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Drama school. Drama school, acting school and theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university, or a free-standing institution (such as the drama section at the Juilliard School) that specializes in the pre-professional training in drama and theatre arts, such as acting, design and technical theatre, arts administration, and related subjects. If the drama school is part of a degree-granting institution, undergraduates typically take an associate degree, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or, occasionally, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Design. Graduate students may take a Master of Arts, Master of Acting, Master of Science, Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy degree. Entry to drama school is usually through a competitive audition process. Some schools make this a two-stage process. Places on an acting course are limited (usually well below 100) so those who fare best at the audition are selected. Most academies state that applicants must be over 18 years of age. Auditions usually involve the performance of monologues, singing, and group workshops. The courses offered by drama schools focus on practical courses, rather than theoretical classes. Their aim is to train students as professional actors for stage, film, and television. At the beginning of the final year (usually the third), most drama schools stage a series of performances throughout the academic year to which agents and casting directors are invited. This helps to build the future of the graduates and serves as a showcase of what the students can do. In 1833, actress Frances Maria Kelly managed the Royal Strand Theatre where she funded and operated a dramatic school, the earliest record of a drama school in England.[1] In 1840 she financed the building of the Royalty Theatre in Soho which opened as Miss Kellys Theatre and Dramatic School.[2] The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) remains both the UKs oldest drama school still in existence and was established in 1861.[3]
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Abbey Theatre. The Abbey Theatre (Irish: Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland (Irish: Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day. The Abbey was the first state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world; from 1925 onwards it received an annual subsidy from the Irish Free State. Since July 1966, the Abbey has been located at 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1. In its early years, the theatre was closely associated with the writers of the Irish Literary Revival, many of whom were involved in its founding and most of whom had plays staged there. The Abbey served as a nursery for many of leading Irish playwrights, including William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seán OCasey and John Millington Synge, as well as leading actors. In addition, through its extensive programme of touring abroad and its high visibility to foreign, particularly American, audiences, it has become an important part of the Irish theatre history and Irish cultural brand. The Abbey arose from three distinct bases. The first was the seminal Irish Literary Theatre. Founded by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and W. B. Yeats[1] in 1899—with assistance from George Moore—it presented plays in the Antient Concert Rooms and the Gaiety Theatre, which brought critical approval but limited public interest.[2] Lady Gregory envisioned a society promoting ancient idealism dedicated to crafting works of Irish theatre pairing Irish culture with European theatrical methods.[3] The second base involved the work of two Dublin directors, William and Frank Fay.[4] William worked in the 1890s with a touring company in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while his brother Frank was involved in amateur dramatics in Dublin. After William returned to Dublin, the Fay brothers staged productions in halls around the city and eventually formed W. G. Fays Irish National Dramatic Company, focused on the development of Irish acting talent. In April 1902, the Fays gave three performances of Æs play Deirdre and Yeats Cathleen Ní Houlihan in St Theresas Hall on Clarendon Street. The performances played to a mainly working-class audience rather than the usual middle-class Dublin theatregoers. The run was a great success, thanks in part to the beauty and force of Maud Gonne, who played the lead in Yeats play. The company continued at the Antient Concert Rooms, producing works by Seumas OCuisin, Fred Ryan and Yeats.
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53 Stations of the Tōkaidō. The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次, Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi) are the rest areas along the Tōkaidō, which was a coastal route that ran from Nihonbashi in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto.[1] There were originally 53 government post stations along the Tōkaidō, where travelers had to present traveling permits at each station if wanting to cross. In 1619, the Ōsaka Kaidō (大阪街道) was developed to extend the Tōkaidō so that it would reach Kōraibashi in modern-day Osaka. Instead of going to Sanjō Ōhashi, travelers would leave from Ōtsu-juku and travel towards Fushimi-juku. Because of the addition of these four post towns, the Tōkaidō is occasionally referred to as having 57 stations. Another name for this extension was Kyōkaidō (京街道). The inland Nakasendō also started at Nihonbashi, and converged with the Tōkaidō at Kusatsu-juku. Shio no Michi intersected with the Tōkaidō at Okazaki-shuku.
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Eishi. Chōbunsai Eishi (鳥文斎 栄之; 1756–1829) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. His last name was Hosoda (細田). His first name was Tokitomi (時富). His common name was Taminosuke (民之丞) and later Yasaburo (弥三郎).[1][2] Pupil of Kano Eisenin Michinobu (狩野 栄川院 典信). Born as the first son of direct vassal of the Shogunate, a well-off samurai family that was part of the Fujiwara clan. Eishi was a vassal of the Shogunate with a generous stipend of 500 koku (90,000 litres) of rice. Eishi left his employ with the Shōgun Ieharu to pursue art. His early works were prints, mostly Bijin-ga portraits of tall, thin, graceful beauties in the original style established by himself akin to Kiyonaga and Utamaro. He established his own school and was a rival to Utamaro. He was a prolific painter, and from 1801 gave up print designing to devote himself to painting. Eishi was born Hosoda Tokitomi (細田 時富) in 1756 to a well-provided samurai family[a] that was part of the prestigious Fujiwara clan.[3] His grandfather Hosoda Tokitoshi (細田 時敏) had held an influential position in the shogunate as Treasury Minister.[4] In 1772 he came to head his family when his father Hosoda Tokiyuki (細田 時行) died. From 1781 he held a position in the palace of the shōgun, Tokugawa Ieharu.[3] How Eishi took to art is unknown. He appears to have studied under Kanō Michinobu of the Kanō school of painting, from whom he likely was given the art name Eishi—though tradition holds he received the name from Shōgun Ieharu. About 1784 he left the official service of the Shōgun and began to train under Torii Bunryūsai, an ukiyo-e artist about whom almost nothing is known. Eishis earliest known work dates to the following year. He remained unofficially in the Shōguns service until 1789, and thereafter left his family in the hands of his adopted son Tokitoyo (時豊),[3] thereby giving up his samurai rank; he reasoned that his ill health did not permit him to continue with such duties.[4] Eishis earliest works were colour nishiki-e prints. The subjects are such literary fare as The Tale of Genji and are in subdued tones, as required by contemporary laws against ostentation.[4] He went on to specialize in bijin-ga portraits of beautiful women, of which he produced a number of series. His most prominent rival at first was Kiyonaga; later his work competed against that of Utamaro.[3] His manner of depicting women went through stages: the earliest were of courtesans much in the manner of Kiyonaga; then seated women performing daily activities such as reading or writing, set against bright backgrounds; later, slender women standing against minimal, subdued backgrounds. Eishi depicted gradually taller and more slender women until, in the latest prints, their heads were one-twelfth the height of the figures; more so even than Kiyonaga, whose reputation is for tall, slender beauties.[4] Eishi made occasional illustrations for books of shunga erotica. He was a prolific painter of such standing that in 1800 a painting of his entered the collection of the cloistered Empress Go-Sakuramachi and he was granted the honorary title Jibukyō (治部卿).[3] Eishi abandoned print designing for painting after 1801.
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Walter Nugent Monck. Walter Nugent Monck CBE (1878–1958) was an English theatre director and founder of Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich.[1] He was born in Welshampton, Shropshire, the son of George Gustavus Monck (1849–1920), vicar of Welshampton who later worked as a priest in Liverpool. The son was educated there and at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1895, he abandoned his study of the violin in favour of acting.[1] After some years with a regional touring company, he premiered in London in Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons Beyond Human Power at the Royalty Theatre in 1901. That same year, Monck met William Poel, who would profoundly influence Moncks career. By 1902 Monck was stage manager for the Elizabethan Stage Society, learning to direct in Poels revolutionary manner. In 1909, he directed a series of historical tableaus at St. Andrews Hall, Norwich. Thenceforth, his career centered on Norwich, although he occasionally returned to London, as he did in 1910 to manage Poels production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona at His Majestys Theatre. From 1910, he produced a series of masques at Blickling Hall. In 1911, he directed an amateur production of The Countess Cathleen which was seen by Yeats; Yeats subsequently invited Monck to become temporary director of the Abbey Theatre while Yeats and the main company toured the United States.
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Woodcut. Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print. The block is cut along the wood grain (unlike wood engraving, where the block is cut in the end-grain). The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas. Multiple colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks (using a different block for each colour). The art of carving the woodcut can be called xylography, but this is rarely used in English for images alone, although that term and xylographic are used in connection with block books, which are small books containing text and images in the same block. They became popular in Europe during the latter half of the 15th century. A single-sheet woodcut is a woodcut presented as a single stand alone image or print, as opposed to a book illustration. The older East Asian technique is usually called woodblock printing, covering both carved text and images, typically on the same block. Short books in a similar technique in Europe, mostly made in the 15th century, are called blockbooks. Woodcut usually refers to images only and has spread around the world from Europe to other parts of Asia, and to Latin America.[1] In both Europe and East Asia, traditionally the artist only designed the woodcut, and the block-carving was left to specialist craftsmen, called formschneider or block-cutters, some of whom became well known in their own right. Among these, the best-known are the 16th-century Hieronymus Andreae (who also used Formschneider as his surname), Hans Lützelburger and Jost de Negker, all of whom ran workshops and also operated as printers and publishers. The formschneider in turn handed the block on to specialist printers. There were further specialists who made the blank blocks.
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Ōkubi-e. An ōkubi-e (Japanese: 大首絵) is a Japanese portrait print or painting in the ukiyo-e genre showing only the head or the head and upper torso.[1] Katsukawa Shunkō I (1743–1812) is generally credited with producing the first ōkubi-e. He, along with Katsukawa Shunshō, designed ōkubi-e of male kabuki actors. In the early-1790s, Utamaro designed the first ōkubi-e of beautiful women (bijin-ga ōkubi-e). The shogunate authorities banned ōkubi-e in 1800, but the ban was lifted after eight years.
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Lady Gregory. Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (née Persse; 15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932)[1] was an Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that identified closely with British rule, she turned against it. Her conversion to cultural nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of the political struggles that occurred in Ireland during her lifetime. Lady Gregory is mainly remembered for her work behind the Irish Literary Revival. Her home at Coole Park in County Galway served as an important meeting place for leading Revival figures, and her early work as a member of the board of the Abbey was at least as important as her creative writings for that theatres development. Lady Gregorys motto was taken from Aristotle: To think like a wise man, but to express oneself like the common people.[2] Gregory was born at Roxborough, County Galway, the youngest daughter of the Anglo-Irish gentry family Persse. Her mother, Frances Barry, was related to Viscount Guillamore, and her family home, Roxborough, was a 6,000-acre (24 km2) estate located between Gort and Loughrea, the main house of which was later burnt down during the Irish Civil War.[3] She was educated at home, and her future career was strongly influenced by the family nurse (i.e. nanny), Mary Sheridan, a Catholic and a native Irish speaker, who introduced the young Augusta to the history and legends of the local area.[4] She married Sir William Henry Gregory, a widower with an estate at Coole Park, near Gort, on 4 March 1880 in St. Matthias Church, Dublin.[5] Sir William, who was 36 years her elder, had just retired from his position as Governor of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), having previously served several terms as Member of Parliament for County Galway. He was a well-educated man with many literary and artistic interests, and the house at Coole Park housed a large library and extensive art collection, both of which Lady Gregory was eager to explore. He also had a house in London, where the couple spent a considerable amount of time, holding weekly salons frequented by many leading literary and artistic figures of the day, including Robert Browning, Lord Tennyson, John Everett Millais and Henry James. Their only child, Robert Gregory, was born in 1881. He was killed during the First World War while serving as a pilot, an event which inspired W. B. Yeatss poems An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, In Memory of Major Robert Gregory and Shepherd and Goatherd.[6][7]
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W. B. Yeats. William Butler Yeats (/jeɪts/ YAYTS; 13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory, founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland. His father practised law and was a successful portrait painter. He was educated in Dublin and London and spent his childhood holidays in County Sligo. He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. While in London he became part of the Irish literary revival. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats, William Wordsworth, William Blake and many more. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, lasting roughly from his student days at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced, modernist and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900 his poetry grew more physical, realistic and politicised. He moved away from the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with some elements including cyclical theories of life. He had become the chief playwright for the Irish Literary Theatre in 1897, and early on promoted younger poets such as Ezra Pound. His major works include The Land of Hearts Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), Deirdre (1907), The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), The Tower (1928) and Last Poems and Plays (1940). William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount in County Dublin, Ireland.[1] His father John was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a Williamite soldier, linen merchant, and well-known painter, who died in 1712.[2] Benjamin Yeats, Jerviss grandson and Williams great-great-grandfather, had in 1773[3] married Mary Butler[4] of a landed family in County Kildare.[5] Following their marriage, they kept the name Butler. Mary was of the Butler of Neigham Gowran family, descended from an illegitimate brother of The 8th Earl of Ormond.[6] At the time of his marriage, his father, John, was studying law but later pursued art studies at Heatherley School of Fine Art, in London.[7]
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The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Philadelphia Inquirer, often referred to simply as The Inquirer, is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, The Philadelphia Inquirer is the third-longest continuously operating daily newspaper in the United States.[2] The newspaper has the largest circulation of any newspaper in both Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region, which includes Philadelphia and its surrounding communities in southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland. As of 2020, the newspaper has the 17th-largest circulation of any newspaper in the United States[3] As of 2020, The Inquirer has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes.[4] Several decades after its 1829 founding, The Inquirer began emerging as one of the nations major newspapers during the American Civil War. Its circulation dropped after the Civil Wars conclusion, but it rose again by the end of the 19th century. Originally supportive of the Democratic Party, The Inquirers political orientation eventually shifted toward the Whig Party and then the Republican Party before stating, in the mid-20th century, that it was politically independent. By the end of the 1960s, The Inquirer trailed its chief competitor, The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in circulation, and was lacking modern facilities and experienced staff. In the 1970s, however, following its acquisition by Knight Ridder and the hiring of new editors, it once again emerged as one of the nations most prominent and influential newspapers.
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Nishiki-e. Nishiki-e (錦絵; brocade picture) is a type of Japanese multi-coloured woodblock printing; the technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later. Previously, most prints had been in black-and-white, coloured by hand, or coloured with the addition of one or two colour ink blocks. A nishiki-e print is created by carving a separate woodblock for every colour, and using them in a stepwise fashion. An engraver by the name of Kinroku is credited with the technical innovations that allowed so many blocks of separate colours to fit together perfectly on the page, in order to create a single complete image. This style and technique is also known as Edo-e (江戸絵, edo-e), referring to Edo, the name for Tokyo before it became the capital. Nishiki-e is also known as Edo-e, or azuma-nishiki-e. The technology to produce nishiki-e made printing complex colors and figures easy. It became a popular commodity during Edo period. Due to the increasing number of nishiki-e shops during the era, the price of a nishiki-e dropped to an affordable 16 to 32 mon.
