title: Sancerre (wine)

text: Sancerre is part of the "central vineyards" of the Loire Valley, so named not because they are in the center of the Loire but rather because they are nearly in the center of France. Together with neighboring Pouilly-Fumé, the region makes up the easternmost extension of the Loire Valley. The area is more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) from the Atlantic Coast and the Loire region of Muscadet, and is actually closer to the Champagne wine region than it is to the Middle Loire city of Tours and the Vouvray and Chinon AOCs. The distance from the Atlantic gives this region more of a continental climate than typical of the rest of the Loire with short, hot summers and long, cold winters that may extend the threat of frost damage into early spring.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: The most dominating geographical influence of Sancerre is the nearby Loire river which flows northward past the city before it curves westward at Orleans and makes its path to the ocean. Located on the west bank of the river, Sancerre nearly faces the neighbouring wine region of Pouilly-Fumé on the east bank of the river just a few miles upstream towards the south. The region is located north of the city of Nevers and 22 miles (35 kilometers) northeast of Bourges, To the northeast, the Burgundian wine region of Chablis is only 60 miles (97 kilometers) away and shares the same out cropping of chalk soil that extends all the way to the White Cliffs of Dover in England.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: Most vineyards planted on the hills around Sancerre are on south facing slopes at altitudes between 655 and 1,310 feet (200–400 meters). The soils around the area can be roughly classified into three categories. The far western reaches heading towards Menetou-Salon have "white" soils with clay and limestone. Around the village of Chavignol (considered a cru of Sancerre), the soil also includes some Kimmeridgian marl. Wines from these western reaches tend to have more body and power in their flavour profile. Heading closer to the city of Sancerre the soil picks up more gravel mixed with the limestone and tends to produce more light bodied wines with delicate perfumes. The third classification of soil is found around the city of Sancerre itself which includes many deposits of flint (also known as "silex") that add distinctive mineral components. These wines tend to be heavily perfumed with the longest aging potential of Sancerres.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: As a cool continental climate region, one of the main viticultural threats in Sancerre is springtime frost. Throughout most of the growing season, the nearby river Loire to the east and forest to the west help moderate temperatures. Vine growers in the area tend to utilize cordon or single Guyot vine training and tailor their canopy management techniques to whichever style of Sauvignon blanc they are looking to produce. Grassy, herbaceous styles of Sauvignon blanc are more prevalent with large, leafy canopies, while producers wishing to minimize these qualities may need wide, open canopies. In cooler vintages, the growers may need to take the additional measures of leaf plucking and de-budding in order to thin out the canopy and produce more concentrated grapes.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: The age of vine can also contribute to how much grassy character the resultant wine may have as well as how early the grapes are harvested. Many of the phenolic compounds and aroma compounds, such as pyrazine, that contribute to strong grassy flavours are found in the grape skins, eventually breaking down as it goes through its ripening process. Grapes that are harvested before they are physiologically ripe may have more overt grassy notes. How the harvest is conducted will depend on where the vineyards are located. As the steep slopes on which many Sancerre vineyards are planted make mechanical harvesting difficult, many vineyards are picked by hand. However, in the flatter vineyards located more towards the west of the appellation, mechanical harvesting is starting to become more prevalent.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: The focus of Sancerre winemakers is usually to express the pure fruit flavours of Sauvignon blanc and the natural "terroir" of the region with very little adjustments taking place during winemaking. Most Sancerre is produced without malolactic fermentation and little oak influences. However, since the late 20th century more producers have begun experimenting with some degree of oak fermentation or aging. While most of the wines in this area are produced dry, in exceptionally warm and ripe years (such as 1989) some producers have made a late harvest wine. However, these are very rare. And while Sancerre blanc is the most widely produced style, both Sancerre rouge and a dry rosé style wine are also produced with Pinot noir.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: Wine expert Tom Stevenson describes the classic profile of Sancerre blanc as bone dry, highly aromatic with intense flavors of peaches and gooseberries. He describes Sancerre rouge as being light to medium bodied with floral aromas and delicate flavors. The Pinot noir based rosés are described as dry and light bodied with raspberry and strawberry notes. Other wine experts such as Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson note that in recent years overproduction has introduced a lot of variable quality with some Sancerre blancs producing flavor profiles that are not that much different from generic Sauvignon de Touraine from the Middle Loire, though this varies depending on the producer and overall quality of the vintage.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: The styles of Sancerre will vary somewhat depending on what part of the wine region in which the grapes are produced. Around the village of Bué in the western reaches of the AOC, the soils tend to have more clay and produce more full bodied and rounded wines. The village of Chavignol, located to the northwest just outside Sancerre, has light soils that include a mix of limestone and gravel which produce more perfumed wines. Near Ménétréol-sous-Sancerre there is more flint deposits and the wines take on more mineral and steely notes. Within Sancerre the three villages of Bué, Chavignol and Ménétréol-sous-Sancerre (and sometimes Verdigny) have become so widely associated with distinctive and high quality wines that they are often referred to as "crus" even though Sancerre is not officially classified like parts of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Still, restaurants in Sancerre will often specify which wines on their wine list come from which of these three villages, while wine producers also try highlighting bottlings from these vineyards by including the village name on the wine label.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: Sancerre is often compared to neighboring Pouilly-Fumé which also specializes in 100% Sauvignon blanc wines, and while there are some differences, wine experts like Robinson, Johnson and Karen MacNeil note that only very experienced tasters can distinguish the differences in a blind tasting. Broadly speaking, Sancerre tends to have a fuller body with more pronounced aromas, while Pouilly-Fumé wines are more perfumed. However, both wines have naturally high acidity and the potential to exhibit the minerally, flinty notes described as "pierre à fusil" or gunflint, as well as citrus and spicy notes.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: Similarly Sancerre is compared to Sauvignon blancs produced around the globe. According to Master of wine Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Sancerre tends to be less herbaceous and grassy than Sauvignon blancs from New Zealand and the Alto-Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Compared to Sauvignon blanc grown in Bordeaux, which are often blended with Semillon, Sancerre can be both more concentrated with more racy acidity. When contrasted with New World examples from California, Washington, Chile and South Africa, Sancerre tends to exhibit more assertive mineral flavours.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: In 2006, the Sancerre AOC included . The AOC covers the communes of Bannay, Bué, Crézancy, Menetou-Râtel, Ménétréol, Montigny, Saint-Satur, Sainte-Gemme, Sancerre, Sury-en-Vaux, Thauvenay, Veaugues, Verdigny and Vinon. Within the appellation there are several highly regarded vineyards, such as the Clos de la Poussie, Chêne Marchand, and Le Grand Chemarin, but since the mid-1990s local regulations have prohibited producers from making vineyard designated wines in Sancerre. Some producers have attempted to get around this regulation by abbreviating the name of the vineyard as part of a "cuvée" designation such as Jean-Max Roger's bottling of "Sancerre Cuvée GC" from the Le Grand Chemarin vineyard.


title: Sancerre (wine)

