AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The town of Kadievka in eastern Ukraine where he started his work was renamed Stakhanov in his honour in 1978, after his death.
Stakhanov's records set an example throughout the country and gave birth to the Stakhanovite movement where workers who exceeded production targets could become "Stakhanovites". Orwell in Animal Farm presents Boxer as a symbolic character of the "Stakhanovites".
The validity of Stakhanov's record has since been called into question. In 1985, "The New York Times" printed a story that said Stakhanov had indeed succeeded in his feat, but that it was only because the Communist Party had pre-arranged the event. With it, the Communist party wanted to boost public morale. According to this article, many other miners helped Stakhanov beat the mining record. The "Times" quoted the chief of the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine's branch of the Party, Konstantin G. Petrov: "I suppose Stakhanov need not have been the first... It could have been anybody else. In the final analysis it was not the individual face-worker who determined whether the attempt to break the record would succeed, but the new system of coal extraction." In 1988, Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claimed that the widely propagandized personal achievements of Stakhanov were puffery – the paper insisted that Stakhanov had used a number of helpers on support works, while the throughput was tallied for him alone. Still, according to the newspaper, Stakhanov's approach had eventually led to the increased productivity by means of a better organization of the work, including specialization and task sequencing.
It has also been claimed that his record was beaten by Alija Sirotanović of Yugoslavia and Sergej Scemuk of Ukraine.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was the eastern-most tip of the Ancient Greek world. It lasted between 250-125BC.
It covered Afghanistan but also bits of Turkmenistan, Iran, and Pakistan. It covered a region originally conquered by Alexander the Great.
Much of our information comes from the Roman Strabo. Much archaeology has been done in Afghanistan, especially in the cities of Aï Khanoum and Begram.
The National Museum of Afghanistan has put on a touring exhibition about this kingdom. It has been shown at the British Museum and also in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Much other archaeology is on display in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Northwestern College (Illinois)
The Bosporan Kingdom (often called Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus) was an ancient empire, covering the Crimea and a lot of the north coast of the Black Sea. It is regarded as the first real 'Hellenistic' country also speaking Greek.
The Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving known Roman client kingdom (allied state). It was a Roman Province between 63 and 68, under Roman Emperor Nero. In the 1st century and 2nd century AD was a period of a new 'golden age' of the Bosporan Kingdom when it was famous for its jewellery. In the end of the 2nd century the King Sauromates II inflicted a critical defeat to the Scythians (a nomadic tribe) and included all the territories of the Crimea in the structure of his state.
The Bosporan Kingdom became rich from selling wheat, fish and slaves to rest of Europe. This means that there are a lot of amazing and very rich finds from the Kingdom, especially found in burial barrows (known as kurgans). Today, there are lots of architectural and sculptural remains from the Bosporan Kingdoms and many finds can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. These include gold work and vases imported from Ancient Athens and the rest of Ancient Greece.
It was finally destroyed by the Goths (barbarian tribes) at the end of the 4th century AD
Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
Navy Yard, also known as Near Southeast, is a neighborhood on the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington, D.C. Navy Yard is bounded by Interstate 395 to the north, South Capitol Street to the west, and the Anacostia River to the south and east. The neighborhood is named after the Washington Navy Yard. The Navy Yard fills about half of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is in D.C.'s Ward 6, currently represented by Tommy Wells. It is served by the Navy Yard Metro station on the Green Line.
Historically, the Anacostia River was once a deep water channel with natural resources and home to the Nacotchtank Indians. In 1791, Pierre Charles L’Enfant designed the plan for Washington D.C. and, recognizing the worth of the Anacostia River, set up the city’s new commercial center and wharfs there. In 1799, the Washington Navy Yard was built in the area and for many decades was the nation’s largest naval shipbuilding facility. Today, the Washington Navy Yard has been run by the Navy longer than anywhere else.
The Navy Yard was a busy center in the 19th century and was important in the development of the area. The lively wharf was a center for jobs, serving ships with lumber and raw materials for the growing city. It also played a key role in defending the city from the British during the War of 1812. Surrounding the wharfs was a large commercial district, light industrial businesses, and one of the city’s most notable neighborhoods. As the city and nation developed, the Navy Yard changed from ship building to making finished ship products and weapons ammunition. By the mid-1940s in wartime the Navy Yard and the expanded Annex area were making the most ammo with 26,000 employees in 132 buildings on of land.
However, during the 20th century the river got worse. The pollution of the river made it less valuable to the city. After World War II, the Navy Yard moved everything to a smaller campus, slowing commerce in the area. For this and other reasons the riverfront neighborhoods became overrun with crime.
