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29150375 | Table tennis at the 2010 Commonwealth Games – Men's doubles | 2010-10-11 07:20:10+00:00 | The Men's doubles competition began on 10 October 2010. There were a total of XX competitors. |
29153595 | Table tennis at the 2010 Commonwealth Games – Men's singles | 2010-10-11 16:23:30+00:00 | Table tennis at the 2010 Commonwealth Games men's singles competition began on 9 October 2010 and concluded on 14 October. Sharath Kamal Achanta was the defending champion but lost to Yang Zi in semi-finals. Yang Zi went on to win the gold medal defeating top seed Gao Ning in final. Sharath Kamal won bronze medal by defeating compatriot Soumyadeep Roy.
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29049971 | Table tennis at the 2010 Commonwealth Games – Men's team | 2010-10-04 03:07:06+00:00 | The Men's team competition began on 4 October 2010. There were a total of 25 teams.
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4 October
5 October
6 October
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4 October
5 October
6 October
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4 October
5 October
6 October
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4 October
5 October
6 October
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4 October
5 October
6 October
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4 October
5 October
6 October |
29150275 | Table tennis at the 2010 Commonwealth Games – Mixed doubles | 2010-10-11 07:04:11+00:00 | The Mixed doubles competition began on 10 October 2010. There were a total of XX competitors. |
75889019 | Asexual flag | 2024-01-23 01:14:14+00:00 | The asexual flag was created in 2010 by a member of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). The flag features four horizontal stripes of equal size. From top to bottom, the stripes are black, gray, white, and purple. The black stripe represents asexuality, the gray stripe represents gray-asexuality and demisexuality, the white stripe represents sexuality or allosexuality (or, sometimes, allies), and the purple stripe represents the community as a whole. The flag is often flown at pride events and is used to represent the asexual community.
The flag design has been widely accepted and has become a symbol of asexuality. |
64794709 | Flag of Cimișlia | 2020-08-09 17:26:15+00:00 | The flag of Cimișlia (Romanian: Drapelul Cimișliei) is the official flag of the city of Cimișlia, in the Cimișlia District, Moldova. It is a simple horizontal tricolor, composed of blue stripes at the top and bottom and a yellow one in the middle. Blue represents the sky and other values and elements, while yellow signifies the richness of Cimișlia's cereals, very important in the history of the city. Previous proposals included the inclusion in the canton (corner) of the coat of arms of the city or a Tatar symbol called danga in Romanian.
The process for the adoption of a flag for Cimișlia was long. It began with a request by the mayor in March 2007. A contest was organized, but the proposals sent were ultimately rejected and the Cimișlia City Council asked the National Heraldry Commission (CNH) and a local painter for assistance. They designed a flag that after long discussions and changes was adopted on 30 June 2010.
The city of Cimișlia has a rectangular flag with a 2:3 ratio. It is blue, with a yellow bar covering one fifth of the flag. Blue represents the color of the sky, infinity, dreams and a peaceful and free life. On the other hand, yellow represents the richness of cereals. Cimișlia was a highly important locality due to its cereal trade, which managed to exceeded 500,000 rubles. Today, agriculture remains important in the city's economy. According to one of the authors of the flag, it was designed using vexillological methods based on the coat of arms, preserving all its meanings.
In March 2007, the mayor of Cimișlia, Ion Alexandreanu, requested the collaboration of the National Heraldry Commission (CNH) to create a coat of arms and flag for the city. The preparatory documentation for this lasted a year, and in early 2008, a competition was announced. Participants would send their submissions for a coat of arms and flag, being 12 March 2008 the deadline. Contest winners would win two cash prizes of 1000 lei (almost $100 then) each. On 10 March, the Cimișlia City Council issued a decision setting up a commission to elaborate the city's symbols and approving its working regulations. This commission consisted of ten people. The president was the mayor Gheorghe Răileanu (who had replaced Alexandreanu), while the secretary was Radion Nechit, a specialist in juvenile and sportive problems. Another notable member was the vice mayor Sergiu Pleșca, whose actions were decisive during the process in later years.
The winner of the contest was the geography teacher Eremei Lavric. He received the award of 1000 lei and became the leader of the process for the adoption of a flag and coat of arms. For the former, he had a proposal. It would consist of a horizontal bicolor flag composed of a yellow strip and a lilac one, with the coat of arms he proposed in the middle. Lavric's proposals presented several artistic, heraldic and semantic problems, and some of the elements he used were not considered sufficiently "individualizing" by the local authorities.
At the end of 2008, the Cimișlia City Council requested the assistance of the CNH and the painter Victor Hristov, a native of Cimișlia, to make new designs. Therefore, the heraldist and vexillologist Silviu Andrieș-Tabac (a member of the CNH) made a flag, painted by Hristov. It was rectangular with a blue background and a yellow strip in the middle. In addition, it had a danga (a tool for livestock) in the canton (corner). This danga, also yellow, represented a Tatar tribe known in Romanian as the ciumeci from which the name of Cimișlia originates. The danga consisted of a ring with a line, straight at first and inverted at the end. This tricolor was supported and liked by various citizens. Regarding the coat of arms, Hristov and Andrieș-Tabac designed a project.
Both proposals were drawn up in December 2008 and artistically and technically defined at the end of March 2009. After this, they were presented to the local authorities. The mayor of Cimișlia, with doubts about their quality, requested on 2 June 2009 an examination by the CNH of the two symbols to discuss them later in a city council meeting. The local authorities decided to separate the question of the flag and the coat of arms and on 16 June, they approved the coat of arms for the city. The CNH approved the coat of arms and the flag on 18 June, and later, it suggested the creation of alternative flag projects the City Council could agree with.
Andrieș-Tabac tried to convince the local authorities to use the original project, and on 4 February 2010, the Cimișlia City Council approved the flag, replacing the danga with the city's coat of arms after debating the possibility. The latter is composed of a Roman silver balance in whose weighing pan is a golden ear of grain. The same day, the regulations for the use of the flag were approved. In order to start raising the flag over the town hall of the city, the CNH had to approve this flag first. However, the CNH rejected it on 26 May, reporting that it did not follow vexillological rules as the coat of arms at the corner of the flag was very complicated and unrecognizable from a certain distance. The CNH proposed reusing the original project or removing any emblem from the canton. At the end, on 30 June 2010, the City Council approved a flag with nothing in the corner. The danga was kept in the coat of arms.
The adoption of the flag and the coat of arms was ultimately confirmed on 25 March 2015 after the decision nr. 324-IV.01 of the CNH.
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Andrieș-Tabac, Silviu (2012). "Stemele și drapelele orașelor Anenii Noi, Cimișlia, Fălești, Leova, Nisporeni". Tyragetia (in Romanian). 6 (2): 321–333.
"Simbolurile orașului" (in Romanian). Primăria Orașului Cimișlia. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
"Cimișlia va avea curind propriul drapel". Radio Media (in Romanian). 18 February 2010.
Șlapac, Mariana (25 March 2015). "Decizie nr. 324 din 25-03-2015 cu privire la includerea unor simboluri urbane în Armorialul General al Republicii Moldova" (in Romanian). National Heraldry Commission. Retrieved 9 August 2020. |
30352324 | Gay flag of South Africa | 2011-01-07 11:13:02+00:00 | The gay flag of South Africa is a pride flag that aims to reflect the freedom and diversity of South Africa and build pride in being an LGBTQ South African. It was registered as the flag of the LGBTQ Association of South Africa in 2012 and is not an official symbol of South Africa.
Designed by Eugene Brockman, the flag is a hybrid of the South African national flag, which was launched in 1994 after the end of the apartheid era, and the LGBT rainbow flag. Brockman said "I truly believe we (the LGBT community) put the dazzle into our rainbow nation and this flag is a symbol of just that". The stated purposes of the flag include celebrating legal same-sex marriage in South Africa and addressing issues such as discrimination, homophobia and corrective rape.
The flag was launched on 18 December 2010 at the Mother City Queer Project costume party which is held annually and took place that year at the new Cape Town Stadium.
On 20 July 2012, the flag was registered at South Africa's Bureau of Heraldry as a heraldic flag representing the LGBT Association of South Africa. It is not an official national symbol, and not the only South African version of the LGBT rainbow flag. |
62275122 | Lesbian flags | 2019-11-07 02:12:18+00:00 | Various lesbian flags have been used to symbolise the lesbian community. Since 1999, many designs have been proposed and used. Although personal preferences exist, as well as various controversies, no design has been widely accepted by the community as the lesbian flag.
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The labrys lesbian flag was created in 1999 by graphic designer Sean Campbell, and published in June 2000 in the Palm Springs edition of the Gay and Lesbian Times Pride issue. The design involves a labrys, a type of double-headed axe, superimposed on the inverted black triangle, set against a violet background. Among its functions, the labrys was associated as a weapon used by the Amazons of mythology. In the 1970s it was adopted as a symbol of empowerment by the lesbian feminist community. Women considered asocial by Nazi Germany for not conforming to the Nazi ideal of a woman, which included homosexual females, were condemned to concentration camps and wore an inverted black triangle badge to identify them. Some lesbians reclaimed this symbol as gay men reclaimed the pink triangle (many lesbians also reclaimed the pink triangle although lesbians were not included in Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code). The color violet became associated with lesbians via the poetry of Sappho.
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The lipstick lesbian flag was introduced in 2010 in the weblog This Lesbian Life. The design contains a red kiss in the left corner, superimposed on seven stripes consisting of six shades of red and pink colors and a white bar in the center. The lipstick lesbian flag represents "homosexual women who have a more feminine gender expression", however it has not been widely adopted. Some lesbians have argued that the lipstick flag does not also represent butch lesbians, while others oppose its use due to controversial comments made by the flag's designer on her blog.
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The "pink" lesbian flag was derived from the colors of the lipstick lesbian flag, with the kiss mark excluded. The pink flag attracted more use as a general lesbian pride flag.
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The "orange-pink" lesbian flag, modeled after the seven-band pink flag, was introduced on Tumblr by blogger Emily Gwen in 2018. The colors include dark orange for "gender non-conformity", orange for "independence", light orange for "community", white for "unique relationships to womanhood", pink for "serenity and peace", dusty pink for "love and sex", and dark rose for "femininity". A five-stripes version was soon derived from the 2018 colors.
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34014556 | Alma Fiesta | 2011-12-10 18:28:16+00:00 | Alma Fiesta (Spanish trsl: Festival of the Soul) is the annual socio-cultural festival of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar. It is a three-day-long event usually held during the second week of January every year. The first edition of Alma Fiesta took place in 2010. It was inaugurated by Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha.
Alma Fiesta, the socio-cultural festival of IIT Bhubaneswar is conducted solely by the efforts of the students of IIT Bhubaneswar. All the activities of the fest such as Marketing, Publicity, Events management, Design and Decoration, is managed by the students.
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Alma Fiesta organizes three mega star nites, one on each of the three evenings of the fest.
The three shows include :
Leela
Leela is the Indian Classical Music/Dance show.
Head Bang
Headbang is the heavy-metal star nite.
Lamhe
Lamhe is the Bollywood musical night of Alma. Alma Fiesta 2011 has played host to Krishna Beura and the next edition witnessed a performance by Bandish. Last year saw a performance by Nikhil D'souza, a Bollywood playback singer. Hindi poet Kumar Vishwas.
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At Alma Fiesta, competitions cover art, music, dance, and drama. Euphony, the band competition witnesses bands from all over the country.
Literary Events
Perspective - The social case study competition. Presented in association with the SNSMT. The winner is awarded SNSMT-IIT BBSR Social Change Maker Award. The award was won by Ipsit Bibhudarshi and Barsha Behera of IGIT Sarang for the year 2012.
Litspree - Anagrams, charades, extempore, spelling bee and crosswords
Gone in Sixty Seconds - The Alma Fiesta version of the single minute extempore
Fine Arts events
Leaf It Up - The leaf collage competition
Shadez - An event for pencil sketching
Blind Strokes - A blind folded drawing competition
Trash Can Novelties - An event to create art by recycling junk.
Other events
Alma Fiesta Youth Quiz - A general quizzing event
Run against the AIDS - A youth marathon to spread awareness against AIDS
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Model United Nations involves researching, public speaking, debating, and writing skills, in addition to critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership abilities. Participants in Model UN conferences, known as delegates, are placed in committees and assigned countries, or occasionally other organizations or political figures, where they represent members of that body. |
72102901 | Archtober | 2022-10-26 00:24:26+00:00 | Archtober is a citywide celebration of architecture in New York City organized by the Center for Architecture. The festival's name is a portmanteau of architecture and October, the month in which it is celebrated.
The festival is known for its Building of the Day highlight, which provides a focus on a specific building or architect thereof, but also includes exhibits and other public programs that celebrate architecture and design. |
35350967 | Atlanta Fringe Festival | 2012-04-06 18:47:16+00:00 | The Atlanta Fringe Festival was conceived in 2010 by a small group of art and theatre lovers. The festival debuted in Atlanta, Georgia. May 9–13, 2012. The festival has attracted performers from all over the United States, including actors, dancers, comedians and aerialists. In its inaugural year, the Atlanta Fringe Festival received over 40 performance submissions. Like the original Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Atlanta Fringe is a non-juried event that showcases both professional and experimental theatre. Unlike the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which started on the fringe of the Edinburgh International Festival, the Atlanta Fringe isn’t based on a main festival. AFF is currently accepting submissions for the second annual edition of the festival, slated for June 6–9, 2013.
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The Atlanta Fringe Festival is nonjuried—judges do not select the shows appearing in the festival. Instead, the performers submitted applications and were chosen by lottery. In 2012, there will be 29 opportunities to see the shows offered by the festival. During the Atlanta Fringe, the performances will be available at six venues including Beacon Dance, Core Dance, Mask Center, Horizons School Theatre, Horizons School Gym and Wonderroot.
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The Atlanta Fringe Festival is the first Fringe to have a radio play component. The audio submissions will be made available on the festival’s website. There is a $2 fee for listeners to gain access to Radio Fringe. The categories for Radio Fringe include radio plays, storytelling and sound art. The artists were selected on a first-come, first-served basis.
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On March 31, 2012 the Atlanta Fringe Festival hosted its inaugural Easter Art Hunt in Grant Park, the fourth largest park in Atlanta. At this event, participants searched for and kept free artwork from Atlanta-area artists. Hundreds of people found over 100 art pieces hidden throughout Grant Park.
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Early in 2012, the Atlanta Fringe offered five business workshops for artists. The workshop facilitators were professionals in their respective areas. The topics discussed at the workshops were managing volunteers, producing a show, copyrighting original works, grant writing and corporate funding.
Diana Brown, Executive Director
Molly Kristyn, Director of Operations
Cherry DelRosario, Design Director
Brittany Harper, Marketing & Ticketing Manager
Michael Tesney, Radio Director
Rachel Teagle, Volunteer Coordinator
Evelyn Danielle, Workshop Coordinator
Nadia Morgan, Production Coordinator
Jessica L. Bodiford, Development Coordinator
Armond Brown, Development Coordinator
Laura Bayless, Hospitality Coordinator
Tessa Buffington, Legal Liaison |
69515069 | Black Beer Festival | 2021-12-14 23:38:17+00:00 | The Black Beer Festival (Spanish: Fiesta de la Cerveza Negra) is a craft beer festival in Valdivia, Southern Chile. The festival was originally organised in the first week of July 2010 by a consortium of the beer companies Calle Calle, Valbier, Cuello Negro and KM 858. The first edition consisted of a business meeting in Hotel Dreams Valdivia followed by a public event at the Isla Teja Campus of the Austral University of Chile. Following its first edition the festival has been held in Parque SAVAL. The festival is sponsored by the National Tourist Service (SERNATUR). The festival has been variously held the first, second or third week of July each year. |
50547532 | Chilled in a Field Festival | 2016-05-15 12:48:05+00:00 | Chilled in a Field Festival is a small, family-friendly music festival in the United Kingdom. First run in 2010, in 2014 it was listed by The Guardian as one of their Top 25 summer festivals for music and arts lovers, foodies and families, and given a Gold Award by the family festival review website Festival Kidz. The festival now draws an attendance of 1,500+, having grown from an attendance of only 120 people in its first year.
The festival was first held in Hawkhurst, Kent, and has also been held at The Hop Farm Country Park in Paddock Wood. and at Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum in Sussex. Bands headlining the festival have included The Egg, Cocos Lovers, She Drew The Gun, and Tankus the Henge. The festival was most recently held in 2019. As of 2022 it is on indefinite hiatus as the result of financial difficulties arising from missing 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
27446030 | 2010 British Academy Television Awards | 2010-05-23 11:29:01+00:00 | The 2010 British Academy Television Awards were held on 6 June 2010. The nominations were announced on 10 May.
This year new awards were added including the award for Best Actor/Actress in a Supporting Role. Graham Norton hosted the ceremony. Winners are in bold.
Best Actor
Kenneth Branagh – Wallander (BBC One)
Brendan Gleeson – Into the Storm (BBC Two)
John Hurt – An Englishman in New York (ITV)
David Oyelowo – Small Island (BBC One)
Best Actress
Helena Bonham Carter – Enid (BBC Four)
Sophie Okonedo – Mrs Mandela (BBC Four)
Julie Walters – A Short Stay in Switzerland (BBC One)
Julie Walters – Mo (Channel 4)
Best Supporting Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch – Small Island (BBC One)
Tom Hollander – Gracie! (BBC Four)
Gary Lewis – Mo (Channel 4)
Matthew Macfadyen – Criminal Justice (BBC One)
Best Supporting Actress
Rebecca Hall – Red Riding 1974 (Channel 4)
Sophie Okonedo – Criminal Justice (BBC One)
Lauren Socha – The Unloved (Channel 4)
Imelda Staunton – Cranford (BBC One)
Best Entertainment Performance
Stephen Fry – QI (BBC One)
Harry Hill – Harry Hill's TV Burp (ITV)
Anthony McPartlin & Declan Donnelly – I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (ITV)
Michael McIntyre – Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow (BBC One)
Best Female Performance in a Comedy Role
Jo Brand – Getting On (BBC Four)
Rebecca Front – The Thick of It (BBC Two)
Miranda Hart – Miranda (BBC Two)
Joanna Scanlan – Getting On (BBC Four)
Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role
Simon Bird – The Inbetweeners (E4)
Peter Capaldi – The Thick of It (BBC Two)
Hugh Dennis – Outnumbered Christmas Special (BBC One)
David Mitchell – Peep Show (Channel 4)
Best Single Drama
A Short Stay in Switzerland (BBC One)
Five Minutes of Heaven (BBC Two)
Mo (Channel 4)
The Unloved (Channel 4)
Best Drama Series
Being Human (BBC Three)
Misfits (E4)
Spooks (BBC One)
The Street (BBC One)
Best Drama Serial
Occupation (BBC One)
Red Riding (Channel 4)
Small Island (BBC One)
Unforgiven (ITV)
Best Continuing Drama
The Bill (ITV)
Casualty (BBC One)
Coronation Street (ITV)
EastEnders (BBC One)
Best International Programme
Family Guy (BBC Three)
Mad Men (BBC Four)
Nurse Jackie (BBC Two)
True Blood (FX)
Best Factual Series
Blood, Sweat and Takeaways (BBC Three)
The Family (Channel 4)
One Born Every Minute (Channel 4)
Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One)
Best Specialist Factual
Art of Russia (BBC Four)
Chemistry: A Volatile History (BBC Four)
Inside Nature's Giants (Channel 4)
Yellowstone (BBC Two)
Best Single Documentary
Katie: My Beautiful Face (Channel 4)
Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles (BBC Two)
Tsunami: Caught on Camera (Channel 4)
Wounded (BBC One)
Best Feature
The Choir: Unsung Town (BBC Two)
Heston's Feasts (Channel 4)
James May's Toy Stories (BBC Two)
Masterchef: The Professionals (BBC Two)
Best Current Affairs
Dispatches – Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines (Channel 4)
Generation Jihad (BBC Two)
This World – Gypsy Child Thieves (BBC Two)
Dispatches – Terror in Mumbai (Channel 4)
Best News Coverage
The Haiti Earthquake (BBC News Channel)
Haiti Earthquake (Channel 4 News)
Haiti (ITV News at Ten)
Pakistan: Terror's Frontline (Sky News)
Best Sport
F1 – The Brazilian Grand Prix (BBC One/BBC Sport)
2009 FA Cup Final (ITV/ITV Sport)
World Athletics Championships (BBC Two/BBC Sport)
UEFA Champions League Live (ITV/ITV Sport)
New Media
Antony Gormley's One & Other
Life Begins (One Born Every Minute)
Primeval Evolved
The Virtual Revolution
Best Entertainment Programme
Britain's Got Talent (ITV)
The Graham Norton Show (BBC One)
Harry Hill's TV Burp (ITV)
Newswipe with Charlie Brooker (BBC Four)
Best Comedy Programme
The Armstrong and Miller Show (BBC One)
The Kevin Bishop Show (Channel 4)
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (BBC Two)
That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC Two)
Best Situation Comedy
The Inbetweeners (E4)
Miranda (BBC Two)
Peep Show (Channel Four)
The Thick of It (BBC Two)
YouTube Audience Award
Britain's Got Talent (ITV)
Glee (E4)
The Inbetweeners (E4)
The One Show (BBC One)
The X Factor (ITV)
Unforgiven (ITV)
Special Award
Simon Cowell
BAFTA Fellowship
Melvyn Bragg |
27510062 | 2010 Dissolution Honours | 2010-05-28 20:32:24+00:00 | The 2010 Dissolution Honours List was issued on 28 May 2010 at the advice of the outgoing Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The list was gazetted on 15 June.
Conservative
Timothy Eric Boswell, former Whip and Parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Angela Frances Browning, former Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Rt Hon. John Selwyn Gummer, former Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and held other senior posts in government and opposition.
Rt Hon. Michael Howard, , former Home Secretary, Leader of the Conservative Party, and held other senior posts in government and opposition.
John Craddock Maples, former Economic Secretary, and held other senior posts in government and opposition.
Sir Michael Spicer, former Government Minister for Housing and Chairman of Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.
Labour
Rt Hon. Hilary Jane Armstrong, former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for Social Exclusion, and held other senior posts in government.
Rt Hon. Desmond (Des) Henry Browne, former Secretary of State for Defence and held other senior posts in government.
Rt Hon. Quentin Davies, former Government Minister, Defence.
Rt Hon. Beverley Hughes, former Minister of State, Children, Schools and Families.
Rt Hon. John Hutton, former Secretary of State for Business, and held other senior posts in government.
Rt Hon. James (Jim) Philip Knight, Former Minister of State.
Rt Hon. Tommy McAvoy, former Government Deputy Chief Whip.
Rt Hon. John McFall, former Chair of Treasury Select Committee and MP for West Dunbartonshire.
Rt Hon. John Leslie Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State, and held other senior posts in government.
Rt Hon. Dr John Reid, former Home Secretary, and held other senior posts in government.
Rt Hon. Angela Evans Smith (of Basildon), former Minister of State, Cabinet Office.
Rt Hon. James Donnelly (Don) Touhig, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Veterans), Ministry of Defence.
Rt Hon. Michael David Wills, former Minister of State, Ministry of Justice.
Liberal Democrats
Richard Allan, former MP for Sheffield Hallam and Chair of the Information Select Committee.
Matthew Owen John Taylor, former MP for Truro and St Austell, Chair of National Housing Federation.
George Philip (Phil) Willis, former MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Former Chair of Science and Technology Select Committee.
Democratic Unionist Party
Rt Hon. Ian R K Paisley, former First Minister and DUP Leader.
Crossbench
Sir Ian Blair, former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
Conservative
Guy Vaughan Black, former Director of Press Complaints Commission and executive director of Telegraph Media Group.
Dame Margaret Eaton, , Chairman of Local Government Association.
Edward Peter Lawless Faulks, , barrister, leading practitioner, crime and personal injuries practice.
John Gardiner, Deputy Chief Executive of Countryside Alliance.
Helen Margaret Newlove, campaigner against anti-social behaviour.
Doral Amarshi Popat, businessman, Chief Executive of TLC Group, specialising in healthcare and hospitality.
Shireen Olive Ritchie, Local Government Councillor, specialises in areas of adult and children's social care.
Deborah Stedman-Scott, , Chief Executive of Tomorrow's People, national employment charity working in deprived areas of UK.
Nat Wei, a member of Teach First's founding team and also a founder of Future Leaders.
Hon Simon Adam Wolfson, Chief Executive of NEXT plc.
Labour
Sir Jeremy Hugh Beecham, ,- senior figure in English local government and first Chairman of the Local Government Association.
Rt Hon. Paul Boateng, former Government Minister and MP for Brent South.
Rita Margaret Donaghy, , former Chair Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
Jeannie Drake, former Deputy General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union.
Dr Dianne Hayter, Chair of Legal Services Consumer Panel.
Anna Healy, former Government and political adviser, serving in numerous government departments.
Roy Kennedy, Labour Party's Director of Finance and Compliance, long serving member of the Labour Party.
Rt Hon. Helen Liddell, former Secretary State of Scotland.
Roger John Liddle, former Special Adviser on Europe.
Rt Hon. Dr Jack Wilson McConnell, former First Minister of Scotland.
John Monks, General Secretary, European Trades Union Confederation.
Sue Nye, former Director of Government Relations, Prime Minister's Office.
Maeve Sherlock , former Chief Executive of the Refugee Council and Former Special Advisor to Chancellor.
Robert Wilfrid (Wilf) Stevenson, former Director of the Smith Institute and Special Adviser to the PM.
Margaret Wheeler, , Director of Organisation and Staff Development for the public service union UNISON.
Michael Williams, former Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs.
Liberal Democrats
Floella Benjamin, , actor, presenter and campaigner for children's issues.
Mike German, , former Deputy First Minister (Wales).
Meral Hussein Ece, , Local Government Councillor in Islington, advocate of equality issues.
Sir Kenneth (Ken) Macdonald, , former Director of Public Prosecutions.
Kathryn (Kate) Jane Parminter, former Chief Executive of Campaign to Protect Rural England.
John Shipley, , leading Local Government Councillor in Newcastle upon Tyne.
William (Bill) O’Brien, former MP for Normanton 1983–2005.
Rt Hon. Ian McCartney, former Minister of State, FCO and DTI and held other senior posts in government.
Outgoing Labour MP Keith Hill claimed he was offered a knighthood but declined it, saying he would find the title "embarrassing". |
38004265 | 2010 Evening Standard Theatre Awards | 2012-12-23 00:17:15+00:00 | The 2010 Evening Standard Theatre Awards were announced on 29 November 2010. The shortlist was revealed on 22 November 2010 and the longlist on 25 October 2010.
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Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (Royal Court)
Cock by Mike Bartlett (Royal Court)
Sucker Punch by Roy Williams (Royal Court)
Longlisted
The Big Fellah by Richard Bean (Lyric Hammersmith)
The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett (National's Lyttelton)
Beautiful Burnout by Bryony Lavery (York Hall)
Ruined by Lynn Nottage (Almeida)
Posh by Laura Wade (Royal Court)
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Howard Davies for The White Guard (National's Lyttelton) & All My Sons (Apollo)
Nicholas Hytner for The Habit of Art (National's Lyttelton) & London Assurance (National's Olivier) & Hamlet (National's Olivier)
Laurie Sansom for Beyond the Horizon and Spring Storm (National's Cottesloe)
Thea Sharrock for After the Dance (National's Lyttelton)
Longlisted
Dominic Cooke for Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Rupert Goold for Romeo and Juliet (RSC Stratford) & Earthquakes in London (National's Cottesloe)
Michael Grandage for Red (Donmar Warehouse) & Danton's Death (National's Olivier)
Jeremy Herrin for Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
Joe Hill-Gibbins for The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic)
James MacDonald for Cock (Royal Court)
Roger Michell for Rope (Almeida)
Lyndsey Turner for Posh (Royal Court)
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Rory Kinnear, Measure for Measure (Almeida) & Hamlet (National's Olivier)
Roger Allam, Henry IV Parts One and Two (Shakespeare's Globe)
David Suchet, All My Sons (Apollo)
Longlisted
Bertie Carvel, Rope (Almeida)
Benedict Cumberbatch, After the Dance (National's Lyttelton)
Martin Freeman, Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Alex Jennings, The Habit of Art (National's Lyttelton)
Adrian Lester, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Novello)
Alfred Molina, Red (Donmar Warehouse)
Jonathan Pryce, The Caretaker (Trafalgar Studios)
Simon Russell Beale, London Assurance (National's Olivier) & Deathtrap (Noël Coward)
Adrian Scarborough, After the Dance (National's Lyttelton)
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Nancy Carroll, After the Dance (National's Lyttelton)
Elena Roger, Passion (Donmar Warehouse)
Sheridan Smith, Legally Blonde (Savoy)
Sophie Thompson, Clybourne Park (Royal Court)
Longlisted
Gemma Arterton, The Little Dog Laughed (Garrick)
Judi Dench, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Rose, Kingston)
Tamsin Greig, The Little Dog Laughed (Garrick)
Jenny Jules, Ruined (Almeida)
Keira Knightley, The Misanthrope (Comedy Theatre)
Amanda Lawrence, Jiggery Pokery (BAC) & Henry VIII (Shakespeare's Globe)
Rosaleen Linehan, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic)
Helen McCrory, The Late Middle Classes (Donmar Warehouse)
Lesley Manville, Six Degrees of Separation (Old Vic)
Anna Maxwell Martin, Measure for Measure (Almeida)
Fiona Shaw, London Assurance (National's Olivier)
Zoë Wanamaker, All My Sons (Apollo)
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Passion, Donmar Warehouse
Legally Blonde, Savoy Theatre
Les Misérables (2010), a Cameron Mackintosh production at Barbican Theatre
Longlisted
Hair, Gielgud Theatre
The Human Comedy, a Young Vic/The Opera Group production co-produced with Watford Palace Theatre
Sweet Charity, Menier Chocolate Factory, transferred to Theatre Royal Haymarket
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Miriam Buether for Sucker Punch (Royal Court) & Earthquakes in London (National's Cottesloe)
Bunny Christie for The White Guard (National's Lyttelton)
Christopher Oram for Passion (Donmar Warehouse) & Red (Donmar Warehouse)
Longlisted
Lez Brotherston for The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Vaudeville) & Measure for Measure (Almeida) & Women Beware Women (National's Olivier) & Design for Living (Old Vic)
Rob Howell for Private Lives (Vaudeville) & Deathtrap (Noël Coward)
Vicki Mortimer for The Cat in the Hat (National's Cottesloe; transferred to Young Vic)
Mark Thompson for London Assurance (National's Olivier)
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Anya Reiss for Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
DC Moore for The Empire (Royal Court)
Nick Payne for If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet (Bush) & Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Longlisted
James Graham for The Whisky Taster (Bush) & The Man (Finborough)
Atiha Sen Gupta for What Fatima Did (Hampstead)
Penelope Skinner for Eigengrau (Bush)
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You Me Bum Bum Train created by Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd (LEB Building, E2)
Melanie C for her performance in Blood Brothers (Phoenix Theatre)
Daniel Kaluuya for his performance in Sucker Punch (Royal Court)
Isabella Laughland for her performance in Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Shannon Tarbet for her performance in Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
Longlisted
Laura Dos Santos for her performance in Educating Rita (Menier Chocolate Factory, transferred to Trafalgar Studios)
Simon Godwin for his direction of Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Henry Lloyd-Hughes for his performances in Rope (Almeida) and Posh (Royal Court)
James McArdle for his performance in Spur of the Moment (Royal Court)
James Musgrave for his performance in Wanderlust (Royal Court)
Nikesh Patel for his performance in Disconnect (Royal Court)
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Daniel Kaluuya for his performance in Sucker Punch (Royal Court)
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Sir Michael Gambon for his contribution to theatre
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Sir Peter Hall
Sarah Sands, London Evening Standard
Henry Hitchings, London Evening Standard
Georgina Brown, Mail on Sunday
Susannah Clapp, The Observer
Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph
Matt Wolf, International Herald Tribune
Evgeny Lebedev, London Evening Standard |
62127489 | 2010 Man Booker Prize | 2019-10-22 06:29:36+00:00 | The 2010 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 12 October 2010. The Man Booker longlist of 13 books was announced on 27 July, and was narrowed down to a shortlist of six on 7 September. The Man Booker Prize was awarded to Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question.
Sir Andrew Motion (Chair)
Rosie Blau
Deborah Bull
Tom Sutcliffe
Frances Wilson |
44819053 | 2010 British Academy Scotland New Talent Awards | 2014-12-23 18:40:13+00:00 | The 2010 British Academy Scotland New Talent Awards were held on 19 March 2010 at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow. Presented by BAFTA Scotland, the accolades honour the best upcoming talent in the field of film and television in Scotland. The Nominees were announced on 10 March 2010.
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
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Maria's Way |
46465561 | Dun Ailline Druid Brotherhood | 2015-04-20 21:44:10+00:00 | The Dun Ailline Druid Brotherhood (also known as Dun Ailline or HDDA, Hermandad Druida Dun Ailline in Spanish) is a pagan organization for followers of the Celtic Neopaganism based in Spain in 2010, which supports the practice of a type of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism called Druidism, centered on the Celtic culture of Ireland, and whose principal deities are known as the Tuatha Dé Danann. Its members consider themselves practitioners of a European native religion and they call themselves creidim, a concept of Irish origin.
In Spain, the Dun Ailline Druidic Brotherhood is legally registered under the number and Irish name 2854-SG/A – Traidisiún na Beannach Fia Mór – Irish Reconstructionist Druid Tradition, being one of the first neopagan religions legally recognized in Spain, traditionally a Catholic country, with other organizations like the Fintan Druidic Order and the Celtiberic Wicca, among others.
The first revival of Druidism came from the hand of John Aubrey and John Toland. The September 21, 1716, day of the autumn equinox, the Druidic group of which John Toland was one of the members, was commissioned to proclaim symbolically at the top of Primrose Hill, and "facing the eye of light" (the sun), the call, for all Druids that may exist around the world, the assembly that was to take place on September 22, 1717 in London in the Apple Tree Tavern, Charles st., Coven garden. At the same time calls were sent by messengers to the various 'Bosquets or Groves' that were known to still exist. The delegates of the Druidic bardic circles and represented at the meeting of September 22, 1717 came from bosquets, groves or circles so far as London, York, Oxford, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Anglesey, Scotland, Ireland and Armorica in France, especially of the town of Nantes.
Subsequently, because of the Irish diaspora, a new nativist Druidic line, centered on the reconstructionism of the culture, spirituality and folklore of Ireland arises in United States. The creidim honor the deities known as Tuatha Dé Danann, headed by An Dagda and oldest Celtic deities like Cernunnos. The word creidim means believer in Gaeilge.
After the disappearance of the Ord Draiochta Na Uisnech (ODU, an Order set up by Kenn R. White) in 2009, this closed the Grove Magh Mor, a "grove" or community in Spain that ODU had dedicated to promoting the Tradition of the Great Stag. In 2010 Marta Vey founded the Dun Ailline Druid Brotherhood, in order to preserve and transmit the Tradition of the Great Stag. In the same year, 2010, a cultural association was created to focus on the reconstruction of Irish Paganism from the 6th-9th centuries, with the stated purpose to publicize their culture, customs and myths.
In October 2012, HDDA becomes recognized as a religious denomination by the Government of Spain.
In November 2012 was admitted as a full member of the Spanish Platform for Religious Freedom of Paganism, created with the purpose of obtaining legal rights to practitioners of pagan beliefs and serve as interlocutor with the Government of Spain.
In December 2014, the HDDA participates in the II Pagan Day held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, (Barcelona).
The organization is headed by the Ard droi / Ard Bandrui who legally represents the religious association, being also the religious leader of it.
HDDA base is formed by creidim. The priesthood is made by droi and Bandrui. Any creidim can access the priestly ordination if they meet the requirements.
In 2014, the founder Marta Vey was named Ard Bandrui by the priestly assembly, and was ratified as legal and religious representative of HDDA.
The creidim are organized into local groups that meet to hold various celebrations.
Seasonal Celebrations
Samhain, Mean Geimhridh, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Mean Samhraidh (see also Litha), Lughnassadh and the autumn Equinox, called Mean Foghamar (see also Mabon).
Gui and Devotions
Intraseasonal celebrations
The Four Pillars of Druidism and the Six Celtic Virtues, ethical code that suggest the behavior patterns of the creidim.
The Mythological Cycle (The Lebor Gabála Érenn, The First and Second battle of Cath Maige Tuired, Togail Bruidne Dá Derga,...)
The Ulster Cycle or Rúraíocht (Táin Bó Cúailnge, Lebor na hUidre...)
The Fenian Cycle, also known as Fiannaidheacht.
The Cycles of the Kings, (Immram), the travels to Tír na nÓg, among other tales and legends.
Other texts are the (Brehon Laws, Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael, the Druidic Triads...) |
48761599 | Zuism | 2015-12-08 11:03:44+00:00 | Zuism (Icelandic: Zúismi) is an Icelandic group established in the 2010s to be a modern Pagan new religious movement based on the Sumerian religion.
After registering as a religious group in 2013 with three members, the group experienced significant surge in membership in 2015, under new management, when it announced that the government church funds to the Zuist Church would be reimbursed to every member. At its peak, the Church had around 3000 members. In the late 2010s, the Church underwent a significant decline after facing a number of legal troubles, including being prosecuted for fraud.
The Zuist Church of Iceland was founded in 2010. Zuism became a government-recognised religion in Iceland in 2013 when Icelandic law was amended to allow further non-Christian religions to be registered with the state. The Zuist Church was founded years before, in 2010, by Ólafur Helgi Þorgrímsson, who left it shortly after it became government recognised. The group initially had three members with Ólafur Helgi Grímsson as the director and brothers Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson and Einar Ágústsson as board members. In 2015 the District Commissioner of northeast Iceland requested that the leaders or directors of the Zuist Church would come forward as the group had no members and no real activity in the years preceding.
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In late 2015 the Board of Directors of the Zuist Church of Iceland was hijacked by people who were originally unrelated to the movement. Under the new leader Ísak Andri Ólafsson, Zuism became a medium for a protest against the major government-supported churches and against the levying of a tax on all taxpayers, payable to their religion if they had registered one; after the protest started over 3,000 members joined in a short period at the end of 2015. Iceland requires taxpayers to identify with one of the religions recognised by the state, or with a non-recognised religion or no religion; a tax (of about US$80, £50 in 2015) is paid to the relevant religion, if recognised, but will run directly to the government if a religion is not stated. Zuism, unlike other religions, promised to refund the money back to its members that it receives from the tax.
Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson and the new board led by Ísak Andri Ólafsson started a judicial dispute over the leadership of the organisation. Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson was ultimately reinstated as the leader of the movement in 2016, and, by October 2017, after two years of frozen activity, the case was closed allowing the church to dispose of its charges and refund its members.
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In 2018 Ágúst Arnar said that the church needed housing as it had accumulated thousands of members in the last two to three years. In May of 2018, the Church applied to the Reykjavik City Council for a lot. With their request was a plan to build a ziggurat temple in Reykjavik. In June their request was denied.
In early 2019, the Icelandic government suspended parish tax payments to the Church, citing a lack of disclosure from the Church on how the money was being spent, despite Icelandic law requiring such disclosure. In response, the Zuist Church announced that it would be suing the government. In December 2019, Ágústsson announced his intention to dissolve the organisation, stating that he was tired of fighting legal battles.
In 2020, the Icelandic government launched a formal investigation into the group's activities. Later that year, the group was charged with fraud and money laundering after setting up shell companies to funnel the government funds that the church was receiving, to the founders. The founders had previously received sentences for various scams. In April 2022, they were acquitted on all charges. It is unknown if they will continue to run Zuism, although Ágúst had previously said that he was going to discontinue Zuism altogether as he was tired of fighting legal battles.
In 2021, the Zuist Church saw the largest decrease in membership among all religious organisations in Iceland. In March of 2021 the group still had 795 registered members. |
31757812 | Aryan Cargo Express | 2011-05-12 20:41:58+00:00 | Aryan Cargo Express was a cargo airline based in New Delhi, India.