text: According to AOC regulations, only Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir are permitted as AOC classified Sancerre wine. While Sauvignon blanc represents the vast majority of the area's production, Pinot noir can account for anywhere from 1/5 to 1/6 of annual production depending on the vintage. The yields of Sancerre blanc are limited to a maximum of 60 hectoliters per hectare while Sancerre rouge and rose are restricted to maximum yields of 55 hl/ha. The minimum alcohol content of Sancerre blanc is 10.5% alcohol per volume while Sancerre rouge and rosé must maintain a minimum alcohol level of 10%. Wines made outside these AOC regulations must be declassified from AOC wines to "vin de pays" table wine such as Vin de Pays du Jardin de France.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: A filibuster (from the Spanish "filibustero"), also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited insurrections across Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that may later be annexed into the United States. Probably the most notable example is the Filibuster War initiated by William Walker in Nicaragua.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Filibusters are irregular soldiers who act without official authorization from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. Unlike mercenaries, filibusters are independently motivated and work for themselves, whilst a mercenary leader operates on behalf of others. The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the United States Congress.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The English term "filibuster" derives from the Spanish , itself deriving originally from the Dutch , 'privateer, pirate, robber' (also the root of English "freebooter"). The Spanish form entered the English language in the 1850s, as applied to military adventurers from the United States then operating in Central America and the Spanish West Indies.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The Spanish term was first applied to persons raiding Spanish colonies and ships in the West Indies, the most famous of whom was Sir Francis Drake with his 1573 raid on Nombre de Dios. With the end of the era of Caribbean piracy in the early 18th century "filibuster" fell out of general currency.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The term was revived in the mid-19th century to describe the actions of adventurers who tried to take control of various Caribbean, Mexican, and Central-American territories by force of arms. In Sonora, Mexico, there were the French Marquis Charles de Pindray and Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon and the Americans Joseph C. Morehead and Henry Alexander Crabb. The three most prominent filibusters of that era were Narciso López and John Quitman in Cuba and William Walker in Baja California, Sonora, Costa Rica and lastly Nicaragua. The term returned to American parlance to refer to López's 1851 Cuban expedition.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Several Americans were involved in freelance military schemes, including Aaron Burr, William Blount (West Florida), Augustus W. Magee (Texas), George Mathews (East Florida), George Rogers Clark (Louisiana and Mississippi), William S. Smith (Venezuela), Ira Allen (Canada), William Walker (Mexico and Nicaragua), William A. Chanler (Cuba and Venezuela) and James Long (Texas). Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish filibuster in Florida, Central, and South America.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Although the American public often enjoyed reading about the thrilling adventures of filibusters, Americans involved in filibustering expeditions were usually in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1794 that made it illegal for a citizen to wage war against another country at peace with the United States. For example, the journalist John L. O'Sullivan, who coined the related phrase "Manifest Destiny", was put on trial for raising money for López's failed filibustering expedition in Cuba.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The Neutrality Act of 1818 became of great frustration for American filibusters. Article 6 stated anyone engaged in filibustering could receive a maximum three years imprisonment and three thousand dollars in fines. However, it was not uncommon for early Republic politicians to "overlook" and sometimes "assist" some filibuster missions in the hopes to add to US territory. This conflict meant the army were reluctant to arrest filibusters who broke the terms of this legislation. Officers were worried that without permission from the US district court to make these arrests, they could face arrest themselves.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: There was widespread support in the press for filibusters' missions. A number of journalists, such as John O'Sullivan, Moses S. Beach at the "New York Sun" and the New Orleans' L. J. Sigur of the "Delta", were sympathetic towards filibusters. All supported Narciso López's Missions to Cuba. John S. Thrasher contributed articles for the annexation of Cuba in New Orleans' Picayune. Some journalists also enlisted to fight for filibustering missions as Richardson Hardy and John McCann did who both worked for the Cincinnati Nonpareil. The poet Theodore O'Hara was a member of William Walker's expedition to Nicaragua. He worked on the Frankfort Yeoman and the Democratic Rally newspapers. After this, he served in the Confederate army in the American Civil War.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The mid-nineteenth century (1848-1860) saw Southern planters raise private armies for expeditions to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to acquire territories that could be annexed to the Union as slave states. Despite not being authorized by their government, Southern elites often held considerable sway over U.S. foreign policy and national politics. Despite widespread opposition from Northerners, filibustering thrust slavery into American foreign policy.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Historians have noted that filibustering was not a common practice and was carried out by "the most radical proslavery expansionists". Hardline defenders of slavery saw its preservation as their "top priority", leading to support for filibusters and their campaigns abroad. Support for filibusters in the U.S. was also driven by a desire to offset British influence in South America. At the height of filibustering, pro-slavery politicians wanted to expand the United States further into Latin America, as far as Paraguay and Peru. However, these attempts were quickly withdrawn when military and diplomatic retaliation was pursued.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Many future Confederate officers and soldiers, such as Chatham Roberdeau Wheat, of the Louisiana Tigers, obtained valuable military experience from filibuster expeditions. The author Horace Bell served as a major with Walker in Nicaragua in 1856. Colonel Parker H. French served as Minister of Hacienda and was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Washington in 1855. However the United States refused to recognized Walker's government as legitimate and President Pierce refused his credentials. Rather than return to Nicaragua French spent several months spending his spoils enjoying a lavish lifestyle that included staying in luxury hotel suites and entertaining the press and politicians with cigars and champagne. Eventually French ran into legal troubles connected to recruiting volunteers for the Walker regime and he hastily returned to Nicaragua in March 1856.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: In the 1850s, American adventurer William Walker launched several filibustering campaigns leading a private mercenary army. In 1853, he declared a short-lived republic in the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Later, when a path through Lake Nicaragua was being considered as the possible site of a canal through Central America (see Nicaragua canal), he was hired as a mercenary by one of the factions in a civil war in Nicaragua. He declared himself commander of the country's army in 1856; and soon afterward President of the Republic. After attempting to take control of the rest of Central America, while receiving no support from the U.S. government, he was defeated by the four other Central American nations he tried to invade and eventually executed in 1860 by the local Honduran authorities he had tried to overthrow.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: In the traditional historiography in both the United States and Latin America, Walker's filibustering represented the high tide of antebellum American imperialism. His brief seizure of Nicaragua in 1855 is typically called a representative expression of Manifest destiny with the added factor of trying to expand slavery into Central America. Historian Michel Gobat, however, presents a strongly revisionist interpretation. He argues that Walker was invited in by Nicaraguan liberals who were trying to force economic modernization and political liberalism, and that thus it was not an attempted projection of American power.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Women often participated in filibustering, taking active roles such as planning, propaganda, participation, and popularization. Women also composed songs, arranged balls and concerts on behalf of the filibusters. Most of the interest came from women in the Gulf and Mid-Atlantic states as they were closer to the events. Correspondingly those in the Northern states tended not to take much interest in what was going on further south. Many women attended the filibuster expeditions as settlers, to help with casualties and to aid the expeditions in any way they could. Many women were at the front line experiencing first hand the armed engagements. A few even took up arms and used them to defend their men and property. Jane McManus Storm Cazneau had an important role in negotiating between filibusters and U.S. politicians. She persuaded Moses S. Beach to promote lectures about William Walker and his group. All of these women embraced the idea of expansionism to spread American slavery in Central and South America. John Quitman's daughter Louisa used anti-Spanish rhetoric as she saw fit in order that the Spanish deserved to be punished for what they had done to Narciso López and his men after they had been taken prisoner.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: Several well-known figures in filibusterism were also freemasons and this organization played a major role within the hierarchy of the filibusters. Narciso López and José Gonzales of the Cuban expedition were both freemasons. Other freemasons who took part in filibustering came from Louisiana and were involved with the 1810 incursion into West Florida. Later in 1836 freemasons were involved in the Texas Revolution. These included Stephen F. Austin, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar and David Crockett among others. Freemasons from New Orleans had helped in planning the conquest of Texas. Several lodges were an important element of the filibusters contributing many men to the cause of expansionism. Part of the masonic emphasis was that members should support their country's freedoms. During the period when Narciso López was planning his expedition to Cuba the Havana Club, founded in 1848 by Cuban freemasons, had endorsed the idea of inviting a filibuster expedition to Cuba in order to overthrow the colonial Spanish and free the island. The flag that López and others designed for their expedition had masonic emblems built into it. These included representations of the mason's triangular apron. The Star of Texas was included to represent the five points of the fellowship of the masons. This flag was adopted as the Cuban national flag fifty-two years after López's failed adventure. Other filibustering freemasons of note included Chatham Roberdeau Wheat and Theodore O'Hara the poet. They came from an extensive network of lodges in the Southern U.S. such as Soloman's Lodge No. 20 in Jacksonville and Marion Lodge No. 19 in Ocala. The reach of the masons was wide and helpful. On arriving at John Hardee Dilworth's estate, Jose Gonzales used freemasonry symbols which prevented him from being arrested as Dilworth was also a mason and had been told by Presidential order to arrest Gonzales.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The Frank Hann letters were a series of hoax letters published in 1895, purported to be written by a "Major F. P. Hann", who claimed to be an American filibuster fighting against the Spanish colonial rule of Cuba. Hann wrote a fake account of his supposed experiences in the Cuban War of Independence, detailing accounts of battles and operations that took place as well as commenting on the political situation within the country.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The real Frank Hann, a twenty-year-old man who lived in Gainesville, Florida, used the pseudonym "Anderfer" in order to release the letters he forged, acting as a medium for the letters written by "Major Hann". He used the hoax to raise his own profile in the U.S. as a war hero, while also attempting to garner support for filibuster missions in Cuba.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: The episode draws attention to the influence of the media and yellow journalism on American sentiment towards foreign affairs during the period.


title: Filibuster (military)

text: William Walker's filibusters are the subject of a poem by Ernesto Cardenal. Other media portrayal of filibustering include: Richard Harding Davis novels, The 1987 film "Walker" by Alex Cox, Joan Didion's "A Book of Common Prayer", Ned Buntline's novels "The B'hoys of New York" and "The Mysteries and Miseries of New Orleans" and Lucy Petway Holcombe's "The Free Flag of Cuba".


title: Mike Ness

text: Michael Daniel Ness (born April 3, 1962) is an American musician who is the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the punk rock band Social Distortion, which was formed in 1978.


title: Mike Ness

text: Ness was born in Lynn, Massachusetts on April 3, 1962. His family relocated to Orange County, California, later that year, and he grew up in Fullerton. As a child, he idolized gangsters such as John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde. At a young age, his parents divorced and he was later kicked out of his father and stepmother's home in Fullerton when he was around 15 or 16 years old for incorrigible behavior.


title: Mike Ness

text: During his early years, Ness was raised on the blues, country and early rock n' roll. As he drifted around Orange County, Ness became involved in the punk rock scene.


title: Mike Ness

text: In the 1980s, Ness was the original renter of the one-bedroom apartment described in The Adolescents song "Kids of the Black Hole". The punk house is located in Fullerton and still exists today.


title: Mike Ness

text: Inspired by The Sex Pistols, Ness founded Social Distortion in 1978 with Casey Royer. He later recruited his high school friend Dennis Danell into the band in 1979, and Ness dropped out of high school at age 17 to focus on his music career. Social Distortion released the "Mainliner/Playpen" 7" record on Robbie Field's indie label Posh Boy Records in 1981. Two years later, they released the album "Mommy's Little Monster" (1983) on 13th Floor Records, which was owned by Monk Rock, their manager at the time.


title: Mike Ness

text: Ness was featured in the independent film "Another State of Mind", which chronicled Social Distortion's first cross-country tour with Youth Brigade. It was on the DVD commentary where he claimed to have never had anything to do with the armed forces or religion. This prompted many fans to consider him an atheist, though some of his lyrics seem to indicate otherwise. Five years passed before Social Distortion released their next album, 1988's "Prison Bound", on the heels of Ness's recovery from drug addiction.


