title: Singer-songwriter

text: Despite the communist isolation, the tradition of the singer-songwriter in Romania flourished beginning with the end of the 1960s and it was put in the context of folk music, with its three main styles in Romania: ethno folk, American-style folk and lyrical (cult) folk. The framework for many of these initiatives came under the form of Cenaclul Flacăra, a series of mass cultural events with an inevitable ideological touch. Still, with the merit of supporting great opening initiatives: the appropriation of Western artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others from the Woodstock generation, the public performance of gospel-like music, the opening to big international issues (pop culture, accountability of the leadership, tension surging during the Cold War-with surprisingly neutral positions etc.).


title: Singer-songwriter

text: Overall, the Romanian folk, in general, could be marked as an underground cultural movement, somewhere between non-aligned and protest music.


title: Singer-songwriter

text: Rooted in the European Bänkelsang ("bench-singing") and Moritat traditions while also taking immediate inspiration from the French chanson scene and the American folk music revival, the 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of a whole generation of German-language singer-songwriters called Liedermacher ("songmakers"), among them Hannes Wader, Franz Josef Degenhardt, Reinhard Mey and Konstantin Wecker from West Germany, Wolf Biermann from East Germany as well as Ludwig Hirsch and Georg Danzer from Austria. With regards to content and style, the Liedermacher spectrum ranges from political balladeering to rather observational storytelling and love songs. The lyrics often deal with topics such as social injustice, militarism, consumerism, environmental issues or the repercussions of the German Nazi past, often expressing technoskepticism and anti-establishment views.


title: Singer-songwriter

text: In the mid-1960s, Sweden witnessed the renaissance of the "trubadur", the Swedish version of the singer-songwriter. Cornelis Vreeswijk and Fred Åkerström were particularly influential in their efforts to blend the heritage of the "visa" (a specific way to render simple stanzaic poems or songs, given distinction by artists such as Carl Michael Bellman and Evert Taube) with modern approaches to balladeering.


title: Singer-songwriter

text: Ede Staal (Warffum) (1941–1986), was a Dutch singer-songwriter from the Northern province of Groningen who sang mainly in the Groninger dialect of Dutch.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) is a blood product made from the liquid portion of whole blood. It is used to treat conditions in which there are low blood clotting factors (INR > 1.5) or low levels of other blood proteins. It may also be used as the replacement fluid in plasma exchange. Using ABO compatible plasma, while not required, may be recommended. Use as a volume expander is not recommended. It is given by slow injection into a vein.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Side effects include nausea and itchiness. Rarely there may be allergic reactions, blood clots, or infections. It is unclear if use during pregnancy or breastfeeding is safe for the baby. Greater care should be taken in people with protein S deficiency, IgA deficiency, or heart failure. Fresh frozen plasma is made up of a complex mixture of water, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins. When frozen it lasts about a year.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Plasma first came into medical use during the Second World War. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In the United Kingdom it costs about £30 per unit. A number of other versions also exist including plasma frozen within 24 hours after phlebotomy, cryoprecipitate reduced plasma, thawed plasma, and solvent detergent plasma.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: In the United States it refers to the fluid portion of one unit of whole blood that has been centrifuged, separated, and frozen solid at or colder within eight hours of collection from whole blood donation or was otherwise collected via apheresis device. The phrase "FFP" is often used to mean any transfused plasma product. The other commonly transfused plasma, plasma frozen within 24 hours after phlebotomy (PF24), has similar indications as those for FFP. PF24 has slightly lower levels of Factors V and VIII than FFP. PF24 is more commonly used than FFP in the United States.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: There are few specific indications for FFP. These generally are limited to the treatment of deficiencies of coagulation proteins for which specific factor concentrates are unavailable or undesirable. A usual dose of plasma is 10–20 mL/kg recipient weight.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: FFP is not recommended unless there is ongoing bleeding or there is a significant blood clotting problem. That is, FFP is not used in people to reverse warfarin if there is no bleeding, even for an INR > 9 unless they need urgent surgery. It is also not used in elective surgery, or non-emergency surgery.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Thawed plasma is made from FFP or PF24 and kept refrigerated (at 1–6 °C) after thawing can be stored for 5 days post thaw.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Prophylactic plasma transfusions might have an effect for people with a blood clotting disorder and receive an invasive procedure.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: For people with a blood clotting disorder and receive a planned invasive non-cardiac procedure it is not certain if prophylactic plasma transfusions improve all-cause mortality up to 30 days, major bleeding within 24 hours, number of transfusions per participants within one week, number of individuals requiring a transfusion within one week and serious adverse events measured by plasma-related complications within 24 hours. Different triggers for fresh frozen plasma may have little to no effect on major bleeding within 24 hours and serious adverse events measured by plasma transfusion-related complications within 24 hours. Furthermore, different triggers for fresh frozen plasma may reduce the number of individuals requiring a transfusion within 7 days.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: The risks of FFP include disease transmission, anaphylactoid reactions, and excessive intravascular volume (transfusion associated circulatory overload (TACO)), as well as transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI). Risks of transfusion transmitted infections are similar to that of whole blood and red blood cells.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: FFP is made by centrifugation of whole blood or apheresis device followed by freezing and preservation.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: The use of plasma and its products has evolved over a period of four decades. The use of FFP has increased tenfold in the United States from between the years 2000-2010 and has reached almost 2 million units annually. This trend may be attributable to multiple factors, possibly including decreased availability of whole blood due to widespread acceptance of the concept of component therapy.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Evidence indicates that other plasma components (e.g., single-donor plasma) that do not meet the criteria of FFP may have adequate levels of coagulation factors and are suitable for patients in whom FFP is indicated. Single-donor plasma is efficacious in the treatment of mild deficiencies of stable clotting factors. It also is of value in treatment of multiple deficiencies as in reversal of warfarin effects or in liver disease.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Safe and effective alternative treatment often exists so that FFP is no longer the therapy of choice in many conditions. Cryoprecipitate or fibrinogen concentrates should be used when fibrinogen is needed. For treatment of hemophilia A, recombinant factor VIII concentrates are available. For treatment of severe hemophilia B, recombinant factor IX concentrates are available.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: Crystalloid or colloid solutions such as human serum albumin or plasma protein fraction, are preferable to FFP for volume replacement.


title: Fresh frozen plasma

text: For nutritional support, amino acid solutions and dextrose are available. The most important alternative to the use of FFP is a comprehensive program of blood conservation. This includes measures such as intraoperative cell salvage and the realization that in many patients normovolemic anemia is not an indication for transfusion.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov (; 29 February 1924 – 23 November 2007) was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Initially working in the Soviet justice system as a prosecutor's assistant, Kryuchkov then graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Foreign Ministry and became a diplomat. During his years in the foreign service, he met Yuri Andropov, who became his main patron. From 1974 until 1988, Kryuchkov headed the foreign intelligence branch of the KGB, the First Chief Directorate (PGU). During these years, the Directorate was involved in funding and supporting various communist, socialist, and anti-colonial movements across the world, some of which came to power in their countries and established pro-Soviet governments; in addition, under Kryuchkov's leadership the Directorate had major triumphs in penetrating Western intelligence agencies, acquiring valuable scientific and technical intelligence and perfecting the techniques of disinformation and active measures. At the same time, during his tenure the Directorate became plagued with defectors and had the major responsibility for encouraging the Soviet government to invade Afghanistan, and its ability to influence Western European communist parties diminished even further.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: From 1988 until 1991, Kryuchkov served as the 7th Chairman of the KGB. He was the leader of the abortive August coup and its governing committee.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Kryuchkov was born in February 1924 in Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad, and now Volgograd), to a working-class family. His parents were strong supporters of Joseph Stalin. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1944 and became a full-time employee of the Communist Youth League (Komsomol). After earning a law degree, Kryuchkov embarked on a career in the Soviet justice system, working as an investigator for the prosecutor's office in his home city of Stalingrad.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Kryuchkov then joined the Soviet diplomatic service, stationed in Hungary until 1959. He then worked for the Communist Party Central Committee for eight years, before joining the KGB in 1967 together with his patron Yuri Andropov. He was appointed head of the First Chief Directorate in the summer of 1971, upon the order of Andropov, and Deputy Chairman in 1978. In June 1978, he traveled to Afghanistan, and in July 1978 became the KGB rezident in Kabul where he took a very active part in the overthrow of its government at the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War. In 1988, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army and became KGB Chairman. In 1989–1990, he was a member of the Politburo.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: A political hard-liner, Kryuchkov was among the members of the Soviet intelligence community who misinterpreted the 1983 NATO exercise Able Archer 83 as a prelude to a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Many historians, such as Robert Cowley and John Lewis Gaddis, believe the Able Archer incident was the closest the world has come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: After KGB Chairman Viktor Chebrikov sided with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's rival Yegor Ligachyov in opposition to glasnost and perestroika, he was replaced by Kryuchkov in October 1988. Kryuchkov also opposed Gorbachev's reforms, and in his memoirs defended Stalinism and condemned most reforms to the Soviet political system since the rule of Nikita Khrushchev. However, Gorbachev appointed Kryuchkov anyways because he had specialized primarily in foreign intelligence rather than domestic services. Kryuchkov had also been recommended by Gorbachev's predecessor and mentor Andropov and his reformist colleague Alexander Yakovlev.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: After the 1990 Soviet constitutional reforms began working with other hardline officials in the new presidential cabinet such as Boris Pugo, Valentin Pavlov, and Gennady Yanayev to undermine Gorbachev's rule. This group of eight ministers eventually became the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP).