It operated a single Airbus A310-300F. Plans for the introduction of an MD-11F did not materialize. In December 2010 the only aircraft of the airline was stored at Mumbai International Airport and the airline had ceased operations.
Belgium
Brussels - Brussels Airport
Hong Kong
Hong Kong - Hong Kong International Airport
India
Mumbai - Indira Gandhi International Airport Hub
South Korea
Seoul - Incheon International Airport
Thailand
Bangkok - Suvarnabhumi Airport
Aryan Cargo Express operated the following aircraft (as of December 2010): |
25946360 | Mahindra Renault | 2010-01-25 19:54:16+00:00 | Mahindra Renault Limited was a joint venture between India's largest utility vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra Limited & Renault S.A. of France (51% & 49% respectively). The joint venture was formed in 2007. On 15 April 2010 Mahindra & Mahindra and Renault together announced restructuring plans by which Mahindra would buy Renault's share in the joint venture and Renault would continue to provide the support for M&M through license agreement and continue to be supplier of key components.
Mahindra Renault Limited utilized Mahindra's manufacturing plant in Nashik, Maharashtra with a capacity of 50,000 vehicles per year. Renault-Nissan have invested Rs 4,500 Crores to build a manufacturing plant in Chennai which will have a capacity of 400,000 vehicles per annum divided equally between Mahindra Renault Limited and Nissan Motor India Private Limited.
The Renault Logan was launched 2007 and became the Mahindra Verito after the ending of the joint venture in 2010.
Mahindra Renault Limited uses Mahindra & Mahindra Limited's network for the sales and service of Renault branded vehicles in India. It currently has more than 140 dealerships across 125 cities in 24 states and 3 Union Territories of India. |
27658583 | AeroVironment Global Observer | 2010-06-09 17:51:12+00:00 | The AeroVironment Global Observer is a concept for a high-altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, designed by AeroVironment (AV) to operate as a stratospheric geosynchronous satellite system with regional coverage.
Two Global Observer aircraft, each flying for up to a week at an altitude of 55,000 to 65,000 feet (17,000 to 20,000 m), could alternate coverage over any area on the Earth, providing a platform for communications relays, remote sensing, or long-term surveillance. In addition to flying above weather and above other conventional aircraft, operation at this altitude permits communications and sensor payloads on the aircraft to service an area on the surface of the Earth up to 600 miles (970 km) in diameter, equivalent to more than 280,000 square miles (730,000 km2) of coverage. Global Observer may offer greater flexibility than a satellite and longer duration than conventional manned and unmanned aircraft.
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The Global Observer Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program had the goal of helping solve the capability gap in persistent ISR and communications relay for the US military and homeland security. The Global Observer JCTD demonstrated a new stratospheric, extreme endurance UAS that could be transitioned for post-JCTD development, extended user evaluation, and fielding. The program was a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and AeroVironment that started in September 2007, to culminate in a Joint Operational Utility Assessment (JOUA) in 2011.
The program provided for the system development, production of two aircraft, development flight testing, and JOUA with ISR and communications relay payload. The flight testing and JOUA was conducted at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The primary objectives of the Global Observer JCTD Program were:
Develop enabling technologies for a liquid hydrogen powered Global Observer UAS.
Design, build, and demonstrate the Global Observer UAS for a 5 - 7 day endurance for 55,000 to 65,000 feet (17,000 to 20,000 m) altitude missions with 380-pound, 2.8 kW payload capacity. The system had to be capable of being transported by a C-130 aircraft.
Integrate and assess military utility of modular Global Observer payloads to address user identified gaps in ISR and communications relay.
Evaluate system life cycle costs.
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U.S. Department of Defense
United States Special Operations Command
United States Strategic Command
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Army
U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Defense Threat Reductions Agency
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Air Force Flight Test Center
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
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High-altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles, such as Global Observer, may enable several capabilities that enable rapid and effective actions or countermeasures:
Communications relay. Durable, satellite-like, affordable communications relay with substantial bandwidth capacity can interconnect and route data in real time, enabling teams and command centers separated by topographical barriers to communicate with each other.
Disaster response. Hurricane, storm tracking and general weather monitoring may be useful in evacuation planning, relief operations and first response coordination. Global Observer provides communication alternatives in the event of cell tower, microwave relay and satellite downlink failure.
Maritime surveillance. Coastlines plagued by transport of illegal goods can be subject to long-term surveillance. Analysts can observe suspicious activity, determine patterns of behavior and identify threats.
A Global Observer prototype, called "Odyssey," flew in May 2005. It had a 50 ft (15 m) wingspan, one-third the size of the planned full-sized version, and ran solely on hydrogen fuel-cells powering electric motors that drove eight propellers, flying the aircraft for several hours. The JCTD started in September 2007. In August 2010, Aerovironment announced that the full-sized Global Observer wing had passed wing load testing. The 53 m (175 ft) all-composite wing, which comes in five sections and is designed to maximize wing strength while minimizing weight, had loads applied to it that approximated the maximum loads it is designed to withstand during normal flight, turbulence and maneuvers. In its third year of testing, the demonstrator had also undergone ground and taxi tests as well as taken a "short hop" lifting off the ground briefly during taxiing.
The Global Observer performed its first flight on 5 August 2010, taking off from Edwards AFB and reaching an altitude of 4,000 ft (1,200 m) for one hour. The flight was performed using battery power. The aircraft completed initial flight testing, consisting of multiple low-altitude flights, at Edwards AFB in August and September 2010. This phase used batteries to power the hybrid-electric aircraft and approximate full aircraft weight and center of gravity for flight control, performance, and responsiveness evaluation. Following this, the program team installed and ground tested the aircraft's hydrogen-fueled generator and liquid hydrogen fuel tanks which will power it for up to a week in the stratosphere.
The first flight of the Global Observer using hydrogen fuel occurred on 11 January 2011, reaching an altitude of 5,000 ft (1,500 m) for four hours. On 1 April 2011, Global Observer-1 (GO-1), the first aircraft to be completed, crashed 18 hours into its 9th test flight. AeroVironment said it was undergoing flight test envelope expansion and had been operating for nearly twice the endurance and at a higher altitude than previous flights when the crash occurred. At the time, the second aircraft developed as part of the JCTD program was nearing completion at a company facility; the $140 million program was originally scheduled for completion in late 2011, but the crash delayed this by a year. AeroVironment was looking for sources of incremental funding to provide a bridge between the demonstration and a future procurement program.
In December 2012, the Pentagon closed the development contract for the Global Observer, the reason being the crash in April 2011. The Global Observer was used as a technology demonstration, not a program for a functioning aircraft. In April 2013, the Pentagon stated that no service or defense agency had advocated for it to be a program. AeroVironment is currently in possession of the second prototype Global Observer. On 6 February 2014, AeroVironment announced that it had teamed with Lockheed Martin to sell the Global Observer to international customers. The partnership is focused around building "atmospheric satellite systems" around the UAV. The Global Observer may compete for orders with the Boeing Phantom Eye liquid hydrogen-powered long endurance UAV.
Endurance: 5–7 days
Payload: Up to 400 lbs (180 kg)
Operating altitude: 55,000–65,000 feet (17,000–20,000 m)
Propulsion system: Liquid hydrogen-powered internal combustion power plant driving four high efficiency electric motors. The aircraft does not produce carbon emissions.
Wing Span: 175 feet (53 m)
Length: 70 feet (21 m)
Launch/Recovery Method: Operate from conventional 150 ft (46 m) W X 6,000 ft (1,800 m) long paved runways (<4,200 ft takeoff and landing distance)
Vulture (UAV)
QinetiQ Zephyr
Boeing HALE
Air Strato |
26616394 | Avicopter AC313 | 2010-03-19 15:49:44+00:00 | The Avicopter AC313 (also known as the Changhe Z-8F-100) is a civilian helicopter built by Avicopter (AVIC Helicopter Company). It is a development of the earlier Harbin Z-8, itself a locally produced version of the Aerospatiale Super Frelon.
The AC313 is an updated design based on the earlier Harbin Z-8, itself a development of the Aérospatiale Super Frelon. The prototype first flew at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi on 18 March 2010. It is designed to carry 18 passengers, has a reported maximum range of 1,050 kilometres, and a maximum takeoff weight of 13 tonnes.
It is equipped with three Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6B-67A engines, the AC313 is a single-rotor helicopter with tail rotors, side-by-side pilot seating, and a non-retractable landing gear. Although based on a 1960s design, the AC313 has been developed to use composite materials for the rotor blade and titanium main rotor. Composite materials are used on 50% of the helicopter and titanium is used for the remainder. The interior comes equipped with a modern integrated digital avionics system and has a cabin height of 1.83 m and 23.5 m3 in space. Designed to carry 27 passengers and two crew in the transport role, it has also been designed to be used for VIP transport, medical evacuations, and for search and rescue operations. In terms of cargo, it can carry up to 4 tonne internally or 5 tonnes on a sling. AC313 is equipped with electronic flight instrument system.
The AC313 is only the second helicopter to be able to operate in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, first being Sikorsky S-70C Black Hawk. The flight testing period for the 13-tonne AC313 was conducted in Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia, starting in January where it was tested to operate in extremely low temperatures as low as minus 46C marking the scope of Asia's largest tonnage helicopter meeting the mission requirements of the cold climate and the Earth's polar regions. The helicopter also set its speed record of 336 km per hour during the testing period. The AC313 became the first China-made aircraft authorized by China's civil aviation authority in January to fly in high-altitude regions of over 4,500 meters above the sea level.
The AC313 has recently received a Type Certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Following Chinese certification, the first five AC313 are to be delivered to Flying Dragon Special Aviation, in 2011, but no aircraft have been delivered yet. Avicopter has plans to certify the AC313 for sales in Europe and the United States. Xu Chaoliang, the chief designer of the helicopter, said the company has so far received 32 orders from national and international customers.
Equipped with advanced instrument landing system, the helicopter can be used for disaster relief even in blizzard weather in plateau regions.
CAIH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the China Aviation Industry Corp, is expected to produce 300 helicopters annually by 2015, making it one of the major helicopter suppliers in the world. Headquartered in Tianjin, the company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production, maintenance and sales of helicopters and other aircraft and aviation components.
AC313
Commercial helicopter model derived from Changhe Z-8F.
AC313A
Improved AC313 with significant structural redesign, with enlarged internal load area similar to that of Changhe Z-8L. Maiden flight on 17 May 2022.
Data from AVIC Changhe Aircraft Industry (Group) Corporation LTD.General characteristics
Crew: 2 pilots
Capacity: 18 passengers
Fuel capacity: 3800 kg
Performance
Endurance: 5.3 hours |
33185648 | BRM Aero Bristell | 2011-09-23 13:38:41+00:00 | The BRM Aero Bristell NG 5, now called the Bristell Classic, is a Czech low-wing, two-seat in side-by-side configuration, single engine in tractor configuration, ultralight and light-sport aircraft that was designed by Milan Bristela and is produced by BRM Aero. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft.
The aircraft was introduced at the AERO Friedrichshafen 2011 show, where the retractable gear version was shown.
The aircraft was designed to comply with both European microlight rules and also the US light-sport aircraft regulations, by using different versions for each regulatory environment.
The aircraft is made from aluminium and features a 130 cm (51 in) wide cabin at the shoulder, with a bubble canopy over the cockpit. The wings feature flaps. As of 2022, the available engine options were the 75 kW (101 hp) Rotax 912ULS, the 75 kW (101 hp) Rotax 912 iS Sport and the 106 kW (142 hp) Rotax 915 iS. Previous engines offered included the 60 kW (80 hp) Rotax 912UL, the 75 kW (101 hp) Rotax 912ULS, the 71 kW (95 hp) ULPower UL260i/iS, the 88 kW (118 hp) ULPower UL350iS, the 86 kW (115 hp) Rotax 914, 63.5 kW (85 hp) Jabiru 2200 and 89.5 kW (120 hp) Jabiru 3300 powerplants. The aircraft has a notably high useful load of 279 kg (615 lb). The landing gear is of tricycle configuration.
After 42 examples had been completed, the aircraft was introduced into the US market in September 2011 at the AOPA Summit. By 31 December 2020, the company reported over 600 had been delivered.
Bristell NG 5 UL
Base ultralight model with an 8.13 m (26.7 ft) wingspan and a gross weight of 472.5 kg (1,042 lb).
Bristell NG 5 HD
Heavy duty model with an 8.13 m (26.7 ft) wingspan, heavier duty wing spars and a gross weight of 600 kg (1,323 lb).
Bristell NG 5 LSA
Model for the US light-sport aircraft category with an 9.13 m (30.0 ft) wingspan and a gross weight of 600 kg (1,323 lb).
Bristell NG 5 RG
Retractable gear model with an 9.13 m (30.0 ft) wingspan and a gross weight of 600 kg (1,323 lb).
Bristell NG 5 Speed Wing
Homebuilt variant supplied as a kit which can be completed with either tricycle or conventional landing gear and a choice of engine: Rotax 912S, Rotax 912ULS or Jabuiru 3300A.
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In February 2020, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority released a safety notice advising of a number of fatal accidents globally involving spins and stalls of Bristell LSAs. The safety notice states "aircraft may not meet the LSA standards as it does not appear to have been adequately tested" and that "the manufacturer has been unable to provide satisfactory evidence that the design is compliant with the requirements of the ASTM standards applicable to light sport aircraft." The company contested the CASA notice and claims that spin testing was conducted, although the manufacturer prohibits the design from intentional spins. CASA indicated on 28 February 2020 that "further investigation and discussions with the manufacturer are ongoing and CASA will provide an update as new information becomes available."
The Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit report in May 2022 on the crash of an NG 5 Speed Wing in June 2019, resulting in the death of the two occupants, and found that incorrect weight and balance information supplied by the manufacturer was a contributory factor to the crash and recommended that BRM Aero revise and enhance the operating guidelines for the aircraft.
On 21 June 2021 CASA issued a notice indicating that the manufacturer had provided data on spin testing and had also amended its weight and balance information provided to builders and owners, including changing the datum from the wing leading edge to the engine firewall. CASA indicated that the amended weight and balance limits and new datum adequately addressed the safety concerns previously raised and "provided operators of the aircraft only operate the aircraft in compliance with the corrected AOI data, CASA considers that the potential for inadvertent operation of the aircraft at or outside the centre of gravity limits is substantially reduced."
Data from AVweb and company websiteGeneral characteristics
Crew: one
Capacity: one passenger
Length: 6.45 m (21 ft 2 in)
Wingspan: 8.13 m (26 ft 8 in)
Height: 2.28 m (7 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 10.5 m2 (113 sq ft)
Empty weight: 290 kg (639 lb)
Gross weight: 472.5 kg (1,042 lb)
Fuel capacity: 120 litres (26 imp gal; 32 US gal)
Powerplant: 1 × Rotax 912ULS , 75 kW (100 hp)
Performance
Cruise speed: 214 km/h (133 mph, 116 kn)
Stall speed: 52 km/h (32 mph, 28 kn) flaps down
Never exceed speed: 270 km/h (170 mph, 150 kn)
g limits: +4/-2
Wing loading: 45 kg/m2 (9.2 lb/sq ft) |
27896216 | Intercessors of the Lamb | 2010-06-30 06:12:10+00:00 | The Hermit Intercessors of the Lamb was a Roman Catholic Association of priests, brothers, nuns, and lay people, based in Nebraska, United States. The 1998 canonical organization was suppressed by Omaha Archbishop George Joseph Lucas in 2010 and no longer exists. The 1980 legal organization, Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc., continues to exist but is disassociated from the Roman Catholic Church. They continue to exist and live in the Ponca Hills neighbourhood of Omaha.
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The Intercessors of the Lamb were founded in 1980. They trace their spiritual charism back to Saint John Eudes's Congregation of Jesus and Mary.
The foundress of the Intercessors, Nadine Mae Brown (Mother Nadine), after an adult conversion to Catholicism, felt called to join the cloistered religious in the Sisters of the Cross. This is the contemplative branch of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd. In 1976, Brown discerned that she was being called to bring a deeper relationship with God to the faithful beyond the religious Orders.
She left the order and with permission from then Archbishop of Omaha, Daniel Eugene Sheehan, began to implement a different ministry, living and teaching contemplative spirituality and its intercessory lifestyle. A local family later offered their carriage house, which served as a hermitage for Nadine, and their log cabin, which allowed for others to have communal intercessory prayer and also make individual retreats.
Nadine authored many books, tapes and materials in order to help in the instruction of contemplation. She particularly emphasized the task of "spiritual warfare". Among her publications are Bathe Seven Times: A Contemplative Look at the Seven Capitals Sins (2003) and God's Armor (1998).
The Intercessors of the Lamb were canonically erected on 27 May 1978 as a public Association of the Christian faithful under Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss. Commensurate with a Roman Catholic lay ecclesial movement, this would have been one of the steps to the society's recognition as an Institute of Consecrated Life.
A separate legal entity, Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc., was incorporated in 1980 with the full permission of Archbishop Sheehan. The corporation manages the business affairs of the community and received its tax-exempt status in 1980. It continues today as a 501(c)(3) organization with Fed. ID # 47-0625390. The corporation retained ownership of the Bellwether property after the suppression, and owns property outside the United States.
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In 1984, the growing community acquired 11 acres (4.5 ha) and two houses in the Ponca Hills area north of Omaha, Nebraska. This became the Bellwether Contemplative Formation Center, referred to as "Bellwether". Over the course of the next 25 years, Bellwether grew to be a 75 acres (30 ha) Contemplative Formation Center, which currently has two large retreat houses, a chapel, two residence homes, and a building which when completely renovated, will be able to accommodate groups desiring the spiritual formation and ministry of the Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc. A "spirit of prayer, penance, silence and solitude" are promoted at Bellwether and serve as the four pillars of the contemplative way of life.
In 1994, Intercessors of the Lamb hosted its first annual international Workshop of Contemplative, Intercessory and Spiritual Warfare Prayer at Omaha. This summer conference grew and thousands of people participated in the Intercessors' conferences.
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A request by Nadine Brown to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha in 2010 to have the group made a full religious Institute led to a canonical visitation conducted by Reverend James Conn, a Jesuit and noted canon lawyer.
Several issues at the community were noted in his report. On September 30, 2010 Archbishop George Joseph Lucas requested the resignation of Nadine Brown from both the corporation's board and the Association, and she complied. He appointed an Omaha priest, Fr. Gregory Baxter as temporary trustee of the Association.
Arbp. Lucas wished to bring the organization into conformity with Catholic canon law. Because most of the directors of the civil Board refused to allow the reforms, Lucas decreed the suppression of Hermit Association of the Intercessors of the Lamb on October 15 . Lucas stated that the vows of the members ceased at the moment of suppression. The Bellwether chapel is no longer recognised by the Archdiocese.
Forty-eight members of the community left Bellwether that day to accept temporary housing offered by the Archdiocese. They lived on the former campus of Dana College in Blair, Nebraska, as "the Intercessor Relief Community." Several other members decided to leave religious life and by 2012, the Relief community consisted of nine sisters. The priests went back into various parishes and the brothers left the group.
A new community endorsed by the Archdiocese, "Brides of the Victorious Lamb", was formed in February 2012 and was located at St. Mary's Convent, Omaha. The group developed a charism of ministering and providing spiritual support to the sick, elderly and dying and their families, but disbanded in 2019.
Nadine Brown had left Bellwether on 5 October 2010. Two days after the suppression, she and ten hermits returned to the centre. They re-organised the community as "Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc.". Their aim was to continue to promote contemplative spirituality, communal intercession and spiritual warfare prayer, providing retreats and
spiritual guidance.
A July Prayer Weekend was held in 2011 at Bellwether, followed up with an Advent Prayer Weekend the same year. A Spiritual Warfare Workshop took place in July 2012 and workshops have continued each year along with sales of religious material.
Mother Nadine Brown died on 3 June 2013 at the age of 83.
The 21st annual international conference was held at Bellwether in 2014 and this attracted people from five countries.
The mission statement of Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc. is:
Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc. is a Christian organization dedicated to form contemplatives, nationally and internationally, through individualized and group retreats, spiritual direction, conferences, workshops, prayer seminars, and communal intercessory prayer ministry. Intercessors of the Lamb, Inc. also offers literature, brochures, books, CDs, and DVDs instructive in the ways and methods of contemplation, directed toward the experience of interior union with God.
As of March 2015, there were 20 full-time individuals, from various backgrounds and nationalities and mostly female, who refer to themselves informally as the "Bellwether Lambs". There are also many individuals from around the world who actively participate in the ministry, in their respective prayer circles. Currently Mary Elizabeth Weaver is the General Director of the corporation and President of the Board of Directors.
The society's particular ministry, or spiritual charism, is the promotion of contemplative spirituality and the provision of spiritual guidance, with the aim of inspiring spiritual renewal among Catholics. The priests, deacons, brothers, and nuns of the order called themselves hermits, and live with a "desert spirituality", a commitment that includes public vows of "chastity, poverty, obedience and zeal for the salvation of souls". The main apostolate of the association is prayer for priests.
The group maintained an international network of "Companion" groups that prayed in unity with the Intercessors, especially for priests, and new vocations to the priesthood. The Companions were not canonically recognised, some have continued their work beyond the suppression.
The religious habit of the Intercessors is a teal scapular; the merging of the colors green, for the earth, and blue, for heaven expressed the society's role as intercessors .
During 2004, some neighbours to the Bellwether Contemplative Formation Center opposed their plans to build four group homes, the chapel (Our Lady of Light) and 18 hermitages.
There are allegations that many members signed over their assets to the Intercessors before 2010.
The Intercessors of the Lamb have a distinctly Catholic Charismatic Renewal piety. CatholicCulture.com noted the society's emphasis on Medjugorje and its "uncritical focus on an exclusively charismatic spirituality". |
27301503 | Hogan Lovells | 2010-05-10 04:22:31+00:00 | Hogan Lovells is an American-British law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington, DC. The firm was formed in 2010 by the merger of the American law firm Hogan & Hartson and the British law firm Lovells. As of 2022, the firm employed about 2,500 lawyers, making it the sixth largest law firm in the world.
In 2022, Hogan Lovells was ranked as the twelfth largest law firm in the world by revenue, generating around US$2.6 billion. Revenue per lawyer exceeds US$1million.
Hogan Lovells claims specialization in "government regulatory, litigation, commercial litigation and arbitration, corporate, finance, and intellectual property".
Hogan Lovells was listed in Forbes' America's Top Trusted Corporate Law Firms 2019.
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Hogan & Hartson was founded by Frank J. Hogan in 1904. In 1925, Hogan was joined by Nelson T. Hartson, a former Internal Revenue Service attorney, and John William Guider. Hogan & Hartson then went into partnership in 1938 with Guider
as a silent partner.
In 1970, Hogan & Hartson became the first major firm to establish a separate practice group devoted exclusively to providing pro bono legal services. The Community Services Department (CSD) dealt with civil rights, environmental, homeless and other public interest groups. In 1990, Hogan & Hartson opened an office in London, their first outside the U.S.
In 1972, the firm gained its first black law partner, trial lawyer Vincent H. Cohen (April 7, 1936 – Dec. 25, 2011), who was of Jamaican heritage; had joined the firm in 1969; and had previously held positions at the U.S. Department of Justice, and at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Cohen's clients included Bell Atlantic, Pepco, and The Washington Post. His son, Vincent Cohen, Jr., served as an interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
In 2000, the firm expanded to Tokyo and Berlin. The firm expanded its presence in New York and Los Angeles, in 2002, when it acquired mid-sized law firm Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Sheinfeld, a storied New York City-based practice with strengths in media, litigation and First Amendment law.
At the time of the merger, Hogan & Hartson was the oldest major law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. It was a global firm with more than 1,100 lawyers in 27 offices worldwide, including offices in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
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Lovells traced its history in the UK back to 1899, when John Lovell set up on his own account at Snow Hill, between St Paul's and Smithfield. He was later joined by Reginald White, a clerk in his previous firm, to whom he gave articles. In 1924, they were joined by Charles King, forming Lovell, White & King. Soon after formation, the firm moved to Thavies Inn at Holborn Circus and later to Serjeant's Inn, Fleet Street, before moving to 21 Holborn Viaduct in October 1977.
Lovells was formed as a result of a number of earlier mergers. In 1966, Lovell, White & King merged with Haslewoods, a firm with a much longer history of private client work. Haslewoods diverse clients included the Treasury Solicitor. In 1988, Lovell, White & King, which by then had a large international commercial practice, merged with Durrant Piesse, known, in particular, for its specialism in commercial banking and financial services, forming Lovell White Durrant. It then changed to Lovells in 2000 when the firm merged with German law firm Boesebeck Droste. Other mergers then followed in other European countries during the early 2000s (decade).
In the early 2000s Lovells invested strongly in China, expanding its office in Beijing and opening an office in Shanghai becoming the second largest foreign firm in China. Following five years of growth, culminating in the opening of the firm's Madrid office in 2004, Lovells had a presence in every major European jurisdiction. In 2007, Lovells opened an office in Dubai, offering legal services to corporations, financial institutions and individuals in the Middle East and at the beginning of 2009 opened an office in Hanoi. In September 2009, Lovells opened an associated office in Riyadh.
At the time of the merger, Lovells was a London-based international law firm with over 300 partners and around 3,150 employees operating from 26 offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.
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Hogan & Hartson and Lovells announced their agreement to merge on 15 December 2009. Hogan Lovells was officially formed on May 1, 2010.
In December 2011 it was reported that the firm would be moving to a single chairman model following the retirement of John Young.
In December 2013, Hogan Lovells merged with South African firm Routledge Modise. The addition of about 120 lawyers in the Johannesburg office make up the first physical location for Hogan Lovells in Africa although the firm maintains a presence in Francophone Africa through its Paris office.
Partners at Hogan Lovells have voted to confirm current Asia Pacific and Middle East regional chief executive Miguel Zaldivar as their new global CEO from 1 July 2020. Current head of the Litigation Arbitration and Employment practice, Michael Davison will be Deputy CEO from the same date. Both will serve initial four year terms.
In 2013, Hogan Lovells advised Kodak Pensioner Plan on its $650 million acquisition of the personal film business from Kodak. In the same year, the firm also counselled tech-giant Dell on its $24.4 billion deal to go private and advised fashion label Nicole Farhi on its £5.5 million sale to businesswoman and heiress, Maxine Hargreaves-Adams.
In 2014, Hogan Lovells advised Apple Inc. on its $17 billion (£10.9 billion) bond issue, described as the largest corporate bond offering in history. The firm assisted with the negotiation of terms with Fairtrade regarding sourcing and use of sustainable cocoa in Maltesers for Mars Candy. In 2014, Hogan Lovells advised the Republic of Ecuador in the negotiation of a multimillion-dollar facility agreement to be used by the state-owned television and radio network, RTV Ecuador. In May 2014, Snapchat turned to Hogan Lovells to hire its first General Counsel, appointing a Washington DC-based partner.
In 2015, the firm advised long-standing client SABMiller on its £7.8 billion acquisition of Australian brewer Foster's Group on aspects of structuring the bid and acquisition finance and it also advised SABMiller on its €1 billion Eurobond issue. In July 2015, power management semiconductor company Semitrex hired Hogan Lovells to lobby for energy efficiency issues. On December 19, 2017 Massachusetts Senate Committee in Ethics hired Hogan Lovells to lead an inquiry into Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg's conduct and whether he violated the rules of the Senate stemming from allegations from four men that Rosenberg's husband, Bryon Hefner, sexually assaulted or harassed them and bragged he had influence on Senate business.
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Hogan Lovells is among the largest lobbying firms in the United States. Before the merger, by revenue, Hogan & Hartson was among the top five lobbying firms in the United States. Since the merger, the firm has remained among the largest lobbying firms, servicing $12.3 million in lobbying 2013.
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In October 2016, Hogan Lovells was inserted into the Jonas Makwaka investigation as part of the Zuma corruption scandal. The firm's role was "to conduct an independent investigation into allegations against Mr Jonas Makwakwa and Ms Kelly Ann Elskie". Although the report concluded that "disciplinary action should be taken", the document was widely seen as effectively a whitewash. Other international firms implicated in Zuma related scandals have included KPMG and McKinsey.
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Neal Katyal – former acting Solicitor General of the United States
Edith Ramirez – former chair of the Federal Trade Commission
Christopher Wolf – Internet and privacy law pioneer
Neil Chatterjee - Former Commissioner and Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
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Judiciary
James A. Belson – Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Tanya S. Chutkan – Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Daniel D. Domenico – Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado
John M. Ferren – Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Ann Lininger – Judge of the Clackamas County Circuit Court
George W. Miller – Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims
Carlos G. Muñiz – Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida
David Nahmias – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia
John Pajak – Special trial judge of the United States Tax Court
John Roberts – Chief Justice of the United States
Jane Marum Roush – Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia
Donald S. Russell – Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
John Sirica – Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, presiding judge in the Watergate cases
David S. Tatel – Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Eric T. Washington – Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Wilhelmina Wright – Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
Elected office
Norm Coleman – United States Senator from Minnesota
J. William Fulbright – United States Senator from Arkansas
Josh Hawley – United States Senator from Missouri
Scott McInnis – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's 3rd district
John Porter – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 10th district
Paul Rogers – Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 11th district
John Warner – Former United States Senator from Virginia
Academia
Audrey J. Anderson – Vice Chancellor, General Counsel and University Secretary for Vanderbilt University
Matthew Daniels – Chair of Law and Human Rights and Founder of the Center for Human Rights and International Affairs at the Institute of World Politics
Christopher Yoo – John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
Chris Brand - Research Fellow, Psychology and Psychometrics at Nuffield College
Other government service
A. Lee Bentley III – United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida
Sandy Berger – United States National Security Advisor
William Bittman – Federal prosecutor responsible for prosecuting Jimmy Hoffa and Bobby Baker
Mark Brzezinski – U.S. Ambassador to Sweden
Charles B. Curtis – United States Deputy Secretary of Energy
Cole Finegan – Denver's City Attorney and Chief of Staff
Gregory G. Garre – 44th U.S. Solicitor General
Anthony Stephen Harrington – U.S. Ambassador to Brazil
Brian Hook – United States Special Representative for Iran
Kevin S. Huffman – Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education
Elliot F. Kaye – Commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Loretta Lynch – 83rd U.S. Attorney General
Keisha A. McGuire – Grenadian Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Jelena McWilliams – Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Cheryl Mills – Counselor of the United States Department of State
Elliot Mincberg – General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Ignacia S. Moreno – Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division
John E. Osborn – Member of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy
Daniel Poneman – Acting United States Secretary of Energy
Elizabeth Prelogar – 48th U.S. Solicitor General
Chuck Rosenberg – Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration; United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
Tom Strickland – United States Attorney for the District of Colorado; Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Christine A. Varney – White House Cabinet Secretary; Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
Clayton Yeutter – Counselor to the President; Chair of the Republican National Committee; U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; U.S. Trade Representative
Other
Robert S. Bennett – Attorney for President Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal
Ty Cobb – Member of the Trump administration legal team
Robert Corn-Revere – First Amendment lawyer
Donald Dell – Sports attorney, writer, commentator, and former tennis player
Frank Fahrenkopf – Chair of the Republican National Committee; Co-founder of the Commission on Presidential Debates
Frank J. Hogan – Founder of Hogan Lovells; President of the American Bar Association
Khizr Muazzam Khan – Parent of Humayun Khan
Duncan McNair – Lawyer and author
David Wendell Phillips – Angel investor and executive
Radoslav Procházka – Slovak politician
Jessica Prunell – Former child actress
Regina M. Rodriguez – Former nominee to the United States District Court for the District of Colorado
Edward "Smitty" Smith – Candidate for Attorney General of the District of Columbia
Allen Snyder – Former nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Parker Thomson – Lawyer and philanthropist
Merle Thorpe Jr. – Lawyer and philanthropist
Ted Trimpa – Democratic strategist, lobbyist and political consultant
Christine Warnke – Senior vice president at Capitol Hill Consulting Group and talk show host
Daniel R. White – Author
Edward Bennett Williams – Founder of Williams & Connolly; Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee |
27886536 | Mourant | 2010-06-29 09:52:45+00:00 | Mourant is an offshore law firm headquartered in Saint-Helier, Jersey. Mourant is one of the largest offshore law firms, with just over 70 partners and 700+ staff. It is a member of the offshore magic circle.
Mourant is the result of successive mergers of various law firms, most recently that of Mourant du Feu & Jeune and Ozannes in 2010.
In the same year, the Mourant group sells Mourant International Finance Administration to State Street, Mourant Private Wealth to RBC and Mourant Equity Compensation Solutions to HBOS. In 2018, it changed its name from "Mourant Ozannes LP" back to "Mourant LP".
In June 2023 Mourant confirmed the completion of its expansion into Luxembourg, with law firm, LexField, and governance services business, FideField, joining the Mourant global network. It follows the acquisition of a specialist accounting business in January 2022 and the launch of Mourant Consulting in 2021.
While primarily based in Jersey, Mourant has offices in other jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. The tax avoidance campaign group ActionAid reported that more than 200 companies belonging to at least 26 multinational companies have subsidiaries incorporated in Jersey at 22 Grenville Street, Mourant's headquarters.
The firm won offshore firm of the year from The Lawyer in 2020 and 2021. |
29061269 | SNR Denton | 2010-10-04 22:36:33+00:00 | SNR Denton was a multinational law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington, D.C. The firm operated in 60 locations across 43 countries and had around 1,250 lawyers. It was one of the 25-largest law firms in the world, with revenues of around $750 million in 2011/12.
SNR Denton was formed through the merger of the UK-based Denton Wilde Sapte LLP and the US-based Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP in September 2010. The firm was structured as a Swiss Verein and had a single management board but the partnerships of the predecessor firms were not financially integrated. In March 2013, SNR Denton merged with the international law firm Salans and the Canada-based law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain, forming Dentons.
The American Lawyer estimated SNR Denton to be the 29th largest law firm in the world by number of lawyers and 43rd by annual revenue in 2012, its last full year of operation.
In 1785, Thomas Wilde (1758-1821) and Samuel Archer Hussey founded a law firm that became Wilde Sapte. In 1788, Denton Hall Burgin was established by Sam Denton. In 1906, Edward Sonnenschein and partners opened a law firm in Chicago that eventually became Sonnenschein Nath Rosenthal.
In 2000, the City of London-based law firms Denton Hall and Wilde Sapte merged to form Denton Wilde Sapte. In 2009, 100 lawyers (including 40 partners) joined Sonnenschein from Thacher Proffitt & Wood, doubling the firm's number of lawyers in New York. In May 2010, Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal announced their intention to merge. On 30 September 2010, the merger between Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal was formally completed, establishing SNR Denton.
In January 2011, SNR Denton opened in Hong Kong following the assimilation of the Hong Kong office of Hammonds.
On 11 November 2012, SNR Denton, Salans and the Canada-based Fraser Milner Casgrain announced a three-way merger, forming a new law firm structured as a Swiss Verein and named Dentons. The partners of the three firms ratified the merger on 28 November 2012 and the new firm was planned to begin operations in early 2013.
In January 2013, SNR Denton entered into an association with the Kuwaiti law firm Jamal Ahmed Al-Shehab.
The merger between SNR Denton, Fraser Milner Casgrain and Salans was completed on 28 March 2013.
SNR Denton's main practice areas included:
Banking and finance
Capital markets
Corporate and business transactions
Employment, benefits and executive compensation
Intellectual property and technology
Litigation and arbitration
Public policy and regulation
Real estate
Restructuring and insolvency
Tax
Trusts and estates |
43329852 | Vicente Sederberg | 2014-07-17 22:27:48+00:00 | Vicente LLP, formally known as Vicente Sederberg, is an American cannabis law firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado that represents clients in the cannabis (marijuana, hemp, CBD) and psychedelics industries, and works on state and local cannabis policy reform. Since 2019, the firm has been nationally recognized by Chambers and Partners as one of seven Band 1 Law firms in the US practicing cannabis law.
Founded in 2010 by Brian Vicente, Christian Sederberg, and Joshua Kappel - from its offset, Vicente practices in areas directly related to cannabis and psychedelics. The firm's former Denver office, the Creswell Mansion, was built in 1889 by Denver architect John J. Huddart and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. After six years at "The Mansion", Vicente's Denver location moved to their current office located at 455 Sherman St., Suite 390 Denver, CO 80203 in November 2016. The current office was the previous home to the Marijuana Enforcement Division of Colorado.
Vicente played a key role in passing Colorado Amendment 64, a ballot initiative to legalize, regulate, and tax the sale of marijuana to adults 21 or older. Founding partner Brian Vicente was a co-author of Amendment 64 and the law firm's office served as the campaign headquarters.
The firm also has played a significant role in advising national, state and local government officials in the development of regulated cannabis markets across the country and around the world, including Uruguay, the first country in the world to legalize and regulate marijuana for adult use.
Firm founding partner Christian Sederberg is a Colorado lobbyist who worked on former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper's Amendment 64 Implementation Task force and the Committee for Responsible Regulation, and other committees and associations.
Founding partner Joshua Kappel co-authored Colorado's Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine Health Act of 2022, and served as chair of the campaign committee for Natural Medicine Colorado. Proposition 122 was passed by Colorado voters in November 2022. He is actively involved in the development and implementation of the NMHA (including Colorado's SB23-290) and other psychedelics laws and policies in the U.S. and abroad. In addition, Joshua is a founding board member of the Microdosing Collective—the only recognized nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated to legalizing microdosing.
Vicente's Hemp and Cannabinoids Practice Chair, partner Shawn Hauser, is a steering committee member of the American Hemp Campaign, and was the lead author of the 2018 Farm Bill Policy Guide and Model Hemp Production Plan]. She has testified before the U.S. Food & Drug Administration on behalf of the hemp industry.
In April 2014, 5280 magazine listed Vicente and Sederberg as among the most powerful people in Denver.
In November 2022, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vicente Sederberg LLP in the 'Best Law Firms' for Corporate Law, Land Use & Zoning Law lists.
In June 2023, Chambers and Partners USA listed Vicente LLP as a Band 1 law firm in Cannabis Law for the fifth year in a row. |
28430995 | 2010 Aksu bombing | 2010-08-19 14:53:43+00:00 | The 2010 Aksu bombing was a bombing in Aksu, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China that resulted in at least seven deaths and fourteen injuries when a Uyghur man detonated explosives in a crowd of police and paramilitary guards at about 10:30 on 19 August, using a three-wheeled vehicle. The assailant targeted police officers in the area, and most of the victims were also Uyghurs. Xinhua news agency reported that six people were involved in the attack, and two had died; the other four were detained by police.
A number of violent incidents have occurred in Xinjiang since the 1990s. In the year before the attack, Xinjiang had ethnic tensions that continued to trouble the region. Before the 2010 Aksu blast, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri was quoted as saying Xinjiang faces a "long and fierce and very complicated struggle" because "Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history, it was there in the past, it is still here now and it will continue in the future."
In July 2009, riots in Ürümqi resulted in the deaths of numerous Han Chinese and Uyghurs. There was another spate of attacks in the region a few months later.
The site of the explosion, Aksu (Uyghur: ئاقسۇ; Chinese: 阿克苏), is about 650 km (400 mi) west of Urumqi, and is just 60 km (37 mi) from the border with Kyrgyzstan. The bomb exploded at the T-intersection of Kalata Road (Uyghur: قالاتا يولى; Chinese: 喀拉塔路) and Wuka Road (Uyghur: ئۇكا يولى; Chinese: 乌喀路). According to a report by the Associated Press, two attackers drove a three-wheeled motorbike into a crowd and threw explosives from it. According to reports the attack was carried out by a man, who was arrested on the spot and whom Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin stated is Uyghur, and a woman who died during the attack.