title: Mike Ness

text: Ness performed in the band Easter from 1986 until 1988 and appeared in the music video for the songs "Slipping Away" and "Lights Out". In 1989, Social Distortion signed a deal with Epic Records and released three albums with that label: "Social Distortion" (1990), "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell" (1992) and "White Light, White Heat, White Trash" (1996).


title: Mike Ness

text: The band left Epic Records after "White Light, White Heat, White Trash" (1996) and Ness formed Time Bomb Recordings, releasing "" (a collection of old recordings and singles that were done in the early '80s), a re-issue of the long out of print "Mommy's Little Monster", along with a re-issue of their second album "Prison Bound", and "Live at the Roxy" (1998). Ness married his wife, Christine Marie, in the late 1990s and they have two sons, Julian (born in 1992) and Johnny, Mike's stepson (born 1997).


title: Mike Ness

text: In 1999, Ness released his first solo album, "Cheating at Solitaire". Although some of Social Distortion's songs paid homage to country music artists, "Cheating at Solitaire" was an unalloyed expression of Ness' country influences. "Solitaire" included guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Brian Setzer, Billy Zoom and Josh Freese, as well as members of Royal Crown Revue. Springsteen had touted Social Distortion's "Heaven and Hell" as his favorite record of the year in a "Rolling Stone" interview in 1992.


title: Mike Ness

text: Ness continued in this vein, releasing a compilation of country covers entitled "Under the Influences" that same year. Both albums came out on Time Bomb Recordings. Ness toured extensively in the US in support of these albums, backed by the 2006 partial incarnation of Social Distortion: ex-Plugz and Bob Dylan drummer Charlie Quintana and Brent Harding (upright and electric bass). Ness and the band played at Woodstock '99.


title: Mike Ness

text: Childhood friend and founding member of Social Distortion guitarist Dennis Danell died on February 29, 2000, at 38 due to a brain aneurysm. According to other sources, the Orange County Coroner's Office lists his death as "Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy." Ness was devastated, stating "I am saddened beyond any possible form of expression. Dennis and I have been friends since boyhood, starting Social Distortion together while we were in high school. My deepest regrets to his family."


title: Mike Ness

text: Social Distortion went back to work in June 2000 on the album "Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll". Many of the songs on this new album are dedicated to Danell, such as "Don't Take Me For Granted", "Reach for the Sky" and "Angel's Wings". At an October 2010 concert in New York City Ness dedicated "Don't Take Me For Granted" to Joey Ramone.


title: Mike Ness

text: In 2003, Social Distortion recorded a live DVD called "Live in Orange County" at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California which was released in 2004 along with "Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll", both of which were released on Time Bomb Recordings.


title: Mike Ness

text: These efforts marked the first recordings with a line-up consisting of Ness on guitar and vocals, Wickersham replacing Danell on guitar, and Quintana on drums. It also consisted of a number of songs co-written by Ness and Wickersham. This is the first time Ness collaborated with another songwriter since his 1990 self-titled album, on which he and then bassist John Maurer wrote "So Far Away". The band's lineup changed twice after Maurer left the band, just a month before the release of "Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll".


title: Mike Ness

text: In February 2006, Ness broke his wrist while skateboarding in Las Vegas. He continued to perform vocals on the tour while T.S.O.L. guitarist Ron Emory filled in on guitar until Ness recovered from the injury. On January 18, 2007, former Social Distortion bass player Brent Liles died after being hit by a tractor trailer truck. Ness dedicated a performance at the Anaheim House of Blues to him shortly after.


title: Mike Ness

text: Despite earlier reports that the band would begin recording their next studio album by 2008, Social Distortion took a hiatus from touring and recording, when Ness was on tour with his solo band which is composed of two current members of Social Distortion, Brent Harding and Jonny Wickersham.


title: Mike Ness

text: Also touring with Ness were Chris Lawrence on Telecaster and pedal steel guitar and Dave Raven on drums. In a July 2009 interview with Tarakany! Bad TV, Ness stated that Social Distortion was planning to return to the studio in December of that year or the beginning of 2010 to begin recording their seventh album. The album, now known as "Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes", was finally released on January 18, 2011.


title: Mike Ness

text: On May 17, 2008, Ness and his band were joined on stage by Bruce Springsteen at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey for the encore. Songs played were "Misery Loves Company", "Ball and Chain", "If You Leave Before Me" and "I Fought the Law".


title: Mike Ness

text: On April 16, 2009, Ness joined Springsteen and the E Street Band on stage at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Songs played included Social Distortion's "Bad Luck" and Springsteen's "The Rising". On May 18, 2009, Mike Ness and Social Distortion played a benefit show at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California called "Rock to Recovery" and his son joined him on stage and played lead guitar for the song "Ball and Chain".


title: Mike Ness

text: Ness currently lives in Santa Ana, California, with his wife Christine and two sons. He is an avid collector of vintage ephemera such as Hamburglar toys and hot rods, owning a 1954 Chevrolet and a 1936 Ford. In 2003, he founded Black Kat Kustoms with "long time hot rodder and builder" Don Nemarnik. Black Kat Kustoms is an expression of his love for hot rods, cats, bikes, and counter-culture clothing.


title: Mike Ness

text: In a 2015 interview with Eric Walden, he said in reference to the song "Ball and Chain", "It was basically, 'I've seen God,' I guess if you will — God of my understanding; I'm not a religious guy; I do consider myself a spiritual man."


title: Mike Ness

text: Early in his career, Ness was seen using Gibson SGs and SG Juniors but he currently uses 1970s Gibson Les Paul Deluxes (a 1971 sunburst, a 1975 sunburst, a 1975 goldtop and a 1976 goldtop). His 1976 goldtop is his favorite and most used guitar currently, however his 1971 sunburst was his main guitar for many years, especially through the 1990s. Ness uses Eb Standard tuning and usually uses a capo on the second fret while using his goldtops. He has used Seymour Duncan P-90 pickups in all of his guitars since touring with Neil Young in the early 1990s (Ness recalled seeing Young's guitar tech take the stock mini humbucker pickups out of a Les Paul Deluxe, throw them in the trash and replace them with the P-90s). Ness' goldtops have maple necks which he says contribute to his tone especially when using a capo on the second fret. He also once used a non-reverse Gibson Firebird, as seen on the back cover of Social Distortion's 1983 debut "Mommy's Little Monster", and a white Gibson Les Paul Custom in the videos for "Ball and Chain" and "Story of My Life".


title: Mike Ness

text: In an interview with Guitar.com Ness said: "The guitar that I write on is a 1940 Gibson J-45. I have three of them – I searched high and low for them. I had a 1940 Martin D-18 that I sold last year; I'm just a Gibson guy. I gravitate to the Gibson J-45 every time I write. It's a balladeer's guitar". Ness also plays a 1939 Gibson J-35, that he says "...very rarely leaves the house...".


title: Mike Ness

text: Ness uses Fender Bassman amps modified by Fred Taccone of Divided by 13 through Marshall 4x12 slant cabs with Celestion Greenback speakers. Most of his touring amps were modded by Billy Zoom of the band X fame. Billy's mods include a wattage switch to select between 40, 20 or 10 watts, replacing the bass channel with a higher gain channel. The only effect pedal Ness uses live is an overdrive, previously a Boss SD-1 and currently a Klon Centaur, though he has used various delays in the studio.


title: Hardstyle

text: Hardstyle is an electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and hardcore.


title: Hardstyle

text: Early hardstyle was typically written at 140 BPM ("beats per minute"), however modern hardstyle is faster, produced around 150 BPM. It consisted of overdriven and hard-sounding kick drums, often accompanied by an offbeat bass, known as a "reverse bass". As the genre grew, the production techniques and songwriting changed to be suited to a more commercial audience. Modern hardstyle can be recognized by its use of synthesizer melodies and distorted sounds, coupled with hardstyle's signature combination of percussion and bass. The genre is particularly known for its harmonic use of kickdrums. Due to the sustained nature of a hardstyle kick, producers are able to play basslines by using only the kick itself, which becomes a distinct bass tone through a series of distortion, equalization and layering (among other methods). This technique is known as "pitching" a kick.


title: Hardstyle

text: The genre gained commercial acceptance in the 2010s, with hardstyle artists performing on the biggest stages in EDM worldwide.


title: Hardstyle

text: Hardstyle influenced other styles of electronic dance music such as big room house, which began sharing similarities with hardstyle like structures, rhythms, and later, pitching kicks became popular in big room too. Hardstyle also played a large influence in frenchcore and happy hardcore music, which both became popular in the late 2010s with the hardstyle audience after producers started applying hardstyle production techniques and melodic styles to the genres.


title: Hardstyle

text: The exact origin of hardstyle cannot be specifically defined, however it is clear the characteristic of hardstyle originates from hard trance (notably hard trance's 'reverse bass', and artists such as German Hard Trance DJ, Scot Project) with influence with other genres such as hardcore, this genre is what is now known as early hardstyle. As it progressed, the genre gathered characteristics from other electronic music genres and refined its own sound and identity. Over time, the BPM of hardstyle music increased, from a range of 135 to 150 to a range of 150 to 160. Some hardcore producers brought hardstyle elements back to the hardcore scene, which made modern hardstyle and hardcore very similar and often indistinguishable in some cases, only differing in BPM.