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Gorbachev attempted to appease Kryuchkov with a presidential decree expanding the powers of the KGB, and ordered him to keep the anti-Communist RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin and the dissident leader Andrei Sakharov under surveillance. Kryuchkov's intelligence may have deceived Gorbachev into underestimating the risk to his rule and distancing himself in favor of his old reformist colleagues in favor of the hardliners.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: According to Sergei Tretyakov, Kryuchkov secretly sent US$50 billion worth of funds of the Communist Party to an unknown location in the lead up to the collapse of the Soviet Union.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Kryuchkov's strategy eventually shifted to a coup d'état in which a state of emergency would enable the KGB to restore the Soviet Union's hardline Communist political system.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: During the August Coup of 1991, Kryuchkov was the initiator of creation of the GKChP which arrested President Mikhail Gorbachev. However, the coup failed because of the indecisiveness of Kryuchkov and the other conspirators. Kryuchkov notably mobilized the Alpha Group to arrest Yeltsin but then refused to give it the order to do so. Kryuchkov had also allowed the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to assume control of domestic KGB activity under its jurisdiction after Chairman Yeltsin's Declaration of State Sovereignty of Russia. Many Russian KGB agents had demonstrated their loyalty to the new government by defying Kryuchkov's order to vote against Yeltsin in the 1991 Russian presidential election. After the defeat of the committee, Kryuchkov was imprisoned for his participation. Kryuchkov was replaced as chairman of the KGB by Vadim Bakatin, released on recognizance not to leave in January 1993, and pardoned by the State Duma in 1994.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Many analysts of the Soviet Union at the time and since, including former U.S. Ambassador Jack F. Matlock Jr., have held that Kryuchkov was inadvertently responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union by staging the coup and destroying the Communist Party's authority. Matlock wrote in his memoir "People do make a difference, and Vladimir Kryuchkov made a big difference. The Soviet Union might exist in some modified form today if another person had been running the KGB in 1990 and 1991."


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Immediately after the collapse of the coup Kryuchkov unsuccessfully requested a pardon for himself and his co-conspirators on the basis of their old age. On 3 July 1992, Kryuchkov appealed to Russian president Boris Yeltsin, accusing him of laying the blame for the dissolution of the Soviet Union on members of the State Committee on the State of Emergency. Kryuchkov was finally freed in 1994 with a pardon by the State Duma. He subsequently returned to public life with writings condemning Gorbachev's rule. His writings improved his reputation with the Russian public, with a 2007 Levada Center poll revealing that only 12 percent of respondents would have actively opposed his coup. On 7 May 2000, Kryuchkov attended the first inauguration of Vladimir Putin as President of Russia.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: His son was a resident of Switzerland in the 1990s where very large sums were transiting during the 1990s looting of Russia. Yevgeny Primakov blocked the Duma's Ponomarev investigative commission from accessing KGB, FCD, and SVR documents.


title: Vladimir Kryuchkov

text: Kryuchkov died at the age of 83 on 23 November 2007. His body was buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, master's, specialist, and doctoral degrees. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Founded on March 30, 1910, the university is a dual campus institution, with its main campus located in Hattiesburg and its other large campus – Gulf Park – located in Long Beach. It has five additional teaching and research sites, including the John C. Stennis Space Center and the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL).


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Originally called the Mississippi Southerners, the Southern Miss athletic teams became the Golden Eagles in 1972. The school's colors, black and gold, were selected by a student body vote shortly after the school was founded. While mascots, names, customs, and the campus have changed, the black and gold colors have remained constant. USM's 17 sport programs participate in NCAA Division I athletics, mainly as members of the Sun Belt Conference.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi was founded on March 30, 1910, as Mississippi Normal College, a teacher-training school. The Normal College was created to standardize the process of training upcoming teachers. Before the existence of a specialized teaching college, instructors were required to travel throughout Mississippi in preparation for teaching their students. R. H. Hunt designed the original campus plan and seven buildings in the Colonial Revival style. The college's first president, Joseph Anderson Cook, presided over the opening session of instruction on September 18, 1912, and oversaw the construction of College Hall (the academic building); Forrest County Hall (men's and married students' dormitory); Hattiesburg Hall (women's dormitory); the Industrial Cottage (training laboratory for home management); and the president's home (now the Ogletree Alumni House). In its first session, Mississippi Normal College had a total enrollment of 876 students, and stood for "clean, pure, efficient lives."


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: As the school developed its curriculum and departments, its name changed to reflect its progress: in 1924, to Mississippi State Teachers College, and in 1940, to Mississippi Southern College.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The college's fifth president, State Archivist Dr. William David McCain, was installed in 1955 and worked to expand Mississippi Southern College. He oversaw the construction of 17 new structures on campus and convinced Gov. Ross Barnett to upgrade the school to university status in recognition of its graduate programs. On February 27, 1962, Barnett signed the bill into law which officially renamed the school as the University of Southern Mississippi.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Brown v. Board of Education" that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. But when Clyde Kennard, a black Korean War veteran, attempted to enroll at Mississippi Southern College in the late 1950s, McCain made major efforts with the state political establishment and local black leaders to prevent it. Kennard was turned down three times. After he wrote letters about educational integration to the local paper, he was twice arrested on trumped-up criminal charges; he was eventually convicted and sentenced to seven years in the state prison.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: McCain's direct involvement in this abuse of the justice system is unclear. He was likely aware that the charges against Kennard were fraudulent, but neither he nor other public officials made any objection. Speaking to businessmen in Chicago on a trip sponsored by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, McCain said: "We insist that educationally and socially, we maintain a segregated society. ... In all fairness, I admit that we are not encouraging Negro voting," he said. "The Negroes prefer that control of the government remain in the white man's hands." Kennard was finally released on parole in 1963, when he was terminally ill with cancer; he died six months later.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: By the early 1960s, national pressure was growing to integrate Mississippi's institutions of higher learning. McCain was well known to vehemently oppose having any black students at Mississippi Southern. In 1962 James Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi, the state's flagship institution. His enrollment was accomplished after white rioting and use of federal troops to end the violence.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: By the fall of 1965 both Ole Miss and Mississippi State University had been integrated – the former violently, the latter peacefully. McCain, USM and state leaders recognized the state needed to integrate to appeal to businesses from outside the state. They made extensive confidential plans for the admission of their first black students. A faculty guardian and tutor was secretly appointed for each to help with the transition. The campus police department was instructed to prevent or quickly stop any incident against the two black students. Student athletic, fraternity, and political leaders were recruited to keep the calm and protect the university from the kind of negative publicity that Ole Miss had suffered during rioting against Meredith's enrollment.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: As a result, black students Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong and Raylawni Branch were enrolled without incident in September 1965. In 2018, USM unveiled a Freedom Trail Marker in honor of Clyde Kennard, in front of Kennard Washington Hall, named after him and the first African-American doctoral student to graduate from USM, Walter Washington. Shortly thereafter, at the spring commencement ceremonies in May 2018, Clyde Kennard was posthumously awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters "honoris causa" from USM. A student in Kennard's Sunday School class at Mary Magdalene Baptist Church in Eatonville, Mississippi, accepted the honor on his behalf.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Between 1955 and 1965, USM along with its president, William D. McCain, infringed upon the civil rights of Gay and Lesbian students. Gay and Lesbian students, with an emphasis on male homosexuals, were targeted and expelled. McCain's intentions were to purge the campus of all sexual impurities.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In 1969, the Afro-American Cultural Society (AACS) was founded. Alvin Williams, an early member of the organization and professor emeritus of media at the university, described AACS as an "instrumental part of student life for black students" attending the university in the late 1960s. The organization was later renamed as the African American Student Organization (AASO) in the 1990s.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The transition of the 1960s to the 1970s gave way to a surge of social activism and major changes within the university. In response to growing concerns of black students, the university ramped its efforts to hire black faculty. In 1972, "General Nat" (Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest) was discarded in favor of the Golden Eagles. In 1974, standout football player Fred Cook was voted as the first black Mr. USM. The first black Greek organizations premiered in 1975. By the time McCain retired in 1975, enrollment had climbed to 11,000 students.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In the years following McCain's campus transformation, The University of Southern Mississippi continued to expand dramatically. Notable changes included: replacement of the quarter system with the semester system, creation of the Polymer Science Institute, reorganization of the university's 10 schools into six colleges, affiliation with Conference USA, establishment of the School of Nursing as a college; the implementation of online classes; and an expansion of the Gulf Coast campus.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In the early 21st century, Southern Miss developed under the presidency of Dr. Shelby Thames. His tenure was characterized by a significant increase in the quantity of research conducted at the university. USM was classified as a "Doctoral / Research Extensive" university by the Carnegie Foundation during the Thames era. According to the National Science Foundation, USM spent $61 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 183rd in the nation.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Dr. Thames' work to respond to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina brought praise from the community. In October 2005, the Faculty Senate of the Gulf Park campus passed an official resolution of appreciation. The "Hattiesburg American" reported that Thames' post-Katrina address to the faculty at Hattiesburg was well received. Thames avoided laying off any University employees after the storm, although the Gulf Park campus alone sustained over $100 million in damage. (By contrast, Tulane University in New Orleans released approximately 25% of the staff. It dropped significant athletic and academic programs, including the Computer Science major and most engineering programs, in retrenchment after closure and damage to the campus.)