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Rhexia virginica. Rhexia virginica, the handsome Harry[2] or Virginia meadow-beauty, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melastomataceae. It is native to much of eastern North America, and is often found in moist, often acidic soils in open areas.[3] This species is a perennial herb that is easily identified by its distinctly angled stems. It produces purple-pink flowers in the summer that use buzz pollination for reproduction.[4] The leaves of R. virginica are oppositely arranged, and may be elliptic or ovate in shape. They may reach a length of 7 centimeters (approximately 2.75 inches) and a width of 2.6 centimeters (approximately 1 inch). Stems may reach up to 9 decimeters (approximately 35 inches) in height. [5] R. virginica has been found in eastern US from Florida to Maine, and north to Ontario and Nova Scotia.[6][7]
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University of Iowa. The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa[7]) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and 7 professional degrees.[7] On an urban 1,880-acre campus on the banks of the Iowa River, the University of Iowa is classified among R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity.[8] In fiscal year 2021, research expenditures at Iowa totaled $818 million.[9] The university was the original developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree, and it operates the Iowa Writers Workshop, whose alumni include 17 of the universitys 46 Pulitzer Prize winners.[10][11] Iowa is a member of the Association of American Universities and the Universities Research Association. Among public universities in the United States, UI was the first to become coeducational and host a department of religious studies; it also opened the first coeducational medical school.[12] The University of Iowas 32,000 students take part in nearly 500 student organizations.[13] Iowas 22 varsity athletic teams, the Iowa Hawkeyes, compete in Division I of the NCAA and are members of the Big Ten Conference. The University of Iowa alumni network exceeds 250,000 graduates. The University of Iowa was founded on February 25, 1847, just 59 days after Iowa was admitted to the Union. The Constitution of the State of Iowa refers to a State University to be established in Iowa City without branches at any other place.[14] The legal name of the university is the State University of Iowa (frequently abbreviated as SUI), but the Board of Regents approved using The University of Iowa for everyday usage in October 1964.[15]
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Bette Gordon. Bette Gordon (born June 22, 1950) is an American filmmaker and professor at Columbia University School of the Arts.[1] She is best known for her films Variety (1983) and Handsome Harry (2009), both of which received critical acclaim in North America and abroad.[1] Gordon began making films in the mid-1970s in the Midwestern United States, including in Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin. These short films were experimental, dealing with movement through place, sexuality, culture, and structure.[2] She cites French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as a major inspiration to her as an artist and a filmmaker saying, Having grown up through the 70s, I could not have found a more appropriate mentor. His radical approach to the use of sound and image helped shape me as much as the questions he asked the viewer to consider, most importantly, the relationship between truth and fiction.[3] She also lists Wong Kar Wais In the Mood for Love, R.W. Fassbinder, John Cassavetes and films like The Last Picture Show and Midnight Cowboy as inspirational for their portrayal of relationships and love.[3] She considers the time she spent in New York in the early 1980s instrumental to her career because she was able to collaborate with new artists for the sake of creating art rather than making money.[4] At that period, she also shifted to making more feature-length films.[5] She is a friend of actor Steve Buscemi and cast him in her film Handsome Harry because she felt as though it was a role unlike any he had ever played before.[4] Gordon married Australian filmmaker Tim Burns and they have one daughter, Lili Burns. In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Gordon signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.[6][7][8] Gordon is said to be known for her bold explorations of themes related to sexuality, violence and power.[9] Her film Variety explores the relationship between women, pornography and voyeurism. The title character of the film turns the tables on men[10] by renegotiating the historically exploitative relationship between men and women with respect to pornographic films. She says, My films have always focused on the visual aspects of storytelling. Ive been drawn to stories in which color, texture and mood are as central to the narrative as character and plot.[11] Though much of her work is focused on women and the female experience, some of her recent work - most notably Handsome Harry - examines the social constraints placed on men and tensions between hetero-normative masculinity and homosexuality.[12] In the film, described as relentless[12] by a review in The New York Times, the main character is struggling to confront the emotional and physical trauma he and his friends inflicted on a homosexual friend while in the Navy many years prior. Gordon holds a BA, MA, and MFA from The University of Wisconsin–Madison and is now a part of the film department of Columbia University School of the Arts.[13] Some of her films are now a part of permanent collections in several different museums including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.[1]
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Jamey Sheridan. James Patrick Sheridan (born July 12, 1951) is an American actor known for playing a wide range of roles in theater, film, and television. He is known for Randall Flagg in The Stand (1994), Captain James Deakins on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2006), and Robert Queen on Arrow (2012–2019). Sheridans acting career has encompassed theater, television, and feature film productions. Born in Pasadena, California, to a family of actors, he earned a Tony nomination in 1987 for his performance in the revival of Arthur Millers All My Sons. After several TV movie appearances, Sheridan landed a starring role as lawyer Jack Shannon on Shannons Deal, which ran for one season in 1990. His later television roles include Dr. John Sutton on Chicago Hope (from 1995 to 1996). An avid football player in his youth, Sheridan studied acting at UC Santa Barbara as sports injuries prevented him from taking dance classes. After a brief stint at the Old Globe in San Diego, Sheridan left California to travel the world. With stops in Hawaii and the Mediterranean, Sheridan settled for a period in Edinburgh. His experience there prompted him to head home to the U.S. and return to acting. He landed in New York and kept busy working in a number of productions by recognized playwrights as diverse as Bernard Shaw and Neil Simon.[1] Sheridan started his film career in the late 1980s with small roles. His first on screen appearance was in the Whoopi Goldberg vehicle Jumpin Jack Flash.[2] By the 1990s, he was playing family man roles in both film and television, such as in the 1991 motion picture All I Want for Christmas. He also has played villains. In 1994 he played the character of Randall Flagg in the miniseries adaptation of Stephen Kings The Stand. Other roles include Marty Stouffer in Wild America and the psychotic neighbor in Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story. After a long history of performing Shakespeare on the stage, Sheridan appeared in Campbell Scotts production of Hamlet in 2000 as well as the Hamlet-inspired modern noir film Let the Devil Wear Black (1999). He co-starred in the improvisational film The Simian Line in 2001. He has also given supporting performances in The Ice Storm, Cradle Will Rock, Life as a House, and numerous TV movies.
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San Francisco State University. San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is part of the California State University system. It offers 126 bachelors degree programs, 104 masters degree programs, and 3 doctoral degree programs, along with 24 teaching credential programs among seven colleges.[7][8][9] The 144.1-acre main campus is located in the southwest part of the city, less than two miles from the Pacific coast.[10] The university has 12 varsity athletic teams which compete at the NCAA Division II level. SF State is classified among R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity.[11] It is also a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).[12] In 1857, the San Francisco Board of Education created the San Francisco Weekly Normal School, also known as the Minns Evening Normal School.[13][14][15] In 1862, it became the California State Normal School, the first postsecondary institution established by the state.[14] Only six students were enrolled on its first day. By 1866, enrollment had increased to 384.[16]
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Shogun. Shogun (将軍, shōgun; English: /ˈʃoʊ.ɡʌn/ SHOH-gun,[1] Japanese: [ɕoː.ɡɯɴ, -ŋɯɴ] ⓘ[2]), officially seii taishōgun (征夷大将軍; Japanese: [seꜜi.i | tai.ɕo(ꜜ)ː.ɡɯɴ, seꜜː-, -ŋɯɴ][2] lit. Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians),[3] was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868.[4] Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country,[5] except during parts of the Kamakura period and Sengoku period when the shoguns themselves were figureheads, with real power in the hands of the shikken (執権) of the Hōjō clan and kanrei (管領) of the Hosokawa clan. In addition, Taira no Kiyomori and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were leaders of the warrior class who did not hold the position of shogun, the highest office of the warrior class, yet gained the positions of daijō-daijin (太政大臣, Chancellor of the Realm) and kampaku (関白, Imperial Regent), the highest offices of the aristocratic class. As such, they ran their governments as its de facto rulers.[6][7][8] The office of shogun was in practice hereditary, although over the course of the history of Japan several different clans held the position. The title was originally held by military commanders during the Heian period in the eighth and ninth centuries. When Minamoto no Yoritomo gained political ascendency over Japan in 1185, the title was revived to regularize his position, making him the first shogun in the usually understood sense. It is often said that one must be of the Minamoto lineage to become a shogun, but this is not true. While it is true that the Minamoto lineage was respected as a lineage suitable for the position of shogun, the fourth and fifth shoguns of the Kamakura shogunate were from the Fujiwara lineage (although their mothers were from the Minamoto lineage), and the sixth through ninth shoguns were from the imperial lineage. Oda Nobunaga, who claimed to be a descendant of the Taira clan, was approached for the position of shogun a month before his death.[9][10][11] The shoguns officials were collectively referred to as the bakufu (幕府; Japanese: [baꜜ.kɯ̥.ɸɯ, ba.kɯ̥.ɸɯ][2]); they were the ones who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority.[12] The tent symbolized the shoguns role as the militarys field commander but also denoted that such an office was meant to be temporary. Nevertheless, the institution, known in English as the shogunate (/ˈʃoʊ.ɡən.eɪt, -ət, -ɪt/ SHOH-gən-ayt, -ət, -it[1]), persisted for nearly 700 years, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to Emperor Meiji in 1867 as part of the Meiji Restoration.[13] On the other hand, the term bakufu is merely a term that began to be actively used in the 1800s to emphasize that the emperor was the legitimate ruler of the country, while during the Tokugawa shogunate the shogunate was officially called kōgi (公儀).[14][15]
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Mariann Mayberry. Mariann Mayberry (May 25, 1965 – August 1, 2017) was an American television and stage actress.[citation needed] In 1993, Mayberry became an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. While at Steppenwolf, she was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Supporting Role in a Play for Time of My Life, and again for Actress in a Principal Role in a Play for Hysteria, directed by John Malkovich.[citation needed] In 2006, Mayberry married fellow actor Scott Jaeck, with whom she shared the stage in the Broadway run of Tracy Letts Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County.[1] In early 2013, Mayberry was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.[2] In August 2015, after a run of Grand Concourse, Mayberry retired from the stage.[2] On August 1, 2017, aged 52, Mayberry died of ovarian cancer at her sister (Melissa Hollander)s home in Simsbury, Connecticut. At the time, Mayberry lived in New York with her husband of 11 years, actor Scott Jaeck.[3]
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Kabuki. Kabuki (歌舞伎; Japanese pronunciation: [ka.bɯ.kʲi][1]) is a classical form of Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes, and for the elaborate kumadori make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to have originated in the early Edo period, when the arts founder, Izumo no Okuni, formed a female dance troupe that performed dances and light sketches in Kyoto. The art form later developed into its present all-male theatrical form after women were banned from performing in kabuki theatre in 1629. Kabuki developed throughout the late 17th century and reached its zenith in the mid-18th century. In 2005, kabuki theatre was proclaimed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage possessing outstanding universal value. In 2008, it was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[2] The individual kanji that make up the word kabuki can be read as sing (歌), dance (舞), and skill (伎). Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as the art of singing and dancing. These are, however, ateji characters which do not reflect actual etymology. The kanji of skill generally refers to a performer in kabuki theatre.
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Marian Price. Marian Price (born 1954), also known by her married name as Marian McGlinchey,[1] is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA) volunteer. Born into a Republican family in Belfast, Price joined the Provisional IRA in 1971, along with her sister Dolours Price.[2] They both participated in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, for which Marian Price was sentenced to two life terms.[3][4] The sisters carried out a prolonged hunger strike at the start of their sentence. Marian Price was freed in 1980 on a Royal prerogative of mercy when anorexia nervosa, resulting from being force-fed on her hunger strike, was deemed to put her life at risk.[5][6][7] After her release she withdrew from public life, but in the 1990s she became a vocal opponent of Sinn Féins peace strategy. In 2009 she was arrested in connection with the Massereene Barracks shooting. She was charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism in 2011 and released in 2013.
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Noh. Noh (能, Nō; Japanese pronunciation: [no(ꜜ)ː],[1][2][a] Sino-Japanese for ability[b]) is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. It is Japans oldest major theater art that is still regularly performed today.[3] Noh is often based on tales from traditional literature featuring a supernatural being transformed into a human hero who narrates the story. Noh integrates masks, costumes and various props in a dance-based performance, requiring highly trained actors and musicians. Emotions are primarily conveyed by stylized conventional gestures while the iconic masks represent specific roles such as ghosts, women, deities, and demons. Having a strong emphasis on tradition rather than innovation, Noh is highly codified and regulated by the iemoto system. Although the terms Noh and nōgaku are sometimes used interchangeably, nōgaku encompasses both Noh and kyōgen. Traditionally, a full nōgaku program included several Noh plays with comedic kyōgen plays in between; an abbreviated program of two Noh plays with one kyōgen piece has become common today. The kanji for Noh (能) means skill, craft, or talent, particularly in the field of performing arts in this context. The word Noh may be used alone or with gaku (楽; entertainment, music) to form the word nōgaku. Noh is a classical tradition that is highly valued by many today. When used alone, Noh refers to the historical genre of theatre that originated from sarugaku in the mid 14th century and continues to be performed today.[4] One of the oldest forerunners of Noh and kyōgen is sangaku [ja], which was introduced to Japan from China in the 8th century. At the time, the term sangaku referred to various types of performance featuring acrobats, song and dance as well as comic sketches. Its subsequent adaptation to Japanese society led to its assimilation of other traditional art forms.[5] Various performing art elements in sangaku as well as elements of dengaku (rural celebrations performed in connection with rice planting), sarugaku (popular entertainment including acrobatics, juggling, and pantomime), shirabyōshi (traditional dances performed by female dancers in the Imperial Court in the 12th century), gagaku (music and dance performed in the Imperial Court beginning in the 7th century), and kagura (ancient Shinto dances in folk tales) evolved into Noh and kyōgen.[3]
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Steve Buscemi. Steven Vincent Buscemi (/buːˈsɛmi/;[2][3][Note 1] Italian: [buʃˈʃɛːmi]; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor and retired firefighter. Known for his work in both comedy and drama, Buscemis accolades include two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two Independent Spirit Awards. Buscemi started his acting career with the independent productions Parting Glances (1986), Mystery Train (1989), and In the Soup (1992), following such roles with his breakthrough in Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs (1992). The 1990 film Millers Crossing marked his first of many projects with the Coen brothers, and the 1994 film Airheads was his first collaboration with comedic actor-filmmaker Adam Sandler. Throughout the 1990s, he continued to appear in a number of both independent and mainstream films, including Billy Madison (1995), Living in Oblivion, Desperado (all 1995), Fargo (1996), Con Air (1997), Armageddon, The Big Lebowski (both 1998). In following decades, he starred in the independent films Ghost World (2001), Big Fish (2003), Norman (2016), Lean on Pete, and The Death of Stalin (both 2017), alongside voice roles in the animated Monsters, Inc. (2001–2013) and Hotel Transylvania film series (2012–2022). Buscemis career expanded into television, beginning with his first major role in the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove. He received his first two Emmy nominations for starring in and directing episodes of The Sopranos (2004–2006), before winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for portraying Enoch Nucky Thompson in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014). His other television credits include Lonesome Dove (1989), 30 Rock (2007–2013), Horace and Pete (2016), and Miracle Workers (2019–2023). He won a News & Documentary Emmy Award in 2015 for his work with Independent Lens and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series the following year for his web talk show Park Bench with Steve Buscemi. Aside from acting, Buscemi has also directed the films Trees Lounge (1996), Animal Factory (2000), and Interview (2007), as well as a number of television episodes.
