title: Ridge regression

text: The standard approach is ordinary least squares linear regression. However, if no formula_14 satisfies the equation or more than one formula_14 does—that is, the solution is not unique—the problem is said to be ill posed. In such cases, ordinary least squares estimation leads to an overdetermined, or more often an underdetermined system of equations. Most real-world phenomena have the effect of low-pass filters in the forward direction where formula_12 maps formula_14 to formula_13. Therefore, in solving the inverse-problem, the inverse mapping operates as a high-pass filter that has the undesirable tendency of amplifying noise (eigenvalues / singular values are largest in the reverse mapping where they were smallest in the forward mapping). In addition, ordinary least squares implicitly nullifies every element of the reconstructed version of formula_14 that is in the null-space of formula_12, rather than allowing for a model to be used as a prior for formula_14.


title: Ridge regression

text: Ordinary least squares seeks to minimize the sum of squared residuals, which can be compactly written as


title: Ridge regression

text: In order to give preference to a particular solution with desirable properties, a regularization term can be included in this minimization:


title: Ridge regression

text: for some suitably chosen Tikhonov matrix formula_27. In many cases, this matrix is chosen as a scalar multiple of the identity matrix (formula_28), giving preference to solutions with smaller norms; this is known as regularization. In other cases, high-pass operators (e.g., a difference operator or a weighted Fourier operator) may be used to enforce smoothness if the underlying vector is believed to be mostly continuous.


title: Ridge regression

text: This regularization improves the conditioning of the problem, thus enabling a direct numerical solution. An explicit solution, denoted by formula_29, is given by


title: Ridge regression

text: The effect of regularization may be varied by the scale of matrix formula_31. For formula_32 this reduces to the unregularized least-squares solution, provided that (AA) exists.


title: Ridge regression

text: For general multivariate normal distributions for formula_33 and the data error, one can apply a transformation of the variables to reduce to the case above. Equivalently, one can seek an formula_33 to minimize


title: Ridge regression

text: where we have used formula_36 to stand for the weighted norm squared formula_37 (compare with the Mahalanobis distance). In the Bayesian interpretation formula_38 is the inverse covariance matrix of formula_39, formula_40 is the expected value of formula_33, and formula_42 is the inverse covariance matrix of formula_33. The Tikhonov matrix is then given as a factorization of the matrix formula_44 (e.g. the Cholesky factorization) and is considered a whitening filter.


title: Ridge regression

text: This generalized problem has an optimal solution formula_45 which can be written explicitly using the formula


title: Ridge regression

text: In some situations, one can avoid using the transpose formula_48, as proposed by Mikhail Lavrentyev. For example, if formula_12 is symmetric positive definite, i.e. formula_50, so is its inverse formula_51, which can thus be used to set up the weighted norm squared formula_52 in the generalized Tikhonov regularization, leading to minimizing


title: Ridge regression

text: This minimization problem has an optimal solution formula_45 which can be written explicitly using the formula


title: Ridge regression

text: The Lavrentyev regularization, if applicable, is advantageous to the original Tikhonov regularization, since the Lavrentyev matrix formula_58 can be better conditioned, i.e., have a smaller condition number, compared to the Tikhonov matrix formula_59


title: Ridge regression

text: Typically discrete linear ill-conditioned problems result from discretization of integral equations, and one can formulate a Tikhonov regularization in the original infinite-dimensional context. In the above we can interpret formula_12 as a compact operator on Hilbert spaces, and formula_33 and formula_39 as elements in the domain and range of formula_12. The operator formula_64 is then a self-adjoint bounded invertible operator.


title: Ridge regression

text: With formula_28, this least-squares solution can be analyzed in a special way using the singular-value decomposition. Given the singular value decomposition


title: Ridge regression

text: and is zero elsewhere. This demonstrates the effect of the Tikhonov parameter on the condition number of the regularized problem. For the generalized case, a similar representation can be derived using a generalized singular-value decomposition.


title: Ridge regression

text: The optimal regularization parameter formula_75 is usually unknown and often in practical problems is determined by an "ad hoc" method. A possible approach relies on the Bayesian interpretation described below. Other approaches include the discrepancy principle, cross-validation, L-curve method, restricted maximum likelihood and unbiased predictive risk estimator. Grace Wahba proved that the optimal parameter, in the sense of leave-one-out cross-validation minimizes


title: Ridge regression

text: where formula_77 is the residual sum of squares, and formula_78 is the effective number of degrees of freedom.


title: Ridge regression

text: The probabilistic formulation of an inverse problem introduces (when all uncertainties are Gaussian) a covariance matrix formula_82 representing the "a priori" uncertainties on the model parameters, and a covariance matrix formula_83 representing the uncertainties on the observed parameters. In the special case when these two matrices are diagonal and isotropic, formula_84 and formula_85, and, in this case, the equations of inverse theory reduce to the equations above, with formula_86.


title: Ridge regression

text: Although at first the choice of the solution to this regularized problem may look artificial, and indeed the matrix formula_31 seems rather arbitrary, the process can be justified from a Bayesian point of view. Note that for an ill-posed problem one must necessarily introduce some additional assumptions in order to get a unique solution. Statistically, the prior probability distribution of formula_33 is sometimes taken to be a multivariate normal distribution. For simplicity here, the following assumptions are made: the means are zero; their components are independent; the components have the same standard deviation formula_89. The data are also subject to errors, and the errors in formula_39 are also assumed to be independent with zero mean and standard deviation formula_91. Under these assumptions the Tikhonov-regularized solution is the most probable solution given the data and the "a priori" distribution of formula_33, according to Bayes' theorem.


title: Ridge regression

text: If the assumption of normality is replaced by assumptions of homoscedasticity and uncorrelatedness of errors, and if one still assumes zero mean, then the Gauss–Markov theorem entails that the solution is the minimal unbiased linear estimator.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactic acid fermentation is a metabolic process by which glucose or other six-carbon sugars (also, disaccharides of six-carbon sugars, e.g. sucrose or lactose) are converted into cellular energy and the metabolite lactate, which is lactic acid in solution. It is an anaerobic fermentation reaction that occurs in some bacteria and animal cells, such as muscle cells.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: If oxygen is present in the cell, many organisms will bypass fermentation and undergo cellular respiration; however, facultative anaerobic organisms will both ferment and undergo respiration in the presence of oxygen. Sometimes even when oxygen is present and aerobic metabolism is happening in the mitochondria, if pyruvate is building up faster than it can be metabolized, the fermentation will happen anyway.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactate dehydrogenase catalyzes the interconversion of pyruvate and lactate with concomitant interconversion of NADH and NAD.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: In "homolactic fermentation", one molecule of glucose is ultimately converted to two molecules of lactic acid. "Heterolactic fermentation", in contrast, yields carbon dioxide and ethanol in addition to lactic acid, in a process called the phosphoketolase pathway.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Several chemists discovered during the 19th century some fundamental concepts of the domain of organic chemistry. One of them for example was the French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, who was especially interested in fermentation processes, and he passed this fascination to one of his best students, Justus von Liebig. With a difference of some years, each of them described, together with colleagues, the chemical structure of the lactic acid molecule as we know it today. They had a purely chemical understanding of the fermentation process, which means that you can't see it using a microscope, and that it can only be optimized by chemical catalyzers. In 1857, the French chemist Louis Pasteur first described lactic acid as the product of a microbial fermentation. During this time, he worked at the University of Lille, where a local distillery asked him for advice concerning some fermentation problems. Per chance and with the badly equipped laboratory he had at that time, he was able to discover that in this distillery, two fermentations were taking place, a lactic acid one and an alcoholic one, both induced by microorganisms. He then continued the research on these discoveries in Paris, where he also published his theories that presented a stable contradiction to the purely chemical version represented by Liebig and his followers. Even though Pasteur described some concepts that are still accepted today, Liebig refused to accept them. But even Pasteur himself wrote that he was "driven" to a completely new understanding of this chemical phenomenon. Even if Pasteur didn't find every detail of this process, he still discovered the main mechanism of how the microbial lactic acid fermentation works. He was the first to describe fermentation as a "form of life without air."