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The Thames administration gained financing and supervised execution of several construction projects on campus, often in partnership with private-sector entities. An addition to the student union houses the second-largest Barnes & Noble store in the southern U.S., which is open to the community. Barnes & Noble pays $1.5 million in annual rent on this facility. Thames also negotiated a financially favorable food services agreement with Aramark (who will donate $9 million to university construction projects). Other enhancements include the upscale Power House restaurant (at a former college power plant adapted for this use); the $15 million sorority village; additions to the football, basketball, and baseball facilities; and urban design elements to make the campus more open, "green," and pedestrian-friendly.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The university experienced an unexpected, highly publicized drop from "Tier 3" to "Tier 4" in the "U.S. News & World Report" college rankings beginning in the 2004 edition. This roughly coincided with the height of the Shelby Thames controversy, when he fired tenured professors for "dissension". Several organizations scrutinized the legality of his actions, as tenure was designed to protect academic independence. In 2004, the USM Faculty Senate expressed their grievances to Thames after the allegations were heard. The Faculty Senate later published a review of the Thames Administration describing its controversies. After Thames resigned, by 2009, "U.S. News & World Report" again ranked the university as in the upper portion of "Tier 3.". In the 2011 "U.S. News & World Report" College ranking, USM was in the "Tier 2". In 2016, USM was ranked by U.S. News & World Report 125th in national public universities and 220th in national universities.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: USM is also ranked highly by "Washington Monthly", which has criticized rankings by "U.S. News & World Report" and developed its own system. These rankings attempt to make a more holistic assessment of an institution's value; USM ranked 98th out of 245 doctoral institutions. This was the highest ranking of any school in Mississippi. , Washington Monthly ranked USM 235th in national universities overall.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: On February 10, 2013, an EF4 wedge tornado tore through the Southern Miss campus, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage. The tornado formed in western Hattiesburg and continued into Southwestern Alabama. The tornado destroyed two buildings and damaged six others. As most students were away for Mardi Gras break and there were advanced warnings of the tornado, there were no fatalities and few injuries on campus.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In June 2015 Southern Miss released a statement on the removal of the Mississippi state flag from all USM campuses. Later that year on October 25, 2015, university president Rodney D. Bennett released another statement, announcing that the university would only raise flags that he felt united all students. Since the removal of the state flag, protests to bring back the flag have become common Sunday occurrence on the Hattiesburg campus.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In 2003, Southern Miss replaced their attack eagle logo from the 1990s with an eagle head logo. Two years later, when Southern Miss attempted to trademark the new logo, the University of Iowa filed against it, for they believed it looked too similar to their Hawkeyes logo. The new logo was very popular, and was placed on sports venues, advertising, and all merchandise. In August 2011, the US Patent and Trademark Office denied the trademark. In 2014, Southern Miss revealed a new logo that was a redesigned version of the 2003 logo. This new logo was copyrighted and has mostly replaced the 2003 logo.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In early October 2013, the U.S. Army announced that, due to financial constraints and the low production rate of commissioned officers, 13 ROTC programs at various universities would be shut down, including the Golden Eagle Battalion of Southern Miss. The programs were to be ended by the end of the 2014–2015 spring semester, but the universities attempted to appeal the decision. On October 12, a press conference was held at USM to protest the closure; speakers included Governor Phil Bryant and Major General Augustus Collins. In early November, the Army said it had changed its plan to end programs at specified institutions, putting them on a two-year probation, with reevaluation. USM has been taken off probation and the ROTC program continues.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The university's operations on the Mississippi Gulf Coast began in 1947 when Mississippi Southern College first organized classes at Van Hook Hall, on the Methodist Camp Grounds in Biloxi. In 1958, the operation was moved to Mary L. Michael Junior High School in Biloxi. To meet the educational needs of various occupational fields, the university relocated in 1964 to Keesler Air Force Base. In addition, it obtained classroom facilities for night classes from the Jefferson Davis campus of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College. It called this complex the USM Harrison County Resident Center. One of the most prominent landmarks on campus is the Friendship Oak. This huge live oak tree on the lawn of Hardy Hall and the Administration Building, dates from approximately 1487. The earliest available reference to the moniker Friendship Oak is found in an article written by Bob Davis, correspondent for the "New York Sun." He described the tree in his book "People, People, Everywhere" (1936).


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In September 1966, Southern Miss extended its offerings by adding the Jackson County Resident Center, located on the Jackson County campus of the MGCCC in Gautier. The Jackson County Center was built for the university by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors. This effort was encouraged by Dr. Shelby Thames when he was executive vice president of USM. The center was constructed with the intention of enabling students in Jackson County to complete four-year degrees in several fields through combined programs at MGCCC and USM. In 2009, however, the university decided to close its Jackson County Center and consolidate course offerings at other teaching sites on the Gulf Coast.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The Gulf Park College for Women in Gulfport, Mississippi, opened in 1921. The last commencement was held in 1971 and the University of Southern Mississippi acquired the campus in 1972. In March 1972, USM moved its Harrison County Resident Center program from the Jefferson Davis campus of MGCCC to this newly acquired campus, located on Highway 90 in Long Beach.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In July 1972, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning established the USM Gulf Park and Keesler Air Force Base Center as an upper-level degree completion regional campus of the university. It offered programs leading to degrees at the baccalaureate and graduate levels. University development has continued and on August 19, 2002, Southern Miss admitted its first class of freshmen on its Gulf Park Campus. USM is the only comprehensive university in the state with dual-campus status.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In the early 21st century the Gulf Park campus serves as the central campus for several remote teaching centers, including:


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Other USM units in the Gulf Coast region are elements of the College of Marine Sciences; the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs; the J. L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium on Point Cadet in Biloxi; the Hydrographic Science Research Center; and the Center for Marine Sciences at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused about $115 million in damage to Gulf Park. Classes were relocated to the Healthmark Center in Gulfport. In 2012, the Gulfport campus was closed and all facilities were moved back to the renovated Long Beach campus. The Friendship Oak survived this storm as it survived Hurricane Camille and countless lesser storms that have hit the area.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The All-American Rose Garden is a rose garden found near Hardy Street on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. The garden has a semicircular form and contains many various types of hybrid roses in 32 rose beds. It existed since 1973 and was accredited the status 'Public Rose Garden' by the All-American Rose Selection Inc. in 1975. Many biologists and botanists come from all over the world to study the roses found in the rose garden. Due to the large number of rare roses found in the rose garden, plucking out a rose is against college policy, and getting caught currently results in a fine of $500.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Southern Miss offers approximately 189 programs leading to baccalaureate, master's, specialist, and doctorate degrees. Southern Miss has traditionally drawn many of its students from Mississippi schools and community colleges, hailing from every county in Mississippi, though today the majority of undergraduates come from public schools across the southern United States and around the globe. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and its programs are accredited by 30 state and national agencies.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi offers more than 250 clubs and organizations, as well as intramural athletics and special events. Student organizations at Southern Miss include the Student Government Association, The Legacy, "The Student Printz" (the biweekly student-produced newspaper), "The Southerner" (the yearbook), Southern Style (the university's student orientation team), national fraternities and sororities, honor societies, and various religious organizations. In addition, the school participates in the NCAA's Division I-FBS, and Sun Belt Conference featuring year-round athletics in 16 sports. Southern Miss also hosts, participates in, and promotes more than 300 cultural events every year. Regular events include the Jazz and Blues Festival held on the Long Beach campus, performances by the theater, dance and music departments, and exhibits presented by the art department. The university's Dale Center for the Study of War and Society hosts several lectures and programs throughout the year. Several guest lecturers including General David Petraeus (2017), Dr. Robert M. Gates (2014), and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (2010) visited Hattiesburg as a part of the center's Dale Distinguished Lecture Series. 2018 marked the 13th annual Richard McCarthy Lecture Series, wherein students and the community at large could participate in a broad range of events and programming from panel discussions to roundtables focusing on war and the effects it has on the societies surrounding it.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi is governed by the University President along with the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning. The President of the University of Southern Mississippi is the day-to-day administrator of Southern Miss and is appointed by and responsible to the State Institutions of Higher Learning Board. Dr. Rodney D. Bennett became the tenth president of the university in April 2013.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi recently began an academic reorganization changing the academic structure at the university and the roles of administrators. This plan reduced the number of colleges from six to four and consolidated traditional departments into thematic schools.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In addition to its academic colleges, The University of Southern Mississippi also offers the following programs:


