folk tale Sasirekha Parinayam, it was the studio's first mythological film.

Kadiri Venkata Reddy wrote and directed Mayabazar, assisted by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, and it was produced by B. Nagi Reddy and Aluri Chakrapani of Vijaya Productions. Nearly a year was spent on pre-production and casting. Pingali Nagendrarao assisted with the story, script, and lyrics. Ghantasala composed the film's score, and Marcus Bartley was the cinematographer. Mayabazar was edited by C. P. Jambulingam and G. Kalyanasundaram; Madhavapeddi Gokhale and Kaladhar were the film's art directors.

Casting
The film was produced in Telugu and Tamil versions, with a slightly different cast for each. Gemini Ganesan appeared as Abhimanyu in the Tamil version, which was portrayed by Akkineni Nageswara Rao in Telugu. Savitri was retained as the female lead in Tamil also, where her character was named Vatsala instead of Sasirekha. Sachu played the younger version of the character in Tamil. N. T. Rama Rao, hesitant to play Krishna after a negative response to his cameo appearance in Sonta Ooru (1956), agreed at Venkata Reddy's insistence and special care was taken with his costume and body language; Mayabazar was the first of Rama Rao's many appearances as Krishna. According to Rama Rao's widow Lakshmi Parvathi, Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani had initially rejected Venkata Reddy's proposal to cast Rama Rao as Krishna, but he persuaded them into believing that Rama Rao was good for the role. As Rama Rao had a broad chest, Venkata Reddy suggested a slight narrowing to look apt as Krishna. In addition to following other suggestions by Venkata Reddy, Rama Rao read the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata and other puranas to understand Krishna's character and present it properly. S. V. Ranga Rao, described by Nageswara Rao as the film's male lead in interviews, played the character of Ghatotkacha.

In the Telugu version, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao and Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy were cast as Balarama and Karna, respectively, whilst Sita had a supporting role as Sasirekha's maid. Relangi Venkata Ramaiah portrayed Lakshmana Kumara, Duryodhana's son; his popularity inspired a song with him and Savitri. Allu Rama Lingaiah and Vangara Venkata Subbaiah enacted the parts of Shakuni's lackeys, Sarma and Sastry. Kanchi Narasimha Rao played Krishna, disguised as an old man who stops Ghatotkacha when he enters Dwaraka. The playback singer Madhavapeddi Satyam made a cameo appearance as Daaruka, singing "Bhali Bhali Bhali Deva". Ramana Reddy portrayed Chinnamayya, a tantrik who teaches witchcraft at Ghatotkacha's ashram, with Chadalavada and Nalla Ramamurthy playing his apprentices Lambu and Jambu. Nagabhushanam played Satyaki. Valluri Balakrishna was cast as Sarathi, and appeared only in the Telugu version of the film.

Filming
During rehearsals, Venkata Reddy timed his actors with a stopwatch, calculating the length of each scene (including songs) to determine the film's length. D. S. Ambu Rao, Bartley's assistant, said that Mayabazar was shot according to the screenplay and Bartley's lighting. The song "Lahiri Lahiri" was shot at Adyar River, Chennai. Its outdoor filming lasted for 10 to 15 seconds. Bartley then created an illusion of moonlight, which according to Ambu Rao was a first for an Indian film. Nageswara Rao was injured on the film's set, and action sequences featuring himself and Ranga Rao were shot only after his recovery, causing a three-month delay in the release of the film. Ganesan volunteered to act as Nageswara Rao's body double in a scene where Abhimanyu would jump from a second-floor balcony.

In addition to the principal technicians and actors, a crew of 400, including light men, carpenters, and painters, worked on Mayabazar during production. For the Dvaraka set, 300 unique miniature houses were created in an approximately  electrified space at Vauhini Studios under the supervision of Madhavapeddi Gokhale and Kaladhar. The desired effect in the "laddoo gobbling" shots of Ghatotkacha in the song "Vivaha Bhojanambu" took four days to film. The entire song was filmed using stop motion animation. In the scene where Ghatotkacha (disguised as Sasirekha) stamps Lakshmana Kumara's foot with his own, the expression is Savitri's; the stamping foot belongs to choreographer Pasumarthy Krishnamurthy, who pasted false hair on his foot to make it appear demonic.

Music

After writing the music for four songs – "Srikarulu Devathalu", "Lahiri Lahiri", "Choopulu Kalisina Shubhavela" and "Neekosame" – S. Rajeswara Rao left the project. Following his departure, Ghantasala orchestrated and recorded Rajeswara Rao's compositions with N. C. Sen Gupta and A. Krishnamurthy, and composed the rest of the film's score. The soundtrack album has 12 songs with lyrics by Pingali Nagendrarao and Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass for the Telugu and Tamil versions, respectively, and was mixed by A. Krishnan and Siva Ram. The album was engineered by N. C. Sen Gupta and orchestrated by A. Krishnamurthy. P. Leela said in an interview that one of her songs took 28 takes to record, and her fifth song was finished by Ghantasala. "Lahiri Lahiri" ("Aaga Inba Nilavinile" in Tamil) was based on the Mohanam raga. "Vivaha Bhojanambu" ("Kalyana Samayal Saadham" in Tamil) was heavily based on lyrics from Surabhi Nataka Samajam's 1950s plays, which were influenced by 1940s Janaki Sapadham harikatha records by B. Nagarajakumari.

Nagarajakumari was inspired by a song written by Gali Penchala Narasimha Rao for Sasirekha Parinayam (1936), directed by P. V. Das. That song's melody was inspired by Charles Penrose's 1922 song "The Laughing Policeman", written by Penrose under the pseudonym of Charles Jolly. According to M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu, music "flowed at its mellifluous best" in Mayabazar. He added that Ghantasala "gave a new lease of life" to the song "Vivaha Bhojanambu", despite it being a borrowed tune.

Release
The Telugu version of Mayabazar was released on 27 March 1957, and the Tamil version two weeks later on 12 April. Both versions have a film-reel length of . A commercial success, Mayabazar had a theatrical run of 100 days in 24 theatres and went on to become a silver jubilee film. After the film's release, 40,000 colour calendars of Rama Rao as Krishna were distributed to the public. The Telugu version of Mayabazar was dubbed into Kannada with the same name in 1965; it remained the last Indian film to be dubbed into Kannada until the announcement of a dubbed version of Kochadaiiyaan (2014) after 50 years.

Dasari Narayana Rao remade the film later with the same title. Mayabazar was shown at the Public Gardens in Hyderabad on 7 April 2007 for the film's 50th anniversary, at a celebration organised by the Andhra Pradesh Department of Culture, the Film, TV and Theatre Development Corporation and Kinnera Art Theatres. Nageswara Rao and C. Narayana Reddy, who were associated with the film, were honoured on the occasion. The former released a book written by Raavi Kondala Rao at Lalitha Kala Thoranam located in the Public Gardens. Kondala Rao novelised the film's script based on Venkata Reddy's screenplay.

Critical reception
The film received positive reviews from critics, particularly for the work of its technical crew. In 2006, W. Chandrakanth of The Hindu wrote: The greatness of the director lies here – he successfully reduces all characters to ordinary mortals displaying all the follies of human beings except Ghatothkacha or Krishna. And then he injects into the Yadava household a Telugu atmosphere, full with its simile, imagery, adage, sarcasm and wit. The result – a feast for the eyes and soul. That is Mayabazar for you. Vijaysree Venkatraman wrote for The Hindu in 2008 that the "special effects in this summer's Hollywood superhero movies were spectacular, but, for me, the mythological  hasn't lost any of its magic", adding, "If watching the genial half-demon polish off a wedding feast single-handedly remains a treat, seeing the greedy duo from the groom's side get whacked alternately by the furniture and the wilful carpet has me in splits". The Hindu film critic M. L. Narasimham wrote: "Though there were several movie versions in various Indian languages, the 1957 Vijaya Productions' Mayabazar is still considered the best for its all round excellence". According to The Times of India, "With a powerful cast and a strong script, this movie is a stealer. Savitri, NTR [N. T. Rama Rao], ANR [Akkineni Nageswara Rao], SV Rangarao and not to mention Suryakantam add layers to their characters. Of course, the language and the dialogues, simply unbeatable. Some of the scenes are simply hilarious."