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Malahide. Malahide (/ˈmæləhaɪd/ MAL-ə-hyde; Irish: Mullach Íde, meaning possibly the [sand]hill of Íde) is an affluent[2] coastal settlement in Fingal, County Dublin, Ireland, situated 14 kilometres (9 miles) north of Dublin city. It has a village centre surrounded by suburban housing estates, with a population of 18,608 as per the 2022 census.[1] Malahide Castle dates from the 12th century and is surrounded by a large park, part of which incorporates an international cricket ground. The area also features a sandy beach, a marina, a parkrun and a variety of sporting clubs. The modern name Malahide comes from Mullach Íde, possibly meaning the hill of Íde or Ídes sand-hill; it could also mean Sand-hills of the Hydes (from Mullac h-Íde), in turn probably referring to a Norman family from the Donabate area.[3] According to the Placenames Database of Ireland the name Malahide is possibly derived from the Irish Baile Átha Thíd meaning the town of the ford of Thíd, which may have been a ford at the mouth of the Gaybrook Stream, on the road to Swords.[4] Malahide Bay was anciently called Inber Domnann, the river-mouth of the Fir Domnann. Malahide is situated 14 kilometres (9 miles) north of the city of Dublin,[5] lying between Swords, Kinsealy and Portmarnock. It is situated on the southern shore of an estuary where the Broadmeadow River comes to the sea; on the opposite side of the estuary is Kilcrea, and, some way inland, Donabate. To the west of the village, the Gay Brook or Gaybrook Stream passes through Yellow Walls, once a small separate village, to reach the estuary in a marshy area.[6]
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Zhong Kui. Zhong Kui (Chinese: 鍾馗; pinyin: Zhōng Kuí) is a Taoist deity in Chinese mythology, traditionally regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings. He is depicted as a large man with a big black beard, bulging eyes, and a wrathful expression. Zhong Kui is able to command 80,000 demons to do his bidding and is often associated with the five bats of fortune. Worship and iconography of Zhong Kui later spread to other East Asian countries. In art, Zhong Kui is a frequent subject in paintings and crafts, and his image is often painted on household gates as a guardian spirit as well as in places of business where high-value goods are involved. He is also commonly portrayed in popular media. According to folklore, Zhong Kui travelled with Du Ping (杜平), a friend from his hometown, to take part in the state-wide imperial examinations held in the capital city Changan. Though Zhong Kui attained great academic success through his achievement of top honors in the major exams, his rightful title of Zhuangyuan (top-scorer) was stripped from him by the then emperor because of his disfigured and ugly appearance.[1] Extremely enraged, Zhong Kui died by suicide by continually hurling himself against the palace gates until his head was broken, whereupon Du Ping had him buried and laid to rest. During the divine judgment after his death from suicide, Yanluo Wang (the Chinese Underworld Judge) saw much potential in Zhong Kui, intelligent and smart enough to score top honors in the imperial examinations but condemned to Youdu because of the strong grievance. Yanluo Wang then gave him a title as the king of ghosts and tasked him to hunt, capture, take charge of and maintain discipline and order among all ghosts. After Zhong Kui became the king of ghosts in Hell, Zhong Kui returned to his hometown on Chinese New Years eve. To repay Du Pings kindness, Zhong Kui gave his younger sister in marriage to Du Ping.[2]
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Woodblock printing in Japan. Woodblock printing in Japan (木版画, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e[1] artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Invented in China during the Tang dynasty, woodblock printing was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868). It is similar to woodcut in Western printmaking in some regards, but was widely used for text as well as images. The Japanese mokuhanga technique differs in that it uses water-based inks—as opposed to Western woodcut, which typically uses oil-based inks. The Japanese water-based inks provide a wide range of vivid colors, glazes, and transparency. Woodblock printing was invented in China under the Tang dynasty, and eventually migrated to Japan in the late 700s, where it was first used to reproduce foreign literature.[2] In 764 the Empress Kōken commissioned one million small wooden pagodas, each containing a small woodblock scroll printed with a Buddhist text (Hyakumantō Darani). These were distributed to temples around the country as thanks for the suppression of the Emi Rebellion of 764. These are the earliest examples of woodblock printing known, or documented, from Japan.[3] By the eleventh century, Buddhist temples in Japan produced printed books of sutras, mandalas, and other Buddhist texts and images. For centuries, printing was mainly restricted to the Buddhist sphere, as it was too expensive for mass production, and did not have a receptive, literate public as a market. However, an important set of fans of the late Heian period (12th century), containing painted images and Buddhist sutras, reveal from loss of paint that the underdrawing for the paintings was printed from blocks.[4] In the Kamakura period from the 12th century to the 13th century, many books were printed and published by woodblock printing at Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Kamakura.[3] A Western-style movable type printing-press was brought to Japan by the Tenshō embassy in 1590, and was first used for printing in Kazusa, Nagasaki in 1591. However, the use of the western printing press was discontinued after the ban on Christianity in 1614.[3][5] The printing press seized from Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshis forces in 1593 was also in use at the same time as the printing press from Europe. An edition of the Confucian Analects was printed in 1598, using a Korean moveable type printing press, at the order of Emperor Go-Yōzei.[3][6] Tokugawa Ieyasu established a printing school at Enko-ji in Kyoto and started publishing books using a domestic wooden movable type printing press instead of metal from 1599. Ieyasu supervised the production of 100,000 types, which were used to print many political and historical books. In 1605, books using a domestic copper movable type printing press began to be published, but copper type did not become mainstream after Ieyasu died in 1616.[3]
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Torii school. The Torii school (鳥居派, -ha) was a school of ukiyo-e painting and printing founded in Edo. The primary producers of kabuki theater signboards and other promotional materials, the Torii were among those whose work led to the development of ukiyo-e. Their style was one of the primary influences in the ukiyo-e depiction of actors and kabuki scenes for much of the 18th century. Still today, kabuki signboards are sometimes painted by members of the Torii family. The Torii style truly emerged with Torii Kiyonobu I, who came to Edo in 1687. The Torii family had already been active in the kabuki world, in Osaka, for several generations at this point. He studied under Yoshida Hanbei and Hishikawa Moronobu, and brought a kabuki sensibility to their artistic styles. Moronobus work was already dramatic and energetic, but Kiyonobu added to this with a further emphasis on action, and on the types of poses (see mie) and aesthetics one would see on the kabuki stage. For many years, Kiyonobu and his actor father Torii Kiyomoto produced primarily theater signboards, book illustrations, and promotional materials for the theaters. It was not until 1700 that the Torii began to create full-size paintings and prints that could be interpreted as independent works of art. Many still depicted actors and the kabuki world, and could therefore be construed as serving as promotional materials. But by this time Kiyonobu, and his successor Torii Kiyonobu II, were also producing paintings and prints of courtesans, erotic scenes, and sumo. Even as the Torii school expanded, and began to produce works in the increasingly popular form of paintings and prints, the core purpose of the clan remained the production of billboards, posters, and other theatrical works. As such, Kiyonobu, and the heads of the clan after him, worked primarily on these types of works, leaving relatively few paintings and prints. Torii Kiyomasu, and his successors, would represent something of a departure from the theatrical and energetic core style of the Torii school. Taking Sugimura Jihei as a role model, rather than Moronobu, Kiyomasu produced works far softer, more delicate and graceful than those of many other Torii artists. Nevertheless, many works by these other artists, who produced more dramatic works in Kiyonobus style, are signed Kiyomasu.
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Sharaku (film). Sharaku (Japanese: 写楽) is a 1995 Japanese drama film directed by Masahiro Shinoda.[1][2] It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.[3] This article related to a Japanese film of the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This 1990s drama film–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Volunteer (Irish republican). A volunteer is a member of various Irish republican paramilitary organisations. Among these have been the various forms of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA),[1] and the Irish Peoples Liberation Organization (IPLO).[citation needed] Óglach is the equivalent title in the Irish language.[2] The Irish Volunteers were formed in 1913, in reaction to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force earlier that year, to protect the interests of Irish nationalists during the Home Rule Crisis.[3] The Volunteers took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and—as the Irish Republican Army (IRA)—in the Irish War of Independence.[4] The title Volunteer or Vol. was used for members of the Volunteers who were involved in the 1916 Rising,[5][6] and in the War of Independence. A number of witness statements given to the Bureau of Military History make frequent use of Volunteer as a title for members of the Volunteers and IRA during that period.[7][8][9][10] The County Antrim Memorial in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast lists IRA members who died at various times between 1916 and the period of the Troubles in the late 20th century. Volunteer is used for those members who were not officers.[6][11] The term volunteer can refer to any member of an Irish republican paramilitary organisation,[12] to a rank and file member, similar to a private, or to a member that is not a senior officer such as Chief of Staff or Quartermaster General.[13] Joe McCann, an Official IRA member killed in 1972, was referred to in commemorations as a Staff Captain but also as a Volunteer.[14] On the other hand, Joe Cahill, the commander of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade in 1971, said in a press conference after the introduction of internment that year, that British forces had only succeeded in arresting two officers of the Provisional IRA. The rest are volunteers, or as they say in the British Army, privates.[15] The v in volunteer may or may not be capitalized. Most modern IRA memorials refer to the dead only as Volunteer, Vol. or Óglach rather than giving a specific rank.[16][17]
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Provisional Irish Republican Army. Ulster loyalist paramilitaries[16] The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) and informally known as the Provos was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It argued that the all-island Irish Republic continued to exist, and it saw itself as that states army, the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected. The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969,[18] due to a split within the previous incarnation of the IRA and the broader Irish republican movement. It was initially the minority faction in the split compared to the Official IRA but became the dominant faction by 1972. The Troubles had begun shortly before when a largely Catholic, nonviolent civil rights campaign was met with violence from both Ulster loyalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), culminating in the August 1969 riots and deployment of British soldiers. The IRA initially focused on defence of Catholic areas, but it began an offensive campaign in 1970 that was aided by external sources, including Irish diaspora communities within the Anglosphere, and the Palestine Liberation Organization and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It used guerrilla tactics against the British Army and RUC in both rural and urban areas, and carried out a bombing campaign in Northern Ireland and England against military, political and economic targets, and British military targets in mainland Europe. They also targeted civilian contractors to the British security forces. The IRAs armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, killed over 1,700 people, including roughly 1,000 members of the British security forces and 500–644 civilians. The Provisional IRA declared a final ceasefire in July 1997, after which its political wing Sinn Féin was admitted into multi-party peace talks on the future of Northern Ireland. These resulted in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and in 2005 the IRA formally ended its armed campaign and decommissioned its weapons under the supervision of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. Several splinter groups have been formed as a result of splits within the IRA, including the Continuity IRA, which is still active in the dissident Irish republican campaign, and the Real IRA.
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FC Cincinnati. Football Club Cincinnati is an American professional soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was first announced on August 12, 2015 as a United Soccer League (USL) franchise which played from 2016 to 2018. On May 29, 2018, the clubs ownership was awarded an MLS franchise, and the team began MLS play on March 2, 2019.[5][6] The clubs ownership group is led by Carl Lindner III with Jeff Berding serving as co-CEO. Currently, the role of general manager is held by Chris Albright. In May 2015, rumors of a new USL club in Cincinnati were reported by the media. There was speculation[7] regarding the relationship the team would have with the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as a former Cincinnati soccer club, the Cincinnati Kings, as Jeff Berding was named as part of the ownership group.[8] Berding was employed by the Bengals and on the board of the youth soccer club Kings Hammer FC.[9] The Lindner family, of American Financial Group which is headquartered in Cincinnati, was reported as the owner of the new team with Carl Lindner III representing the owners at the press conference.[10] Then on August 12, 2015, FC Cincinnati announced that John Harkes would coach the new club and that the club would play in Nippert Stadium on the campus of the University of Cincinnati.[11] On April 16, 2016, FC Cincinnati broke the USL attendance record for a game, with 20,497 in attendance for the rivalry game against Louisville City FC, and, on May 14, against another rival Pittsburgh Riverhounds, broke its own record with 23,375 in attendance.[12] On September 17, 2016, the team broke the USL record again, when they drew 24,376 for their game against Orlando City B. The team broke its own USL record once again on August 5, 2017, when they drew 25,308 for their game against Orlando City B.[13]
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Midfielder. In association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch.[1] Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundaries, with mobility and passing ability, they are often referred to as deep-lying midfielders, play-makers, box-to-box midfielders, or holding midfielders. There are also attacking midfielders with limited defensive assignments. The size of midfield units on a team and their assigned roles depend on which formation is used; the unit of these players on the pitch is commonly referred to as the midfield.[2] Its name derives from the fact that midfield units typically make up the in-between units to the defensive units and forward units of a formation. Managers frequently assign one or more midfielders to disrupt the opposing teams attacks, while others may be tasked with creating goals, or have equal responsibilities between attack and defence. Midfielders are the players who typically travel the greatest distance during a match. Midfielders arguably have the most possession during a game, and thus they are some of the fittest players on the pitch.[3] Midfielders are often assigned the task of assisting forwards to create scoring opportunities.
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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced /ˈæmpæs/ AM-pass; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academys corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches. As of April 2020, the organization was estimated to consist of around 9,921 motion picture professionals. The Academy is an international organization and membership is open to qualified filmmakers around the world. The Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, both officially and popularly known as The Oscars.[4] In addition, the Academy holds the Governors Awards annually for lifetime achievement in film; presents Scientific and Technical Awards annually; gives Student Academy Awards annually to filmmakers at the undergraduate and graduate level; awards up to five Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting annually; and operates the Margaret Herrick Library (at the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study) in Beverly Hills, and the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The Academy opened the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2021.[5][6]
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1999 in film. The year 1999 in film included Stanley Kubricks posthumous final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvars first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, the science-fiction film The Matrix, the animated works The Iron Giant, Toy Story 2, Tarzan, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the Best Picture-winner American Beauty, and the well-received The Green Mile. Other noteworthy releases include M. Night Shyamalans The Sixth Sense, David Finchers Fight Club, Sofia Coppolas The Virgin Suicides, Paul Thomas Andersons Magnolia and Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufmans Being John Malkovich. The year also featured George Lucas top-grossing Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer celebrated their 75th anniversaries in 1999. The top 10 films released in 1999 by worldwide gross are as follows:[1][2]
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List of years in film. This page indexes the individual year in film pages. Each year is annotated with its significant events. Before Muybridges 1878 work, photo sequences were not recorded in real-time because light-sensitive emulsions needed a long exposure time. The sequences were basically made as time-lapse recordings. It is possible that people at the time actually viewed such photographs come to life with a phénakisticope or zoetrope (this certainly happened with Muybridges work).
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2000 in film. The year 2000 in film involved some significant events. The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible 2.[1] Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor (Russell Crowe).[2] Dinosaur was the most expensive film of 2000 and a box-office success.[1] The top 10 films released in 2000 by worldwide gross are as follows:[3][4]
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Coat of arms. A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design[1] on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its whole consists of a shield, supporters, a crest, and a motto. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to the armiger (e.g. an individual person, family, state, organization, school or corporation). The term coat of arms itself, describing in modern times just the heraldic design, originates from the description of the entire medieval chainmail surcoat garment used in combat or preparation for the latter. Rolls of arms are collections of many coats of arms, and since the early Modern Age centuries, they have been a source of information for public showing and tracing the membership of a noble family, and therefore its genealogy across time. Heraldic designs came into general use among European nobility in the 12th century. Systematic, heritable heraldry had developed by the beginning of the 13th century. Exactly who had a right to use arms, by law or social convention, varied to some degree between countries. Early heraldic designs were personal, used by individual noblemen (who might also alter their chosen design over time). Arms became hereditary by the end of the 12th century, in England by the time of King Richard I during the Third Crusade (1189–1192).[2][3] Burgher arms were used in Northern Italy in the second half of the 14th century, and in the Holy Roman Empire by the mid 14th century. In the late medieval period, use of arms spread to the clergy, to towns as civic identifiers, and to royally chartered organizations such as universities and trading companies. The arts of vexillology and heraldry are closely related.
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Research university. A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission.[3][4][5][6] They are the key sites of knowledge production, along with intergenerational knowledge transfer and the certification of new knowledge through the awarding of doctoral degrees, and continue to be the very center of scientific productivity.[7] They can be public or private, and often have well-known brand names.[8] Undergraduate courses at many research universities are often academic rather than vocational and may not prepare students for particular careers, but many employers value degrees from research universities because they teach fundamental life skills such as critical thinking.[9] Globally, research universities are overwhelmingly public institutions, while some countries like the United States and Japan also have well-known private research institutions.[3] Institutions of higher education that are not research universities or do not aspire to that designation, such as liberal arts colleges, instead place more emphasis on student instruction or other aspects of tertiary education, whereas research university faculty members, in contrast, are under more pressure to publish or perish.[10] The concept of the research university first arose in early 19th-century Prussia in Germany, where Wilhelm von Humboldt championed his vision of Einheit von Lehre und Forschung (the unity of teaching and research), as a means of producing an education that focused on the main areas of knowledge, including the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, rather than on the previous goals of the university education, which was to develop an understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness.[11][12]
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Public university. A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from one country (or region) to another, largely depending on the specific education landscape. In contrast a private university is usually owned and operated by a private corporation (not-for-profit or for profit). Both types are often regulated, but to varying degrees, by the government. In Algeria, public universities are a key part of the education system, and education is considered a right for all citizens. Access to these universities requires passing the Baccalaureate (Bac) exam, with each institution setting its own grade requirements (out of 20) for different majors and programs. Notable public universities include the University of Algiers, University of Oran, and University of Mentouri Constantine. In Egypt, Al-Azhar University was founded in 970 AD as a madrasa; it formally became a public university in 1961 and is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the world. In the 20th century, Egypt opened many other public universities with government-subsidized tuition fees, including Cairo University in 1908, Alexandria University in 1912, Assiut University in 1928, Ain Shams University in 1957, Helwan University in 1959, Beni-Suef University in 1963, Zagazig University in 1974, Benha University in 1976, and Suez Canal University in 1989.