Most of those killed in the blast were local security officers. Five victims died on the spot, and two died at the hospital; of the seven, at least five were police officers. An anonymous Radio Free Asia source claims that officers in the targeted police station had commonly booked Uyghurs with beards or traditional head coverings and brought them to the police station for political education. The ethnicity of the victims was not discussed at the news conference of Aksu prefecture, but Hou told reporters that "most of the victims are U[y]ghurs."
At the time of the conference the incident was not classified as a terrorist attack.
Chinese police stated that it was an intentional act, and that a suspect was detained at the scene after incurring injuries himself. The four detained suspects were part of a "violent gang of six people" according to Xinjiang government spokesperson Hou Hanmin.
According to one netizen interviewed by Radio Free Asia, mention of the bombing on internet boards, including postings containing the official version of events, have been speedily deleted from the internet in China. |
27697881 | 2010 Balamban bus accident | 2010-06-13 11:10:01+00:00 | The crash of a bus in Balamban, Cebu, Philippines, killed at least 21 people and another 26 were wounded on 13 June 2010.
The bus was carrying around 50 passengers, mostly Iranian expatriates who were post-graduate students at the University of the Visayas and Cebu Doctors' University. The bus had been travelling from Cebu City to Balamban. At around 11:30 am, local time, while the bus was traversing the Trans Central Highway in Balamban, Cebu, the brakes apparently failed and the bus fell some 30 meters into a ravine. At least 21 of the passengers were killed, while around 30 were injured.
The Iranian government announced that its embassy in Manila would be probing the bus accident, whose fatalities were mostly Iranian. The Iranian government also announced that it would be sending special aircraft to the Philippines to evacuate its injured nationals. Iranians students had been in the Philippines under a special arrangement for a residency program with the Professional Regulation Commission.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered an immediate probe into the accident. It emerged that the owner of the tourist bus, J & D Tours, had not been accredited by the Department of Tourism, and its remaining vehicles were impounded by local authorities. |
30126446 | 2010 Cameron Highlands bus crash | 2010-12-20 13:32:06+00:00 | The 2010 Cameron Highlands bus crash was, until 2013, the worst road accident in Malaysian history. Twenty-seven passengers of the double-decked coach bus, mostly Thai tourists, were killed in the accident which took place near Cameron Highlands of the Perak-Pahang border. It occurred on 20 December 2010 at approximately 11:40 am, when the bus driver, Omar Shahidan, lost control of the bus as it was going down an incline and it crashed into a rocky slope at 150 kilometres an hour, off the Second East-West Highway. |
28516061 | China National Highway 110 traffic jam | 2010-08-24 13:23:12+00:00 | The China National Highway 110 traffic jam was a recurring traffic jam that began to form on 14 August 2010, mostly on China National Highway 110 (G110) and the Beijing–Tibet expressway (G6), in Hebei and Inner Mongolia. The traffic jam slowed thousands of vehicles for more than 100 kilometers (60 mi) and lasted for 12 days. Many drivers were able to move their vehicles only 1 km (0.6 mi) per day, and some drivers reported being stuck in the traffic jam for five days. It is considered to be the longest traffic jam in recorded history.
Traffic on the China National Highway 110 had grown 40 percent every year, in the previous several years, making the highway chronically congested. The traffic volume at the time of the incident was 60% more than the design capacity.
The cause of the traffic jam was reported to be a spike in traffic by heavy trucks heading to Beijing, along with National Highway 110's maintenance work that began five days later. The road construction which reduced the road capacity by 50% contributed heavily to the traffic jam and was not due to be completed until mid-September. Police reported that minor breakdowns and accidents were compounding the problem.
Greatly increased coal production in Inner Mongolia was transported to Beijing along this route because of the lack of railway capacity, which overloaded the highway. 602 million tons of coal were mined and transported in 2009; production was expected to rise to 730 million tons in 2010. An additional factor is efforts by overloaded trucks that lacked proper paperwork for their cargo to avoid a coal quality supervision and inspection station on China National Highway 208.
Locals near the highway sold various goods like water, instant noodles, and cigarettes at inflated prices to the stranded drivers. A bottle of water normally cost 1 yuan, but on the highway it was sold for 15 yuan. Drivers also complained that the price of instant noodles had more than tripled. Some vendors created mobile stores on bicycles.
Authorities tried to speed up traffic by allowing more trucks to enter Beijing, especially at night. They also asked trucking companies to suspend operations or take alternative routes.
By 26 August 2010, the traffic jam had largely dissipated, reportedly due to the efforts of authorities. Between Beijing and Inner Mongolia, only minor traffic slowdowns were reported near toll booths. |
27385230 | 2010 Dantewada bus bombing | 2010-05-17 18:07:06+00:00 | The 2010 Dantewada bus bombing occurred on 17 May 2010 when a bus hit a landmine 50 km away from Dantewada, in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. Fatalities reports range from 31 to 44, including several Special Police Officers (SPOs) and civilians.
It was the first Naxal attack to target a civilian bus. The attack occurred one month after Dantewada witnessed the worst-ever massacre of CRPF jawans, when 76 troops were killed in the April 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada. |
30126244 | Anifilm | 2010-12-20 12:56:51+00:00 | Anifilm is an International Festival of Animated Films held in Třeboň, Czech Republic. It was founded in 2010. The festival features the most interesting films from the entire spectrum of animation, with awards in the categories of student work, design for television and made to order, and Best Film.
Gameday is a video game festival that has been a part of Anifilm since 2010. Visitors can try multiple video games there and meet their developers. The Czech Game of the Year Awards were held there until 2017. |
26339123 | Anifest | 2010-02-25 19:50:49+00:00 | The International Festival of Animated Films AniFest was an international festival of animated films that was annually held in the Czech Republic from the years 2002 to 2013, when Anifest was merged with Anifilm. In the festival's prime, the event attracted more than twenty-thousand guests per year.
The festival was a specialized competition of animated productions for film professionals, artists and animation lovers. In addition to the competitive and non-competitive film events, the festival included various theatre performances, exhibitions, concerts and discussions, parties and other cultural and social events.
In 2010, Anifest was held in the North Bohemian city of Teplice. It marked the 100th birthday of film director Karel Zeman. The AniFest 2010 juries consisted of personalities from the world of animation, including film directors, film artists, film historians, and university professors from around the world.
In 2013, Anifest was merged with Anifilm, which is still currently held today in the Czech Republic. |
52798571 | Czech Game of the Year Awards | 2017-01-07 10:04:15+00:00 | Czech Game of the Year Awards (Czech: Česká hra roku) are annual awards that recognize accomplishments in video game development in the Czech Republic. The awards began as part of Gameday Festival in 2010, but became independent from the festival in 2017. The awards are organised by the České Hry association.
The awards for the first year were presented on 7 May 2011. Awards were given in three categories. Mafia II was awarded as the best Czech game in Czech. The jury also expressed recognition to Centauri Production for making their games in Czech. Samurai II: Vengeance was awarded as the best Czech game for Mobile devices and best Czech artistic achievement in game creation.
Best Czech artistic achievement in game creation - Madfinger Games for Samurai II: Vengeance
Best Czech Game in Czech - 2K Czech for Mafia II
Best Czech Game for Mobile Devices - Madfinger Games for Samurai II:Vengeance
The 2011 awards were presented on 3 May 2012.
Best Czech artistic achievement in game creation - Allodium for Infinitum
Best Czech Game in Czech - Hammerware for Family Farm
Best Czech Game for Mobile Devices - Madfinger Games for Shadowgun
The 2012 awards were presented on 3 May 2013. Only two categories were awarded this time.
The Technical Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Madfinger Games for Dead Trigger and Shadowgun: Deadzone
Nominated: Keen Software House for Miner Wars 2081, SCS Software for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Scania Truck Driving Simulator
The Artistic Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Amanita Design for Botanicula
Nominated: Hammerware for Good Folks, Rake in Grass for Northmark: Hour of the Wolf, and Lonely Sock for Coral City
The 2013 awards were presented on 10 May 2014.
The Technical Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Bohemia Interactive for ArmA III
Nominated: Hyperbolic Magnetism for Lums: The Game of Light and Shadows, Keen Software House for Space Engineers and Madfinger Games for Dead Trigger 2
The Artistic Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Hyperbolic Magnetism for Lums: The Game of Light and Shadows
Nominated: Hexage for Reaper: Tale of a Pale Swordsman, Silicon Jelly for Mimpi and Trickster Arts for Hero of Many
The 2014 awards were presented on 8 May 2015. There were four categories.
The Technical Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Keen Software House for Medieval Engineers
Nominated: Allodium for Infinitum: Battle for Europe, Keen Software House for Medieval Engineers and Cinemax for The Keep
The Artistic Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Dreadlocks Ltd for Dex
Nominated: ARK8 for Coraabia, Icarus Games for Time Treasury and CBE Software for J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars
The Best Original Game - Madfinger Games for Monzo
Nominated: Dreadlocks Ltd for Dex, Czech Games Edition for Galaxy Trucker and Allodium for Infinitum: Battle for Europe
The Best Debut Game - ARK8 for Coraabia
Nominated: Czech Games Edition for Galaxy Trucker, Digital Life productions for Soccerinho and CZ.NIC for Tablexia
The 2015 awards were presented on 6 May 2016.
The Technical Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Wube Software for Factorio
Nominated: BadFly Interactive for Dead Effect 2, McMagic Productions for Novus Inceptio and Madfinger Games for Unkilled
The Artistic Contribution to Czech Video Game Creation - Hangonit for Rememoried
Nominated: Fiolasoft Studio for Blackhole, Silicon Jelly for Mimpi Dreams and Lukáš Navrátil for Toby: The Secret Mine
The Best Original Game - Wube Software for Factorio
Nominated: Fiolasoft Studio for Blackhole, Charles University for Czechoslovakia 38–89: The Assassination and Lipa Learning for Lipa Theater
The Best Debut Game - Charles University for Czechoslovakia 38–89: The Assassination
Nominated: Wube Software for Factorio, McMagic Productions for Novus Inceptio and Lukáš Navrátil for Toby: The Secret Mine
The 2016 awards were presented on 10 February 2017. It was held in Prague for the first time and wasn't part of Gameday. There were 9 categories this time. Nominations were scheduled to be announced on 24 January 2017 but it was pushed to 27 January 2017. Dark Train and Samorost 3 garnered the most nominations at 6 categories each. Chameleon Run was nominated in 5 categories and American Truck Simulator earned 4 nominations. Samorost 3 won the top award as well as two others.
Czech game of the year - Samorost 3 by Amanita Design
Nominated: American Truck Simulator, Chameleon Run and Dark Train
Czech game of the year for PC/Consoles - Samorost 3 by Amanita Design
Nominated: American Truck Simulator, Dark Train and Void Raiders
Czech game of the year for Mobile Devices - Chameleon Run by Hyperbolic Magnetism
Nominated: Hackers, Redcon (video game) and Tiny Miners
Best technological solution - American Truck Simulator by SCS Software
Nominated: Chameleon Run, Killing Room and Space Merchants: Arena
Best audio - Samorost 3 by Amanita Design
Nominated: American Truck Simulator, Dark Train and The Solus Project
Best Game Design - Chameleon Run by Hyperbolic Magnetism
Nominated: Dark Train, Samorost 3 and Trupki
Best Story - 7 Mages by Napoleon Games
Nominated: Dark Train, Samorost 3 and The Solus Project
Best Visual - Dark Train by Paperash Studio
Nominated: Chameleon Run, Samorost 3 and The Solus Project
Biggest Hope - WarFriends by About Fun
Nominated: Blue Effect, Legends of Azulgar and Project ARGO
Hall of Fame - František Fuka, Tomáš Rylek and Miroslav Fídler
The 2017 awards were presented on 23 May 2018. Educational game by Charles University Attentat 1942 has won 3 categories including the main award.
Czech game of the year - Attentat 1942
Nominated: Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island, Smashing Four, WarFriends
Czech game of the year for PC/Consoles - Attentat 1942
Nominated: Blue Effect, Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island, Take On Mars
Czech game of the year for Mobile Devices - WarFriends
Nominated: AirportPRG, Smashing Four, What the Hen!
Best technological solution - Shadowgun Legends
Nominated: Blue Effect, Mashinky, Ylands
Best audio - Blue Effect
Nominated: Attentat 1942, Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island, Under Leaves
Best Game Design - Mashinky
Nominated: AirportPRG, Smashing Four, Through the Ages
Best Story - Attentat 1942
Nominated: Erin: The Last Aos Sí, Ghostory, The Naked Game
Best Visual - Under Leaves
Nominated: Shadowgun Legends, Tragedy of Prince Rupert, Ylands
Biggest Hope - Mashinky
Nominated: Children of the Galaxy, Shadowgun Legends, Ylands
Hall of Fame - Martin Klíma
The 2018 awards were presented on 5 April 2019, hosted by Tomáš Hanák. Nominations were announced on 28 March 2019. Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Beat Saber received highest number of nominations. Kingdom Come: Deliverance was seen as a front runner and has won highest number of awards winning 3 categories - Youtubers Award, Best Game Design and Best technological solution but lost to Beat Saber in the main award category. Beat Saber also won Game Journalists Award. Chuchel won Best Game Design award.
Developer's Award - Main Award: Beat Saber
Nominated: Chuchel, DayZ, Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Game Journalists Award: Beat Saber
Nominated: Heroes of Flatlandia, Aggressors: Ancient Rome, Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Youtubers Award: Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Nominated: Band of Defenders, Beat Saber, DayZ
Audiovisual Execution: Chuchel
Nominated: Project Hospital, Beat Saber, Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Best Game Design: Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Nominated: The Apartment, Beat Saber, DayZ
Best technological solution: Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Nominated: Mothergunship, Frontier Pilot Simulator, Beat Saber
Hall of Fame: Tomáš Smutný and Eduard Smutný
The 2019 awards were set for 20 March 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new date was announced on 13 July 2020, with the show scheduled to be held on 25 September 2020. Pilgrims by Amanita Design has eventually won the main award. Ylands by Bohemia Interactive won 2 awards - for Best technological solution and Best Free to Play game.
Czech game of the Year - Main Award: Pilgrims
Nominated: Ylands, Vigor, Planet Nomads
Audiovisual Execution: Feudal Alloy
Nominated: Little Mouse's Encyclopedia, Pilgrims, Zeminátor
Best Game Design: Monolisk
Nominated: Ylands, Jim is Moving Out!, Time, Space and Matter
Best technological solution: Ylands
Nominated: Vigor, Flippy Friends AR Multiplayer, Planet Nomads
Free to Play: Ylands
Nominated: Ritual: Sorcerer Angel, Vigor, Idle Quest Heroes
Student game: Silicomrades
Hall of Fame: Andrej Anastasov
The 2020 awards were held on 8 December 2021. It was linked with a survey about best Czech game of 2010s. Kingdom Come: Deliverance was voted best Czech video game of 2010s. Creaks won the main award.
Czech game of 2020: Creaks
Best technological solution: Mafia: Definitive Edition
Best Game Design: Someday You'll Return
Audiovisual Execution: Creaks
Free to Play: Shadowgun War Games
Hall of Fame: Lukáš Ladra
Czech game of the Decade: Kingdom Come: Deliverance
The 2021 awards were held on 6 December 2022. Svoboda 1945: Liberation by Charles Games won the main award.
Czech game of 2021: Svoboda 1945: Liberation
Best technological solution: Nebuchadnezzar
Best Game Design: Hobo: Tough Life
Audiovisual Execution: Happy Game
Free to Play: Mini DayZ 2
Hall of Fame: Marek Španěl
Student Game: HATS!
Best Community Support: Euro Truck Simulator 2 |
46819171 | List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2010 | 2015-05-28 02:49:27+00:00 | Below is the list of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2010.
A list of known near-Earth asteroid close approaches less than 1 lunar distance (384,400 km or 0.00256 AU) from Earth in 2010.
Rows highlighted red indicate objects which were not discovered until after closest approach
Rows highlighted yellow indicate objects discovered less than 24 hours before closest approach
Rows highlighted green indicate objects discovered more than one week before closest approach
Rows highlighted turquoise indicate objects discovered more than 7 weeks before closest approach
Rows highlighted blue indicate objects discovered more than one year before closest approach (i.e. objects successfully cataloged on a previous orbit, rather than being detected during final approach)
This list does not include any of the objects that collided with earth in 2010, none of which were discovered in advance, but were recorded by sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices.
=
This sub-section visualises the warning times of the close approaches listed in the above table, depending on the size of the asteroid. The sizes of the charts show the relative sizes of the asteroids to scale. For comparison, the approximate size of a person is also shown. This is based the absolute magnitude of each asteroid, an approximate measure of size based on brightness.
Abs Magnitude 30 and greater
(size of a person for comparison)
Abs Magnitude 29-30
Absolute Magnitude 28-29
Absolute Magnitude 27-28
Absolute Magnitude 26-27
Absolute Magnitude 25-26
==
2015 AQ43 may have passed as close as 0.00012 AU (18,000 km; 11,000 mi) (0.05 Lunar Distances) from the Earth on January 15, 2010, but the nominal distance suggests it only passed 5 LD away. |
25950624 | (614599) 2010 AB78 | 2010-01-26 01:57:44+00:00 | (614599) 2010 AB78 is a dark asteroid on an eccentric orbit, classified as near-Earth object of the Amor group. It was first observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) on 12 January 2010. The asteroid measures approximately 1.7 kilometers in diameter and has a low albedo of 0.03, which is rather typical for carbonaceous asteroids.
2010 AB78 is expected to become the first of the many thousands of discoveries to be accredited to the WISE space telescope. However, the official discoverer will only be defined upon the asteroid's numbering.
The first observation of 2010 AB78 by WISE was on January 12, 2010, being observed again the next day. The Mauna Kea Observatory observed it the days 18 and 19 of January, allowing the Minor Planet Center to publish a circular on January 22 confirming the discovery.
2010 AB78 orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.0–3.5 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,236 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.55 and an inclination of 33° with respect to the ecliptic. Due to its eccentric orbit it is also a Mars-crosser. 2010 AB78 has the lowest possible orbital uncertainty, which may have caused it to be numbered.
=
This near-Earth asteroid has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of 0.2058 AU (30,800,000 km), which corresponds to 80.2 lunar distances. It does not make any notable close approaches to Earth within the next hundred years.
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's discovering WISE observatory, 2010 AB78 measures 1.671 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.030. Objects known for such low albedos are the carbonaceous C, D and P-type asteroids.
As of 2018, no lightcurve has been obtained. The body's rotation period, shape and pole remain unknown.
Up until 2021, this minor planet has not been named or numbered. However it has since been numbered 614599 but is still yet to be named. |
26882287 | 2010 GA6 | 2010-04-08 18:35:35+00:00 | 2010 GA6 is a micro-asteroid on an eccentric orbit, classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group. It was first observed on 5 April 2010, by astronomers of the Catalina Sky Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, United States, four days before a close approach to Earth at 1.1 lunar distances on 9 April 2010. It has not been observed since.
2010 GA6 is an Apollo asteroid. Apollo's cross the orbit of Earth and are the largest group of near-Earth objects with nearly 10 thousand known members. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 0.93–3.69 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,281 days; semi-major axis of 2.31 AU). Its orbit has a high eccentricity of 0.60 and an inclination of 10° with respect to the ecliptic. With an aphelion of 3.69 AU, it is also a Mars-crossing asteroid, as it crosses the orbit of the Red Planet at 1.666 AU.
=
With a 1-day observation arc, 2010 GA6 had a 1 in 6 million chance of impacting Earth in 2074. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 8 April 2010. The asteroid has now a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of 599,000 km; 372,000 mi (0.004005 AU), which corresponds to 1.6 lunar distances, and is notably larger than the nominal distance of its 2010-flyby.
2010 flyby
On 9 April 2010, 02:07 UT, the asteroid passed Earth at a nominal distance of 434,000 km; 270,000 mi (0.0029 AU) or 1.1 lunar distances. A stony asteroid 22 meters in diameter can be expected to create an air burst with the equivalent of 300 kilotons of TNT at an altitude of 21 kilometers (69,000 ft). Generally only asteroids larger than 35 meters across pose a threat to a town or city. There are no projection of future close approaches to Earth available.
According to NASA astronomers, 2010 GA6 measures approximately 22 meters (72 ft) in diameter. Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, the asteroid measures between 19 and 36 meters in diameter, for an absolute magnitude of 22.6, and an assumed albedo between 0.057 and 0.20, which represent typical values for carbonaceous and stony asteroids, respectively.
This minor planet has neither been numbered nor named. |
27509530 | 2010 KQ | 2010-05-28 19:28:07+00:00 | 2010 KQ is a small asteroid-like object that has been discovered in an orbit about the Sun that is so similar to the Earth's orbit that scientists strongly suspect it to be a rocket stage that escaped years ago from the Earth–Moon system. The object was discovered on May 16, 2010 by Richard Kowalski at the Catalina Sky Survey, and has subsequently been observed by many observers, including Bill Ryan (Magdalena Ridge Observatory) and Peter Birtwhistle (England). It was given the asteroid designation 2010 KQ by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who identified its orbit as being very similar to that of the Earth.
Orbit refinements by JPL's Paul Chodas and amateur astronomer Bill Gray have shown that this object was very close to the Earth in early 1975, but the trajectory is not known with enough accuracy to associate the object with any particular launch. Nevertheless, scientists do not expect that a natural object could remain in this type of orbit for very long because of its relatively high impact probability with the Earth. In fact, an analysis carried out by Paul Chodas suggests that 2010 KQ has a 6% chance of impacting the Earth over a 30-year period starting in 2036.
Near-infrared spectral measurements of this object carried out by S.J. Bus (University of Hawaii) using the NASA IRTF telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, indicate that its spectral characteristics do not match those of any of the known asteroid types, and in fact are similar to those of a rocket body. The object's absolute magnitude (28.9) also suggests that it is only a few meters in size, about the size of an upper stage. Additional observations over the coming months should allow scientists to discern how strongly solar radiation pressure affects the object's motion, a result that could help distinguish a solid, rocky asteroid from a lighter man-made object.
Astronomer Richard Miles believes 2010 KQ may be the 4th stage of the Russian Proton rocket from the Luna 23 mission, launched October 28, 1974.
Even in the unlikely event that this object is headed for impact with the Earth, whether it is an asteroid or rocket body, it is so small that it would disintegrate in the atmosphere and not cause harm on the ground. |
25793481 | 2010 AL30 | 2010-01-13 16:17:41+00:00 | 2010 AL30 is a near-Earth asteroid that was discovered on 10 January 2010 at Grove Creek Observatory, Australia.
Italian scientists Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero told RIA Novosti that it had an orbital period of almost exactly one year and might be a spent rocket booster. However, it was determined that it is a near-Earth asteroid.
On January 13, 2010 at 1246 UT it passed Earth at 0.0008624 AU (129,010 km; 80,170 mi), about 1/3 of the distance from the Earth to the Moon (or 0.33 LD).
Based an estimated diameter of 10–15 m (33–49 ft), if 2010 AL30 had entered the Earth's atmosphere, it would have created a meteor air burst equivalent to between 50 kT and 100 kT (kilotons of TNT). The Nagasaki "Fat Man" atom bomb had a yield between 13–18 kT.
It has an uncertainty parameter of 2 and has been observed by radar. Radar observations show the asteroid is elongated and is about 30 meters in diameter. It may be a contact binary. |
30699721 | Casper (cat) | 2011-01-31 09:34:12+00:00 | Casper (c. 1997 – 14 January 2010) was a male domestic cat who attracted worldwide media attention in 2009 when it was reported that he was a regular bus commuter in Plymouth in Devon, England. He appeared on BBC News, was the subject of a newspaper editorial in The Guardian, and had a book written about him, Casper the Commuting Cat. Casper died on 14 January 2010 after being hit by a taxi.
Casper was adopted from an animal rescue centre in Weymouth, Dorset in 2002 by Susan Finden, a 48-year-old health care worker. He had been at the centre for about ten months and the owners called him Morse, after Inspector Morse, a TV program they had been watching when he arrived. But after a few days with him in her Weymouth house, Finden changed his name to Casper, after Casper the Friendly Ghost, because he kept disappearing. She soon realised that he was a very independent and determined cat, and he frequently wandered off. She also discovered that he was not afraid of people or traffic, and seemed to love being around large vehicles. It was not long before she started hearing reports that he was visiting nearby office blocks, doctor's consulting rooms and pharmacies. Fearing for his safety while crossing roads, Finden tried to keep Casper locked indoors, but he always found a way out.
In 2006, Finden moved to Plymouth, Devon, and when she went to work each day she had no idea what Casper did while she was away. It was not until early 2009 that she discovered that he was riding on buses. The drivers told her that he would politely queue along with other passengers at the bus stop opposite her house, and when a bus came that he liked, he would get on and jump on his favourite seat. Casper would remain on the bus for its 11-mile (18 km) round-trip to the city centre and back to the bus stop opposite his house, where the drivers would let him exit, ensuring that he did not get off at any other stop. When Finden learned of Casper's bus excursions, she contacted the bus company, First Devon & Cornwall, who alerted their drivers to be on the lookout for him. She was touched by how the drivers and passengers went out of their way to accommodate Casper and his unusual behaviour, and wrote a letter to The Plymouth Herald thanking them for their kindness. Her letter led to The Herald publishing an article on Casper in April 2009. British news agencies picked up The Herald article, and Casper's story quickly spread nationally, and then internationally.
Casper became a celebrity and appeared in newspapers and on websites across the world. He featured on BBC News, who had filmed him boarding a bus. First Devon & Cornwall adorned the side of some of their buses with a huge picture of Casper, and said they had no intention of charging Casper a bus fare. Public relations manager Karen Baxter said: "In cat years he's an OAP so he'd get a free bus pass anyway".
On 14 January 2010, Casper was hit by a taxi, whose driver did not stop to help him. He died of his injuries before Finden could get him to a vet. News of the accident spread quickly around the world, with some newspapers calling it a hit and run. Finden later contacted the taxi company, but could not press charges as British traffic regulations do not make it mandatory for drivers to stop after hitting a cat (although they must stop after hitting a dog). She had Casper cremated at a vet's crematorium, but she did not keep his ashes, as she had never kept the ashes of any of her other cats. Plymouth bus drivers and passengers who knew Casper paid tribute to him, and Finden posted a notice at his bus stop:
Many local people knew Casper, who loved everyone. He also enjoyed the bus journeys. Sadly a motorist hit him ... and did not stop. Casper died from his injuries. He will be greatly missed ... he was a much-loved pet who had so much character. Thank you to all those who befriended him.
Finden also received condolences from all over the world, including Australia, Argentina, Indonesia and the United States. The Guardian wrote in an editorial entitled "In praise of... Casper the commuting cat": "Casper had a thing about HGVs, but otherwise little road sense. That could have been his undoing. But, all things considered, what a ride it was."
After Casper's death in January 2010, Susan Finden wrote a book called Casper the Commuting Cat with the help of ghostwriter Linda Watson-Brown. It describes Casper's exploits, his rise to fame, and his untimely death. The book was first published in the United Kingdom by Simon & Schuster UK in August 2010, and was later translated into six other languages.
In October 2010 The Plymouth Herald reported that a full-length feature film on Casper's story is being considered, and that a British film director is said to be looking into the story. The Herald said that a production company is believed to be arranging funding, and that two "high-profile actresses" have been identified to play the role of Finden. |
29350292 | Emperor of Exmoor | 2010-10-25 23:37:26+00:00 | The Emperor of Exmoor, a red stag (Cervus elaphus), was reportedly killed in October 2010. Its weight has been estimated as over 300 pounds (136 kg) and its height at 9 feet (2.7 m). Red deer on Exmoor National Park are larger than red deer in Scotland owing to their diet.
The deer was given its nickname by photographer Richard Austin. Its body was reportedly discovered near the A361 road between Tiverton and Barnstaple in Devon, during the annual rutting season. It was reportedly killed by a licensed hunter, and an unnamed man reported hearing two shots. Within a few days, other local observers reported having seen the animal alive, leading to the suggestion that this may be a manufactured story. Few of the reported facts can actually be verified. The Guardian called the story "a myth".
The animal was believed to be around 12 years old at the time of the claim, but healthy. Older animals are sometimes culled, particularly when their incisor teeth are worn, making it difficult for them to survive the winter, but a former worker in deer management stated that "The Emperor was starting to get past his best, but he was definitely not at that stage yet."
The same observer stated, on the topic of stalking during rut, "... we should maintain a standard and stop all persecution during this important time of the year", but the practice is legal and the importance of hunting, both in species management and to the local economy, is asserted by the national park authority.
Deer stalking is legal in Britain under the Deer Act 1991, although hunters must seek permission from the landowner. The heads can fetch over £1000. The possible death of the Emperor of Exmoor prompted several MPs to sign an Early Day Motion with the intent to ban hunting of wild animals in Britain.
A head said to resemble the Emperor's was hung in the Hartnoll Hotel in Bolham, Devon in December 2011. The head was removed after the hotel received threats. |
60097785 | Enzo (dog) | 2019-02-28 12:54:01+00:00 | Enzo (July 1995 – June 23, 2010) was a Jack Russell Terrier canine actor who portrayed Eddie Crane on the American television sitcom Frasier. Eddie was originally portrayed by Enzo’s father, Moose; Enzo was one of a few puppies bred specifically as possible replacements for Moose, as it became clear that Frasier was a hit and would enjoy a long run. A daughter, Miko, was considered but never grew large enough (she was given to a technician); a son, Moosie, lived with Peri Gilpin, the actress who played Roz Doyle.
Enzo, born to mother Chelsea Marvin (also a Jack Russell), was a closer match and turned out to have unusually similar facial markings to his father. Later in the series, he was used as a stunt double to perform the more physically challenging tricks for his aging father. Enzo and Moose took turns playing the role after the eighth season. Enzo was also used as one of the puppies that "Eddie" had fathered during the show. Off the set, trainer Mathilde de Cagny has stated that Moose and Enzo's relationship was so bad that the two "could not stand to be in the same room together."
Enzo was cast as Skip in the feature film My Dog Skip. Moose played the older Skip in a few scenes. His trainer and several actors have commented on Enzo’s skill and trainability; he performed tricks and portrayed a wide variety of emotions. A 1999 interview quotes the director of My Dog Skip:
"Skip never failed us. I wish I worked with actors who were as well prepared as Skip. There was not a trick or a piece of business we asked the dog to do that he wasn't able to do; it was uncanny. The trainers were so good, they could stop him on a mark, he could lift his leg, he could do a somersault. I expected to see him reading The New York Times any day."
Enzo died of cancer on June 23, 2010, at the age of 14 (incorrectly stated as 16).
Frasier - "Eddie"
My Dog Skip – "Skip"
See Spot Run – Boodles |
30133338 | 4 U (Cody Simpson EP) | 2010-12-20 23:56:47+00:00 | 4 U is the debut extended play (EP) release by Australian pop singer Cody Simpson. It was released on 21 December 2010 via Atlantic Records. The songs are mostly pop/R&B influenced.
The album's lead single, "iYiYi", was released on 1 June 2010. The second single, "All Day", was released on 17 March 2011.
Simpson moved to Los Angeles in June 2010 to record his songs with Atlantic Records and his producer Campbell. On 4 December 2010, it was announced on Simpson's official website that an EP entitled 4 U would be released through iTunes on 21 December 2010. The EP includes 5 tracks in total, 4 of them being previously unreleased.
Simpson went on tour promoting 4U, making stops at various locations in the United States. Most notably, Simpson participated in the "Camplified 2010" tour in June. Other tours include a middle school tour that took place from October–November 2010 and covered 9 U.S States.
From 9 April 2011 to 18 May 2011 he and Greyson Chance took part in the Waiting 4U Tour. It started in Ivins, Utah and ended in Portland, Oregon.
"iYiYi" is the first single that was released for digital download on 1 June 2010 via iTunes. It features American rapper Flo Rida. The music video for "iYiYi" was released on 30 June 2010. The song peaked at no.19 in Australia and no.29 in New Zealand in 2011. The song also peaked at no.33 in Belgium in 2011.
"All Day" was released as the second single on 17 March 2011. The video was shot in January 2011. The video was released on 23 February 2011 at 10am EST on AOL Music. The "All Day" music video was directed by David Ovenshire. It features cameo appearances by Jessica Jarrell, Aaron Fresh, Jacque Rae, and Madison Pettis. The song peaked at no. 47 in Belgium. |
28588118 | 5 (Die Antwoord EP) | 2010-08-27 22:37:32+00:00 | 5 is an EP by South African hip hop group, Die Antwoord. The EP was the first official release by Die Antwoord on a major record label, Cherrytree Records (an imprint of Interscope Records). It followed up on internet circulation of the album $O$ and the viral "Enter the Ninja" music video, which featured on a number of high-traffic blog sites, most notably BoingBoing. The song incorporates elements of Smile.dk's song "Butterfly", famous for appearing in the Dance Dance Revolution series. The EP features some previously released material, as well as one new track and a remix. 'Fish Paste' was released as a promo single. Pitchfork Media made the entire EP available to stream on 12 June 2010.
Rolling Stone magazine noted the use of both Afrikaans and English in Ninja's lyrics, whilst also mentioning the problem this presents for people not used to his strong South African accent, but ultimately concluded that "Die Antwoord don't dispense with rap clichés – they give them a new accent that's both disorienting and thrilling".
Consequence of Sound noted the fusion of hip hop with rave, and also mentioned the presence of lyrics in Afrikaans. The generally positive review concluded that 5 was "a fantastic prelude to a debut; the perfect thing to get you primed for their upcoming debut, $O$.", and that the EP was "a breath of fresh air and the perfect introduction to the South Africans, Die Antwoord".
A review by online music retailer Insound noted that whilst the rerelease of some tracks from the initial internet release of $O$ might mute the impact of the EP, it was perhaps better that some of the hype regarding the band had died down, allowing the music to be judged on its own merits. The review concluded that 'Enter the Ninja' was 'still as infectious, fascinating, witty and beautifully trashy as ever', noting 'Wat Kyk Jy?' and 'Fish Paste' as other standouts, and observing the fusion of musical styles in a similar manner to the Consequence of Sound review ('an odd blend of rave and 90's euro-pop').
"Enter The Ninja" debuted at #37 in the UK Music Charts on 19 September 2010.
The cover and back for 5 was shot by photographer Niel Bekker in Cape Town, South Africa. |
77173103 | Pike River (film) | 2024-06-17 22:36:02+00:00 | Pike River is an upcoming New Zealand drama film. Directed by Robert Sarkies, it stars Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm.
Based on the Pike River Mine disaster of 2010, the story follows the subsequent, years-long battle for justice led by Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse, two friends whose respective husband and son—along with 27 other workers—were killed during an underground explosion.
Melanie Lynskey as Anna Osborne
Robyn Malcolm as Sonya Rockhouse
Lucy Lawless as Helen Kelly
Erroll Shand as Pete Cahill
Madeleine McCarthy as Alisha Osborne
Ben Porter as Rob Osbourne
John Leigh as Milton Osborne
Peter Tait as Rowdy Durbridge
Jordan Mooney as Tony Sutorius
Tim Gordon as Bernie Monk
Elizabeth Hawthorne as Kath Monk
Hamish McEwen as Daniel Rockhouse
Richard Crouchley as Ben Rockhouse
Jeff Kingsford-Brown as Neville Rockhouse
Ian Mune as "Rocky" Rockhouse
Pike River was shot on location in Greymouth, New Zealand between November and December 2023. Speaking to Variety in May 2024, producer Vicky Pope described the film as "Erin Brockovich meets Norma Rae – New Zealand's own version, gutsy and real", and said of the casting, "We are so thrilled about the powerhouse partnership of [Lynskey] and [Malcolm] ... two incredible actresses playing two incredible women". |
29659473 | Pike River Mine disaster | 2010-11-19 12:16:02+00:00 | The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island following a methane explosion at approximately 3:44 pm (NZDT, UTC+13). The accident resulted in the deaths of 29 miners.
The Pike River Mine incident ranks as New Zealand's worst mining disaster since 1914, when 43 men died at Ralph's Mine in Huntly. It also resulted in the country's worst loss of life caused by a single disaster since the 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901, although it was surpassed three months later by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
At the time of the explosion 31 miners and contractors were below ground. Two miners managed to walk from the mine and were treated for moderate injuries. The remaining 16 miners and 13 contractors were believed to be at least 1.5 km (1,600 yd) from the mine's entrance at the time of the initial explosion.
Subsequent explosions on 24, 26 and 28 November ended any hopes of any further survivors and raised serious doubt that any bodies would ever be recovered.
In December 2012, Prime Minister John Key said he would apologise in person to the families of the dead, for the government's weak regulations and inadequate inspection regime.
In 2017 the Government established a new Pike River Recovery Agency, with re-entry expected by March 2019. It reported to the Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry, Andrew Little. Re-entry was expected to cost $23 million over three years. The agency took over the mine from Solid Energy, after it entered liquidation in mid-March 2018. In February 2021, the Pike River Recovery Agency reported that it had reached a point 2.2 km up the mine access tunnel to the site of a rockfall. This was the furthest point into the mine that the agency planned to go, and the work to this point had cost approximately $50 million. On 23 March 2021, the Minister responsible for Pike River Re-entry, Andrew Little, stated that it was too hard and too expensive to go any further into the mine.
The accident led to significant changes in occupational safety legislation, with the passage of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the establishment of WorkSafe New Zealand.
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The first explosion is believed to have occurred at around 3:44 pm on 19 November 2010. Methane may have accumulated in a void formed during earlier mining activities, then been expelled into the rest of the mine by a roof fall, or it may have accumulated directly in working areas of the mine. It is not known what sparked the explosion, but a working mine contains several possible ignition sources. Two miners managed to walk from the mine later the same day, having been in the access tunnel, or just off it, some distance from the source of the explosion. Both were taken to Greymouth Hospital suffering moderate injuries.
Initial media reports were unclear as to the number of miners and contractors remaining within the mine, with various numbers between 25 and 33 being mentioned. It was eventually ascertained that there were 16 miners and 13 contractors trapped. The names of the missing workers were released on 21 November 2010.
Mine officials noted that every worker carried a self-rescue device providing 30 minutes of air, and fresh air bases were provided within the mine for them to escape to in the event of an emergency; however, the refuges were empty and there was no evidence of miners attempting to reach them. When a borehole was drilled into the area where the miners were thought to be, a level of 95% methane was found, with the remainder primarily carbon monoxide. It appeared there was little chance that any of the miners who may have survived the blast could still be alive. Although families had held out hope that some of the miners may have survived, it was believed by the rescue team that all had been killed by the initial explosion. The mine had not collapsed and air was blowing freely throughout the tunnels indicating that there were no obstructions to survivors leaving the mine or indicating their presence by tapping on pipes or calling for help.
A second explosion occurred at 2:37 pm on 24 November 2010. Police Superintendent Gary Knowles stated that he believed no one could have survived. According to the CEO of the Pike River mine, Peter Whittall, the explosion was not caused by anybody working in or around the mine. The second explosion sent smoke, soot and explosive gases up a mine shaft where a team of rescue staff had been taking samples; the noise of the rising explosion provided them enough warning to get clear, evacuating the area on foot.
A third explosion occurred at 3:39 pm on 26 November 2010; it appeared to be smaller than the first two. A fourth significant explosion ignited the coal within the mine; the subsequent fire was visible above the ventilation shaft; the steel structure above the shaft was damaged and neighbouring scrub set alight. The fire appeared to be located near the bottom of the shaft, burning either loose coal or the seam itself, and considerably complicated efforts to stabilise the mine and made recovery of "intact" bodies unlikely.
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The initial explosion damaged the mine's gas drainage line, causing methane gas to begin accumulating in the mine immediately. As there may have been a potential ignition source, it was too dangerous for rescuers to enter the mine.
It was originally predicted to take several days before the mine was safe enough for rescuers to enter, as the gases inside were feared to be explosive. Initial testing at the mine ventilation shaft was hindered by heavy clouds, preventing helicopter access, and staff were going to have to walk in over rough terrain, as the shaft does not have road access.