In his 2013 book Bollywood Nation: India through Its Cinema, Vamsee Juluri wrote, "Maya Bazar appeal is of course as much in its story as in its stars. But the performances and the beautiful songs and sets aside, the film also reveals an interesting feature of the Telugu mythological in its Golden Ageit is a story about something not very important from a doctrinal view of religion at all". Juluri also termed Ranga Rao's performance as "mighty and majestic". In April 2013, CNN-News18 referred to Mayabazar as a "pioneer in every sense". They praised its cinematography and music, adding that Rama Rao "proved his calibre as a method actor". In their 2015 book, Transcultural Negotiations of Gender: Studies in (Be)longing, Saugata Bhaduri and Indrani Mukherjee opined that Mayabazar "both breaks and perpetuates the stereotypes for masculine and feminine bhavas by making a single female actor Savitri perform both the set of emotions".

Digitisation and colourisation

Mayabazar was the first colourised Telugu film, with its audio remastered from monaural to a DTS 5.1-channel system. In late November 2007 a Hyderabad company, Goldstone Technologies, acquired world negative rights to 14 Telugu films produced by Vijaya Vauhini Studios, including that of Mayabazar, to digitally remaster them in colour. C. Jagan Mohan of Goldstone Technologies' experience at All India Radio gave him the idea of converting the film's audio to DTS. The audio was restored, sound effects remastered, distortion eliminated, and the volume of the vocals increased, and musicians re-recorded the film's background music on seven tracks instead of one.

A team of 165 people worked for eight months; Mohan used 180,000 shades of colour to create a tone similar to human skin, and employed 16.7-million-shade colour technology. Apart from colouring clothing and jewellery, Mohan said that the song "Vivaha Bhojanambu" and the wedding scene in the climax were the most challenging sequences, and that the food should look more realistic after colourisation. In the wedding scene, Mohan explained: "Each and every rose petal strewn on the pathway had to be coloured. Further, each frame in the climax has many actors. In technical parlance, we refer to a set of colours used for skin tone, clothes, jewelry and so on as different masks. If five or six masks were used on one character, the presence of many actors in a frame called for that much more work." Three songs ("Bhali Bhali Deva", "Vinnavamma Yashodha" and "Choopulu Kalisina Subha Vela") and many poems were cut from the remastered colour version to maintain print quality.

With an estimated digitalisation budget of 75 million (valued at about US$1.7 million in 2010), Mayabazar was released in colour on 30 January 2010 in 45 Andhra Pradesh theatres. The colourised version was distributed by R. B. Choudary under his production banner, Super Good Films. Nageswara Rao, Gummadi Venkateswara Rao, Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy and Sita were the only cast members still alive for the release of the digitally remastered version. The colour version received positive reviews and was commercially successful. M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu called the new version "laudable, but the soul was missing", adding, "Get a DVD of the original (Black & White) movie, watch it and you will agree with ANR [Akkineni Nageswara Rao] who while talking about Mayabazar once exclaimed, 'What a picture it was!'".

According to a 29 January 2010 government order, the remastered version was exempted from entertainment tax, although theatre owners charged full price because they and other film producers were uncertain of the order's validity. Despite Mayabazar success, Mohan decided not to remaster the remaining 14 films; according to him, most producers who sold negative rights to TV channels lost control of them, and he cited legal and copyright issues.

The Film Heritage Foundation announced in March 2015 that they would be restoring Mayabazar, along with a few other Indian films from 1931 to 1965, as a part of their restoration projects carried out in India and abroad in accordance with international parameters. The foundation opposed digital colourisation, stating that they "believe in the original repair as the way the master or the creator had seen it".

Legacy

Mayabazar is considered a classic of Telugu cinema, particularly in its use of technology. The film is memorable for Nagendra Rao's dialogue: "Evaru puttinchakunte maatalela pudathayi" ("How would words emerge if no one invented them?") and "Subhadra, aagadalu, aghaaityalu naaku paniki raavu" ("Subhadra, these atrocities mean nothing to me."). Various words and phrases, such as "antha alamalame kada" ("Is everything fine?"), "Asamadiyulu" ("Friends"), "Tasamadiyulu" ("Enemies"), "Gilpam" and "Gimbali" ("bed-" and "room-mat"), later became part of Telugu vernacular. The success of Donga Ramudu (1955) and Mayabazar prompted Venkata Reddy to produce the 1958 Telugu film Pellinaati Pramanalu (Vazhkai Oppantham in Tamil). It recovered its investment and won the silver medal at the annual National Film Awards.

A 1987 Telugu film directed by Jandhyala Subramanya Sastry and a 2011 Telugu film directed by Veerabhadram Chowdary were named after the song "Aha Naa Pellanta" from the film; both were successful. Jandhyala Subramanya Sastry named his 1988 Telugu films Vivaaha Bhojanambu and Choopulu Kalisina Shubhavela after the songs of the same
name. Telugu comedian Mallikarjuna Rao considered Mayabazar to be the "greatest comedy film ever", adding that it represents "one of the most transcendental and joyful experiences any movie-lover can hope for". Telugu director Mohan Krishna Indraganti named his second film Mayabazar (2006, also a fantasy film). Regarding his title, Indraganti said he was a fan of Mayabazar and named his film (produced by B. Satyanarayana) at the insistence of writer D. V. Narasaraju.

In January 2007, M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu listed Mayabazar with Mala Pilla (1938), Raithu Bidda (1939), Vara Vikrayam (1939), Bhakta Potana (1942), Shavukaru (1950), Malliswari (1951) Peddamanushulu (1954) and Lava Kusa (1963) as films that have influenced society and Telugu cinema. Rama Rao reprised the role of Krishna in several films over a two-decade career.

Singeetam Srinivasa Rao used Mayabazar storyline in his 2008 multilingual animation film Ghatothkach. Director Krishna Vamsi called Mayabazar more an "epic, than a mere classic" and said that the film's tagline, "Sasirekha Parinayam", inspired the title of his 2009 Telugu film. In February 2010, acting coach and director L. Satyanand compared Mayabazar to films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Sholay (1975) and Avatar (2009), saying that they "are evergreen and never fade away from the mind", with continued appeal. Satyanand praised Bartley's cinematography, saying that the film ... was definitely ahead of its time. It is still a mystery how Marcus Bartley could morph Sasirekha through the ripples in the pond. It was an absolute masterpiece, considering the equipment in use, those days. In the absence of hi-def cameras, computer generated visual effects and high-end computers, the direction, cinematography and visual effects were efforts of sheer human genius.

In the period drama Rajanna (2011), the central character Mallamma (played by Baby Annie) listens to Mayabazar songs. Although this was criticised as anachronistic, director K. V. Vijayendra Prasad said that Rajanna was set in 1958, a year after Mayabazar release. In Ram Gopal Varma Katha Screenplay Darsakatvam Appalaraju (2011), its protagonist Appalaraju (played by Sunil), an aspiring director, is shown enjoying a sequence from the song "Lahiri Lahiri" in the song "Mayabazaaru". In her article "The making of Tollywood", commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Indian Telugu film industry, Sunita Raghu of The New Indian Express called Mayabazar the "tour de force" of Telugu cinema. In November 2012, The Times of India listed Mayabazar along with other unrelated films such as Missamma (1955), Gundamma Katha (1962), Nartanasala (1963), and Bommarillu (2006) in the list "Telugu classics to watch along with family this Deepavali". For the April 2013 centennial of Indian cinema, CNN-News18 included Mayabazar in its list of "The 100 greatest Indian films of all time", and a May 2013 CNN-News18 poll ranked it the greatest Indian film of all time. In commemoration of the centennial of Indian cinema, The Hindu listed Mayabazar along with Pathala Bhairavi (1951), Missamma, Gundamma Katha, Maduve Madi Nodu (1965), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), Julie (1975), and Shriman Shrimati (1982) as the iconic films produced by Nagi Reddy.