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Sovereign state. A sovereign state is a state that has the highest authority over a territory.[1] It is commonly understood that a sovereign state is independent.[2] When referring to a specific polity, the term country may also refer to a constituent country, or a dependent territory.[3][4][5] A sovereign state is required to have a permanent population, defined territory, a government not under another, and the capacity to interact with other sovereign states.[6] In actual practice, recognition or non-recognition by other states plays an important role in determining the status of a country. Unrecognized states often have difficulty engaging in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states.[7][8] Since the end of the 19th century, almost the entire globe has been divided into sections (countries) with more or less defined borders assigned to different states.[citation needed] Previously, quite large plots of land were either unclaimed or deserted, or inhabited by nomadic peoples that were not organized into states.[citation needed] However, even in modern states, there are large remote areas, such as the Amazons tropical forests, that are either uninhabited or inhabited exclusively or mainly by indigenous people (and some of them are still not in constant contact). Additionally, there are states where de facto control is contested or where it is not exercised over their whole area.[citation needed] Currently, the international community includes more than 200 sovereign states, most of which are represented in the United Nations. These states exist in a system of international relations, where each state takes into account the policies of other states by making its own calculations. From this point of view, States are integrated into the international system of special internal and external security and legitimization of the dilemma. Recently, the concept of the international community has been formed to refer to a group of States that have established rules, procedures and institutions for the implementation of relations. Thus, the foundation for international law, diplomacy between officially recognized sovereign states, their organizations and formal regimes has been laid.[citation needed] Westphalian sovereignty is the concept of nation-state sovereignty based on territoriality and the absence of a role for external agents in domestic structures. It is an international system of states, multinational corporations, and organizations that began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.[9]
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Nation. A nation is a type of social organization where a collective identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory, or society. Some nations are constructed around ethnicity (see ethnic nationalism) while others are bound by political constitutions (see civic nationalism).[1] A nation is generally more overtly political than an ethnic group.[2][3] Benedict Anderson defines a nation as an imagined political community […] imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion,[4] while Anthony D. Smith defines nations as cultural-political communities that have become conscious of their autonomy, unity and particular interests.[5][6] Blacks Law Dictionary also defines nation as a community of people inhabiting a defined territory and organized under an independent government.[2] Thus, nation can be synonymous with state or country. Indeed, according to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, what distinguishes nations from other forms of collective identity, like ethnicity, is this very relationship with the state.[7] The consensus among scholars is that nations are socially constructed, historically contingent, organizationally flexible, and a distinctly modern phenomenon.[8][9] Throughout history, people have had an attachment to their kin group and traditions, territorial authorities and their homeland, but nationalism – the belief that state and nation should align as a nation state – did not become a prominent ideology until the end of the 18th century.[10] The English word nation from Middle English c. 1300, nacioun a race of people, large group of people with common ancestry and language, from Old French nacion birth (naissance), rank; descendants, relatives; country, homeland (12c.) and directly from Latin nationem (nominative natio (nātĭō), supine of verb nascar « to birth » (supine : natum)) birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe, literally that which has been born, from natus, past participle of nasci be born (Old Latin gnasci), from PIE root *gene- give birth, beget, with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.[11] In Latin, natio represents the children of the same birth and also a human group of same origin.[12] By Cicero, natio is used for people.[13]
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2017 FC Cincinnati season. The 2017 FC Cincinnati season was the clubs second season of existence, and their second in the United Soccer League (USL). It was FC Cincinnatis first season as a second-tier team in the U.S. soccer pyramid, as the United States Soccer Federation provisionally promoted the USL from Division III to Division II for the 2017 season. FC Cincinnati plays in the Eastern Division of USL. The season is best remembered for FC Cincinnatis championship run in the U.S. Open Cup. They won matches against five teams, including Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire of MLS (the highest division of U.S. soccer), to advance to the semifinals, a feat not achieved by a lower-division team since 2009. Their run was also noted for setting many attendance records; their matches against the New York Red Bulls and Chicago Fire were respectively the 2nd and 3rd highest-attended U.S. Open Cup matches ever, beaten only by the 2011 Final.[1] Their match against Chicago Fire aired on ESPN, marking the first time a match from the Round of 16 received a national television broadcast.[2] The club announced on October 21, 2016 that assistant coach Ryan Martin would not be returning for the 2017 season.[3] On December 14, 2016, the club announced that Alan Koch, former head coach of the Whitecaps FC 2, would be taking Martins place as an assistant coach, in addition to acting as the director of scouting and analytics.[4] On February 17, 2017, the club announced that head coach John Harkes was relieved of his coaching duties and replaced with Alan Koch. On March 28, 2017, Yoann Damet was added to the staff as assistant coach.[5] As of December 15, 2016, FC Cincinnati has confirmed the return of seventeen players from the 2016 roster, as well as the signing of one new player. Fifteen of these players were announced on November 14, and goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt was announced three days later.[6][7] On December 15, the return of Eric Stevenson and the new signing of Kadeem Dacres were announced.[8] The club held a public tryout with over eighty participants on December 18, 2016.[9] On January 6, 2017, the club announced the signings of Andy Craven, Marco Dominguez, and Aaron Walker (who was selected from the public tryout).[10] On February 6, 2017, the club announced they acquired striker, Victor Mansaray, on loan from Seattle Sounders FC.[11] On March 29, 2017, the club signed Justin Hoyte, a former defender for Premier League club Arsenal.[12] On May 10, 2017, the club traded forward Andy Craven to the OKC Energy FC for forward Danni König.[13] On May 15, 2017, the club announced the signing of defender Josu.[14]
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Country. A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, a nation, a nation state, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term country may refer to a sovereign state, a state with limited recognition, a constituent country, or a dependent territory.[1][2][3] Most sovereign states, but not all countries, are members of the United Nations. There is no universal agreement on the number of countries in the world, since several states have disputed sovereignty status or limited recognition, and a number of non-sovereign entities are commonly considered countries.[4] The definition and usage of the word country are flexible and have changed over time. The Economist wrote in 2010 that any attempt to find a clear definition of a country soon runs into a thicket of exceptions and anomalies.[5] Areas much smaller than a political entity may be referred to as a country, such as the West Country in England, big sky country (used in various contexts of the American West), coal country (used to describe coal-mining regions), or simply the country (used to describe a rural area).[6][7] The term country is also used as a qualifier descriptively, such as country music or country living.[8] The word country comes from Old French contrée, which derives from Vulgar Latin (terra) contrata ((land) lying opposite; (land) spread before), derived from contra (against, opposite). It most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century.[9][better source needed]
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Autonomous administrative division. An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, zone, entity, unit, region, subdivision, province, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy — self-governance — under the national government. Autonomous areas are distinct from other constituent units of a federation (e.g. a state, or province) in that they possess unique powers for their given circumstances. Typically, it is either geographically2 distinct from the rest of the state or populated by a national minority, which may exercise home rule. Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. States that include autonomous areas may be federacies, 2federations, or confederations. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies. Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, each with their own parliament. In addition they enjoy autonomy in taxation matters as well as having their own currencies. The French Constitution recognises three autonomous jurisdictions. Corsica, a region of France, enjoys a greater degree of autonomy on matters such as tax and education compared to mainland regions.[citation needed] New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity, and French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity, are highly autonomous territories with their own government, legislature, currency, and constitution. They do not, however, have legislative powers for policy areas relating to law and order, defense, border control or university education. Other smaller overseas collectivities have a lesser degree of autonomy through local legislatures. The five overseas regions, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion, are generally governed the same as mainland regions; however, they enjoy some additional powers, including certain legislative powers for devolved areas. New Zealand maintains nominal sovereignty over three Pacific Island nations, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. The Chatham Islands—despite having the designation of Territory—is an integral part of the country, situated within the New Zealand archipelago; its council is not autonomous and has broadly the same powers as other local councils, although notably it can also charge levies on goods entering or leaving the islands.[9] Other areas that are autonomous in nature but not in name are areas designated for indigenous peoples, such as those of the Americas:
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Lists by country. This is a series of lists by country. The lists generally cover topics related to sovereign countries; however, states with limited recognition are also included. *Top country subdivisions by GDP *Top country subdivisions by GDP per capita *Top country metropolitan by GDP
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List of international rankings. This is a list of international rankings by country. *Top country subdivisions by GDP *Top country subdivisions by GDP per capita *Top country metropolitan by GDP
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Palace of the Nation, Dushanbe. The Palace of the Nation (Tajik: Қасри Миллат, romanized: Qasri Millat; Russian: Дворец Нации, romanized: Dvorets Natsii) is the official residence of the President of Tajikistan. It is located on Shirinshoh Shohtemur Street in central Dushanbe. The Presidential Palace is surrounded by the Dushanbe Flagpole to the north, Rudaki Park to the east, Dousti Square to the south and Varzob River to the west. The palace was built by Rizzani de Eccher, an Italian construction company.[1] The construction of the Palace began in 2000. In early 2006, the Dushanbe Synagogue, the local mikveh (ritual bath), a kosher butcher shop, and several Jewish schools were demolished by the government without compensation to make room for the new palace. After an international outcry, the government announced a reversal and said that would allow the synagogue to be rebuilt at its current site. However, in the final stages of the palaces construction, the government destroyed the entire synagogue, leaving Tajikistan without a synagogue as it was the only one in the country. This resulted in the majority of Tajik Bukharan Jews having negative views of the Tajik government.[2][3][4] On the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Dushanbe in August 2008, the palace was completed, with the summit events being partially held under the golden dome with 20-meter columns. An image of the palace is imprinted on the back of a 500 Somoni banknote, which is the national currency of Tajikistan.[5] In September 2018, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko became the first foreign leader to visit the new wooden halls and rooms in the palace.[6] The Old Presidential Palace, the former seat of the Council of Ministers of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic), which was located on Rudaki Avenue, was demolished in 2023. In its stead, China helped build a new building for the republics government and parliament.[7]
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San Diego. San Diego (/ˌsæn diˈeɪɡoʊ/ ⓘ SAN dee-AY-goh; Spanish: [san ˈdjeɣo]) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. It is the eighth-most populous city in the U.S. and second-most populous city in California with a population of over 1.4 million, while the San Diego metropolitan area with over 3.3 million residents is the 18th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. San Diego is the county seat of San Diego County.[17] It is known for its mild Mediterranean climate, extensive beaches and parks, long association with the United States Navy, and recent emergence as a wireless, electronics, healthcare, and biotechnology development center. Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego has been referred to as the Birthplace of California, as it was the first site visited and settled by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States.[18] In 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California, 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly declared Mexican Empire. California was ceded to the U.S. in 1848 following the Mexican–American War and was admitted as the 31st state in 1850. The largest sectors of the economy of San Diego include military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, research, and manufacturing. The city is home to several universities, including UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego. San Diego is the economic center of the San Diego–Tijuana region, the second-most populous transborder metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, home to an estimated five million people as of 2022.[19] The primary border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, the San Ysidro Port of Entry, is the busiest international land border crossing in the world outside of Asia (fourth-busiest overall). San Diego International Airport (SAN) is the busiest single-runway airport in the United States.[20] San Diegos name can be traced back to the 17th century when Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno bestowed it upon the area in 1602. He named the bay and the surrounding area San Diego de Alcalá in honor of Saint Didacus of Alcalá.[21]
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Novellist (horse). Novellist is an Irish-bred, German-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He won major races in four countries including the Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Italy, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in France, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the United Kingdom and the Grosser Preis von Baden in Germany. He was rated the fifth-best racehorse in the world and was voted German Horse of the Year for his performances in 2013. Novellist is a dark bay or brown horse with a white snip and three white socks bred in Ireland by his owner Christoph Berglar. He was sired by Monsun (1990–2012), a dual winner of the Preis von Europa who went on to become a highly successful breeding stallion. His other progeny include Manduro, Stacelita and Shirocco.[2] Novellists dam Night Lagoon won the Preis der Winterkönigin in 2003. The colt was sent into training with Andreas Wohler at Ravensberg, between Dortmund and Hanover.[3] In his early races Novellist was ridden by the Panamanian jockey Eduardo Pedroza. On his only appearance as a two-year-old, Novellist contested a minor race over 1500 metres at Düsseldorf and won by eight lengths from five opponents.[4]
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Queens University of Belfast (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency). Queens University of Belfast was a university constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 until 1969. It returned four MPs, using proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. In 1969 the constituency was abolished under the reforms carried out by the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence ONeill. The constituency was created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and its four MPs were elected by the graduates of Queens University of Belfast. In May 1921, Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the self-declared Irish Republic run by Sinn Féin, passed a resolution declaring that elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland would be used as the election for the Second Dáil.[1] All those elected were on the roll of the Second Dáil, but as no Sinn Féin MP was elected for Queens University, it was not represented there.[2]
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List of highest-grossing films. Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners (ranked by both the nominal and real value of their revenue), a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box-office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights, and merchandise. Traditionally, war films, musicals, and historical dramas have been the most popular genres, but franchise films have been among the best performers of the 21st century. There is strong interest in the superhero genre, with eleven films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring among the nominal top-earners. The most successful superhero film, Avengers: Endgame, is also the second-highest-grossing film on the nominal earnings chart, and there are four films in total based on the Avengers comic books charting in the top twenty. Other Marvel Comics adaptations have also had success with the Spider-Man and X-Men properties, while films based on Batman and Superman from DC Comics have generally performed well. Star Wars is also represented in the nominal earnings chart with five films, while the Jurassic Park franchise features prominently. Although the nominal earnings chart is dominated by films adapted from pre-existing properties and sequels, it is headed by Avatar, which is an original work. Animated family films have performed consistently well, with Disney films enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home-video era. Disney also enjoyed later success with films such as Frozen and its sequel, Zootopia, and The Lion King (along with its computer-animated remake), as well as its Pixar division, of which Inside Out 2, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 3 and 4 have been the best performers. Beyond Disney and Pixar animation, Chinas Ne Zha 2 (the highest-grossing animated film), and the Despicable Me and Shrek series have met with the most success. While inflation has eroded the achievements of most films from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, there are franchises originating from that period that are still active. Besides the Star Wars and Superman franchises, James Bond and Godzilla films are still being released periodically; all four are among the highest-grossing franchises. Some of the older films that held the record of highest-grossing film still have respectable grosses by todays standards, but no longer compete numerically against todays top-earners in an era of much higher individual ticket prices. When those prices are adjusted for inflation, however, then Gone with the Wind—which was the highest-grossing film outright for twenty-five years—is still the highest-grossing film of all time. All grosses on the list are expressed in U.S. dollars at their nominal value, except where stated otherwise. With a worldwide box-office gross of over $2.9 billion, Avatar is proclaimed to be the highest-grossing film, but such claims usually refer to theatrical revenues only and do not take into account home video and television income, which can form a significant portion of a films earnings. Once revenue from home entertainment is factored in, it is not immediately clear which film is the most successful. Titanic earned $1.2 billion from video and DVD sales and rentals,[1] in addition to the $2.2 billion it grossed in theaters. While complete sales data are not available for Avatar, it earned $345 million from the sale of sixteen million DVD and Blu-ray units in North America,[2] and ultimately sold a total of thirty million DVD and Blu-ray units worldwide.[3] After home video income is accounted for, both films have earned over $3 billion each. Television broadcast rights also substantially add to a films earnings and, as of 2010, a film often earned the equivalent of as much as 20–25% of its theatrical box office for two television runs, on top of pay-per-view revenues;[4] Titanic earned a further $55 million from the NBC and HBO broadcast rights,[1] equating to about 9% of its North American gross.
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Novelist (musician). Kwadwo Quentin Kankam (born 20 January 1997), better known by his stage name Novelist, is a British grime MC and record producer. He was a founding member of the Square crew and was nominated for Best Grime Act at the 2014 MOBO Awards.[3] He has been called the new face of grime[4] and was described as the poster child for the first generation of real grime kids by DJ Logan Sama.[5][6] Kankam is from Lewisham in southeast London and is of Antiguan and Ghanaian descent.[7] In 2013 Novelist clashed with Wileys younger brother Cadell for the grime DVD Whos Da Boss and began to garner attention from the UK underground music scene for his regular appearances on London pirate radio stations.[8] Novelist was featured in a BBC Radio 1Xtra documentary broadcast on mothers day called Grime Mums focusing on the role parents played in the careers of prominent grime MCs.[9] After an instrumental track called Sniper began to receive airplay on London underground radio stations Novelist was signed to produce an instrumental EP for influential grime imprint Oil Gang.[10][11][12] He recorded a song entitled Take Time in a studio session with experimental producer Mumdance in October 2013,[13] which was later signed to Rinse and released as a single in the summer of 2014.[4] In early 2014, Novelists music began receiving regular rotation on radio stations including BBC Radio 1Xtra and Rinse FM. He recorded a guest set for DJ Cables Sixty Minutes mix, which was broadcast on MistaJams BBC 1Xtra show on 28 May 2014,[14] he featured on Cables Sixty Minutes mix again later that year recording a second guest set with his crew The Square.[15] In late 2013 Novelist began working with No Hats No Hoods.[16] In mid-2014, the label signed The Square, their first release on the label The Formula came out in August 2014.[17] In 2014, Novelist signed to XL Recordings and recorded a track with Jamie xx for his forthcoming release on the label, however the track was not released.[18] In September 2014, Novelist received a MOBO nomination in the Best Grime Act category.[19] In November 2014, Novelist was named on the longlist for the BBCs Sound of 2015 list and XL Recordings announced that his debut release on the label would be a collaborative EP with Mumdance.[20] The EP, entitled 1 Sec was released on 20 January 2015, the same day he turned 18.[21]
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Author. In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form.[1] The act of creating such a work is called authorship, which means a sculptor, painter, or composer is considered the author of their respective sculptures, paintings, or musical compositions. Although in common usage, the term author is often associated specifically with the writer of a book, article, play, or other written work.[2] In cases involving a work for hire, the employer or commissioning party is legally considered the author of the work, even if it was created by someone else.[1] Typically, the first owner of a copyright is the creator of the copyrighted work, i.e., the author. If more than one person created the work, then joint authorship has taken place. Copyright law differs around the world. The United States Copyright Office, for example, defines copyright as a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of original works of authorship.[3][4] Some works are considered to be author-less, or are anonymously or secretly authored. The monkey selfie copyright dispute in the 2010s was a notable dispute of authorship involving photographs taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to a nature photographer. The photographer asserted authorship of the photographs, which the United States Copyright Office denied, stating: To qualify as a work of authorship a work must be created by a human being.[5] The development of generative artificial intelligence has led to discourse regarding authorship of the media it generates.