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Although this chemical process had not been properly described before Pasteur's work, people had been using microbial lactic acid fermentation for food production much earlier. Chemical analysis of archeological finds show that milk fermentation uses predate the historical period; its first applications were probably a part of the Neolithic Revolution. Since milk naturally contains lactic acid bacteria, the discovery of the fermentation process was quite evident, since it happens spontaneously at an adequate temperature. The problem of these first farmers was that fresh milk is nearly indigestible by adults, so they had an interest to discover this mechanism. In fact, lactic acid bacteria contain the needed enzymes to digest lactose, and their populations multiply strongly during the fermentation. Therefore, milk fermented even a short time contains enough enzymes to digest the lactose molecules, after the milk is in the human body, which allows adults to consume it. Even safer was a longer fermentation, which was practiced for cheesemaking. This process was also discovered a very long time ago, which is proven by recipes for cheese production on Cuneiform scripts, the first written documents that exist, and a bit later in Babylonian and Egyptian texts.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: What is interesting is the theory of the competitive advantage of fermented milk products. The idea of this theory is that the women of these first settled farmer clans could shorten the time between two children thanks to the additional lactose uptake from milk consumption. This factor may have given them an important advantage to out-compete the hunter-gatherer societies.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: With the increasing consumption of milk products these societies developed a lactase persistence by epigenetic inheritance, which means that the milk-digesting enzyme lactase was present in their bodies during the whole lifetime, so they could drink unfermented milk as adults too. This early habituation to lactose consumption in the first settler societies can still be observed today in regional differences of this mutation's concentration. It is estimated that about 65% of world population still lacks it. Since these first societies came from regions around eastern Turkey to central Europe, the gene appears more frequently there and in North America, as it was settled by Europeans. It is because of the dominance of this mutation that Western cultures believe it is unusual to have a lactose intolerance, when it is in fact more common than the mutation. On the contrary, lactose intolerance is much more present in Asian countries.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Milk products and their fermentation have had an important influence on some cultures’ development. This is the case in Mongolia, where people often practice a pastoral form of agriculture. The milk that they produce and consume in these cultures is mainly mare milk and has a long tradition. But not every part or product of the fresh milk has the same meaning. For instance, the fattier part on the top, the "deež", is seen as the most valuable part and is therefore often used to honor guests.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Very important with often a traditional meaning as well are fermentation products of mare milk, like for example the slightly-alcoholic yogurt kumis. Consumption of these peaks during cultural festivities such as the Mongolian lunar new year (in spring). The time of this celebration is called the "white month", which indicates that milk products (called "white food" together with starchy vegetables, in comparison to meat products, called "black food") are a central part of this tradition. The purpose of these festivities is to "close" the past year – clean the house or the yurt, honor the animals for having provided their food, and prepare everything for the coming summer season – to be ready to "open" the new year. Consuming white food in this festive context is a way to connect to the past and to a national identity, which is the great Mongolian empire personified by Genghis Khan. During the time of this empire, the fermented mare milk was the drink to honor and thank warriors and leading persons, it was not meant for everybody. Although it eventually became a drink for normal people, it has kept its honorable meaning. Like many other traditions, this one feels the influence of globalization. Other products, like industrial yogurt, coming mainly from China and western countries, have tended to replace it more and more, mainly in urban areas. However, in rural and poorer regions it is still of great importance.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Homofermentative bacteria convert glucose to two molecules of lactate and use this reaction to perform substrate-level phosphorylation to make two molecules of ATP:


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Heterofermentative bacteria produce less lactate and less ATP, but produce several other end products:


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Examples include "Leuconostoc mesenteroides", "Lactobacillus bifermentous", and "Leuconostoc lactis".


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: "Bifidobacterium bifidum" utilizes a lactic acid fermentation pathway that produces more ATP than either homolactic fermentation or heterolactic fermentation:


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Some major bacterial strains identified as being able to ferment lactose are in the genera "Escherichia, Citrobacter, Enterobacter" and "Klebsiella ." All four of these groups fall underneath the family of "Enterobacteriaceae." These four genera are able to be separated from each other by using biochemical testing, and simple biological tests are readily available. Apart from whole-sequence genomics, common tests include H2S production, motility and citrate use, indole, methyl red and Voges-Proskauer tests.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactic acid fermentation is used in many areas of the world to produce foods that cannot be produced through other methods. The most commercially important genus of lactic acid-fermenting bacteria is "Lactobacillus", though other bacteria and even yeast are sometimes used. Two of the most common applications of lactic acid fermentation are in the production of yogurt and sauerkraut.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: In some Asian cuisines, fish is traditionally fermented with rice to produce lactic acid that preserves the fish. Examples of these dishes include burong isda of the Philippines; narezushi of Japan; and pla ra of Thailand. The same process is also used for shrimp in the Philippines in the dish known as balao-balao.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactic acid fermentation is also used in the production of sauerkraut. The main type of bacteria used in the production of sauerkraut is of the genus "Leuconostoc".


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: As in yogurt, when the acidity rises due to lactic acid-fermenting organisms, many other pathogenic microorganisms are killed. The bacteria produce lactic acid, as well as simple alcohols and other hydrocarbons. These may then combine to form esters, contributing to the unique flavor of sauerkraut.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: The main method of producing yogurt is through the lactic acid fermentation of milk with harmless bacteria. The primary bacteria used are typically "Lactobacillus bulgaricus" and "Streptococcus thermophilus", and United States as well as European law requires all yogurts to contain these two cultures (though others may be added as probiotic cultures). These bacteria produce lactic acid in the milk culture, decreasing its pH and causing it to congeal. The bacteria also produce compounds that give yogurt its distinctive flavor. An additional effect of the lowered pH is the incompatibility of the acidic environment with many other types of harmful bacteria.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: For a probiotic yogurt, additional types of bacteria such as "Lactobacillus acidophilus" are also added to the culture.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) already exists as part of the natural flora in most vegetables. Lettuce and cabbage were examined to determine the types of lactic acid bacteria that exist in the leaves. Different types of LAB will produce different types of silage fermentation, which is the fermentation of the leafy foliage. Silage fermentation is an anaerobic reaction that reduces sugars to fermentation byproducts like lactic acid.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactobacillus fermentation and accompanying production of acid provides a protective vaginal microbiome that protects against the proliferation of pathogenic organisms.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: During the 1990s, the lactic acid hypothesis was created to explain why people experienced burning or muscle cramps that occurred during and after intense exercise. A lack of oxygen inside of the muscle cells resulted in lactic acid fermentation. This is due to the cell needing oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor to produce ATP. Without oxygen present, the cells needed to create energy through a different method. Lactic acid, or lactate and H+ were created as a byproduct. This buildup of lactic acid causes a burning sensation inside of the muscle cells, causing leg cramps and discomfort.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Research from 2006 has suggested that acidosis isn't the main cause of muscle cramps, but instead is due to a lack of potassium inside the muscles, leading to contractions of the muscles under high stress. Another change to the lactic acid hypothesis is that when sodium lactate is inside of the body, there is a higher period of exhaustion in the host after a period of exercise.


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: Lactic acid fermentation is important to muscle cell physiology. When muscle cells are undergoing intense activity, like sprinting, they need energy quickly. There is only enough ATP stored in muscles cells to last a few seconds of sprinting. The cells then default to fermenting lactic acid, since they are in an anaerobic environment. Through lactic acid fermentation, muscle cells are able to produce ATP and NAD+ to continue glycolysis, even under strenuous activity. [5]


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: The vaginal environment is heavily influenced by lactic acid producing bacteria. "Lactobacilli" spp. that live in the vaginal canal assist in pH control. If the pH in the vagina becomes too basic, more lactic acid will be produced to lower the pH back to a more acidic level. Lactic acid producing bacteria also act as a protective barrier against possible pathogens such as bacterial vaginosis and vaginitis species, different fungi, and protozoa through the production of hydrogen peroxide, and antibacterial compounds. It is unclear if further use of lactic acid, through fermentation, in the vaginal canal is present [6]