CNN-News18 included Mayabazar on its February 2014 list of "12 Indian films that would make great books", and in May 2014 Rediff included the film on its list of "The Best Mythological Films of Tamil Cinema". The Tamil film Kalyana Samayal Saadham (2013) was named after the song of the same name. The Andhra Pradesh state government planned to introduce the film as part of the tenth standard English syllabus in 2014. The fourth unit of the English textbook, "Films and Theatres", mentions Mayabazar and its actors and has two stills from the film. In March 2012, film historian Mohan Raman stated in an interview with The Times of India that Mayabazar, which "perfected the art of trick photography", was "among the significant black and white films of yore", along with Andha Naal (1954) and Uthama Puthiran (1940).

The scene in which Krishna reveals his identity to Ghatotkacha at Dvaraka was used in Gopala Gopala (2015), with Pawan Kalyan as Krishna. References were made to Shakuni's character in the film Pataas (2015) starring Rama Rao's grandson Nandamuri Kalyan Ram. Director S. S. Rajamouli told film critic Subhash K. Jha that Venkata Reddy's work in Mayabazar was a "huge inspiration" for him to make Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion. Writing for DailyO, an online opinion platform from the India Today Group, actor Rana Daggubati opined that films like Mayabazar were "truly cutting edge" and added, "Considering the technological limitations technicians were working with back then, these were phenomenally commendable instances of the Indian cinema". In an interview with The Hindu in November 2015, actor Kamal Haasan noted, "Visual appeal has always gone hand-in-hand with content, since the days of Chandralekha and , not just after Baahubali." A 90-minute theatrical adaptation of the film was staged in December 2016 by Bangalore Little Theatre.

Notes


El ángel caído (TV series)

El ángel caído (English title:The fallen angel) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Francisco Burillo for Televisa in 1985.

Rebecca Jones starred as antagonistic protagonist, with Alejandro Camacho and Eduardo Palomo.

Plot
María de los Ángeles Bustamante is known to all his people. The image that people have of it, is classified as a good and honest woman and manners too. However, María de los Ángeles, is actually a bitter and capable person to destroy anyone, just to get enough money to support herself. That's when María de los Ángeles marries a man who inherits, and she kills her wedding night, then collect the heritage.

After this act, María de los Ángeles looking to get more money, and so begins with plans to murder his uncle, who's named in his will as one of the heirs of his fortune. However, that heritage should also share with Toño, his cousin. That's when María de los Ángeles begins to make his life miserable, until finally one day decides to escape Toño and  María de los Ángeles leaves town.

Toño comes to work at companies Roberto Florescano, and there falls in love Avelina, but she is committed to Roberto Florescano. Toño Avelina's daughter discovers that his uncle, and that she would inherit part of their heritage. Toño returns to town with Roberto and Avelina. Roberto falls in love with María de los Ángeles, while the other two try to discover the real María de los Ángeles.

Cast

Rebecca Jones as María de los Ángeles Bustamante
Alejandro Camacho as Roberto Florescano
Eduardo Palomo as Antonio "Toño" Arvide Quijano
Cristina Peñalver as Avelina Galá
Lorenzo de Rodas as Manuel Alfonso "El Gallo" Maldonado
Enrique Rocha as Álvaro
Fernando Ciangherotti as Ramón Florescano
Aurora Alonso as Felicitas Nava
Maritza Olivares as Remedios Nava
Carlos Andrade as Víctor Manuel Márquez
Blanca Torres as Doña Victoria Estévez de Quijano
Nerina Ferrer as Nieves Galá
Betty Catania as Elvira Márquez
Jaime Lozano as Father Rosales
Claudio Reyes Rubio as Patricio
Ricardo de León as Demetrio
Ángeles Marín as Anita
Paty Thomas as Mercedes
Marcela Camacho as Lucía
Carlos Romano as Javier
Víctor Vera as Lic. Macías
Estela Barona as Rosalba
Blanca Córdoba as Bertha
Luis Couturier as Octavio Barrera/Agustín Arvide
Ricardo De Loera as Sr. Castillo
Luisa Huertas as Lic. Medina
Leticia Calderón
Daniel Martín
Claudia Ramírez
Manola Saavedra

Awards


St. John Vianney Cure of Ars Church (Bronx)

St. John Vianney Cure of Ars Church is located on the corner of Castle Hill avenue and Homer avenue in the Bronx. The parish was established circa 1961.

St. John Vianney Cure of Ars Church
In 2015 The Parish of St. John Vianney Cure of Ars was merged with Holy Family Parish.

St. John Vianney Cure of Ars School
St. John Vianney Cure of Ars School (SJV) was founded in 1963 to meet the needs of the surrounding military community. The demographics of the Castle Hill section of the Bronx have changed but the SJV administration still served the needs of its residents. Many of its students were first-generation Americans of Hispanic and Latino descent with existing family ties to the Caribbean.

St. John Vianney Cure of Ars School held classes for Pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. SJV, as the students called it, was a small school having only one class per grade, averaging 25-30 students per class. Typically, the same group of children entering Pre-K together would graduate 8th grade together ten years or so later. The 2009-2010 school year had an average 15 students per class. The school's last principal increased the school's enrollment and overall math scores.

The school colors were purple and gold. To celebrate All Saints Day, students picked a saint to write a report on, and dressed up as their chosen saint for a Saint Parade around the Castle Hill neighborhood. The annual October parade lasted about 30 minutes.

In 2011 it was announced that St. John Vianney would be among a group of small Catholic elementary schools in NYC that the Archdiocese planned to close. SJV's last 8th grade class graduated in June 2011. The class, faculty, and alumni who attended were given banners with the school's name, mascot, and dates printed on it.


Rule-based machine translation

Rule-based machine translation (RBMT; "Classical Approach" of MT) is machine translation systems based on linguistic information about source and target languages basically retrieved from (unilingual, bilingual or multilingual) dictionaries and grammars covering the main semantic, morphological, and syntactic regularities of each language respectively.  Having input sentences (in some source language), an RBMT system generates them to output sentences (in some target language) on the basis of morphological, syntactic, and semantic analysis of both the source and the target languages involved in a concrete translation task.

History

The first RBMT systems were developed in the early 1970s. The most important steps of this evolution were the emergence of the following RBMT systems:

 Systran (http://www.systran.de/)
 Japanese MT systems (http://aamt.info/english/mtsys.htm, http://www.wtec.org/loyola/ar93_94/mt.htm)
 EUROTRA (Eurotra)

Today, other common RBMT systems include:
 Apertium
 GramTrans

Types of RBMT

There are three different types of rule-based machine translation systems:

 Direct Systems (Dictionary Based Machine Translation) map input to output with basic rules.
 Transfer RBMT Systems (Transfer Based Machine Translation)  employ morphological and syntactical analysis.
 Interlingual RBMT Systems (Interlingua) use an abstract meaning.

RBMT systems can also be characterized as the systems opposite to Example-based Systems of Machine Translation (Example Based Machine Translation), whereas Hybrid Machine Translations Systems make use of many principles derived from RBMT.

Basic principles

The main approach of RBMT systems is based on linking the structure of the given input sentence with the structure of the demanded output sentence, necessarily preserving their unique meaning. The following example can illustrate the general frame of RBMT:

A girl eats an apple. Source Language = English; Demanded Target Language = German

Minimally, to get a German translation of this English sentence one needs:

 A dictionary that will map each English word to an appropriate German word.
 Rules representing regular English sentence structure.
 Rules representing regular German sentence structure.

And finally, we need rules according to which one can relate these two structures together.

Accordingly, we can state the following stages of translation:

1st:  getting basic part-of-speech information of each source word:

a = indef.article; girl = noun; eats = verb; an = indef.article; apple = noun

2nd: getting syntactic information about the verb "to eat":

NP-eat-NP; here: eat – Present Simple, 3rd Person Singular, Active Voice

3rd: parsing the source sentence:

(NP an apple) = the object of eat

Often only partial parsing is sufficient to get to the syntactic structure of the source sentence and to map it onto the structure of the target sentence.