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California. California (/ˌkælɪˈfɔːrniə/) is a state in the Western United States that lies on the Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With almost 40 million residents across an area of 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the largest state by population and third-largest by area. Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization by the Spanish Empire. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California gold rush started in 1848 and led to social and demographic changes, including depopulation of Indigenous tribes. It organized itself and was admitted as the 31st state in 1850 as a free state, following the Compromise of 1850. It never had the status of territory. The Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 19 million and 10 million residents respectively.[11] Los Angeles is the states most populous city and the nations second-most. Californias capital is Sacramento. Part of the Californias region of North America, the states diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. Two-thirds of the nations earthquake risk lies in California.[12] The Central Valley, a fertile agricultural area, dominates the states center. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains. Droughts and wildfires are an ongoing issue,[13] while simultaneously, atmospheric rivers are turning increasingly prevalent and leading to intense flooding events—especially in the winter. The economy of California is the largest of any U.S. state, with an estimated 2024 gross state product of $4.172 trillion as of Q4 2024.[14] It is the worlds largest sub-national economy and, if it were an independent country, would be the fourth-largest economy in the world (putting it, as of 2025, behind Germany and ahead of Japan) when ranked by nominal GDP.[15][16] The states agricultural industry leads the nation in agricultural output,[17][18][19] fueled by its production of dairy, almonds, and grapes.[20] With the busiest port in the country (Los Angeles), California plays a pivotal role in the global supply chain, hauling in about 40% of goods imported to the US.[21] Notable contributions to popular culture, ranging from entertainment, sports, music, and fashion, have their origins in California. Hollywood in Los Angeles is the center of the U.S. film industry and one of the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world; profoundly influencing global entertainment since the 1920s. The San Francisco Bays Silicon Valley is the center of the global technology industry.[22]
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Stripped Classicism. Stripped Classicism (also referred to as Starved Classicism or Grecian Moderne)[1] is primarily a 20th-century classicist architectural style stripped of most or all ornamentation, frequently employed by governments while designing official buildings. It was adopted by both totalitarian and democratic regimes.[A] The style embraces a simplified but recognizable classicism in its overall massing and scale while eliminating traditional decorative detailing.[3][4][5][6] The orders of architecture are only hinted at or are indirectly implicated in the form and structure.[B] Despite its etymological similarity, Stripped Classicism is sometimes distinguished from Starved Classicism, the latter displaying little feeling for rules, proportions, details, and finesse, and lacking all verve and élan.[5][7] At other times the terms stripped and starved are used interchangeably.[8][9] Stripped Classicism was a materialistic manifestation of political modernism. Recent historiography has explicitly linked this architectural style – and its relationship with modernist thinking – to political projects arising in the 1920–1930s, which utilised artistic dexterity to articulate – in built form – a powerful political ethos orientated towards the future.[10] Other writers have noted the need to read the impact of avant-garde movements such as the Italian Futurists, who extolled the innumerable possibilities of the modern world, on this unique style (and the futurism it espoused).[11] It was popularised by the French-born Paul Philippe Cret, among others, and employed in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union and New Deal America.
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The Novelist. The Novelist is a 2013 independent video game by Kent Hudson through his company Orthogonal Games. The game was first released on 10 December 2013 through Steam. The Novelist can be played in two formats: in stealth or storytelling mode. The games story line is told through the viewpoint of a spectral figure that oversees the Kaplan familys daily life while on vacation. Novelist Dan Kaplan has decided to take his family on vacation in the hopes of not only reconnecting with them, but also defeating his crippling writers block. His agent wants him to complete his promised novel while Dans wife Linda wants to work on their failing marriage and develop a career as an artist. During all of this Dan and Lindas sensitive and incredibly lonely son Tommy is desperate to gain his fathers attention by way of several crayon drawings. In storytelling mode the player chooses the direction they want the games plot to proceed by making several choices that would impact one or more of the Kaplans. Information about the characters desires and secrets are revealed through a series of diaries, letters, and pictures hidden throughout the Kaplans vacation home. Players can also learn additional data by accessing the characters memories at various points in the game. During this mode the player can be seen, but this aspect does not have any impact on the gameplay. In stealth mode the Kaplans can detect the player, who must avoid being seen by either going behind the characters backs or by possessing light fixtures.[1] If the player is seen more than twice in one chapter, they lose the ability to influence the Kaplans choices. Critical reception for The Novelist has been mixed and the game holds a rating of 66 on Metacritic, based upon 18 reviews.[3] In their review IGN expressed disappointment over the game only having limited endings, as they felt that this oversimplifies what is otherwise a nuanced portrayal of the balancing act that goes on within families.[4] Wired criticized what they saw as an overuse of personal notes, diaries, and pictures to show what the characters are thinking or feeling, as they found that this felt ungenuine. Wired also panned The Novelists stealth mode, and commented that it was a mostly meaningless obstacle to the story.[5]
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Toronto International Film Festival. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organization behind the film festival is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in downtown Toronto. The TIFF Peoples Choice Award – which is based on audience balloting – has emerged as an indicator of success during awards season, especially at the Academy Awards. Past recipients of this award include Oscar-winning films, such as Chariots of Fire (1981), Life Is Beautiful (1998), American Beauty (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), The Kings Speech (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Imitation Game (2014), La La Land (2016), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Green Book (2018), Jojo Rabbit (2019), Nomadland (2020), Belfast (2021) and American Fiction (2023). TIFF starts the Thursday night after Labour Day (the first Monday in September in Canada) and lasts for eleven days. The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival took place from September 5 through 15, 2024.[1] The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival is taking place from September 4 through 14, 2025. As of 2022[update], the festivals CEO is Cameron Bailey.[2]
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The Pilgrims Progress. The Pilgrims Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early modern English literature.[1][2][3][4][5] It has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print.[6][7] It appeared in Dutch in 1681, in German in 1703 and in Swedish in 1727. The first North American edition was issued in 1681.[8] It has also been cited as the first novel written in English.[9] According to literary editor Robert McCrum, theres no book in English, apart from the Bible, to equal Bunyans masterpiece for the range of its readership, or its influence on writers as diverse as William Hogarth, C. S. Lewis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, George Bernard Shaw, William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Enid Blyton.[10][11] The lyrics of the hymn To be a Pilgrim are based on the novel. Bunyan began his work while in the Bedfordshire county prison for violations of the Conventicle Act 1664, which prohibited the holding of religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England. Early Bunyan scholars such as John Brown believed The Pilgrims Progress was begun in Bunyans second, shorter imprisonment for six months in 1675,[12] but more recent scholars such as Roger Sharrock believe that it was begun during Bunyans initial, more lengthy imprisonment from 1660 to 1672 right after he had written his spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.[13] The English text comprises 108,260 words and is divided into two parts, each reading as a continuous narrative with no chapter divisions. The first part was completed in 1677 and entered into the Stationers Register on 22 December 1677. It was licensed and entered in the Term Catalogue on 18 February 1678, which is looked upon as the date of first publication.[14] After the first edition of the first part in 1678, an expanded edition, with additions written after Bunyan was freed, appeared in 1679. The Second Part appeared in 1684. There were eleven editions of the first part in John Bunyans lifetime, published in successive years from 1678 to 1685 and in 1688, and there were two editions of the second part, published in 1684 and 1686. The entire book is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an omniscient narrator. The allegorys protagonist, Christian, is an everyman character, and the plot centres on his journey from his hometown, the City of Destruction (this world), to the Celestial City (that which is to come: Heaven) atop Mount Zion. Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin—which he believed came from his reading the book in his hand (the Bible). This burden, which would cause him to sink into Hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as he is walking out in the fields, who directs him to the Wicket Gate for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the Wicket Gate in the distance, Evangelist directs him to go to a shining light, which Christian thinks he sees.[15] Christian leaves his home, his wife, and children to save himself: he cannot persuade them to accompany him. Obstinate and Pliable go after Christian to bring him back, but Christian refuses. Obstinate returns disgusted, but Pliable is persuaded to go with Christian, hoping to take advantage of the Paradise that Christian claims lies at the end of his journey. Pliables journey with Christian is cut short when the two of them fall into the Slough of Despond, a boggy mire-like swamp where pilgrims doubts, fears, temptations, lusts, shames, guilts, and sins of their present condition of being a sinner are used to sink them into the mud of the swamp. It is there in that bog where Pliable abandons Christian after getting himself out. After struggling to the other side of the slough, Christian is pulled out by Help, who has heard his cries and tells him the swamp is made out of the decadence, scum, and filth of sin, but the ground is good at the narrow Wicket Gate.
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Step outline. A step outline (also informally called a beat sheet or scene-by-scene[1]) is a detailed telling of a story with the intention of turning the story into a screenplay for a motion picture. The step outline briefly details every scene of the screenplays story, and often has indications for dialogue and character interactions. The scenes are often numbered in the order in which they occur for convenience.[2] It can also be an extremely useful tool for a writer working on a spec script. This article related to film or motion picture terminology is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Film treatment. A film treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline (or one-page synopsis),[citation needed] and it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits. Treatments read like a short story, but are told in the present tense and describe events as they happen.[1] A treatment may also be created in the process of adapting a novel, play, or other pre-existing work into a screenplay. The original draft treatment is created during the writing process and is generally long and detailed. It consists of full-scene outlines put together. Usually there are between 30 and 80 standard letter size or A4 pages (Courier New 12 point), with an average of about 40 pages.[citation needed] For example, the draft treatment of The Terminator is 48 pages long. More elaborate forms of the draft treatment are the step outline and the scriptment. The presentation treatment is created as presentation material. Scene descriptions are written out on index cards (or a digital equivalent) and only have the essential and important story events that make up the scenes. The scene cards are arranged and rearranged until the optimum structure is worked out.[2] It is the full story in its simplest form, moving from the concept, to the theme, to the character, to the detailed synopsis of about four to eight pages of master scenes. Presentation treatments are used to show how the production notes have been incorporated into the screenplay for the director and production executives to look over, or to leave behind as a presentation note after a sales pitch.[3]
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Filmmaking. Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screenwriting, casting, pre-production, shooting, sound recording, post-production, and screening the finished product before an audience, which may result in a film release and exhibition. The process is nonlinear, in that the filmmaker typically shoots the script out of sequence, repeats shots as needed, and puts them together through editing later. Filmmaking occurs in a variety of economic, social, and political contexts around the world, and uses a variety of technologies and cinematic techniques to make theatrical films, episodic films for television and streaming platforms, music videos, and promotional and educational films. Although filmmaking originally involved the use of film, most film productions are now digital.[1] Today, filmmaking refers to the process of crafting an audio-visual story commercially for distribution or broadcast. Film production consists of five major stages:[2] The development stage contains both general and specific components. Each film studio has a yearly retreat where their top creative executives meet and interact on a variety of areas and topics they wish to explore through collaborations with producers and screenwriters, and then ultimately, directors, actors, and actresses. They choose trending topics from the media and real life, as well as many other sources, to determine their yearly agenda. For example, in a year when action is popular, they may wish to explore that topic in one or more movies. Sometimes, they purchase the rights to articles, bestselling novels, plays, the remaking of older films, stories with some basis in real life through a person or event, a video game, fairy tale, comic book, graphic novel. Likewise, research through surveys may inform their decisions. They may have had blockbusters from their previous year and wish to explore a sequel. They will additionally acquire a completed and independently financed and produced film. Such notable examples are Little Miss Sunshine, The English Patient, and Roma. Studios hold general meetings with producers and screenwriters about original story ideas. In my decade working as a writer, I knew of only a few that were sold and fewer that made it to the screen, relays writer Wayne Powers. Alan Watt, writer-director and Founder of The LA Writers Lab confirmed that completed original screenplays, referred to as specs, make big news when they sell, but these make up a very small portion of movies that are ultimately given the green light to be produced by the president of a studio.
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Play for Today. Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were (with a few exceptions noted below) between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right. In 2025, Channel 5 announced they would revive the series in early 2026 for a new audience. The strand was a successor to The Wednesday Play, the 1960s anthology series, the title being changed when the day of transmission moved to Thursday to make way for a sport programme. Some works, screened in anthology series on BBC2, like Willy Russells Our Day Out (1977), were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of The Wednesday Play, Graeme MacDonald and Irene Shubik, transferred to the new series. Shubik continued with the series until 1973[1] while MacDonald remained with the series until 1977 when he was promoted. Later producers included Kenith Trodd (1973–1982), David Rose (1972–1980), Innes Lloyd (1975–1982), Margaret Matheson (1977–1979), Sir Richard Eyre (1978–1980), and Pharic MacLaren (1974–1982). Plays covered all genres. In its time, Play for Today featured contemporary social realist dramas, historical pieces, fantasies, biopics and occasionally science-fiction[2] (The Flipside of Dominick Hide, 1980). Most pieces were written directly for television, but there were also occasional adaptations from other narrative forms, such as novels and stage plays. Writers who contributed plays to the series included Ian McEwan, John Osborne, Dennis Potter, Stephen Poliakoff, Sir David Hare, Willy Russell, Alan Bleasdale, Arthur Hopcraft, Alan Plater, Graham Reid, David Storey, Andrew Davies, Rhys Adrian and John Hopkins.
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Kagoshima. Kagoshima (鹿児島市, Kagoshima-shi; IPA: [ka.ɡo.ɕi.ma, -maꜜ.ɕi, ka.ŋo-]), is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. As of 31 July 2024[update], the city had an estimated population of 583,966 in 285,992 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2.[1] The total area of the city is 547.61 km2 (211.43 sq mi). While the kanji used to spell Kagoshima (鹿児島) literally mean deer child island, or island of the fawn, the source etymology is not clear, and may refer to cliff or sailor in the local dialect. Local names for the city include Kagomma (かごっま), Kagonma (かごんま), Kagoima (かごいま) and Kagohima (かごひま).[2][3] Kagoshima is located in ancient Satsuma Province and was the center of the territory of the Shimazu clan from the late Kamakura period. Kagoshima City developed political and commercial port city in the Edo period (1603–1868) when it became the seat of the Shimazus Satsuma Domain, which was one of the most powerful and wealthiest domains in the country throughout the period, and though international trade was banned for much of this period, the city remained quite active and prosperous. Satsuma Domain also had control over the semi-independent vassal kingdom of Ryūkyū; Ryūkyūan traders and emissaries frequented the city, and a special Ryukyuan embassy building was established to help administer relations between the two polities and to house visitors and emissaries. Kagoshima was also a significant center of Christian activity in Japan prior to the imposition of bans against that religion in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The domain was also a center of anti-Tokugawa shogunate sentiment. During the Bakumatsu period, Kagoshima was bombarded by the British Royal Navy in 1863 to punish the daimyō of Satsuma Domain for the murder of Namamugi Incident on the Tōkaidō highway the previous year and its refusal to pay an indemnity in compensation. Many of the leaders of the Meiji restoration and the Boshin War were from Satsuma. Japans Industrial Revolution is said to have started here, stimulated by the young students train station. Nineteen young men of Satsuma broke the shogunates ban on foreign travel, traveling to various industrial locations in the United Kingdom before returning to share the benefits of the best of Western science and technology.[4] A statue was erected outside the train station as a tribute to them.