Seismic equipment was attached to tubes at the tunnel mouth to detect movement in the mine.
With tests still not giving clearance for rescuers to enter the mine, an attempt was made to enter the mine using a bomb disposal robot provided by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF). The robot failed only 550 m (1,800 ft) into the mine due to water ingress. Sources noted that while the robot was capable of operating in rain, it had "effectively [been] hit by a waterfall", short-circuiting it. A second NZDF bomb disposal robot was placed on stand-by to enter. This robot had been fitted with extra batteries and other equipment to try to avoid the problems which hit the first robot. It was later deployed, and the first robot was later restarted. The robots entered the mine on 23 and 24 November 2010, while a third, from Australia, was en route to the site. The use of three robots was unprecedented in mine rescue. The use of United States mining rescue/exploration robots was also being considered though the second explosion later that day effectively ended the robot efforts.
Early on 24 November 2010, it was reported that a drill started from above the horizontal mine had reached to the mine chamber, releasing hot gas. Later in the day, it was reported analysis showed 95% methane. A camera, inserted into a safe haven in the mine, found no evidence of human activity.
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In accordance with the protocols established in New Zealand's Co-ordinated Incident Management System, the emergency response was led by New Zealand Police – in this case Superintendent Gary Knowles, District Commander of the Tasman region. In addition to police, "Operation Pike" involved staff and management from Pike River Coal Ltd, the company operating the mine (represented at media and family conferences by CEO Peter Whittall), mine rescue experts from New Zealand and Australia, the Red Cross, ambulance services, the New Zealand Defence Force, and the Fire Service. The recovery phase was led by Inspector Mark Harrison, with Knowles in charge overall.
A welfare centre was set up at the Red Cross Hall in Greymouth for the families of the missing men. Police encouraged families to use this centre rather than trying to reach the mine's access road, which was closed to everyone except emergency services. After several days of delays in entering the mine, some locals expressed anger at what they considered the undue cautiousness of the rescue teams, noting that in historical accidents the rescue efforts were undertaken by fellow miners. In response to the continued criticism from various media and local families for their refusal to send rescuers into the mine, Trevor Watts, leader of the Mines Rescue, explained the team's belief that any rescuers would have also been killed given the conditions within the mine. Their cautious approach was supported by many international mine rescue experts.
Both the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges placed trading halts on Pike River Coal (PRC) shares following the first explosion to allow the company time to "provide the market with a detailed update". PRC's largest shareholder New Zealand Oil & Gas, which owned 29.4%, was also placed on a trading halt for two days; upon reinstatement the shares lost 29% of their value. PRC's shares were halted for 13 days. On 2 December 2010, when New Zealand held a nationwide moment of silence, including at the stock exchange, PRC's suspension was inadvertently allowed to end and about 200,000 share trades were later invalidated.
The first explosion was classified as a "highly, highly irregular event", and the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key immediately announced the government would hold an inquiry into its cause. It was later announced that the government would appoint a Royal Commission of Inquiry. In addition, the police and the coroner would conduct investigations – as required by law – as would the Department of Labour.
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A Gorniczy Agregat Gasniczy (GAG) unit from Queensland, accompanied by 16 crew from Queensland Mines Rescue Service, was brought in on 26 November 2010 by the RNZAF, to be used in an attempt to suppress the fires. It was expected to take three days to assemble, and about five days for the fire-retardant emitted from the unit to fill the mine.
On 10 December 2010, Police Commissioner Howard Broad said that the police intended to hand control of the recovery operation at the mine to the company. On 13 January 2011, Howard Broad told a media conference that the recovery of the bodies of the miners would be halted as it was impractical and too unsafe. Responsibility for securing the mine would be left with the receivers of Pike River Coal.
On 14 January 2011, the police announced that the mine had been sealed as it was too dangerous to continue efforts to retrieve the bodies of the missing miners and contractors. On 17 January 2011, the receivers advised the police that their plan was to spend the next five to eight weeks stabilising the atmosphere in the mine and the underground heat sources. The plan did not include recovery of the bodies of the deceased miners. On 17 January 2011, it was further confirmed that recovery of the bodies was unlikely. On 9 March 2011, the receivers took control of the mine from the New Zealand Police. During inspection and recovery attempts, five robotic vehicles have been sent into the mine, but all failed within the mine, for reasons such as water ingress into their electronics, or getting stuck.
In February 2013, a panel of experts, including representatives from Solid Energy, the government and families of the deceased, met to discuss whether retrieval of the bodies would be possible if they had the necessary funding. They came to the conclusion it could be done, and the government promised to fund the effort if its High Hazards Unit agreed. In October 2013, Solid Energy with the assistance of the New Zealand Defence Force started the Pike re-entry project in an effort to send mine rescue and other experts 2.3 km into the drift access tunnel and close to the debris blockage caused by a roof fall. The following year WorkSafe wrote to Solid Energy stating that the re-entry plan made at that time was "safe and technically feasible"; and this became public knowledge the following month, in September 2014. In November 2014, Solid Energy announced the decision not to re-enter the mine due to safety concerns, saying that if rescuers re-entered there was an unmanageable risk that more people would die.
The 29 men ranged in age from 17 to 62. The youngest, Joseph Dunbar, was on his first shift underground after celebrating his 17th birthday the previous day. Dunbar had been due to start work at the mine on 22 November 2010 but had convinced management to allow him to start on 19 November 2010. Of the 29, 24 were New Zealanders, two were Scottish, two were Australian, and one was South African. The 24 New Zealanders were predominantly West Coasters, though they also included one Southlander.
The victims included, among others, Grey District Councillor Milton Osborne and two West Coast representative sportsmen, South Island rugby league player Blair Sims and West Coast Rugby Union player Michael Monk. One of the trapped miners, Benjamin Rockhouse, was the brother of survivor Daniel Rockhouse, one of the two men who walked clear of the mine after the initial explosion.
On 24 November 2010 at 9:00 p.m., a service was held at the Holy Trinity Church in Greymouth, where hundreds of people gathered to mourn the loss of the workers. People at the service included Peter Whittall (CEO of Pike River Coal) and Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn who delivered a message from Pope Benedict XVI, saying that he shared the anxiety of the miners' families and that his prayers were with them. Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, sent to John Key a note expressing her condolences for the families of the deceased, calling the event a "national disaster". Her grandson, Prince William, sent a similar message to Key.
A number of countries worldwide expressed their condolences, including the United Kingdom, Australia (where the Australian Parliament observed a moment's silence and flags were flown at half mast, in conjunction with New Zealand), and the United States.
The New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights opened their 2011 season schedule with a charity match to raise money for the West Coast region. In a joint partnership between the two teams, the NZRL and NRL, all money raised from the match was divided between the Pike River mining relief fund and the West Coast Rugby League. The teams arrived on 3 February 2011 to carry out community appearances in the region. The Crusaders also announced that they would play their first home match of the 2011 Super Rugby season in the West Coast Rugby Union jersey. These were later auctioned off to raise money for the Pike River mining relief fund.
On 17 March 2011, after attending a national memorial service for the earthquake in Christchurch, Prince William visited Greymouth and met families affected by the disaster.
On 27 June 2011, The Australian featured an article titled "Miners doomed by fatal flaws" which alleged that Peter Whittall had not ensured the Pike River Mine had installed safety measures which are common in Australia, but are not legally required in New Zealand. The possible safety measures not used in the Pike River Mine were a "tube bundle" gas monitoring system, stocks of food and water, breathing apparatus, and a second escape route. Whittall has consistently maintained that safety standards were high. A former mine supervisor alleged that miners continued to work when the methane gas concentrations exceeded the threshold of 2%. It is also alleged that the miners routinely blew compressed air over the methane alarms to prevent them from triggering.
In November 2013, the Christchurch-based journalist Rebecca Macfie published the book Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died, based on research and interviews into the causes of the disaster.
Several commentators criticised successive National and Labour Party governments for deregulating safety in the mining sector and some also argued that the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), which had several members at Pike River, did not do enough to prevent the tragedy. In the days after the explosion, EPMU leader Andrew Little (who later became Labour Party leader) said there had been no problems at Pike River Coal and defended its safety record.
The disaster has led to calls for New Zealand to introduce a crime of corporate manslaughter, and in 2013 Labour leader Andrew Little introduced a private members' into the ballot that would introduce a new crime modelled on the United Kingdom's Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act. Simester and Brookbanks wrote in their criminal law textbook:[D]isasters like Pike River seem to point inexorably towards the need to better regulate the activities of corporate managers and to create a stronger safety culture around workplace environments. Corporate manslaughter ought to be considered, together with other regulatory mechanisms, as means of better protecting employees and members of the public from corporate negligence and unsafe practices.
In November 2010, Prime Minister John Key announced that the Government would conduct a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster, to be led by Justice Graham Panckhurst. Unionist Matt McCarten criticised the composition of the commission on the grounds that it should have at least one union member, which government had refused, arguing that including union members would risk bias. On 13 December 2010, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson announced the names of the two people to join Judge Pankhurst on the Royal Commission of Inquiry: Stewart Bell, the Queensland State Government Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health; and David Henry, formerly Inland Revenue Commissioner and Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission. The Royal Commission was originally expected to report its findings by March 2012.
On 30 October 2012, the Chair of the Royal Commission, the Hon Justice Pankhurst presented the Royal Commission report to the Attorney-General Chris Finlayson in Wellington. The Royal Commission's Final Report was released to the public on 5 November 2012. Later that day, the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson resigned her portfolio in response to the conclusion that the regulation and inspection of mining by the Department of Labour had failed to prevent the accident.
The former directors John Dow, Ray Meyer, Stuart Nattrass and former chief executive Peter Whittall rejected accusations of running an unsafe mine and said they disagreed with the Royal Commission's conclusion that the directors had not acted properly over health and safety at the mine. Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn blamed the mine managers.
On 12 December 2012, the Government released a plan to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission.
In November 2010, the Police and the Department of Labour began investigating the accident for grounds for prosecution. The investigation involved a team of up to 15 staff who conducted more than 200 interviews. In November 2011, the Department of Labour formally initiated the prosecution of three parties under the Health Safety and Employment Act: Pike River Coal Limited (in receivership), VLI Drilling Pty Limited (Valley Longwall International) and Peter William Whittall for 25 charges of alleged health and safety failures associated with the accident.
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The receivers for Pike River Coal Limited advised that the company would not enter a plea to the charges. In July 2013, Pike River Coal was ordered to pay $110,000 to each of the victims' families and fined $760,000. In the end it did not pay the fine and only paid $5,000 to each family, saying it did not have the money.
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On 31 July 2012, the contracting company Valley Longwall International pleaded guilty in the Greymouth District Court to three health and safety charges. On 26 October 2012, Valley Longwall International, who had lost three employees in the mine, was fined $46,800.
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Peter Whittall did not appear in court for his 12 health and safety charges and his case was adjourned to October 2012. On 25 October 2012, Whittall entered not guilty pleas. In December 2013, charges were dropped against Whittall, citing a lack of evidence. Instead, Whittall and Pike River Coal offered a voluntary payment on behalf of the directors and officers of the company to the families of the men and two survivors. Some family members of the deceased miners criticised the decision to drop charges, and in August 2016, two family members sought a judicial review of the decision.
On 23 November 2017 the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that the arrangement by WorkSafe to drop all charges against Whittall, conditional on payment of $3.41 million, was an agreement to prevent the prosecution and was therefore unlawful. Police had already decided not to press criminal charges against Whittall. Whittall's lawyer, Stuart Grieve QC, had proposed a voluntary payment instead of a plea bargain, conditional on WorkSafe agreeing not to proceed against Whittall. The court said: "If accepted, this proposal would undoubtedly have constituted a bargain to stifle prosecution.
On 23 November 2020, the New Zealand Law Society confirmed in a letter to former lawyer Christopher Harder, who lodged a formal complaint in October 2020, that the matter was being referred to a Standards Committee "for consideration of commencing an investigation of its own motion". The complaint, viewed by the New Zealand Herald, claims that Stuart Grieve QC and then Crown Prosecutor for Christchurch Brent Stanaway brought the legal profession into disrepute by entering into an "unlawful agreement to pay money for the dropping of all charges" and "stifling a prosecution by deliberately misleading and deceiving the sentencing judge [District Court Judge Jane Farish]". Harder told Stuff "I hope the fact that the Law Society is finally looking at this unlawful agreement to stifle the WorkSafe prosecutions gives the deceased miners families here some little peace of mind and a little hope that there might still be a little justice to come." Harder did not wish to be considered the complainant or a party to the complaint, but described himself to the law society as "a messenger". He felt the society should have begun this investigation without his correspondence."
After an agreement was signed between New Zealand's major political parties in Wellington on 15 August 2017, soon-to-be Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged that a manned re-entry of the mine would be conducted with the object of recovering bodies and investigating the cause of the explosion. Meanwhile, preparations for a robotic entry later in the year continued.
On 20 November 2017, Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry Andrew Little announced the creation of a stand-alone government department called the Pike River Recovery Agency to explore plans to re-enter the mine and recover the bodies of the deceased miners.
On 31 January 2018, the Pike River Recovery Agency formally came into existence with its headquarters being in Greymouth. On 19 April 2018, Little, as Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry, entered the mine's portal with Pike Family representatives Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse to demonstrate that a safe re-entry was possible. He vowed that the coalition Government would re-enter the drift to recover evidence and the remains of the deceased miners.
On 21 May 2019, a mine recovery team led by Pike River Recovery Agency chief operating officer Dinghy Pattinson re-entered the mine for the first time since 2010, breaking the concrete seal to the mine drift. Body recovery and forensic operations are expected to take several months. The mine re-entry was marked by family members releasing 29 yellow balloons and calling out the names of those who died. Re-entry and recovery operations will consist of three phases. The first team of miners will re-enter to assess hazards and to establish infrastructure for supporting the roofs and sides of the drift. A second forensically-focused mining team will then enter the mine to examine and remove any evidential material. A third team will provide mining services including gas monitoring, communications lines and ventilation bags. Once completed, the site is expected to be refurbished and handed back to the Department of Conservation.
On 10 June 2020, Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry Andrew Little announced that it was "impractical" to expect the remains of the fallen miners to be recovered. Instead, recovery efforts would focus on gathering evidence for the homicide case. The cost of the recovery project had risen from NZ$23 million to NZ$35 million, with concerns that the figure could reach NZ$50 million.
On 17 February 2021, the Pike River Recovery Agency abandoned plans to recover the bodies of fallen miners after reaching the roof fall 2.26 kilometres up the mine's access tunnel. The Agency would instead focus on conducting forensic work in the Pit Bottom in Stone area in support of the New Zealand Police investigation. On 23 March 2021, the Minister responsible for Pike River Re-entry, Andrew Little, stated that it was too hard and too expensive to go any further into the mine.
On 12 May 2021, the Government confirmed that it was reviewing an NZ$8 million plan submitted by a group representing 23 Pike River families to recover the mine's ventilation fan, which is considered to be the most likely source of the 2010 explosion.
On 4 June 2021, 22 of the 29 victims' families filed for a judicial review challenging Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry Little's rejection of a proposal to recover the mine's ventilation fan, which is considered the likely source of the 2010 explosion. Some of the families and supporters launched a social media campaign and an online petition, titled "Help stop critical evidence in Pike River mine from being locked away for ever!" The families also gained support internationally, including from mineworkers and experts in the UK and Australia.
On 9 July, a group representing 20 Pike River families blocked the mine access road in order to prevent the Pike River Recovery Agency from permanently closing the mine. A representative of the Pike River families also sought a court injunction to prevent the Pike River mine from being permanently sealed.
On 17 November 2021, New Zealand Police announced that the remains of at least two men had been found within the alpine bolter section of the mine. This discovery came following the recent drilling of boreholes and the introduction of specialised cameras into the mine. Police Superintendent Pete Read stated that it was not possible to recover the remains due to their location.
By 9 March 2022, a total of eight bodies had been found as a result of deep bore drilling operations.
By 23 June 2023, with the conclusion of bore drilling operations by police, a total of twelve of the twenty-nine bodies had been located within the mine. The photos taken indicated that the victims likely died instantaneously in the initial explosion and therefore would have been unable to be rescued prior to the second explosion.
The disaster was the primary motivator in updating New Zealand's health and safety legislation, resulting in establishment of WorkSafe New Zealand in December 2013 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
The Blackball Museum of Working Class History includes a memorial wheel dedicated to those who have died at work in New Zealand, with a special section for the miners who died in the Pike River Mine disaster. It was the site of a memorial service to mark the fourth anniversary of the event; wreaths were laid and a choir performed a piece dedicated to the victims. |
55857887 | Pike River Recovery Agency | 2017-11-22 01:05:53+00:00 | The Pike River Recovery Agency (Māori: Te Kāhui Whakamana Rua Tekau mā Iwa) was a stand-alone New Zealand Government department. Established in 2018, its stated aim was to work with families of victims of the 2010 Pike River Mine disaster to plan and facilitate the manned re-entry of the mine's drift. The Agency's purpose was to gather evidence on the disaster with the goals of preventing future mining accidents, giving the Pike River families closure and, if possible, recovering the bodies of the deceased miners.
The agency was disestablished on 1 July 2022, with management of the former Pike River Mine being transferred to the Department of Conservation.
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Minister for Pike River Re-Entry Andrew Little announced the formation of the agency on 20 November 2017, with its formal establishment due to take place on 31 January 2018. The Pike River Recovery Agency would be an establishment unit within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). The Agency would be headed by a Chief Executive recruited by the State Services Commission. The Agency planned to have formulated a plan for mine re-entry by the end of March 2018. The Government allocated NZ$23 million to fund the agency's operations and mine re-entry over a three-year period.
The Pike River Recovery Agency would also take over ownership of Pike River mine from Solid Energy, which was scheduled to enter into liquidation in mid-March 2018. After the planned re-entry, ownership of Pike River will return to the Department of Conservation (DOC), including a planned Pike29 Memorial Track, as part of Paparoa National Park.
On 31 January 2018, the Pike River Recovery Agency formally came into existence with its headquarters being based in Greymouth on the West Coast.
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On 19 April 2018, Little entered the Pike River Mine portal with Pike Family representatives Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse to demonstrate that a safe re-entry was possible. He promised that the Coalition Government would re-enter the drift to recover evidence and the remains of loved ones.
On 21 May 2019, the Pike River Recovery Agency's chief operating officer Dinghy Pattinson led a recovery team which breached the concrete seal to the mine drift. The occasion was marked by family members releasing 29 yellow balloons and calling out the names of those who died. Re-entry and recovery operations were expected to take several months and would consist of three phases. The first team of miners would assess hazards and establish supporting infrastructure. A second forensically-focussed mining team were to be tasked with collecting evidential material. A third team provided mining services including gas monitoring, communication lines and ventilation bags. Once completed, the site was expected to be refurbished and returned to the Department of Conservation by June 2020.
On 10 June 2020, Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry Little announced that it was "impractical" to expect the remains of the fallen miners to be recovered due to the dangerous conditions. Instead, recovery efforts would focus on gathering evidence for the homicide case. The cost of the recovery project had risen from NZ$23 million to NZ$35 million, with concerns that the figure could reach NZ$50 million.
On 17 February 2021, the Pike River Recovery Agency reached the roof fall 2.26 kilometres up the mine's access tunnel, marking the end point of its journey and ending any plans of recovering the bodies of the fallen miners. The Agency would now focus on conducting forensic work in the Pit Bottom in Stone area required for the New Zealand Police investigation.
In early June 2021, 22 of the 29 victims' families filed for a judicial review challenging Minister for Pike Mine Re-entry Little's rejection of a proposal to recover the mine's ventilation fan, which is considered the likely source of the 2010 explosion. In response, the Recovery Agency claimed that the proposal underestimated the time and costs involved in recovering the fan, and that there were various technical issues involved.
On 9 July 2021, a group representing 20 Pike River families blocked the mine access road in an attempt to prevent the Agency from permanently closing the mine. A representative of the Pike River families also sought a court injunction to prevent the Pike River mine from being permanently sealed.
By early March 2022, a total of eight bodies had been found as a result of deep bore drilling operations. However, the bodies were unable to be retrieved due to the unstable nature of the former mine.
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On 30 March 2022, Agency acting chief executive Michelle Wessing announced that the Pike River Recovery Agency would complete its rehabilitation work at the Pike River site that week with plans to hand over the site to the Department of Conservation on 1 April. In addition, she confirmed that the Agency would be disestablished on 30 June 2022 while its Greymouth office would cease operations when its lease expired on 29 April. While the Government had initially budgeted NZ$23 million for the Agency, this figure had risen to NZ$51 million by late March 2022. Wessing confirmed that the Agency had a total unaudited operation expenditure of NZ$48 million.
On 23 May 2022, the Agency issued a statement that it had completed its stated objectives to safely re-enter and recover the Pike River Mine drift, give closure to the Pike River miners' families, promoting accountability and helping to prevent future mining tragedies. Prior to its planned closure on 1 July 2022, its website was decommissioned on 30 May 2022. In addition to assuming management of the site, DOC also gained custody of the mine records. MBIE will complete limited disestablishment activities until 31 December 2022 and assumed control of the Agency's non-mining records. |
27897539 | Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization | 2010-06-30 10:30:53+00:00 | The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization (Latin: Pontificium Consilium de Nova Evangelizatione), also translated as Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, was a pontifical council of the Roman Curia whose creation was announced by Pope Benedict XVI at vespers on 28 June 2010, eve of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, to carry out the New Evangelization. On 5 June 2022, the department was merged into the Dicastery for Evangelization.
The Pope said that "the process of secularisation has produced a serious crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and role of the Church", and the new pontifical council would "promote a renewed evangelisation" in countries where the Church has long existed "but which are living a progressive secularisation of society and a sort of 'eclipse of the sense of God'."
On 30 June 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed as its first President Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, until then President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. On 13 May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Jose Octavio Ruiz Arenas as the first Secretary of the Pontifical Council. Archbishop Ruiz Arenas had been serving as the Vice President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and had served as the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Villavicencio in Villavicencio, Colombia. The 66-year-old prelate is a native of Colombia. That same day, Monsignor Graham Bell, formerly the Secretary Coordinator of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was named the Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council.
On Friday, 25 January 2013, Pope Benedict XVI, in an Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio (on his own initiative), transferred the oversight of catechesis from the Congregation for the Clergy to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization (catechesis is the use of catechists, clergy, and other individuals to teach and inform those in the Church, those interested in the Church, and catechumens- those joining the Church through Baptism and/or Confirmation- about the faith and its structure and tenets).
The idea for a Council for the New Evangelisation was first floated by Father Luigi Giussani, founder of the Communion and Liberation movement, in the early 1980s. Pope John Paul II emphasized the universal call to holiness and called Catholics to engage in the New Evangelization. More recently, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice presented the idea to Benedict XVI.
The term "new evangelisation" was popularised by Pope John Paul II with reference to efforts to reawaken the faith in traditionally Christian parts of the world, particularly Europe, first "evangelised", or converted to Christianity, many centuries earlier, but then standing in need of a "new evangelisation".
Pope Benedict XVI established the council with Art. 1 §1 of the motu proprio Ubicumque et semper', given from Castel Gandolfo 21 September 2010 and published in the L'Osservatore Romano 12 October 2010.
The incipit of the document is part of the phrase: "The Church has a duty everywhere and at all times to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Pope Benedict quoted Pope Paul VI who stated that the work of evangelisation "proves equally increasingly necessary because of the frequent situations of de-Christianization of our days, for multitudes of people who have been baptized but who live quite outside of Christian life, for simple people who have a certain faith, but he knows the basics wrong, for intellectuals who feel the need to know Jesus Christ in a different light from the teaching they received as children, and for many others ".
The document lists the specific tasks of the Council which include:
deepen the theological and pastoral significance of the new evangelisation;
promote and encourage, in close collaboration with the Episcopal Conferences concerned, that can have an ad hoc body, study, dissemination and implementation of the papal magisterium on matters related to the new evangelisation;
raise awareness and support activities related to the new evangelisation which are being applied in various particular Churches and to promote the realisation of new, actively involving the resources of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as well as in associations of the faithful and new community;
study and promote the use of modern forms of communication, as tools for the new evangelization;
promote the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as an essential and comprehensive formulation of the content of faith to the people of our time.
Presenting the new Council to the press, Archbishop Fisichella said: "The Gospel is not a myth, but the living witness of an historical event that changed the face of history." He added: "The new evangelization first and foremost makes known the historical person of Jesus, and his teachings as they have been faithfully transmitted by the original community, teachings that find in the Gospels and in the writings of the New Testament their normative expression."
President:
Salvatore Fisichella (30 June 2010 – present)
Secretary:
José Ruiz Arenas (13 May 2011 – present)
Undersecretary:
Mgsr. Graham Bell (13 May 2011 – present)
Council members participate in the discussions of the council and attend yearly plenary meetings in Rome. They serve five-year terms renewable until their 80th birthday.
Cardinals
Christoph Schönborn (5 January 2011-)
Angelo Scola (5 January 2011-)
George Pell (5 January 2011-)
Josip Bozanić (5 January 2011-)
Marc Ouellet (5 January 2011-)
Francisco Robles Ortega (5 January 2011-)
Odilo Pedro Scherer (5 January 2011-)
Stanisław Ryłko (5 January 2011-)
Gianfranco Ravasi (29 December 2010 -)
Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, S.D.B., (13 April 2015 -)
Archbishops and bishops
Claudio Maria Celli (5 January 2011-)
Nikola Eterović (5 January 2011-)
Pierre-Marie Carré (5 January 2011-)
Robert Zollitsch (5 January 2011-)
Bruno Forte (5 January 2011-)
Bernard Longley (5 January 2011-)
Andre-Joseph Leonard (5 January 2011-)
Adolfo González Montes (5 January 2011-)
Vincenzo Paglia (5 January 2011-)
Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Libreria Editrice Vaticana (2015). Compendium on the new evangelization : texts of the Pontifical and Conciliar Magisterium, 1939-2012. USCCB Communications. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1601373960.
Grogan, P; Kim, Kirsteen, K., eds. (2015). The New Evangelization: Faith, People, Context and Practice. Bloomsburry T&T Clark, London. [1].
Orta, Andrew (2004). Catechizing Culture: Missionaries, Aymara, and the "New Evangelization". Columbia University Press, New York. [2].
Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. Year of Faith 2012–2013 (website). [3]. |
30805912 | Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Vatican City) | 2011-02-09 13:38:38+00:00 | The Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria, or ASIF) is the central institution in the Holy See and Vatican City State that is responsible for the prevention and countering of money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (AML/CFT/CPT). It is the central authority for supervision and regulation in these matters, both in relation to the obliged entities (i.e. the entities who, due to the activities they carry out, are subject to the obligations set out in the AML/CFT/CPT legislation) and the reporting entities (i.e. entities who, under Vatican law, are required to report suspicious activities). With regard to obliged entities, there is only one such entity in the jurisdiction – the Istituto per le Opere di Religione – while the reporting entities consist of every legal entity with a registered office in the Vatican City State and all the Institutions of the Roman Curia. The Authority also contains the jurisdiction's financial intelligence unit, which is responsible for acquiring and analyzing the suspicious activity reports submitted by reporting entities, making use of internal and international collaboration (the Authority is a member of the Egmont Group). Furthermore, ASIF is also the central authority for the supervision and prudential regulation of entities that professionally carry out financial activities (to date, exclusively the Istituto per le Opere di Religione).
The AIF has its seat in Palazzo San Carlo, Vatican City, close to Domus Sanctae Marthae.
The Authority, originally named the Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria, or AIF), was established by Pope Benedict XVI on 30 December 2010 with the Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio“ for the prevention and countering of illegal activities in the area of monetary and financial dealings”. In August 2013, the Authority was given the mandate by Pope Francis to also carry out prudential supervision. The powers of the Authority were confirmed by Pope Francis on 15 November 2013 through an Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio, with which a new Statute was approved[3]. On 5 December 2020, Pope Francis approved an updated version of the Statute, by virtue of which the Authority took on its current name and a new organizational structure, one that is more responsive to its operational and institutional needs. However, the skills and functions remained unchanged, as also reiterated in Article 248 of the Apostolic Constitution “Praedicate Evangelium” of 19 March 2022. In accordance with the current Statute, ASIF is made up of three bodies (the President, the Board and the Directorate) and is divided into three Units (the Supervisory Unit, the Regulatory and Legal Affairs Unit and the Financial Intelligence Unit).
Board members, appointed for five years, as of 2019 were:
Carmelo Barbagallo (Italy), President (since November 27, 2019);
Roberto Sanchez Mariano (United States of America);
Kevin Ingram (United Kingdom);
Giuseppe Boccuzzi (Italy).
Members of the Directorate, appointed for five years, as of 2019 were:
Giuseppe Schlitzer (Italy), Director (since April 1, 2020)
Federico Antellini Russo (Italy), deputy director (since April 1, 2020)
Cardinal Attilio Nicora (2011–2014)
Mons. Giorgio Corbellini (2014 ad interim)
René Brülhart (2014–2019)
Francesco De Pasquale (2011 – 2013) (Director); Alfredo Pallini (2011 – 2012) (deputy director)
René Brülhart (2013 – 2014) (Director); Tommaso Di Ruzza (2014 – 2015) (deputy director ad interim)
Tommaso Di Ruzza (2015 – 2020) (Director) |
33041792 | Temple Kol Ami (Fort Mill, South Carolina) | 2011-09-10 14:44:21+00:00 | Temple Kol Ami is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located in Fort Mill, York County, South Carolina, in the United States. The congregation was founded in 2010, and is one of two Jewish congregations in York County, and one of eleven synagogues in the Charlotte metropolitan area.
The history of Jews in York County dates back to as early as the 1860s, when Arnold Friedheim, a German Jewish immigrant settled in Rock Hill, SC. After the Civil War, he was joined by his brothers Julius and August. Together they opened A. Friedheim and Brothers, which would eventually become Rock Hill's largest department store. Jewish families, however, did not immigrate in significant numbers until the early 1900s, mostly Eastern European Jews from Poland and Russia who were merchants.
The first Jewish congregation created in York County was Beth El, begun in 1922 by eight Jewish families in Rock Hill. Meeting in homes and eventually a storefront, by 1933 the congregation constructed its first building on Main Street in Rock Hill. The congregation never had a full-time rabbi, but itinerant rabbis and cantors who would lead High Holy Days services. Cantor George Ackerman served the congregation for many years until it closed in 1963 due to lack of membership. Its Torah scrolls and Judaica were subsequently donated to Beth Israel synagogue in Whiteville, NC.
For the next fifty years, no formal Jewish congregation existed in York County. The few Jewish families that resided in the area attended services either in nearby Charlotte or Gastonia, both in North Carolina. However, as Charlotte became a financial center with Bank of America establishing its national headquarters in the city, and with the influx of retired northeastern Jews, the Jewish population of Charlotte and the surrounding areas (including York County) began to prosper and grow.
In the spring of 2010, two men, rabbinical student Jonathan Cohen and Jonathan Shaw, discussed the idea of creating a Jewish congregation in York County. Initially, conceived as a minyan, the rapid response and number of Jewish families necessitated establishing a formal congregation. Shaw was elected the first President and Cohen assumed the role of spiritual leader. On June 4, 2010, more than 170 people gathered for the first service of the new "Temple Kol Ami." Meeting in various locations, the synagogue eventually found a home at St. Phillipe Neri Catholic Church in Fort Mill. Meeting there until June 2011, the synagogue has since relocated.
Today, the congregation has more than 70 member families with a part-time rabbi and a Religious School. Shabbat services are held every first and third Shabbat. In September 2011, a Torah scroll was donated to the congregation by Temple Beth Israel, in Niagara Falls, New York, after it announced it was disbanding in 2012. Temple Kol Ami obtained a second Torah scroll in 2020. |
68087910 | Tikvah Chadasha | 2021-06-30 10:03:56+00:00 | Tikvah Chadasha (transliterated from Hebrew as "New Hope"), also known as the Brentwood Reform Synagogue, Rosh Tikvah, and Brentwood and Shenfield Synagogue, is a Reform Jewish congregation that meets in Brentwood, Essex, England, in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 2010, the congregation was a former constituent community of Liberal Judaism, and it became a member of the Movement for Reform Judaism in June 2021.
Services are held in a Brentwood school. |
50923364 | 2009–10 Bangladeshi cricket season | 2016-06-25 19:19:40+00:00 | The 2009–10 Bangladeshi cricket season featured Test series between Bangladesh and India, and between Bangladesh and England. There was also a limited overs international series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Rajshahi Division retained the National Cricket League championship title won the previous season.
National Cricket League – Rajshahi Division
One-Day League – not contested
Most runs – Jahurul Islam (Rajshahi) 1,008 @ 63.00
Most wickets – Saqlain Sajib (Rajshahi) 54 @ 19.61
India played two Test matches in Bangladesh in January 2010, winning them both. England visited in February/March to play two Tests and three limited overs internationals, winning all five matches. Zimbabwe played five limited overs internationals, but no Tests, in October/November 2009, Bangladesh winning the series 4–1 after losing the opening match.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2010
Miscellaneous articles re Bangladesh cricket
CricInfo re Bangladesh
CricketArchive re tournaments in Bangladesh in 2009–10 |
25710099 | 2009–10 HRV Cup | 2010-01-07 03:06:53+00:00 | The 2009–10 HRV Cup (named after the competition's sponsor HRV) was the fifth season of the Men's Super Smash Twenty20 cricket tournament in New Zealand. This season is the first to be sponsored by Heat recovery ventilation vendor, HRV, and was held between 2 January and 31 January 2010.
If a match ends with the scores tied, the tie is broken with a one-over-per-side Super Over. |
30387044 | 2009–10 Inter-Provincial Limited Over Tournament | 2011-01-09 15:42:18+00:00 | The 2009–10 Inter-Provincial Limited Over Tournament was the second season of the official Limited overs domestic cricket competition in Sri Lanka. Six teams in total, five representing four provinces of Sri Lanka and a Sri Lanka Cricket team participating in the competition. The competition began on 6 February 2010 when Ruhuna elevens played the Sri Lanka Cricket Combined XI at Galle International Stadium, in Galle.
This season comprised 15 regular matches, two semi finals and a grand final.
Teams received 5 points for a win, 2 for a tie or no result, and 0 for a loss. At the end of the regular matches the teams ranked two and three play each other in the preliminary final. The winner of the preliminary final earns the right to play the first placed team in the final at the home venue of the first placed team. In the event of several teams finishing with the same number of points, standings are determined by most wins, then net run rate (NRR).
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Man of the Tournament – Kaushalya Weeraratne: 371 runs (411 balls), highest score of 143 (158 balls) (Kandurata)
Batsman of the Tournament – Upul Tharanga: 292 runs (412 balls), highest score of 93 (135 balls) (Ruhuna)
Bowler of the Tournament – Sachithra Senanayake: 14 wickets (57.1 overs), best innings bowling of 4/30 (8.1 overs) (Ruhuna) |
56543038 | 2010–2017 Toronto serial homicides | 2018-02-09 20:46:11+00:00 | Between 2010 and 2017, a total of eight men disappeared from the neighbourhood of Church and Wellesley, the LGBTQ village of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The investigation into the disappearances, taken up by two successive police task forces, eventually led to Bruce McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed Toronto landscaper, whom they then arrested on January 18, 2018. On January 29, 2019, McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in Ontario Superior Court and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for twenty-five years. McArthur is the most prolific known serial killer to have been active in Toronto, and the oldest known serial killer in Canada.
The criminal investigation of McArthur became the largest ever conducted by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and also called on the resources of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and other police and forensic services. Criticisms of the TPS's handling of the initial missing persons investigations led to several internal reviews, an external review called by the civilian Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) and the formation of a dedicated missing persons unit.
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Thomas Donald Bruce McArthur, or Bruce McArthur, was born on October 8, 1951, in Lindsay, Ontario, and was raised on a farm in Argyle, in the Kawartha Lakes region. In addition to raising McArthur and his sister, his parents fostered troubled children from nearby Toronto, often with six to ten in their care at any given time, and reportedly had a good reputation in the area.
McArthur's mother was Irish Catholic and his father a Scottish Presbyterian; both were devout, causing religious arguments in which McArthur supported his mother. This led to derision from his father, who McArthur suggested in retrospect may have sensed his homosexuality. McArthur had trouble accepting his sexual orientation, which would have been seen as abnormal in rural Ontario at that time.
In primary school, a classmate recalled that McArthur did not fit in with other students. For his secondary education, McArthur was bused to nearby Fenelon Falls Secondary School, where he met and began dating Janice Campbell, both graduating in 1970. McArthur later graduated from a program in general business and married Campbell when he was aged 23.
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Around 1973, McArthur began working at an Eaton's department store in downtown Toronto as a buyer's assistant. He left this employment in 1978 and began working as a travelling salesman for McGregor Socks, soliciting department stores to carry his merchandise. McArthur later worked as a merchandising representative for Stanfield's, a garment company.
In the mid-1970s, McArthur's father was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was sent to a nursing home. McArthur became disappointed when his mother took interest in another man, and grew much closer to his father at this time. His mother died of cancer in 1978 and his father died in 1981.
In 1979, McArthur and his wife moved into a house on Ormond Drive in Oshawa; by 1981 they had a daughter, Melanie, and a son, Todd. In 1986, the family bought a home on Cartref Avenue in Oshawa. McArthur became very active in his church, keeping himself busy to avoid examining his homosexual feelings.
McArthur began having affairs with men in the early 1990s. He came out to his wife more than a year later, but they continued living together. Sometime after 1993, McArthur's employment in the clothing trade came to an end. The couple faced financial difficulty, in part due to legal issues connected to their then-teenaged son, Todd, who had been prosecuted for making obscene phone calls to women. The couple mortgaged their home in 1997 and declared bankruptcy in 1999.
McArthur separated from his wife in 1997 and moved to Toronto, as there was no gay community in Oshawa at that time. He frequented the bars of Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village, and moved into an apartment on Don Mills Road while pursuing a four-year relationship with another man. When they broke up and his divorce was being finalized, McArthur saw a psychiatrist and was prescribed Prozac for several months. At about this time he began his career as a landscaper.
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Just after noon on October 31, 2001, McArthur followed actor and model Mark Henderson into his apartment after being invited inside to see his Halloween costume. McArthur struck Henderson several times from behind with an iron pipe that he often carried. Henderson fought back before losing consciousness. After waking he called 9-1-1 when was taken to St. Michael's Hospital, where he needed several stitches on the back of his head and his fingers, as well as six weeks of physiotherapy.
McArthur turned himself in after the attack, claiming to not to remember the attack. He pleaded guilty to charges of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, and received a conditional sentence of 729 days (two years less a day) on April 11, 2003. A further charge of carrying a concealed weapon was withdrawn at the time. The Crown had earlier believed jail time was warranted but agreed to a conditional sentence after psychiatric and presentencing reports suggested McArthur was a low risk to reoffend. Henderson, said to have been traumatized by the incident, did not provide a victim impact statement for the sentencing. There were also concerns that McArthur's behaviour may have been due to the combination of his anti-seizure medication with amyl nitrite, a muscle relaxant which is sometimes taken recreationally before sex.
McArthur avoided incarceration, spending the first year of his sentence under house arrest, followed by a six-month curfew and three years of probation. During the sentence, he was barred from Church and Wellesley except for work and medical appointments, had to stay at least 10 metres (33 ft) from Henderson's home or workplace, and could not spend time with "male prostitutes". McArthur was forbidden to possess firearms for ten years; was not to purchase, possess or consume drugs without a medical prescription; and was specifically barred from possessing amyl nitrite. He also had to submit his DNA to a database and was compelled to undertake psychological and psychiatric counselling, including anger management. A defence lawyer found the list of conditions uncommon and suggested that the judge was concerned that McArthur still posed a danger. A retired detective noted that parole conditions at the time were unenforceable, were not publicized, and that parole violators were caught only if they attracted police attention.