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: Semesters at the university run from August to December and January to May, with a 10-week summer session. There are two four-week accelerated summer terms.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In Fall 2006, The University of Southern Mississippi dedicated a 4-story, multimillion-dollar addition to its R.C. Cook University Union. The Thad Cochran Center now houses a 2-story Barnes & Noble Bookstore, three ballrooms, a stadium-style theater, student organization offices, and Southern Miss Dining and Fresh Food Company. Several meeting rooms are within the union complex. The Union and Programs team hosts more than a thousand events each year.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In Fall 2010, the University of Southern Mississippi opened Century Park (now known as Century Park North), a gated living community with four residence halls and a multi-purpose building containing a convenience store. In the 2014–2015 school year, the university opened Century Park South, another gated living community with three residence halls and the campus's new student health center.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: At nearly 300, Southern Miss' student organizations appeal to a wide spectrum of interests: Business, Education and Psychology, the Arts, Games and Athletics, Graduate Studies, Greek Life, Health and Human Sciences, Honors Societies, Liberal Arts, the Military, Religious Life, Residence Halls, Community Service, and Science and Technology. The largest organizations based on student membership include the: Student Government Association, African-American Student Organization, Southern Miss Activities Council, The Legacy Student Alumni Association, and Baptist Student Union.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The university has 26 Greek organizations on campus, including 14 fraternities and 12 sororities. There are 19 fraternity and sorority houses.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi holds a contract with Aramark to provide dining services. Known as Eagle Dining on campus, Aramark operates multiple eateries on campus as well as four Provisions on Demand (POD) locations, which are small retail operations similar to convenience stores.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi has 13 residence halls, and about 5,000 students live on campus throughout the school year.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi is one of the few universities to allow a two-day holiday each year for Mardi Gras. The university does not hold classes on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many USM students expressed a desire for the holiday. The university is near New Orleans and has ties to Biloxi and Mobile, where Mardi Gras is also celebrated. In 1981, Ken Stribling, president of USM's student body, organized a student drive to establish an annual holiday on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). The university's Calendar Committee refused the request, but Stribling appealed to USM President Aubrey Lucas. At an annual Christmas celebration at USM in December 1981, Lucas announced that USM would try the holiday on Fat Tuesday in 1982 to see how it worked. Stribling appealed again in 1982, and Lucas allowed the holiday for Fat Tuesday in 1983. The next year, the holiday for Fat Tuesday was made a permanent part of the university's calendar.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The university's student government in 2003 gained addition of the Monday before Ash Wednesday as part of the Mardi Gras Holiday, creating a two-day holiday for the event and a four-day weekend for students. While many USM students attend Mardi Gras celebrations, the majority of students use the four-day weekend to prepare for mid-term exams or visit family and friends. The novelty of Mardi Gras Holiday has become a recruiting tool.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The Golden Eagles have excelled in all areas of athletics. Southern Miss has captured national titles twice in football and three times in track and field. In 2011, the Golden Eagle football team finished as the No. 19 team in the Associated Press (AP) College Poll. The Golden Eagle football team has also competed in twenty-four bowl games throughout the course of the program's history. It is important to note that twelve of these bowl games have resulted in a victory for the Golden Eagles. On November 13, 1982, the Golden Eagle football team upset Alabama's Crimson Tide in famed coach Bear Bryant's last home game in Tuscaloosa. M.M. Roberts Stadium is the home of the Golden Eagle football team and can hold up to 36,000 fans. The Golden Eagle baseball team are two-time Conference USA champions and have been invited to twelve regional NCAA tournaments and also a trip to the College World Series. The Golden Eagle baseball team has the No. 3 recruiting class in the country by Baseball America. University of Southern Mississippi baseball hosted the 2022 NCAA baseball regionals at Hill Denson Field at Pete Taylor Park, as well add the MHSAA softball championships at HawkinsBarker field. The Southern Miss basketball team is a one-time champion of the NIT tournament.


title: University of Southern Mississippi

text: The University of Southern Mississippi is the only institution within the state, and one of a dozen universities in America, to be accredited in all four fine arts emphasis areas: art, dance, theatre and music. It operates the Southern Miss Wind Ensemble and the USM Symphony Orchestra, which has enjoyed soloists such as singers Renee Fleming and Ray Charles, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, violinist Joshua Bell, flautist James Galway, clarinetist Anthony McGill, trumpet player Doc Severinsen, and tenor Plácido Domingo. The Southern Chorale has become nationally and internationally recognized. They recently performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and performed at various concerts in Norway and Sweden. The Southern Miss "Pride of Mississippi Marching Band" has performed at such events as the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York in November 2010. The Department of Theatre and Dance has been active in the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival at times recently placing first in various areas of the national competition. Several productions from USM have been selected for performance at the Region IV (Southeast) festival; two productions ("Catfish Moon" & "The Rimers of Eldritch") have been invited to the national KC/ACTF festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C..


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Thai Airways International Flight 311 was a flight from Bangkok, Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport to Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport. On Friday, 31 July 1992, an Airbus A310-304 on the route, registration crashed on approach to Kathmandu. At 07:00:26 UTC (12:45:26 NST; 14:00:26 ICT), the aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain north of Kathmandu at an altitude of and a ground speed of , killing all 99 passengers and 14 crew members on board. This was both the first hull loss and the first fatal accident involving the Airbus A310.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: The aircraft's first flight was on 2 October 1987, and it entered service with Canadian airline Wardair under the registration C-FGWD. Wardair was acquired by Canadian Airlines International in 1989 and their operations consolidated and integrated under the Canadian Airlines banner. This Airbus A310 formally entered service with Canadian Airlines from 15 January 1990 (with the same registration). It was shortly thereafter sold to Thai Airways International, which took delivery on 9 May 1990 and had it re-registered as HS-TID. The aircraft was powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2A2 turbofan engines.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: At the time of its destruction on 31 July 1992, the aircraft had been in commercial operations for less than five years. It was piloted by Captain Preeda Suttimai (41), and First Officer Phunthat Boonyayej (52), with a cabin crew of 12 flight attendants looking after its 99 passengers.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Flight 311 departed Bangkok at 10:30 local time. It was scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu at 12:55 Nepal Standard Time. After crossing into Nepalese airspace, the pilots contacted air traffic control (ATC) and were cleared for an instrument approach from the south called the "Sierra VOR circling approach" for Runway 20. Nepalese ATC at the time was not equipped with radar.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Shortly after reporting the Sierra fix south of the Kathmandu VOR, the aircraft called ATC asking for a diversion to Calcutta, India, because of a "technical problem". Before ATC could reply, the flight rescinded their previous transmission. The flight was then cleared for a straight-in Sierra approach to Runway 02 and told to report leaving . The captain asked numerous times for the winds and visibility at the airport, but ATC merely told him that Runway 02 was available.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: A number of frustrating and misleading communications (due partly to language problems and partly to the inexperience of the air traffic controller, who was a trainee with only nine months on the job) ensued between ATC and the pilots regarding Flight 311's altitude and distance from the airport. The captain asked four times for permission to turn left, but after receiving no firm reply to his requests, he announced that he was turning right and climbed the aircraft to flight level 200. The controller handling Flight 311 assumed from the flight's transmissions that the aircraft had called off the approach and was turning to the south, so he cleared the aircraft to , an altitude that would have been safe in the area south of the airport. The flight descended back to 11,500 ft, went through a 360° turn, and passed over the airport northbound.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Seconds before impact, the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) activated, and sounded alarms warning the crew of the imminent collision with the mountains. First Officer Boonyayej warned Captain Suttimai and urged him to turn the aircraft around, but possibly due to his frustration from the communications with ATC, Suttimai erroneously stated the GPWS was just giving false reports. The aircraft crashed into a steep rock face in a remote area of the Langtang National Park at an altitude of , killing all 113 people on board.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Airbus Industrie, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (which assisted with technical details) determined that the aircraft had experienced a minor fault in the workings of the inboard trailing flaps just after the aircraft reached the Sierra reporting fix. Concerned that the complex approach into Kathmandu in instrument conditions would be difficult with malfunctioning flaps and frustrated by ATC and his first officer's inconclusive and weak answers to his questions, the captain decided to divert to Calcutta. The flaps suddenly began to work properly, but the captain was forced to resolve more aspects of the difficult approach himself due to his first officer's lack of initiative. Only after numerous extremely frustrating exchanges with ATC was the captain able to obtain adequate weather information for the airport, but by that time he had overflown Kathmandu and the aircraft was headed towards the Himalayas.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Nepalese authorities found that the probable causes of the accident were the captain and air traffic controller's loss of situational awareness; language and technical problems caused the captain to experience frustration and a high workload; the first officer's lack of initiative and inconclusive answers to the captain's questions; the air traffic controller's inexperience, poor grasp of English, and reluctance to interfere with what he saw as piloting matters such as terrain separation; poor supervision of the inexperienced air traffic controller; Thai Airways International's failure to provide simulator training for the complex Kathmandu approach to its pilots; and improper use of the aircraft's flight management system.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: While trekking up the Himalaya mountain to the crash site, a British investigator from Airbus, Gordon Corps (62), died due to altitude sickness. Corps had over 11,500 flight hours and was a senior test pilot for Airbus.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Thai Airways retired the flight number 311 after the accident, along with its counterpart flight number 312, which had been used for the outbound flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok. These were replaced by flight numbers 319 and 320, respectively. These redesignated flights continued to be operated by Airbus A310 aircraft until this type was retired by the airline and replaced with Boeing 777 aircraft in 2001. The remains of the aircraft can still be seen in Langtang National Park on the trek from Ghopte to the Tharepati Pass.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: Fifty-nine days after the Flight 311 disaster, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashed on approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 on board.


title: Thai Airways International Flight 311

text: The crash is featured in the 10th episode of the 17th season of "Mayday" ("Air Crash Investigation"). The episode is titled "The Lost Plane".