title: Lactic acid fermentation

text: In small amounts, lactic acid is good for the human body by providing energy and substrates while it moves through the cycle. In lactose intolerant people, the fermentation of lactose to lactic acid has been shown in small studies to help lactose intolerant people. The process of fermentation limits the amount of lactose available. With the amount of lactose lowered, there is less build up inside of the body, reducing bloating. Success of lactic fermentation was most evident in yogurt cultures. Further studies are being conducted on other milk produces like acidophilous milk.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County is located in Southwest Florida on the Gulf Coast. As of the 2020 census, the population was 760,822. The county seat is Fort Myers (with a population of 86,395 as of the 2020 census), and the largest city is Cape Coral with an estimated 2020 population of 194,016. The county comprises the Cape Coral–Fort Myers, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County was created in 1887 from Monroe County. Fort Myers is the county seat and a center of tourism in Southwest Florida. It is about south of Tampa at the meeting point of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caloosahatchee River. Lee County is the home for spring training of the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins MLB teams.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The area that is now Lee County has several archaeological sites that show evidence of habitation by peoples belonging to the Caloosahatchee culture (500 AD to 1750 AD). By the time of European contact, the area was more specifically occupied by the Calusa.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: After European contact, fishermen from Cuba and other Spanish colonies set up fishing camps, known as "ranchos", on the southern portion of the Gulf Coast of Florida. These ranchos extended from Charlotte Harbor (estuary) down to San Carlos Bay and the mouth of the Caloosahatchee. These ranchos, likely established in the latter parts of the 1600's, were precursors to the larger European settlements that would be established in the following centuries.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: As the 18th century came to an end, the Calusa who had once inhabited the area were replaced with the Seminole. In particular, in 1799, an Indian agent noted the existence of a Seminole town on the "Cull-oo-saw-hat-che" or Caloosahatchee River.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, a number of settlers moved into Florida, causing conflict with the local Seminole Indians. Fort Myers was built in 1850 as a military fort to fend off Seminole Indians during the Seminole Wars. The fort was named after Col. Abraham C. Myers, who was stationed in Florida for seven years and was the son-in-law of the fort's establisher and commander. In 1858, after years of elusive battle, Chief Billy Bowlegs and his warriors were persuaded to surrender and move west, and the fort was abandoned. Billy's Creek, which flows into the Caloosahatchee River, was named after a temporary camp where Billy Bowlegs and his men awaited ships to take them west.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: In 1863, the fort was reoccupied by federal troops during the Civil War. In 1865, in the Battle of Fort Myers, the fort was attacked by a small group of Confederates. The Union's garrison, led by Captain James Doyle, successfully held the fort and the Confederate forces retreated. After the war, the fort was again deserted. The fort was later disassembled and some of its wood was used to build parts of downtown Fort Myers.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: During the Civil War, Fort Myers was occupied by federal troops with the intention of disrupting the Confederate cattle supply from Florida. In February 1865, it was the site of the Battle of Fort Myers.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The first settlers in Fort Myers arrived in 1866. In the 1870s, Tervio Padilla, a wealthy merchant from the Canary Islands, came by way of Key West to Cayo Costa and established trade with natives and "ranchos" that extended northward to Charlotte Harbor. His ships often made port at Cayo Costa at the entrance to the harbor. Enchanted by the tropical island, he eventually decided to settle there. Padilla prospered until the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, when his fleet was burned and scuttled. He then turned to another means of livelihood – fishing. When the government claimed his land, he was disinclined to set up another ranch, so moved with his wife further down the island and as before, simply homesteaded. The Padilla family is one of the first pioneer families of Lee County and many still reside within the county mainly around the Pine Island area.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: In 1882, the city experienced a significant influx of settlers. In 1885, when Fort Myers was incorporated, its population of 349 residents made it the second-largest city only to Tampa on Florida's west coast south of Cedar Key, even larger than Clearwater and Sarasota, also growing cities at the time.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County was created in 1887 from Monroe County, with Fort Myers serving as the county seat. It was named for Robert E. Lee, Confederate general in the American Civil War.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Fort Myers first became a nationally known winter resort with the opening of the Royal Palm Hotel in 1898, built by New York City department store magnate Hugh O'Neill. Fort Myers was the frequent winter home of Thomas Edison, as well as Henry Ford.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: In 1911, Fort Myers was incorporated as a city. In 1923, Collier and Hendry Counties were created by splitting these areas from Lee County. Construction of the Tamiami Trail Bridge, built across the Caloosahatchee River in 1924, sparked the city's growth. After the bridge's construction, the city experienced its first real estate boom and many subdivisions sprouted around the city. In 1927, a property purchased by the City of Fort Myers was turned into an airport eventually called Page Field.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: During World War II, Page Field served as an advanced fighter training base and home to the several bomber groups. Following the war, a small terminal was built in the mid-1950s as the airport transitioned to commercial use. Another airfield was constructed in 1942 called Buckingham Army Airfield. The base was closed down in 1945, after which the barracks served as classrooms for Edison College until 1948.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Following the end of World War II, the Royal Palm Hotel was closed permanently, and in 1947, the hotel on the corner of First and Fowler was torn down.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County has been the host to several Major League Baseball teams for spring training over the past several decades.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The county received a boost in 1983 when Southwest Florida Regional Airport (now known as Southwest Florida International Airport) opened.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: On August 13, 2004, the county was struck by Hurricane Charley, a category 4 storm, particularly on the northwestern islands of Captiva, Gasparilla, and North Captiva.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall on Lee County as a Category 4 storm, causing major damage to Sanibel, Pine Island, and surrounding areas. Sanibel Causeway partially collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. 55 deaths occurred in Lee County as of October 4.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (35.3%) is water. Rivers and streams include the Caloosahatchee River, the Imperial River, the Estero River, Hendry Creek, and Orange River.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County is on the southwest coast of Florida. It is about south of Tampa, west of Fort Lauderdale via Interstate 75, and roughly west-northwest of Miami via U.S. Highway 41.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County has a year-round warm, monsoon-influenced climate that is close to the boundary between tropical and subtropical climates ( in the coldest month), thus is either classified as a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa"), which is the classification used by NOAA, or a tropical savanna climate (Köppen "Aw"). Lee County has short, warm winters, and long, hot, humid summers, with most of the year's rainfall occurring from June to September. The temperature rarely rises to or lowers to the freezing mark. At 89, Lee County leads the nation in the number of days annually in which a thunderstorm is close enough for thunder to be heard. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from in January to in August, with the annual mean being . Records range from on December 29, 1894 up to on June 16–17, 1981.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 760,822 people, 288,916 households, and 187,877 families residing in the county. 4.6% of that population was under the age of 5 years old, 17.3% was under 18 years old, and 29.2% was 65 years or older. 51.0% was female.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The median household income was $59,608 with a per capita income of $34,818. 10.5% of population below the poverty threshold. The median value of owner-occupied housing-units between 2016-2020 was $235,300 and the median gross rent was $1,225. 94.2% of the households had a computer and 87.2% of households had a broadband internet subscription.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: 89.3% of the population that was 25 years or older were High school graduates and 28.5% of those 25 years or older had a Bachelor's degree or higher.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: As of 2010, 78.99% of residents spoke English as their first language, and 15.19% spoke Spanish, 1.28% French Creole (mostly Haitian Creole,) 0.88% German, 0.59% Portuguese, and 0.55% of the population spoke French as their main language. In total, 21.01% of the population spoke languages other than English as their primary language.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County's stronger economic sectors include construction, retail, leisure, and hospitality. Hertz moved its headquarters from New Jersey to Estero in 2016, the first major corporation to relocate to Lee County.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The Lee County Sheriff’s Office employs civilian dispatchers who provide dispatch for LCSO Deputies, and Florida Southwestern State College Police. The Cape Coral Police Department, Fort Myers Police Department, the Sanibel Police Department, and the Lee County Port Authority Police maintain their own police dispatch centers.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The several colleges in Lee County include: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), Barry University, Nova Southeastern University, Florida SouthWestern State College, Cape Coral Technical College, Fort Myers Technical College, Hodges University, Keiser University, Southern Technical College, and Rasmussen College.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: FGCU is a public university located just south of the Southwest Florida International Airport in South Fort Myers. The university belongs to the 12-campus State University System of Florida. FGCU competes in the ASUN Conference in NCAA Division I sports. The school is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate's, 51 different types of bachelor's, 29 different master's, and six types of doctoral degrees.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The parks are maintained by the county's Parks & Recreation department. The department also maintains spring training facilities for the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Some of the main tourist attractions in Southwest Florida are its beaches. Lee County is home to ten beach parks and an additional seven beach accesses, maintained by Lee County Parks & Recreation.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The Lee County Library System has 13 branches. The towns of Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island, though located in Lee County, maintain their own independent public library entities.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The Lee County Library System currently provides more than 294,000 Lee County residents with over 1.5 million items and materials available for use or patron circulation, as well as an online library materials catalog, free wi-fi, public computer access, scan and print capabilities, and many more patron amenities.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Lee County is represented in the United States House of Representatives by Byron Donalds of the 19th district and by Greg Steube of the 17th district. Unlike most urban counties, Lee County is a Republican stronghold in presidential elections. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the county was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: A small port operation continues in Boca Grande, being used as a way-point for oil distribution. However, Port Boca Grande has been in decline for many years as the shipping industry has moved north, especially to the Port of Tampa.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: In addition, a private enterprise operates a high-speed, passenger-only ferry service between Fort Myers Beach from San Carlos Island and Key West. Another ferry service is offered from Fort Myers to Key West


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Fixed-route bus service is provided by the Lee County Transit Department, operated as "LeeTran". Several routes extend outward from the Downtown Intermodal Transfer Center; in addition, suburb-to-suburb routes are operated, as well as park-and-ride service to and from both Fort Myers Beach and Southwest Florida International Airport.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The Downtown Intermodal Transfer Center in Fort Myers also serves as an intermediate stop on Greyhound Lines bus service.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Arbitron standard radio market: Ft Myers-Naples-Marco Island With an Arbitron-assigned 783,100 listening area population, the metropolitan area ranks 62/299 for the fall of 2006. The metropolitan area is home to 32 radio stations.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: Fort Myers is home to Florida Gulf Coast University. Its teams, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, play in NCAA Division I in the ASUN Conference. The Eagles' men's basketball team had an average attendance of 2,291 in 2013.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The Boston Red Sox hold their annual spring training at JetBlue Park at Fenway South in the Fort Myers area. A cross-town rivalry has developed with the Minnesota Twins, which conduct their spring training at Hammond Stadium in south Lee County, which has a capacity of 7,500 and opened in 1991.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: The Red Sox' lease with Fort Myers runs through 2019, but the Red Sox were considering exercising the early out in their contract that would have allowed them to leave following the 2009 spring season. On October 28, 2008, the Lee County commission voted 3–1 to approve an agreement with the Boston Red Sox to build a new spring-training facility for the team in south Lee County. That stadium, named JetBlue Park at Fenway South, is located off Daniels Parkway near Southwest Florida International Airport. The stadium opened in time for the 2012 season.


title: Lee County, Florida

text: City of Palms Park had been built in 1992 for the Red Sox' spring training. Former Red Sox left fielder Mike Greenwell is from Fort Myers, and was instrumental in bringing his team to the city for spring training. The deal for JetBlue Park left City of Palms Park without a tenant. County officials have discussed the possibility of securing another team for City of Palms. Terry Park Ballfield (also known as the Park T. Pigott Memorial Stadium) in East Fort Myers is also not currently in use by a Major League Baseball team, though it is the former home of the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Kansas City Royals.


title: Hit the Road Jack

text: "Hit the Road Jack" is a song written by the rhythm and blues singer Percy Mayfield and recorded by Ray Charles. The song was a US number 1 hit in 1961, and won a Grammy award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording, becoming one of Charles' signature songs.


title: Hit the Road Jack

text: The song was written by Percy Mayfield, who first recorded in 1960 as an "a cappella" demo sent to music executive Art Rupe. It became famous after it was recorded by the singer-songwriter-pianist Ray Charles, with The Raelettes vocalist Margie Hendrix.