For many years, the neighborhood was an industrial district The area was formerly home to a large commercial and adult-entertainment district, which has now been displaced. Since 1990, the building of a new U.S. Department of Transportation office complex and Nationals Park, the new USD$600 million stadium of the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team, caused quick changes in the neighborhood. Most of the neighborhood's land and businesses have been purchased by companies and is currently being developed into commercial and residential projects. The area plans to contain 12 to of office space, 9,000 residential units, 1,200 hospitality rooms, of retail space, four public parks, and an Anacostia Riverwalk trail system.
Getty Center
The Getty Center, located in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. It is used for for cultural exhibitions.
The center which costed $1.3 billion to built opened on December 16, 1997.
People like its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking the Los Angeles. It is located at the top of a hill. Entrances to the building include traveling from a visitor's parking garage at the bottom of the hill. Alternatively, it also has a three-car cable-pulled tram.
The center draws 1.3 million visitors annually.
It is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum. It has "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs".
One of the paintings on display is "Irises" by Vincent van Gogh. Besides the museum, the center's buildings house the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust. The latter owns and operates the center.
It also has outdoor sculptures displayed on terraces and in gardens. The center was designed by architect Richard Meier. The campus includes a central garden designed by artist Robert Irwin.
GRI's separate building contains a research library with over 900,000 volumes and two million photographs of art and architecture. The center's design included special provisions to address concerns regarding earthquakes and fires.
The Getty Museum started in J. Paul Getty's house in Pacific Palisades in 1954. He made the house larger by adding a new section. In the 1970s, Getty built a copy of an Italian villa near his home.
This new building was a better place to keep his art collection. It opened as a museum in 1974. After Getty died in 1976, all of the land and buildings were given to the Getty Trust to be used as museum space. However, the collection grew too big for the site. The people running the museum looked for a new location closer to Los Angeles.
In 1983, the Trust bought the land where the center is now. The new campus has on a site in the Santa Monica Mountains above Interstate 405, surrounded by kept in a natural state. The land cost $25 million. The top of the hill is above I-405. So, on a clear day it is possible to see not only the Los Angeles skyline but also the San Bernardino Mountains to the east as well as the Pacific Ocean to the west.
In 1984, Richard Meier was chosen to be the architect of the center. It took a several years to get permits to build the Getty Center. The Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company built the new buildings starting in August 1989.
The construction was significantly delayed, with the planned completion date moved from 1988 to 1995 (as of 1990). By 1995, however, the campus was described as only "more than halfway complete".
The center finally opened to the public on December 16, 1997. Although the total project cost was estimated to be $350 million as of 1990, it was later estimated to be $1.3 billion. After the center opened, the villa closed for extensive renovations and reopened on January 28, 2006, to focus on the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. Currently, the museum displays collections at both the Getty Center and the site (called the Getty Villa) in Pacific Palisades.
In 2005, the "Los Angeles Times" printed a series of articles about how the Getty Trust and its president Dr. Barry Munitz were spending money. However, the California Attorney General investigated of the Getty Trust and found that no laws had been broken. The trust agreed to appoint a person from outside the Trust to review how money would be spent in the future. The Getty Trust experienced financial difficulties in 2008 and 2009 and cut 205 of 1,487 budgeted staff positions to reduce expenses. Although the Getty Trust endowment reached $6.4 billion in 2007, it dropped to $4.5 billion in 2009.
Meier has exploited the two naturally-occurring ridges (which diverge at a 22.5 degree angle) by overlaying two grids along these axes. These grids serve to define the space of the campus while dividing the import of the buildings on it. Along one axis lie the galleries and along the other axis lie the administrative buildings. Meier emphasized the two competing grids by constructing strong view lines through the campus. The main north-south axis starts with the helipad, then includes a narrow walkway between the auditorium and north buildings.
The axis continues past the elevator kiosk to the tram station. The axis goes through the rotunda, past the walls and support columns of the exhibitions pavilion, and finally the ramp besides the west pavilion and the central garden. Its corresponding east-west visual axis starts with the edge of the scholar's wing of the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the walkway between the central garden and the GRI, and the overlook to the azalea pool in the central garden. The east-west axis then follows the walkway between the central garden and the west pavilion, and finally the north wall of the west pavilion and the courtyard between the south and east pavilions.
The main axes of the museum grid that is offset by 22.5 degrees begins with the arrival plaza, carries through the edge of the stairs up to the main entrance, aligns with the columns supporting the rotunda as well as the center point of the rotunda, aligns with travertine benches in the courtyard between the pavilions, includes a narrow walkway between the west and south pavilions, a staircase down to the cactus garden and ends in the garden. The corresponding cross axis starts with the center point of the circle forming the GRI library garden, then passing to the center of the entrance rotunda, and aligning with the south wall of the rotunda building. Although all of the museum is aligned on these alternative axes, portions of the exhibitions pavilion and the east pavilion are aligned on the true north-south axis as a reminder that both grids are present in the campus.