4th: translate English words into German

a (category = indef.article) => ein (category = indef.article)

girl (category = noun) => Mädchen (category = noun)

eat (category = verb) => essen (category = verb)

an (category = indef. article) => ein (category = indef.article)

apple (category = noun) => Apfel (category = noun)

5th: Mapping dictionary entries into appropriate inflected forms (final generation):

A girl eats an apple. => Ein Mädchen isst einen Apfel.

Components

The RBMT system contains:

 a SL morphological analyser - analyses a source language word and provides the morphological information;
 a SL parser - is a syntax analyser which analyses source language sentences;
 a translator - used to translate a source language word into the target language;
 a TL morphological generator - works as a generator of appropriate target language words for the given grammatica information;
 a TL parser - works as a composer of suitable target language sentences;
 Several dictionaries - more specifically a minimum of three dictionaries:

a SL dictionary - needed by the source language morphological analyser for morphological analysis,

a bilingual dictionary - used by the translator to translate source language words into target language words,

a TL dictionary - needed by the target language morphological generator to generate target language words.

The RBMT system makes use of the following:

 a Source Grammar for the input language which builds syntactic constructions from input sentences;
 a Source Lexicon which captures all of the allowable vocabulary in the domain;
 Source Mapping Rules which indicate how syntactic heads and grammatical functions in the source language are mapped onto domain concepts and semantic roles in the interlingua;
 a Domain Model/Ontology which defines the classes of domain concepts and restricts the fillers of semantic roles for each class;
 Target Mapping Rules which indicate how domain concepts and semantic roles in the interlingua are mapped onto syntactic heads and grammatical functions in the target language;
 a Target Lexicon which contains appropriate target lexemes for each domain concept;
 a Target Grammar for the target language which realizes target syntactic constructions as linearized output sentences.

Advantages
 No bilingual texts are required. This makes it possible to create translation systems for languages that have no texts in common, or even no digitized data whatsoever.
 Domain independent. Rules are usually written in a domain independent manner, so the vast majority of rules will "just work" in every domain, and only a few specific cases per domain may need rules written for them.
 No quality ceiling. Every error can be corrected with a targeted rule, even if the trigger case is extremely rare. This is in contrast to statistical systems where infrequent forms will be washed away by default.
 Total control. Because all rules are hand-written, you can easily debug a rule based system to see exactly where a given error enters the system, and why.
 Reusability. Because RBMT systems are generally built from a strong source language analysis that is fed to a transfer step and target language generator, the source language analysis and target language generation parts can be shared between multiple translation systems, requiring only the transfer step to be specialized. Additionally, source language analysis for one language can be reused to bootstrap a closely related language analysis.

Shortcomings

 Insufficient amount of really good dictionaries. Building new dictionaries is expensive.
 Some linguistic information still needs to be set manually.
 It is hard to deal with rule interactions in big systems, ambiguity, and idiomatic expressions.
 Failure to adapt to new domains. Although RBMT systems usually provide a mechanism to create new rules and extend and adapt the lexicon, changes are usually very costly and the results, frequently, do not pay off.


1962 Italian Athletics Championships

The 1962 Italian Athletics Championships was the 52nd edition of the Italian Athletics Championships and were held in Naples (track & field events).

Champions

Men

Women


Panama Canal expansion project

The Panama Canal expansion project (), also called the Third Set of Locks Project, doubled the capacity of the Panama Canal by adding a new lane of traffic allowing for a larger number of ships, and increasing the width and depth of the lanes and locks allowing larger ships to pass. The new ships, called New Panamax, are about one and a half times the previous Panamax size and can carry over twice as much cargo. The expanded canal began commercial operation on 26 June 2016.

The project has:
 Built two new sets of locks, one each on the Atlantic and Pacific sides, and excavated new channels to the new locks.
 Widened and deepened existing channels.
 Raised the maximum operating water level of Gatun Lake.

Then-Panamanian President Martín Torrijos formally proposed the project on 24 April 2006, saying it would transform Panama into a First World country. A national referendum approved the proposal by a 76.8 percent majority on 22 October, and the Cabinet and National Assembly followed suit. The project formally began in 2007.
It was initially announced that the Canal expansion would be completed by August 2014 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal, but various setbacks, including strikes and disputes with the construction consortium over cost overruns, pushed the completion date back several times. Following additional difficulties including seepage from the new locks, the expansion was opened on 26 June 2016. The expansion doubled the Canal’s capacity. On March 2nd 2018, the Panama Canal Authority announced that 3,000 New Panamax ships had crossed the canal expansion during its first 20 months of operation.

Background

The original Panama Canal has a limited capacity determined by operational times and cycles of the existing locks and further constrained by the current trend towards larger (close to Panamax-sized) vessels transiting the canal, requiring more transit time in the locks and channels. Also, periodic maintenance on the aging canal requires shutdowns of this waterway. Demand is growing due to the growth of international trade, and many users require a guaranteed level of service. Despite the gains which have been made in efficiency, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) estimated that the canal would reach its maximum sustainable capacity between 2009 and 2012. The long-term solution for the congestion was the expansion of the canal with a third set of locks.

The size of ships that can transit the canal, called Panamax, is constrained by the size of the locks, which are  wide and  long, and  deep. The third set of locks will allow transit of larger, Post-Panamax ships, which have a greater cargo capacity than the current locks can handle. The new lock chambers are  wide,  long, and  deep. These dimensions allow for an estimated 79% of all cargo-carrying vessels to transit the canal, up from 45%.

All of the canal-widening studies since the 1930s have determined that the best way to increase canal capacity is by building a third set of locks larger than the 1914 locks. The US began excavations for new locks in 1939, but abandoned them in 1942 because of the outbreak of World War II. This conclusion was again reached in the 1980s by the tripartite commission formed by Panama, Japan, and the US. More recently, the studies developed by the Panama Canal Authority () for its 2025 master plan confirm that a third, larger set of locks is the most suitable, profitable, and environmentally responsible option.

Former president Martín Torrijos, in a 24 April 2006 speech announcing the project, said that the canal "is like our 'petroleum'. Just like the petroleum that has not been extracted is worthless and that in order to extract it you have to invest in infrastructure, the canal requires to expand its capacity to absorb the growing demand of cargo and generate more wealth for Panamanians".

While the canal expansion was being completed, and considering the high operational costs of the vessels, the long queues that occur during the high season December through to March (sometimes up to a seven-day delay), and the high value of some of the cargo transported through the canal, the ACP has implemented a Transit Booking System and Transit Slot Auction to allow a better management of the scarce capacity available and to increase the level of service offered to the shipping companies. The scheme gives users two choices: (1) transit by order of arrival on a first-come, first-served basis, as the canal historically has operated; or (2) booked service for a fee—a congestion charge. The booked service allows two options of fees. The Transit Booking System, available online, allowing customers who do not want to wait in queue to pay an additional 15% over the regular tolls, guaranteeing a specific day for transit and crossing the canal in 18 hours or less. ACP sells 24 of these daily slots up to 365 days in advance. The second choice is high priority transit. Since 2006, ACP has made available a 25th slot, sold through the Transit Slot Auction to the highest bidder. The main customers of the Transit Booking System are cruise ships, container ships, vehicle carriers, and non-containerized cargo vessels.

Cargo volume

The Panama Canal Authority predicts that the volume of cargo transiting the canal will grow by an average of 3% per year, doubling the 2005 tonnage by 2025. Allowing larger vessels to transit the canal will move more cargo per transit and volume of water used.