title: Hardstyle

text: The first event credited as a hardstyle event was Qlubtempo, which took place in the year 2000 in Zaandam. Qlubtempo was the first event produced by Q-dance, a Dutch event company which would later go on to produce hardstyle festivals in other countries in Europe, Australia, North America, South America and Asia. In 2001, Q-dance produced the first edition of Qlimax. Q-dance trademarked the term "hardstyle" on the 4th of July, 2002, after both Qlimax and Qlubtempo proved to be successful. Since its inception, Q-dance has guided the evolution of hardstyle music with its events and is often involved with hardstyle artists on a creative level. In 2003, Q-dance hosted the first edition of Defqon.1.


title: Hardstyle

text: The first few years of hardstyle were characterized by a tempo of around 140–150 BPM, a distorted kick drum sound, vocal samples, dissonant synth sounds known as "screetches" and the use of a "reverse bass", a hard kick distorted offbeat bass within the same beat. Around 2002, more hardstyle labels emerged. Fusion Records (with artists as DJ Zany and Donkey Rollers) and Scantraxx (founded by Dov Elkabas) were the two largest Dutch labels Hardstyle labels in that period. At this point in time, hardstyle artists were primarily from either the Netherlands or Italy.


title: Hardstyle

text: From roughly 2010 onwards, the move towards a more melodic emphasis from older hardstyle evolved into the subgenre "euphoric hardstyle", characterized by highly emotional melodies and heavy pitch-shifting of kicks.


title: Hardstyle

text: Since around 2011, more terms to identify developments of hardstyle were introduced. "Rawstyle" is a type of hardstyle influenced from Dutch hardcore or older hardstyle resulting in darker melodies, more dissonant elements and harder kick drums. This genre has notably been made by Wildstylez and Sub Zero Project who also produce Euphoric Hardstyle.


title: Hardstyle

text: Popularized by Sefa and Dr. Peacock in the late 2010s, euphoric frenchcore combines both hardstyle and frenchcore. Euphoric frenchcore uses hardstyle production techniques at faster tempos, ranging between 180 to 220 BPM. The genre caught on quickly after Sefa released his first album in 2018, and it became common for hardstyle artists to close their sets with euphoric frenchcore tracks. That same year, Headhunterz invited Sefa to play on his radioshow, HARD with STYLE. The following years saw multiple euphoric frenchcore performances on the mainstage of Defqon.1, as well as a euphoric frenchcore anthem for the festival in 2019.


title: Hardstyle

text: The trapstyle is a sub-genre of the hardstyle scene linked to the trap which appeared in the mid-2010s. DJ Coone evokes the genre in his remix of "Techno" by Yellow Claw, Diplo and LNY TNZ.


title: Hardstyle

text: In early 2010, a new variation in hardstyle, named dubstyle was introduced. Dubstyle is the name given to the genre fusion of hardstyle and dubstep. Dubstyle tends to have reversed wobble basslines and takes the kick styling of hardstyle tracks, while combining them with the rhythm, groove and dubstep tempo and effects a fusion of elements of hardstyle with a dubstep rhythm, usually a 2-step or a breakstep rhythm. After its initial appearance, dubstyle did not evolve or progress beyond the mid-2010s.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in Williamson County (with a small part in Travis County), which is a part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 as of the 2020 census.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The city straddles the Balcones Escarpment, a fault line in which the areas roughly east of Interstate 35 are flat and characterized by having black, fertile soils of the Blackland Prairie, and the west side of the Escarpment, which consists mostly of hilly, karst-like terrain with little topsoil and higher elevations and which is part of the Texas Hill Country. Located about north of downtown Austin, Round Rock shares a common border with Austin at Texas State Highway 45.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In August 2008, "Money" named Round Rock as the seventh-best American small city in which to live. Round Rock was the only Texas city to make the Top 10. In a CNN article dated July 1, 2009, Round Rock was listed as the second-fastest-growing city in the country, with a population growth of 8.2% in the preceding year.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: According to the 2008 ratings from the Texas Education Agency, the Round Rock Independent School District ranks among the best in the state. Of 42 schools within it, 12 were rated exemplary and 11 were recognized.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock is perhaps best known as the international headquarters of Dell Technologies, which employs about 16,000 people at its Round Rock facilities. The presence of Dell along with other major employers, an economic development program, major retailers such as IKEA, a Premium Outlet Mall, and the mixed-use La Frontera center, have changed Round Rock from a sleepy bedroom community into its own self-contained "super suburb".


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock and Williamson County have been the site of human habitation since at least 9,200 BCE. The area's earliest known inhabitants lived during the late Pleistocene (Ice Age), and are linked to the Clovis culture around 9,200 BCE based on evidence found at the much-studied Gault Site, midway between Georgetown and Fort Hood. One of the most important discoveries in recent times is the ancient skeletal remains dubbed "the Leanderthal Lady" because of its age and proximity to Leander, Texas. The site is west of Round Rock and was discovered by accident by Texas Department of Transportation workers while drilling core samples for a new highway. The site has been studied for many years and samples carbon date to this particular Pleistocene period around 10,500 years ago.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Prehistoric and Archaic period "open occupation" campsites are also found throughout the county along streams and other water sources, including Brushy Creek in Round Rock and the San Gabriel River in Georgetown, north. These archeology dig sites show a much greater volume United States evidence of Archaic period inhabitants based on relics and flint tools recovered from burned rock middens.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The earliest known "historical" Native American occupants, the Tonkawa, were a flint-working, hunting people who followed the buffalo on foot and periodically set fire to the prairie to aid them in their hunts.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: During the 18th century, the Tonkawa made the transition to a horse culture and used firearms to a limited extent. Apparently, small numbers of Kiowa, Yojuane, Tawakoni, and Mayeye Native-Americans lived in the county at the time of the earliest Anglo settlements. After they were crowded out by white settlement, the Comanches raided settlements in the county until the 1860s. In the late 19th century, Native Americans were being pushed out of Central Texas.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: As the area developed into a rural Anglo community, some of the modern paved roads followed the original Native-American pathways. One famous immigration route passed through Round Rock and is called the "Double File Trail" because the path was wide enough for two horsemen to ride side-by-side. It is part of a longer trail from North Texas that crossed the San Gabriel River in Georgetown, Brushy Creek in Round Rock, and the Colorado River in Austin. An elementary school in the Round Rock school district is named for the trail, Double File Trail Elementary School.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In 1851, a small community was formed on the banks of Brushy Creek, near a large round and anvil-shaped rock in the middle of the creek. This round rock marked a convenient low-water crossing for wagons, horses, and cattle. The first postmaster called the community "Brushy", and the creek was called "Brushy Creek", but in 1854, at the suggestion of the postmaster, the small settlement was renamed Round Rock in honor of this now famous rock. After the Civil War, Jesse Chisholm began moving cattle from South Texas through Round Rock on the way to Abilene, Kansas. The route he established, which crossed Brushy Creek at the round rock, became known as the Chisholm Trail. Most of the old buildings, including the old Saint Charles Hotel, have been preserved. This historic area is now called "Old Town".


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Downtown Round Rock was the site of a historic gunfight and subsequent capture (and death) of the 19th-century American train robber Sam Bass, by the Texas Ranger Division on July 19, 1878. The Rangers followed Bass and his gang after they robbed the Fort Worth-to-Cleburne train. Bass was tracked to Round Rock, and as he attempted to flee, Bass was shot and killed in a gun battle by Ranger George Herold and Ranger Sergeant Richard Ware. Sheriff's Deputy A.W. Grimes was killed in the shootout. Near Ware was Soapy Smith, a noted con man, and his cousin Edwin, who witnessed Ware's shot. Soapy exclaimed, "I think you got him." The event is known locally as the "Sam Bass Shootout". This shootout is recreated each year at the July 4 Frontier Days Celebration in Old Settlers Park. Bass is buried in Round Rock Cemetery, northwest of "Old Town" on Sam Bass Road. His original headstone can be found on display at the Round Rock Public Library.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In the first half of the 20th century, the county's wealth came from the cotton fields. Cotton, row crops, grapes, and truck farming were the predominant subsistence east of Interstate 35. West of the Balcones divide, ranchers raised cattle, sheep, and to a lesser extent, goats. Due to Round Rock's favorable geographic location over the rich, fertile "blackland prairie" soils also known locally as the "black waxy" (due to the soil's high clay content), cotton was the largest economic driver at that time. Because of the soil and climate, this ecoregion is ideally suited to crop agriculture. Nearby Taylor, Texas, east of Round Rock, was the primary cotton center where the crop was hauled for ginning (its seeds mechanically removed) at the cotton gin, compressed into bales, and shipped by train. Austin was also a cotton center for a time once the railroad arrived there in the 1870s. Cotton production and cattle raising, on a much smaller scale, continues today, although primarily east of Round Rock.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: To preserve the heritage of the famous crossing, a Chisholm Trail Crossing Park was developed to provide visitors with a simulated scene of Round Rock's historical role in the Chisholm cattle drive. Commemorative plaques in the park tell of the history of Round Rock. The bronze sculptures of four steers and pioneer woman Hattie Cluck and her son, Emmitt, were commissioned by the city through donations from Round Rock residents. The sculptures depict Round Rock's history as a crossing location along the Chisholm Trail. The project plans include 18 to 20 additional bronze statues over time.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Following the end of the American Civil War, a group of Confederate veterans held a reunion in Georgetown on August 27, 1904, for the old settlers of Williamson County and their descendants. The invitation promised "good music, plenty to eat, and above all a warm welcome." The event was well-attended, and reunions—now called Old Settlers Association (OSA) reunions—have been held annually ever since. After the initial one, the event was moved to Round Rock and eventually a structure was built (along with three restored log cabins) in the Palm Valley area of Round Rock, in front of Old Settlers Park, just off Highway 79 in east Round Rock. All members of the organization are descendants of Williamson County residents prior to 1904. OSA has about 50 active members and 300 members in all. The Old Settlers Association today is a social and educational group, with the purpose of facilitating social activities, as well as collecting and preserving important historical information and facts. The facilities are rented for meetings, arts and craft and collectable shows, events, parties, weddings and rehearsal dinners.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In the 1950s, planners of the new Interstate Highway System proposed to route Interstate 35 through Taylor, whose population and cotton industry made it the county's economic powerhouse. Highway Commissioner DeWitt Greer called for the "interregional" highway to go through Taylor on its way from Dallas to Austin, but some Taylor leaders and other citizens fought the idea, worried about the possibility of cutting farmers off from all or part of their fields, traffic noise, damage to country life, loss of farmland, and unwanted right-of-way acquisition—it was proposed to be an astounding wide, unheard of before this time. No one even knew what an "Interregional Highway" would look like, unless they had traveled to Germany to see the Autobahn or the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. Instead, they wanted improvements to the farm-to-market roads and a straight route to Austin.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Meanwhile, Round Rock leaders sought the highway and its potential economic benefits. Mayor Louis Henna lobbied the Highway Commission. In June 1956, the 15-year debate over the form, funding, and route of the Interstate was resolved. Due to the heavy lobbying, and not wanting to antagonize Taylor, the highway was built along the edge of the Balcones Fault line, running through Round Rock. The precise route was not without opposition, however, as the new road cut off "Old Town" to the west from what had become the more recent "downtown" area east of Interstate 35. The Interstate eventually made Round Rock into a viable and vibrant commercial center, while Taylor withered with the decline of the cotton industry. Today, it is a minor, modest town with a smaller population, while Round Rock has thrived and rapidly grown into the largest city in the county, attracting Dell Computer and major retail centers. The transformation of Round Rock is detailed in a book by Linda Scarborough (publisher of the "Williamson County Sun" newspaper) titled "Road, River and Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas County's Path from Farm to Supersuburb" published by Texas State Historical Press.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: By the 1990s, Round Rock was primarily a bedroom community with the majority of its employed residents working in Austin and then returning home after work to places such as Round Rock and Georgetown, where housing and land were less expensive. In the 1990s, Round Rock had few major employers and jobs other than local retail and other services, or ranching and farming. In the late 1990s, though, that began to change as economic development became a major focus of the city and the Chamber of Commerce. Dell Corporation moved its headquarters to Round Rock, which has provided a significant number of jobs with 16,000 employees at its Round Rock headquarters."(See also the Business and economic development section in this article.)"