In 2014, McArthur was granted a record suspension on the 2003 conviction, which was subsequently expunged from his record and would not have appeared in criminal background checks. Most records and exhibits pertaining to the case were destroyed in 2010, in compliance with Toronto Police Service (TPS) retention policy. The only surviving documents were the transcripts of the guilty plea and sentencing hearing, the psychiatric report and presentencing report ordered during the trial, and pictures of Henderson's injuries and McArthur's weapon.
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In 2002, while the assault case was still pending, McArthur registered with Recon, a gay fetish dating website for men into BDSM. McArthur's profile noted his interest in submissive men. He was also active on numerous gay dating websites including Silverdaddies, Manjam, Grindr, Bear411, BearForest, Scruff, DaddyHunt, Squirt and Growlr. McArthur joined Facebook in 2011 and catalogued his participation in local nightlife, with younger men of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent in several photos. By this time McArthur had reestablished himself in Toronto's gay community and was a regular at gay bars. By the late 2000s he was living in a 19th-floor apartment in Thorncliffe Park, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) northeast of Church and Wellesley.
McArthur's banishment from Church and Wellesley over the 2001 assault remained well known, and he had developed a reputation for BDSM and rough sex. In 2011, he told an acquaintance named Robert James about an incident in which he had reacted violently after being asked to leave a coffeehouse. James decided to heed advice to stay away from McArthur, explaining that he had heard disturbing stories about him. According to James, McArthur turned red and screamed about "f---ing f---ots [sic] telling stories about me!" and, "You're just like the rest of them, you think I'm crazy." A. J. Khan, a Toronto restaurant owner, recalled questioning McArthur in 2013 when came in alone instead of with his boyfriend. McArthur said his boyfriend was on vacation, and when Khan noted he had seen the man the previous day, he angrily left and never returned.
McArthur's landscaping business operated under the name Artistic Designs. A colleague who installed water features on three of his projects recalled that McArthur was always accompanied by an older white man, who appeared to be romantically involved with him, and a day labourer, usually of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Most of McArthur's clients were wealthy elderly women who found him charming, and he had built a client base through personal recommendations. During the off-season, he portrayed Santa Claus at Agincourt Mall and made floral gifts for charities.
McArthur's separation from his wife was initially heated, though they later reconciled. His son was reported to have difficulty accepting his father's sexuality. In 2014, after Todd was sentenced to fourteen months in jail for making multiple obscene phone calls, he was released on bail and ordered to live with his father and assist with his landscaping business. A former friend of Todd's visited one night and discovered the wall of McArthur's bathroom was decorated with photos of naked "East Indian" men. Todd told him that they were men whom his father knew. McArthur did not hide the fact, laughing over it at breakfast.
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In November 2012, the TPS launched a task force, dubbed "Project Houston", into the September 6, 2010, disappearance of Skandaraj "Skanda" Navaratnam, believing that he had been murdered. The investigation was launched after a man posted on the cannibal web forum Zambian Meat that he had killed and eaten a man in Toronto. Police briefly investigated a possible link between Navaratnam and convicted murderer Luka Magnotta, but this lead was eventually abandoned for lack of evidence.
By June 2013, Project Houston had identified two other missing persons cases linked by geography and lifestyle: Abdulbasir "Basir" Faizi and Majeed "Hamid" Kayhan. Like Navaratnam, both men were middle-aged South Asian immigrants who disappeared from Church and Wellesley between 2010 and 2012. An anonymous tip linking McArthur to Navaratnam and Kayhan led police to interview him on November 11, 2013. McArthur stated that he regularly interacted with Navaratnam at a gay bar, but denied being in a relationship with him. He also admitted to employing Kayhan, with whom he had broken off a sexual relationship. Project Houston concluded with no evidence to link the disappearances, that a crime had been committed or to identify a suspect. According to a 2016 case summary, there was still nothing to explain what had happened to the three men.
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On June 26, 2017, one day after attending Pride Toronto, Andrew Kinsman disappeared near his residence on Winchester Street in Cabbagetown. On the evening of June 28, several friends gained access to Kinsman's apartment. They found no sign of disturbance, though his 17-year-old cat was out of food and water. Noting that Kinsman's life was stable and that he would never leave without notifying anyone or taking his cat and prescription medicine, the friends reported the disappearance to the TPS the following day. Kinsman was active on social media, but investigators found his cell phone was turned off the day he disappeared.
At the end of July 2017, the TPS created a new task force, Project Prism, to investigate the disappearances of Kinsman and another man, Selim Esen, and to look for any links with the unsolved disappearances investigated under Project Houston. Greg Downer, a friend and colleague of Kinsman's, organized a community safety meeting on August 1 in which police gave an overview of the task force. Realizing the difficulty police faced with judicial authorizations for data from servers located outside Canada, which caused crucial delays in the missing persons investigations, Downer appealed to dating apps to provide an option for users to consent to have their data released to police if they went missing. Safety hotlines were also set up for those reluctant to speak to police.
Fears of a serial killer stalking Church and Wellesley grew on November 29 when the body of Tess Richey was found by her mother in an alleyway four days after she was reported missing. The following day, police announced that the body of Alloura Wells, a homeless transgender woman, had been identified, her body having been discovered in a Rosedale ravine in August. Because of fears in the community, TPS Chief Mark Saunders held an unprecedented December 8 news conference on the three separate investigations. Although the cases occurred in close proximity, the TPS did not believe they were related and Saunders said they had no evidence of a serial killer.
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Project Prism was overseen by Detective Sergeant Michael Richmond and led by Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga, who had served on the homicide squad for over thirteen years and had been assigned to Project Houston for six months. The task force also included an officer from the sex crimes unit and six officers from Police 51 Division, three of whom had been members of Project Houston. The investigation was difficult because of the lifestyle of the subjects, who used dating apps and frequently met strangers.
Kinsman's disappearance was central to the creation of Project Prism because of a lead obtained at the end of July. According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, police found "Bruce" on Kinsman's calendar for June 26 – the same day Kinsman was last seen. Surveillance video outside Kinsman's residence showed a person matching his appearance approach a red vehicle. The video did not show a licence plate or a clear picture of the driver, but chrome siding identified it as a 2004 Dodge Caravan. There were more than 6,000 similar models in Toronto, but only five were registered to someone named Bruce; of those the only 2004 model belonged to McArthur. By late August or September 2017, police matched the van from surveillance video of McArthur's apartment, but it was no longer at his residence.
Redacted warrants and police documents, partially released by a judge in mid-2018, revealed that in August and September investigators had obtained production orders compelling the release of McArthur's data from Google, Rogers Wireless, Bell Canada, Telus, Royal Bank of Canada and Manulife Bank of Canada. Around September, tracking warrants had been obtained for McArthur's vehicles and phones. In October, further orders were granted for information from Yahoo!, Air Canada, additional banks and Pink Triangle Press, an LGBT publisher.
On October 3, plainclothes officers visited at Dom's Auto Parts in Courtice, Ontario, 70 kilometres (43 mi) northeast of Toronto, where owner Dominic Vetere confirmed he had purchased McArthur's Caravan on September 16. Police found it intact and had it towed away, also copying surveillance video of McArthur visiting the shop. Vetere said that officers later told him that they had found trace amounts of blood in the vehicle. This blood was identified as Kinsman's.
Court documents show that, in November, cadaver dogs were brought to a Mallory Crescent residence in the Leaside neighbourhood of Toronto. McArthur had an arrangement to tend to the owners' yard in exchange for storage space in their garage. The dogs did not indicate any human remains. A camera was installed to monitor the garage. Police also obtained a log of McArthur's key fob for his apartment. With this and a tracking warrant for his cellphone, they built a timeline of the day Kinsman went missing. DNA evidence from the Caravan which matched Kinsman and Esen, which allowed investigators to obtain a general warrant for McArthur's apartment on December 4. Police covertly entered his residence and cloned his computer's hard drive.
In a December 8 news conference, investigators stated they had completed 62 witness interviews, 28 judicial authorizations and assigned 308 actions, of which 225 had been completed. Police had also conducted searches, utilizing resources from the mounted and canine units; on one occasion a drone was used. They said that they had no evidence to link the disappearances.
The investigation picked up in January 2018, when Idsinga noted they had many 15-hour days and a 72-hour stretch of intensive investigation in mid-January. On January 17, two pieces of evidence came to light directly connecting McArthur to Esen and Kinsman. A partial download from his computer, which was going through forensic analysis of deleted files, yielded post-mortem photos of the victims. Round-the-clock surveillance was put on McArthur, with instructions that he should be immediately arrested if observed "alone with anyone".
Police surveilling McArthur decided to apprehend him shortly after they saw a young man enter his Thorncliffe Park apartment on January 18, believing his life was at risk. A source told CTV News that the officers found the young man restrained on a bed when they entered the apartment. Referred to in court as "John", the man had met McArthur through dating app Growlr and had met him for sex several times. Prior to the police intervention, "John" had agreed to be handcuffed to McArthur's steel bedframe; McArthur put a black bag over his head and tried to tape his mouth shut before the rescue.
Following McArthur's arrest, police seized electronic devices from his apartment, including five cellphones, five computers, three digital cameras and about a dozen USB flash drives. Evidence found on these devices prompted investigators to charge him with two counts of first-degree murder in the presumed deaths of Kinsman and Esen. Their bodies had not been found, but police said that they had a "pretty good idea" of how they died. Idsinga was satisfied that there was enough evidence for murder convictions even without the bodies.
At the time of McArthur's arrest, Idsinga said that police believed he was responsible for the deaths of other men and were most concerned with identifying these victims. Doing so included coordinating with other police services, tracing McArthur's whereabouts and his online activity.
By the end of January, Idsinga described the ongoing case as unprecedented, with hundreds of officers involved and thirty properties being searched. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (OFPS) and the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) aided the searches of McArthur's apartment and the Leaside property. Additional charges were laid and at the end of February, the investigation was expanded to outstanding murder cases, hundreds of missing-persons cases and sudden death occurrences, coordinating with other Canadian and international forces.
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On January 18, police executed search warrants at five properties associated with McArthur: four in Toronto and a 9-acre (3.6 ha) property about 200 kilometres (120 mi) northeast in Madoc, Ontario. The Madoc property and a home on Conlins Road were residences of Roger Horan, a landscaper and long-time friend of McArthur. Another property searched was the condominium of McArthur's former boyfriend on Concorde Place. These three properties were released back to their owners by January 23. Of greater concern to investigators were McArthur's high-rise apartment in Thorncliffe Park and the Mallory Crescent residence in Leaside.
The owners of the Leaside residence were barred from their home to allow a forensic search. The search was extended to an adjacent ravine, aided by cadaver dogs and members of the heavy urban search and rescue team. Cadaver dogs took a "strong interest" in large planter boxes on January 19. The planters had frozen to the ground, requiring heaters to thaw them. On January 29, police announced that they had found the dismembered skeletal remains of at least three people in two of the twelve planters. Although the remains had not been identified, police had gathered enough evidence to charge McArthur with three additional counts of first-degree murder in the presumed deaths of Majeed Kayhan, a Project Houston subject; Soroush Mahmudi, who disappeared in 2015; and Dean Lisowick, a homeless man who was never reported missing.
On February 8, police announced that they had found the remains of three more people from the Leaside residence, and that one of the six sets of remains belonged to Kinsman, identified through fingerprints. Additional planters were seized from across the city, including one from the Danforth neighbourhood and two properties in North Rosedale. A forensic pathologist was expected to take at least ten days to excavate for remains at the Leaside residence by hand. Forensic anthropologist Kathy Gruspier, who arrived to oversee the excavation, did not find any sign of soil disturbance by previous digging. Excavation of two sewage lines at the home was conducted on February 13, and a section of one line was removed for testing.
The investigation had a continuous presence at the Leaside residence, often described as "ground zero", and police established a command post on the property. On February 10–11 the search was completed and it was released to its owners after more than three weeks. The owners requested that police keep crime scene tape up around the yard to deter journalists by whom they were feeling increasingly harassed.
Forensic investigators spent hundreds of hours searching every inch of McArthur's apartment, where Idsinga suspected some of the murders occurred. It took them several weeks before searching McArthur's bedroom, where they expected to find the bulk of their evidence. The search concluded on May 11, having occupied ten forensic officers for nearly four months. They took more than 18,000 photographs and collected over 1,800 items. Idsinga noted the thoroughness required as the first murder was believed to have occurred eight years previously. The searches of the Leaside residence and McArthur's apartment made up the largest forensic investigation conducted by the TPS.
On February 23, McArthur was charged with a sixth count of first-degree murder in the death of Skandaraj Navaratnam, a subject of Project Houston. His remains and those of Mahmudi were identified through dental records, and had been recovered from planters at the Leaside residence.
On March 5, the TPS held a press conference and released a photo of an unidentified deceased man alleged to be another of McArthur's victims. Police later received over 500 tips regarding the photo and were checking on 22 potential identities. They also announced that a seventh set of remains had been recovered from the Leaside planters. Michael Pollanen, Ontario's chief forensic pathologist, said his organization had never before been involved in an investigation with such scope, drawing on the skills of each member for many unique challenges, such as scientific issues related to decomposition and post-mortem dismemberment.
On April 11, McArthur was charged with a seventh count of first-degree murder in the death of Abdulbasir Faizi. He was, at this point, charged with the deaths of all five men from the Project Houston and Project Prism investigations. The charge came as Faizi's remains were identified from the Leaside planters, along with those of Esen and Lisowick. Investigators had finished searching the Leaside planters, from which the remains of all but Kayhan had been identified; they had one set of unidentified remains. They had also searched eight additional planters from elsewhere in the city, which had contained no human remains.
On April 16, McArthur was charged with an eighth count of first-degree murder in the death of Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, whose remains were the seventh set identified from the Leaside planters. Police said his name had not come from the many tips generated by the release of his post-mortem photograph but that he had been identified with help from an undisclosed international agency. Kanagaratnam was a Tamil asylum-seeker who was under a deportation order and had not been reported missing. Police said they would look into why his name was not on a list of missing persons. He had last had contact with his family in August 2015, and police believed that he had been killed between September 3 and December 14, 2015.
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The scope of the investigation was expanded at the end of February 2018, looking at outstanding murder cases, hundreds of missing-persons cases and sudden death occurrences and coordinating with other Canadian and international forces. Police had received tips from around the world, including countries where McArthur had vacationed. Idsinga said that the investigation would take years.
A police source told the National Post that McArthur had covered his tracks, using aliases online, using payphones instead of cellphones and avoiding areas with surveillance cameras. The source suggested that McArthur had targeted vulnerable men who did not have a fixed address or had not told their families that they were gay.
Detective-Sergeant Stacy Gallant of the TPS homicide squad's cold case unit said that active crime scenes of the investigation took precedence over revisiting cold cases. Each of 600 cold cases was being looked at for consideration of further attention. They drew up a list of fifteen homicide cold cases linked to the gay village, and fitting the general profile of the victims identified thus far. Investigators began reviewing these cases, dating between 1975 and 1997, for a possible connection to McArthur. By mid-July, forensic testing related to the cold cases was underway. The cold cases include some of a series of brutal murders in the gay village between 1975 and 1978, when McArthur would have been 23–26 years old and working just a few blocks south. The victims of these crimes, all gay men, were found in their homes, naked, tied to beds, and stabbed or beaten to death in a manner described as "overkill". In October 2018, homicide detective David Dickinson said that they had not yet found any links between McArthur and the cold cases.
Investigators had planned to return to the thirty properties associated with McArthur in April or May, when the frozen ground had thawed, allowing cadaver dogs to operate with greater accuracy. Idsinga said he was particularly interested in excavating at three properties. The excavations included a return visit to the Leaside residence, where remains had been found. Additional tip-offs caused the number of properties to be searched grow to 75 then 100, some of them outside the city. A team of seven cadaver dogs, some on loan from other GTA police forces, were searching the properties by the second week of May. These searches had concluded by the first week of June. Follow-up investigations had then considered whether additional searches would be required.
Between July 4 and 13, twenty police investigators conducted excavations in the forested ravine behind the Leaside property. They began sifting through a large compost pile, then proceeded with the guidance of trained dogs and a forensic anthropologist. They collected human remains almost every day of this search. On July 20, it was announced that the remains belonged to Kayhan, and that the remains of all of McArthur's alleged victims had been identified. Idsinga said that they had no evidence suggesting McArthur was connected to any other deaths, though the investigation into cold cases was continuing.
Waterloo Regional Police contacted Ontario's serial predator crime investigations coordinator to inquire about McArthur in the November 2002 disappearance of David MacDermott from downtown Kitchener. Jon Riley of Meaford is another possible victim; he had gone to Toronto to find work in landscaping, planning to stay in a shelter at Church and Wellesley, and disappeared in May 2013.
Five victims were noted by investigators for similarities: middle-aged, bearded, patrons of The Black Eagle bar, and self-identified as "bears" (gay men with overtly masculine traits). They had also disappeared over holiday weekends: Navaratnam at Labour Day, Faizi after Christmas, Kayhan during Thanksgiving, Esen on Easter, and Kinsman after Toronto Pride. During McArthur's sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that the eight victims had ties to Church and Wellesley and a "social life" in that community, physical similarities which usually included facial hair or a beard, and six were from South Asia or the Middle East. Several of the deceased had characteristics that made them more easily victimized or the crimes easier to conceal, such as moving between temporary residences or keeping aspects of their lives secret.
All information should be properly sourced below and is accurate as of June 23, 2018. Notes are intended to briefly show commonalities, vulnerabilities and connections to McArthur.
Skandaraj "Skanda" Navaratnam, 40, was last seen in the early morning of September 6, 2010, leaving Zippers, a former gay village bar, with an unknown man. A friend who saw Navaratnam the day before said he was excited about having a dog; he left this pet behind at the bar when he disappeared. He was reported missing September 10 or 11, 2010. Navaratnam was romantically involved with McArthur, whom he had met in 1999. Navaratnam also worked for McArthur's landscaping business and friends said that they were still involved in 2008. Navaratnam was a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka and had no family members in Canada.
Abdulbasir "Basir" Faizi, 42, was last seen December 28, 2010, leaving his workplace in Mississauga, though banking records later placed him at Church and Wellesley. His last night out included a stop at The Black Eagle bar and the Steamworks bathhouse. He was an immigrant from Afghanistan. While living in Iran, a childhood friend had cautioned him on coming out as gay, advising that he should "find God or leave". That conflict remained with Faizi, who was not out to his family. A colleague said that he had been working overtime to ensure that his two daughters got everything that they wanted for Christmas. He was reported missing on December 29 to Peel Regional Police, west of Toronto. His 2002 Nissan Sentra was found abandoned on Moore Avenue, steps away from the Beltline Trail, a small ravine which is a popular cruising spot for gay men. Moore Avenue connects to Mallory Crescent and the Leaside residence where McArthur stored his landscaping equipment. On April 11, 2018, police charged McArthur with the murder of Faizi, which occurred on or about December 29, 2010.
Majeed "Hamid" Kayhan, 58, was last seen on October 18, 2012, in the gay village near Yonge Street and Alexander Street. He was reported missing by his adult son on October 25. Kayhan was an immigrant from Afghanistan, who fled to Canada with his wife and children in the late 1980s. Kayhan and his wife divorced in 2002 but, as the son of a Muslim cleric, he had not come out to his entire family. He had post-traumatic stress disorder from the Soviet–Afghan War and was a heavy drinker. According to a bartender, Kayhan had been active in the gay village since the mid-1990s and would stay at an apartment kept by his partner, who had also not come out to his family. Following the death of his partner, Kayhan romantically pursued McArthur whom he knew from The Black Eagle. Kayhan's remains were found in a ravine behind the Leaside property, the eighth set to be identified.
Soroush Mahmudi, 50, was last seen alive on August 14, 2015, by his home near Markham Road and Blakemanor Boulevard in the South Cedarbrae neighbourhood. He was a manufacturing plant worker who lived with his wife. Police believe that McArthur killed Mahmudi on or about August 15, 2015. He was reported missing by his wife in August. Mahmudi had come to Canada as a refugee from Iran and did not have any family in Canada until he met his wife. They moved from Barrie to Toronto to be closer to his wife's family. Police and his family had not connected him to Toronto's gay scene, though before his marriage he had been in a four-year relationship with a transgender woman he met in a bar in Church and Wellesley.
Andrew Kinsman, 49, was last seen June 26, 2017, the day after Toronto Pride, near his Winchester Street residence in Cabbagetown, south of the gay village. He was reported missing on June 29. A friend who last saw him said that Kinsman was "happy and upbeat". Kinsman was known as a stable and responsible man, a superintendent of his building and a community volunteer. Kinsman had known McArthur for at least a decade, back to when Kinsman was a bartender at The Black Eagle. Kinsman was seen carrying bags of debris on one of McArthur's landscaping projects in 2011 and had been in a sexual relationship with McArthur for some time.
Selim Esen, 44, was last definitively seen on March 20, 2017, near Yonge Street and Bloor Street, just west of the gay village, though there have been reports that he was seen as late as April 14 near Bloor Street and Ted Rogers Way in the gay village. He was reported missing by a friend on April 20. Police initially described Esen as a man of no fixed address who often pulled a wheeled suitcase. A friend disputed this, saying that Esen was in an "unhealthy relationship" and would at times stay with friends. Esen was a Turkish citizen who had first come to Canada to be with a partner that he had met in Turkey. According to the friend, he struggled with addiction but was getting control of his problem and had completed a certificate course in peer counselling from St. Stephen's community house just before he disappeared. McArthur was also a client of St. Stephen's and very trusted within the community support organization. He was killed by McArthur on or about April 16, 2017.
Dean Lisowick, 43 or 44, was not reported missing. He was a resident of Toronto's shelter system. He had periodically stayed at The Scott Mission on Spadina Avenue since 2003 and was last recorded there on April 21, 2016. He had faced struggles including issues with substance abuse but was remembered as being very respectful. He was trying to work more, as a cleaner or labourer, having previously worked as a prostitute. He was killed by McArthur on or about April 23, 2016.
Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37, last had contact with his family in August 2015. He was not reported missing. He was one of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka who had arrived in Canada on the MV Sun Sea in August 2010. When his deportation order was given, he went into hiding in the Tamil community in Ontario and worked as a cleaner and mover. McArthur killed him on or about January 6, 2016.
Following the extensive coroner and pathology examinations, after Crown and defence lawyers had information needed for trial, the victims' remains were released to their families. A memorial for Kinsman was held in September, and Mahmudi and Esen's funerals were held in mid-October. Lisowick's remains were laid to rest in late October.
In January 2018, a publication ban was ordered on court proceedings, limiting what could be reported in the media.
McArthur was detained at the Toronto South Detention Centre. Torstar reported on March 19, 2018, that McArthur was being held "in segregation and under constant suicide watch". As of November 5, 2018, McArthur remained held at Toronto South. He made his first court appearance on January 19, 2018, represented by lawyer Marianne Salih. He made another brief courtroom appearance on January 29, and subsequently attended via video link, represented by W. Calvin Rosemond of the legal defence firm of Edward H. Royle & Partners.
Rosemond noted at a February 14, 2018, hearing that it was McArthur's third court appearance without disclosure. Crown attorney Mike Cantlon said his office received disclosure from police on February 13, and was in the process of vetting and screening it. In mid-March the same year, Cantlon said one package of disclosure had been made to McArthur's lawyers, with more to be expected in the following weeks, some in excess of 10,000 pages owing to the case's complexity. On April 25, Cantlon said more evidence would be turned over to the defence before the next scheduled court date, May 23, at which time defence counsel said that they were continuing to receive disclosure. On June 22, the Crown stated that it had disclosed all evidence to the defence.
A judicial pre-trial was scheduled for June 20, 2018. The closed-door meeting with the Crown and defence lawyers and a judge was to address issues such as resolving the case without a trial (such as by entering a guilty plea), trial length, and procedural and evidentiary issues. Daniel Lerner, a Toronto defence lawyer and former Crown prosecutor, suggested that the Crown should consider severing the charges. Lerner noted that a long and complicated trial could put a burden on the jury and create a risk of mistrial. Kevin Bryan, a former detective with York Regional Police's forensics unit, considered the amount of evidence to be catalogued and disclosed, and believed a trial was "years away".
Several media outlets had applied for the release of the psychiatric and presentencing reports from McArthur's 2003 assault conviction. James Miglin, an attorney for McArthur, argued that this could risk his fair trial rights, but Justice Leslie Chaplin felt the reports were generally positive toward McArthur and released them on June 27, 2018. Chaplin also allowed the media to view, but not publish, photographs of the victim's injuries and the weapon used, citing fair trial rights and the victim's privacy.
In court on October 5, 2018, Cantlon said that "negotiations and discussions are ongoing". Represented by James Miglin, McArthur appeared in court in person on October 22, and waived his right to a preliminary hearing, not contesting whether the evidence was sufficient for the charges to be committed to trial. McArthur was ordered to be tried for eight counts of first-degree murder. On November 5, he first appeared at the Superior Court of Justice before Justice John McMahon, who noted a 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, by which the trial should conclude before August 2020. Following a judicial pretrial on November 30, McArthur appeared in court and was told that his trial would begin on January 6, 2020, and was likely to last three to four months.
On January 28, 2019, TPS announced an anticipated "significant development" in McArthur's case the following day. People queued outside the courthouse from 6 am, following a major snowstorm, and the hearing was moved to the largest available courtroom. On January 29, before Justice John McMahon, McArthur pleaded guilty to each of the eight first-degree murder charges that he was facing, ending the possibility of any trial.
Reading from an agreed statement of fact, Cantlon divulged details of the killings, which took place in Toronto between 2010 and 2017. Each murder was either premeditated or involved other crimes which qualified them as first-degree: six were "sexual in nature" and five included confinement. McArthur kept trophies from his victims including jewellery and a notebook. DNA from four of the victims had been found in McArthur's van. Cantlon then outlined McArthur's "post-offence rituals". McArthur had hundreds of post-mortem digital photographs of his victims, which were recovered forensically after he tried to delete them. He took staged post-mortem photographs, typically with ropes around their necks or with them nude in a fur coat or hat; some photographs had them with their heads and beards shaved, with McArthur having kept their hair in Ziploc bags in a shed near Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Cantlon said that McArthur "sought out and exploited [...] vulnerabilities" in his victims that made his crimes difficult to detect; that he used sex to lure them, killing many in his bedroom through "ligature strangulation". One photograph showed a rope around a victim's neck twisted with a metal bar wrapped in tape, a mechanism to control the pressure during strangulation. The bar was found in McArthur's 2017 van and contained the DNA of Kinsman and Esen.
McArthur's sentencing hearing began on February 4, 2019. A 2011 change to the criminal code permits a judge to order that parole ineligibility periods be served consecutively for offences committed after that year, which would include six of McArthur's murders. The crown asked for a 50-year parole ineligibility, citing "the enormity of McArthur's crimes", his lack of remorse (McArthur declined to address the court), the betrayals upon his victims, the effect of his crimes on the community, and how he had been a danger up to his arrest. Miglin said such a sentence would be "unduly harsh" given McArthur's age and noted he had waived a preliminary hearing and pleaded guilty, which benefited all involved in the proceedings. On February 8, Justice McMahon sentenced McArthur to life imprisonment with no parole eligibility for 25 years. McMahon described the crimes as "pure evil" and stated that McArthur showed "no evidence of remorse" and would have continued killing had he not been apprehended. Despite this, he felt that the sentence should not be one of vengeance given McArthur's age and his guilty plea. McArthur can apply for parole when he is 91, but McMahon said that it would be "highly unlikely" he would be granted parole. The Toronto Sun noted that McArthur is overweight with Type 2 diabetes and is unlikely to live that long.
The high-profile investigation and media coverage have drawn controversies, including accusations of indifference by the Toronto police towards the LGBTQ, racialized and homeless persons.
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In mid-November 2017, Richmond said that there was no evidence to establish or exclude that a serial killer was responsible for the disappearances. Saunders told the community on December 8, "The evidence today tells us there's not a serial killer". Police first said that they were dealing with an alleged serial killer on January 29, 2018, confirming what some in the community had feared for years. Some questioned whether police had been taking their concerns seriously. Nicki Ward, a director of the Church-Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, asked, "Why weren't we listened to earlier? Perhaps some lives could have been saved if that was the case."
Saunders responded that police were not being "coy" about community safety, but that he had been speaking of the evidence that they had at that time. Saunders, who had been a homicide detective for nine years, was an investigator first and spoke in terms of evidence that could be presented in court. Idsinga said that police knew "something was up" with the disappearances in Project Houston, that they had hunches of a killer operating at Church and Wellesley, but that he could not say it without evidence. TPS spokesperson Meaghan Gray noted that while there were theories connecting the disappearances, there had been no evidence at that time.
James Dubro, a long-time Toronto crime journalist and past president of the Crime Writers of Canada, wrote in July 2017 that a serial killer – though not ruled out by police – was highly unlikely. Jooyoung Lee, a University of Toronto associate professor who teaches a course on serial homicides, said in November 2017 that the disappearances had the warning signs of a serial killer but that it remained unclear and that serial killers were very rare.
Sasha Reid, a University of Toronto PhD candidate specializing in statistical analysis of missing persons and sexually motivated killers, was compiling a missing-persons database when she came across the Project Houston disappearances. She noticed a pattern and concluded that a serial killer was operating in Toronto. Reid said she informed police of her findings and provided a basic criminal profile in July 2017, the month Project Prism was created. She was not contacted again by police, probably because her academic data could not be used in court. Reid's profile identified a suspect of colour in his early 30s, which excluded McArthur. Reid noted that the term serial killer was problematic as it is defined and used differently by various organizations, legal jurisdictions, researchers and the media.
Mike Arntfield, a criminologist and Western University professor, has advocated data-based approaches to augment traditional investigative work, particularly in detecting elusive criminals like serial killers. His research team developed an algorithm to perform cluster analysis on 800,000 American murders catalogued by the Murder Accountability Project, which has led to arrests in Cleveland and Chicago And in Drachten. There is no equivalent database in Canada, which lacks standardized reporting.
Arntfield had been critical of the TPS for not admitting that there was a serial killer, suggesting that they could have made an arrest sooner if they had. He made a comparison to the Seminole Heights serial killer in Tampa Bay, Florida, where police warned the public of a serial killer in November 2017. This led to 5,000 tips being reported, one of which resulted in an arrest. On October 23, 2017, Tampa's interim police chief avoided the term serial killer when three victims had been killed with the same weapon; it was only used after a fourth murder in November when police obtained surveillance video of the same suspect at two crime scenes. In comparison, the TPS said they did not have evidence of a murder or that any of the suspicious disappearances were connected until January 17, the day before McArthur's arrest. The large number of tips generated in Tampa may have been influenced by a US$100,000 reward offered at that time.
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Gay activists and editorial writers have suggested that police only looked at the disappearances seriously when a white man, Andrew Kinsman, was reported missing. Idsinga denied this, noting that Project Houston was a bigger investigation. He also noted that Kinsman's disappearance in June 2017 was important to the creation of Project Prism because of evidence obtained in July, not because of race. CBC News examined hundreds of pages of partially redacted court orders unsealed in September 2018, and concluded that there had been "considerable effort" toward investigating all three Project Houston subjects.
Jooyoung Lee suggested that there was racism within the gay community, indicated by the relatively weak responses to the disappearances of the brown-skinned men in contrast with the campaign to find Kinsman. There have also been suggestions that McArthur was initially overlooked as a suspect because he is white. In 2017, Reid theorized that the killer was a person of colour like the victims, later stating this was because serial killers tend to target familiar communities.
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While defending the Project Houston investigation and responding to criticisms that police should have recognized the alleged serial killer sooner, Saunders expressed his frustrations to The Globe and Mail that some sources were reporting incidents after McArthur's arrest which could have changed the course of the investigation had they been reported at the time. He was quoted as saying, "We knew that people were missing and we knew we didn't have the right answers. But nobody was coming to us with anything." This was run on the front page of the national newspaper on February 27, 2018, under the headline: "Toronto police chief says civilians failed to help investigation into alleged serial killer".
The story was widely cited by other media outlets and caused a backlash against Saunders, with his comments taken by LGBTQ leaders and the community as victim blaming. One group held a rally outside police headquarters calling for Saunders' resignation. In a later interview with CP24, Saunders apologized if his comments to the Globe were "misconstrued or taken in the wrong context" and that he had not intended to single out the LGBTQ community. Saunders had expressed gratitude toward the community for their help in the investigation in earlier instances, on one occasion saying he was "proud of the fact that the community did help us out in this". Mayor John Tory defended Saunders as a leader who could repair relationships with the city's communities, despite his "awkward language" in the interview.
One widely covered story in the media was the account of a 52-year-old part-time university teacher from Thunder Bay who had known McArthur for about ten years. According to the man, McArthur had contacted him on the Bear411 app and suggested that they meet for dinner at Church and Wellesley. After dinner the man got into the back of McArthur's van where they began kissing, petting and undressing. At this point the man claims that McArthur grabbed his neck and violently twisted it, forcing his face into McArthur's crotch. "I really thought my neck was going to be snapped the way he twisted it." The man grabbed McArthur's elbow, squeezing the joint until he was able to make McArthur let go. The man did not report the alleged incident to police until after McArthur's arrest, yet felt police could have arrested him sooner. The man alleges this happened in April 2017, about the time that Esen disappeared.
Another man claimed to have been invited through a dating app to McArthur's apartment for a liaison involving "bondage and submission role-playing" in late July 2017. McArthur did not want to go to the man's apartment because of security cameras in the area. McArthur made a GHB cocktail for the man, who requested a dosage to relax and "heighten the sexual encounter". The man soon began sweating heavily, suggesting he had been overdosed. The man alleged that McArthur ignored his limits and safe words and blocked his airway "with his penis, with his hands, with his body weight sitting on my chest". The man said he lost consciousness and was saved by the return of McArthur's roommate. The man said he was contacted by police the day after McArthur's arrest, and from their questions realized McArthur had photographed him bound in what was described as "a kill position".
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In early March 2018, Idsinga said that he learned of "concerning information" in the case which he immediately reported to the professional standards unit; they began an internal investigation on March 5. Police did not release any details but Idsinga said it was serious enough to affect the careers of officers involved.
The media roughly described an incident alleged to have occurred on June 20, 2016, in which McArthur and an unidentified man whom he met through a dating app were masturbating each other in the back of McArthur's van in a McDonald's parking lot in North York. McArthur allegedly began throttling the man, who broke free and said he would report what happened to police. Sources then vary, with McArthur following the man to a police station or driving to a Scarborough police station while the man phoned police. McArthur either claimed it was the man who had choked him, or that the man had asked to be choked then panicked and fled. According to one source, McArthur was placed under arrest and taken from 41 Division in Scarborough to 32 Division in North York where the investigation continued. No occurrence report was filed and McArthur was not charged. Homicide investigators only became aware of the alleged incident after McArthur's arrest, when the man came forward again to bring it to their attention.
In an agreed statement of fact read in court, Cantlon said that the victim of the "attempted choking" had known McArthur for years. The victim called 9-1-1 after he escaped while McArthur went to the police and said the incident was consensual. He was let go, as police believed his story was credible. McArthur's 2003 conviction did not come up on background checks. McArthur had pictures of this man; in some he was wearing a fur coat similar to the one in which McArthur posed his victims.
On February 1, 2019, Sgt. Paul Gauthier from 32 Division was charged by the professional standards unit with insubordination and neglect of duty regarding policy on reporting domestic violence, such as videotaping the complainant's statement and obtaining photos of the complainant's injuries. Gauthier's attorney said that the decision to not charge McArthur in 2016 was made in consultation with Gauthier's supervisor, and that the investigation and arrest of McArthur was fully documented. The allegations against the officer are not criminal. Gauthier had fifteen years on the job and was highly regarded by colleagues, praised for his work with difficult cases involving human trafficking.
In a two-page letter emailed to colleagues and obtained by news outlets, Gauthier stated that he was being made a scapegoat. He wrote that the reports were completed and available from the night of the incident, that he had spoken to Project Prism officers regarding it after they had identified McArthur's van, and that there were no complaints then. Gauthier wrote that this changed after Saunders' February 27 interview in The Globe and Mail. The following day, Saunders' friend and former partner Idsinga called Gauthier's investigation into question with the professional standards unit. The following week it was leaked to the media, and Gauthier suggested that this was done to divert attention from Saunders' remarks. The professional standards unit received special permission from the civilian Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) to lay charges against Gauthier, as their investigation exceeded the six-month window required under the Police Act. Gauthier's lawyer and Toronto Police Association (TPA) President Mike McCormack have stated that the case should be heard by an independent judge instead of a tribunal officer appointed by Saunders.
Gauthier has not made his first appearance at the tribunal. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and wrote that he is undergoing treatment due to the toll of being blamed for the murders of Esen and Kinsman. On August 23, 2021, Gauthier was found not guilty on charges of insubordination and neglect of duty.
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The TPS receives over 4,000 missing-persons reports each year, with most resolved within a few days. 51 Division, which includes Church and Wellesley, had 600 missing persons between 2014 and 2018 and about thirty cases remained open in March 2018. According to Lusia Dion, who runs the website Ontario's Missing Adults, missing men are taken less seriously as, "We tend to think they can take care of themselves."
The circumstances of a disappearance are considered by TPS before committing resources to a search, especially for an adult. The city had been working to reduce the TPS budget, which exceeded $1 billion in 2016. In July 2017 the TPA claimed that there was a staffing crisis with working conditions at "a breaking point", noting that staff had been reduced by 500 officers since 2010 while a budgetary task force recommended a hiring freeze. An unexpected number of early retirements were attributed by the TPA to stress and morale, and McCormack noted "when we have a stressed-out officer, when we have people who are burned out, it really does impact public interaction".
On December 8, 2017, Saunders announced an internal probe to assess the TPS's response to Richey's disappearance, to determine if there was a procedural, training or other issue. He specifically noted the importance of call uptake and absorbing the circumstances of a reported disappearance. At a February 29 TPSB meeting, Tory moved to have the internal report made public – or as much as could be released given the ongoing investigation and legal proceedings. The board and Saunders agreed to hear public input on the report.
Alloura Wells' family claimed Toronto police officers told them that her case "was not high priority" because she was homeless for several years. Her disappearance was reported by her father in early November 2017, four months after her Facebook account went dormant. Her body had been found on August 5, but was badly decomposed and was not identified until November 23. The person who found Wells' body informed both police and The 519 community centre, but 519 staff failed to follow up with police or transgender-focused organizations. Wells' friends say that this resulted in her body being unidentified for months. In mid-December, 519 executives apologized for their "mishandling of information" but placed full blame on the police. A petition started that month called for the resignation of the 519's executive director, alleging prejudice against transgender and homeless people. The 519 board called for an independent fact-finding review of the allegations.
Tory has been supportive of police while acknowledging legitimate questions about the investigation that would be answered in due course. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose ward includes Church and Wellesley, supported police at the time of McArthur's arrest when they expressed gratitude and noted that it was a complicated case. But by the end of February they said that the police relationship with the community had to be rebuilt and in early March that they were "no longer surprised" by "incompetence" in the investigation. At McArthur's sentencing in 2019, Justice McMahon praised TPS for their investigation.
Pride Toronto had been in closed-door talks about the TPS returning to the parade after controversially being banned in 2017. Progress was made but criticisms following McArthur's arrest led to an April 2 statement by Pride's executive director and five LGBT organizations asking the TPS to withdraw its application to march in uniform. The statement cited community feelings that investigations were "insufficient" and that concerns were "dismissed". Saunders had hoped that participation would demonstrate a "shared commitment to progress and healing", and considered the many TPS members who identify as LGBTQ and wished to march in the event built on inclusiveness.
In a March 9 statement, Saunders said that he understood the public's frustrations with the limited information that had been released during the investigation. He announced finalized plans for a dedicated missing persons unit, community outreach, and a professional standards review of the Richey and Wells cases. He also stated that he believed there were serious issues of systemic bias which required an independent external review, and that he had been working with other officials on how to hold such a review without affecting investigations and prosecutions.