The primary grid structure is a square; most wall and floor elements are squares or some derivative thereof. The buildings at the Getty Center are made from concrete and steel with either travertine or aluminium cladding. Around of travertine was used to build the center.
Throughout the campus, many fountains provide white noise as a background. The initial design has remained intact; however benches and fences have been installed around the plaza fountains to discourage visitors from wading into the pools. Some additional revisions have been made in deference to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The north promontory is anchored by a circular grass area, which serves as a landing place for helicopters (heliport) in case of emergencies, and the south promontory is anchored by a succulent plant and cactus garden. Access roads also circle the complex and go to loading docks and staff parking garages on both the west and east sides of the buildings. The hillside around the complex has been planted with California Live Oak ("Quercus agrifolia") trees.
At the bottom of the hill, the museum has a seven-story deep underground visitor parking garage with over 1,200 parking spaces. Its roof has an outdoor sculpture garden. An automated three-car, cable-pulled tram takes passengers between the parking garage at the bottom of the hill and the museum at the top of the hill.
Visitors typically arrive at a tram station in the arrival plaza between the administrative buildings and the museum entrance. A large set of steps leads to the main doors of the rotunda building. The rotunda building houses information desks, two orientation theatres and museum shops. It also holds a grand staircase that starts a path toward the paintings on the second floor of each art pavilion. The rotunda opens to the south to a terrace that links all five of the museum pavilions. A separate building to the west of the arrival plaza and stairs holds a cafeteria and restaurant. Next to the restaurant is a stone arch, which separates the museum from the GRI. In between the GRI and the restaurant, outdoor stairs go down from the main level to the central garden.
The Getty Center's estimated 1.3 million visitors annually make it one of the most visited museums in the United States. The collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum on display at the Getty Center includes "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs". The paintings include:
Getty's photograph collection is on the lower level of the west pavilion. It includes 35,000 individual prints, 1,500 daguerreotypes and other cased objects, 30,000 stereographs and cartes-de-visite, and 475 albums containing almost 40,000 mounted prints.
The museum building has a three-level base building that is closed to the public and provides staff workspace and storage areas. Five public, two-story towers on the base are called the North, East, South, West and the Exhibitions Pavilions. The Exhibitions Pavilion acts as the temporary residence for traveling art collections and the Foundation's artwork for which the permanent pavilions have no room. The permanent collection is displayed throughout the other four pavilions chronologically: the north houses the oldest art while the west houses the newest. The first-floor galleries in each pavilion house light-sensitive art, such as illuminated manuscripts, furniture, or photography. Computer-controlled skylights on the second-floor galleries allow paintings to be displayed in natural light. The second floors are connected by a series of glass-enclosed bridges and open terraces. The bridges and terraces both offer views of the surrounding hillsides and central plaza. Sculpture is also on display at various points outside the buildings, including on various terraces and balconies. The lower level (the highest of the floors in the base) includes a public cafeteria, the terrace cafe, and the photography galleries.
The Central Garden at the Getty Center is the work of artist Robert Irwin. Planning for the garden began in 1992, construction started in 1996, and the garden was completed in December 1997.
Irwin was quoted as saying that the Central Garden "is a sculpture in the form of a garden, which aims to be art." Water plays a major role in the garden. A fountain near the restaurant flows toward the garden and appears to fall into a grotto on the north garden wall. The resulting stream then flows down the hillside into the azalea pool. The designers placed rocks and boulders of varying size in the stream bed to vary the sounds from the flowing water. A tree-lined stream descends to a plaza, while the walkway criss-crosses the stream, which continues through the plaza, and goes over a stone waterfall into a round pool. A maze of azaleas floats in the pool, around which is a series of specialty gardens. More than 500 varieties of plant material are used for the Central Garden, but the selection is "always changing, never twice the same".
After the original design, an outdoor sculpture garden, called the "Lower Terrace Garden" was added in 2007 on the west side of the central garden just below the scholar's wing of the GRI building.
The Getty Research Institute (GRI) is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts." Among other holdings, GRI's research library contains over 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogs; special collections; and two million photographs of art and architecture. GRI's other activities include exhibitions, publications, and a residential scholars program. At the Getty Center, GRI is to the west of the museum. The round building encircles a landscaped garden and is to the west of the central garden. The main entrance of GRI is connected by a terrace to the main arrival court of the museum, with outdoor sculptures placed along the route. GRI has one art gallery on its entrance level that is open to the public.