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock is north of downtown Austin, and south of Georgetown. Its elevation is . According to the US Census Bureau, the city has an area of 26.3 square miles (68.0 km), of which 26.1 square miles (67.7 km) are land and 0.1 square mile (0.3 km) (0.50%) is covered by water. Prior to the 2010 census, the city annexed part of the Brushy Creek CDP, increasing its area to , of which, of it is land and is water.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The climate in this area is characterized by generally hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters. According to the Köppen climate classification, Round Rock has a humid subtropical climate, "Cfa" on climate maps.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 119,468 people, 41,896 households, and 29,962 families residing in the city. The 42,580 housing units had 32,338 owner-occupied homes with a median value of $172,500. Of the 41,896 households, 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.5% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.4% were not families. About 18.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.87, and the average family size was 3.29.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In the city, the age distribution was 31.9% under 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 38.8% from 25 to 44, 16.3% from 45 to 64, and 4.5% who were 65 or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.6 males.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The City of Round Rock has maintained a high quality of life, while becoming a major center for economic growth in Central Texas, with industry clusters in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and computer/software development.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock has more than 20 major employers including: Toppan Photomasks, Sears Customer Care, IKEA, Round Rock Premium Outlets, KoMiCo Technology Inc., Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp, Cintas, Prudential Overall Supply, Dresser, Hospira, TECO-Westinghouse, Cerilliant Corporation, Emerson Process Management, and Dell.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Dell is a multinational computer and information technology corporation based in Round Rock, which develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. The company employs about 11,500 people in the Round Rock facilities, and as of 2017, about 138,000 people worldwide. Dell was originally based in Austin after its initial formation in 1984 as PC's Limited by UT college student Michael Dell. With the need for significant space as it expanded, the City of Round Rock in 1996 offered Dell a "Chapter 380" agreement by offering to split sales tax revenue from in-state sales 50/50 between Dell and the city. A "Chapter 380" agreement is named for the chapter in Vernon's Statutes that permits sales tax revenue sharing for economic development purposes. It was the first time such an agreement had been used in Central Texas and among the first in the state. As of 1999, approximately half of the general fund of the City of Round Rock originates from sales taxes generated from the Dell headquarters. Today the company is one of the largest technology companies in the world, listed as number 38 on the "Fortune 500" (2010). "Fortune" also lists Dell as the #5 most admired company in its industry.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: As part of its clean energy program in 2008, Dell switched the power sources of the Round Rock headquarters to more environmentally friendly ones, with 60% of the power coming from TXU Energy wind farms and 40% coming from the Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy plant operated by Waste Management, Inc.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock's largest commercial and office business center is La Frontera, at the intersection of Loop 1, SH 45, and IH-35. La Frontera combines multitenant offices, company headquarters facilities, of retail, and several apartment complexes and other smaller retail and housing centers. The project also includes Williamson County's largest hotel, the Austin North Marriott, which provides space for large conferences, meetings, and banquets - a first for the county and an important component of Round Rock's economic efforts. The center is also home to the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, and Emerson Process Management. The retail portion is the second-largest outdoor commercial project in the Austin-Round Rock metro area. La Frontera was developed by Bill Smalling and Don Martin, with Fort Worth financier Ed Bass as financial partner.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In 2006, a retail-only hub opened in Round Rock at the corner of IH-35 and Highway 1431 (now renamed "University Boulevard"): The major retailer center includes the Simon Property Group's Premium Outlets Mall, across the street is IKEA as well as numerous other retail stores and restaurants. The project was developed by Simon Property Group, with other portions by Barshop and Oles of Austin.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock is home to the Round Rock Express, a Triple-A Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League, owned by RSR Sports (Nolan Ryan, Don Sanders, Reid Ryan) and was founded by Reid Ryan, son of Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. As of August 2010, Nolan Ryan is also the new owner of the major league Texas Rangers ball club. Home games for the Express are played at the Dell Diamond, a facility that is owned by the City of Round Rock and leased long-term to RSR Sports, which runs and maintains the facility.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock opened a free public skate park in 2007 behind the Clay Madsen Recreation Center on Gattis School Road.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock is the self-proclaimed "Sports Capital of Texas". The city's Old Settlers Park offers a professionally designed disc golf course, cricket, cross country running, twenty-field baseball complex, five-field softball complex, and seven soccer facilities in addition to the Rockin' River Family Aquatic Center.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The 11th annual US Quidditch Cup championship quidditch tournament was hosted in Round Rock in April 2018.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The city of Round Rock is managed through a council-manager form of government. The city council is composed of six city council members and the mayor. The mayor and all council members are elected at large and serve the entire city, not by geographic precincts. The mayor "pro tem" is appointed annually by council members. City Council positions are not full-time jobs. The council appoints a full-time city manager, who manages the daily affairs of the city, and all council meetings are held at 221 E. Main Street, in downtown Round Rock, on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7 pm, unless indicated otherwise. Council meetings are televised.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The Commissioners Court is the overall governing and management body of Williamson County, consisting of five members. The county judge presides as chairman over the court, and is elected every four years by all voters in the county. Four commissioners are elected by single-member precincts every four years. While the majority of Round Rock is within Precinct 1, all four precincts include some portions of the city.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Municipal utility districts, commonly referred to as "MUDs", play a significant role in Round Rock. Each is a special-purpose district that provides public utilities such as water, wastewater, storm water, and sometimes roads, parks, solid waste, and other infrastructure and services to the residents of each district. MUDs are typically formed by a residential developer as a means to install utilities and roads to a project when a city is not ready or able to provide them. The developer gets reimbursed over time from the fees levied by the MUD, and at some point the area may be annexed by the city to bring the development into the city's tax base once the basic infrastructure costs are paid off. The MUD is represented by its own board of directors, who are voted on by the residents of the district, and it has the authority to condemn land, add additional land area, and levy fees in lieu of property taxes to maintain the utilities and other facilities.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Ten MUDs are in Round Rock: Brushy Creek, Fern Bluff, Highlands at Mayfield Ranch, Meadows at Chandler Creek, Paloma Lake, Parkside at Mayfield Ranch, Siena, Teravista, Vista Oaks, and Walsh Ranch. Total population living within these MUDs is 47,648 (2010 city estimate).


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock's largest district is Brushy Creek Municipal Utility District. Brushy Creek MUD was formed as Williamson County Municipal Utility District No. 2 in October 1977 with of land. An annexation in 1983 increased the District to . The district name was changed to Brushy Creek Municipal Utility District in August 1990. The MUD provides a wide range of city-like services including parks and recreation, full utilities, road maintenance and a Home Owner's Association. Services a MUD can offer, however are also limited by law (for example they cannot offer library services).