The missing persons unit, staffed by six police detectives and an analyst, began work in July 2018. They have been tasked with digitizing and reviewing thousands of missing persons files dating to 1953, and to act as a central hub to review each active missing persons case. Their protocols are intended to flag suspicious disappearances in the early hours of an investigation and detect if broader investigations are warranted. Investigations will continue to be run by officers in each of the TPS's seventeen divisions.
The Missing Persons Act would make it easier for police to obtain judicial orders for access to phone records or financial information in a missing persons case. Previously police could only obtain such records if a crime was suspected. The Act was passed in March 2018 by Ontario's Liberal government as part of Bill 175, but as of October 2018 it has been stalled by the new Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford with no timeline for bringing it into effect.
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In January 2018, the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) demanded that the TPSB commission an external review of the investigation. In late February Saunders came to the conclusion that the public could not get clear and credible answers without an independent external review, and suggested as much to Tory and Andy Pringle, chair of the TPSB. He further suggested that the review consider systemic bias in the force. Tory's March 7 call for a public provincial inquiry was reviewed by Ontario's attorney general, who cautiously suggested that it wait until after criminal proceedings.
In mid-March, a group of LGBTQ advocates demanded an immediate inquiry. Legal experts suggested that criminal investigations and prosecutions be protected by a publication ban on witness testimony, or by preserving records and taking witness statements under seal until the trials were over. Protocol for an external review was debated on March 22 by the TPSB, which voted to back an external review that would exclude the McArthur serial murder investigation.
In mid-April, the board unanimously approved a working group to define the specifics of the external review. The group consisted of TPSB member Ken Jeffers, ASAAP board member Shakir Rahim, sex-worker advocate Monica Forrester and lawyer Sara Mainville who specializes in cases involving indigenous peoples. The TPSB named Breese Davies, vice-president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, in a facilitator role. The TPSB had to request $25,000 from the city's budget committee for the working group and its legal consultation fees. The working group reported on June 15 that the missing-persons investigations of McArthur's alleged victims could be examined up to the point at which the investigations involved McArthur. They estimated that the inquiry would take 15 months and cost $2.5 million. Tory was adamant that the community be adequately consulted and increased this figure to $3 million, which would go before city council.
The review is to examine TPS handling of missing-persons reports, biases within the service, and any obstacles that prevented Lisowick and Kanagaratnam from being reported missing. Specific investigations to be examined will include Project Houston, Project Prism, and the investigations into the deaths Alloura Wells and Tess Richey. Past reviews are also to be examined including the review into the 1981 bathhouse raids, the city auditor's report following the Paul Callow investigation, and the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry following the Robert Pickton case in British Columbia.
On June 25, on the recommendation of the working group, the TPSB announced that it had retained Justice Gloria Epstein, who would retire as a part-time Ontario Appeal Court judge on September 1 to lead the review. Epstein had been appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 1993 and made a prominent ruling that the Ontario Family Law Act definition of spouse was unconstitutional because it discriminated against homosexual couples. Epstein asked Mark Sandler to serve as the review's legal counsel.
In October, the review was compiling documents and establishing an advisory panel to aid "extensive outreach to the community." The advisory panel was named in January 2019, and included Forrester, ASAAP executive director Haran Vijayanathan, activist Ron Rosenes, Indigenous lawyer Christa Big Canoe, former Ontario Court of Justice chief Brian Lennox, former member of the Gay Officers Action League Michele Lent, workplace human rights lawyer Andrew Pinto, and Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre executive director Angela Robertson.
When McArthur pleaded guilty to eight murders on January 29, 2019, it removed concerns regarding his fair trial rights. Epstein wrote a letter to the TPSB requesting a mandate to fully examine the investigation and perform a more thorough review. Pringle was taking it under advisement, while consulting with the Ontario Attorney-General; a public inquiry can only be ordered by the provincial government. The same day, Tory spoke in favour of a "broader inquiry". A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General declined to comment as the matter was still before the courts. Civil litigation lawyer Douglas Elliott suggested that rather than conducting separate investigations, that Epstein be named to lead a public inquiry with a provincial mandate and subpoena powers.
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Canadian media have drawn criticism for the imbalance in images of McArthur and his alleged victims. One widely published picture is of McArthur smiling at the camera as he posed at Niagara Falls. Lisowick, in comparison, was mostly known by a police mug shot. TPS spokesman Mark Pugash explained that they only release pictures if there is a "valid investigative purpose".
Media outlets with tight deadlines obtain photos from the Internet, and copied pictures from McArthur's Facebook page and online dating profiles within minutes of his arrest. Flattering pictures that he had used to define himself thus became his image in the media. The slain men who had Facebook accounts posted fewer pictures and Lisowick, a homeless man, had no digital footprint; so the first available picture was a police-released mug shot.
Editor Kathy English said that the Toronto Star would continue to publish Facebook photos of McArthur as a journalistic duty to report reality. Editor Sylvia Stead of The Globe and Mail stated that "true news photos" should be recent, like courtroom sketches, and that the balance should be in favour of the victims. Nikki Ward, a director of the Church-Wellesley Neighbourhood Association and graphic artist, obtained a photograph of Lisowick at a vigil which she cleaned up and shared with media outlets so that his mug shot would not have to be used.
Another controversial photo was that of a dead man which police released in hopes that the public could help identify him. The Star chose not to publish the photo because of its disturbing nature. A version cleaned up by Ward to better represent the man in life and a sketch by a TPS forensic artist were released at an April 11 news conference.
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A free concert called #LoveWins was initiated by Kristyn Wong-Tam, the only openly LGBTQ member of city council. In production since December 2017, the event went public on March 7 through a news release and Facebook page, described as "part vigil, part celebration". The proposed March 29 event drew criticisms, from logos of corporate sponsors to holding a celebration when the unnamed dead were still in forensic laboratories. The event was chaired by Salah Bachir, president of Cineplex Media, who identified as a "queer Arab man" and was both sad and angry about the crimes, having known some of the victims personally while his sister was a landscaping client of McArthur's.
Sara Malabar, who produced the opening and closing events for 2014 WorldPride, started a Facebook page titled "Stop Love Wins Concert" and threatened to organize a protest if it was not cancelled. Another critic noted that events are pressured to go mainstream when attracting corporate sponsors, and overlook the needs of the community that they are meant to address. It was also noted that marginalized communities could make better use of the resources than by throwing a party.
On March 10, Wong-Tam's website announced that the event would be postponed to address concerns, admitting that the event had sparked unnecessary division at a historic moment for the community. Malabar offered to help in creating a more appropriate event, with more LGBTQ performers.
The investigation, and its possible link to the still-unsolved 1970s murders, were the subject of Bob McKeown's television documentary "Murder in the Village", which aired in April 2018 as an episode of CBC Television's The Fifth Estate. Researcher Leslie Morrison won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Visual Research at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards.
In 2019, Justin Ling delved into the murders in Uncover: The Village, the third season of the CBC investigative journalism podcast Uncover. In August 2019, the CBC announced that Uncover: The Village was in development as the basis for a documentary television series.
Also in 2019, the CBC aired Michael Del Monte's documentary film Village of the Missing as an episode of its documentary series CBC Docs POV. The film was nominated for the Donald Brittain Award at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards.
In 2020, the CBC docudrama The Detectives explored the TPS investigation in two episodes, the first covering Project Houston and the second Project Prism. Canadian actor Dave Rose portrayed Bruce McArthur. In the same year Ling published the book Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto's Queer Community, which won the Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Book at the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in 2021.
In 2021, Swedish radio station P3 aired the documentary series Verkligheten i P3 and the episode "På barrunda med en seriemördare", where Swedish gay man "Anders" told the story of how he had met McArthur in a Toronto bar in 2009, and gone on a drinking spree with him. He reports leaving McArthur after feeling increasingly uncomfortable in his company. It was only in 2019 that Anders made the connection between the convicted killer McArthur and the man called Bruce that he had met in Toronto. Also in 2021, Oxygen and Super Channel aired Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur a documentary film about the case by James Buddy Day.
In 2022, British journalist Mobeen Azhar presented a six-part true-crime series on McArthur titled Santa Claus the Serial Killer, broadcast on BBC Three. The series explores themes of race, faith, culture and sexuality. Also in 2022, Netflix aired its second season of Catching Killers, which covered the murders in the third and fourth episodes. |
42979383 | Big Three (Miami Heat) | 2014-06-06 02:24:27+00:00 | The Big Three, sometimes known as The Heatles, were a trio of professional basketball players – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh – who formed the core of a superteam for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from the 2010–11 season to the 2013–14 season. James, Bosh, and Wade had been selected as the 1st, 4th, and 5th picks in the 2003 NBA draft, and became scoring leaders for their respective franchises over their first seven seasons. During their 4 seasons together the Heat won 2 NBA finals, won 4 NBA Eastern Conference championships, and won the Southeast division 4 times.
After re-signing Wade following the 2009–10 season, the Heat secured the signings of both Bosh and James in free agency, with the latter being announced in the somewhat controversial television special The Decision. The trio led the Heat to the NBA Finals in each of their four seasons together, and won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013. After losing the Finals to the San Antonio Spurs the following season, James opted out of a contract extension, and returned to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
James first referred to the trio as "the Heatles" after a 96–82 road victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on January 3, 2011, comparing the three stars to The Beatles for drawing strong road attendance. "I see we sell out 99.1 percent on the road, so we call ourselves the Heatles off the Beatles, so every time we take our show on the road we bring a great crowd," James said. The term was criticized immediately by the media. Business Insider derided it as "stupid", while NBC Sports said, "It's just too early for this — the Beatles are the most successful rock band of all time and you guys have yet to really do anything except look good in December. You haven't even been on Ed Sullivan yet."
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Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, W–L% = Winning percentage
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Led team
2010–11 regular season
2011 playoffs
2011–12 regular season
2012 playoffs
2012–13 regular season
2013 playoffs
2013–14 regular season
2014 playoffs
Honors listed are only for the years the Big Three were together.
NBA Most Valuable Player
James- 2012, 2013
NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award
James- 2012, 2013
Best NBA Player ESPY Award
James 2012, 2013
NBA Community Assist Award
Wade- 2013
All-NBA First Team
James 2011-2014
All-NBA Second Team
Wade- 2011
All-NBA Third Team
Wade – 2012, 2013
NBA All-Defensive First Team
James – 2011–2013
NBA All-Defensive Second Team
James – 2014
Season-long NBA Community Assist Award
Wade – 2013
NBA All-Star selections
Wade – 2011-2014
Bosh – 2011–2014
James – 2011–2014
NBA All-Star Shooting Stars Contest Champion
Bosh – 2013–2014 (with Swin Cash and Dominique Wilkins)
Both Wade and Bosh continued to play for the Heat for two additional seasons after James' departure, before Wade departed Miami and signed with the Chicago Bulls, while Bosh ultimately retired for medical reasons. On September 27, 2017, Wade signed a one-year contract with the Cavaliers, reuniting him with James. On February 8, 2018, at the NBA trade deadline, the Cavaliers traded Wade back to the Miami Heat in exchange for a protected 2024 second-round draft pick. On September 16, 2018, Wade announced his plan to retire from the NBA effective after the 2018–19 season and Chris Bosh officially announced his retirement on February 12, 2019, in his Miami Heat jersey retirement ceremony. Bosh was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021, and Wade received the same honor two years later.
The trio have been credited with having a dramatic influence on the NBA, specifically relating to team development and general management. Many teams in subsequent seasons have sought to adopt the "Big Three" model of courting established NBA superstars to their franchises, in order to win championships. Culturally after the Big 3 was formed also became villains following the infamous welcome party before the season began.
NBA legend Michael Jordan also had his criticism with LeBron James's competitiveness of joining forces with other superstars in the league. |
74304849 | Boston City Council tenure of Ayanna Pressley | 2023-07-09 15:14:37+00:00 | Ayanna Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council in November 2009 and served from January 2010 until joining the United States House of Representatives in January 2020. Upon being sworn in as a city councilor on January 4, 2010, she became the first woman of color to serve in the Boston City Council up to that point.
Pressley was one of the more liberal members of the council. She placed a strong focus to women's and children's issues during her tenure. She also focused on liquor license reform, protections against anti-transgender discrimination in municipal employee healthcare coverage, and matters related to schools.
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Pressley was first elected in November 2009. The only woman in a field of 15 candidates, Pressley won one of the four at-large spots on the city's 13-member council with nearly 42,000 votes.
Upon her entrance in to the race, the Dorchester Reporter's Pete Stidman regarded her to be one of the "favorite" candidates to be elected due to her "background and experience" in her eleven years of working for Senator John Kerry, including as his political director, and her experience working as a district director for Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II before that.
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In the Boston City council election of 2011, Pressley finished first among at-large candidates with 37,000 votes. She led in 13 of the city's 22 wards and finished second in three others. Pressley won Boston's communities of color and many progressive neighborhoods. In all, she placed first in more than half of Boston's 22 wards. Pressley was the first person of color to ever be the top vote-getter in a Boston City Council election.
Pressley's first-place finish was regarded as a surprise and a political turnaround, as many had expected she might not even win reelection. The perception that Pressley was at risk of losing her seat after her first term arose due to her campaign's lack of funding and the fact that former councilor Michael F. Flaherty was running to unseat one of the incumbent at-large councilors and regain a seat for himself. Politician prognosticators had seen Pressley as the most vulnerable of the incumbent at-large city councilors. This, in past, arose from a perception that, as first-term members, both Pressley and Felix G. Arroyo were more likely to lose their seats than longer-tenured at-large members John R. Connolly and Stephen J. Murphy. In his previous city council tenure, Flaherty had been able to be the top vote-getter in at-large city council elections, which made his candidacy to rejoin the council be seen as formidable.
Pressley led the vote in more than half of the city's twenty-two wards. Pressley performed strongly across a broad array of neighborhoods, including Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale and West Roxbury. Andrew Ryan of Boston.com wrote that Pressley received, "groundswell of support that in many neighborhoods transcended race and traditional politics."
During her reelection campaign, Pressley and fellow at-large city councilor John R. Connolly supported each other's bids for reelection. The two held joint campaign events and coordinated their campaign calendars.
In her campaign, Pressley made a concerted effort to engage and get out the vote among members of minority groups that were regarded to be among the city's lower-turnout demographics.
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Pressley placed first again in the 2013 Boston City Council election. Pressley was endorsed for reelection by the editorial board of The Boston Globe.
Pressley remained neutral in the coinciding mayoral election, giving no public endorsement. Her neutrality was notable, since one of two finalists was John R. Connolly, with whom she had jointly campaigned for reelection to city council in 2011. Pressley stated that she was acquainted with both mayoral finalists (Connolly and Marty Walsh), and believed that either would make a good mayor.
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Pressley again placed first in the 2015 Boston City Council election. She was again endorsed by the editorial board of The Boston Globe.
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Pressley placed second in the 2017 Boston City Council election, behind only Michelle Wu. She was again endorsed by the editorial board of The Boston Globe.
Pressley remained neutral in the coinciding mayoral election. Pressley's husband was a staffer of the incumbent mayor, Marty Walsh. Pressley was an ally of both Walsh and his mayoral challenger, Tito Jackson. Pressley considered Jackson to be a personal friend on the council. Pressley stayed neutral due to her husband's employment by Walsh. Besides Pressley, Andrea Campbell was the only other city councilor to remain neutral. The ten remaining Boston City Councilors endorsed Walsh's reelection over the candidacy of their Boston City Council colleague, Jackson.
Upon being sworn in on January 4, 2010, Pressley was the first woman of color to serve in the 100-year history of the Boston City Council.
Boston's strong mayor form of government conventionally limited the impact that members of the council had on the city government. However, part of Pressley's time on the City Council occurred during a period in which the council began to increasingly wield its power, with the body yielding less to the mayor than previous iterations of the council had in the preceding decades and making use of its subpoena powers for the first time in decades. In December 2019, Milton J. Valencia of The Boston Globe opined that, under the City Council presidencies of Michelle Wu (in 2016 and 2017) and Andrea Campbell (beginning in 2018), the council had "been, perhaps, the most aggressive in recent history in pushing reforms, often to the left of the mayor, on issues addressing climate change and economic and racial equity."
Pressley was regarded to be a high-profile figure on the council, even acquiring some national accolades. She received the "Rising Star" award from EMILY's List in 2015. In 2016, Frank Bruni of The New York Times named Pressley as one of the United States', "14 Young Democrats to Watch". Other recognition Pressley received included being named to Boston Magazines "Power of Ideas" list in 2014 and "Power Players" list in 2015; being a 2014 Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce "Ten Outstanding Young Leaders" honoree; and receiving the Victim Right's Law Center's "Leadership Award" in 2014.
Wu was a member of the council's liberal wing. Other members of this informal grouping included Michelle Wu and Lydia Edwards. According to Erin O'Brien, a political science professor at University of Massachusetts Boston, Pressley did not have the reputation for being controversial or an outsider during her time on the City Council. O'Brien, in 2018, observed that while some the city's "old guard" viewed Pressley as a "showboat" but that, "in many communities of color, she [was] viewed as incredibly exciting and voicing issues the council has ignored." Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani of The Intercept opined that Pressley shifted her politics more leftwards when she ran for congress in 2018.
In December 2011, Pressley voted to remove Councilor Chuck Turner from the City Council due to his October conviction for a felony bribery charge. Turner, who is black, had alleged that his conviction was racially motivated. Her vote to remove him from the City Council was seen as causing some backlash to her among the city's black community and was seen as creating political vulnerability for her. She would comment, on her vote, "I would have thought it cowardly to abstain..... I cast the ballot that I did because despite how hard it was, I thought it was the right thing to do in maintaining the integrity of the body and so as not to imperil my agenda."
In 2014, Pressley made an unsuccessful last-minute bid for the presidency of the Boston City Council. She was defeated by Bill Linehan 13–5.
Pressley placed a strong focus to women's and children's issues. In her first year as a city councilor, Pressley formed the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities, which addressed issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, and human trafficking. This is today known as the "Strong Women, Families and Communities Committee".
In March 2011, Presley sparked a city dialogue on sexual assault after she, during a Council hearing, shared details of the rape she previously survived when she was attending Boston University. While she had previously been public about surviving both childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault as an adult, during the hearing she shared details she had previously been private about. While Pressley received gratitude from other survivors of sexual abuse, some critics accused Pressley of leveraging the story of her personal experience with it for political gain.
In October 2011, Pressley and fellow Council member Tito Jackson sponsored a hearing investigating Massachusetts' anti-discrimination/public accommodation laws.
In June 2014, the Boston City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Pressley coauthored with Councilor Michelle Wu, which prohibits its city government "from contracting with any health insurer that denies coverage or 'discriminates in the amount of premium, policy fees, or rates charged...because of gender identity or expression". This was ordinance was signed into law, and guarantees healthcare (including gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, and mental health services) to transgender city employees and dependents of city employees. Pressley declared, "We can't be a world-class city if anyone is made to feel like a second-class citizen."
Pressley worked collaboratively with community members to develop a comprehensive sex education and health curriculum which was implemented in Boston Public Schools.
Pressley was involved in revising and requiring the enforcement of policy for Boston Public Schools regarding pregnant and parenting students. She worked with the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy to author the district's new Expectant and Parenting Students Policy, which was adopted by the Boston School Committee on June 4, 2014. This was the first update by the district to this policy since 1987.
In 2016, Pressley published an op-ed in the Dorchester Reporter advocating for the city to fund full-time nurses and social workers in every school in the Boston Public Schools. In July 2018, the council adopted a resolution authored by Pressley that expressed its support for the Parents' Bill of Rights that was created by Parenting Journey, a Somerville-based nonprofit.
Pressley voted along with the majority of City Councilors to support resolution to voice the council's opposition to 2016 Massachusetts Question 2, a ballot measure which would have authorized the expansion of the number of charter schools in the state. The resolution was adopted in a 11–2 vote. Pressley remarked that she believed the passage of the ballot measure would cause a "divestment" of funds from public schools that would result in a "tsunami of devastation."
In 2016 Pressley and Councilor Andrea Campbell introduced an ordinance that would have banned the use of credit scores to negatively assess job applicants and existing hires. Pressley also proposed an amendment to the Boston Living Wage Ordinance which would have increased the standard for what the city considers to be a "living wage" for those working in service and security jobs.
In 2017, the Council passed the Equity in City of Boston Contracts Ordinance, which was sponsored by Pressley and Councilor Michelle Wu. It required that the city create a supplier diversity program to conduct outreach to female and minority-owned businesses in regards to the city contracting process. It also required the city to actively solicit bids from at least one female-owned business and one minority-owned business for contracts under $50,000. It also created a quarterly reporting requirement for the city.
Pressley voiced criticism of what she felt was an excessive amount of luxury real estate development and lack of affordable housing in the city. In 2015, Pressley joined fellow at-large councilors Michelle Wu and Stephen J. Murphy in opposing the proposed Lewis Wharf hotel development. There were other occasions, however, where Pressley voted in favor of some luxury real estate developments in the city. For example, in 2017 Pressley voted in support of a measure that would facilitate the $1.3 billion Winthrop Center development. Pressley justified her vote by citing a pledge by the developers to involve minority-owned businesses. It was reported by Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani of The Intercept that records indicate that Pressley later received campaign contributions amounting to $1,250 from the project's developers.
Pressley and fellow councilor Michelle Wu were credited as being the key figures that arranged for the Boston City Council to hold hearings on gun violence. Pressley organized the first listening-only hearing in the City Council's history, in which the councilors listened to remarks by 300 families that had been impacted by homicide.
After the Boston Marathon bombing terrorist attack in 2013, Pressley worked connect those impacted with assistance.
Pressley led an effort to pass an ordinance requiring municipal trucks to have side guards to protect cyclists. She worked with Mayor Marty Walsh on an ordinance requiring it, which was passed unanimously by the City Council in November 2014.
Pressley worked on the issue of liquor licenses in the city. For years, Pressley pushed for the passage of legislation that would remove control over the number of liquor licenses in Boston from the control of the state government of Massachusetts and place it under the purview of the Boston Licensing Board. The state held control over this since the Prohibition era. On December 18, 2013, the city council voted 12–1 to advance a home rule petition on this matter to the state. The ultimate product of Pressley's push was the passage of state legislation in 2014 granting Boston the authority to distribute 75 additional liquor licenses over a three-year period, with the aim of distributing them to less advantaged neighborhoods in order to increase economic activity in those neighborhoods. However, The Boston Globe's Meghan Irons observed that an unintentional impact of this was that, "it created uneven competition. It left out certain neighborhoods. It allowed businesses that were already established to get the licenses." Nevertheless, in 2018, The New York Times called Pressley's work on the matter a "major accomplishment". To remedy the shortfalls, Pressley worked with Mayor Walsh with an aim to further expand the number of new available liquor licenses. In 2017, Pressley and Mayor Walsh unveiled a proposal to increase the number of liquor license in the city by 152 over a three year period, with the majority of licenses being granted to underserved communities. This proposal received the support of the editorial board of The Boston Globe.
In February 2015, Pressley was publicly skeptical of a proposed BYOB ordinance by Councilors Michelle Wu and Stephen J. Murphy to allow small restaurants without liquor licenses to permit patrons to bring their own bottles of wine or beer. Pressley expressed concern that such an ordinance could perpetuate the divide where liquor licenses remained only in more affluent neighborhoods. She also expressed concern for how such a policy would be regulated and whether it might lower the cost of meals, resulting in lower tips for waiters. She continued to express concern about the ordinance when it was debated in December of that year. Nevertheless, Pressley voted in support of the ordinance when it was adopted that month.
Pressley was publicly skeptical of Boston's bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. In March 2015, stating that she had a number of concerns and desired to see more detailed proposals, Pressley described herself as undecided on whether to support the bid effort but still conditionally willing to. That month she had filed a request for the City Council to hold two special hearings: one to "analyze the diversity and inclusion plan from bidding process through the potential games," and another to "discuss comprehensive approaches to reduce sex trafficking around mega sporting events such as the Olympics." After the abandonment of Boston's bid for the Olympics, the organization No Boston Olympics (which had opposed the bid) endorsed Pressley and three other incumbent Boston City Council members for reelection, praising them for "Demonstrat[ing] leadership by asking tough questions" to the leaders behind Boston's Olympic bid.
Pressley was one of the first notable Massachusetts politicians to endorse Elizabeth Warren's successful campaign in Massachusetts' 2012 U.S. Senate election. Ahead of the Democratic primary for the 2013 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts, Pressley endorsed the candidacy of Ed Markey. During the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Pressley endorsed the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
In 2018, Pressley was elected to the United States House of Representatives after having first defeated incumbent Michael Capuano in a Democratic Party primary election. For years Pressley had been speculated as a likely top-contender to succeed Capuano if he were to retire. Rather than wait for him to step aside, Pressley decided to challenge him. Pressley was the first sitting council member to be elected to another office since Francis Roache was elected Suffolk County register of deeds in 2002.
After being elected to the United States House of Representatives, Pressley delivered a "farewell speech" to the City Council on December 5, 2018. Boston city law requires that vacancies for the at-large council seats are filled by the next-placed candidate in the previous election, which had been Althea Garrison in the November 2017 election. Thus, when Pressley departed from the city council, she was succeeded by Garrison. |
73766809 | Roar (musician) | 2023-05-10 02:44:13+00:00 | Roar (stylized as ROAR) is an American solo musical project of Arizona-based musician Owen Richard Evans. He started the project in 2010 by releasing the extended play I Can't Handle Change. Evans has since released two more extended plays and four studio albums under the moniker.
Evans was previously a member of the band Asleep in the Sea alongside Tom Filardo and Eli Kuner. The band debuted in 2004 and opened for The Spinto Band in 2005, but disbanded three years later in 2007. Evans returned to the music scene in 2010, creating Roar and releasing the project's debut extended play, I Can't Handle Change. The EP was a response to Asleep in the Sea's disbandment. Roar's second extended play, Daytrotter Session, was released on February 26, 2011.
Roar's third extended play, I'm Not Here to Make Friends, was released on February 28, 2012, and was the project's only release under Really Records.
Roar's debut studio album, Impossible Animals, was released independently on March 27, 2016. During 2016, Evans joined band Andrew Jackson Jihad, which later rebranded to AJJ, as their drummer. Roar's second studio album, Pathétique Aesthétique, was released on July 5, 2018.
In 2019 and 2024, the titular song from I Can't Handle Change gained popularity on the internet, especially media-sharing app TikTok. On March 30, 2021, Roar's third studio album, Diamond Destroyer of Death, was released. Evans left AJJ during 2021.
In 2023, "Christmas Kids," a song from I Can't Handle Change, went viral on TikTok. The song's popularity led it to chart on the Irish Singles Chart and UK Singles Chart at 45 and 58, respectively; the entries marked Roar's first appearance on any international music charts. The song describes the abusive relationship between Phil Spector and his wife Ronnie.
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28350693 | 2010 Sangin airstrike | 2010-08-13 08:27:47+00:00 | On July 23, 2010, a NATO attack killed and injured many Afghan civilians, most of whom were women and children, in the village of Sangin in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
The Afghan government claimed that a helicopter-gunship rocket strike killed 52 civilians. Many other civilians including children were also injured and treated at Kandahar hospital. For weeks, US military and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials denied that there had been any such incident.
About 200-400 people took to the streets in Kabul, protesting the killing of civilians by foreign troops, carrying photos of those who died in the airstrike.
The Karzai government sent investigators to the site, who concluded that 39 civilians were killed in the rocket strike
According to a statement by the Presidential Palace, the investigation confirmed that 39 civilians had been killed by NATO-led troops in Sangin. The figure was lower than the initially reported 45–52. According to the investigation, all 39 dead were women or children. |
28362907 | Uruzgan helicopter attack | 2010-08-14 17:08:45+00:00 | Uruzgan helicopter attack refers to the February 21, 2010, killing of Afghan civilians, including over 20 men, four women and one child, by United States Army with another 12 civilians wounded. The attack took place near the border between Uruzgan and Daykundi province in Afghanistan when special operation troops helicopters attacked three minibuses with "airborne weapons".
The victims were traveling in three buses in broad daylight in a group of 42 civilians in Uruzgan province near the border to Daykundi on February 21, 2010 . When the convoy was on a main road in the village of Zerma it came under attack from U.S. Special Forces piloting Little Bird helicopters using "airborne weapons". NATO later stated that they believed at that time that the minibuses were carrying insurgents. 27 civilians including four women and one child were killed in the attack while another 12 were wounded. Initially the number of deaths was reported at 33. ISAF ground troops transported the wounded to medical treatment facilities after they found women and children at the scene.
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Afghanistan's cabinet called the killings "unjustifiable" and condemned the raid "in the strongest terms possible". The local governor and the Interior Minister said that all of the victims were civilians. Amanullah Hotak, head of Uruzgan's provincial council said: "We don't want their apologies or the money they always give after every attack. We want them to kill all of us together instead of doing it to us one by one." Haji Ghullam Rasoul, whose cousins died in the attack, said, "They came here to bring security but they kill our children, they kill our brothers and they kill our people."
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U.S. General Stanley McChrystal said he was "extremely saddened". "I have made it clear to our forces that we are here to protect the Afghan people, and inadvertently killing or injuring civilians undermines their trust and confidence in our mission," he said in a statement. "We will re-double our efforts to regain that trust."
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A Dutch Defense Ministry spokesman in The Hague said Dutch forces did not call the airstrike, which took place in an area under Dutch military control. |
29715626 | 2010 Yeonpyeong bombardment | 2010-11-23 06:58:34+00:00 | The Bombardment of Yeonpyeong (Korean: 연평도 포격전) was an artillery engagement between the North Korean military and South Korean forces stationed on Yeonpyeong Island on 23 November 2010. Following a South Korean artillery exercise in disputed waters near the island, North Korean forces fired around 170 artillery shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island, hitting both military and civilian targets.
Shelling caused widespread damage on Yeonpyeong. South Korea retaliated by shelling North Korean gun positions. In total, between four and 20 people (military personnel and civilians) were killed on both sides and approximately 40–55 people were wounded.
The North Koreans subsequently stated that they had fired in response to South Korean artillery firing into North Korean territorial waters.
The incident caused an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula and prompted widespread international condemnation of the North's actions. The United Nations declared it to be one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War, and former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson said tensions had escalated to become "the most serious crisis on the Korean peninsula since the 1953 armistice, which ended the Korean War".
A western maritime line of military control between the two Koreas was established by United Nations Command (UNC) in 1953, called the Northern Limit Line (NLL). According to Time, "The North does not recognize the border that was unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the close of the 1950–53 Korean War." Under the provisions of the armistice, five Northwest Islands are specifically designated to remain under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. The countries' western maritime boundary has long been a flash point between the two Koreas.
North Korea did not dispute or violate the line until 1973. The NLL was drawn up at a time when a three-nautical-mile territorial waters limit was the norm, but when in the 1970s a twelve nautical mile limit became internationally accepted, the implementation of the NLL prevented North Korea, in areas, from accessing, arguably actual or prospective, territorial waters. Later, after 1982, it also hindered North Korea establishing a United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Exclusive Economic Zone to control fishing in the area.
In 1999, North Korea drew up their own line, the "West Sea Military Demarcation Line" which claims a maritime boundary farther south that encompasses valuable fishing grounds (though it skirts around South Korean-held islands such as Yeonpyeong). This claim is not accepted by either South Korea or the United Nations Command.
The United Nations Command perspective remained unchanging, explaining that the NLL must be maintained until any new maritime military demarcation line could be
established through the Joint Military Commission on the armistice agreement.
In an effort to assert its territorial claims, North Korea has pursued a strategy of challenging South Korean control of the waters south of the NLL. It has made several incursions that have sparked clashes between the two sides, notably a naval battle near Yeonpyeong island in 1999 as well as another engagement in the same area in 2002. Although there were no further serious clashes for a time, in 2009 increasing tensions along the disputed border led to a naval battle near the island of Daecheong, and accusations that a North Korean submarine had sunk the South Korean corvette Cheonan off Baengnyeong Island in March 2010.
Days before the incident, the North Korean government revealed their new uranium enrichment facility, prompting the South Korean government to consider requesting that the United States station tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea for the first time in 19 years. On the same day, South Korea and the United States began the annual Hoguk exercise, a large-scale military drill involving the South Korean and US militaries. The 2010 exercise involved 70,000 troops from all four branches of the South Korean military, equipped with 600 tracked vehicles, 90 helicopters, 50 warships, and 500 aircraft. The United States contributed its 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Seventh Air Force to the land and sea elements of the exercise.
It had originally been intended that the United States Navy and Marine Corps would participate in a joint amphibious exercise in the Yellow (Western) Sea, west of South Korea. However, the US pulled out of the joint exercise citing "scheduling conflicts", though South Korean observers suggested that the real reason was the opposition of China, which regards a large portion of the Yellow Sea as its own territory. The North Korean government regards the exercises as preparation for a combined arms attack on the North.
On the morning of 23 November 2010, North Korea reportedly "wired a complaint [to the South] ... asking whether (the [Hoguk] exercise) was an attack against the North." It warned that it would not tolerate firing in what it regarded as its territorial waters. South Korean forces went ahead with a live-fire exercise in waters off Baengnyeong Island and Yeonpyeong Island within South Korean-held territory.
According to a South Korean military official, shells fired as part of the exercise were directed at waters in the south, away from North Korea. A Marine colonel on the island indicated the shells had been fired towards the southwest. South Korean Minister of National Defense, Kim Tae-young, said the firing was not part of the Hoguk exercise, but was a separate routine monthly drill carried out 4–5 km away from the NLL, contrary to previous media reports. The usual firing range is 40 kilometres (22 nmi) by 20 kilometres (11 nmi) in size and runs parallel to the NLL to the south-west of Yeonpyeong Island, and is largely within North Korea's 12 nautical miles (22 km) territorial waters claimed in 1955.
At 14:34 local time, North Korean coastal artillery batteries on Mudo, and a recently redeployed 122-mm MRL at Kaemori, in North Korea's South Hwanghae Province, opened fire on the island of Yeonpyeong. The bombardment took place in two waves, from 14:34 to 14:55 and again from 15:10 to 15:41. Many of the shells landed on a military camp, but others hit the island's principal settlement, destroying numerous homes and shops, and starting fires. About 108 shells were fired total, according to a North Korean defector who had served in an artillery battery.
Three of the six K9 Thunder 155 mm guns stationed on Yeonpyong returned fire, while two were damaged and one blocked by a dud shell. South Korean artillery fired 80 shells in total. Initially, the South Koreans targeted barracks and command structures on Mudo, but began firing at the MRL at Kaemori about thirteen minutes later, due to the AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar not properly functioning, which meant the guns initially targeted general locations, such as the barracks.
South Korean KF-16 and F-15K jets were also scrambled to the area, though they did not engage North Korean targets, as the North Korean artillery did not start a third barrage. South Korean counterstrikes ended at 16:42. It was the first artillery battle to take place between North and South Korea since the 1970s and was seen as one of the most serious attacks by the North on the South since the 1953 Armistice.
With power on Yeonpyeong knocked out and several fires breaking out as a result of the North Korean shelling, the South Korean military ordered civilians to evacuate to bunkers.
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(All times in Korea Standard Time: UTC+9.)
08:20: North sends a telex message requesting a halt to the South's artillery training exercise.
10:00: South starts the artillery training exercise.
14:30: North deploys five MiG-23ML fighters from the 60th Regiment at Pukchang Airport; 122 mm MRL battalion near Kaemori conducts a short firing exercise.
14:34: North starts firing shells (around 150, of which about 60 land on military positions)
14:38: South conducts emergency sorties with two KF-16 fighters.
14:40: South deploys four F-15K fighters.
14:46: South conducts additional emergency sorties with two KF-16 fighters.
14:47: South fires back with the first round of K-9 howitzers (50 shells).
14:50: South issues a 'Jindogae Hana' (Jindo Dog 1) alert, the highest military alert given for a local provocation.
14:55: North stops firing temporarily.
15:12: North starts firing for the second time (20 shells, all of which landed on the island).
15:25: South resumes firing back with K-9 howitzers (30 shells).
15:30: South telexes the North's military general level talk representative requesting an immediate halt to artillery shelling.
15:40 – 16:00: The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff Han Min-gu and USFK Commander Walter L. Sharp have a video conference (a review of cooperative crisis management).
15:41: North stops firing.
16:30: First military casualty reported.
16:35 – 21:50: Foreign and National Security representatives have a meeting.
16:42: South stops firing.
18:40: Lee Hong-gi, the South's Joint Chief of Staff Director of Operations, holds a press briefing.
19:00: North Korea's Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army releases a statement labelled "Our Army is Making No Empty Talk" publicized through KCNA.
20:35 – 21:10: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meets with his Joint Chief of Staff.
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The shelling caused a number of casualties among South Koreans living on Yeongpyeong. Two South Korean marines, Hasa (Staff Sergeant) Seo Jeong-wu and Ilbyeong (Lance Corporal) Moon Gwang-wuk, were killed. Six other military personnel were seriously wounded, and ten were treated for minor injuries. Two construction workers, Kim Chi-baek, 61, and Bae Bok-chul, 60, were also killed.
Most of the islanders were evacuated in the aftermath of the shelling. Around 1,500 of the 1,780 residents on the island were taken aboard fishing boats and government vessels, with many of them being taken to Incheon on the mainland. The Incheon city authorities sent 22 fire engines and ambulances to the island, along with firefighters and paramedics, to help with the recovery and relief effort. 2,000 boxes of emergency relief materials and more than 3,500 relief kits and boxes of food were sent to help residents recover.
The attack started widespread fires on the island. According to the local county office, 70 percent of the island's forests and fields were burned and 21 houses and warehouses and eight public buildings were destroyed in the bombardment. Some of the public buildings were formerly military structures, leading the South Korean military to believe the attack was planned from old maps.
North Korea states that it suffered no military casualties. However, Lee Hong-gi, the Director of Operations of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), claimed that as a result of the South Korean retaliation "there may be a considerable number of North Korean casualties". A North Korean defector who had served in an artillery battery, however, stated that the South had likely failed to destroy the North Korean artillery batteries due to its slow response. South Korean media reported that 5–10 North Korean soldiers had been killed and 30 wounded, and the National Intelligence Service suggests damage to North Korean troops had been considerable during the South Korean counter-battery fire. Satellite images released by STRATFOR cast doubt on effectiveness of South Korean artillery and damage dealt to North as asserted by JCS and NIS, with no signs of any North Korean rocket launchers being destroyed. Similarly, despite targeting the barracks, there were little signs that the underground facilities suffered significant damage.
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The South Korean government called the attack a "clear armed provocation." It suspended interchanges with the North, cancelling inter-Korean Red Cross talks and banning visits to the jointly operated Kaesong Industrial Region.
The main South Korean political parties condemned the North's attack. A spokesman for the ruling Grand National Party said: "It is impossible to hold our rage toward the North's shelling of the Yeonpyeong Island. North Korea must be held accountable for all the losses." The chairman of the opposition Democratic Party urged the North Koreans to "stop all provocation that threaten the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula". He called for "the two Koreas to begin talks to prevent the situation from worsening" and urged the government to protect the peace and safety of South Koreans.
On 25 November, South Korea's defense minister, Kim Tae-young, announced his resignation after he was criticized for leading a response to the incident considered too passive by members of both the ruling and opposition political parties.
The North Korean news agency KCNA released a Korean People's Army communique stating that North Korea responded after the South had made a "reckless military provocation" by firing dozens of shells into North Korean territorial waters around Yeonpyeong Island from 13:00, as part of "war maneuvers". It warned that "should the South Korean puppet group dare intrude into the territorial waters of the DPRK even 0.001 mm, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will unhesitatingly continue taking merciless military counter-actions against it." The South Korean Deputy Minister of Defense acknowledged that South Korean artillery units had been carrying out live-fire exercises, but denied that the shots had crossed into the North Korean sea area.