Meier also designed three other buildings next to the north promontory and offset at a 22.5 degree angle from the main axis of the museum pavilions. The north-most building is an auditorium. Next to it is the North Building, with the East Building sitting between the North Building and the rotunda. The main entrance to the East Building is flanked by two round silos that hold its elevators. A bridge over a sunken courtyard links the main entrance of the East Building to the main walkway that connects the auditorium and North Buildings to the rotunda. These buildings house the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Getty Foundation. These buildings are generally closed to the public except for special events held in the auditorium. They are linked to the museum both by landscaped terraces and by an enclosed glass walkway that leads from the main rotunda of the museum.
GCI, which is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, commenced operation in 1985. It "serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field" and "adheres to the principles that guide the work of the Getty Trust: service, philanthropy, teaching, and access". GCI has activities in both art conservation and architectural conservation.
The Getty Foundation awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts". In addition, it runs the Getty Leadership Institute for "current and future museum leaders". Its offices are north of the museum. The foundation offices are in the two administrative buildings that are north of the museum. The J. Paul Getty Trust, which oversees the Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, Getty Research Institute, and J. Paul Getty Museum, also has offices there.
Although the center's site was thought to have little motion during earthquakes, which are frequent in the Los Angeles area, in 1994, as the center was being constructed, the Northridge earthquake struck. It caused "disturbing hairline cracks... in the welds and plated joints of the steel framework." As a result, the steelwork through the site was retrofitted. The Center's buildings are thought to be able to survive an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale.
In the 16 electrical transformers at the center, silicone fluid is used as a coolant "with less risk of ignition" than hydrocarbon coolant. The native flammable chaparral was removed and fire-resistant poverty weed was added to the slopes around the center. Each year, a herd of goats is rented to clear brush on the surrounding hills.
At the north end of the center, a tank with of water, together with a grass-covered helipad, allow helicopters to collect water. The access ramp from the entry plaza to the museum was constructed to allow a fire truck to pass over it. Inside the museum, the sprinkler system is designed to balance "between the potential damage of a fire and the risk of water damage to valuable artwork".
J. Paul Getty Trust
The J. Paul Getty Trust has the most money of any art institution in the world. In April 2009, it owns $US 4.2 billion. The Trust's office is in Los Angeles, California. It operates the J. Paul Getty Museum at two locations, the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles, California. The Trust's other programs are the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.
The trust operates one of the most visited museums in the United States and gets 1.3 million visitors per year. The trust also provides grants and training to other museums and cultural institutions. The trust has a library, publications program and visiting scholar program. The trust's conservation program works to improve conservation practice through the creation and delivery of knowledge. However, since 2008, the trust has scaled back the scope of its activities in response to financial challenges.
J. Paul Getty started the J. Paul Getty Museum Trust in 1953. Getty had already started the Getty Oil Company, and he was richest Americans in the 1950's. He had more than $2 billion when he died. Getty died in 1976 He left most of his property, including nearly $660 million worth of stock in Getty Oil, to the J. Paul Getty Museum Trust. Legal conflicts over the will took years to resolve, but in 1982 the trust finally received all of the money that Getty. The trust began to add some new programs in 1982. In February 1983, it changed its name to the J. Paul Getty Trust.
In 1997, Barry Munitz became the president and CEO of the trust. He began work in January 1998, succeeding Harold M. Williams, the first president of the Getty Trust, who oversaw construction of the $1 billion Getty Center designed by architect Richard Meier. With an endowment of $4.2 billion, the Getty Trust is the wealthiest art institution in the world. Early in his tenure, Munitz reorganized the Getty Trust, closing two of the institution's six programs – the Getty Information Institute and the Getty Education Institute. To deal with long-run financial issues, he sought to cultivate relationships with donors and corporate partners. His leadership became increasingly controversial as the Getty Trust was embroiled in numerous controversies relating to the provenance of various antiquities in the Getty Museum's collections and Munitz' expense account. In the midst of an investigation by the California Attorney General,
Munitz resigned in 2006 and was forced to "forgo his severance package of more than $2 million, and reimburse the Getty Trust for $250,000 after alleged improprieties including lavish expense account spending."
On December 4, 2006, the trust hired of art historian James N. Wood, the former Director of the Art Institute of Chicago to be the trust's new president and CEO. Wood replaced Barry Munitz, who was forced to step down earlier in the year. In 2009, the trust's assets dropped in value, and Wood cut nearly 100 employees at the trust's various operations, most at the Getty Museum. Fees for parking at the museum and the Getty Villa were raised by 50% to $15. Wood died suddenly of natural causes on June 12, 2010. In May 2011, the trust hired James Cuno, director of the Art Institute of Chicago as president and chief executive of the Getty Trust, to take office in August.