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Another similar but somewhat smaller MUD in Round Rock's is Fern Bluff Municipal Utility District in the Wyoming Springs area of town. Both MUDs play a significant role in local governance and maintenance of basic utilities.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: From time to time, elections to the boards were contentious and heated debates arose regarding other MUD issues. Round Rock does not often annex a MUD to avoiding having to take on the aging infrastructure replacement and upkeep costs.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock Independent School District, a Texas Education Agency recognized school district, is in southern Williamson County and northwest Travis County, and includes all the City of Round Rock and portions of the cities of Austin and Cedar Park.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The area covers encompassing high-tech manufacturing and urban retail centers, suburban neighborhoods, and farm and ranch land. Roughly 45,00 students attend the district's five high schools, ten middle schools, 32 elementary schools, and two alternative learning centers.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In August 2010, the district opened its fifth high school (Cedar Ridge High School), a ninth-grade center reverted to a middle school, and the district's 31st elementary school opened in the Stone Oak subdivision. "The average student-teacher ratio for the district is 16. The annual dropout rate for students in grades 7–12 is 1.1%, and more than 77% of the district's graduating seniors take the SAT and ACT college entrance exams, scoring well above state and national averages." The property tax rates are significantly higher than the national average, and the schools' performance reflects the tax dollars invested.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In the annual report released July 30, 2010, the Round Rock Independent School District received the highest possible rating ("Exemplary") for 25 of its schools, the highest number so rated in any of the suburban districts in Central Texas. These schools are: Westwood High School. Canyon Vista, Walsh, and Cedar Valley middle schools. Spicewood, Forest North, Caraway, Brushy Creek, Laurel Mountain, Fern Bluff, Canyon Creek, Great Oaks, Teravista, Cactus Ranch, Sommer, Deep Wood, Robertson, Pond Springs, Live Oak, Old Town, Jollyville, Forest Creek, Blackland Prairie, Union Hill and Gattis elementary schools. In 2010, the school district as a whole was rated "academically recognized", a significant step above 2009 when the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock also has a number of higher education opportunities. In 1990, the city, under the leadership of then-City Manager Bob Bennett, planning director Joe Vining, and local citizen Mike Swayze envisioned and oversaw creation of the Texas State University Round Rock Campus (or Round Rock Higher Education Center). The concept was envisioned as a way to lure colleges and universities to jointly provide education, training, and degree opportunities on part-time and full-time bases. The center used various empty facilities around town, and many of the initial training programs were targeted to help educate students for work at local companies, such as Dell, which had specialized needs. In 2008, an educational campus and the first RRC building—the Avery Building—was opened through the combined efforts of Texas State University, Austin Community College, and Temple College in order to provide a broader range of educational opportunities, specialized training, and varying degree programs including post graduate degrees. The campus is in the heart of the emerging Avery Center development which houses Seton Williamson, the A&M Health Science Center and other medical campuses. By the end of 2009 1,700 students were enrolled in the programs. Texas State University has taken on the lead role in this effort and of land for the facility and additional buildings were donated by the Avery family of Round Rock, whose family members were early settlers on the land surrounding the center. Construction on the second Texas State campus building is underway and construction is nearly complete on this additional classroom building. "(See also Texas State University Round Rock Campus)"


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The city is also home to the Texas A&M Health Science Center Round Rock, which opened its doors in December 2010. The campus is designed to eventually accommodate as many as 17 additional buildings over time as money is appropriated each biennium by the Texas Legislature.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In August 2010, Austin Community College's largest campus to date opened adjacent to the Texas State University center. ACC is constructing five additional buildings with a total of to accommodate up to 5,000 students in its first phase. All three campuses are adjacent to each other within the burgeoning Avery Farms development.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: The newest component of higher education is the School of Nursing at Texas State University, housed within the university's College of Health Professions. Other programs offered by the college are health information management, health services research, and physical therapy.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: In November 2006, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) opened the first segment of the region's first toll road system. Both State Highway 130 and State Highway 45 toll roads run through portions of Round Rock and provide greatly increased mobility to the city, albeit with strong regional opposition to the high-toll charges to motorists. State Highway 130 runs just south of Austin Bergstrom International Airport at US Highway 183 and connecting to Interstate 35 north of Georgetown, and passes through the easternmost portion of Round Rock. It provides Round Rock residents with quick access to the Austin airport for about $6 each way. The project, when completed, will end at Interstate 10 just east of Seguin, about east-northeast of San Antonio essentially creating a parallel roadway to Interstate 35.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: State Highway 45 is part of an eventual loop that runs east from State Highway 183 in Cedar Park to 130 at Pflugerville (east of Round Rock) where it merges with the SH 130 toll road, and then intersects with the southern portion of SH 45 near Buda, south of Austin. SH 45 passes through the entire southern portion of Round Rock. Highway 45 provides much faster access between Round Rock and Austin, alleviating what was previously a major bottleneck at Interstate 35. The project includes a tolled extension to Loop 1 (also known locally as the "Mopac Expressway") and allows direct access from to I-35 to Loop 1 by use of flyover connections rather than ground level intersections. The toll roads also provide access to the Dell headquarters and its considerable number of employees. Together, both toll roads significantly improve mobility in Round Rock.


title: Round Rock, Texas

text: Round Rock has a wide array of hospitals and extensive health care services. Many of these facilities serve not only Round Rock, but the greater Williamson county area, as well as North Austin.


title: Surface runoff

text: Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when the soil is saturated by water to its full capacity, and the rain arrives more quickly than the soil can absorb it. Surface runoff often occurs because impervious areas (such as roofs and pavement) do not allow water to soak into the ground. Furthermore, runoff can occur either through natural or man-made processes. Surface runoff is a major component of the water cycle. It is the primary agent of soil erosion by water. The land area producing runoff that drains to a common point is called a drainage basin.


title: Surface runoff

text: Runoff that occurs on the ground surface before reaching a channel can be a nonpoint source of pollution, as it can carry man-made contaminants or natural forms of pollution (such as rotting leaves). Man-made contaminants in runoff include petroleum, pesticides, fertilizers and others.


title: Surface runoff

text: In addition to causing water erosion and pollution, surface runoff in urban areas is a primary cause of urban flooding, which can result in property damage, damp and mold in basements, and street flooding.


title: Surface runoff

text: Surface runoff is defined as precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, or hail) that reaches a surface stream without ever passing below the soil surface. It is distinct from direct runoff, which is runoff that reaches surface streams immediately after rainfall or melting snowfall and excludes runoff generated by the melting of snowpack or glaciers.


title: Surface runoff

text: Snow and glacier melt occur only in areas cold enough for these to form permanently. Typically snowmelt will peak in the spring and glacier melt in the summer, leading to pronounced flow maxima in rivers affected by them. The determining factor of the rate of melting of snow or glaciers is both air temperature and the duration of sunlight. In high mountain regions, streams frequently rise on sunny days and fall on cloudy ones for this reason.


title: Surface runoff

text: In areas where there is no snow, runoff will come from rainfall. However, not all rainfall will produce runoff because storage from soils can absorb light showers. On the extremely ancient soils of Australia and Southern Africa, proteoid roots with their extremely dense networks of root hairs can absorb so much rainwater as to prevent runoff even with substantial amounts of rainfall. In these regions, even on less infertile cracking clay soils, high amounts of rainfall and potential evaporation are needed to generate any surface runoff, leading to specialised adaptations to extremely variable (usually ephemeral) streams.


title: Surface runoff

text: This occurs when the rate of rainfall on a surface exceeds the rate at which water can infiltrate the ground, and any depression storage has already been filled. This is also called Hortonian overland flow (after Robert E. Horton), or unsaturated overland flow. This more commonly occurs in arid and semi-arid regions, where rainfall intensities are high and the soil infiltration capacity is reduced because of surface sealing, or in urban areas where pavements prevent water from infiltrating.


title: Surface runoff

text: When the soil is saturated and the depression storage filled, and rain continues to fall, the rainfall will immediately produce surface runoff. The level of antecedent soil moisture is one factor affecting the time until soil becomes saturated. This runoff is called saturation excess overland flow, saturated overland flow, or Dunne runoff.


title: Surface runoff

text: Soil retains a degree of moisture after a rainfall. This residual water moisture affects the soil's infiltration capacity. During the next rainfall event, the infiltration capacity will cause the soil to be saturated at a different rate. The higher the level of antecedent soil moisture, the more quickly the soil becomes saturated. Once the soil is saturated, runoff occurs. Therefore, surface runoff is a significantly factor in the controlling of soil moisture after medium and low intensity storms.


title: Surface runoff

text: After water infiltrates the soil on an up-slope portion of a hill, the water may flow laterally through the soil, and exfiltrate (flow out of the soil) closer to a channel. This is called subsurface return flow or throughflow.


title: Surface runoff

text: As it flows, the amount of runoff may be reduced in a number of possible ways: a small portion of it may evapotranspire; water may become temporarily stored in microtopographic depressions; and a portion of it may infiltrate as it flows overland. Any remaining surface water eventually flows into a receiving water body such as a river, lake, estuary or ocean.


title: Surface runoff

text: Urbanization increases surface runoff by creating more impervious surfaces such as pavement and buildings that do not allow percolation of the water down through the soil to the aquifer. It is instead forced directly into streams or storm water runoff drains, where erosion and siltation can be major problems, even when flooding is not. Increased runoff reduces groundwater recharge, thus lowering the water table and making droughts worse, especially for agricultural farmers and others who depend on the water wells.


title: Surface runoff

text: When anthropogenic contaminants are dissolved or suspended in runoff, the human impact is expanded to create water pollution. This pollutant load can reach various receiving waters such as streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans with resultant water chemistry changes to these water systems and their related ecosystems.