Four days after the shelling, North Korea's KCNA said about the death of civilians that, "[i]f that is true, it is very regrettable, [...] [b]ut the enemy should be held responsible for the incident as it took such inhuman action as creating 'a human shield' by deploying civilians around artillery positions and inside military facilities."
The North Korean attack had a global impact on the financial markets. Several Asian currencies weakened against the euro and U.S. dollar, while at the same time Asian stock markets declined. The impact of the shelling on the financial industry led South Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea, to hold an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the fighting on the markets.
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President Lee instructed the South Korean military to strike North Korea's missile base near its coastal artillery positions if there were an indication of further provocation. Lee Hong-gi of the JCS told the media that the attack had been a "premeditated, intentional illegal violation of the U.N. Convention, the Armistice Agreement and the inter-Korean non-aggression accord. It is also an inhumane atrocity, in which [North Korea] indiscriminately fired shells into unarmed civilian residential areas." He said that the military had "strengthened our surveillance and monitoring to keep watch on North Korean military activities through close cooperation with the United States. We are closely cooperating to draw up joint response directions."
On 24 November, the US aircraft carrier USS George Washington departed for joint exercises in the Yellow Sea with the Republic of Korea Navy, in part to deter further North Korean military action but also to "send a message" to China.
On 28 November, South Korean news agency Yonhap News said that North Korea had readied surface-to-surface missiles as the United States and South Korea began military drills.
On 21 December, South Korea carried out another live-fire artillery exercise into the same disputed waters just south of the NLL, despite diplomatic opposition from China and Russia.
One year after the event the South Korean military presence on the island had been substantially increased with the deployment of more K-9 howitzers, K-10 automatic ammunition re-supply vehicles, 130-millimeter, 36-round, truck-mounted Kooryong multiple rocket launchers and AH-1S Cobra attack helicopters. On 19 May 2013 the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that "dozens" of Spike NLOS missiles had been deployed on Baengnyeong Island and Yeonpyeong Island.
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North Korea's motives for the attack were unclear and were the subject of widespread speculation in the South and elsewhere. The North Korean Foreign Ministry stated the North Korean bombardment was retaliation due to South Korea's shelling into sea that North Korea claims as its territorial waters. But some experts suggested that it was at least partly related to Kim Jong-un's appointment as the designated successor to Kim Jong-il, which is believed to have caused tensions within the North Korean leadership. Robert Kelly, an assistant professor at Pusan National University in South Korea, says that Seoul's increasing global stature may have provoked Pyongyang. "My primary guess is that this is a response to the recent international prestige taken by South Korea at the G20. The G20 highlighted North Korean backwardness in the same way that it highlighted that South Korea was a partner of this global elite organization, setting international rules and the North Koreans don't like this", he said. It has also been suggested that the attack was linked to the North's need for food aid.
The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper suggested that the attack had been ordered by Kim Jong-il himself. Kim and his son were reported to have visited the Kaemori artillery base, whence many of the North Korean shells were fired, the day before the attack. The Kims had visited a nearby fish farm on 22 November in the company of various senior military figures. According to a source quoted by the newspaper, "Firing artillery across the Northern Limit Line at sea is difficult without a direct order from Pyongyang’s highest authorities; firing inland would have been impossible without the will of Kim Jong-Il."
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In 2014, Robert Gates, who was United States Secretary of Defense during the incident, wrote in his memoirs that the South Korean government planned a "disproportionately aggressive" military retaliation "involving both aircraft and artillery". Gates said he, US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had numerous telephone calls with South Korean counterparts to deescalate tension. Seoul declined to confirm Gates's version of events.
Images of the shelling were widely disseminated by media and across the internet. The sight of burning houses and plumes of smoke prompted international reaction.
Argentina: The Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which the government expressed its "strong condemnation of the incident".
Australia: Prime Minister Julia Gillard condemned the attack and expressed concern over North Korean military provocations.
Belgium: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere "roundly condemns the attack by North Korea," and "subscribes to the statement made by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton regarding the incident". Belgium furthermore "salutes the call for restraint by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak."
Brazil: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that his current position was to "condemn any attempt of attack from North Korea to South Korea". According to him, "Brazil is against any attack to another country. We will not allow, in any circumstance, any attempt to violate another country's sovereignty".
Bulgaria: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack and urged both North and South Korea to refrain from any further military provocations.
Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper "strongly condemned" the attack, reaffirmed Canada's support for South Korea and urged North Korea to abide by the armistice and to not commit "further reckless and belligerent actions." Minister for Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon stated that he was "deeply concerned" about the events in Korea and that officials in his department were monitoring the situation. Documents indicate that the Canadian military may initiate strategic involvement in the event of a new conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
Chile: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack and called on North Korea to set aside its "bellicose attitude".
China: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Chinese government urged both sides "to do things conducive to peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula," but did not explicitly condemn North Korea's actions.
Colombia: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack of North Korea stating that the country "deplores the loss of human lives and the damages caused to the population and condemn the use of the force on behalf of the Korea Democratic People's Republic." Likewise, it spurred North Korea to "observe the orders of the Security Council of United Nations in it relative to the abstention of the threat and use of force".
Costa Rica: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Culture expressed solidarity with South Korea "for the loss of life and violation of its sovereignty" and was concerned at the "great instability on the Korean Peninsula".
Denmark: Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen condemned the attack, and called it a "military provocation".
European Union: High Representative Catherine Ashton condemned the attack and urged North Korea to respect the Korean Armistice Agreement.
Finland: Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb, while indicating that not enough information was available to "draw far-reaching conclusions", urged restraint and "added that every incident like this is a cause for concern."
France: President Nicolas Sarkozy expresses deep concern over the north–south dispute and urges it to be resolved politically.
Germany: Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle assured South Korea of "our support and sympathy in this difficult time," while expressing worry that the "new military provocation threatens peace in the region". He urged all parties to "act in a cool-headed manner" and welcomed South Korean president Lee Myung-bak's efforts to "de-escalate the situation."
Greece: The Foreign Ministry expressed concern and condemned "North Korea's aggressive attitude".
Guatemala: The government conveyed their "solidarity with South Korea" and was "concerned about the possibility of repercussions for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula".
Honduras: A statement by the Foreign Ministry condemned the "serious" armed attack by North Korea against Yeonpyeong and expressed solidarity with South Korea. It also called on both countries to seek a solution with respect to international law.
Hungary: State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Zsolt Németh condemned the North Korean attack against Yeonpyeong. He also said that it is yet unknown how serious the conflict is.
India: The Foreign Office called for restraint, stability, and a resumption of negotiations, and expressed sympathy for the victims and injured people of Yeonpyeong.
Indonesia: Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa expressed concern at the incident, calling on both sides to "immediately cease hostilities, exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation of tension".
Israel: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the incident was proof that the world "must stop the crazy regime" in North Korea.
Japan: Prime Minister Naoto Kan "ordered his government to prepare for any eventuality" during an emergency meeting. "Firing on an area where civilians live is an impermissible, atrocious act that we strongly condemn," Kan said. "It has created a grave situation in not only South Korea but the entire East Asia region, including Japan."
Latvia: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Latvia urged both parties to "adhere to the Korean armistice agreement of 1953" and "condemns any actions that could lead to a further aggravation of the situation".
Malaysia: Foreign Minister Anifah Aman condemned the attack on Yeonpyeong which resulted in the loss of life. It called on all parties "to avoid resorting to action which can escalate the tension and generate instability" in the region.
Mexico: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack and demanded the "immediate cessation of hostilities" by North Korea.
New Zealand: Foreign Minister Murray McCully condemned the incident, expressing "outrage over this attack and the consequent loss of life", but emphasized that "this is a time for cool heads in order to avoid this clash escalating into a more serious threat to the stability of the region".
Norway: Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stated that "the clashes and the raised tension in the border area between South and North Korea are alarming. An armed conflict would have very serious consequences. Both parties must now show restraint".
Pakistan: The spokesman of Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed concern in a press release and said that "Pakistan urges all concerned to exercise restraint and to resolve all issues peacefully".
Peru: The Foreign Ministry condemned the "despicable act of aggression" by North Korea and called for respect of the United Nations Charter.
Philippines: Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III's spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that "We are calling for an end to the provocative actions and calling for sobriety on the two Koreas. The Philippine embassy in Korea is taking precautionary measures to protect Filipino nationals there."
Poland: The Foreign Ministry expressed "deep concern" over the incident and its potential to bring about a regional crisis, and hoped that "the two sides would avoid escalation".
Romania: The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it "is deeply concerned by the armed attack" adding that "We are unequivocally condemning such acts and we call upon the authorities in Pyongyang to put an end without delay to the provocative actions. At the same time, [...] we convey our condolences and heartfelt compassion to the families of the victims."
Russia: The Foreign Ministry stated that "the use of force is an unacceptable path [and that] [a]ny disputes in relations between the North and the South must be settled politically and diplomatically". Additionally, it urged both sides "to demonstrate restraint and peace," and warned of a "colossal danger" and "said those behind the attack carried a huge responsibility". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that "It is one thing to fire at the water even though these waters are disputed, quite another to fire at the land, at settlements. People died. This is the main point."
Singapore: The Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the incident, describing it as a "reckless and provocative action that dangerously heightened tensions in what was an already highly fraught and uncertain situation. [...] We urge both parties to exercise utmost restraint."
Slovenia: Slovenian politician Jelko Kacin, who is part of the European delegation for relations with Korean Peninsula, condemned the "provocations from the North."
Sweden: Foreign Minister Carl Bildt commented on his blog, calling the incident "very worrying" and for China to "use the full extent of its influence over Pyongyang to affect its regime".
Taiwan: President Ma Ying-jeou accused North Korea of causing regional tension and asked his government to monitor the situation and to prepare for contingencies during the Chinese Nationalist Party's 116th anniversary. Also, Foreign Minister Timothy Yang condemned the attack.
United Arab Emirates: Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan described the attack as "irresponsible" and "affirmed the UAE's support for the government and people of South Korea".
United Kingdom: Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that "[t]he UK strongly condemns North Korea's unprovoked attack" and that it "strongly urge[s] North Korea to refrain from such attacks and adhere to the Korean Armistice agreement".
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said that "Ban Ki-moon condemned North Korea's artillery attack, calling it 'One of the gravest incidents since the end of the Korean War.'" and that "Ban called for immediate restraint and insisted 'any differences should be resolved by peaceful means and dialogue'."
United States: White House Office of the Press Secretary said that "The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement." The United States also deployed Carrier Strike Group Five, led by the George Washington, to the region to participate in previously scheduled training exercises with the South Koreans.
Uruguay: The Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack and called on both parties "to refrain from the use of force and to channel the resolution of their differences by peaceful means." Vice President Danilo Astori and Foreign Minister Luis Almagro were both in Seoul for a state visit when the attack took place.
Uzbekistan: Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed concerns about the situation, urging Pyongyang to refrain from taking unilateral measures aimed at further escalating tensions and resolve existing differences through peaceful diplomatic means.
Vietnam: A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said that the country was concerned at the incident and that "Vietnam opposes the use of force or threatening to use force in international relations and any military action that causes harm to innocent civilians". |
61738453 | 2b2t | 2019-09-09 23:32:33+00:00 | 2b2t (2builders2tools) is a Minecraft server founded in December 2010. 2b2t has essentially no rules and players are not permanently banned, known within Minecraft as an "anarchy server". As a result, players commonly engage in the destruction of other players' and groups creations, colloquially called "griefing", as well as hacking using modified software to gain an advantage. 2b2t is the oldest anarchy server in Minecraft, as well as one of the few running 2010 Minecraft servers of any variety. The server is permanently set to hard difficulty and player versus player combat is enabled. It has seen over 780,000 players explore its procedurally generated map, increasing its file size to over 20 terabytes. 2b2t has been described in news media as the worst Minecraft server due to its toxic playerbase and culture.
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The 2b2t Minecraft server was founded in December 2010; it has run consistently without a reset since then. The founders are anonymous, choosing to remain unknown or known only via usernames; the most prominent founder is commonly referred to as "Hausemaster". The server operates with minimal rules, as an "anarchy server"; except in fixing game-breaking exploits, the server operators are relatively hands-off in administrating the server.
Varying explanations have been given for the origin of the server's rules-free style. One server operator told Vice that the server originated as a regular Minecraft server, before he and his friends "decided to open it up to see how much destruction could be made and started advertising it on various places on the Internet." According to 2b2t player and amateur archivist James Rustles, Hausemaster was given the server by its original founder, who founded it on a principle of maximum player freedom in the tradition of a Garry's Mod server he already owned.
The server was advertised shortly after its creation on online forums such as 4chan, Facepunch Studios, and Reddit, whose users populated the server by the hundreds due to the total freedom it offered. Members from different forums raided each other and their bases on the server. The founders eventually stopped playing Minecraft, though the server remained online due to the large player base that had been formed. A subreddit was created by a player on March 25, 2012. In early 2013, the file size of 2b2t's world map, which is procedurally generated, was reported to be over 500 gigabytes. This increased to almost one terabyte by late 2015, costing US$90 a month to maintain.
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On June 1, 2016, popular YouTuber "TheCampingRusher" uploaded a YouTube video of himself playing on 2b2t. This caused a massive influx of new players from the channel's audience, who were at first mostly tourists, as the video gained over two million views in less than four months from its upload. This overwhelmed the server and strained the hardware used to host and run it, bringing together a loose group of older players who banded against these new players.
Although the new players, who were labeled "Rushers", largely outnumbered the older players at the time, the older players had years of experience and resources. Many older players deterred new players by destroying the spawn-in area to make it uninhabitable and extremely challenging to proceed from and repeatedly killing them in-game.Some players built in-game contraptions designed solely to overload the server, with the intent of making it difficult for TheCampingRusher and his fans to play on it. Some placed obscene content around the spawn area and along player-built roads to get TheCampingRusher's YouTube videos taken down for violations of YouTube's terms of service.
The new players, despite having been discouraged to do so by TheCampingRusher, had destroyed bases and monuments on the server that had stood for years, which is partially what had caused such a response from the player base. When Kiberd from Newsweek asked Hausemaster if he disapproved of the massive influx of new players, he responded by saying that "2b2t is definitely not ruined—in my opinion it's how it should be: absolutely chaotic."
In response to the inundated server and hardware, a queue to enter the server was added. Before then, the server would have about ten players online at the same time. However, at the influx peak, the server had thousands of players waiting in queue. The queue gave earlier 2b2t players priority over newer players, although this feature was removed after a year. The regular queue moves slowly and can contain over a thousand players. Waiting in the queue has been described as an onerous task. Players can pay $20 to access a separate "priority" queue for one month.
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In 2018, a group of players called "Nerds Inc." (a spoof of Monsters, Inc.) discovered a software bug in 2b2t's server software that allowed players to query far-away terrain, which players cannot normally view. The loading of huge areas of terrain puts a heavy workload on the server, which Nerds Inc. used to repeatedly crash the server. This was done with the intent to induce the developers of PaperMC, a modified server software used by 2b2t, to create a bug fix for the software, which introduced a vulnerability where the server would now only respond to the querying of far-away terrain if it was already loaded, i.e., proximate to a player. By creating the flawed bug fix, the developers inadvertently gave anyone aware of the vulnerability the ability to test if any given area in the game world contained a player, and to read that area if so. Nerds Inc. was now able to locate all online players and remotely observe the terrain around players in real-time, including valuable storage of in-game items and player-built constructions.
Correlating the coinciding timing of player join and disconnect notices and the loading and unloading of locations let Nerds Inc. tell where specific players stood, not just that a player was there. The exploit became more effective with an adaptive tracking system programmed by a member of Nerds Inc., predicting the paths individual players would take using Monte Carlo localization in response to the server implementing rate-limits preventing less efficient search methods. The data gathered amassed about 2 terabytes during the 3 years of tracking terrain, paths, and base locations.
One group that shared members with Nerds Inc. was supplied with the locations of numerous bases which they raided, looting 200 million in-game items. They kept the exploit secret, creating fake stories behind the destruction of bases and gaslighting. They named the exploit "Nocom", short for "no comment". In 2021, another group called Infinity Incursion independently created a more primitive version of the Nocom exploit and, with their less concealed use of it, other groups started learning about Nocom by June 2021. On July 15, 2021, server admin Hausemaster implemented changes to 2b2t that patched the exploit. Nocom resulted in many bases and in-game item stashes being raided or destroyed, with a total of 15,000 bases being discovered. Rich Stanton of PC Gamer described Nocom as one of the most impactful events in the server's history.
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On August 14, 2023, 2b2t updated to Minecraft version 1.19, after running on Minecraft 1.12 for years. Several additions to the server became controversial, including resetting established terrain and a "soft item economy reset", which removed and decreased the amounts of certain items in player's inventories and storage, resulting in community backlash.
On August 24, Hausemaster apologized and explained his decisionmaking. The next day he announced that the server would be rolling back to 1.12 temporarily and then updating to 1.19 without the controversial changes, and announcing an option to refund priority status for those who have paid for it and are dissatisfied with the changes.
The culture of 2b2t, as well as Minecraft anarchy servers in general, is inhospitable and nihilistic. Players usually need to hide supplies and be well armed to survive and can expect to be killed several times. This is exacerbated by the server being set to hard difficulty and player versus player combat being enabled, making survival considerably harder. Longtime players are often hostile to new players on the server, whom they often call "newfags". The server-wide chat often contains spam, trolling, and trash talking, as well as racial slurs, death threats, and Nazi propaganda. Links to obscene content and screamer videos are also common. Players lie to others with the intent of sending them to in-game locations with traps. A common rule among players is to not trust others.
Traps are deliberately placed surrounding the area where players first join the server: pits of lava, areas lit on fire, and portals that lead to lava or enclosed areas of obsidian that force players to disconnect and reconnect, waiting through the long queue again. Some players create large obstacles called "lavacasts", in which water and lava are repeatedly poured down staircases of stone, creating mountains of jagged cobblestone. These structures completely surround the spawn area, and many are as tall as the map's height limit.
There have occasionally been events in which dozens of players come together to take control of spawn for a time to build a large base, kill many new players, or destroy other bases, which were referred to as "spawn incursions". Inexperienced players may need many attempts and multiple hours to "escape" the spawn area, where resources have been consumed or destroyed for thousands of blocks in all directions. The most common cause of death is starvation from being unable to escape the spawn area. A player may last around 1,500 blocks of travel without food before dying of starvation without the help of hacks or glitches. Roisin Kiberd of Newsweek speculated that enduring the challenge may be part of the appeal of 2b2t: since "nobody survives for long, there is a pride in having died there."
Experienced players reside far away from the spawn area in relative safety to play the game and build. The map is less destroyed further away from spawn, allowing for trees and animals. Player-built roads called "highways" are used to travel out from spawn. The server has no etiquette regarding ownership; anything that is built can be destroyed at any time if found by other players. This destruction, known as griefing, is so commonplace on the server that Brendan Caldwell of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described it as being "just a form of weather". Despite this culture of hostility and destruction, there is an event every April Fools' Day in which the server changes to a different map for a few days and players can come together and cooperate.
Players often make use of modified Minecraft clients incorporating cheats such as X-ray vision, improved bow and sword aim, and radar; these modifications are permitted by 2b2t's (lack of) rules. These clients help immensely in allowing the player to navigate the environment and survive. Players without these clients are at a disadvantage.
Because the server's map is over a decade old, 2b2t has developed an insular subculture with its own history and ethos. Martin Paul Eve, a researcher in digital humanities, found that the wiki documenting the history of 2b2t "refer to the in-game universe as though it were a totality". He liken it to resources documenting the Warez scene; they mingled with the subculture themselves and are difficult to understand without a direct experience.
Both Robert Guthrie of Kotaku and Andrew Paul of Vice have called 2b2t the worst server in Minecraft. Paul called the server a "fantastical world of possibility and horror," and found that it functioned as a kind of virtual "id," representing an "unrestrained stream of populist consciousness". Brendan Caldwell of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described 2b2t as the game's "most obscene server." In June 2012, Craig Pearson of PCGamesN called it Minecraft's most offensive server, noting 2b2t's callousness and obscenity in the form of language, swastikas, and its hostile player base. In 2013, a PCGamesN article by Jeremy Peel reported on Minecraft's newly-announced built-in server hosting service, Minecraft Realms, remarking that it would keep children away from 2b2t. In 2014, Tim Edwards wrote in a PCGamesN article addressing Microsoft about their purchase of Minecraft that they should not get "prissy" about player-made creations, stating that "2b2t is still an amazing achievement, with or without the swastikas."
In 2016, in both Newsweek and The Independent, Roisin Kiberd described 2b2t as a malevolent form of Minecraft, a place of beauty and terror. Kiberd called the server "hell", stating that it is "not safe for life", as the server gives "free rein to [players'] darkest impulses." Kiberd concluded that the main appeal of playing on the server comes from learning the possibilities of a server with few limits, as well as enduring its hostile environment. Kiberd also noted that there is a so-called "meta-narrative" above 2b2t, involving players using YouTube and Reddit to share analysis and commentary about in-server events. A 2013 IGN article and video listed 2b2t's spawn area as one of the six best things in Minecraft, describing the server as the "end boss" of Minecraft servers, a celebration of destruction and indifference. The article noted 2b2t's propensity towards griefing, the use of hacked clients, and player-built obscenities; and stated that players with thick skin should visit 2b2t at least once.
From September 8, 2018, to February 24, 2019, 2b2t was featured in the Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt exhibition of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition aimed to explore video games and their designing process, as well as how they captivate players and the social and ethical issues around them. Minecraft was heavily featured in the third section of the exhibition, which focused on games in which players "become creators and designers themselves, often as part of large online communities". 2b2t represented this aspect of Minecraft, which exhibited alongside 15 other video games. The server was described as "littered with archaeological remnants of its history... a palimpsest of a landscape, written over and re-written over by feuds between players, hacks injecting vast structures into the world, and by different waves of Internet communities arriving and rampaging or attempting to settle within it."
In Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development, published by Pearson Education in August 2017, 2b2t was described as being a "barren hellscape", with its nature being the "ultimate expression of the core mechanic of the game," referring to Minecraft's open-ended sandbox nature. The Ultimate Minecraft Creator, published by Triumph Books in July 2014, stated that despite 2b2t's offensive language and behavior, griefing, and cheating, the server can be a unique and fun experience for players who are willing to put up with its negative aspects.
2b2t also featured in an episode of the Swedish podcast P3 Spel (P3 Games) of Sveriges Radio, which described 2b2t as Minecraft's "most talked-about" server, and how, throughout its history, it has become the "witch's cauldron of chaos" it is today. Master Builder 3.0 Advanced and Ultimate Guide to Mastering Minigames and Servers, published by Triumph Books in April 2015 and April 2016 respectively, both stated that 2b2t "sits among online royalty when it comes to public [Minecraft] servers." |
39349372 | 247Sports | 2013-05-10 02:09:14+00:00 | 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount.
The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite being dedicated to a specific school. As of 2021, there is a subsite for every NCAA Division I FBS team, as well as many notable NCAA Division I FCS teams from conferences such as the Big Sky Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, and Southland Conference.
The network was started in 2010 and gained popularity as other sports news media publications began citing 247Sports as a source. Early examples include the Dallas Morning News and The Washington Post. The site also provided special reports on recruiting to sports news media including Sports Illustrated.
In November 2012, 247Sports announced a content partnership with CBS Sports, in which 247Sports would provide content for its digital platforms (including CBSSports.com), and CBS Sports Digital would handle advertising sales for the site. In May 2013, 247Sports reached a long-term agreement to become the official online selection partner of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the U.S. Army National Combine, replacing its competitor Rivals.com. In December 2015, CBS announced that it had acquired 247Sports. As of 2022, 247Sports' content operations remain closely aligned with CBSSports.com. In addition, 247Sports personalities frequently appear as expert analysts on CBS Sports HQ.
In February 2017, 247Sports acquired Scout.com. In October 2017, 247Sports announced a partnership with Pro Football Focus, in which it would provide coverage of Division I FBS college football for the website, including a PFF College microsite and integration of its player grades and rankings across 247Sports.
In early 2020, 247Sports.com hired Columbus, Georgia native sportscaster Josh Pate to host a show on the 247Sports YouTube channel called "Late Kick Live". As of November 27, 2022, the Late Kick YouTube channel had 37,333,585 total views.
In August 2020, founder and CEO Shannon Terry left the company.
In Summer 2021, the company relocated from its original home in suburban Brentwood, Tennessee to downtown Nashville, where it now shares facilities with Paramount's CMT.
247Sports features two ratings for high school football and basketball recruits: its own in-house evaluations done by its scouting staff, and 247Sports Composite ratings. The Composite aggregates the public ratings for a prospect by the major recruiting services using a propriety algorithm. The Composite combines recruitment ratings from 247Sports' in-house ratings, Rivals.com, and ESPN in order to provide an overall rating for each recruit. The resulting rankings can be considered an industry consensus on the top recruits in the nation.
The Composite does not include any athletes that do not yet have a recruiting profile on 247Sports in order to prevent spoofs from other sites.
The three major recruitment networks (247Sports, Rivals.com, ESPN) all have different scales for what their star ratings mean. Below is the college football rating scale used by 247Sports, per the website.
Five stars
A five star rating is awarded to athletes who are graded with a 98–110 rating (.98–1.00 Composite).
For the 247Sports in-house ratings, five star ratings are given to the top 32 recruits in each recruiting class to mirror the 32 first round picks in the NFL Draft. These 32 recruits from each recruiting class are the players who 247Sports analysts believe are the most likely to be first round NFL draft picks in the future. Any player with a rating of 100–110 is considered a potential “franchise player” and are not present in every recruiting class.
Four stars
A four star rating is awarded to athletes who are graded with a 90–97 rating (.90–.97 Composite).
Four star ratings are given to recruits who analysts believe will have successful college careers that likely result in being drafted. By National Signing Day, this number is generally in the range of 350 prospects, which is roughly the top 10 percent of prospects in a given recruiting class.
Three stars
A three star rating is awarded to athletes who are graded with an 80–89 rating (.80–.89 Composite). 247Sports breaks these recruits into three categories:
High three star (87–89): A recruit with significant NFL upside who analysts expect to be an impact college football player at the Power Five level.
Mid three star (84–86): A recruit who analysts consider to be a capable starter for a Power Five team or an impact player at the Group of Five level.
Low three star (80–83): A recruit who analysts consider as a potential contributor for a Power Five program, but more likely a Group of Five starter.
This is where the bulk of college football prospects are rated. Three star ratings incorporate a wide range of ability levels and potential.
Two stars
A two star rating is awarded to athletes who are graded with a 70–79 rating (.70–.79 Composite).
Two star ratings are given to prospects who analysts believe can be potential Division I FBS-level players at the Group of Five level, or a Division I FCS starter. These recruits generally have very limited NFL potential.
Unrated
Athletes who would receive a rating under 70 remain unrated, as recruiters do not award one star ratings. These players may walk on at Division I FBS schools, play at NCAA Division I FCS, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III or NAIA schools, or may not participate in collegiate athletics altogether. |
28493016 | 1000Memories | 2010-08-23 10:33:28+00:00 | 1000Memories was a website that let people organize, share, and discover old photos and memories and to set up family trees. It was shut down in late 2013 after an acquisition by Ancestry.com.
The company was based out of San Francisco, California, and was founded in 2010 after co-founders Brett Huneycutt and Jonathan Good left McKinsey, and co-founder Rudy Adler left Wieden+Kennedy. Huneycutt and Adler met in elementary school and had previously co-founded the Border Film Project. Huneycutt and Good met as Rhodes Scholars.
1000Memories was originally funded by Y Combinator, and has received $2.5 million in funding from Greylock Partners. Additional investors included Paul Buchheit, Keith Rabois, Ron Conway, Caterina Fake, Mike Maples, and Chris Sacca, among others.
In the fall of 2012, 1000Memories was acquired by Ancestry.com for an undisclosed sum. |
31860982 | ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy | 2011-05-23 16:29:44+00:00 | ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a digital education program for children ages 2–8, created by the edtech company Age of Learning, Inc. The program offers educational games, videos, puzzles, printables, and a library of regular and “read-aloud” children’s books, covering subjects including reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies, music, and art.
ABCmouse currently consists of more than 10,000 learning activities and 850 lessons on the Learning Path, and the program can be used online or offline.
In 2020, ABCmouse parent company Age of Learning, Inc., without admitting guilt, agreed to pay $10 million and settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that some of its past marketing and billing practices were unfair.
ABCmouse.com is produced by Age of Learning, Inc., a privately owned education technology company currently led by CEO Alex Galvagni. Headquartered in Glendale, California, the company was founded in 2007 by Doug Dohring. Age of Learning launched ABCmouse.com in November 2010 after three years of development, guided by a team of educators, and following testing by 10,000 families. The company has obtained several patents including the original patent for a vertically integrated educational system. In 2023, Age of Learning was named “Most Innovative Ed Tech Company” by SIIA in its annual CODiE Awards, and the company was named one of the “Best Edtech Companies” by We Are Teachers for its ABCmouse, My Math Academy, and My Reading Academy programs for pre-K and elementary-age kids.
Members of Age of Learning's Curriculum Board include 2006 National Teacher of the Year Award recipient Kimberly Oliver Burnim, 2014 National Teachers Hall of Fame inductee Rebecca Palacios, NORC Research Scientist Marc Hernandez, and Science Writing Award-winning writer Stephen M. Tomecek.
In 2014, at the White House Summit on Early Education, Age of Learning pledged to the Invest In Us campaign to provide services valued at more than $10 million to preschool, pre-K, and Head Start classrooms over two years. In 2015, the company partnered with another White House initiative, ConnectHome, to provide ABCmouse.com for free to families living in public housing in 27 cities and one tribal nation, serving up to 65,000 children.
In 2016, it was reported that Age of Learning raised $150 million from ICONIQ Capital, giving the company a $1 billion valuation. Age of Learning also launched ABCmouse for Schools in 2016; the enterprise-level solution won an ISTE Best of Show Award at the annual edtech conference.
In 2015, the company collaborated with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago to develop a series of web-based assessments. The Assessment Center includes over 8,500 items via 300 assessments.
In 2018, the company partnered with Tencent to launch the ABCmouse English Language Learning program in China.
In 2019, the company launched Adventure Academy, an educational app and game for children ages 8–13. It is an MMO with three-dimensional and multi-platform support, along with a core curriculum taught in schools and thousands of education activities.
In September 2020, the company agreed to settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that some of its past marketing and billing practices were unfair or deceptive. The complaint focused on the 2015 – 2018 time period and affected tens of thousands of consumers, which the company claimed to be less than 2% of ABCmouse subscribers. The company did not admit guilt but agreed to pay $10 million to settle the charges and avoid a prolonged legal dispute. They also agreed to much marketing, billing, and cancellation practices specified by the FTC, many of which the company claims had already been implemented years ago.
In June 2021, Age of Learning announced its new Schools Solutions Division and rollout of its first product offering, My Math Academy, a personalized, adaptive math program for pre-K through second grade, which has been tested in several school districts in the U.S. In January 2022, Age of Learning's Schools Solutions launched My Reading Academy, an adaptive game-based curriculum designed to help students in pre-k-2nd grade develop strong foundational reading skills.
On June 29, 2021, it was reported that Age of Learning closed a $300 million round of funding—led by TPG, along with the Qatar Investment Authority, Madrone Capital Partners, and Tencent Holdings Ltd.—which valued the company at $3 billion. CEO Paul Candland was quoted by Bloomberg as saying the funding would be used for the company’s international expansion and development of new products.
ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy content currently consists of more than 10,000 learning activities and 850 lessons. The preschool through second grade curriculum is laid out in a sequence called the “Step by Step Learning Path". The Learning Path is a multi-subject set of skills that are usually taught in school. Parents can register up to three children and set each one at his or her own level based on age and ability. Children can also use any of the content outside of the set learning path. Activities include videos, coloring activities, learning games, poems, puzzles and songs that cover reading and writing, math, art, music, social studies, science, and health. There are also more than 1,000 digital books, including over 100 Stepped Readers. The same content is available whether children log on using their computer or mobile device (iOS, Android, Kindle).
Children navigate the site with the aid of “voice-overs, images, and text,” but younger children may need help. Children earn tickets each time they complete a learning activity, which they can use to shop at virtual stores to decorate their room or “buy” things for their pets.
The ABCmouse curriculum can be accessed on tablets and smartphones using apps from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Amazon Appstore for Android. Age of Learning also launched ABCmouse Language Arts Animations, ABCmouse Mastering Math, ABCmouse Mathematics Animations, ABCmouse Science Animations, ABCmouse Music Videos, and ABCmouse Zoo apps in the same app stores. These apps can be used online or offline and are available to ABCmouse members.
ABCmouse.com is also made available at no cost to teachers, Head Start programs, public libraries, public housing authorities, and other community organizations.
As of 2016, ABCmouse for Teachers was used in more than 65,000 classrooms and ABCmouse for Libraries was available at one-third of U.S. public libraries, including all branches in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Brooklyn.
Some Age of Learning apps, such as its Aesop's Fables series and Beginning Reader series, have been discontinued and are instead available on the ABCmouse.com YouTube channel.
In 2017, a two-year longitudinal study published in the Journal of Applied Research on Children concluded that the use of ABCmouse Early Learning Academy improved school readiness and accelerated students’ learning gains in math and literacy skills. Several randomized controlled trials have been conducted on ABCmouse showing gains in reading and math.
A 2022 study in the Early Childhood Education Journal found that My Math Academy improved learning outcomes for kindergarten and first-grade students, with the greatest improvement found among children with lower initial math knowledge. |
56894574 | Class (Pacifico novel) | 2018-03-20 19:59:21+00:00 | Class is a 2014 novel by author Francesco Pacifico. It is set in the New York City borough of Brooklyn in 2010 and concerns a group of Italian expatriates living in Williamsburg. The novel was originally written in Italian and translated into English by Pacifico and Mark Krotov. |
26193307 | EastEnders Live | 2010-02-14 05:39:08+00:00 | "EastEnders Live" is a live episode of the British television soap opera EastEnders, broadcast on BBC One on 19 February 2010. It was also simulcast to Irish viewers on RTÉ One. The episode was commissioned as part of the show's 25th anniversary celebrations, and was the first EastEnders episode to be broadcast live. It was the series' 3,952nd episode, and was written by Simon Ashdown, directed by Clive Arnold and produced by Diederick Santer. The episode concludes a "Whodunit" storyline "Who Killed Archie?", about the murder of Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb), revealing his killer to be Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner). It also sees the exit of Charlie Clements as Stacey's husband Bradley Branning, who dies after falling from the roof of The Queen Victoria public house.
Turner only learned that Stacey was Archie's killer half an hour before the episode aired, in a bid by the production team to maintain the storyline's secrecy. 51 EastEnders cast members appeared in the episode, with several expressing trepidation about performing live prior to the broadcast. Cast members had two weeks to rehearse the episode, with one rehearsal filmed in case of any serious problems during transmission. When Turner fell ill with the flu on the day of broadcast, it was feared the producers might need to use the pre-recorded tape, but in the event she recovered enough to appear.
"EastEnders Live" was Santer's final episode as EastEnders' executive producer. He expressed his pleasure with the episode, despite several errors during transmission, including mis-delivered lines and some problems with sound and camera shots. Viewers gambled on the identity of the killer, with bookmakers Ladbrokes experiencing record levels of gambling on a television series, and William Hill taking £500,000, surpassing the amount placed on the outcome of Dallas' Who shot J.R.? storyline in 1980. The episode was watched by 19.9 million cumulative viewers, becoming the most watched show of the year to date. EastEnders Live: The Aftermath, a documentary which followed the episode on BBC Three, was seen by 4.54 million viewers, drawing the station's highest ever ratings. "EastEnders Live" received mixed reviews from critics. It was described as "a triumph" by Shane Donaghey of The Belfast Telegraph, praised by Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent for including stunt work, and commended for Clements and Turner's acting by Tim Teeman of The Times. In contrast, however, The Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith felt that viewers would be "incredulous" with the episode's outcome, and Cate Devine of The Herald criticised problems with lighting and sound effects.
In the wake of their second wedding, husband Bradley Branning (Charlie Clements) and his wife Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) prepare to flee Walford - with Bradley urged to do so by his father Max Branning (Jake Wood) and uncle Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) after becoming the prime suspect in the police investigation of the murder of local landlord Archie Mitchell. Max distracts the police while Bradley and Stacey attempt to escape from Albert Square. Elsewhere, Archie's youngest daughter Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) suspects that her sister Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack) is the murderer. She accuses Ronnie, who tells her that their father raped Stacey, and thereupon reveals that he did the same to her when she was a child. Ronnie and Roxy's cousin Phil (Steve McFadden) ransacks the home of his stepson Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), believing that Ian has in his possession a cufflink which would implicate him in Archie's murder. He exits without finding it, leaving Ian and their elderly neighbour Dot Branning (June Brown) to watch an old videotape of their family and friends from the past 25 years - reminiscing about the past.
Phil's mother Peggy (Barbara Windsor) is accused by her stepdaughter, Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), of attempting to frame her for the murder. As Janine prepares to flee Walford, Peggy finds Roxy and Ronnie fighting. She tells the girls that she too was present the night Archie was killed, arriving to find him injured but alive, however left without calling for medical help. Outside, Bradley and Stacey are about to take a taxi to St Pancras railway station when Bradley realises he has forgotten their passports at home. He tells Stacey to wait while he collects them, but is spotted by the police. A chase ensues, and Bradley climbs onto the roof of The Queen Victoria pub in an attempt to escape. He shouts for Stacey to run before losing his footing and falling from the roof to his death as the residents look on in horror. A distressed Stacey is comforted by Max, and confesses that she is the one who killed Archie.
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On 15 September 2009, the BBC announced plans to broadcast the first ever live episode of EastEnders, to celebrate the show's 25th anniversary. The air date was set for 19 February 2010, with the episode to be broadcast from the BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood. EastEnders' executive producer Diederick Santer initially refrained from discussing the episode's plot, but commented that it would resolve a "big storyline" which would "keep the audience (as well as the cast and crew) guessing until the very last moment." EastEnders storylines saw Archie Mitchell, landlord of The Queen Victoria public house murdered on Christmas Day 2009, with many characters considered potential suspects in the crime. Santer confirmed that the killer would be revealed in the live episode, and that their identity would be kept secret until the night of broadcast, even from the cast member playing them. Another aspect of the episode is the remarriage of characters Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer) and Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen). Santer deemed it the "soap wedding of the year—and perhaps the soap wedding of the decade", commenting that playing the romance against the "thriller" of the "whodunnit" storyline provided a balance he hoped audiences would be "gripped by and satisfied with."
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In November 2009, actor Charlie Clements, announced that he would be leaving the soap in 2010. It was rumoured that Bradley would be seen to commit suicide during the live episode, but this was refuted by an EastEnders spokesperson. Bradley made his last appearance in the live episode, urged to flee Walford by his father Max and uncle Jack (Scott Maslen) after becoming the prime suspect in the investigation into Archie's murder. Bradley's motive for murder came from the discovery that Archie raped his partner Stacey. In an interview with daytime television show This Morning, Clements stated it was possible that Bradley was responsible, but was unsure whether he "[had] it in him", though felt that it would be "quite historical to go down as the one who killed Archie Mitchell". In the event, Bradley exited the soap by falling to his death from the roof of The Queen Victoria public house during the live episode. Immediately after filming, Clements stated that he was "drained", referring to his character's death as "a big way to go out."
In total, 51 EastEnders cast members were involved in the live broadcast. Several cast members expressed trepidation at the prospect of the live episode. Before details of the episode's plot were confirmed, Turner hoped that she would not be involved in it, deeming herself "awful" at performing live, unable to even deliver speeches. Neil McDermott feared that he would lose his composure and laugh during the broadcast, while Palmer hoped that the episode would not turn into a pantomime, commenting: "I hope we're a bit more professional than that." Simons stated that she was looking forward to the challenge the episode presented, though she would be happier once she had seen the script. Clements denied any apprehension, likening the performance to acting in theatre, and Nina Wadia stated that she was "really looking forward to it", enjoying experiences with an "adrenaline rush." Once the script was released, Wadia was "disappointed yet relieved" to learn she did not have a speaking role, explaining: "You want to be in it, but not to mess it up." She expected to feel "uncomfortable" during the broadcast, as the episode is set the day before her character Zainab Masood gives birth, necessitating the wearing of a body suit with a large "baby bump" sewn in.