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard Inc. was an American educational technology company with corporate headquarters in Reston, VA. It was known for Blackboard Learn, a learning management system. It merged with Anthology in late 2021, with the future name of the combined company not announced yet.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The company's last CEO was William L. Ballhaus, formerly president and CEO of SRA International, who was also named chairman and president, on January 4, 2016, following the resignation of Jay Bhatt, who had led Blackboard since October 2012. The firm provides education, mobile, communication, and commerce software and related services to clients, including education providers, corporations and government organizations. The software consists of seven platforms called Learn, Transact, Engage, Connect, Mobile, Collaborate and Analytics, which are offered as bundled software. The firm was founded by Stephen Gilfus, Daniel Cane, Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky through a business combination in 1997, and became a public company in 2004. It operated publicly until it was purchased by Providence Equity Partners in 2011.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: , its software were services are used by approximately 17,000 schools and organizations in 100 countries. Seventy-five percent of US colleges and universities and more than half of K–12 districts in the United States use its products and services, and 80 percent of the world's top academic institutions reportedly use Blackboard tools, according to Times Higher Education Reputation Ranking.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: CourseInfo was founded in late 1996 as a software provider founded by Cornell University students Stephen Gilfus and Daniel Cane. Gilfus wrote the business plan for CourseInfo and its Interactive Learning Network product while an undergraduate at Cornell. CourseInfo (a dorm room start-up) with Gilfus as the business lead and Cane as the lead developer had developed an innovative new platform for internet and networked learning called a "Course Management System" by Gilfus. Gilfus as a product strategist and Cane as lead tech guru had already identified a market fit and defined a category, as well as built a portfolio of 15 institutional clients including Cornell University, University of Pittsburgh and Yale Medical School. The product was sold to schools on an annual FTE licensing model ― a full school deployment enterprise model.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard LLC. was founded in 1997 by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky and began as a consulting firm contracting to the non-profit IMS Global Learning Consortium to develop a prototype for online learning and thinking through online learning standardization. Chasen and Pittinsky started Blackboard after leaving KPMG Consulting where they both had worked as part of the company's higher education practice.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In 1998, after Cane met Chasen at a conference on adaptive learning, Gilfus and Cane decided to merge CourseInfo LLC. with Chasen and Pittinky's Blackboard LLC. company in order to raise money and scale the business. The combined company became a corporation known as Blackboard Inc. They renamed the CourseInfo platform built by the Cornell team to Blackboard's CourseInfo; the CourseInfo brand was dropped in 2000. As an extension of CourseInfo's original two weeks for free courses, the company provided a hosted version "CourseSites" for teachers to try out for free. After having raised its seed round, the new company made a profit in its first year, and its sales in 1998 approached US$1 million. Other early products included Blackboard Classroom and Blackboard Campus both derivatives of the original platform.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In 2000, Blackboard acquired iCollege/College Enterprises Inc.'s campus card, introducing commerce capability to Blackboard's portfolio.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: By 2006, the firm's learning platform software was used in more than 40% of U.S. college campuses and the company had gained a significant worldwide market share. This expansion was initially funded through venture capital from a number of investors, including Pearson PLC, Dell, AOL, The Carlyle Group and Novak Biddle Venture Partners. At this time the company renamed its "Course Management System" product category into the "Learning Management Systems" category in order to sell to the corporate space.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Overseas expansion began in the early 2000s, growing to include Asia, Australia and Europe. Blackboard had its initial public offering (IPO) in June 2004 under the stock market ticker BBBB. Sale of shares in the initial public offering raised an estimated $70 million for the company, making it the second-most successful technology IPO of that year.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In 2006, Blackboard completed the acquisition of its largest competitor, WebCT Inc, enlarging its share of the higher education market to between 65 and 75 percent. Over the next five years, the company invested in a series of new products and acquisitions, including Blackboard Xythos, Blackboard Connect, Blackboard Mobile, Blackboard Collaborate, and Blackboard Analytics, thus expanding beyond the learning management system market.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: By 2011, the firm's products were used by over half of colleges and universities in the US. On July 1, 2011, Blackboard agreed to a $1.64 billion buyout by an investor group led by Providence Equity Partners, completed on October 4, 2011. Following the sale, Providence Equity Partners merged Edline, its K-12 learning system, with Blackboard. Edline was later renamed Blackboard Engage.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: According to a TechCrunch article from 2012, despite its success, Blackboard had become "one of the most disliked — even detested — companies in education." In December 2011, "Fast Company" reported that 93% of respondents to the Amplicate customer opinion survey "hate" the company.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In September 2017, Blackboard announced its expansion to the Indian Educational Market, and it was said to partner with 50 educational institutions.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Jay Bhatt succeeded Chasen as CEO of the company in October 2012. Bhatt came to the company after serving as the CEO of Progress Software. As CEO of Blackboard, Bhatt combined the company's product portfolio into offerings called "solutions". He also restructured the company by market (including North America and International) rather than by product, and consolidated product development and management under new executives. It was reported in July 2014 that approximately 500 of Blackboard's 3,000 employees were hired between 2013 and 2014.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In 2019, Blackboard Inc., announced that Edwin Scholte will be appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO).


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The company's key focuses under Bhatt's leadership have been: student-driven learning solutions; investing in Blackboard Learn, the company's core product; integrating the company's portfolio of products; and building education service offerings, such as online program management. In 2013, the company introduced a platform to host massive open online courses called MOOCs, and it introduced student profiles and databases in 2014. Bhatt also changed the company's strategy for acquiring new businesses. Rather than purchasing competitors, Bhatt has stated he prefers to acquire companies based on their innovations.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In July 2014, Bhatt announced multiple product changes, including a redesign of Blackboard's UX to an interface resembling iOS, expanding the deployment options of Blackboard Learn to include public cloud, and improvements to Blackboard's mobile app.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: , Blackboard serves approximately 17,000 schools and organizations. It holds the highest share of the education market with 75 percent of colleges and universities and more than half of K-12 districts in the US using its products and services.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: , Blackboard had acquired MyEdu, Perceptis, CardSmith, and Requestec under Bhatt's leadership. The acquisitions reflected Bhatt's new acquisition strategy of making investments that serve students and will lead to innovations in Blackboard's core teaching and learning products.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard has used the acquisition of other companies as a strategy to both limit competitors and enter new markets. Between 2006 and 2012, the company spent more than $500 million on acquisitions.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Competing learning management platforms that were acquired by Blackboard in order to absorb their users and reduce competition include: George Washington University's course management software, Prometheus, in 2002; and WebCT Inc., its largest rival in the education software industry, in 2005. According to market research company Eduventures, the merger with WebCT increased the firm's share of the higher-education market to between 65 and 75 percent. In 2009, the acquisition of ANGEL Learning, an education software developer, increased Blackboard's client base to nearly 6,000 educational institutions, companies and government agencies.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The company has also made acquisitions in order to expand its product base with other education-related services and software. Such acquisitions include: NTI Group in 2008, which became the basis for Blackboard Connect; providers of online and mobile collaboration tools Wimba, Inc. and Elluminate, Inc. in 2010 to form Blackboard Collaborate; iStrategy in December 2010, which led to the creation of Blackboard Analytics; and Presidium Inc. in 2011, which developed into Blackboard Student Services. Following the company's merger with Edline in 2011, Edline was later renamed Blackboard Engage. In March 2012, Blackboard acquired Moodlerooms Inc. (a Moodle hosting provider) and NetSpot of Adelaide, Australia, which then became the basis of Blackboard's Open Source Services division.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: As of June 30, 2018, Blackboard (which haD been trading as "Moodlerooms" since 2012) was no longer a Certified Moodle Partner and can no longer use the Moodlerooms name or the Moodle trademarks that had been licensed to them to advertise their Moodle-related services.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: From January 2014 to April 2015, Blackboard acquired nine companies, including: MyEdu, an Austin-based online education company; Perceptis, a provider of help desk and administrative services; CardSmith, a company that offered cards for student ID and on-campus payments; Requestec, a provider of technology for VoIP, video conferencing and instant messaging; ParentLink, a mass notification system and mobile app publisher; and Schoolwires, a company that specialized in building school websites.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In August 2015, Blackboard acquired Colombia-based Nivel7, possibly the largest Moodle services provider in Latin America.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Whilst still retaining a large market share in the US, Blackboard was overtaken globally by the open source Moodle, which became the dominant worldwide VLE.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Though previously a public company, following its 2011 buyout by Providence Equity Partners Blackboard now operates as a private company. The company's headquarters are in Washington, D.C. and it has offices in Asia, Australia, Europe and in several locations in North America.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The initial product to be offered by the company was its course management software, first available in 1998. The latest version, Blackboard Learn 9.1, was released in April 2010. This is a learning management system that provides a learning system for course delivery and management for institutions; a community and portal system for communication; a content management system for centralized control over course content; and a system to record and analyze student assessment results.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Though the software is proprietary, developers are able to extend the functionality of the system, and create customized course management and delivery by developing software and applications known as Building Blocks, created by Gilfus and Pittinsky,