title: Surface runoff

text: As humans continue to alter the climate through the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, precipitation patterns are expected to change as the atmospheric capacity for water vapor increases. This will have direct consequences on runoff amounts.


title: Surface runoff

text: Surface runoff can cause erosion of the Earth's surface; eroded material may be deposited a considerable distance away. There are four main types of soil erosion by water: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion and gully erosion. Splash erosion is the result of mechanical collision of raindrops with the soil surface: soil particles which are dislodged by the impact then move with the surface runoff. Sheet erosion is the overland transport of sediment by runoff without a well defined channel. Soil surface roughness causes may cause runoff to become concentrated into narrower flow paths: as these incise, the small but well-defined channels which are formed are known as rills. These channels can be as small as one centimeter wide or as large as several meters. If runoff continue to incise and enlarge rills, they may eventually grow to become gullies. Gully erosion can transport large amounts of eroded material in a small time period.


title: Surface runoff

text: Reduced crop productivity usually results from erosion, and these effects are studied in the field of soil conservation. The soil particles carried in runoff vary in size from about .001 millimeter to 1.0 millimeter in diameter. Larger particles settle over short transport distances, whereas small particles can be carried over long distances suspended in the water column. Erosion of silty soils that contain smaller particles generates turbidity and diminishes light transmission, which disrupts aquatic ecosystems.


title: Surface runoff

text: Entire sections of countries have been rendered unproductive by erosion. On the high central plateau of Madagascar, approximately ten percent of that country's land area, virtually the entire landscape is devoid of vegetation, with erosive gully furrows typically in excess of 50 meters deep and one kilometer wide. Shifting cultivation is a farming system which sometimes incorporates the slash and burn method in some regions of the world. Erosion causes loss of the fertile top soil and reduces its fertility and quality of the agricultural produce.


title: Surface runoff

text: Modern industrial farming is another major cause of erosion. Over a third of the U.S. Corn Belt has completely lost its topsoil. Switching to no-till practices would reduce soil erosion from U.S. agricultural fields by more than 70 percent.


title: Surface runoff

text: The principal environmental issues associated with runoff are the impacts to surface water, groundwater and soil through transport of water pollutants to these systems. Ultimately these consequences translate into human health risk, ecosystem disturbance and aesthetic impact to water resources. Some of the contaminants that create the greatest impact to surface waters arising from runoff are petroleum substances, herbicides and fertilizers. Quantitative uptake by surface runoff of pesticides and other contaminants has been studied since the 1960s, and early on contact of pesticides with water was known to enhance phytotoxicity. In the case of surface waters, the impacts translate to water pollution, since the streams and rivers have received runoff carrying various chemicals or sediments. When surface waters are used as potable water supplies, they can be compromised regarding health risks and drinking water aesthetics (that is, odor, color and turbidity effects). Contaminated surface waters risk altering the metabolic processes of the aquatic species that they host; these alterations can lead to death, such as fish kills, or alter the balance of populations present. Other specific impacts are on animal mating, spawning, egg and larvae viability, juvenile survival and plant productivity. Some research shows surface runoff of pesticides, such as DDT, can alter the gender of fish species genetically, which transforms male into female fish.


title: Surface runoff

text: Surface runoff occurring within forests can supply lakes with high loads of mineral nitrogen and phosphorus leading to eutrophication. Runoff waters within coniferous forests are also enriched with humic acids and can lead to humification of water bodies Additionally, high standing and young islands in the tropics and subtropics can undergo high soil erosion rates and also contribute large material fluxes to the coastal ocean. Such land derived runoff of sediment nutrients, carbon, and contaminants can have large impacts on global biogeochemical cycles and marine and coastal ecosystems.


title: Surface runoff

text: In the case of groundwater, the main issue is contamination of drinking water, if the aquifer is abstracted for human use. Regarding soil contamination, runoff waters can have two important pathways of concern. Firstly, runoff water can extract soil contaminants and carry them in the form of water pollution to even more sensitive aquatic habitats. Secondly, runoff can deposit contaminants on pristine soils, creating health or ecological consequences.


title: Surface runoff

text: The other context of agricultural issues involves the transport of agricultural chemicals (nitrates, phosphates, pesticides, herbicides, etc.) via surface runoff. This result occurs when chemical use is excessive or poorly timed with respect to high precipitation. The resulting contaminated runoff represents not only a waste of agricultural chemicals, but also an environmental threat to downstream ecosystems. Pine straws are often used to protect soil from soil erosion and weed growth. However, harvesting these crops may result in the increase of soil erosion.


title: Surface runoff

text: Surface run-off results in a significant amount of economic effects. Pine straws are cost effective ways of dealing with surface run-off. Moreover, Surface run-off can be reused through the growth of elephant mass. In Nigeria, elephant grass is considered to be an economical way in which surface run-off and erosion can be reduced. Also, China has suffered significant impact from surface run-off to most of their economical crops such as vegetables. Therefore, they are known to have implemented a system which reduced loss of nutrients ( nitrogen and phosphorus) in soil.


title: Surface runoff

text: Flooding occurs when a watercourse is unable to convey the quantity of runoff flowing downstream. The frequency with which this occurs is described by a return period. Flooding is a natural process, which maintains ecosystem composition and processes, but it can also be altered by land use changes such as river engineering. Floods can be both beneficial to societies or cause damage. Agriculture along the Nile floodplain took advantage of the seasonal flooding that deposited nutrients beneficial for crops. However, as the number and susceptibility of settlements increase, flooding increasingly becomes a natural hazard. In urban areas, surface runoff is the primary cause of urban flooding, known for its repetitive and costly impact on communities. Adverse impacts span loss of life, property damage, contamination of water supplies, loss of crops, and social dislocation and temporary homelessness. Floods are among the most devastating of natural disasters. The use of supplemental irrigation is also recognized as a significant way in which crops such as maize can retain nitrogen fertilizers in soil, resulting in improvement of crop water availability.


title: Surface runoff

text: Land use controls. Many world regulatory agencies have encouraged research on methods of minimizing total surface runoff by avoiding unnecessary hardscape. Many municipalities have produced guidelines and codes (zoning and related ordinances) for land developers that encourage minimum width sidewalks, use of pavers set in earth for driveways and walkways and other design techniques to allow maximum water infiltration in urban settings. An example of a local program specifying design requirements, construction practices and maintenance requirements for buildings and properties is in Santa Monica, California.


title: Surface runoff

text: Erosion controls have appeared since medieval times when farmers realized the importance of contour farming to protect soil resources. Beginning in the 1950s these agricultural methods became increasingly more sophisticated. In the 1960s some state and local governments began to focus their efforts on mitigation of construction runoff by requiring builders to implement erosion and sediment controls (ESCs). This included such techniques as: use of straw bales and barriers to slow runoff on slopes, installation of silt fences, programming construction for months that have less rainfall and minimizing extent and duration of exposed graded areas. Montgomery County, Maryland implemented the first local government sediment control program in 1965, and this was followed by a statewide program in Maryland in 1970.


title: Surface runoff

text: Flood control programs as early as the first half of the twentieth century became quantitative in predicting peak flows of riverine systems. Progressively strategies have been developed to minimize peak flows and also to reduce channel velocities. Some of the techniques commonly applied are: provision of holding ponds (also called detention basins or balancing lakes) to buffer riverine peak flows, use of energy dissipators in channels to reduce stream velocity and land use controls to minimize runoff.


title: Surface runoff

text: Chemical use and handling. Following enactment of the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976, and later the Water Quality Act of 1987, states and cities have become more vigilant in controlling the containment and storage of toxic chemicals, thus preventing releases and leakage. Methods commonly applied are: requirements for double containment of underground storage tanks, registration of hazardous materials usage, reduction in numbers of allowed pesticides and more stringent regulation of fertilizers and herbicides in landscape maintenance. In many industrial cases, pretreatment of wastes is required, to minimize escape of pollutants into sanitary or stormwater sewers.


title: Surface runoff

text: The U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that local governments in urbanized areas (as defined by the Census Bureau) obtain stormwater discharge permits for their drainage systems. Essentially this means that the locality must operate a stormwater management program for all surface runoff that enters the municipal separate storm sewer system ("MS4"). EPA and state regulations and related publications outline six basic components that each local program must contain:


title: Surface runoff

text: Other property owners which operate storm drain systems similar to municipalities, such as state highway systems, universities, military bases and prisons, are also subject to the MS4 permit requirements.


title: Surface runoff

text: Runoff is analyzed by using mathematical models in combination with various water quality sampling methods. Measurements can be made using continuous automated water quality analysis instruments targeted on pollutants such as specific organic or inorganic chemicals, pH, turbidity etc. or targeted on secondary indicators such as dissolved oxygen. Measurements can also be made in batch form by extracting a single water sample and conducting any number of chemical or physical tests on that sample.


title: Surface runoff

text: In the 1950s or earlier hydrology transport models appeared to calculate quantities of runoff, primarily for flood forecasting. Beginning in the early 1970s computer models were developed to analyze the transport of runoff carrying water pollutants, which considered dissolution rates of various chemicals, infiltration into soils and ultimate pollutant load delivered to receiving waters.


title: Surface runoff

text: One of the earliest models addressing chemical dissolution in runoff and resulting transport was developed in the early 1970s under contract to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This computer model formed the basis of much of the mitigation study that led to strategies for land use and chemical handling controls.


title: Surface runoff

text: Increasingly, stormwater practitioners have recognized the need for Monte Carlo models to simulate stormwater processes because of natural variations in multiple variables that affect the quality and quantity of runoff. The benefit of the Monte Carlo analysis is not to decrease uncertainty in the input statistics, but to represent the different combinations of the variables that determine potential risks of water-quality excursions. One example of this type of stormwater model is the "stochastic empirical loading and dilution model" ("SELDM") is a stormwater quality model. SELDM is designed to transform complex scientific data into meaningful information about the risk of adverse effects of runoff on receiving waters, the potential need for mitigation measures, and the potential effectiveness of such management measures for reducing these risks. SELDM provides a method for rapid assessment of information that is otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain because it models the interactions among hydrologic variables (with different probability distributions) that result in a population of values that represent likely long-term outcomes from runoff processes and the potential effects of different mitigation measures. SELDM also provides the means for rapidly doing sensitivity analyses to determine the potential effects of different input assumptions on the risks for water-quality excursions.


title: Surface runoff

text: Other computer models have been developed (such as the DSSAM Model) that allow surface runoff to be tracked through a river course as reactive water pollutants. In this case the surface runoff may be considered to be a line source of water pollution to the receiving waters.