The J. Paul Getty Museum is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California. The museum at the Getty Center contains "Western art from the Middle Ages to the present;" its estimated 1.3 million visitors annually makes it one of the most visited museums in the United States. The museum at the Getty Villa contains art from "ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria". The museum started as J. Paul Getty's personal art collection.
The Getty Foundation was originally called the "Getty Grant Program," which began in 1984 under the direction of Deborah Marrow. The J. Paul Getty Trust can spend up to 0.75% of its endowment on gifts and grants; by 1990 the Getty Grant Program (then based in Santa Monica) had made 530 grants totaling $20 million to "art historians, conservators and art museums in 18 countries". For example, a foundation grant funded the restoration of the Cosmati Pavement in the floor of Westminster Abbey. For many years, the foundation conducted the Getty Leadership Institute (GLI). The major GLI program is the Museum Leadership Institute (MLI), formerly known as the Museum Management Institute, which "has served close to 1,000 museum professionals from the United States and 30 countries worldwide". However, effective on January 2, 2010, the GLI was transferred to the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California and was renamed "The Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University".
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". GRI maintains a research library, organizes exhibitions and other events, sponsors a residential scholars program, publishes books, and maintains electronic databases including a Semantic Web service. The GRI was originally called the "Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities", and was conceived as early as 1983. Among other holdings, GRI's research library contains about 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogs; special collections; and two million photographs of art and architecture. The library also includes the trust's "Institutional Archives" which document the activities of the trust's various programs.
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985. The GCI is a private international research institution dedicated to advancing conservation practice through the creation and delivery of knowledge. It "serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field" and "adheres to the principles that guide the work of the Getty Trust: service, philanthropy, teaching, and access". GCI has activities in both art conservation and architectural conservation. GCI scientists study the deterioration of objects and buildings, and how to prevent or stop such deterioration. GCI has also been involved with long-term education programs, such as establishing a Master's degree program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles.
From 1983 to June 1999, the Trust ran the Getty Information Institute (GII) which sought to collect electronic information to serve cultural heritage institution and researchers. Together with the American Council of Learned Societies GII sought to build a broad coalition of non-profits to establish a National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. Upon the dissolution of the GII, its data bases were transferred to the Getty Research Institute.
The Getty Trust Indenture dated December 2, 1953 made a California charitable trust for "the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge." The trust is governed by a 13-member board of trustees. Trustees are elected to serve four-year terms, with a maximum limit of three terms. The board is self-perpetuating with the board electing or re-electing the trustees. The board holds an annual meeting in May or June of each year. Although the board conducts most of its work through committees, a number of important decisions are reserved for the entire board including approval of any art acquisition costing more than $1 million.
On October 2, 2006, the California Attorney General issued a report following an investigation of the trust and its operations. At the close of the investigation an independent monitor was hired to assure proper governance and expenditures of the trust. On May 7, 2008, the Attorney General closed the monitoring process.
The trust was hurt by the economic downturn following 2007 and has reduced its annual budget by 14%. In 2007, the trust had $6.4 billion in endowment, but this amount dropped to $4.5 billion in 2009. In 2009, the trust had $300 million in expenses down from $349 million in 2008. For example, GRI co-produced the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals with the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, but transferred that activity to Columbia University on July 1, 2009.
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River. Georgetown started as a separate city in 1751 before the area became the District of Columbia. Georgetown stayed a separate city until 1871, when the United States Congress took away its charter. Another law in 1895 canceled Georgetown's laws and renamed the streets to match those in the city of Washington. Today, stores, bars and restaurants in Georgetown are on M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Georgetown has the main campus of Georgetown University. The embassies of France, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, and Ukraine are in Georgetown.
Georgetown has many historic landmarks including:
Brentwood (Washington, D.C.)
Brentwood is a neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C.. It is named after the Brentwood Mansion built at Florida Avenue and 6th Street NE in 1817 by Robert Brent, the first mayor of Washington City. He built it as a wedding present for his daughter Eleanor and Congressman Joseph Pearson. Brent gave them both the mansion and a large farm surrounding it. Congressman Pearson also purchased additional properties and expanded the estate further. The property then known as Brentwood was larger than the present (2007) neighborhood known as Brentwood. Images of the mansion may be found in the book "Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings" by James W. Goode, and in several books in the collection of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Edward Sisson, a descendant of the family that owned the mansion throughout its existence, has posted a collection of paintings, drawings, photos, and histories of the mansion on-line. The Frick Art Reference Library (http://www.frick.org/) has drawings, paintings, and perhaps photographs (although none appear to be accessible on-line as of late 2007). On the web, a small drawing of the mansion, together with a brief description of its owners in 1873, Capt. & Mrs. Carlile Pollock Patterson, may be found in "Washington Outside and Inside" by George Alfred Townsend, at page 620, searchable as a "google book."