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In 2012, TechCrunch writer Rip Empson commented that Blackboard's focus on acquisitions prevented the company from fully focusing on their software products, which has led to the continual introduction of additional features, known as feature creep.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The company's products' user interfaces became "infamous as a part of academic life that was to be endured, not enjoyed" according to TechCrunch writer Rip Empson in 2014. According to educational technology company EdSurge, , the company was in the process of updating its learning management system and the user interface within it, noting that navigation of the latter had been a cause of "dismay" for long-time users.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In March 2020, Blackboard agreed to its sell Open LMS business to Learning Technologies Group for $31.7 million.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard Collaborate was created in July 2010 and is used by K-12 schools and higher education institutions for professional development and distance learning. It is written in Java. The platform is also used by businesses for distance learning and for conferencing


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The company launched Blackboard Mobile in 2009 after having acquired TerriblyClever. The platform provides students with access to teaching and learning content and campus information through mobile applications for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and WebOS devices. Blackboard Mobile allows students to both access course materials, check grades, and participate in discussions, and to access information about campus life and services.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The company began providing its Blackboard Connect service in 2008, for use by school districts and higher education institutions to send out mass phone, text and e-mail notifications. The service can be used for routine alerts and notifications, academic or instructor notifications, or by school districts and communities to share time-sensitive information, such as in the case of natural disasters and campus emergencies.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard Transact, formerly Blackboard Commerce Suite, is transaction processing system tied to university ID cards, which can be used for meal plans, vending machines and laundry services, and an e-commerce front end for the transaction system. The Transact system is NFC-compatible and its ID cards use contactless technology. Blackboard Transact also includes a program for off-campus vendors that allow students to pay for goods using their college's campus card. In March 2019 Blackboard announced that Transact was to be spun off, having been acquired by Reverence Capital Partners.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard Analytics was developed after the company acquired iStrategy, a data analysis firm, in December 2010. The Blackboard Analytics platform is a system for data warehousing and analysis, with applications for educational institutions to analyze student numbers, class scheduling, and financial information. The platform was created as a business intelligence tool specifically for higher education institutions and uses data from colleges' student information, human resources and financial information systems.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard Open LMS was created when Blackboard acquired Moodlerooms and NetSpot in 2012. Blackboard saw significant growth in their open source group through 2018, before selling that division in 2020 to Learning Technologies Group.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard's services include: managed hosting, platform consulting, enterprise consulting, online program management, training and student services.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Blackboard Student Services provides management services for student admissions and enrollment, financial aid, and student accounts and retention. It also provides IT and helpdesk support to students and faculty for learning management systems.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the company U.S. Patent 6,988,138 for "Internet-based education support system and methods" in January 2006. The patent established Blackboard's claims to the concept of connecting together web-based tools to create an interconnected university-wide course management system. The firm announced the patent on July 26, 2006, and on the same day it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against rival education software company Desire2Learn Inc. According to news reports, the awarding of the patent and the lawsuit against Desire2Learn led to concerns about patentability in the electronic learning community.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: The website BoycottBlackboard.org was set up by Chris Hambly on August 2, 2006, calling for a boycott of the company's products and offering an online petition to be signed by those who opposed the patent. In addition, some critics of the patent and lawsuit created a Wikipedia article for the history of virtual learning environments to document existing examples of course management software. The Software Freedom Law Center filed a request with the U.S. Patent Office to re-examine Blackboard's patent in November 2006, and in January 2007, the request was approved on the basis of prior art, cited by the center, raising "substantial" questions. To address the concerns raised within the education software and academic communities, in February 2007, the firm announced that it had made a pledge to not assert its patent rights against open-source and non-profit software developers.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: In February 2008, a federal jury in Texas ruled in favor of Blackboard in its patent infringement suit against Desire2Learn, finding the rival company liable for infringing on its patent. One month later, in March 2008, the U.S. Patent Office issued a preliminary decision following its re-examination of Blackboard's patent application, which rejected the 44 claims made by the company. The Patent Office stated that it would give a final decision following a review of the patent.


title: Blackboard Inc.

text: Following the ruling by the federal jury in February 2008, later that year Desire2Learn lodged an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A ruling was made by the Court of Appeals on July 27, 2009, that the 38 patent claims made by Blackboard in its suit against Desire2Learn were invalid. The dispute was resolved, when Blackboard and Desire2Learn announced on December 15, 2009, that each company was settling all ongoing litigation between them and had made a cross-licensing agreement. In April 2010, the firm abandoned patent 6,988,138, and in November that year the company's legal counsel announced the patent's "official termination" and stated that Blackboard had ended its appeals.


title: LDAC (codec)

text: LDAC is a proprietary audio coding technology developed by Sony, which allows streaming high-resolution audio over Bluetooth connections at up to 990 kbps at 24 bit/96 kHz. It is used by various products, including headphones, earphones, smartphones, portable media players, active speakers, and home theaters.


title: LDAC (codec)

text: The encoder of LDAC is open-source under Apache License 2.0, so that any device can be coded to transmit LDAC streams without patent or licensing issues. The decoder design remains proprietary.


title: LDAC (codec)

text: LDAC is an alternative to Bluetooth SIG's SBC codec. Its main competitors are Qualcomm's aptX-HD/aptX Adaptive and the HWA Union/Savitech's LHDC.


title: LDAC (codec)

text: LDAC combines lossy and lossless audio technology by employing a hybrid coding scheme based on the modified discrete cosine transform and Huffman coding to provide more efficient data compression. By default, LDAC audio bitrate settings are set to Best Effort, which switches between 330/660/990 kbps depending on connection strength; however, audio bitrate and resolution can be manually adjusted on Linux (when using Pipewire), some Android platforms (which generally requires access to the "Developer Settings" menu), and Sony's own smartphones and Walkman devices at the following rates; 330/660/990 kbps at 96/48 kHz and 303/606/909 kbps at 88.2/44.1 kHz with depth of 32, 24 or 16 bits. When the codec is set to 16 bits/44.1kHz at 909 kbps (or 16 bits/48kHz at 990 kbps) LDAC can stream lossless audio that is identical in quality to (or slightly higher than) Audio CD.


title: LDAC (codec)

text: Starting from Android 8.0 "Oreo", LDAC is part of the Android Open Source Project, enabling every OEM to integrate this standard into their own Android devices freely. The "encoder" library is open source and the implementation for Linux is already present in bluez-alsa, pulseaudio-modules-bt, and in PipeWire's bluez5 module. It is available on Fedora with RPM Fusion since Fedora 30. However the "decoder" library is proprietary, so receiving devices require licenses.


title: LDAC (codec)

text: On 17 September 2019, the Japan Audio Society (JAS) certified LDAC with their Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification. Currently the only codecs with the Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification are LDAC and LHDC.


title: Volkstaat

text: The concept of a Volkstaat (, "People's State"), also called a Boerestaat, is a proposed view to establish an all-white Afrikaner homeland within the borders of South Africa, most commonly proposed as a fully independent Boer/Afrikaner nation. The concept excludes Afrikaans-speaking coloureds and South Africans of English ancestry, yet is sometimes misunderstood to include them.


title: Volkstaat

text: Following the Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s, Boer pioneers expressed a drive for self-determination and independence through the establishment of several Boer republics over the rest of the 19th century. The end of apartheid and the establishment of universal suffrage in South Africa in 1994 left some Afrikaners feeling disillusioned and marginalised by the political changes, which resulted in a proposal for an independent Volkstaat.


title: Volkstaat

text: Several different methods have been proposed for the establishment of a Volkstaat. Besides the use of force, the South African Constitution, and international law present certain possibilities for their establishment. The geographic dispersal of minority Afrikaner communities throughout South Africa presents a significant obstacle to the establishment of a Volkstaat, because Afrikaners do not form a majority in any separate geographic area that could be sustainable independently. Supporters of the proposal have established several land cooperatives in Orania in the Northern Cape province and Kleinfontein in Gauteng as practical implementations of the idea. Initiatives in Balmoral and Morgenzon, both in Mpumalanga, failed to develop beyond their initial phase.


title: Volkstaat

text: Historically, Boers have exhibited a drive for independence which resulted in the establishment of different republics in what is now the modern Republic of South Africa. The Voortrekkers proclaimed separate independent republics, most notably Natalia Republic, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (the Transvaal). However, after the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), British rule led to the dissolution of the last two remaining Boer states (the Orange Free State and the South African Republic).


title: Volkstaat

text: Under apartheid, the South African government promoted Afrikaner culture; though both Afrikaans and English were the official languages, the majority of the politicians running the country were Afrikaners. The underlying principle of apartheid was racial separatism, and the means by which this was implemented, such as the homeland system of bantustans, were biased against the non-European majority as they excluded them from exercising their rights in the broader South Africa.