title: Hit the Road Jack

text: Charles's recording hit number one for two weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100, beginning on Monday, October 9, 1961. "Hit the Road Jack" won a Grammy award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording. The song was number one on the R&B Sides chart for five weeks, thereby becoming Charles's sixth number-one on that chart. The song is ranked number 387 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".


title: Hit the Road Jack

text: The vocal sample and lyrics have been used in contemporary music. Both remixes and covers have added a modern context to the original song.


title: Hit the Road Jack

text: In 1976, Canadian band The Stampeders released a version of the song taken from their album "Steamin"' featuring DJ Wolfman Jack. The song reached No. 6 in Canada and No. 40 in the US.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutrition, and product development. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both domesticated and wild, with a wide range of conditions that can affect different species.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Veterinary medicine is widely practiced, both with and without professional supervision. Professional care is most often led by a veterinary physician (also known as a veterinarian, veterinary surgeon, or "vet"), but also by paraveterinary workers, such as veterinary nurses or technicians. This can be augmented by other paraprofessionals with specific specialties, such as animal physiotherapy or dentistry, and species-relevant roles such as farriers.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Veterinary science helps human health through the monitoring and control of zoonotic disease (infectious disease transmitted from nonhuman animals to humans), food safety, and through human applications via medical research. They also help to maintain food supply through livestock health monitoring and treatment, and mental health by keeping pets healthy and long-living. Veterinary scientists often collaborate with epidemiologists and other health or natural scientists, depending on type of work. Ethically, veterinarians are usually obliged to look after animal welfare. Veterinarians diagnose, treat, and help keep animals safe and healthy.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Archeological evidence, in the form of a cow skull upon which trepanation had been performed, shows that people were performing veterinary procedures in the Neolithic (3400–3000 BCE).


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The Egyptian "Papyrus of Kahun" (Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt) is the first extant record of veterinary medicine.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The "Shalihotra Samhita", dating from the time of Ashoka, is an early Indian veterinary treatise. The edicts of Asoka read: "Everywhere King Piyadasi (Asoka) made two kinds of medicine (चिकित्सा) available, medicine for people, and medicine for animals. Where no healing herbs for people and animals were available, he ordered that they be bought and planted."


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The first attempts to organize and regulate the practice of treating animals tended to focus on horses because of their economic significance. In the Middle Ages, farriers combined their work in horseshoeing with the more general task of "horse doctoring".


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The Arabic tradition of "Bayṭara", or "Shiyāt al-Khayl", originates with the treatise of Ibn Akhī Hizām (fl. late ninth century).


title: Veterinary medicine

text: In 1356, the Lord Mayor of London, concerned at the poor standard of care given to horses in the city, requested that all farriers operating within a 7-mile (11-km) radius of the City of London form a "fellowship" to regulate and improve their practices. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Worshipful Company of Farriers in 1674.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Meanwhile, Carlo Ruini's book "Anatomia del Cavallo," ("Anatomy of the Horse") was published in 1598. It was the first comprehensive treatise on the anatomy of a nonhuman species.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The first veterinary school was founded in Lyon, France, in 1762 by Claude Bourgelat. According to Lupton, after observing the devastation being caused by cattle plague to the French herds, Bourgelat devoted his time to seeking out a remedy. This resulted in finding a veterinary school in Lyon in 1761, from which establishment he dispatched students to combat the disease; in a short time, the plague was stayed and the health of stock restored, through the assistance rendered to agriculture by veterinary science and art. The school received immediate international recognition in the 18th century and its pedagogical model drew on the existing fields of human medicine, natural history, and comparative anatomy.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The Odiham Agricultural Society was founded in 1783 in England to promote agriculture and industry, and played an important role in the foundation of the veterinary profession in Britain. A founding member, Thomas Burgess, began to take up the cause of animal welfare and campaign for the more humane treatment of sick animals. A 1785 society meeting resolved to "promote the study of Farriery upon rational scientific principles."


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Physician James Clark wrote a treatise entitled "Prevention of Disease" in which he argued for the professionalization of the veterinary trade, and the establishment of veterinary colleges. This was finally achieved in 1790, through the campaigning of Granville Penn, who persuaded Frenchman Benoit Vial de St. Bel to accept the professorship of the newly established veterinary college in London. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons was established by royal charter in 1844. Veterinary science came of age in the late 19th century, with notable contributions from Sir John McFadyean, credited by many as having been the founder of modern veterinary research.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: In the United States, the first schools were established in the early 19th century in Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia. In 1879, Iowa Agricultural College became the first land-grant college to establish a school of veterinary medicine.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Veterinary care and management are usually led by a veterinary physician (usually called a veterinarian, veterinary surgeon or "vet" - doctor of veterinary medicine or veterinary medical doctor). This role is the equivalent of a physician or surgeon (medical doctor) in human medicine, and involves postgraduate study and qualification.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: In many countries, the local nomenclature for a vet is a protected term, meaning that people without the prerequisite qualifications and/or registration are not able to use the title, and in many cases, the activities that may be undertaken by a vet (such as animal treatment or surgery) are restricted only to those people who are registered as vet. For instance, in the United Kingdom, as in other jurisdictions, animal treatment may be performed only by registered vets (with a few designated exceptions, such as paraveterinary workers), calling oneself a vet without being registered or performing any treatment is illegal.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Most vets work in clinical settings, treating animals directly. They may be involved in a general practice, treating animals of all types; may be specialized in a specific group of animals such as companion animals, livestock, laboratory animals, zoo animals, or horses; or may specialize in a narrow medical discipline such as veterinary surgery, dermatology, cardiology, neurology, laboratory animal medicine, internal medicine, and more.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: As with healthcare professionals, vets face ethical decisions about the care of their patients. Current debates within the profession include the veterinary ethics of purely cosmetic procedures on animals, such as declawing of cats, docking of tails, cropping of ears, and debarking on dogs.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: A wide range of surgeries and operations is performed on various types of animals, but not all of them are carried out by vets. In a case in Iran, for instance, an eye surgeon managed to perform a successful cataract surgery on a rooster for the first time in the world.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Paraveterinary workers, including veterinary nurses, technicians, and assistants, either assist vets in their work, or may work within their own scope of practice, depending on skills and qualifications, including in some cases, performing minor surgery.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The role of paraveterinary workers is less homogeneous globally than that of a vet, and qualification levels, and the associated skill mix, vary widely.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: A number of professions exist within the scope of veterinary medicine, but may not necessarily be performed by vets or veterinary nurses. This includes those performing roles which are also found in human medicine, such as practitioners dealing with musculoskeletal disorders, including osteopaths, chiropractors, and physiotherapists.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Some roles are specific to animals, but which have parallels in human society, such as animal grooming and animal massage. Some roles are specific to a species or group of animals, such as farriers, who are involved in the shoeing of horses, and in many cases have a major role to play in ensuring the medical fitness of horses.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: Veterinary research includes prevention, control, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases of animals, and basic biology, welfare, and care of animals. Veterinary research transcends species boundaries and includes the study of spontaneously occurring and experimentally induced models of both human and animal diseases and research at human-animal interfaces, such as food safety, wildlife and ecosystem health, zoonotic diseases, and public policy.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: As in medicine, randomized controlled trials also are fundamental in veterinary medicine to establish the effectiveness of a treatment. Clinical veterinary research is far behind human medical research, though, with fewer randomized controlled trials, that have a lower quality and are mostly focused on research animals. Possible improvement consists in creation of networks for inclusion of private veterinary practices in randomized controlled trials.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: No studies exist on the effect of community animal health services on improving household wealth and the health status of low-income farmers.