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Writer. A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres, and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short stories, monographs, travelogues, plays, screenplays, teleplays, songs, and essays as well as reports, educational material, and news articles that may be of interest to the general public. Writers works are nowadays published across a wide range of media. Skilled writers who are able to use language to express ideas well, often contribute significantly to the cultural content of a society.[1] The term writer is also used elsewhere in the arts and music, such as songwriter or a screenwriter, but also a stand-alone writer typically refers to the creation of written language. Some writers work from an oral tradition. Writers can produce material across a number of genres, fictional or non-fictional. Other writers use multiple media such as graphics or illustration to enhance the communication of their ideas. Another recent demand has been created by civil and government readers for the work of non-fictional technical writers, whose skills create understandable, interpretive documents of a practical or scientific kind. Some writers may use images (drawing, painting, graphics) or multimedia to augment their writing. In rare instances, creative writers are able to communicate their ideas via music as well as words.[2] As well as producing their own written works, writers often write about how they write (their writing process);[3] why they write (that is, their motivation);[4] and also comment on the work of other writers (criticism).[5] Writers work professionally or non-professionally, that is, for payment or without payment and may be paid either in advance, or on acceptance, or only after their work is published. Payment is only one of the motivations of writers and many are not paid for their work.[citation needed]
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Ballymena Town Hall. Ballymena Town Hall is a municipal structure in Bridge Street in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, is a Grade B1 listed building.[1] The first municipal building in the town was a market hall in Bridge Street which was completed in 1684.[2] It featured a steeple which was 60 feet (18 m) high,[3] and was later referred to by the local member of parliament, Sir Robert Adair, as one of the Seven Towers of Ballymena.[4] On 7 June 1798, during the 1798 rebellion, a force of about 10,000 United Irishmen led by James Dickie, stormed and burned the market hall, killing three of its defenders and forcing the surrender of the local yeomanry forces commanded by Robert Davison.[5][3] The market hall, which by then also contained the local post office as well as the council chamber, burnt down in 1919.[4] In the early 1920s, civic leaders decided to create a new municipal building on the same site. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Duke of York on 24 July 1924.[6] It was designed by Jones and Kelly in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone by John Carson at a cost of £26,400 and was officially opened by the Duke of Abercorn on 20 November 1928.[7] The design involved a symmetrical frontage at the junction of Bridge Street and Mill Street; the corner section featured a doorway on the ground floor and a sash window on the first floor flanked by full-height Doric order columns supporting an entablature inscribed with the dates 1684–1928; on the second floor there were three lancet windows and at roof level there was a two-stage clock tower with a canopy. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber.[8] The town was advanced to the status of municipal borough, with the town hall as its headquarters, in 1937.[4] The town hall continued to serve as the meeting place of the enlarged Ballymena District Council after it was formed in 1973.[9] As part a major programme of works costing £16.8 million, which were carried out to an architectural design by Consarc Design with museum design by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the town hall was refurbished and extended to create an arts venue.[10] It was officially opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall as the Braid Arts & Museum Centre, after the local river, on 21 May 2008.[11] The town hall remained the local seat of government following the formation of the enlarged Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in April 2015.[12]
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Sakurajima. Sakurajima (Japanese: 桜島, lit. Cherry Blossom Island) is an active stratovolcano, formerly an island and now a peninsula, in Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan.[2] The lava flows of the 1914 eruption connected it with the Ōsumi Peninsula.[3] It is the most active volcano in Japan.[4] As of April 2021[update], the volcanic activity still continues,[5] dropping volcanic ash on the surroundings. Earlier eruptions built the white sand highlands in the region. On September 13, 2016, a team of experts from Bristol University and the Sakurajima Volcano Research Centre in Japan suggested that the volcano could have a major eruption within 30 years; since then two eruptions have occurred.[6] Sakurajima is a stratovolcano. Its summit has three peaks, Kita-dake (northern peak), Naka-dake (central peak) and Minami-dake (southern peak) which is active now. Kita-dake is Sakurajimas highest peak, rising to 1,117 m (3,665 ft) above sea level. The mountain is in a part of Kagoshima Bay known as Kinkō-wan. The former island is part of the city of Kagoshima which is only 4 km across the bay.[7] The surface of this volcanic peninsula is about 77 km2 (30 sq mi). Sakurajima has a population of a few thousand residents, formerly incorporated as Sakurajima town, with a number of schools, shrines, and shops on the island. It is serviced by the Sakurajima Ferry which runs 24/7. It is a tourist destination known for its onsen, local pottery made from volcanic ash, and produce such as the Sakurajima daikon radish and Sakurajima komikan orange which grow in the immensely fertile volcanic soil.
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Flag of Kagoshima Prefecture. The flag of Kagoshima Prefecture (Japanese: 鹿児島県旗, Hepburn: Kagoshima-ken ki) is a white field charged in the center with a stylized black and red silhouette of the prefectures topography. The black portion, which resembles an inverted horseshoe, represents the Satsuma and Ōsumi Peninsulas, with a small dent on the right corresponding to Shibushi Bay [ja]. Within the black shape is a red circle representing Sakurajima, Japans most active volcano. Some locals have criticised the flag for not depicting Kagoshima Prefectures islands to the west and southwest of Kyushu. The flags charge is the emblem of Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿児島県章, Kagoshima-ken shō), which was adopted on 10 March 1967 following a public competition.[1] Like other prefectural emblems, it was created to foster a sense of prefectural identity.[2] Symbolically, it represents the prefectures growth and the passion, harmony, and unity of its people.[3] The emblem consists of a black inverted horseshoe shape enclosing a smaller red circle. The black shape represents the Satsuma and Ōsumi Peninsulas, while the red circle represents Sakurajima – a stratovolcano (Japans most active volcano), peninsula, and former island.[2][4][5] The dent on the right side of the black shape represents Shibushi Bay [ja].[6] Although the emblem is meant to represent the topography of Kagoshima Prefecture, it does not depict any of the prefectures islands to the west and southwest of Kyushu. The omission has been criticized by some locals, including folklorist Toshimi Shimono [ja], who regarded it as an example of historical discrimination and neglect toward the islands.[4][6] The Kagoshima prefectural government adopted a prefectural symbol (シンボルマーク; lit. symbol mark) on 16 March 1994. It is a stylized blue letter K, with the top and bottom curves symbolizing winds and waves, respectively. The imagery is meant to express the dynamicity and progress of the prefecture.[2][3]
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Flag of Kagoshima Prefecture. The flag of Kagoshima Prefecture (Japanese: 鹿児島県旗, Hepburn: Kagoshima-ken ki) is a white field charged in the center with a stylized black and red silhouette of the prefectures topography. The black portion, which resembles an inverted horseshoe, represents the Satsuma and Ōsumi Peninsulas, with a small dent on the right corresponding to Shibushi Bay [ja]. Within the black shape is a red circle representing Sakurajima, Japans most active volcano. Some locals have criticised the flag for not depicting Kagoshima Prefectures islands to the west and southwest of Kyushu. The flags charge is the emblem of Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿児島県章, Kagoshima-ken shō), which was adopted on 10 March 1967 following a public competition.[1] Like other prefectural emblems, it was created to foster a sense of prefectural identity.[2] Symbolically, it represents the prefectures growth and the passion, harmony, and unity of its people.[3] The emblem consists of a black inverted horseshoe shape enclosing a smaller red circle. The black shape represents the Satsuma and Ōsumi Peninsulas, while the red circle represents Sakurajima – a stratovolcano (Japans most active volcano), peninsula, and former island.[2][4][5] The dent on the right side of the black shape represents Shibushi Bay [ja].[6] Although the emblem is meant to represent the topography of Kagoshima Prefecture, it does not depict any of the prefectures islands to the west and southwest of Kyushu. The omission has been criticized by some locals, including folklorist Toshimi Shimono [ja], who regarded it as an example of historical discrimination and neglect toward the islands.[4][6] The Kagoshima prefectural government adopted a prefectural symbol (シンボルマーク; lit. symbol mark) on 16 March 1994. It is a stylized blue letter K, with the top and bottom curves symbolizing winds and waves, respectively. The imagery is meant to express the dynamicity and progress of the prefecture.[2][3]
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Scriptment. A scriptment is a written work by a movie or television screenwriter that combines elements of a script and treatment, especially the dialogue elements, which are formatted the same as in a screenplay. It is a more elaborate document than a standard draft treatment. Some films have been shot using only a scriptment.[citation needed] The term scriptment was originally coined by filmmaker James Cameron, possibly during his early involvement in the development of the Spider-Man film series. In that effort, after the success of his 1984 film The Terminator, Cameron wrote a 57-page scriptment for the first proposed Spider-Man film, which was used by screenwriter David Koepp to write the first draft, incorporating it nearly word for word.[1] Camerons scriptment for Titanic (1997) was 131 pages.[2] The term became more widely known when Camerons 1994 scriptment for the 2009 film Avatar was leaked on the internet during pre-production, although other directors, such as John Hughes and Zak Penn, had written scriptments before. The scriptment for Avatar and its notoriety caused the spread of the term.[3] A scriptment borrows characteristics from both a regular screenplay and a film treatment and is comparable to a step outline: the main text body is similar to an elaborate draft treatment, while usually only major sequences receive scene location headings (slug lines), which is different from the extensive slug line formatting in standard screenplays, where every new scene or shot begins with an INT./EXT. DAY/NIGHT slug line set above the description or dialogue. However, just as a treatment can be short or long, a scriptment can exist in various degrees of completion depending on how much time the writer has devoted to it and a more fully developed one could have all slug lines in place, a great deal of dialogue, and only require the producers (or a writing partners) okay on the direction the finished script should take before proceeding further. In a scriptment, scenes and shots may be separated as paragraphs or sentences and, if it is the writers style, can also include an occasional explanatory note, such as might be important in an adaptation or a sequel. As with standard treatments, much of the dialogue is summarized in action. The longer the scriptment, however, the more likely it contains dialog scenes that are fully developed. Single words or brief phrases of dialogue can be included within the description and lengthier exchanges are formatted exactly as a regular screenplay, which is the main reason for the script part of the term.
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Switzerland. in Europe (green and dark grey) Switzerland,[d] officially the Swiss Confederation,[e] is a landlocked country located at the intersection of Central, Western, and Southern Europe.[f][15][note 1] It is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, and Italy to the south. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Alps, the Swiss Plateau, and the Jura mountains; the Alps cover the majority of Switzerlands territory, whereas most of the countrys 9 million people are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts many of its largest cities and economic centres, including Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Winterthur, and Lucerne.[18] Switzerland is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with Bern serving as the federal city and the seat of the national government.[a][3][2] The country encompasses four principal linguistic and cultural regions—German, French, Italian, and Romansh—reflecting a long-standing tradition of multilingualism and cultural pluralism. Although culturally diverse, the national identity remains fairly cohesive, rooted in a shared historical background, common values such as federalism and direct democracy,[19] and Alpine symbolism.[20][21] Swiss identity transcends language, ethnicity, and religion, leading to Switzerland being described as a Willensnation (nation of volition) rather than a nation state.[22] Switzerland originates from the Old Swiss Confederacy established in the Late Middle Ages as a defensive and commercial alliance; the Federal Charter of 1291 is considered the countrys founding document. The confederation steadily expanded and consolidated despite external threats and internal political and religious strife. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The confederation was among the first and few republics of the early modern period, and the only one besides San Marino to survive the Napoleonic Wars.[23] Switzerland remained a network of self-governing states until 1798, when revolutionary France invaded and imposed the centralist Helvetic Republic. Napoleon abolished the republic in 1803 and reinstated a confederation. Following the Napoleonic Wars, Switzerland restored its pre-revolutionary system, but by 1830 faced growing division and conflict between liberal and conservative movements; this culminated in a new constitution in 1848 that established the current federal system and enshrined principles such as individual rights, separation of powers, and parliamentary bicameralism.
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United Nations. The United Nations (UN) is a global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the articulated mission of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals. The United Nations headquarters is located in New York City, with several other offices located in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague. The UN comprises six principal organizations: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, and the Trusteeship Council which, together with several specialized agencies and related agencies, make up the United Nations System. There are in total 193 member states and 2 observer states. The UN has primarily focused on economic and social development, particularly during the wave of decolonization in the mid-20th century. The UN has been recognized as a leader of peace and human development, with many officers and agencies having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but has also been criticized for perceived ineffectiveness, bias, and corruption. In the century prior to the UNs creation, several international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross were formed to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife.[2]
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Irish grid reference system. The Irish grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used for paper mapping in Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland).[1] Any location in Ireland can be described in terms of its distance from the origin (0, 0), which lies off the southwest coast.[2] The Irish grid partially overlaps the British grid, and uses a similar co-ordinate system but with a meridian more suited to its westerly location. In general, neither Ireland nor Great Britain uses latitude or longitude in describing internal geographic locations. Instead grid reference systems are used for mapping. The national grid referencing system was devised by the Ordnance Survey, and is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps (whether published by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland or commercial map producers) based on those surveys. Additionally grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books or government planning documents. In 2001, the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland jointly implemented a new coordinate system for Ireland called Irish Transverse Mercator, or ITM, a location-specific optimisation of UTM, which runs in parallel with the existing Irish grid system. In both systems, the true origin is at 53° 30 N, 8° W[3] — a point in Lough Ree, close to the western (Co. Roscommon) shore, whose grid reference is N000500. The ITM system was specified so as to provide precise alignment with modern high-precision global positioning receivers.
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Member states of the League of Nations. Between 1920 and 1946, a total of 63 countries became member states of the League of Nations. When the Assembly of the League of Nations first met, it consisted of 42 founding members.[1] A further 21 countries joined between then and the dissolution of the League. As several countries withdrew from the League during the course of its existence, the 63 countries were never all members at the same time. The Leagues greatest extent was from 28 September 1934 (when Ecuador joined) to February 1935 (when Paraguay withdrew) with 58 countries. At this time, only Costa Rica (December 1924), Brazil (June 1926), Japan (March 1933), and Germany (October 1933) had withdrawn, and only Egypt joined later (on 26 May 1937). The Covenant of the League of Nations was part of the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919 between the Allies of World War I and Germany. In order for the treaty to enter into force, it had to be deposited at Paris; in order to be deposited, it had to be ratified by Germany and any three of the five Principal Powers (the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy, and the Empire of Japan). Any Allied signatory that ratified the treaty would automatically join the League.