Historically, the dry and liquid bulk segments have generated most of the canal's revenues. Bulk cargo includes dry goods, such as grains (corn, soy, and wheat, among others), minerals, fertilizers, coal, and liquid goods, such as chemical products, propane gas, crude oil, and oil derivatives. Recently, containerized cargo has replaced dry bulk as the canal's main income generator, moving it to second place. Vehicle carriers have become the third-largest income generator, replacing the liquid bulk segment. Shipping industry analyses conducted by the ACP and top industry experts indicate that the canal expansion will be beneficial to both the canal and its users because of the demand that will be served by allowing the transit of more tonnage.

However, the question is whether the trend on which the ACP makes those projections can continue for a generation.

The growth in usage of the Panama Canal over the past few years has been almost entirely driven by increased US imports from China passing through the canal en route to ports on the US East and Gulf coasts. But it is increasingly recognized in both the US and China that this imbalance in trade is unsustainable and will be reduced via some sort of adjustment in the coming years (although such an imbalance need not be made up by physically shipped goods, but could be made by other trade such as intellectual property as China upgrades its intellectual property protection laws). The ACP, however, presumes that trade will continue to grow for a generation as it has for the past several years.

One of the central points made by critics of canal expansion, most prominently former canal administrator Fernando Manfredo, is that it is unrealistic to attempt to predict canal usage trends over a generation, improbable to expect that US imports from China will continue to grow for a generation as they have the past few years, and irresponsible to bet Panama's financial future on such a projection.

Competition

The most direct competition to the canal comes from alternative routes that present options for transporting cargo between the same points of origin and destination.

The opening of the Russian Northern Sea Route and the Canadian Northwest Passage to commercial traffic could pose an alternative to the canal in the long term. Warmer waters in the Arctic Ocean could open the passage for an increasing number of months each year, making it more attractive as a major shipping route. However, the passage through the Arctic would require significant investment in escort vessels and staging ports. The Canadian commercial marine transport industry does not anticipate that this route will be a viable alternative to the Panama Canal within the next 10 to 20 years.

The two main current competitors of the Panama Canal are the US intermodal system and the Suez Canal. The main ports and merchandise distribution centers in these routes are investing in capacity, location, and maritime and land infrastructure to serve post-Panamax container ships and their larger cargo volumes. According to the ACP, the growing usage of such ships in transcontinental routes competing with the canal is irreversible. It was estimated that by 2011 approximately 37% of the capacity of the world's container ship fleet would consist of vessels that did not fit through the current canal, and a great part of this fleet could be used on routes that compete with Panama.

The proposal states that strengthening the canal's competitive position will allow it to accommodate demand and serve its customers. If the canal had the capacity to serve the growing demand, Panama could become the most important connectivity hub on the continent by joining together north–south continental routes and east–west transcontinental routes. Accordingly, the canal will continue to be viable and competitive in all of its routes and segments, and contribute significantly to Panama's development and growth while maintaining its position as a major world trade route.

Predictions

According to the studies conducted by the ACP in 2005, the canal would reach its maximum sustainable capacity between 2009 and 2012. When it reached this capacity it would not be able to continue to handle growth in demand, resulting in a reduction in the competitiveness of the Panama maritime route.

As approved by the Panamanian people, construction for the expansion project was slated to conclude by April 2016. The ACP said it would use all possible means to stretch capacity until the construction is completed.

The proposed expansion of the canal by the construction of a third set of locks will allow it to capture the entire demand projected through 2025 and beyond. Together, the existing and new locks will approximately double the capacity of the present canal.

Critics such as former legislator Keith Holder, co-author of the legislation that created the ACP, pointed out that canal usage is seasonal and that even during the few months when it is most crowded, the bottleneck that slows traffic is not the locks but the narrow Culebra Cut, which has a limited capacity for large ships to pass one another.

Although the canal was nearing its maximum capacity, it did not mean that ships were unable to transit it. Rather, the canal's growth capacity stagnated and that it could not capture additional cargo volumes.

The former head of the Panama Canal's dredging division, Thomas Drohan, a critic of the expansion plan, discounted allegations that this is a problem in the short term. He argued that if the supply of any good or service becomes short, businesses can raise their prices; this would apply to Panama Canal tolls as much as it does to petroleum.

The project

Locks
The original canal has two lanes, each with its own set of locks. The expansion project added a third lane through the construction of lock complexes at each end of the canal. One lock complex is located on the Pacific side, southwest of the existing Miraflores Locks. The other is located east of the existing Gatun Locks. Each of these new lock complexes have three consecutive chambers designed to move vessels from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake and back down again.

Each chamber has three lateral water-saving basins, for a total of nine basins per lock and 18 basins in total. Just like the original locks, the new locks and their basins will be filled and emptied by gravity, without the use of pumps. The location of the new locks uses a significant portion of the area excavated by the United States in 1939 and suspended in 1942 because of World War II. The new locks are connected to the existing channel system through new navigational channels. The new lock chambers are  long,  wide, and  deep. They use rolling gates instead of miter gates, which are used by the original locks. Rolling gates are used in almost all existing locks with dimensions similar to the new ones, and are a proven technology. The new locks use tugboats to position the vessels instead of electric locomotives. As with rolling gates, tugs are successfully and widely used for these purposes in locks of similar dimensions.

Water saving basins

The new locks have water-saving basins to reduce the volume of water that is needed in lock operation. The operation of both the old and new locks uses gravity and valves. There is no pumping involved.

Operation of the locks, old and new, uses water from Gatun Lake. Even in the current situation with two lock lanes, water supply can be limited at the end of Panama's dry season, when the lake's water level is low. The addition of a third set of locks meant that this water supply issue needed to be addressed.

Three basins are associated with each lock chamber. The volume lost per cycle is two-fifths of the "moving water" chamber volume. The other three-fifths is reused. An equal savings of water, based on the same principle, could be reached by adding more lock chambers. Constructing a stair of eight chambers (instead of three) to elevate  would use an  water slice per cycle. However, this would require ships to travel through eight locks, making ship handling less efficient.

Water usage is calculated per single lock cycle. It is determined by the water volume in a lock chamber between the levels it handles. Essentially, each cycle uses the volume of water discharged by the lock chamber (its width multiplied by its height and depth). When the locks are in stairs, as in the Panama Canal, only the first (highest) lock chamber matters for this calculation. None of the lower locks use additional water; they have the same volume. Moreover, the ship's underwater volume does not matter, because that volume is present both before and after the change in water level and thus is part of the non-moved volume.

The water used per lock operating cycle is therefore equal to the amount of water that flows into the first (upper) lock chamber when filling it from Gatun Lake. Reducing this volume requires reducing the chamber's width, length, or elevating height. Note that the elevating height has already been reduced by staging the total  elevation change into three locks. Were this change done in a single lock chamber, the water volume lost would be three times as much.

The water-saving basins function as follows: The volume of water moved by the lock chamber (e.g., a height of ) can be divided into five equal horizontal "slices" (here, 1.8 m each). When the canal begins operation, the chamber is filled once from Gatun Lake. Then, when emptying the chamber, the top three slices (1, 2, and 3) are emptied, one by one, into three basins, each at a successively lower elevation. That is, water slice 1 is emptied, using gravity and valves, into a basin that is at the same level as water slice 2. Then water slice 2 is emptied into a basin at the same level as water slice 3, and slice 3 is emptied into a basin at the same level as slice 4. Water slices 4 and 5 are emptied into the next lock chamber and "lost" (as in the original canal locks).

When the lock moves a ship upward, the chamber is closed, and the water from the basin at level 4 is let into the chamber, filling slice 5. Then basin level 3 fills level 4, and basin 2 fills level 3. Next, from levels 2 and 1 are filled from Gatun Lake, "costing" a volume of  instead of  over the chamber area (2/5 of the elevation height). The ship is now at the level of Gatun Lake and can cross it.

Navigational channels
According to the plan, a -long access channel was excavated to connect the new Atlantic locks with the existing sea entrance of the canal. To connect the new Pacific-side locks with the existing channels, two new access channels were built:

The  north access channel, which connects the new Pacific-side lock with the Culebra Cut, circumventing Miraflores Lake. This channel runs along the new Borinquen Dam that separates it from Miraflores Lake (which has a water level that is 9 m lower, due to the dislocation of the Pedro Miguel locks).
The  south access channel, which connects the new lock with the existing sea entrance on the Pacific Ocean (fig. 5).
The new channels on both the Atlantic and the Pacific sides are at least  wide, permitting Post-Panamax vessels to navigate in a single direction.