title: Veterinary medicine

text: The first recorded use of regenerative stem-cell therapy to treat lesions in a wild animal occurred in 2011 in Brazil. On that occasion, the used stem cells to treat a maned wolf who had been run over by a car, which was later returned, fully recovered, to nature.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: Thorkell the Tall, also known as Thorkell the High in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (Old Norse: Þorke(ti)ll inn hávi; ; Swedish: "Torkel Höge"; ), was a prominent member of the Jomsviking order and a notable lord. He was a son of the Scanian chieftain Strut-Harald, and a brother of Jarl Sigvaldi, Hemingr and Tófa. Thorkell was the chief commander of the Jomsvikings and the legendary stronghold Jomsborg, on the Island of Wollin. He is also credited as having received the young Cnut the Great into his care and taken Cnut on raids. The "Encomium Emmae," a document aimed at the movers and shakers of the Anglo-Scandinavian court in the early 1040s, describes Thorkell as a great war leader and warrior.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: Thorkell notably partook in a campaign that saw him lead a great Viking army to Kent in 1009, where they proceeded to overrun most of Southern England. This soon culminated in the siege of Canterbury in 1011 and the kidnapping of archbishop Ælfheah, who had previously converted Olaf Tryggvason, and Ælfheah's subsequent murder at Greenwich on 19 April 1012.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: Thorkell is a historical figure, but his career, especially its early part, is steeped in associations with the legendary Jomsvikings. Thorkell took part in the Battle of Hjörungavágr in 986 and in the Battle of Swold in 1000.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: In August 1009, a large Danish army led by Thorkell the Tall landed on the shores of Sandwich. They first marched towards the city of Canterbury but were promptly paid 3000 pounds of silver by the people of Kent to sway the army from attacking. They instead turned towards London and attempted to take the city several times, but were met with heavy resistance and ultimately abandoned their attack.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: On 8 September 1011 the Viking army returned to Canterbury and besieged the city for three weeks, eventually taking it through the treachery of a man named Ælfmaer, whose life had been previously saved by the archbishop of Canterbury, Ælfheah. Thorkell and his men occupied Canterbury and took several hostages of importance, including Ælfheah himself, who was held prisoner for seven months. During the captivity, Ælfheah seems to have taken the opportunity to convert as many of the Vikings as possible to Christianity, prompting tension. The Vikings demanded an extra 3000 pounds of silver for the release of the archbishop, but Ælfheah bravely refused to be ransomed or have his people pay the invaders. As a consequence, Ælfheah was murdered by Thorkell's men during a drunken feast at Greenwich on 19 April 1012: the Vikings pelted him with the bones of cattle before one Viking finished him off with a blow to the back of the head with the butt of an axe. Thorkell was said to have tried his best to prevent the death of the archbishop, offering the attackers everything he possessed to stop the killing, save for his ship. And someone, possibly Thorkell, is said to have carried the corpse to London the day after the murder. Thorkell's army eventually ceased their attacks across Southern England, but only after a large series of danegeld payments were made, eventually culminating to 48,000 pounds of silver.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: Disillusioned by the archbishop's murder, and sensing that he was losing control over his men, Thorkell and several other loyalists defected, taking 45 Viking ships with them. He and his men subsequently entered into the service of the English King Æthelred the Unready as mercenaries, for whom they fought in 1013 against the invasion of Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: It is not entirely clear how Thorkell became part of Cnut's army prior to the Battle of Assandun in 1016, especially considering the former's role in opposing Cnut and his father's invasion of England in 1013 and escorting Æthelred the Unready into exile, but it is assumed that Cnut considered him a valuable asset and powerful ally. Given the Jomsvikings' role in political events in Scandinavia, the possibility exists that Thorkell played a masterminding role in assisting with Sweyn Forkbeard's 1013 invasion and Cnut's re-invasion a few years later. After the death of Edmund Ironside on 30 November 1016, Cnut became king of England and he divided the country into four earldoms – making Thorkell the Jarl of East Anglia.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: In 1021, for unknown reasons, Thorkell is very briefly described as falling out with Cnut, with the former being banished by the king and returning to Denmark. However, Cnut later reconciled with Thorkell in 1023, seemingly aware of the strong connections and influence he had in his home country and that he was too powerful a man to be made an enemy of. As a result, he was granted the earldom of Denmark and given custody of Cnut's son Harthacnut, to whom Thorkell would serve as foster-father. Thorkell's rule was a short one, with Cnut's brother-in-law Ulf the Earl to become Jarl of Denmark a year later. The perceived power vacuum of Thorkell's unexplained absence after 1023 and the commitment of Cnut in England, prompted King Olaf II of Norway and King Anund Jacob of Sweden to launch attacks on the Danish in the Baltic Sea. The Swedish and Norwegian navies led by kings Anund Jacob and Olaf II lay in wait up the river for the navy of King Cnut, which was commanded by Danish earl Ulf Jarl. Now known as the Battle of Helgeå, the decisive victory left Cnut the dominant leader in Scandinavia.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: There is no mention of Thorkell after 1023, and he seems to have disappeared from the historical record. Maybe he was cast out of the kingdom to return to Jomsborg or Scania. Alternatively, he may have died soon after he was made Jarl of Denmark, presumably in 1024. One theory is that he was chased down by an angry mob, another that he was simply too old for any more conflict; the Jomsvikings were known to have men serving in the fighting ranks of age 18 to 50. With no military commands, the final years of his life could have been spent at court or on his estates. He may have died in battle in 1039, a year before his foster son Harthacnut joined Emma of Normandy in Bruges prior to travelling to England and claiming the throne.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: Thorkell, celebrated in his life time by the poets, appears in the Jomsvikinga Saga and on Runestones for his exploits. Thorkell's proven shrewd nature and wisdom were well documented. The sometimes contradictory contemporary literature of the "Encomium Emmae" has Thorkell as being in service of, rather than the threat to, Cnut and Harthacnut's authority. It is known one of Thorkell's sons was a prominent member of Harthacnut's retinue; after the collapse and subsequent death of Harthacnut at the wedding feast of Tovi the Proud in 1042, Thorkell's wife and two sons were expelled from England. This was possibly linked to the intrigue that surrounded Magnus the Good's letter of intention to invade the realm of Edward the Confessor, with the ambition to reunite the kingdoms of what is now described as the North Sea Empire.


title: Thorkell the Tall

text: Thorkell may have married a daughter of Æthelred the Unready called Wulfhild or Edith, who was the widow of Ulfcytel Snillingr. Thorkell had a son who accompanied Cnut back to England in 1023.


title: Gimlet (cocktail)

text: The gimlet () is a cocktail made of gin and lime cordial. A 1928 description of the drink was: gin, and a spot of lime. A description in the 1953 Raymond Chandler novel "The Long Goodbye" stated that "a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else." This is in line with the proportions suggested by "The Savoy Cocktail Book" (1930), which specifies one half gin and one half lime juice. However, modern tastes are less sweet, and generally provide for up to four parts gin to one part lime cordial.


title: Gimlet (cocktail)

text: The derivation of the name of the cocktail is contested. It may be named after the tool for drilling small holes (alluding to its "piercing" effect on the drinker) or after the surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette (1857–1943), who is said to have first added lime cordial to gin to help combat the ravages of scurvy on long voyages.


title: Gimlet (cocktail)

text: The word "gimlet" used in this sense is first attested in 1928. The most obvious derivation is from the tool for drilling small holes, a word also used figuratively to describe something as sharp or piercing. Thus, the cocktail may have been named for its "penetrating" effects on the drinker.


title: Gimlet (cocktail)

text: Another theory is that the drink was named after the British Royal Navy surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette (27 November 1857 – 4 October 1943), who allegedly introduced this drink as a means of inducing his messmates to take lime juice as an anti-scurvy medication. However, neither his obituary notice in the BMJ, "The Times" (6 October 1943) nor his entry in "Who Was Who 1941–1950" mention this association.


title: Gimlet (cocktail)

text: A variant of the cocktail, the vodka gimlet, replaces gin with vodka. The "Schumann's Gimlet" adds lemon juice to the Gin and Rose's Lime. The "Pimmlet" substitutes 2 parts Pimm's No.1 Cup to 1 part London Dry Gin.


title: Gillian Chung

text: Gillian Chung Ka-lai (born Chung Tik-shan, 21 January 1981), known by her stage name Chung Yan-tung, is a Hong Kong actress and singer. She is a member of the Cantopop duo Twins, along with Charlene Choi.


title: Gillian Chung

text: Chung was born in Hong Kong as Chung Tik-shan (). Her father died when she was one year old. When she was two years old, her family believed the character Tik (狄) from her birth name to be too strong and renamed her to Chung Ka-lai ().


title: Gillian Chung

text: She initially grew up in a single parent family until her mother remarried to a man also surnamed Chung, when Chung was in high school. She was given the English name "Gillian" while in high school. Chung graduated from Kowloon True Light Middle School and briefly attended the William Angliss Institute of TAFE in Melbourne, Australia.


title: Gillian Chung

text: In 2000, Chung was contacted by one of the model agencies she worked part-time with when she was in Hong Kong. She was offered a job opportunity by Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG), which she accepted in that year. She became a contracted artist and underwent training before making her debut. She was advised by her manager Mani Fok to adopt the "Chung Yan-tung" () as her stage name, after consulting fortune tellers. The name was supposed to enhance her business skills. On 18 May 2001, the management company assigned her to form a singing duo, Twins, with Charlene Choi. Chung and Choi released their first album three months later.


title: Gillian Chung

text: Chung made her solo-acting film début in "U Man" (2002), and has since proven her acting skills in a number of films such as "Beyond Our Ken" (2004), which earned her critical acclaim as well as a nomination for Best Actress in the Golden Bauhinia Awards. In "Beyond Our Ken", Chung played Chan Wai-ching, a spurned girlfriend of the eponymous Ken. The film had its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival and grossed HK$3,886,355 at the box office.


title: Gillian Chung

text: In January 2006, the film "49 Days" that Chung starred in had exceeded the HK$10 million (US$1.28 million) mark, earning a spot in one of Hong Kong's best box office films for that year.


title: Gillian Chung

text: After withdrawing from public for more than a year following the Edison Chen photo scandal incident and later confessed to having contemplated suicide, Chung apologised for hurting those around her, especially her long-time bandmate Charlene Choi. During the hiatus, she took classes in many areas, such as kung fu (Wing Chun), gymnastics, singing, dancing and acting, which she hoped would serve her professionally. In March 2009 she discussed the scandal on an episode of "Be My Guest", which garnered 679 public complaints for the show. Afterwards she returned to work as spokesperson for TOUGH Jeansmith in the Asia region with a seven-figure pay-check. She flew to Taiwan, Shanghai, and other places for promotion. In July 2009, it was disclosed that she would get a 7-figure sum for the endorsement of botox treatment clinic Dr. Pro. Chung also appeared on stage in an adaptation of Neil Simon's "I Ought to Be in Pictures", produced by Emperor Concerts, part of EEG, for a budget of HK$2 million.