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BBC. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public-service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current state with its current name on New Years Day 1927. The oldest and largest local and global broadcaster by stature and by number of employees, the BBC employs over 21,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 17,200 are in public-sector broadcasting.[1][2][3][4][5] The BBC was established under a royal charter,[6] and operates under an agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.[7] Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee[8] which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts or to use the BBCs streaming service, iPlayer.[9] The fee is set by the British government, agreed by Parliament,[10] and is used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has also funded the BBC World Service (launched in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service), which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic and Persian. Some of the BBCs revenue comes from its commercial subsidiary BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and also distributes the BBCs international 24-hour English-language news services BBC News, and from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd.[11][12] In 2009, the company was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise in recognition of its international achievements in business.[13] Since its formation in 1922, the BBC has played a prominent role in British life and culture.[14] It is sometimes informally referred to as the Beeb or Auntie.[15][16] In 1923 it launched Radio Times (subtitled The official organ of the BBC), the first broadcast listings magazine; the 1988 Christmas edition sold 11 million copies, the biggest-selling edition of any British magazine in history.[17]
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2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses. The 2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses collectively comprised the 23rd census of the United Kingdom. The censuses of England and Wales, and Northern Ireland took place on 21 March 2021, and the census of Scotland took place 364 days later on 20 March 2022.[1] The censuses were administered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in England and Wales, by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) in Northern Ireland,[2] and by the National Records of Scotland in Scotland. These were the first UK censuses for which most of the data was gathered online.[3][4] Two of the censuses went ahead despite the COVID-19 pandemic, in part because the information obtained would assist government and public understanding of the pandemics impact.[5] The census in Scotland was postponed, and took place in 2022.[6][7]
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United Nations General Assembly observers. The United Nations General Assembly has granted observer status to international organizations, entities, and non-member states, to enable them to participate in the work of the United Nations General Assembly, though with limitations. The General Assembly determines the privileges it will grant to each observer, beyond those laid down in a 1986 Conference on treaties between states and international organizations.[1] Exceptionally, the European Union (EU) was in 2011 granted the right to speak in debates, to submit proposals and amendments, the right of reply, to raise points of order and to circulate documents, etc. As of May 2011[update], the EU is the only international organization to hold these enhanced rights, which has been likened to the rights of full membership,[2] short of the right to vote. Observer status may be granted by a United Nations General Assembly resolution. The status of a permanent observer is based purely on practice of the General Assembly, and there are no provisions for it in the United Nations Charter.[3] The practice is to distinguish between state and non-state observers. Non-member states are members of one or more specialized agencies, and can apply for permanent observer state status.[3] Non-state observers are the international organizations and other entities. The General Assembly may invite non-member entities to participate in the work of the United Nations without formal membership, and has done so on numerous occasions. Such participants are described as observers, some of which may be further classified as non-member state observers. Most former non-member observer states accepted observer status at a time when they had applied for membership but were unable to attain it, due to the actual or threatened veto by one or more of the permanent members of the Security Council. The grant of observer status is made by the General Assembly only; it is not subject to a Security Council veto. In some circumstances a state may elect to become an observer rather than full member. For example, to preserve its neutrality while participating in its work, Switzerland chose to remain a permanent non-member state observer from 1948 until it became a member in 2002. As of September 2025[update], there are two permanent non-member observer states in the General Assembly of the United Nations: the Holy See and the State of Palestine. Both were described as Non-Member States having received a standing invitation to participate as Observers in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly and maintaining Permanent Observer Missions at Headquarters.[4]
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Baronet. A baronet (/ˈbærənɪt/ or /ˈbærəˌnɛt/;[1] abbreviated Bart or Bt[1]) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (/ˈbærənɪtɪs/,[2] /ˈbærənɪtɛs/,[3] or /ˌbærəˈnɛtɛs/;[4] abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th century; however, in its current usage it was created by James I of England in 1611 as a means of raising funds for the crown. Baronets rank below barons, but above all other knights. Like all British knights, baronets are addressed as Sir and baronetesses as Dame. They are conventionally seen to belong to the lesser nobility, although William Thoms in 1844 wrote: The precise quality of this dignity is not yet fully determined, some holding it to be the head of the nobiles minores, while others, again, rank Baronets as the lowest of the nobiles majores, because their honour, like that of the higher nobility, is both hereditary and created by patent.[5]
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Belfast (disambiguation). Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Belfast may also refer to:
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Cook Islands. The Cook Islands[a] is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately 236.7 square kilometres (91 sq mi). The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1,960,027 square kilometres (756,771 sq mi) of ocean.[8] Avarua on the main island of Rarotonga is the capital. The Cook Islands is self-governing while in free association with New Zealand. Since the start of the 21st century, the Cook Islands conducts its own independent foreign and defence policy, and also has its own customs regulations.[9] Like most members of the Pacific Islands Forum, it has no armed forces, but the Cook Islands Police Service owns a Guardian Class Patrol Boat, CIPPB Te Kukupa II, provided by Australia, for policing its waters. In recent decades, the Cook Islands has adopted an increasingly assertive and distinct foreign policy, and a Cook Islander, Henry Puna, served as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum from 2021 to 2024.[10][11] Most Cook Islanders have New Zealand citizenship, plus the status of Cook Islands nationals, which is not given to other New Zealand citizens. The Cook Islands has been an active member of the Pacific Community, formerly the South Pacific Commission, since 1980. The Cook Islands main population centres are on Rarotonga (10,863 in 2021),[4] also the location of Rarotonga International Airport, the main international gateway to the country. The census of 2021 put the total population at 14,987. There is also a larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand and Australia: in the 2018 New Zealand census, 80,532 people said they were Cook Islanders, or of Cook Islands descent.[12] The last Australian census recorded 28,000 Cook Islanders living in Australia, many with Australian citizenship.[13] With over 168,000 visitors to the islands in 2018,[14] tourism is the countrys main industry and leading element of its economy, ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and marine and fruit exports. The Cook Islands comprise 15 islands that have had individual names in indigenous languages, including Cook Islands Māori and Pukapukan throughout the time they have been inhabited. The first name given by Europeans was Gente Hermosa (beautiful people) by Spanish explorers to Rakahanga in 1606.[15]
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Millbrook, New York. Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Hudson River, 90 miles (140 km) north of New York City. Millbrook is near the center of the town of Washington, of which it is a part. In the 2020 census, Millbrooks population was 1,455. It is often referred to as a low-key version of the Hamptons, and is one of the most affluent villages in New York.[2] Millbrook is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport Combined Statistical Area. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.901 square miles (4.92 km2), of which 1.9 square miles (4.9 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (2.60%) is water. As of the census[4] of 2000, there were 1,429 people, 678 households, and 361 families residing in the village. The population density was 764.3 inhabitants per square mile (295.1/km2). There were 744 housing units at an average density of 397.90 per square mile (153.63/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 95.90% white, 2.70% African American, 0.20% Asian, 0.30% from other races, and 1.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.00% of the population.
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Northern Ireland. – in Europe (green & dark grey)– in the United Kingdom (green) Northern Ireland[d] is a part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been variously described as a country, province or region.[12][13][14][15][16] Northern Ireland shares an open border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. At the 2021 census, its population was 1,903,175,[7] making up around 3% of the UKs population and 27% of the population on the island of Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly, established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the UK Government. The government of Northern Ireland cooperates with the government of Ireland in several areas under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.[17] The Republic of Ireland also has a consultative role on non-devolved governmental matters through the British–Irish Governmental Conference (BIIG).[18] Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating a devolved government for the six northeastern counties. As was intended by unionists and their supporters in Westminster, Northern Ireland had a unionist majority, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom;[19] they were generally the Protestant descendants of colonists from Britain. Meanwhile, the majority in Southern Ireland (which became the Irish Free State in 1922), and a significant minority in Northern Ireland, were Irish nationalists (generally Catholics) who wanted a united independent Ireland.[20] Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed by a significant minority from all backgrounds.[21] The creation of Northern Ireland was accompanied by violence both in defence of and against partition. During The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922), the capital Belfast saw major communal violence, mainly between Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist civilians.[22] More than 500 were killed[23] and more than 10,000 became refugees, mostly Catholics.[24] For the next fifty years, Northern Ireland had an unbroken series of Unionist Party governments.[25] There was informal mutual segregation by both communities,[26] and the Unionist governments were accused of discrimination against the Irish nationalist and Catholic minority.[27] In the late 1960s, a campaign to end discrimination against Catholics and nationalists was opposed by loyalists, who saw it as a republican front.[28] This unrest sparked the Troubles, a thirty-year conflict involving republican and loyalist paramilitaries and state forces, which claimed over 3,500 lives and injured 50,000 others.[29][30] The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a major step in the peace process, including paramilitary disarmament and security normalisation, although sectarianism and segregation remain major social problems, and sporadic violence has continued.[31]
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Order of Saint John (chartered 1888). The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (French: lOrdre très vénérable de lHôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem),[n 1] commonly known as the Order of St John,[3] and also known as St John International,[4] is an order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist. The order traces its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, the oldest surviving chivalric order which is generally considered to be founded in Jerusalem in 1099, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction of them emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where, after operating under a succession of grand priors and different names, it became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887. The order is found throughout the Commonwealth of Nations,[5] Hong Kong, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States of America,[6] with the worldwide mission to prevent and relieve sickness and injury, and to act to enhance the health and well-being of people anywhere in the world.[6] The orders approximately 25,000 members, known as confrères,[5] are mostly of the Protestant faith, though those of other Christian denominations, as well as adherents of other religions are accepted into the order. Except via appointment to certain government or ecclesiastical offices in some realms, membership is by invitation only and individuals may not petition for admission. The Order of St John is perhaps best known for the health organisations it founded and continues to run, including St John Ambulance and St John Eye Hospital Group. As with the order, the memberships and work of these organisations are not constricted by denomination or religion. The order is a constituent member of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. Its headquarters are in London and it is a registered charity under English law.[7]
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Holy See. The Holy See[7][8] (Latin: Sancta Sedes, lit. Holy Chair,[9] Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation: [ˈsaŋkta ˈsedes]; Italian: Santa Sede [ˈsanta ˈsɛːde]), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See,[10] is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City.[11] It encompasses the office of the pope as the bishop of the apostolic episcopal see of Rome, and serves as the spiritual and administrative authority of the worldwide Catholic Church and Vatican City.[12] Under international law, the Holy See holds the status of a sovereign juridical entity.[13] According to Catholic tradition and historical records, the Holy See was founded in the first century by Saint Peter and Saint Paul. By virtue of the doctrines of Petrine and papal primacy, it is the focal point of full communion for Catholics around the world.[14] The Holy See is headquartered in, operates from, and exercises exclusive dominion over Vatican City, an independent city-state enclaved in Rome, and of which the pope is the head of state.[15] The Holy See is administered by the Roman Curia, which are the central institutions assisting the pope and through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted.[16][17] The Roman Curia includes dicasteries, comparable to ministries and executive departments. The Cardinal Secretary of State is its chief administrator. Papal elections are carried out by members of the College of Cardinals. Although the Holy See is often metonymically referred to as the Vatican, the Vatican City State was distinctively established with the Lateran Treaty of 1929, agreed between the Holy See and Italy, to ensure the temporal, diplomatic, and spiritual independence of the papacy.[18] As such, papal nuncios, who are papal diplomats to states and international organizations, are recognized as representing the Holy See and not the Vatican City State, as prescribed in the Canon law of the Catholic Church. The Holy See is thus viewed as the central government of the Catholic Church and Vatican City.[17] The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world.[19]
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Magical girl. Magical girl (Japanese: 魔法少女, Hepburn: mahō shōjo) is a subgenre of primarily Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centered on young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transform.[1][2] The genre emerged in 1962 with the manga Himitsu no Akko-chan, followed by Sally the Witch in 1966.[3] A wave of similar anime produced in the 1970s led to majokko (魔女っ子; lit. little witch) being used as a common term for the genre. In the 1980s, the term was largely replaced by magical girl, reflecting the new popularity of shows produced by other studios, including Magical Princess Minky Momo and Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel. In the 1990s, Sailor Moon redefined the genre by combining transforming hero elements from live-action tokusatsu hero shows. The growth of late-night anime in the early 2000s led to a demographic shift for the genre, where series with more mature themes such as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004) were created and marketed towards an older male audience. Despite no presence of magic, the manga series Princess Knight (1953) is seen as a prototype for the magical girl genre,[4] as it set forth the appeal of girls who transform to do things they normally cannot perform.[2] Himitsu no Akko-chan (1962), serialized in the shōjo manga magazine Ribon, is credited as the earliest magical girl manga series.[5]: 8 Sally the Witch followed in 1966, with a concept inspired by the American sitcom Bewitched.[1][2] Its 1966 anime television adaptation produced by Toei Animation, is regarded as the first magical girl anime.[4]: 78 [6][7] This anime adaptation introduced the idea of using a compact to transform, a characteristic that is still present in modern series in the genre.[8]
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Marylebone. Marylebone (usually /ˈmɑːrlɪbən/ MAR-lib-ən, also /ˈmærɪ(lə)bən/ MARR-il-ə-bən, MARR-ib-ən)[1] is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it merged with the boroughs of Westminster and Paddington to form the new City of Westminster in 1965. Marylebone station lies two miles north-west of Charing Cross. The area is also served by numerous tube stations: Baker Street, Bond Street, Edgware Road (Bakerloo line), Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Great Portland Street, Marble Arch, Marylebone, Oxford Circus, and Regents Park.
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Jesus. Jesus[e] (c. 6 to 4 BC – AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ,[f] Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader.[12] He is the central figure of Christianity, the worlds largest religion. Most Christians consider Jesus to be the incarnation of God the Son and awaited messiah, or Christ, a descendant from the Davidic line that is prophesied in the Old Testament. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically.[g] Accounts of Jesuss life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels in the New Testament. Since the Enlightenment, academic research has yielded various views on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely they reflect the historical Jesus.[20][h][23][24] According to Christian tradition, as preserved in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus was circumcised at eight days old, was baptized by John the Baptist as a young adult, and after 40 days and nights of fasting in the wilderness, began his own ministry. He was an itinerant teacher who interpreted the law of God with divine authority and was often referred to as rabbi. Jesus often debated with his fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables, and gathered followers, among whom 12 were appointed as his apostles. He was arrested in Jerusalem and tried by the Jewish authorities,[25] handed over to the Roman government, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judaea. After his death, his followers became convinced that he rose from the dead, and following his ascension, the community they formed eventually became the early Christian Church that expanded as a worldwide movement.[26] Christian theology includes the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven from where he will return. Commonly, Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead, either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity.[i] The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually, generally on 25 December,[j] as Christmas. His crucifixion is honoured on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The worlds most widely used calendar era—in which the current year is AD 2025 (or 2025 CE)—is based on the approximate date of the birth of Jesus.[27]
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CBE (disambiguation). CBE is the initialism for Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, a grade within the British order of chivalry. CBE may also refer to:
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Distinguished Service Order. The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful command and leadership during active operations, typically in actual combat. Equal in British precedence of military decorations to the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and Royal Red Cross, since 1993 the DSO is eligible to all ranks awarded specifically for highly successful command and leadership during active operations.[6] Instituted on 6 September 1886 by Queen Victoria by Royal Warrant published in The London Gazette on 9 November,[8] the first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886.[9] The order was established to recognise individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It is a military order, and was, until recently, typically awarded to officers in command above the rank of major (or equivalent), with awards to lower ranks usually being for a high degree of gallantry, just short of deserving the Victoria Cross.[10]
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Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a constituent college of the University of London in 2005 and is a member of Conservatoires UK and the Federation of Drama Schools.[3] The school offers undergraduate, postgraduate, research degrees and short courses in acting, actor training, applied theatre, theatre crafts and making, design, drama therapy, movement, musical theatre, performance, producing, research, scenography, stage management, teacher training, technical arts, voice and writing.[4] In 2006, the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art was absorbed into Central. On 29 November 2012, the Royal title was bestowed on the school by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of its reputation as a world-class institution for exceptional professional training in theatre and performance studies. It is entitled to use it in official documentation, although it continues to be colloquially referred to as Central. The schools Patron, Princess Alexandra of Kent, played a role in recommending the institution for the title.[5]
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Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ or トンカツ; pronounced [toŋkatsɯ]; pork cutlet) is a Japanese dish that consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. It involves coating slices of pork with panko (bread crumbs), and then frying them in oil. The two main types are fillet and loin. Tonkatsu is also the basis of other dishes such as katsu curry and katsudon. The word tonkatsu is a combination of the Sino-Japanese word ton (豚) meaning pig, and katsu (カツ), which is a shortened form of katsuretsu (カツレツ),[1] an old transliteration of the English word cutlet,[2][3] which was in turn adopted from the French word côtelette.[4] Tonkatsu originated in Japan during the Meiji era in the late 19th century, a dish derived from a French dish known as côtelette de veau, a veal cutlet coated in breadcrumbs and fried in a pan with butter.[5] European katsuretsu (loanword/gairaigo for cutlet) was usually made with beef; the pork version was created in 1899 at a restaurant serving European-style foods named Rengatei in Tokyo, Japan.[6][7][8] It is a type of yōshoku—Japanese versions of European cuisine invented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and was called katsuretsu or simply katsu.[9] Either a pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu) cut may be used; the meat is usually salted, peppered, dredged lightly in flour, dipped into beaten egg and then coated with panko (bread crumbs) before being deep-fried.[10]
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City status in the United Kingdom. City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the monarch of the United Kingdom to specific centres of population, which might or might not meet the generally accepted definition of cities. As of 22 November 2022[update],[1] there are 76 cities in the United Kingdom—55 in England,[2][3] eight in Scotland, seven in Wales and six in Northern Ireland.[4] Although it carries no special rights, the status of city can be a marker of prestige and confer local pride.[5] The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, though until 1889 in England and Wales it was limited to towns with diocesan cathedrals. This association between having an Anglican cathedral and being called a city was established in the early 1540s when King Henry VIII founded dioceses (each having a cathedral in the see city) in six English towns and granted them city status by issuing letters patent. A city with a cathedral is often termed a cathedral city. City status in Ireland was granted to far fewer communities than in England and Wales, and there are only two pre-19th-century cities in present-day Northern Ireland. In Scotland, city status did not explicitly receive any recognition by the state until the 19th century. At that time, a revival of grants of city status took place, first in England, where the grants were accompanied by the establishment of new cathedrals, and later in Scotland and Ireland. In the 20th century, it was explicitly recognised that the status of city in England and Wales would no longer be bound to the presence of a cathedral, and grants made since have been awarded to communities on a variety of criteria, including population size. The abolition of some corporate bodies as part of successive local-government reforms, beginning with the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, has deprived some ancient cities of their status. However, letters patent have been issued for most of the affected cities to ensure the continuation or restoration of their status. At present, Rochester and Elgin are the only former cities in the United Kingdom.