Many people think that Benjamin Latrobe (who designed the United States Capitol) designed Brentwood Mansion. However, at the time of the house's design, Latrobe was suffering family troubles and his records for this period are poor.
During the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877), Brentwood Mansion was a center of Washington social life, with many parties hosted by Elizabeth (Eliza) Worthington Patterson (daughter of Joseph Pearson and his third wife Catherine Worthington Pearson) and her husband Carlile Pollock Patterson. Patterson had known Grant since 1852; Patterson's brother-in-law David Dixon Porter, married to Patterson's sister George Ann, was the highest-ranking Admiral in the US Navy; and Patterson's brother Thomas H. Patterson was commander of the Washington Navy Yard (1873-1876) before becoming the Rear Admiral in command of the Asiatic Squadron (1877-1880). Patterson Street, N.E., which is adjacent to the property, was probably named for the Patterson family.
C.P. Patterson, a Naval officer and ship captain turned scientist and administrator of a government department, had neither the interest nor the aptitude to manage the transformation of a large rural farming and forest property into an urbanized part of the city growing around it. After C.P. Patterson's death in 1881, long-delayed financial problems came to a head, and on June 6, 1884, three years after Patterson's death, Congress enacted a private bill, House bill No. 4689, entitled "An act for the relief of Eliza W. Patterson," C.P. Patterson's widow, excusing accumulated District of Columbia property taxes on the Patterson land. President Chester A. Arthur neither signed nor vetoed the bill, but held it ten days and allowed it to become law without his signature. In a message dated June 21, 1884, the President explained "I do not question the constitutional right of Congress to pass a law relieving the family of an officer, in view of the services he had rendered his country, from the burdens of taxation, but I submit to Congress that this just gift of the nation to the family of such faithful officer should come from the National Treasury rather than from that of this District, and I therefore recommend that an appropriation be made to reimburse the District for the amount of taxes which would have been due to it had this act not become a law."
After five more years confusion, in March 1889, Patterson's son-in-law, Lt. Francis Winslow (II) USN (oldest brother of future Rear Admiral Cameron Winslow), after 19 years of Naval service during the slow-promotion post-war years, resigned from the Navy to devote himself to subdividing, renting, developing, and selling portions of the property. He was successful. A portion of this property later became the subject of a lawsuit that reached the United States Supreme Court, "Francis Winslow v. Baltimore & Ohio RR Co.", 188 U.S. 646 (1903), which includes excerpts of the will by which Mrs. Patterson came into the property on the death of her mother, Catherine Worthington Pearson, in 1868. The suit, which the Patterson/Winslow family won, involved renewal of a lease of some of the land to a railroad. (Winslow (II) also developed an expertise in oysters, having led government surveys in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. A "google" search on "Francis Winslow" and "oyster" returns dozens of "hits," referring to the Francis Winslow who managed the Brentwood property. His work is still cited today (2007) as authoritative and accurate. See: http://www.ocracokepreservation.org/id39.html . Winslow was also a leader of US government survey expeditions in Nicaragua, studying potential routes for a canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific.).
The death of Francis Winslow (II) in 1908, suspected to have been caused by illnesses contracted in the Nicaraguan jungle, led to another period of drift in the management of the property as his four sons pursued other careers. In 1917, 100 years after it was built, the vacant Brentwood Mansion burned, and the land became the site of a World War I Army staging camp, Camp Meigs. Three of Francis Winslow (II)'s sons were officers in World War I, and they may have staged in that camp, on their own family land. In 1919 the partially burnt house was finally demolished. Part of the property became the first lumberyard for the building supply and hardware company Hechinger Co., a store that was prominent in Washington into the 1990s.
In the 1920s, Lt. Winslow's son, Francis Winslow (III), ended his career as a mining engineer and took over active management of the Brentwood Patterson/Winslow land. His most notable achievement was the development of the Union Market. For years called the Florida Avenue Market, it still operates after 80 years as the city's principal wholesale food and produce market. Photographs and a detailed history of this development may be found in an April 24, 2007, District of Columbia planning document, the Florida Avenue Market Study, at http://www.anc6a.org/FLaveMarketStudy.pdf .