title: Gillian Chung

text: On 13 September 2009, Chung showcased an emotional performance art video at the Harbin Ice Snow World carnival singing competition. The silent video, previously filmed in Hong Kong, was shown at the fair lasting 8 minutes and 43 seconds. The video showed Chung switching from laughing to crying. This attraction drew hundreds of visitors each day. Many audiences thought that Chung used the art expression to reveal her apologetic attitude. However the video was only meant to show how attitudes are expressed through art, according to artist and video creator Jiang Zhi.


title: Gillian Chung

text: On 27 March 2010, Chung released her début solo EP, which was sold as part of the package of Twins' fourth compilation album "Everyone Bounce" (人人彈起). The EP includes six songs, including début solo single "More Hearts" (心多) that was released a year prior to the album release.


title: Gillian Chung

text: On 5 Aug 2022, Chung debuted at 5th place for the third season of "Sisters Who Make Waves" which premiered on May 20, 2022, on Mango TV. Chung decided to join the competition with her long time bandmate Charlene Choi and compete against other 28 female artistes with diverse talents. At the same time, Chung aimed to lose weight and retuning her mindset. Due to 4 months of rigorous dance rehearsals and sheer willpower, Chung succeeded in shedding 20 pounds at the end of the competition.


title: Gillian Chung

text: In 2006 during a concert in Genting Highlands, Malaysia, a reporter surreptitiously photographed Chung nude in the changing room. On 22 August, Hong Kong tabloid magazine "Easy Finder" published the photos as a cover story. Hong Kong celebrities such as Jackie Chan and Andy Lau staged a public protest denouncing the magazine. The Obscene Articles Tribunal classified the published photographs as "indecent". On 1 November, "Easy Finder" lost its appeal against the obscenity ruling, with the appeal panel declaring the article as a "calculated act of selling sexuality which is corrupting and revolting". Jimmy Lai, founder of "Easy Finder"s publisher Next Media, apologized to Chung and offered to return all the negatives.


title: Gillian Chung

text: In January and February 2008, sexually explicit photos of Edison Chen with a number of Hong Kong female celebrities were leaked online. The scandal involved Chung, as well as Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung, amongst others. The pictures tarnished Chung's "squeaky-clean image", and she apologized to the public for being naive and silly. Her subsequent television appearance on "Jade Solid Gold" triggered over 500 complaints to TVB, while the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority received over 1200. Other promotion events were cancelled.


title: Gillian Chung

text: Chung was dropped from performing in the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony by director Zhang Yimou. She was originally set to appear in Chen Kaige's film "Forever Enthralled" and Oliver Stone's "W.", but her scenes were left on the cutting room floor.


title: Gillian Chung

text: In July 2017, Chung met Michael Lai, a Taiwanese gynaecologist, while filming "Tree in the River" in Taiwan and they were in a relationship in October. On 1 February 2018, Chung announced her engagement with Lai on Instagram, with a photo of a diamond ring given by her fiancé. The pair held a wedding ceremony in Los Angeles on 26 May, and one in Hong Kong on 20 December. The couple separated in March 2020.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Postcards from the Edge is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title. The film stars Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Actress Suzanne Vale is a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her acting career and get on with her life after kicking a cocaine-Percodan habit; after Vale overdosed while on a date, her mother admitted her to a rehab center from the emergency room. When she is ready to return to work, her agent advises her the studio's insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual such as her mother Doris Mann. Suzanne is very reluctant to return to the woman from whom she struggled to escape for years after growing up in her shadow. The situation is not helped by the fact that Doris is very loud, competitive, manipulative, self-absorbed and given to offering her daughter unsolicited advice with insinuating value judgments while treating her like a child.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Producer Jack Faulkner runs into Suzanne on the set and reveals that he is the one who drove her to the hospital during her last overdose, and the two kiss. Suzanne then agrees to go out with him. During a passionate first date, he professes intense and eternal love for her and she believes every word is true. Suzanne's euphoria is short-lived, however; she subsequently learns from Evelyn Ames, a bit player in her latest film, that Jack is sleeping with Evelyn as well. Still dressed in the costume she wears as a uniformed cop in the schlock movie, Suzanne drives to Jack's house and confronts him. As their argument escalates, Jack implies that Suzanne was much more interesting when she was trying to function while she was on drugs.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: At home, Suzanne learns from Doris that Suzanne's sleazy business manager Marty Wiener has absconded with all her money. This leads to an argument between the two women, and Suzanne storms out to go to a looping session. There the paternalistic director Lowell Kolchek tells her he has more work for her as long as she can remain clean and sober.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Suzanne arrives home and discovers that Doris has crashed her car into a tree after drinking too much wine (and vodka smoothies). Suzanne rushes to her hospital bedside where the two have a heart-to-heart talk while Suzanne fixes her mother's makeup and arranges a scarf on her head to conceal the fact she bloodied her wig in the accident. Looking and feeling better, Doris musters her courage and faces the media waiting for her. Suzanne runs into Dr. Frankenthal, who had pumped her stomach after her last overdose, and he invites her to see a movie with him. She declines, telling him she's not ready to date yet. Dr. Frankenthal tells her he's willing to wait until she is.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: In the film's closing moments Suzanne performs Shel Silverstein's "I'm Checkin' Out", a foot-stomping country western number, for a scene in Lowell Kolchek's new film.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Fisher said in the DVD commentary that Jerry Orbach filmed a scene as Suzanne's father, which was later cut.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: In discussing adapting the book for the screen, director Mike Nichols commented, "For quite a long time we pushed pieces around, but then we went with the central story of a mother passing the baton to her daughter." He added "Carrie doesn't draw on her life any more than Flaubert did. It's just that his life wasn't so well known."


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Nichols began pre-production in New York, where he assembled a group of actors to run lines from the script in order to perfect it. In return the actors, one of whom was Annette Bening, were given small roles in the movie when it filmed.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Responding to questions about how closely the film's Suzanne/Doris relationship parallels her relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher stated "I wrote about a mother actress and a daughter actress. I'm not shocked that people think it's about me and my mother. It's easier for them to think I have no imagination for language, just a tape recorder with endless batteries." In the DVD commentary she notes that her mother wanted to portray Doris but Nichols cast Shirley MacLaine instead. In her 2013 autobiography, "Unsinkable", Reynolds noted that Nichols told her, "You're not right for the part."


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Blue Rodeo accompanied Meryl Streep on "I'm Checkin' Out", written by Shel Silverstein. Other songs performed in the film include "I'm Still Here" (sung by MacLaine) and "You Don't Know Me" (sung by Streep).


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: The film opened in 1,013 theaters in the United States and Canada on September 14, 1990 and grossed $7,871,856 in its opening weekend, ranking number 1 at the US box office. It eventually grossed $39,071,603 in the US and Canada and $24.3 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $63.4 million.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: The film earned positive reviews from critics and holds an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The critical consensus read, "Uniting a pair of powerhouse talents with a smart, sharply written script, "Postcards from the Edge" makes compelling drama out of reality-inspired trauma". Metacritic gave the movie a score of 71 based on 18 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" said the film "seems to have been a terrifically genial collaboration between the writer and the director, Miss Fisher's tale of odd-ball woe being perfect material for Mr. Nichols's particular ability to discover the humane sensibility within the absurd."


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" observed, "What's disappointing about the movie is that it never really delivers on the subject of recovery from addiction. There are some incomplete, dimly seen, unrealized scenes in the rehab center, and then desultory talk about offscreen AA meetings. But the film is preoccupied with gossip; we're encouraged to wonder how many parallels there are between the Streep and MacLaine characters and their originals, Fisher and Debbie Reynolds... "Postcards from the Edge" contains too much good writing and too many good performances to be a failure, but its heart is not in the right place."


title: Postcards from the Edge (film)

text: Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" said, "Meryl Streep gives the most fully articulated comic performance of her career, the one she's always hinted at and made us hope for." He felt the film's earlier section was "the movie's best, primarily because Nichols is so focused on Streep. In fact, almost nothing else seems to matter to him... But while Nichols is servicing his star, he lets the other areas of the film go slack... [He] is finely attuned to the natural surreality of a movie set, but when he moves away from the show-biz satire and concentrates on the mother-daughter relationship, the movie falters."


title: Cleaning agent

text: Cleaning agents or hard-surface cleaners are substances (usually liquids, powders, sprays, or granules) used to remove dirt, including dust, stains, bad smells, and clutter on surfaces. Purposes of cleaning agents include health, beauty, removing offensive odor, and avoiding the spread of dirt and contaminants to oneself and others. Some cleaning agents can kill bacteria (e.g. door handle bacteria, as well as bacteria on worktops and other metallic surfaces) and clean at the same time. Others, called degreasers, contain organic solvents to help dissolve oils and fats.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Acidic cleaning agents are mainly used for removal of inorganic deposits like scaling. The active ingredients are normally strong mineral acids and chelants. Often, surfactants and corrosion inhibitors are added to the acid.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Hydrochloric acid is a common mineral acid typically used for concrete. Vinegar can also be used to clean hard surfaces and remove calcium deposits that also helps to maintain our environment bacteria free. Sulphuric acid is used in acidic drain cleaners to unblock clogged pipes by dissolving greases, proteins, and even carbohydrate-containing substances such as toilet tissue.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Alkaline cleaning agents contain strong bases like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Bleach (pH 12) and ammonia (pH 11) are common alkaline cleaning agents. Often, dispersants, to prevent redeposition of dissolved dirt, and chelants, to attack rust, are added to the alkaline agent.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Neutral washing agents are pH-neutral and based on non-ionic surfactants that disperse different types.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Scouring agents are mixtures of the usual cleaning chemicals (surfactants, water softeners) as well as abrasive powders. The abrasive powder must be of a uniform particle size.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Particles are usually smaller than 0.05 mm. Pumice, calcium carbonate (limestone, chalk, dolomite), kaolinite, quartz, soapstone or talc are often used as abrasives, i.e. polishing agents.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Special bleaching powders contain compounds that release sodium hypochlorite, the classical household bleaching agent. These precursor agents include trichloroisocyanuric acid and mixtures of sodium hypochlorite (“chlorinated orthophosphate”).