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Obe. Obe or OBE may refer to:
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Royal Victorian Order. The Royal Victorian Order (French: Ordre royal de Victoria)[a] is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the monarch.[1][2] The present monarch, King Charles III, is the sovereign of the order. The orders motto is Victoria. The orders official day is 20 June.[b] The orders chapel is the Savoy Chapel in London. There is no limit on the number of individuals honoured at any grade.[3] Admission is at the sole discretion of the monarch.[3] Each of the orders five grades represent different levels of service, as does the medal, which has three levels of service. While all those honoured may use the prescribed styles of the order – the top two grades grant titles of knighthood, and all grades accord distinct post-nominal letters – the Royal Victorian Orders precedence amongst other honours differs from realm to realm and admission to some grades may be barred to citizens of those realms by government policy. Prior to the close of the 19th century, most general honours within the British Empire were bestowed by the sovereign on the advice of her British ministers, who sometimes forwarded advice from ministers of the Crown in the Dominions and colonies (appointments to the then most senior orders of chivalry, the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle, had been made on ministerial advice since the 18th century and were not restored to the personal gift of the sovereign until 1946 and 1947, respectively[4]). Queen Victoria thus established on 21 April 1896 the Royal Victorian Order as a junior and personal order of knighthood that allowed her to bestow directly to an empire-wide community honours for personal services.[3][1][5][6] The organisation was founded a year before Victorias Diamond Jubilee, so as to give the Queen time to complete a list of first inductees. The orders official day was made 20 June of each year, marking the anniversary of Queen Victorias accession to the throne.[6] In 1902, King Edward VII created the Royal Victorian Chain as a personal decoration for royal personages and a few eminent British subjects and it was the highest class of the Royal Victorian Order.[7] It is today distinct from the order, though it is officially issued by the chancery of the Royal Victorian Order.
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Godzilla (1954 film). Godzilla (Japanese: ゴジラ, Hepburn: Gojira)[b] is a 1954 Japanese epic[c] kaiju film directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho, it is the first film in the Godzilla franchise. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, Sachio Sakai, Fuyuki Murakami, Keiji Sakakida, Toyoaki Suzuki, Tsuruko Mano, Kin Sugai, Takeo Oikawa, Kan Hayashi, Seijiro Onda, and Toranosuke Ogawa with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla. In the film, Japans authorities deal with the sudden appearance of a giant monster, whose attacks trigger fears of nuclear holocaust in post-war Japan. Godzilla entered production after a Japanese-Indonesian co-production collapsed. Tsuburaya originally proposed a giant octopus before the filmmakers decided on a dinosaur-inspired creature. Godzilla pioneered a form of special effects called suitmation in which a stunt performer wearing a suit interacts with miniature sets. Principal photography ran 51 days, and special effects photography ran 71 days. Godzilla premiered in Nagoya on October 27, 1954, and received a wide release in Japan on November 3. It was met with mixed reviews upon release but was a box-office success, winning the Japanese Movie Association Award for Best Special Effects. The film earned ¥183 million in distributor rentals, making it the eighth-highest-grossing Japanese film of that year. In 1956, a heavily-re-edited Americanized version, titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, was released in the United States. The film spawned a multimedia franchise that was recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest-running film franchise in history. The character Godzilla has since become an international popular culture icon. The film and Tsuburaya have been largely credited for establishing the template for tokusatsu media. The film received reappraisal in later years and has since been regarded as one of the best monster films ever made. The film was followed by the sequel Godzilla Raids Again.[16]
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Ulster Scots dialect. Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (Ulstèr-Scotch),[6][7] also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect of Scots spoken in parts of Ulster, being almost exclusively spoken in parts of Northern Ireland and County Donegal.[5][8][9] It is normally considered a dialect or group of dialects of Scots, although groups such as the Ulster-Scots Language Society[10] and Ulster-Scots Academy[11] consider it a language in its own right, and the Ulster-Scots Agency[12] and former Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure[13] have used the term Ulster-Scots language. Some definitions of Ulster Scots may also include Standard English spoken with an Ulster Scots accent.[14][15] This is a situation like that of Lowland Scots and Scottish Standard English[16] with words pronounced using the Ulster Scots phonemes closest to those of Standard English.[16] Ulster Scots has been influenced by Hiberno-English, particularly Ulster English, and by Ulster Irish. As a result of the competing influences of English and Scots, varieties of Ulster Scots can be described as more English or more Scots.[15] While once referred to as Scotch-Irish by several researchers, that has now been superseded by the term Ulster Scots.[17] Speakers usually refer to their vernacular as Big Scots,[1] Scotch[3][18] or the hamely tongue.[19] Since the 1980s Ullans, a neologism popularized by the physician, amateur historian and politician Ian Adamson,[20] merging Ulster and Lallans, the Scots for Lowlands,[21] but also an acronym for Ulster-Scots language in literature and native speech[22] and Ulstèr-Scotch,[6][7] the preferred revivalist parlance, have also been used. Occasionally, the term Habitual-Scots appears,[23] whether for the vernacular or the ethnic group.[24] During the middle of the 20th century, the linguist Robert John Gregg established the geographical boundaries of Ulsters Scots-speaking areas based on information gathered from native speakers.[25] By his definition, Ulster Scots is spoken in mid and east Antrim, north Down, north-east County Londonderry, and in the fishing villages of the Mourne coast. It is also spoken in the Laggan district and parts of the Finn Valley in east Donegal and in the south of Inishowen in north Donegal.[26] Writing in 2020, the Fintona-born linguist Warren Maguire argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by the Linguistic Survey of Scotland.[27]
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Local government in Northern Ireland. Local government in Northern Ireland is divided among 11 single-tier districts known as local government districts (abbreviated LGDs) and formerly known as district council areas (DCAs).[1] Councils in Northern Ireland do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom; for example they have no responsibility for education, road-building or housing (although they do nominate members to the advisory Northern Ireland Housing Council). Their functions include planning, waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. The collection of rates is handled centrally by the Land and Property Services agency of the Northern Ireland Executive. The 11 districts first had their boundaries determined in 2012. Elections were held to the new councils in 2014, and they assumed the powers of the previous councils in 2015.[1] Basic geographical statistics are shown below. Previously (between 1972 and 2015) the country was divided into 26 smaller districts. Each of the 11 councils is divided into 7 District Electoral Areas (DEAs), with the exception of Belfast, which has 10 DEAs. Each DEA, in turn, is made up of 5, 6 or 7 wards, with the number of councillors for each DEA equal to the number of wards. There are 80 DEAs in Northern Ireland in total, and the current DEA boundaries were finalised in 2012, and first used in the 2014 election, with the new councils coming into operation in May 2015. Prior to this, the 1993 election was the last time local government boundaries had been redrawn - between 1993 and 2011, there were 102 DEAs across the old 26 councils, with each council having between 3 and 9 DEAs each.[4]
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Detective. A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads them to arrest criminals and enable them to be convicted in court.[1] A detective may work for the police or privately. Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is a licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, by examining and evaluating clues and personal records in order to uncover the identity and/or whereabouts of criminals. In some police departments, a detective position is obtained by passing a written test after a person completes the requirements for being a police officer. In many other police systems, detectives are college graduates who join directly from civilian life without first serving as uniformed officers. Some argue that detectives do a completely different job and therefore require completely different training, qualifications, qualities, and abilities than uniformed officers.[2] The other side says that a detective who has worked as a uniformed officer will excel as a private detective due to their knowledge about standard police procedures, their contact network and their own experience with typical problems.[3] Some are not public officials, and may be known as a private investigator, colloquially referred to, especially in fiction, as a PI or private eye, private ducky or shamus. The detective branch in most large police agencies is organized into several squads and departments, each of which specializes in investigation into a particular type of crime or a particular type of undercover operation, which may include: homicide, robbery, burglary, auto theft, organized crimes, missing persons, juvenile crime, fraud, narcotics, vice, criminal intelligence, aggravated assault/battery, sexual assault, computer crime, domestic violence, surveillance, and arson, among others.
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Non-fiction. Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination.[1] Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively based on historical, scientific, and empirical information. However, some non-fiction ranges into more subjective territory, including sincerely held opinions on real-world topics.[2] Often referring specifically to prose writing,[3] non-fiction is one of the two fundamental approaches to story and storytelling, in contrast to narrative fiction, which is largely populated by imaginary characters and events.[1][4] Non-fiction writers can show the reasons and consequences of events, they can compare, contrast, classify, categorise and summarise information, put the facts in a logical or chronological order, infer and reach conclusions about facts, etc.[5] They can use graphic, structural and printed appearance features such as pictures, graphs or charts, diagrams, flowcharts, summaries, glossaries, sidebars, timelines, table of contents, headings, subheadings, bolded or italicised words, footnotes, maps, indices, labels, captions, etc. to help readers find information.[5] While specific claims in a non-fiction work may prove inaccurate, the sincere author aims to be truthful at the time of composition. A non-fiction account is an exercise in accurately representing a topic, and remains distinct from any implied endorsement. The numerous narrative techniques used within fiction are generally thought inappropriate for use in non-fiction. They are still present particularly in older works, but are often muted so as not to overshadow the information within the work. Simplicity, clarity, and directness are some of the most important considerations when producing non-fiction. Audience is important in any artistic or descriptive endeavour, but it is perhaps most important in non-fiction. In fiction, the writer believes that readers will make an effort to follow and interpret an indirectly or abstractly presented progression of theme, whereas the production of non-fiction has more to do with the direct provision of information. Understanding of the potential readers use for the work and their existing knowledge of a subject are both fundamental for effective non-fiction. Despite the claim to truth of non-fiction, it is often necessary to persuade the reader to agree with the ideas and so a balanced, coherent, and informed argument is vital. However, the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction are continually blurred and argued upon, especially in the field of biography;[6] as Virginia Woolf said: if we think of truth as something of granite-like solidity and of personality as something of rainbow-like intangibility and reflect that the aim of biography is to weld these two into one seamless whole, we shall admit that the problem is a stiff one and that we need not wonder if biographers, for the most part failed to solve it.[7]
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Palestine. Palestine,[i] officially the State of Palestine,[ii][f] is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 147 of the UNs 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the occupied Palestinian territories. The territories share the vast majority of their borders with Israel, with the West Bank bordering Jordan to the east and the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its de facto administrative center. Gaza was its largest city prior to evacuations in 2023.[2][3] Situated at a continental crossroad, the Palestine region was ruled by various empires and experienced various demographic changes from antiquity to the modern era. It was treading ground for the Nile and Mesopotamian armies and merchants from North Africa, China and India. The region has religious significance. The ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict dates back to the rise of the Zionist movement, supported by the United Kingdom during World War I. The war saw Britain occupying Palestine from the Ottoman Empire, where it set up Mandatory Palestine under the auspices of the League of Nations. Increased Jewish immigration led to intercommunal conflict between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, which escalated into a civil war in 1947 after a proposed partitioning by the United Nations was rejected by the Palestinians and other Arab nations. The 1948 Palestine war saw the forcible displacement of a majority of the Arab population, and consequently the establishment of Israel; these events are referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe). In the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which had been held by Jordan and Egypt respectively. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared independence in 1988. In 1993, the PLO signed the Oslo Accords with Israel, creating limited PLO governance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel withdrew from Gaza in its unilateral disengagement in 2005, but the territory is still considered to be under military occupation and has been blockaded by Israel. In 2007, internal divisions between political factions led to a takeover of Gaza by Hamas. Since then, the West Bank has been governed in part by the Fatah-led PA, while the Gaza Strip has remained under the control of Hamas.
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Order of chivalry. An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is a society, fellowship and college of knights,[1] typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades (c. 1099–1291) and paired with medieval concepts of ideals of chivalry. Since the 15th century, orders of chivalry, often as dynastic orders, began to be established in a more courtly fashion[clarification needed] than could be created ad hoc. These orders would often retain the notion of being a confraternity, society or other association of members, but some of them were ultimately purely honorific and consisted of a medal decoration. In fact, these decorations themselves often came to be known informally as orders. These institutions in turn gave rise to the modern-day orders of merit of sovereign states.[2] An order of knights is a community of knights composed by order rules with the main purpose of an ideal or charitable task. The original ideal lay in monachus et miles (monk and knight), who in the order – ordo (Latin for order / status) – is dedicated to a Christian purpose. The first orders of knights were religious orders that were founded to protect and guide pilgrims to the Holy Land. The knightly orders were characterized by an order-like community life in poverty, obedience and chastity, which was linked with charitable tasks, armed pilgrimage protection and military action against external and occasionally internal enemies of Christianity. Examples are the Knights Templar, Knights of the Holy Sepulchre officially called The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, founded in 1090, the Order of St. John and the Order of Malta. These communities only became orders in the sense of canon law through papal recognition of their own binding rules of order and through the dissolution of ecclesiastical diocesan organizations. In addition to the religious orders of knights, courtly orders of knights emerged in many European royal houses from the middle of the 14th century. This enabled the monarchs and princes to create a reliable household power independent of the church and to combine their court life with knightly virtues. During this time, the Burgundian court culture was leading and so the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded there in 1430, was for many a model in the sense of a princely order based on the ideals of Christian chivalry.[3] In the course of time, many orders of knights have been dissolved due to a lack of people or the field of activity has changed. So in many areas the charitable aspect and nursing came to the fore. There were also dissolutions for political reasons, such as the Knights Templar in 1312 or many orders of knights as opposition by Nazi Germany. While the Knights Templar was not re-established, some orders were reactivated after the end of World War II and the fall of the Iron Curtain.
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Whodunit. A whodunit (less commonly spelled as whodunnit; a colloquial elision of Who [has] done it?) is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus.[1] The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective. A whodunit follows the paradigm of the traditional detective story in the sense that it presents crime as a puzzle to be solved through a chain of inquiries questions that the detective poses.[2] In a whodunit, however, the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. This engages the readers so that they strive to compete with or outguess the expert investigator.[3] A defining feature of the whodunit narrative is the so-called double narrative. Here, one narrative is hidden and gradually revealed while the other is the open narrative, which often transpires in the present time of the story. This feature has been associated with the Russian literary terms syuzhet and fabula. The former involves the narrative presented to the reader by the author or the actual story as it happened in chronological order while the latter focuses on the underlying substance or material of the narrative.[4] The double narrative has a deep structure but is specific, particularly when it comes to time and a split gaze on the narrative itself. The two tales coexist and interweave with the first tale focusing on the crime itself, what led to it, and the investigation to solve it while the second story is all about the reconstruction of the crime.[5] Here, the diegesis, or the way the characters live on the inquiry level creates the phantom narration where the objects, bodies, and words become signs for both the detective and the reader to interpret and draw their conclusions from.[5] For instance, in a detective novel, solving a mystery entails the reconstruction of the criminal events. This process, however, also involves on the part of the detective the production of a hypothesis that could withstand scrutiny, including the crafting of findings about cause and motive as well as crime and its intended consequences. This discourse of explanation constitutes the second narrative besides the primary story relating to the crime.[6] The double narrative is cited as a main distinguishing element between the whodunit and the thriller. The whodunit goes backward as it goes forward, reconstructing the timeline of both crime and investigation, while the thriller coincides with the action in a single story. According to Tzvetan Todorov, in terms of temporal logic, the whodunit narrative is considered a paradigm for fiction in general because the story unfolds in relation not to a future event but one that is already known and merely lying in wait. Such certainty pertains to the crime and not to the identity of the culprit, who the reader must anticipate as part of the unknown future.[7]
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