Maximum operating level of Gatun Lake
Canal elevations are referred to using the Precise Level Datum (PLD), which is close to the mean sea level of the Atlantic and Pacific entrances. The maximum operational level of Gatun Lake was raised by approximately  from the previous PLD level of  to a PLD level of . Combined with the widening and deepening of the navigational channels, this has increased Gatun Lake's usable water reserve capacity and allows the canal's water system to supply a daily average of  of additional water. This additional water volume is enough to provide an annual average of approximately 1,100 additional lockages without affecting the water supply for human use, which is also provided from Gatun and Alhajuela Lakes.

Construction timeline

The construction of the third set of locks project was originally slated to take seven or eight years, with the new locks beginning operations between fiscal years 2014 and 2015, roughly 100 years after the canal first opened. In July 2012, however, it was announced that the expansion project had fallen six months behind schedule, pushing the opening date back from October 2014 to April 2015. By September 2014, the new gates were projected to be open for transit at the "beginning of 2016."

In October 2011, the Panama Canal Authority announced the completion of the third phase of excavation for the Pacific access channel.

In June 2012, a 100-foot-tall reinforced concrete monolith was completed, the first of 46 such monoliths that line the new Pacific-side lock walls.

Sixteen new lock gates had to be installed as part of the canal expansion: eight on the Atlantic side, and eight on the Pacific.  The installation process began in December 2014, with a 3,285-ton gate's installation on the Atlantic side; it concluded in April 2015, with the installation of a 4,232-ton gate on the Pacific side.

In June 2015, flooding of the new locks began: first on the Atlantic side, then on the Pacific; by then, the canal's re-inauguration was slated for April 2016.

In August 2015, a crack was reported in a concrete sill at the new Cocoli locks, but it was not initially anticipated to affect the project completion timeline.  By November 2015, however, cracks discovered over the previous months threatened to delay project completion.  Sill reinforcements were, however, anticipated to be completed by January, 2016.  In early February 2016, the ACP reported that sill reinforcements, repairing the cracks detected earlier, were complete.

By January 2016, Panama's President Varela indicated that he anticipated the expansion to be complete around May 2016. The expanded canal began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The first ship to cross the canal using the third set of locks was a modern New Panamax vessel, the Chinese-owned container ship "Cosco Shipping Panama." The United States dispatched a navy ship to Panama to demonstrate U.S. naval power to the Chinese ship.

Finances
The main purpose of the canal expansion program is to increase Panama's ability to benefit from the growing traffic demand. This growing demand is manifested in both the increased cargo volumes and the size of vessels that will use the Panama route. In this sense, with a third set of locks, the canal will be able to manage the traffic demand forecast beyond 2025; total inflation-adjusted revenues for that year are predicted to amount to over USD $6.2 billion.

Estimated cost

In 2006, ACP estimated the cost of the third set of locks project at US$5.25 billion. This figure includes design, administrative, construction, testing, environmental mitigation, and commissioning costs, as well as contingencies to cover risks and unforeseen events, such as accidents, design changes, price increases, and possible delays. The cost of interest paid on loans during construction is not included. The largest cost is that associated with constructing the two new lock complexes—one each on the Atlantic and Pacific sides—with estimated costs of US$1.11 billion and US$1.03 billion each, plus a US$590 million provision for possible contingencies during their construction.

Opponents contend the project is based on uncertain projections about maritime trade and the world economy. Roberto N. Méndez, an economist at the University of Panama, alleges that the economic and financial projections are based on manipulated data. Independent engineers, most notably Humberto Reynolds and Tomás Drohan Ruiz, the former head of engineering and dredging of the Panama Canal, say that the project will cost much more than currently budgeted and that it is too risky for Panama. M. A. Bernal, a professor at the University of Panama, argues that confidence in the ACP's budget is undermined because of the involvement of engineering and consultancy firm Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Estimated profitability and financing
According to the ACP, the third set of locks will be financially profitable, producing a 12 percent internal rate of return. The project's financing is separate from the governmental budget. The state, which has a lower credit rating than the ACP, does not guarantee or endorse any loans borrowed by the ACP for the project. Assuming that tolls increase at an annual average rate of 3.5 percent for 20 years, and according to the traffic demand forecast and construction schedule deemed most likely by the ACP, the external financing required will be temporary and in the order of US$2.3 billion to cover peak construction activities between 2009 and 2011.

The ACP's revenue projections are based on questionable assumptions about increased canal usage and shippers' willingness to pay higher tolls instead of seeking competing routes. In a bid to attract new business as well as keeping the current customers, the ACP is looking to implement financial incentives in their toll programme, including a loyalty scheme, which are expected to combat the problems raised by increased fees. With the cash flow generated by the expanded canal, investment costs are expected to be recovered in less than 10 years, and financing could be repaid in approximately eight.

The $2.3 billion financing package for the canal expansion, signed in December 2008 in the midst of the global financial crisis, includes loans from the following government-owned financial institutions:

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)—US$800 million
European Investment Bank (EIB)—US$500 million
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)—US$400 million
Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF)—US$300 million
International Finance Corporation (IFC)—US$300 million

The financing is not tied; that is, contracts can be awarded to firms from any country. The loans are for 20 years, including a 10-year grace period. Under a common terms agreement, all five financial institutions agreed to provide the same loan conditions to the ACP. Shortly before, credit rating agency Moody's gave the ACP an A1 investment grade rating. Mizuho Corporate Bank and the law firm Shearman & Sterling helped put the financing package together.

Environmental impact
The ACP's proposal claims that the project will not permanently harm the environment, communities, primary forests, national parks or forest reserves, relevant patrimonial or archaeological sites, agricultural or industrial production areas, or tourist or port areas. It says that any harm can be mitigated using existing procedures and technology.

The proposal says that the project will not permanently reduce water or air quality. The proposed water supply program maximizes the water capacity of Gatun and Alhajuela Lakes and is designed to use water efficiently so that no new reservoirs will be required and no communities need to be displaced.

Critics of the project contend that there are many environmental issues to be considered, such as the link between El Niño (ENSO) and the threat to water supplies posed by El Niño. The ACP has commissioned studies by several consultants about water supply and quality problems. Some of the most prominent critics of the canal expansion plan from the point of view of water quality issues are Eric Jackson (editor of the online Panama News), Gonzalo Menendez (former head of Panama's National Environmental Authority), and Ariel Rodriguez (a biologist at the University of Panama), and former Vice Minister of Public Works Grettel Villalaz de Allen.

Jackson contends that the ACP's public statements often do not match the findings of their studies. He argues that studies by Delft Hydraulics, WPSI Inc., and DHI all say that the proposed water-saving basins will allow more salt water into Gatun Lake, from which about half of Panama's population takes its drinking water. The ACP says that the problem can be reduced by "flushing" the new locks with fresh water from Gatun Lake, but this would defeat the water-saving feature.

However, one of the leading environmental organizations in Panama, the National Association for Nature Conservation (ANCON), says that the studies and projections of operations of the third set of locks, including the water-saving basins, credibly state that there will be very low levels of salinization of waters of Gatun Lake and that these levels will preserve the biological separation of the oceans while safekeeping biodiversity and water quality for human use.

Employment generation
According to the ACP, the canal expansion's impact on employment was first to be observed in jobs directly generated by its construction. Approximately 35,000–40,000 new jobs were created during the construction of the third set of locks, including 6,500–7,000 additional jobs that were directly related to the project during the peak years of construction. However, officials state that the most important impacts on employment will be medium and long term, and will come from the economic growth brought about by extra income generated by the expanded canal and the economic activities produced by the increase in canal cargo and vessel transits.