title: Cleaning agent

text: Examples of notable products include: Ajax, Bar Keepers Friend, Bon Ami, Comet, Vim, Zud, and others.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Traditional oven cleaners contain sodium hydroxide (lye), solvents, and other ingredients, and work best when used in a slightly-warm (not hot) oven. If used in a self-cleaning oven, the lye will cause permanent damage to the oven.


title: Cleaning agent

text: New-style oven cleaners are based on ingredients other than lye. These products must be used in a cold oven. Most new-style oven cleaners can be used in self-cleaning ovens.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Oven cleaners are some of the most toxic household cleaning products available on the market. Correct use of an oven cleaner may be reasonably safe, but incorrect use, including breathing fumes, contact with eyes and mucous membranes and swallowing can cause poisoning.


title: Cleaning agent

text: One popular oven cleaner brand in the US is "Easy-Off", sold by Reckitt Benckiser. Popular choices in the UK include "Zep Oven Brite" and "Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner".


title: Cleaning agent

text: All-purpose cleansers contain mixtures of anionic and nonionic surfactants, polymeric phosphates or other sequestering agents, solvents, hydrotropic substances, polymeric compounds, corrosion inhibitors, skin-protective agents, and sometimes perfumes and colorants. Aversive agents, such as denatonium, are occasionally added to cleaning products to discourage animals and small children from consuming them.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Some cleaners contain water-soluble organic solvents like glycol ethers and fatty alcohols, which ease the removal of oil, fat and paint. Disinfectant additives include quaternary ammonium compounds, phenol derivatives, terpene alcohols (pine oil), aldehydes, and aldehyde-amine condensation products.


title: Cleaning agent

text: All-purpose cleaners are usually concentrated solutions of surfactants and water softeners, which enhance the behavior of surfactant in hard water. Typical surfactants are alkylbenzene sulfonates, an anionic detergent, and modified fatty alcohols. A typical water softener is sodium triphosphate.


title: Cleaning agent

text: All-purpose cleansers are effective with most common kinds of dirt. Their dilute solutions are neutral or weakly alkaline, and are safe for use on most surfaces.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Toilet bowl cleaning often is aimed at removal of calcium carbonate deposits, which are attacked by acids. Powdered cleaners contain acids that come in the form of solid salts, such as sodium hydrogen sulfate. Liquid toilet bowl cleaners contain other acids, typically dilute hydrochloric, phosphoric, or formic acids. These convert the calcium carbonate into salts that are soluble in water or are easily rinsed away.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Metal cleaners are used for cleaning stainless steel sinks, faucets, metal trim, silverware, etc. These products contain abrasives (e.g., siliceous chalk, diatomaceous earth, alumina) with a particle size < 20 μm. Fatty alcohol or alkylphenol polyglycol ethers with 7-12 ethylene oxide (EO) units are used as surfactants.


title: Cleaning agent

text: For ferrous metals, the cleaners contain chelating agents, abrasives, and surfactants. These agents include citric and phosphoric acids, which are nonaggressive. Surfactants are usually modified fatty alcohols. Silver cleaning is a specialty since silver is noble but tends to tarnish via formation of black silver sulfide, which is removable via silver-specific complexants such as thiourea.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Stainless steel, nickel, and chromium cleaners contain lactic, citric, or phosphoric acid. A solvent (mineral spirits) may be added.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Nonferrous metal cleaners contain ammonia, ammonium soaps (ammonium oleate, stearate) and chelating agents (ammonium citrate, oxalate).


title: Cleaning agent

text: For special type of precious metals especially those used for luxury watches and high-end jewelry, special type of cleaning agents are usually used to clean and protect them from the Elements. Some examples of these cleaners include jewelry cleaner from Weiman, watch cleaning solution from HOROCD & even cleaning metal plates from Holland Hallmark.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Light duty hard surface cleaners are not intended to handle heavy dirt and grease. Because these products are expected to clean without rinsing and result in a streak-free shine, they contain no salts. Typical window cleaning items consist of alcohols, either ethanol or isopropanol, and surfactants for dissolving grease. Other components include small amounts of ammonia as well as dyes and perfumes.


title: Cleaning agent

text: These are composed of organic, water-miscible solvent such as isopropyl alcohol and an alkaline detergent. Some glass cleaners also contain a fine, mild abrasive. Most glass cleaners are available as sprays or liquid. They are sprayed directly onto windows, mirrors and other glass surfaces or applied on with a soft cloth and rubbed off using a soft, lint-free duster. A glass cloth ideal for the purpose and soft water to which some methylated spirit or vinegar is added which is an inexpensive glass cleaner.


title: Cleaning agent

text: Silverware can be freed of silver sulfide tarnish with thiourea, and either hydrochloric or sulfuric acid.


title: Cleaning agent

text: For acid-resistant building facades, such as brick, acids are typically used. These include mixtures of phosphoric and hydrofluoric acids as well as surfactants. For acid-sensitive facades such as concrete, strongly alkaline cleaners are used such as sodium hydroxide and thickeners. Both types of cleaners require a rinsing and often special care since the solutions are aggressive toward skin.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: Virgin Voyages is a cruise line headquartered in Plantation, Florida and a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Bain Capital.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: As of April 2022, Virgin Voyages has two ships in the fleet, with two more on order, all with an expected capacity of approximately 2,700 passengers each. The first ship, "Scarlet Lady", began sailing August 6 from Portsmouth with UK only itineraries. Scarlet Lady began operating from PortMiami in October 2021, sailing mainly four-to-five night cruises in the Caribbean.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: In 2011, Nirmal Saverimuttu, a Virgin Group executive, and Tom McAlpin, then-CEO of , conceptualized the idea for a cruise line inspired by the Virgin brand housed under the Virgin Group umbrella. Saverimuttu later collaborated with Bain Capital to begin market research and found that there was potential in the cruise industry for a new line to emerge and also identified a large, young demographic yet to experience cruising that could become the brand's target market. Over the next three years, Saverimuttu and McAlpin raised US$700 million from Bain Capital, which had become lead investor, and other institutional and private investors, and also borrowed an additional US$1–1.5 billion. After the financial backing, on December 4, 2014, Virgin Group announced the establishment of Virgin Cruises. The cruise line would be led by Tom McAlpin, who was named president and CEO.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: At time of establishment, Virgin announced the new cruise line's fleet would consist of two ships and its headquarters would be based in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. In July 2015, the Miami-Dade County Commission granted Virgin Voyages approval to berth at PortMiami, and the company's first contract for three cruise ships was finalized on October 18, 2016, the same day that Virgin Cruises rebranded as Virgin Voyages, in an effort to strengthen its marketing aimed at the younger demographic and new cruisers.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: In February 2018, Virgin Voyages debuted its headquarters in Plantation, Florida. In November 2018, Virgin Voyages expanded its commitment to Miami by announcing it would build Terminal V, a new 100,000 square-foot terminal at PortMiami estimated at US$150 million, with a scheduled completion in November 2021, and also sail the cruise line's first two vessels from Miami through 2022. In February 2019, Virgin Voyages announced it would design a new private destination called The Beach Club, located on the Bahamian island of Bimini. The resort would be developed in partnership with Genting Group's Resorts World Bimini and would feature a variety of local cuisine offerings and scheduled activities for guests. In September 2019, Virgin Voyages had been granted a 30-year berthing rights agreement at PortMiami.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: Virgin Voyages' official debut had originally been scheduled for April 1, 2020, with the maiden voyage of "Scarlet Lady", but the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the cruise line's launch, having had to initially postpone the voyage until August 7, 2020, and ultimately, October 16, 2020. The first sailing with paying guests commenced on August 6, 2021 from Portsmouth.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: On June 23, 2015, Virgin announced that it had signed a binding letter of intent with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for the construction of three cruise ships to be delivered in 2020, 2021 and 2022—mid-sized vessels of 110,000 GT each with 1,150 crew, and 1,430 guest cabins capable of hosting a total of more than 2,800 passengers. The final contract for the construction of the ships was signed in October 2016, with the total cost expected to be under US$2 billion. McAlpin explained the ships would be designed differently from existing ships in the market, targeting the "young at heart." The fleet uses a stern design which maximizes “billboard value” visibility of the red Virgin logo, visible up to 2 nautical miles away. A fourth ship was ordered in October 2018 for delivery in 2023.