title: Volkstaat

text: In the 1980s, a group of Afrikaners, led by HF Verwoerd's son-in-law, formed a group called the Oranjewerkers. They also planned a community based on "Afrikaner self-determination", and attempted to create a neo-"boerstaat" (literally: "Boer State," a reference to an idiomatic term for an Afrikaner-only state) in the remote Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) community of Morgenzon.


title: Volkstaat

text: In 1988, Professor Carel Boshoff (1927-2011) founded the "Afrikaner-Vryheidstigting" (Afrikaner Freedom Foundation), or Avstig. Avstig proposed a Volkstaat in the Northern Cape province, in a largely rural and minimally developed region. Avstig bought the town of Orania in 1991, and turned it into a model Volkstaat. Boshoff continued to be a representative of the Freedom Front, a political party advocating the Volkstaat concept. Orania lies at the far eastern apex of the original Volkstaat state, near where the boundaries of the three provinces Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Free State meet.


title: Volkstaat

text: During the 1994 general election, Afrikaners were asked by the Freedom Front (FF) to vote for the party if they wished to form an independent state or Volkstaat for Afrikaners. The results of the election showed that the Freedom Front had the support of 424,555 voters, the fourth highest in the country. The FF did not however gain a majority in any of South Africa's voting districts, their closest being 4,692 votes in Phalaborwa, representing 30.38% of that district.


title: Volkstaat

text: Two surveys were conducted among white South Africans, in 1993 and 1996, asking the question "How do you feel about demarcating an area for Afrikaners "and other "European" South Africans" in which they may enjoy self determination? Do you support the idea of a Volkstaat?" The 1993 survey found that 29% supported the idea, and a further 18% would consider moving to a Volkstaat. The 1996 survey found that this had decreased to 22% supporting the idea, and only 9% wanting to move to a Volkstaat. In the second survey, the proportion of white South Africans opposed to the idea had increased from 34% to 66%.


title: Volkstaat

text: The 1996 survey found that "those who in 1996 said that they would consider moving to a Volkstaat are mainly Afrikaans speaking males, who are supporters of the Conservative Party or Afrikaner Freedom Front, hold racist views (24%; slightly racist: 6%, non racist: 0%), call themselves Afrikaners and are not content with the new democratic South Africa." The study used the Duckitt scale of subtle racism to measure racist views.


title: Volkstaat

text: A 1999 pre-election survey suggested that the 26.9% of Afrikaners wanting to emigrate, but unable to, represented a desire for a solution such as a Volkstaat.


title: Volkstaat

text: In January 2010, "Beeld", an Afrikaans newspaper, held an online survey. Out of 11,019 respondents, 56% (6,178) said that they would move to a Volkstaat if one were created, a further 17% (1,908) would consider it while only 27% (2,933) would not consider it as a viable option. The newspaper's analysis of this was that the idea of a Volkstaat was "doodgebore" (stillborn) and that its advocates had been doing nothing but tread water for the past two decades, although it did suggest that the poll was a measure of dissatisfaction among Afrikaners. Hermann Giliomee later cited the Beeld poll in saying that over half of "northern Afrikaners" would prefer to live in a homeland.


title: Volkstaat

text: Penuell Maduna, one of the leading ANC negotiators during the transition era, noted that Afrikaner organizations could not agree on the borders of the new Volkstaat.


title: Volkstaat

text: The Conservative Party wanted a "boerestaat" in one part of the country, the Afrikaner Volksunie in another, and Carel Boshoff in Orania. The proposal to create a state out of the white neighborhoods of Pretoria, which would then stretch to the Atlantic Ocean, was also seen as unacceptable by the ANC.


title: Volkstaat

text: Dissatisfaction with life in post-apartheid South Africa is often cited as an indication of support for the idea of a Volkstaat among Afrikaners. A poll carried out by the Volkstaat Council among white people in Pretoria identified crime, economic problems, personal security, affirmative action, educational standards, population growth, health services, language and cultural rights, and housing as reasons to support the creation of Volkstaat.


title: Volkstaat

text: Crime has remained a major problem in South Africa since the end of Apartheid. According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for assault and murder (by all means) per capita. Total crime per capita is 10th out of the 60 countries in the data set. Crime has had a pronounced effect on society: many wealthier South Africans moved into gated communities, abandoning the central business districts of some cities for the relative security of suburbs.


title: Volkstaat

text: Among rural Afrikaners, violent crime committed against the white farming community has contributed significantly to a hardening of attitudes. Between 1998 and 2001 there were some 3,500 recorded farm attacks in South Africa, resulting in the murder of 541 farmers, their families or their workers, during only three years. On average more than two farm attack related murders are committed every week.


title: Volkstaat

text: The Freedom Front interprets this as racial violence targeting Afrikaners: In mid-2001 the Freedom Front appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission to place pressure on the South African government to do something about the murder of white South African farmers, which "had taken on the shape of an ethnic massacre". Freedom Front leader Pieter Mulder claimed that most farm attacks seemed orchestrated, and that the motive for the attacks was not only criminal; Mulder further claimed that "a definite anti-Boer climate had taken root in South Africa. People accused of murdering Boers and Afrikaners were often applauded by supporters during court appearances".


title: Volkstaat

text: The independent Committee of Inquiry into Farm Attacks, appointed by the National Commissioner of Police, published a report in 2003, however, indicating that European people were not targeted exclusively, that theft occurred in most attacks, and that the proportion of European victims had decreased in the four years preceding the report.


title: Volkstaat

text: The number of farm attacks is disputed. In 2010, several international news publications reported that over 3,000 white farmers had been murdered since 1994. However, the Afrikaner farmers' group Transvaal Agricultural Union stated that 1,544 people were killed in farm attacks from 1990 to 2012 Between 1994 and 2019 approximately 500,000 people were murdered in total in South Africa.


title: Volkstaat

text: Genocide Watch has theorised that farm attacks constitute early warning signs of genocide against white South Africans and it has criticised the South African government for its inaction on the issue, pointing out that the murder rate for them ("ethno-European farmers" in their report, which also included non-Afrikaner farmers of European race) is four times that of the general South African population. However, the South African government and other analysts dispute these figures, saying white South African farmers are not killed at a disproportionate rate. South African government data indicated between 54 and 74 murders on farms annually in the period 2015–2019, and 48-64 during 2010–2014; out of about 20,000 murders per year in South Africa. More black South Africans are killed than white South Africans in farm attacks, though white South Africans still make up a disproportionate number of those murdered on farms due to rural areas being more white. The motive for the attacks is disputed. Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has said that attacks were motivated not by race but by greed.


title: Volkstaat

text: In January 2015, AfriForum reported that there has been an increase in farm attacks and murders in the previous five years.


title: Volkstaat

text: According to AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets: "It is important to note that not all who are murdered on farms are white people. On the other hand, it is equally important to note that black farmers are not subjected to the same levels of torture as their white counterparts". Based on this, some consider more suitable to say "farm terror" and "farm torture" to refer to what is happening to white South African farmers since the end of Apartheid regime.


title: Volkstaat

text: A spike in violent attacks on farmers in February 2017, led to one of the country's largest prayer meetings being held on 22–23 April 2017 in Bloemfontein, attracting over 1,000,000 participants.


title: Volkstaat

text: Despite a deterioration of the situation since the end of apartheid, Afrikaners have one of the highest rates of employment, and of job satisfaction, in the country. White unemployment has experienced the greatest proportional increase between 1995 and 2001: 19.7% compared to a national average of 27%. In 2001 some 228,000 economically active whites were unemployed.


title: Volkstaat

text: Job satisfaction among employed Afrikaners is second to that of English-speaking Whites, with a survey in 2001 showing that 78% of Afrikaner respondents were either "very satisfied", or "fairly satisfied", with their employment situation. This is worse than the situation under apartheid, when all whites were afforded preferential treatment in non-bantustans; hence, it is likely that those Afrikaners who are unemployed will tend to support initiatives such as the Volkstaat. In Wingard's words, "They will be easy meat for activists."


title: Volkstaat

text: One in five white South Africans emigrated during the decade ending 2005 due to crime and Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is implemented by South African legislation, according to which all business employees should reflect the total demographic make up of the country, placing significant difficulty on White-Africans to enter the job market.


title: Volkstaat

text: According to the 1999 pre-election survey, 2.5% of Afrikaner respondents were emigrating, 26.4% would leave if they could, and 5.3% were considering emigrating. The majority, 64.9%, were definitely staying. The survey suggested that the numerous Afrikaners wanting to emigrate, but unable to, represented a desire for a solution such as a Volkstaat.


title: Volkstaat

text: A survey released by the South African Institute for Race Relations during September 2006, indicated that a decline in South Africa's white population was estimated at 16.1% for the decade ending 2005. However, it was found that this decline was largely due to emigration of white individuals from South Africa.


title: Volkstaat

text: The Afrikaners, a minority group in South Africa, relinquished their dominance of the minority rule over South Africa during the 1994 democratic elections and now only play a small role in South African politics. Some Afrikaners, such as the members of the Volkstaat Council, felt that equal representation did not provide adequate protection for minorities, and desired self-rule. The Volkstaat was proposed as one means of achieving this.