The labor required for construction of the third set of locks was largely done by Panamanians. To ensure the availability of Panamanian labor necessary for the third set of locks project and its connected activities, the ACP and public and private authorities worked jointly to train the required workforce, with sufficient lead time, so that it had the necessary competencies, capabilities, and certifications. The costs of these training programs were included in the cost estimates of the project.

Critics dismiss this as demagogy, noting that according to the ACP's own studies, at the peak of construction there would be fewer than 6,000 jobs created, and that some of these would be highly skilled posts filled by foreigners because there are no Panamanians qualified to fill them.

Among those who opposed the canal expansion proposal is Panama's construction workers' union, SUNTRACS. The union's secretary general, Genaro Lopez, argued that while some construction jobs would be created by the project, the debt that Panama incurs to build a third set of locks will not be defrayed by increased canal usage and thus an increased part of canal revenues will go toward paying the debt, reducing the waterway's contributions to the national government's general fund, in turn reducing the money available for road projects, public schools, police protection, and other government services.

Critics also claim that the project lacks an accompanying social development plan. Then-President Torrijos has since accepted the request to develop one with the mediation of the United Nations Development Programme.

In support of the project
ANCON (the National Association for Nature Conservation) approved the environmental studies of the proposal and gave some recommendations before the project was approved. The following had also endorsed the proposal:
 La Prensa newspaper, in an editorial note
 Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
 The government-aligned CONATO (National Council of Organized Workers)
 Stanley Heckadon, former director of the INRENARE agency, predecessor of the National Environmental Authority
 Former Miss Universe Justine Pasek, writer Rosa María Britton, and painter Olga Sinclair
 Canal customers, many in the maritime industries and the business community
 77% of Panamanian voters, in a referendum; the turnout was 43%

Against the project
Former President Jorge Illueca, former sub-administrator of the Panama Canal Commission Fernando Manfredo, shipping consultant Julio Manduley, and industrial entrepreneur George Richa M. said that the expansion was not necessary; they claimed that the construction of a mega-port on the Pacific side would be sufficient to meet probable future demand. Such a port would be the second in the American Pacific deep enough to handle post-Panamax ships, the first being Los Angeles. As Panama is already a natural trading route, it would be able to handle the movement of containers from the Pacific to the Atlantic side via railroad, where containers would be reloaded to other ships for worldwide distribution. In addition, the following organizations and people oppose the project:
 The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) stated in a press release that under the Torrijos government, the expanding Panama Canal would not likely serve the needs of the vast majority of Panamanians. Many of the benefits would be tied to the commercial interests of the country's accountants, bankers, and lawyers, as well as their US counterparts, and world trade. They also said that the administration's rampant corruption and other flaws raised questions about Panama's capacity to supervise such an enormous project. COHA has received some letters pointing out factual errors in its statement, and plans to modify its statement in response.
 Former President Guillermo Endara and his Vanguardia Moral de la Patria Party, MOLIRENA, a conservative, business-oriented party that normally gets about 10 percent of the vote.
 Most of the Panamanian left and most of the labor movement, including CONUSI (National Independent Syndicate Union) and FRENADESO (the National Front for the Defence of Social and Economic Rights).
 Most members of the nationalist Panameñista Party (Grettel Villalaz de Allen and Gonzalo Menendez, mentioned above, and former legislator Gloria Young are prominent examples).
 Proponents of Liberation Theology, in part because they suspected that poor farmers among whom they have a social base would be adversely affected. The canal expansion issue has aggravated the breach between this mainly Catholic strain and the Catholic hierarchy.


ID2

DNA-binding protein inhibitor ID-2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ID2 gene.

Function

The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the inhibitor of DNA binding (ID) family, members of which are transcriptional regulators that contain a helix-loop-helix (HLH) domain but not a basic domain. Members of the ID family inhibit the functions of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors in a dominant-negative manner by suppressing their heterodimerization partners through the HLH domains. This protein may play a role in negatively regulating cell differentiation. A pseudogene has been identified for this gene.
A research published by "Nature" in 01/2016, authored by Italian researchers Antonio Iavarone and Anna Lasorella, from Columbia University, states that ID2 protein has a relevant role in the development and resistance to therapies of glioblastoma, the most aggressive of brain cancers.

Interactions

ID2 has been shown to interact with MyoD and NEDD9.


The Day the Sun Went Out

The Day the Sun Went Out is the debut full-length release from Delaware band Boysetsfire. It was originally released in 1997 on Initial Records and was re-released in a remastered format in 2005 by Equal Vision Records.

Track listing

Bonus Track


IRT Lexington Avenue Line

The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East Harlem. The line is served by the .

The line was constructed in two main portions by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), a private operator. The first portion, from City Hall north to 42nd Street, was opened between 1904 and 1908, and is part of the first subway line in the city. The original subway turned west across 42nd Street at the Grand Central station, then went north at Broadway, serving the present-day IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The second portion of the line, north of 42nd Street, was constructed as part of the Dual Contracts, which were signed between the IRT; the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, via a subsidiary; and the City of New York.

For decades, the Lexington Avenue Line was the only line in Manhattan that directly served the Upper East Side and East Midtown; this four-track line is the most used rapid transit line in the United States. Its average of 1.3 million daily riders is more than the total riderships of the transit systems of San Francisco (452,600 weekday passengers), Chicago (772,900 weekday passengers), and Boston (569,200). In 2007, its ridership also exceeded that of the entire Washington Metro, and in part spurred the construction of the parallel Second Avenue Subway that year, to relieve congestion on the Lexington Avenue line.

Four stations along this line have been abandoned. When platforms were lengthened to fit ten cars, it was deemed most beneficial to close these stations and open new entrances for adjacent stations. The 18th Street station was abandoned because of the proximity to both 14th Street–Union Square and 23rd Street. In addition, the City Hall and Worth Street stations were both very close to the Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station's Brooklyn Bridge and Duane Street exits, respectively, so both were abandoned. Finally, South Ferry is within walking distance of Bowling Green, and is right next to the corresponding station on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue line.

Extent and service
Services that use the Lexington Avenue Line are colored . The following services use part or all of the line:

The Lexington Avenue Line begins in lower Manhattan at the inner loop of the abandoned South Ferry station. North of the station is a merge with the tracks of the Joralemon Street Tunnel from Brooklyn, which become the express tracks. These run north under Broadway and Park Row to Centre Street. At the south end of Centre Street, directly under New York City Hall, is the City Hall Loop and its abandoned station, which was the southern terminus of the original IRT subway line. The loop is still used to turn 6 and <6> service; the Lexington Avenue local tracks, which feed the loop, rise up to join the express tracks just south of Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall station.

From Brooklyn Bridge, the line continues northward in a four-across track layout under Centre Street, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue, and Park Avenue South until 42nd Street. At this point, the beginning of Metro-North Railroad's Park Avenue tunnel in Grand Central Terminal forces the Lexington Avenue Line to shift slightly eastward to Lexington Avenue; its Grand Central–42nd Street station is located on the diagonal between Park and Lexington. Just south of Grand Central, a single non-revenue track connects the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle to the southbound local track; this was part of the original IRT subway alignment.

Under Lexington Avenue, the line assumes a two-over-two track configuration, with the local tracks running on the upper level and the express on the lower, although it briefly returns to a four-across layout between 96th Street and 116th Street. 125th Street returns to this two-over-two layout, although here the upper level is used by all northbound trains and the lower level by southbound trains. This is because Lexington Avenue is too narrow to have a four-across layout.

North of this, the line crosses under the Harlem River into the Bronx via the four-track Lexington Avenue Tunnel, where the line splits into the IRT Jerome Avenue Line on the western two tracks () and the IRT Pelham Line on the eastern two tracks ().

History

Original subway
Construction started on the first IRT line in 1900. A 1902 explosion during construction seriously damaged properties just above the line. The part of the line from City Hall to just south of 42nd Street was part of the original IRT line, opened on October 27, 1904. A  extension to Fulton Street opened at 12:01 a.m. on January 16, 1905. Only the northbound platform opened at this time. The next station, Wall Street, was opened on June 12, 1905 as well as the southbound platform at Fulton Street.