title: Virgin Voyages

text: In November 2016, Virgin Voyages announced it had partnered with Climeon for its clean energy system to be deployed on its ships to generate energy from the engines' cooling water to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In February 2019, Virgin Voyages also revealed it would ban all single-use plastics from its fleet.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American people. English colonists bought the land on which New Bedford would later be built from the Wampanoag in 1652, and the original colonial settlement that would later become the city was founded by English Quakers in the late 17th century. The town of New Bedford itself was officially incorporated in 1787.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: During the first half of the 19th century, New Bedford was one of the world's most important whaling ports. At its economic height during this period, New Bedford was the wealthiest city in the world per capita. New Bedford was also a center of abolitionism at this time. The city attracted many freed or escaped African-American slaves, including Frederick Douglass, who lived there from 1838 until 1841. The city also served as the primary setting of Herman Melville's 1851 novel, "Moby-Dick". From 1876 to 1900, New Bedford served as the initial home port for the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction, the precursor of the United States Coast Guard Academy.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: At the 2020 U.S. census, New Bedford had a population of 101,079, making it the state's ninth-largest city and the largest of the South Coast region. The city is also known for its high concentration of Portuguese Americans. New Bedford remains known for its fishing fleet and accompanying seafood industry, which as of 2019 generated the highest annual value of any fishing port in the United States. The city is also home to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: Before the 17th century, the lands along the Acushnet River were inhabited by the Wampanoag Native Americans, who had settlements throughout southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Their population is believed to have been about 12,000.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: On May 15, 1602, English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold in the ship "Concord" landed on Cuttyhunk Island while exploring New England. From there, he explored Cape Cod and the neighboring areas, including the site of present-day New Bedford. Gosnold left and settled in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: In 1652, English colonists purchased Old Dartmouth—a region of that is now Dartmouth, Acushnet, New Bedford, Fairhaven, and Westport—in a treaty between the Wampanoag, represented by Chief Ousamequin (Massasoit) and his son Wamsutta, and John Winslow, William Bradford, Myles Standish, Thomas Southworth, and John Cooke. While the Europeans considered themselves full owners of the land through the transaction, the Wampanoag have disputed this claim because the concept of land ownership—in contrast with hunting, fishing, and farming rights—was a foreign concept to them.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: Members of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, were among the early European settlers on the South Coast. They had faced persecution in the Puritan communities of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony; the latter banned the Quakers in 1656–1657. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony annexed the Plymouth Colony in 1691, Quakers already represented a majority of the population of Old Dartmouth. In 1699, with the support of Peleg Slocum, the Quakers built their first meeting house in Old Dartmouth, where the Apponegansett Meeting House is now located.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: At first, the Old Dartmouth territory was devoid of major town centers, and instead had isolated farms and small, decentralized villages, such as Russells' Mills. One reason for this is that the inhabitants enjoyed their independence from the Plymouth Colony and they did not want the Plymouth court to appoint them a minister.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: At this time, the economy primarily ran on agriculture and fishing. The availability of land attracted many Quakers and Baptists from Newport and Portsmouth in Rhode Island, as well as more waves of Puritan migration.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: The rising European population and increasing demand for land led the colonists' relationship with the indigenous inhabitants of New England to deteriorate. European encroachment and disregard for the terms of the Old Dartmouth Purchase led to King Philip's War in 1675. In this conflict, Wampanoag tribesmen, allied with the Narragansett and the Nipmuc, raided Old Dartmouth and other European settlements in the area. Europeans in Old Dartmouth garrisoned in sturdier homes—John Russell's home at Russells Mills, John Cooke's home in Fairhaven, and a third garrison on Palmer Island.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: A section of Old Dartmouth near the west bank of the Acushnet River, originally called Bedford Village, was officially incorporated as the town of New Bedford on February 23, 1787, after the American Revolutionary War. The name was suggested by the Russell family, who were prominent citizens of the community. The Dukes of Bedford, a leading English aristocratic house, also bore the surname Russell. (Bedford, Massachusetts, had been incorporated in 1729; hence "New" Bedford.)


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: The late 18th century was a time of growth for the town. A small whale fishery developed, as well as modest international trade. In the 1760s, between the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, shipwrights, carpenters, mechanics, and blacksmiths, settled around New Bedford harbor, creating a skilled and comprehensive maritime community.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: New Bedford's first newspaper, "The Medley" (also known as the "New Bedford Marine Journal"), was founded in 1792. On June 12, 1792, the town set up its first post office. William Tobey was its first postmaster. The construction of a bridge (originally a toll bridge) between New Bedford and present-day Fairhaven in 1796 also spurred growth. (Fairhaven separated from New Bedford in 1812, forming an independent town that included both present-day Fairhaven and present-day Acushnet.)


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: Nantucket had been the dominant whaling port, though the industry was controlled by a cartel of merchants in Boston, Newport, and Providence. In the 1760s, Nantucket's most prominent whaling families moved to New Bedford, refining their own oil and making their own premium candles.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: The American Revolutionary War completely paralyzed the whaling industry. British forces blockaded American ports and captured or destroyed American commercial ships; they even marched down King's Street in New Bedford (defiantly renamed Union Street after the Revolution) and set businesses on fire.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: Nantucket was even more exposed, and the physical destruction, frozen economy, and import taxes imposed after the war obliterated previous fortunes. New Bedford also had a deeper harbor and was located on the mainland. As a result, New Bedford supplanted Nantucket as the nation's preeminent whaling port, and so began the Golden Age of Whaling. William Rotch (owner of the "Dartmouth" of the Boston Tea Party) and Samuel Rodman were important Quaker businessmen in the whaling industry.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: After the War of 1812's embargo was lifted, New Bedford started amassing a number of colossal, sturdy, square-rigged whaling ships, many of them built at the shipyard of Mattapoisett. The invention of on-board tryworks, a system of massive iron pots over a brick furnace, allowed the whalers to render high quality oil from the blubber. This allowed the whaling ships to go out to sea for as long as four years, processing their catch while at sea. Ships from New Bedford came back to port with barrels of oil, spermaceti, and occasionally ambergris.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: Whaling dominated New Bedford's economy for much of the century, and many families of the city were involved with it as crew and officers of ships. The Quakers remained prominent and influential in New Bedford throughout the whaling era. They brought religious values into their business models, promoting stability as well as prosperity, investing in infrastructure projects such as rail, and employing without discrimination. They established solid social and economic relationships with Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, integrating New Bedford into the urban northeastern economy.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: Ten thousand men worked in the whaling industry. During this period, New Bedford's population increased from approximately 4,000 in 1820 to about 24,000 in 1860. At the height of the whaling industry in 1857, the harbor hosted 329 vessels worth over $12 million, and New Bedford became the richest city per capita in the world.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: On March 18, 1847, the town of New Bedford officially became a city; Abraham Hathaway Howland was elected its first mayor.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: The Quakers of New Bedford applied their principles of egalitarianism and community-building in their businesses. On the boats, at the docks, at the factories, or in the shops—British, Wampanoag, Cape Verdean, Azorean, Irish, and West African hands found work in New Bedford.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: New Bedford also became one of the first fermentation centers of abolitionism in North America, and an important stop on the Underground Railroad. Many people were attracted by New Bedford's relatively open-minded atmosphere. For example, Paul Cuffe—an Ashanti-Wampanoag Quaker and self-made tycoon—among several other remarkable achievements earned black property owners in New Bedford the right to vote decades before Abraham Lincoln even signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Lewis Temple, an African-American blacksmith, invented the Temple toggle iron, which was the most successful harpoon design. Frederick Douglass, the famous social reformer and orator, also found amnesty in New Bedford and worked at the wharf for three years.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: The whaling industry went into decline after the 1859 discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania. Each decade since then saw a gradual decrease in whaling work, activity, and revenue. During the Civil War, the Confederacy engaged in commerce raiding with ships such as the "Alabama", the "Florida", and the "Shenandoah", trying to attack the Yankee whaling industry and sabotage the US economy. Additionally, the US federal government bought several inactive whalers, filled them with stones, sand, and dirt, and towed them to Charleston, South Carolina, where the Union Navy sank what became known as the Stone Fleet in an unsuccessful attempt to blockade the Confederate bay. Along with the poor business and low whale populations, this dealt a potent blow to a failing industry.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: In the midst of this decline, greater New Bedford's economy became more dependent on the textile industry, which began to eclipse the whaling industry in the late 19th century. The mills grew and expanded constantly, eventually comprising multiple sites along the Acushnet River. In 1875 alone, the Wamsutta Mills processed 19,000 bales of cotton into 20 million yards of cloth, which had a wholesale value comparable to that of the entire whaling catch, and continued to produce over 20 million yards of cloth yearly after 1883. The Wamsutta Mills remained the world's largest weaving plant until 1892.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: The textile mills redefined wealth in New Bedford, and gave birth to a prosperity greater than that of the whaling industry. New Bedford, funded by industrial fortunes, developed a thriving art scene. The Mount Washington Glass Company (which later became Pairpoint) crafted works of glass and silver for the newly affluent class, and examples of these works can be seen today on the second floor of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.


title: New Bedford, Massachusetts

text: In the 1920s, local employers came under competitive pressure from new textile factories in the low-wage South. In April 1928 their demand for a 10 percent across the board cut in wages was met was met with strike action. After considerable controversy control of the large-scale work stoppage passed from the Communist-led Textile Mill Committee (TMC) to sundry craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor who agreeing to a 5 percent wage cut ended the strike in October. Wage reductions were not enough to arrest the long-term competitive decline of the local textile industry. However the development of new products has given Wamsutta an extended lease and it remains a household name for fabrics.