title: Volkstaat

text: Thabo Mbeki, then President of South Africa, quoted an Afrikaner leader with whom he had been engaged in negotiations, "One of our interlocutors expressed this in the following way that 'the Afrikaner is suffering from the hangover of loss of power' resulting in despondency."


title: Volkstaat

text: In 2002 a number of towns and cities with historic Afrikaans names dating back to Voortrekker times—such as Pietersburg and Potgietersrus—had their names changed, often in the face of popular opposition to the change. In the same year the government decided that state departments had to choose a single language for inter- and intra-departmental communication, effectively compelling public servants to communicate using English with one another.


title: Volkstaat

text: Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Rand Afrikaans University and Stellenbosch). In mid-2002 the national Minister of Education, Kader Asmal, announced that Afrikaans medium universities must implement parallel teaching in English, despite a proposal by a government appointed commission that two Afrikaans universities should be retained to further Afrikaans as an academic language. According to the government's language policy for higher education "the notion of Afrikaans universities runs counter to the end goal of a transformed higher education system".


title: Volkstaat

text: The Freedom Front has been the major political driving force for the formation of a Volkstaat. This Afrikaner-focused political party has representation in the national Parliament as well as several Provincial legislatures in South Africa. Support for this party has however decreased to just under 140,000 votes, being less than 1% of the total votes cast (approximately 20% among registered Afrikaner voters) by the 2004 national elections. The Freedom Front advocates following the Belgium, Canada and Spain models of granting territorial autonomy to linguistic minorities, believing it the only way to protect the rights of Afrikaner people. Under this policy, it proposes the creation of an Afrikaner homeland, comprising the area that lies in the North Western Cape between the West Coast and the Orange River.


title: Volkstaat

text: The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging made headlines in March 2008 for their re-activation and plans of establishing an independent Boer state. Plans include a demand for land, such as Stellaland and Goshen, that they claim is legally theirs in terms of the Sand River Convention of 1852 and other historical treaties, through the International Court of Justice in The Hague if necessary.


title: Volkstaat

text: Die Boeremag ("The Farmer-Might") was a violent Boer separatist organisation. Most of its members were arrested in 2003, and are facing charges of treason. Similar violent methods towards Volkstaat were employed by the Orde van die Dood in the 1980s.


title: Volkstaat

text: One Volkstaat attempt is the small town of Orania in the Northern Cape province. The land on which Orania is built is privately owned, and Afrikaners have been encouraged by promoters of the Volkstaat concept to move to Orania, although only a small number has responded, resulting in a population of 519 in 2001, 10 years after being established. Support for Orania recently seems to be growing somewhat with their recent economic "boom". Today, Orania is home to about 3,000 Afrikaners but has approximately 7,000 'uitwoners' or 'outhabitants' who are part of the Orania Movement. Orania is currently petitioning the government to become a separate municipality and in the meantime their (transitional) representative council will remain in place indefinitely with all its powers, rights and duties.


title: Volkstaat

text: Another attempt is the settlement of Kleinfontein outside Pretoria (in the Tshwane metropolitan area). Kleinfontein falls within the metropolitan area of Tshwane. In 2013 Tshwane recognized Kleinfontein as cultural community. Members of the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance have denounced the settlement and the continued existence of whites only settlements in post-apartheid South Africa.


title: Volkstaat

text: Section 235 of the South African Constitution allows for the right to self-determination of a community, within the framework of "the right of the South African people as a whole to self-determination", and pursuant to national legislation. This section of the constitution was one of the negotiated settlements during the handing over of political power in 1994. The Freedom Front was instrumental in including this section in the constitution. No national legislation in this regard has yet been enacted for any ethnic group, however.


title: Volkstaat

text: International law presents a recourse for the establishment of a Volkstaat over and above than what the South African Constitution offers. Thus is available to all minorities who wish to obtain self-determination in the form of independence. The requirements set by international law are explained by Prof C. Lloyd Brown-John of the University of Windsor (Canada), as follows: "A minority who are geographically separate and who are distinct ethnically and culturally and who have been placed in a position of subordination may have a right to secede. That right, however, could only be exercised if there is a clear denial of political, linguistic, cultural and religious rights." The rights awarded to minorities were formally asserted by the United Nations General Assembly when it adopted resolution 47/135 on 18 December 1992. However, it is questionable whether this applies to Afrikaners, as there is no municipality in South Africa in which white, Afrikaans-speaking citizens represent a majority.


title: Volkstaat

text: On 5 June 1998, Mohammed Valli Moosa (then minister of constitutional development in the African National Congress (ANC) government) stated during a parliamentary budget debate that "the ideal of some Afrikaners to develop the North Western Cape as a home for the Afrikaner culture and language within the framework of the Constitution and the charter of human rights is viewed by the government as a legitimate ideal."


title: Volkstaat

text: On 23 July 2014, members of an Afrikaner group who call themselves the "Boer-Afrikaner Volksraad" announced forthcoming talks with the South African government around the concept of territorial self-determination for "Boer Afrikaner people". The talks would include either President Jacob Zuma, his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, or both; and would be held before the end of August 2014.


title: Chris Buck

text: Christopher James Buck (born February 24, 1958) is an American film director, animator, and screenwriter known for co-directing "Tarzan" (1999), "Surf's Up" (2007) (which was nominated for the 2007 Oscar for Best Animated Feature), "Frozen" (2013), which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2014, and "Frozen II" (2019). He also worked as a supervising animator and story artist on "Pocahontas" (1995) and "Home on the Range" (2004).


title: Chris Buck

text: He has won for one Academy Award, Annie Award and BAFTA Award, and has been nominated for two Academy, two BAFTA and five Annie Awards.


title: Chris Buck

text: A native of Wichita, Kansas, Buck was inspired to explore animation by the first film he ever saw in a movie theatre as a child: "Pinocchio" (1940). His family eventually moved to Placentia, California, where he graduated from El Dorado High School.


title: Chris Buck

text: Buck studied character animation for two years at CalArts, where he also taught from 1988 to 1993. At CalArts, Buck became friends with both John Lasseter and Michael Giaimo. He began his career as an animator with Disney in 1978.


title: Chris Buck

text: Besides his work as a co-director on "Tarzan", Buck's other credits at Disney also include the 1995 animated feature "Pocahontas", where he oversaw the animation of three central characters: Percy, Grandmother Willow, and Wiggins. Buck also helped design characters for the 1989 animated feature "The Little Mermaid", performed experimental animation for "The Rescuers Down Under" (1990) and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), and was an animator on "The Fox and the Hound" (1981) and "The Black Cauldron" (1985).


title: Chris Buck

text: Buck helped develop several films at Hyperion Pictures and served as a directing animator on the feature "Bébé's Kids". He storyboarded Tim Burton's live-action featurette "Frankenweenie" (1984) and worked with Burton again as directing animator on the Brad Bird-directed "Family Dog" episode of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" and as director of the subsequent primetime animated series.


title: Chris Buck

text: Buck's credits include a number of animated commercials (including some with the Keebler Elves) for such Los Angeles-based production entities as FilmFair, Kurtz & Friends, and Duck Soup.


title: Chris Buck

text: In 2008, Buck's old friend Lasseter, by then Disney Animation's chief creative officer, persuaded him to come back to Disney from Sony. Around September 2008, Buck pitched three ideas to Lasseter, one of which was a fairytale musical version of "The Snow Queen"; Lasseter liked the idea and authorized Buck to proceed with development. After it was put on hold during 2010, the film was officially announced in December 2011 under the title "Frozen", with a release date of November 27, 2013. In turn, Buck persuaded Giaimo to come back to Disney to serve as the film's art director, for which Giaimo would go on to win the Annie Award for Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production.


title: Chris Buck

text: In September 2014, it was announced that Buck and Lee would co-direct a short film based on the "Frozen" characters called "Frozen Fever". It was released in March 2015, alongside "Cinderella".


title: Chris Buck

text: On March 12, 2015, Disney announced that Buck and Lee would co-direct "Frozen II", the sequel to "Frozen". It was released in November 2019.


title: Chris Buck

text: Buck is married to Shelley Rae Hinton Buck, an Emmy and Oscar Award winner in sound editing. They have three sons, Ryder, Woody, and Reed.


title: Chris Buck

text: Their oldest son, Ryder, died at age 23 on October 27, 2013, in a car collision, when he was hit by two cars after his car broke down on the Glendale Freeway. Ryder was a singer and songwriter performing in his band Ryder Buck and the Breakers, and was recovering from a year-long battle with a Stage 4 testicular cancer. On March 2, 2014, upon accepting the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for co-directing "Frozen" at the 86th Academy Awards, Buck dedicated the award to his son Ryder. The tragedy was an inspiration for the song "The Next Right Thing" in "Frozen II", as well as a character named "Ryder."


title: Sylvester Magee

text: Sylvester Magee (claimed May 29, 1841 – October 15, 1971) claimed to be the last living former American slave. He received much publicity and was accepted for treatment by the Mississippi Veterans Hospital as a veteran of the American Civil War. If this claim were true, Magee would not only have been the last surviving American Civil War veteran, but the oldest recorded person to have ever lived.