The first revenue train on the South Ferry extension left South Ferry at 11:59 p.m. on July 9, 1905; the extension of the IRT White Plains Road Line to West Farms opened just after. The first train ran through the Joralemon Street Tunnel to Brooklyn about 12:45 a.m. on January 9, 1908.

Dual Contracts
The original plan for what became the extension north of 42nd Street was to continue it south through Irving Place and into what is now the BMT Broadway Line at Ninth Street and Broadway. Contracts awarded on July 21, 1911 included Section 6 between 26th Street and 40th Street; at the time, the IRT had withdrawn from the talks, and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was to operate on Lexington Avenue. The IRT submitted an offer for what became its portion of the Dual Contracts on February 27, 1912, and construction was soon halted on Section 6.

The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Park Avenue, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Broadway, there would be two trunk lines connected by the 42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system (as seen on a map) to an "H"-shaped system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Upper East Side and the Bronx.

The rest of the line, north to 125th Street, opened on July 17, 1918. However, until the evening of August 1, 1918, it ran as a shuttle on the local tracks only, terminating at 42nd Street and at 167th Street on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (where the connection from the elevated IRT Ninth Avenue Line merged). On August 1, service patterns were changed, and the Lexington Avenue Line became a through route. The IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line also switched from shuttle operation at that time, and the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle was formed along the old connection between the sides. Due to the shape of the system, it was referred to as the "H system". The first section of the IRT Pelham Line also opened to Third Avenue–138th Street on August 1, 1918. The construction and opening of the Lexington Avenue Line north of Grand Central resulted in the construction of expensive apartments along Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, and Lexington Avenue.

Improvements

On April 13, 1948, the platform extensions to accommodate ten-car trains at 23rd Street, 28th Street, and 33rd Street were opened for use.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the New York City Transit Authority undertook a $138 million modernization project for the Lexington Avenue Line. As part of the project, platforms on the line were extended, express platforms were built at 59th Street, and service was sped up. Work on the reconstruction of the Brooklyn Bridge station started on May 18, 1959 and continued without interruption until it was completed on September 1, 1962. Prior to the rebuild, the station's local platform could only accommodate four cars, resulting in delays. The uptown platform's extension opened at this time (the downtown platform was lengthened in 1961) as the platforms were lengthened, widened, and straightened. Originally, the island platforms narrowed at their northern ends to an unsafe width of only five feet. The project remedied this situation, lengthening the platforms from 295 feet to 523 feet and widening them. The platforms were extended northward by  to just south of Reade Street. In addition, a new exit was provided at Reade Street and Lafayette Street and a new passageway under Reade Street was built connecting to the Chambers Street station on the BMT Nassau Street Line. At the center of the enlarged platforms, a new overhead passage was built, providing more direct access to the Municipal Building. The platform extensions allowed the old platform extensions at the southern end of the station, which were used for express service, to be abandoned. These platform extensions had necessitated the use of gap fillers. This project cost $6 million, and allowed 6 trains to be lengthened to nine cars, and allowed express trains to open all doors at the station (previously the doors only opened in eight of the ten cars). Upon its completion, the Worth Street station to the north was closed due to its close proximity to the platform extensions, and, as such, the station was renamed Brooklyn Bridge–Worth Street.

In late 1959, contracts were awarded to extend the platforms at Bowling Green, Wall Street, Fulton Street, Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, Astor Place, Grand Central, 86th Street and 125th Street to . At the same time, work to modernize the signals and interlockings between Wall Street and 86th Street was underway.

On July 23, 1959, the Board of Estimate approved the contract for the construction of express platforms at Lexington Avenue–59th Street. The new platforms were intended to reduce transfer congestion at Grand Central–42nd Street, and to allow transfers between the express trains and BMT trains to Queens. Even before the express platforms were added, this station was the busiest on the line. Construction for the express station began on August 10, 1959. The two express platforms were  wide and  long. Along with the new express platforms, a new mezzanine was built above it to connect it to the local station, and the Broadway Line station. Two high speed escalators were added to connect the local and express platforms. Two additional high speed escalators were built to connect the local platforms with the new mezzanine. As part of the plan, the local platforms were extended to accommodate 10-car trains. In addition, new entrances and booths were added to the 59th Street ends of the northbound and southbound sides. The project cost $6.5 million and was completed three months prior than originally planned when the new platforms opened on November 15, 1962.

Because the Lexington Avenue Line during the 1970s was known to frequent muggers due to the dilapidated state of the subway at the time, the Guardian Angels, founded by Curtis Sliwa, began operations on February 13, 1979 by conducting unarmed night patrols on the 4 train in an effort to discourage crime. These patrols later expanded to other parts of the subway and to other city neighborhoods.

On August 28, 1991, an accident involving a 4 train on the express track just north of the 14th Street–Union Square station killed five riders and injured 215 others in the worst accident on the system since the 1928 Times Square derailment. As a result of the crash, new safety protocols were put in place and there was a partial implementation of automation of the New York City Subway.

Overcrowding
The Second Avenue Elevated fully closed on June 13, 1942. Because of the elevated line's closure, as well as a corresponding increase in the East Side population, crowding on the Lexington Avenue Line increased. The Manhattan section of the Third Avenue Elevated, the only other elevated line in the area, closed on May 13, 1955, and was demolished in 1956.

Contrary to what many East Side residents thought, the demolition of the elevateds did not help the travel situation, as the Lexington Avenue Line was now the only subway transportation option on the East Side. As the elevated lines were torn down, hundreds of high-rise apartment buildings were built on the East Side, and the business districts along the line grew, resulting in overcrowding along the line. Both of these elevated lines were supposed to be replaced by a subway line under Second Avenue. However, it was not completed due to a lack of funds. With the city's economic and budgetary recovery in the 1990s, there was a revival of efforts to complete construction of the Second Avenue Subway. Once fully built, the line will run from 125th Street and Lexington Avenue to Hanover Square in the Financial District. Construction started in 2007, and on January 1, 2017, the first phase, between Lexington Avenue–63rd Street and 96th Street opened. Within a few months of the line's opening, crowding on the Lexington Avenue Line stations on the Upper East Side was somewhat reduced. East Side Access, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023, will bring Long Island Rail Road service into Grand Central. With more people coming onto the East Side, increased crowding is expected on the Lexington Avenue Line, underscoring the need for the Second Avenue Subway.

Crowding on the line is so bad that riders are routinely stranded on the platform, having to wait for multiple trains to pass before being able to board. Trains on the line are at over 100% of capacity. In June and July 2017, The New York Times found that during an average weekday, 10% to 15% of the trains scheduled to run through Grand Central–42nd Street were canceled. This meant that during peak periods, up to 13 trains per hour could be canceled, resulting in 1,000 passengers being displaced for every canceled train. Train frequencies were also erratic, with higher frequencies on some days than on others.

On May 27, 2015, the New York City Council approved plans for a developer to build One Vanderbilt, a 65-story skyscraper. The MTA mandated that the developers pay for station improvements at Grand Central to allow for the building's construction. In 2015, SL Green, the developer, gave $220 million toward the building's construction, of which two-thirds of the money would be used for station redesign; this marked the largest private investment to date to the New York City Subway system. As part of the station construction, 40% of the basement of the Grand Hyatt New York would be destroyed in order to make room for the expansion of the subway mezzanine, as well as two new subway entrances in the One Vanderbilt building itself. The new building would also coincide with the MTA's East Side Access project, and station improvements due to One Vanderbilt's construction would provide extra capacity for over 65,000 new passengers going into the New York City Subway at Grand Central–42nd Street. The improvements include an underground connection between Grand Central Terminal and One Vanderbilt; new mezzanines and exits for the subway station; and three new stairways to each of the Lexington Avenue Line platforms. This would directly result in additional capacity for the subway station, with 4,000 to 6,000 more subway passengers per hour being able to use the station, allowing for one additional express train per hour. These improvements would cost over $200 million.

Station listing