The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is a central recruitment agency under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India that was started with an aim to encourage the recruitment and placement of young undergraduates, postgraduates and doctorates at the rank of Group 'A' officer, Group 'B' officer, Group 'C' employee and Group 'D' employee in nationalised banks and regional rural banks in India. It also provides standardised systems for assessment and result processing services to organisations.


title: Institute of Banking Personnel Selection

text: After nationalisation of banks in India in 1969, Indian banks needed to expand their branch network across the country so that they were more accessible to their customers. This required more staff but recruitment through methods such as advertising were unsatisfactory. Thus, the banks asked the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) to design a selection testing process through which they could hire proficient candidates. And as a result, a small unit named Personnel Selection Services (PSS) was established to handle these types of projects. A few years later, in 1984, PSS was converted into IBPS.


text: IBPS currently functions as an autonomous body that is mainly engaged in conducting competitive exams for recruitment to clerical and officers' posts in the banking sector.


text: Earlier, candidates had to write multiple exams conducted by each bank for their vacancies. But from 2012, the Recruitment process has been changed. Now IBPS conducts four different recruitment processes namely CRP PO/MT, CRP RRBs, CRP Clerical, CRP Specialist Officers under which various exams take place every year for banking sector recruitment. The exams conducted by IBPS are as follows:


text: IBPS is governed by a board that includes nominees from government organisations such as the Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance, National Institute of Bank Management, Indian Banks' Association and the government owned banks.


text: IBPS offers its services to banks in the government and private sectors, regional rural banks, and foreign banks. It also serves other financial institutions, including co-operative banks, insurance companies, academic institutions, and both private and state-owned companies.


title: Miele

text: Miele ( ; ) is a German manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances and commercial equipment, headquartered in Gütersloh, Ostwestfalen-Lippe. The company was founded in 1899 by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann, and has always been a family-owned and family-run company.


title: Miele

text: Miele's first products were a cream separator, butter churn, and tub washing machine, under the "Meteor" brand. Carl Miele supervised manufacturing personally, and Reinhard Zinkann apprenticed and handled finances and sales.


title: Miele

text: In 1927, Miele started the production of vacuum cleaners. In 1929, the first electric dishwasher in Europe was produced. From 1930, motorcycles were built. In 1932, Miele was the largest centrifuge factory in Europe. During World War II, Miele produced control units for torpedoes of the German Kriegsmarine.


title: Miele

text: The Miele trademark was established with the foundation of Miele & Cie. company, on 1 July 1899, and appeared on all machines, nameplates, printed materials and advertising produced by the company. From the mid-1920s, a recognition feature of the logo has been a sloping dash used as the dot on the "i".


title: Miele

text: The trademark has remained unchanged apart from three minor alterations to reflect contemporary tastes. A survey by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", one of Germany's leading daily newspapers, found that the "i" alone was sufficient to identify the Miele brand.


title: Miele

text: Miele exports products to global markets and is represented in 47 countries. Their expansion into the United States came in 1983, when they established corporate headquarters in Somerset, New Jersey. In 1999, they relocated to the new headquarters in Princeton, which was designed by the Driehaus Prize winner Michael Graves. Most products are made in Germany or Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Romania, there are ten showrooms in the United States.


title: Miele

text: Miele produces domestic appliances including laundry appliances; vacuum cleaners; dishwashers; rotary irons; built-in convection, steam, and speed ovens; hobs (cooker hoods, cook tops); free-standing and built-in refrigerators, freezers, and wine coolers; and coffee systems. The company also produces commercial laundry equipment including wet cleaning machines, lab glassware washers, dental disinfectors, and medical equipment washers.


title: Miele

text: In 2007, Miele was given an award for being the most successful company in Germany that year, beating the previous year's winner Google, which placed second, and Porsche, which came in third.


title: Miele

text: Rankings for this Best Brands prize are the result of market research covering key criteria such as current economic market success and brand recognition and popularity among consumers. Miele was recognized as Best Company and also achieved a top-five place in the category Best Product Brand. Miele was honored as Best Domestic Appliance Brand in the UK by Which? in 2007 and again in 2008, being only one of two brands to win twice in a row. They have since won again in 2010.


title: Miele

text: In North America, Miele is marketed as a high-end major appliance brand. It competes against brands such as Küppersbusch, Sub-Zero, Wolf & Cove, Gaggenau, Fagor, Viking Range, Dacor, Asko, JennAir, and Thermador.


title: Miele

text: Miele's slogan in German is "immer besser", which literally translates to "forever better" but can also mean "always better".


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: Survivor: Vanuatu — Islands of Fire, also known as Survivor: Vanuatu, is the ninth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series "Survivor". The season was filmed from June 28, 2004, through August 5, 2004, and the season premiered on September 16, 2004. Filming took place in Vanuatu, a chain of volcanic islands in the South Pacific. Hosted by Jeff Probst, it consisted of the usual 39 days of gameplay, with 18 competitors for the second time in the series' history.


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: This was the second season to initially divide the tribes by gender following "". Chris Daugherty was named the winner and Sole Survivor after defeating runner-up Twila Tanner by a jury vote of 5–2.


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: The cast is composed of 18 new players, initially divided into two tribes by gender: the male tribe was named Lopevi, after one of Vanuatu's volcanic islands; while the female tribe was named Yasur, after Mount Yasur. It was the first season to feature an amputee (Chad Crittenden, who had lost a foot to cancer) and two openly LGBT+ women (motivational speaker Scout Cloud Lee and former "Playboy" model Ami Cusack). On Day 11, there was a tribal shuffle which ended up moving two people from each tribe over to the other tribe. On Day 20, the tribes were merged with ten contestants remaining; the tribe was named "Alinta", a name proposed by Cloud Lee meaning "people of fire."


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: Outside of "Survivor", John "J.P." Palyok competed on Season 2 of Fox Reality Channel's reality-game show "Solitary". In 2006, Twila Tanner competed with "" castaway Jonny Fairplay on a Reality Star episode of "Fear Factor". Orlins later competed on "The Amazing Race 31" with fellow two-time "Survivor" contestant Corinne Kaplan.


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: The eighteen players were brought into the game at a native gathering, with the natives dividing the group into men and women. The men were clearly favoured at the ceremony, creating animosity between them and the women. After the ceremony, the men were named the Lopevi tribe, and the women the Yasur tribe, and sent to find their camps in the dark. Lopevi lost the first challenge mainly due to Chris, but he created a majority alliance with older tribe members Sarge, Travis, Rory, and Chad, and worked to vote off the younger men. In Yasur, two factions began to emerge, one composed of Julie, Mia, Lisa, and Eliza and the other of Ami, Twila, Scout, and Leann. While both factions lobbied for Dolly's vote, her refusal to commit resulted in her elimination. Both tribes were sent to tribal council on Day 7 as a result of a twist. The older men continued to eliminate the younger ones, and Ami's faction, now in power, voted Mia off. The Yasur tribe continued their dominance over the tribal challenges by winning the next reward and immunity challenges, bringing the men's numbers down to six.


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: A tribal switch occurred on day 11, mixing the two tribes; Rory and Travis were sent to Yasur while Twila and Julie were sent to Lopevi. The first Yasur loss resulted in Travis being eliminated for trying to publicly ask Lopevi to throw the immunity challenge. However, concerned over Lisa's loyalty, Ami arranged for the tribe to eliminate her at the next Tribal Council. At Lopevi, Sarge, Chad, and Chris aligned with Twila and Julie, not trusting John K. as the last young man remaining. He was voted off and the five remaining Lopevi tribe members agreed to stick together after the merge.


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: On Day 19, with six women and four men remaining, the two tribes merged into Alinta. While Rory joined the Lopevi alliance, Julie and Twila broke their word and reformed the women's alliance. The men were quickly targeted over the next three tribal councils, leaving Chris as the sole male. By this time, Ami's core alliance consisted of her, Julie, and Leann, while Twila and Scout had formed a closer pairing and Eliza on the outside. Despite Chris losing immunity, Ami decided to spare him and vote Eliza out instead. However, Twila and Scout took the opportunity to align with Chris and Eliza, creating a new majority alliance and systematically voting out the others.


title: Survivor: Vanuatu

text: Chris won the last two immunity challenges, and ultimately took Twila with him into the final two. The jury saw Chris' ability to effectively stay in the game with the odds against him, from the first challenge to being the last man standing, and voted him the Sole Survivor in a vote of 5–2.