In the early 1940s, the District of Columbia used eminent domain to acquire a large parcel of the Patterson land known as "square 710", on which is being built (2007) the new headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (200 Florida Avenue, N.E.). Illustrations of the ATF headquarters can be found at http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/ProfileSE.aspx?LID=15025032&linkcode=10850&sourcecode=1lww2t006a00001. The seizure of square 710 led to a suit by Winslow (III) as trustee, asserting that the compensation offered by the District was inadequate. Winslow won the suit and a judgment for a larger sum, whereupon, according to the family, the District informed him that it simply didn't have the money to pay the larger judgment. Regardless of payment or nonpayment, title had vested in the government. At about this time, Winslow was demoralized by the death of his 17-year-old daughter in a 1946 car accident, and was then diagnosed with cancer. He died in 1948.
His youngest brother Cameron, an insurance executive in Hartford, CT, stepped in as trustee, but it is unclear whether either Francis or Cameron ever received payment from the government of the court-ordered price of "square 710." If not, there may be the ironic situation of a government law-enforcement agency headquarters located on land for which the government did not comply with the law by paying the lawful price. Cameron Winslow, determining that no one in the next generation appeared interested in managing the property, and unable to manage the properties day-to-day from Hartford, began selling all remaining parts of the property in the 1950s, completing the last of the sales in the 1960s, breaking-up the landed estate that Robert Brent had assembled some 200 years before.
Over the decades, much of the land was acquired by or donated to Gallaudet University, a prominent school for the deaf. Cogswell Hall, a residence hall of Gallaudet University, is said to be built on the site of the old Brentwood Mansion. According to a website on Washington ghost stories, http://members.aol.com/waniehol/DCplaces.html, students have reported that it is haunted by the spirit of a little girl. Allegedly, blankets have been yanked off, an unplugged alarm clock went off, papers have moved with no draft or breeze, there are feelings of being watched, and at least one student has been tapped awake with no one there.
Brentwood neighborhood as it is today (whose boundaries are somewhat different than the original Brent property, as increased by Pearson) is trapezoidal in its geography. It is bounded by New York Avenue to the south, Montana Avenue to the east, Rhode Island Avenue NE to the north, and the tracks of the Washington Metro's Red Line and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor to the west. It is serviced by the Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood Metro station. Politically, Brentwood is in Ward 5.
Brentwood has the main post office for Washington, D.C. It was the postal mail sorting facility through which anthrax-contaminated mail addressed to two members of the U.S. Senate passed in the 2001 anthrax attacks. The Post Office is now named after Joseph Curseen Jr. and Thomas Morris Jr., who were postal workers who died after exposure to the anthrax in the incident. The 633,000 square foot facility was closed October 21, 2001, because of anthrax contamination and did not reopen until December 21, 2003.
The area also is the site of a major rapid transit rail maintenance facility of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA), the principal public transit operator in metropolitan Washington, D.C. It is served by the New York Avenue Metrorail station.
Big Van Vader
Leon Allen White (May 14, 1955 – June 18, 2018) was a retired American professional wrestler. He was better known by the ring name, Big Van Vader.
Vader began his wrestling career at the World Heavyweight Championship (AWA) in (1985) and remained on the company for two years until (1987). He then traveled to Japan where he was hired by the New Japan Pro Wrestling. Vader won the final competition between eight men against Shinya Hashimoto and was crowned champion. Then a month after being crowned champion, Vader lost the title to the Russian Hashimikov Salman. Then recovered the titled against the winner of Hashimikov- Riki Choshu, thus becoming World Heavyweight Champion again CWA. Vader continued performing in Europe under the name of Otto Wanz. In 1990, Vader returned to America and was hired by World Championship Wrestling, in WCW Vader got a chance to face Sting in the July 12 event The Great American Bash 1992, where Sting defeated, and Vader and crowned as the new world champion heavyweight WCW. After having bloody battles against Mick Foley, Vader faced none other than Hulk Hogan in 1995. After leaving WCW, Vader returned to Japan in 1996.
In 1996, Vader was hired by World Wrestling Federation, Vader appeared at WrestleMania XII, in a fight between six Vader, Owen Hart, British Bulldog vs Yokozuna, Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts. Vader's team won the match. Vader faced the champion of the WWF Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam in 1996, and then faced The Undertaker in the Royal Rumble.
In 1998 Vader returned to Japan in All Japan Pro Wrestling, then went to the Pro Wrestling Noah between 2000 and 2002 before being hired by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Vader turned to work for the WWE in 2003 performing in several episodes of Raw where he retired from the wrestling in 2012.
In 2016, Vader was diagnosed with congestive heart failure following a car crash. White went in for heart surgery on March 12, 2018 followed by another in May to treat an arrhythmia.
On June 18 2018, after being hospitalized in Boulder, Colorado for a month with pneumonia, Vader died at 63 years old.
Holocephali
Holocephali ("complete heads") is a subclass of cartilaginous fish, of which the order Chimaeriformes is the only surviving group.
Holocephali have a long fossil record that starts during the Devonian period. However, most fossils are teeth, and the body forms of numerous species are not known, or, at best, poorly understood. Sequence analysis on living chimaera suggests the whole group originated 420 million years ago in the Silurian period.
Getty Villa
The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California, USA, is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum. The Getty Villa is an educational center and museum that covers the arts and cultures of Ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The collection has 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC to 400 AD. The UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation is here. The online GettyGuide as well as through audio tours tell about the items owned by the museum.
The collection has 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC to 400 AD. Among the outstanding items is Victorious Youth, one of few life-size Greek bronze statues to have survived to modern times. The Lansdowne Heracles is a Roman sculpture that was probably copied from an older Greek statue. The Villa also has jewelry and coin collections. The Villa's library has 20,000 books covering art from these periods. The Villa also displays the 'Getty kouros', which the museum lists as "Greek, about 530 B.C., or modern forgery" because scientific analysis is inconclusive as to whether the marble statue can be dated back to Greek times. If genuine, the Getty kouros is one of only twelve remaining intact kouroi. The Marbury Hall Zeus is a tall marble statue that was recovered from the ruins at Tivoli near Rome.
The "GettyGuide" has detailed information about the items owned by the museum. This is available both at the Museum, at various points known as "GettyGuide stations", and externally on its website.
Minamisanriku, Miyagi
, also spelled Minami Sanriku, is a resort town on the Pacific Coast of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The town has an area of , and as of October 1, 2004 the population of the area was 19,170. The town was created on October 1, 2005, when the towns of Shizugawa and Utatsu merged to form the new town of Minamisanriku.
Minamisanriku was largely destroyed by the Japanese 2011 tsunami, with most buildings swept away by waves of or more. Over half the town's population is missing and almost certainly dead.
95 percent of the town was destroyed by the 2011 Japanese tsunami that followed the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. Only the tallest buildings remain and an estimated 9,500 people are missing, roughly half the population. 9,700 people are confirmed alive and evacuated.
The town had two evacuation centres where residents could go to escape from a tsunami. One was on the southern headland overlooking the town. The other was inland away from the center of the town. Although both were 20 meters above sea level, the tsunami covered them and washed people away. At least 31 of the town's 80 designated evacuation sites were inundated by the tsunami.
One early report suggests that many residents may have evacuated to the nearby city of Tome, Miyagi. According to an English teacher at the local high school located on a hill above the tsunami, "The entire town was simply swept away. It just no longer exists. There were around 7,000 of us on the hill that day. Perhaps a few thousand at the school on the hill opposite. But there are 17,000 in the town. All the others have gone." Since the schools were all on high ground, many children were orphaned. Survivors wrote "SOS" in white lettering, in the playing field of Shizugawa High school.
When the earthquake struck, the mayor of the town, Jin Sato (佐藤仁), was talking at the town assembly. They were discussing the much smaller tsunami caused by the March 9 foreshock before the March 11 earthquake. The three-story building of the town's was covered by the tsunami. Out of the 130 people who worked at the town hall, Sato was one of only 30 who reached the roof. He was one of only 10 who survived. He returned to government affairs, founding the headquarters for disaster control at the Bayside Arena on March 13, 2011.
Shizugawa hospital was one of the few major buildings that survived the tsunami. However, it was partly flooded, and 74 out of 109 patients died. Close to 200 people were rescued from the roof of the building.
Miki Endo (远藤未希), a 25 year old employee of the town's Crisis Management Department, continued to broadcast warnings and alerts over a community loudspeaker system as the tsunami came in. People believe she saved many lives. The three-storey headquarters of the department remained standing but only the steel frame remained. All of the interior and walls were destroyed. After the disaster, Endo was missing and was later found dead. Photos show the roof of the building completely submerged at the height of the tsunami. Some people held onto an antenna on the roof.
The town is the site of the first field hospital established by an outside nation offering assistance following the disaster. A team of five doctors from Israel set up a surgery. A 53 member group of medical personnel from the Home Front Command and the IDF’s Medical Corps opened a field hospital near Minamisanriku on March 29. The clinic included surgical, pediatrics and maternity wards, and an intensive care unit, pharmacy and laboratory along with 62 tons of medical supplies. The clinic began treating patients immediately.