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The EastEnders cast and crew had two weeks to rehearse the episode prior to its live transmission. The script was issued on the afternoon of 5 February 2010, written by series consultant and lead show writer Simon Ashdown. The first read-through took place on 8 February 2010, though producers held back the part of the script revealing Archie's true killer. Eight different possible endings were rehearsed, with Santer reiterating that the actor playing the killer would only be told so on the night of broadcast. He revealed that the actor playing the killer would be informed of their actions at 7:30 pm on 19 February, 30 minutes before the episode's transmission, with their reaction filmed for the documentary EastEnders Live: The Aftermath, which aired on BBC Three immediately after "EastEnders Live" was broadcast, narrated by Lamb's son George.
Santer explained that the killer "may be revealed to the audience rather than the Square", preserving secrecy as the crew began filming episodes to be transmitted after the live broadcast. Actress Charlie Brooks, who plays Archie's former lover Janine Butcher, found the secrecy difficult to work with, explaining: "In the episodes to be shown afterwards, you’re being told to look or speak a certain way, but not why." Santer confirmed that the cast found the episode challenging, stating: "They are as desperate to know who did it as the viewers", though believed they were all capable of coping with the pressure of the live episode. He explained that the cast typically film scenes in one take anyway, and observed that several EastEnders actors had formerly appeared in live broadcasts for other series. Cast members had just two dress rehearsals in advance of the live episode, and only one read-through of the entire episode.
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Arnold was initially sceptical when approached about directing "EastEnders Live", but agreed once it was explained that the impetus for the episode was motivated by the "whodunnit" storyline. He explained: "We pre-record TV drama for lots of very good reasons and doing a live episode can sometimes come across a little gimmicky, so for me, story is the one and only reason a drama should go live." Direction of the episode differed from typical episodes of EastEnders, whereby actors briefly run through their lines, block the scene to be filmed, then begin shooting with the director on the studio floor. For "EastEnders Live", cast and crew had two weeks to work on the episode, rehearsing, blocking scenes and discussing the characters' journeys at length.
Once technical rehearsals began and cameras were added in, Arnold moved from the studio floor to an outside broadcast truck. All cameras on set were cabled to the truck, allowing Arnold to oversee the entire episode remotely. Arnold approached the episode as though it were a theatrical performance, explaining: "We can work on performance and blocking early on, discussing issues and discovering the text as we go. Actors know to save their energy when technical rehearsals are taking place and then it's quite magical when all elements are combined close to the first performance. Of course, our theatre company will have it's [sic] opening and closing night on Friday, February 19!"
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In case of any serious problems during transmission, a rehearsal for the episode was filmed, including each version of the reveal scene. Santer explained that the tape would not be used for minor problems such as cast members forgetting their lines, in which instance: "we'll power on using our improvisational skills. It's really just for technical backup in case of a proper crisis." The live broadcast took 400 camera shots to film, and 36 camera operators. Typical episodes of EastEnders utilise just four camera operators. Two outside broadcast trucks were hired to remotely direct and monitor the episode from, and three golf buggies were used to transport cast between sets, as the minimum length of time actors had to move from one set to another was just 131 seconds.
Arnold explained that filming "EastEnders Live" to look like a typical episode of EastEnders was difficult, giving the example of a scene involving a ringing mobile phone. In a usual EastEnders episode, the viewer would see a shot of the phone and know who was calling. In the live episode, the caller would have to be visually or audibly obvious, as a result of the camera set-up and inability to edit scenes. He described the episode's biggest limitation as the weather, explaining that "EastEnders Live" begins with a direct pickup from the previous episode of EastEnders, with the same characters in the same outside location, leaving the crew hoping for a dry night. Sound was also a problem, as sound quality is better using boom rods than radio microphones, but booms often dip into shot during the filming of EastEnders. Arnold commented that the production crew would be using booms where possible, but that all cast members with dialogue would be given a radio microphone as backup.
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On the day of broadcast, The Mirror reported that EastEnders producers may have to re-write the episode or run a pre-recorded rehearsal tape rather than go ahead with the live transmission, as Turner was suffering from the flu and was unable to speak. In the event, Turner recovered enough to appear, though was given permission to whisper her lines if necessary. She was able to deliver her dialogue as planned, however was too ill to appear on EastEnders Live: The Aftermath following the episode. Turner commented that nothing could have stopped her from appearing in the episode, as the cast had worked so hard on it, and it was "such a big part of TV history". Several errors were made during the transmission. Barbara Windsor as Peggy incorrectly called Janine "June" and Maslen stumbled over several of his lines. During the final scene, a camera was visibly jostled, sound became muffled and some zoom shots "misfired". Following Bradley's fall, Wood was observed inserting his fingers into his throat to help him retch. The script called for Wood to be sick, though there was not enough time for him to put the liquid into his mouth, and he stated that a person would put their fingers into their throat anyway, "to get it all out". During a scene in which Roxy and Ronnie argued in the Minute Mart, Womack took a bottle of paint stripper from the shelves, but forgot to stop at the counter to pay for it before exiting.
Santer, who stood down as executive producer after the episode's transmission, succeeded by Bryan Kirkwood, commented that he was happy, relieved and proud with the broadcast. Santer stated: "I just think everyone did brilliantly tonight—the cast, the crew, everyone. It's everything I wished for and more. I'm thrilled with how it went. It was quite remarkable. Everything went to plan. I spotted a couple of little wobbles but what I was proudest of was the recovery. The technical crew, the cast—every time we maybe veered slightly off course, they pulled it back round." Santer explained that he had always intended for Stacey to be revealed as Archie's killer, and was never tempted to air a different conclusion, despite at least ten characters having strong motives. Turner was surprised to learn that Stacey was the killer, and hoped that viewers would sympathise with her character, observing: "She not only has to deal with the guilt of what she did but she also knows that she's inadvertently responsible for Bradley's death. I think that's going to hurt her more than anything."
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In the weeks preceding the transmission of "EastEnders Live", the episode prompted a series of retrospective articles in the British print media, examining EastEnders' development over its 25 years of broadcast. Critical commentary was mixed. The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh observed that the storylines which will culminate in "EastEnders Live"—Ricky and Bianca's remarriage and the Archie Mitchell "whodunnit"—have seen the show undergo a revival, overtaking rival soap opera Coronation Street in the ratings for the first time in over three years. Tim Teeman of The Times highlighted the Archie storyline as representative of male characters in EastEnders offering an "essential foil" to their female counterparts, who he appraised as being "key" to the show's success, using the example of Archie's relationship with his wife Peggy and daughter Ronnie. He felt that the episode deserved high viewership, deeming EastEnders "a brilliant drama".
Conversely, Alison Rowat of The Herald felt that the current storylines indicated "the best days of EE are over", commenting: "Contrast it with the ever sprightly Coronation Street, where the scenes featuring Gail "Black Widow" McIntyre and her lucky white heather husband have been perfect soap fare. What does EastEnders have? Another murder investigation in a place that has a higher homicide rate than The Wire's Baltimore. Andrew Billen of The Times refuted claims by the BBC that "EastEnders Live" was not a "gimmick" but in fact proof of the soap's "innovative vigour". Billen deemed the live episode a "reactionary move", observing that Coronation Street had aired a live episode for its 40th anniversary in 2000. He reminded readers: "live television drama is nothing new but rather harks back to the earliest days of television and, beyond them, to theatre itself." The Mirror's Jane Simon hoped for multiple errors during the transmission of "EastEnders Live", commenting: "It's time EastEnders gave us a laugh."
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In a world first, online gambling company Bodog offered live odds during the episode, allowing viewers to continue to bet on the identity of Archie's killer as events unfolded. Although "in-running" betting is common during sports events, it had never before been offered for a soap opera. Odds on the killer's identity changed frequently in the fortnight preceding the transmission of "EastEnders Live". On 5 February, the clear favourite was Stacey, with odds at Bodog of 2/1. By 9 February, Stacey's odds had shortened to 6/4, though the character dropped into third place by 12 February, usurped by her brother Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky) at odds of 9/4, and Ben Mitchell (Charlie Jones) at 7/2. On 14 February, the unlikely favourite became Tracey the barmaid (Jane Slaughter), a background character whose odds shortened considerably from 40/1 to 11/4. Sean moved back into first place on 16 February, with odds of 2/1, and remained there until the eve of broadcast.
Bookmakers estimated that over £1 million would be spent gambling on the outcome of the storyline. Ladbrokes experienced its busiest ever 24 hours of gambling on a television series ahead of the episode's transmission, taking £100,000 in bets on 30 different characters, while William Hill took £500,000, surpassing the amount placed on Dallas' Who shot J.R.? storyline in 1980. Spokesman Rupert Adams commented: "The BBC were amazing keeping this quiet. We have broken even which in a market like this is amazing. We have had a roller-coaster but have enjoyed every minute."
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"EastEnders Live" was watched by a cumulative audience of 19.9 million viewers. Its original screening averaged 16.41 million viewers, attaining a 57% audience share. Three repeats on BBC Two and BBC Three in the week of broadcast lifted the televised total to 18.8 million viewers, with a further 1.1 million watching the episode on BBC iPlayer. The episode became the most watched show of the year to date. EastEnders Live: The Aftermath drew a total of 11.6 million viewers. It was watched by 4.54 million people on its initial airing, attaining a 15.9% audience share and becoming BBC Three's highest rated programme ever, as well as the most-watched multichannel programme of the day. The documentary drew a further 6.6 million viewers over four repeat broadcasts, and 0.5 million viewers via iPlayer. The original broadcast was the third highest rated television episode of 2010 in the UK, beaten by a 2010 FIFA World Cup match between England and Germany, and the final of the seventh series of The X Factor.
Santer was delighted by the viewing figures, stating: "To get this incredible response from the audience is truly remarkable—these numbers go far beyond what we ever hoped for. I am so proud of our cast and crew for their incredible performance last night. This rating is the icing on our silver anniversary cake." Jay Hunt, controller of BBC One commented: "[The] extraordinary live episode was a fitting celebration of 25 magnificent years for EastEnders. The audience were clearly gripped by one of the greatest soap whodunnits ever." Discussing the ratings for EastEnders Live: The Aftermath, controller of BBC Three Danny Cohen appraised: "It is an amazing testament to the EastEnders team and the brave and brilliant drama they provided." Yorke responded to the high consolidated ratings with the statement: "The best birthday present EastEnders could possibly have is to know that 25 years in it can still grab the biggest audience in the UK. It's a real tribute to the show's creators that a quarter of a century on, everybody's still talking about it."
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The episode won in the "Best Single Episode" category at the 2010 British Soap Awards, and was nominated in the "Best Live Event Coverage" category of the Broadcast Digital Awards 2010. It received mixed reviews from critics. Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent rated "EastEnders Live" 4 out of 5, noting that there were "a couple of moments where the seams showed", but that "half the fun in watching was seeing if you could spot them". He praised EastEnders for not "playing safe" by including stunt work, and commented that Ian Beale's line: "I wish we could go back and do it all again. Do it right this time." could potentially have been "a horrible hostage to fortune", however felt that: "in the end they more than got away with it." Tim Teeman of The Times also rated the episode 4 out of 5, calling the revelation of Stacey as Archie's killer a "genuine surprise", and commenting that "EastEnders Live": "sometimes creaked under the weight of its own ambitions – but who cares, gold stars for effort." Teeman praised Clements and Turner, feeling that they "excelled themselves despite the odd strained pause", though noted that in the aftermath of Bradley's fall, "the perils of live TV became apparent", commenting that: "The direction slackened at just the wrong moment, and you were left hoping someone would get to a bit of script to ward off any more bizarre shots of Jack and Max fighting to free themselves from a policeman's soft grip."
Mike Higgins of The Independent deemed the episode "a technical triumph", praising the "smooth, almost flawless" and "fluent" production. Shane Donaghey of The Belfast Telegraph also called the episode a "triumph", opining that it could not possibly have lived up to the hype surrounding the storyline, but that transmitting live gave EastEnders "an energy it normally lacks, with great violence, excellent direction". He summarised: "the story gripped so well you forgot to look for the cock-ups, before a genuinely shocking denouement that you never saw coming amid all of the hype." Pat Stacey of the Evening Herald felt that revealing Stacey as Archie's killer was "a slight let-down" and "a little bit predictable", calling the episode "a triumph of logistics over logic". However, Stacey wrote that aside from the "damp-squib" ending, "EastEnders Live" was "surprisingly enjoyable [...] even for a committed 'Endersphobe like [her]self." She felt that transmitting live "added a tangible layer of tension" to proceedings, lamenting: "If only EastEnders was this exciting all the time." The Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith similarly felt that transmitting live made for "tension, not clarity", commenting that bookmakers would be "absolutely delighted" with the outcome, but that viewers would be "incredulous". Cate Devine of The Herald was similarly critical, describing the episode as "30 minutes of cheesy dramatic counterpoint", and highlighting the "ropey lighting and poor sound effects."
Bradley's death was voted the third most emotional moment in television entertainment in a 2010 poll of 3,000 British people conducted by Freeview HD. |
34568768 | Bruno Banani (luger) | 2012-02-01 17:33:18+00:00 | Bruno Banani (born Fuahea Semi; 4 December 1987) is a Tongan luger who adopted his current name as part of a marketing ploy.
A 21-year-old computer science student, he was selected by his country to attempt to qualify for the luge events at the 2010 Winter Olympics, as the first ever Tongan to participate in the Winter Olympic Games. Along with Taniela Tufunga, a young recruit in the Tonga Defence Service who was his training partner and potential replacement, he travelled to Germany for training. He ultimately failed to qualify for the Games. He did, however, qualify to take part in the FIL World Luge Championships 2011 (which took place in January), where he finished 36th (last but one), eliminated after the first run with a time of 56.698.
In the meantime, he had been sponsored by a marketing firm, Makai, which presented him to the public under the name "Bruno Banani" – the name of a German underwear firm. He entered into an "endorsement deal" with the latter, "promoting [its] new line dubbed Coconut Power", which the company said "was inspired by him, attributing his sporting prowess to the quality of the coconuts he consumes". To enhance his appeal, he was presented as the son of a coconut farmer, although his father in reality was a cassava farmer. Makai reportedly obtained a passport for Semi under this new name, and he was universally referred to in the media, as well as by the International Luge Federation and the Chinese Olympic Committee, as "Banani". German media were reportedly "fascinated" by this Tongan luger bearing such a coincidental name; ZDF reportedly "suggested that the touching, exotic story of the luger from the South Sea bore similarities to that of the Jamaican bobsled team" at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Before this transformation, some media had referred to Semi by his true name, including the Samoa Observer and Radio Australia, based on an article in Matangi Tonga. In December 2011, the Vancouver Sun referred to him as Banani, adding that when he had first arrived in Germany he had been "going by his given name Fuahea Semi":
"[H]e apparently changed his name, although he denies it. During a chance encounter in Whistler Village on Thursday, he insisted Bruno Banani is on his passport and birth certificate, neither of which he had with him. However, Matangi Tongo [sic] online clearly ran a photo of him as Fuahea Semi when he was recruited back in December 2008."
That same month, in December 2011, Semi (under the name Banani) won a bronze medal at the American-Pacific Championships in Calgary. He also qualified for the FIL World Luge Championships 2012, by finishing eighteenth in the qualifiers. The World Championships took place in February; Semi (under the name Banani) finished 34th out of 37, with a time of 56.326 in his single run. Simultaneously, he was continuing to train with the German luge team, including three time Olympic gold medallist Georg Hackl and Olympic silver medallist David Möller, with an aim to qualify for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The Vancouver Sun article on his name change had apparently gone unnoticed, but the following month, in January 2012, the German magazine Der Spiegel uncovered anew and reported on the name change which had taken place as a marketing ploy. This time, the revelation was echoed in other media articles (some of which contained errors themselves, such as The Daily Telegraph referring to Semi's home country as the "island of Tonga"). Mid-February, shortly before the beginning of the World Luge Championships, Semi continued to be sponsored by his "namesake" company, which had devoted a webpage to him.
International Olympic Committee Vice President Thomas Bach responded by saying the name change was "in bad taste", a "perverse marketing idea". He confirmed, however, that if Semi qualified for the 2014 Olympics and if his passport did indeed bear the name "Bruno Banani", the IOC would be unable to prevent him from competing under that name. Subsequently, Semi had his name legally changed to "Bruno Banani".
In December 2013, Semi qualified for the luge event at the 2014 Winter Olympics, becoming the first ever Tongan scheduled to compete in Winter Olympic Games. He competed in the men's singles, under the name Banani, and finished thirty-second out of thirty-nine, with a combined time of 3:33.676, six seconds behind gold medal winner Felix Loch. His fastest run was in 53.162 seconds.
In 2017, Banani was again attempting to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics, but he was unsuccessful. |
31062192 | Jafr alien invasion | 2011-03-02 23:31:56+00:00 | The Jafr alien invasion was a prank published on the front page of the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad on April 1, 2010. The article claimed that UFOs had landed in a desert close to the town of Jafr, and described the pilots of the objects as "3m (10ft) creatures". The newspaper reported that all communications "went down" due to the effect generated by the objects.
The story described in great detail that the town had been lit by the aliens' flying saucers during their night landing, and that the light caused residents to run out into the streets. After word of the article spread throughout Jafr, many residents were terrified and kept their children home from school. Jafr Mayor Mohammed Mleihan notified security authorities and prepared to issue an evacuation order for the entire town of 13,000 residents. Mleihan noted that residents were "scared that aliens would attack them" and considered suing the newspaper for their "big lie".
The newspaper formally apologised for the inconvenience the stunt had caused. The newspaper's editor did not specify why Jafr was chosen as the butt of the joke, but BBC coverage noted that the area was "notorious" for its military bases that were used by American soldiers during joint military exercises with the Jordanian military, and which once housed alleged al-Qaida militants.
The prank drew comparison to the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds which provoked panic in the United States. Although April Fool's Day jokes in newspapers are a common tradition in some countries, this is not the case in Jordan. |
28204253 | Sogen Kato | 2010-07-30 18:36:58+00:00 | Sogen Kato (加藤 宗現, Katō Sōgen, 22 July 1899 – c. November 1978) was a Japanese man thought to have been Tokyo's oldest man until July 2010, when his mummified corpse was found in his bedroom. It was concluded he had likely died in November 1978, aged 79, and his family had never announced his death. Relatives had rebuffed attempts by ward officials to see Kato in preparations for Respect for the Aged Day later that year, citing many reasons from him being a "human vegetable" to becoming a sokushinbutsu (Buddhist mummy). An autopsy could not determine the cause of Kato's death.
The discovery of Kato's remains sparked a search for other missing centenarians lost due to poor recordkeeping by officials. A study following the discovery of Kato's remains found that police did not know if 234,354 people over the age of 100 were still alive. Poor recordkeeping was to blame for many of the cases, officials admitted. One of Kato's relatives was found guilty of fraud; his relatives claimed ¥9,500,000 (US$117,939; £72,030) of the pension meant for Kato.
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After tracking down the residence in Adachi, Tokyo, where Kato was reportedly living, attempts by officials to meet him were rebuffed numerous times by the family. Many reasons were given by his relatives, including that he was a "human vegetable" and that he was becoming a sokushinbutsu.
Eventually, Kato's body was found by police and ward officials on Wednesday, 27 July 2010, when ward officials intending to honour his achievement of longevity on Respect for the Aged Day later that year were again rebuffed and police broke into the house. Found in a first floor room, Kato's mummified remains were lying on a bed wearing underwear and pajamas and were covered with a blanket. Newspapers that were found in the room dated back three decades to the Shōwa period, suggesting that Kato's death may have occurred around November 1978. An official named Yutaka Muroi said, "His family must have known he has been dead all these years and acted as if nothing happened. It's so eerie."
The day after the visit, Kato's granddaughter told an acquaintance that "my grandfather shut himself in a room on the first floor of our home 32 years ago, and we couldn't open the door from the outside. My mother said, 'Leave him in there,' and he was left as he was. I think he's dead." One official had reported concerns about Kato's safety earlier in the year to his ward office. An autopsy failed to determine the cause of Kato's death.
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Following the discovery of Kato's body, two of his relatives were arrested in August 2010, and subsequently charged with fraud. Prosecutors alleged that Michiko Kato, 81, Kato's daughter, and Tokimi Kato, 53, his granddaughter, fraudulently received about ¥9,500,000 ($117,939; £72,030) of pension money. In addition, after Kato's wife died in 2004 at the age of 101, ¥9,450,000 ($117,318; £71,651) from a survivor's mutual pension was deposited into Kato's bank account between October 2004 and June 2010. Approximately ¥6,050,000 ($75,108; £45,872) was withdrawn before his body was discovered. Kato was likely paid a senior welfare benefit from the time he turned 70, which the family may also have used to their advantage. Investigators said that the pair defrauded the Japan Mutual Aid Association of Public School Teachers, who transferred the money into Kato's account.
In November 2010, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Tokimi Kato to a 2½ year sentence for fraud, suspended for four years. Judge Hajime Shimada said, "The defendant committed a malicious crime with the selfish motive of securing revenue for her family. However, she has paid back the pension benefits and expressed remorse for the crime."
After the discovery of Kato's mummified corpse, other checks into elderly centenarians across Japan produced reports of missing centenarians and faulty recordkeeping. Tokyo officials attempted to find the oldest woman in the city, 113-year-old Fusa Furuya, who was registered as living with her daughter. Furuya's daughter said she had not seen her mother for over 25 years. The revelations about the disappearance of Furuya and the death of Kato prompted a nationwide investigation, which concluded that police did not know if 234,354 people older than 100 were still alive. More than 77,000 of these people, officials said, would have been older than 120 years old if they were still alive. Poor record keeping was blamed for many of the cases, and officials said that many may have died during World War II. One register claimed a man was still alive at age 186.
Following the revelations about Kato and Furuya, analysts investigated why recordkeeping by Japanese authorities was poor. Many seniors have, it has been reported, moved away from their family homes. Statistics show that divorce is becoming increasingly common among the elderly. Dementia, which afflicts more than two million Japanese, is also a contributing factor. "Many of those gone missing are men who left their hometowns to look for work in Japan's big cities during the country's pre-1990s boom years. Many of them worked obsessively long hours and never built a social network in their new homes. Others found less economic success than they'd hoped. Ashamed of that failure, they didn't feel they could return home," a Canadian newspaper reported several months after the discovery of Kato's body.
Japan has the highest percentage of elderly people in the World; as of October 2010, 23.1 percent of the population were found to be aged 65 and over, and 11.1 percent were 75 and over. This has largely been caused by a very low birthrate; as of 2005, the rate was 1.25 babies for every woman—to keep the population steady the number needed to be 2.1. However, the issue of aging in the country has been increased by the government's unwillingness to let immigrants into the country—foreign nationals accounted for only 1.2 percent of the total population as of 2005. A 2006 report by the government indicates that by 2050, 1⁄3 of the population may be elderly.
The inquiry also noted that many elderly Japanese citizens were dying in solitude. "Die alone and in two months all that is left is the stench, a rotting corpse and maggots," The Japan Times said in an editorial, one of many comments from the country's press on the news. An editorial in Asahi Shimbun said that the findings suggested "deeper problems" in the Japanese register system. "The families who are supposed to be closest to these elderly people don't know where they are and, in many cases, have not even taken the trouble to ask the police to search for them," read the editorial. "The situation shows the existence of lonely people who have no family to turn to and whose ties with those around them have been severed."
One Japanese doctor, however, said he was not surprised at the news. Dr. Aiba Miyoji of the Tokyo Koto Geriatric Medical Centre said many Japanese seniors were dying alone, ignored by their families. "Some patients come in with their families, but many are alone or come in just with their social workers," he said. "It happens especially in Tokyo. There are more and more single-person families." Dr. Aiba added that a key reason for the statistics was because people in Japan are living longer than ever before. "That achievement is placing new burdens on a society where a declining number of working-age Japanese have to fund rising health-care and pension costs," The Globe and Mail reported. Dr. Aiba said that because Tokyo was so crowded, families cannot remain in the same household. "There's not enough space for families to live together any more," he said.
A national census in 2005 found that 3.86 million elderly Japanese citizens were living alone, compared with 2.2 million a decade before. 24.4 percent of men and 9.3 percent of women over the age of 60 in Japan have no neighbours, friends or relatives on whom they could rely, a more recent study discovered. In 2008, the Associated Press reported that the number of elderly people committing suicide had reached a record high because of health and economic worries. "In what appears to be a collective cry for help, more than 30,000 Japanese seniors are arrested every year for shoplifting. Many of those arrested told police they stole out of feelings of boredom and isolation, rather than any economic necessity," The Globe and Mail reported after the discovery of Kato's corpse. Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian studies at the Japan Campus of Temple University, said, "It is a humanising phenomenon—the Japanese are traditionally seen as sober, law-abiding people—when they are in fact scamsters like the rest of us. [The story of the missing centenarians] holds up a mirror to society and reflects realities that many in Japan do not want to accept." |
37987903 | Little Moon Moon | 2012-12-20 23:48:50+00:00 | Little Moon Moon (小月月,Xiao Yue Yue) was a Chinese internet celebrity in 2010; however she was suspected to be a fake person and part of a Chinese internet publicity stunt organized by Tianya Forum. As the main character of a post named “I thank this obnoxious friend for bringing me such a dismal National Day” composed by Chinese netizen Rong Rong on Tianya, "Little Moon Moon went from the Internet into reality, becoming famous all over." She is described as fat, crazy and obnoxious by the author. Since Little Moon Moon was portrayed as an unbelievable, shocking, annoying and obnoxious woman, and the posts were written during the seven-day National Day vacation in China, she became an overnight sensation. Nevertheless, after investigation, Little Moon Moon turned out to be a fake person composed by writer Xu Jiayi to maintain the shrinking influence of Tianya forum.
11:45 on the morning on October 5, 2010, a netizen started posting diary entries on the Tianya forum with the ID "Rong Rong". The series of live updates recorded an astonishing story of Little Moon Moon (Rong Rong's high school classmate) and her boyfriend's visit to Shanghai Expo during the National Day holiday, with Rong Rong being their host showing them around, and along the journey, endless miserable and crazy things happened (such as Little Moon Moon's self-suicide farce, singing weird poetry, etc.). The writer used tons of words to describe how she was completely "astounded/superfied" by Little Moon Moon during the two days and one night. Rong Rong stopped posting on October 13 with sentences like “I went out to deal with some things”, and “I don’t know if this post will reach an ending on this day.”
The humorous and absurd story quickly drew numerous attention. Within two days, the post had over 17 million views and over 57 thousand comments over 564 pages. As for Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter), the topic of Little Moon Moon was already ranked number 3, with 17293 tweets in that day, more than any other hot topic of the week. At first, netizens thought the incident and the people described in the posts were real, however they came to suggest that there must be a publicity team behind the scenes to stir such a huge wave on the Internet.
Netizens even created pages for Little Moon Moon at the Baidu Encyclopedia and the Baidu Post Bar as well as study group, human flesh search/cyber hunting group, and a comic version.
In apparent contrast with Little Moon Moon's profile, which was portrayed as an ugly kindergarten teacher who is 150 cm tall and 80 kilograms in weight, the real writer behind the whole event was a sophomore student at Shanghai Normal University. Although she claimed that every word she wrote was real, it was revealed as a publicity stunt. "Insiders disclosed that Tianya is currently preparing to go public on the stock market, and is under pressure for its declining influence, and thus urgently needed a major incident to raise its influence, which is how “Little Moon Moon” happened. Since this was a topic the forum Tianya itself launched, one where there is no obvious commercial goal, where the language matched the tastes of the netizen masses, successfully attracting netizen eyeballs, having achieved a large effect with little effort." The live broadcast posts were designed to be the warming-up phase of the publicity stunt, with the climax point uncovering a real life version of “Little Moon Moon”, who is a writer. By using this huge contrast, Tianya planned to arouse a bigger controversy, thus allowing netizens to participate and making the Little Moon Moon to become a continuing internet topic. |
50909689 | Miscovich emeralds hoax | 2016-06-23 20:21:33+00:00 | The Miscovich emeralds hoax was an attempt by American businessman and diver Jay Miscovich to pass off modern store-bought emerald gemstones as treasure recovered from the wreck of a 16th-century Spanish galleon. Miscovich's hoax—which involved him planting, rediscovering, and then recovering emeralds—quickly attracted the attention of investors and the marine salvage industry, with a number of lawsuits being filed against Miscovich by entities claiming ownership of the emeralds. The legitimacy of the treasure was later called into question after the recovered emeralds were found to have been coated with a modern epoxy. Miscovich committed suicide in October 2013, and the emeralds used to perpetrate the hoax remain in legal limbo as of 2019.
Joseph "Jay" Miscovich was a Pennsylvania real estate developer, entrepreneur, and novice diver. He was known for investing in unconventional business ventures, such as giving money to treasure hunters and marine salvagers. Notably, Miscovich had been an investor in Motivation Inc., a marine salvage company that had famously found and recovered treasure from the wreck of a 17th-century Spanish Galleon, Nuestra Señora de Atocha, off of Key West. This find further piqued Miscovich's interest in the marine salvage industry, with him later stating in court that “I started realizing that [for] most of these treasure-hunting companies, the real treasure was making money by taking it from their investors,” later adding, “I decided to do it on my own, and decided I could do it better.”
In addition to his investments, Miscovich ran a successful real estate business in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. However, the Great Recession of 2008 ruined him financially and left him in debt. Looking for a new career, Miscovich left Pennsylvania for Key West, Florida, where he ingratiated himself with the local diving community. He befriended a local diver, Stephen Elchlepp, with whom he spent months diving on various wrecks looking for valuables.
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While in Key West in January 2010, Miscovich purchased a map for $500 and a shard of pottery from a man named Mark Cunningham (later revealed to have done work for him in Pennsylvania). The map led him and Elchlepp to a nondescript location off the Florida coast. The site was about forty miles off the coast of Key West in international waters. While nothing was found at the coordinates marked on the map, Miscovich suggested that the two widen their search.
At a location about a mile from the marked site Miscovich and Elchlepp found, among other relics, what they claimed to be hundreds of uncut emeralds scattered on the seabed. According to Miscovich's account of the "find", he picked emeralds off the sea floor "like cherries on a cherry tree." The water in the area was only 55 feet deep. Though the seafloor was covered with debris from old and modern shipwrecks, no vessel could be seen in the general vicinity of the find. Miscovich and Elchlepp immediately began recovering the emeralds. The total haul amounted to 154 pounds of emeralds, a find that was potentially worth millions of dollars.
Miscovich immediately began to look for a way to market the emeralds. He reached out to his younger brother Scott, who in turn contacted several friends of his that worked in finance. With help, Miscovich paid a retainer to set up a company - Emerald Reef, LLC - with which to fund the recovery of the emeralds. One of the company's first major purchases was to acquire a 115-foot dinner-cruise boat for $700,000; this ship was then outfitted to act as a proper salvage ship. Miscovich claimed that the ship could bring in between 10-20 million dollars worth of emeralds per trip. The first emeralds that Miscovich recovered were shown to a gemologist from the Smithsonian Institution and an appraiser from Christie's Auctions; both concluded that the gems were not suitable for jewelry, but that they were from the Muzo region of Colombia — a locale renowned for its emeralds.
Due to the contentious topic of marine salvage law, Miscovich did not publicly announce the find immediately. The recovery operation was conducted with complete secrecy; Miscovich refused to tell anyone not directly involved in the recovery effort about the location or size of the hoard. Miscovich tracked down Cunningham and paid him $50,000 to forego any legal claim on the wreck, and hired a notary to watch the transaction. A New York investment group, Azalp, LLC, agreed to finance the salvage operation in return for equity in the emeralds. Miscovich's original company - Emerald Reef - was also folded into a new company, JTR Enterprises. The find was announced in January 2011, months after Miscovich claimed to have begun recovering emeralds from the wreck.
Miscovich wanted to prove the authenticity of the find and appraise the emeralds on their worth. The Gemological Appraisal Laboratory ran spectroscopic tests on the emeralds and determined that the stones were from Colombia. Sotheby's of New York estimated some of the larger emeralds were worth $45,000 apiece, while others were appraised at $25,000 to $80,000. Almost all of the experts agreed that the stones would be worth more if it could be proven that they were from a famous shipwreck. As word of the treasure spread, it attracted much attention in the media and the marine salvage industry. Members of the Key West salvage industry voiced doubts about the find, claiming that it was unlikely to find uncovered emeralds on the seabed. In April 2012 the television program 60 Minutes produced a story about Miscovich titled The Trouble with Treasure, further increasing the notoriety of the wreck.
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As there was no definitive wreck or diving site in the vicinity of the emeralds' location, disputes immediately arose as to who was the owner of the site. Miscovich claimed the site was the property of his company and hired the Delaware law firm Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor to defend his claim, and retained Bruce Silverstein (a partner at Young Conaway) as his legal counsel. Many different claimants would eventually become involved in the legal dispute. JTR had to contend with the Spanish Government, which could claim a certain percentage of the salvage profits if the emeralds were from a Spanish ship. There was also speculation that the emeralds were from the missing sterncastle of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, and as such Motivation, Inc. (who owned the Atocha wreck) filed suit against JTR, trying to claim a portion of the treasure. Under U.S. federal law, discoverers of treasure were not able to claim their finds until ownership of the site was established, and as such Miscovich and JTR Enterprises were unable to sell the emeralds they recovered on the open market. After several months, Miscovich and JTR were running out of funds. To raise more money, Miscovich sought out more investors and began covering his expenses by offering percentages of the emerald haul. Several of Miscovich's friends, his landlord, and his legal counsel all agreed to be partially paid with percentages of expected profits from the emeralds.
As his legal and financial troubles mounted, Miscovich's behavior grew increasingly suspicious. In August 2011 Miscovich and a friend approached David Horan, JTR's admiralty lawyer, with a collection of English, Danish, and French coins, asking if these could be used to disqualify the Spanish from a claim to the wreck. Horan confronted Miscovich, with the diver admitting that the coins had not in fact come from his wreck. During this same time, Miscovich also sent a member of JTR's advisory board to negotiate with the Colombian government. Miscovich proposed that, if his company were to be tied down in litigation for too long, he would allow the Colombian government to claim control of the wreck. In exchange, he proposed that he and his investors be named as salvors and granted a share of the recovered treasure. In late 2011, a dispute broke out among the investors in JTR after Miscovich demanded greater personal control over the emeralds, which were supposed to be stored in a New York bank. He was accused of stashing emeralds on the side in his Pennsylvania home. The ongoing legal battle between JTR Enterprises and Motivation, Inc. in Delaware also resulted in Miscovich's money supply being frozen.
In early 2012 Miscovich's story suffered a major blow when two European gemology labs tested the emeralds and found that they had been coated in epoxy, a polymer not invented until the early 20th century. JTR countered that multiple American gemology labs had also tested the gems and found no epoxy. However, in court an expert from Motivation, Inc. determined that, epoxy or not, the condition of the emeralds was not consistent with those from other 17th-century shipwrecks, so they were worth far less than was originally proposed. These significant developments, coupled with the strong opinions of expert wreck hunters from Key West, resulted in many investors pulling out of JTR Enterprises.
Doubts about the authenticity of the shipwreck grew, and Miscovich fell further into debt. Miscovich committed suicide by shotgun in October 2013.
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In January 2014 American tests found that the Miscovich Emeralds were coated with epoxy, thus corroborating the European claim. Soon after, the owner of a gem store in Jupiter, Florida admitted that he had sold Miscovich $80,000 worth of uncut emeralds in 2010. Following these revelations, Motivation, Inc. and Azalp, LLC filed suit against JTR Enterprises and Young Conaway, claiming that both entities had committed fraud against investors by withholding information that would have revealed the emeralds to be fake. Particular focus was put on Young Conaway attorney Bruce Silverstein, who had reportedly paid some of Miscovich's personal expenses and was entitled to 1.5% of the emerald's equity. Furthermore, Motivation requested that Young Conaway be sanctioned for bad faith litigation. These sanctions were later dropped.
Baird, Robert P. 2016. "Emerald Sea - the making and un-making of a half-billion-dollar treasure hunt". Harper's Magazine, April 2016 issue. |
29132913 | Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy | 2010-10-09 19:48:53+00:00 | Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy is a 2010 book by Matthew Alford, which argues that even many of the most politically subversive films, such as Hotel Rwanda, Thirteen Days and Three Kings, provide favourable mythology for the United States' government. Alford draws attention to the power of corporate moguls and the role of the government in the production of films, such as Black Hawk Down, Terminator Salvation, and Transformers. The book is based on Alford's PhD thesis, which applied Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's Propaganda Model to the motion picture industry. Published in English by Pluto Press with a foreword by Michael Parenti, French translations then appeared in August 2018 and April 2023 which contained new introductory material by the author.
In the British Morning Star, James Walsh commented that the book "is an engaging look at the innards of the dream factory process" and that although the revelations of film-maker collusion with the Pentagon are not surprising "the details are fascinating" especially in relation to "films traditionally considered nuanced or critical of US foreign policy".
The Journal of Popular Culture called it "One part cultural studies analysis, and another part expose", adding that it "offers a salient critique for those who are concerned about the long term implications of the power of film to act as site of ideological instruction". Contemporary Sociology said that Matthew Alford's insights were "particularly rare and startling", calling it "an attractive and up-to-date set of tools for the critical literacy that should be mandatory in today’s media-saturated environments". Simon Kinnear from Total Film gave Reel Power four stars out of five and called it a "laudable study" and "an eye opening expose". "Alford's occasionally guilty of straw-clutching", he said, "but you'll watch the next gung-ho blockbuster a little closer". In Lobster Magazine, Robin Ramsay observed that "If Alford isn’t quite describing the corporations and the state running joint psy-ops, it will do until joint psy-ops come along". Ramsay reviewed the book as "competently done, decently written and, if you’ve seen a lot of American movies – and I have – it is interesting to have the ideological content articulated. I could do it myself, and I’m sort of subliminally aware of it; but most of the time I’m just watching the movie. So the author’s considerable efforts are both useful and entertaining."
Roy Stafford, former editor of In the Picture magazine, says that Reel Power is a "solid introduction" to Hollywood and American politics but one which is a journalistic popularisation of Alford's more overtly academic work and as such, he implies unfortunately, "renders much that Film Studies has tried to do over the last fifty years... as effectively wasted effort."
In The Scotsman, Hannah McGill, artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival opined that Reel Power "has its valid points to make [and] is at its best when it identifies and analyses cases of direct influence being brought to bear on film production by the US political establishment [...] its stonewalling of more contentious projects [...] or individuals in positions of constant influence" but that "I felt, on frequent occasion, as if I was in the company of the character Jane Horrocks played in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet: the moodily self-righteous teen who hurled the word "FASCIST!" at anyone who failed to mirror her every conviction and desire."
A 2017 book, National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood, by Matthew Alford and Tom Secker, uses the Freedom of Information Act to establish in more detail how certain films and TV shows have been affected by the state.
Director Oliver Stone recommended the book to Louis Theroux and commented: "I wasn't aware of the infiltration of Hollywood by the Pentagon and the CIA... it's a bigger racket than you think" National Security Cinema was itself published in French with new material as an illustrated hardback by Investig'Action in 2021 and was the basis for a documentary film Theaters of War, released by Media Education Foundation in 2022. |
30701960 | 15th National Television Awards | 2011-01-31 15:50:46+00:00 | The 15th National Television Awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena for the first time on 20 January 2010, and was the first to be hosted by Dermot O'Leary. |
37277676 | Aubergine (London restaurant) | 2012-10-09 22:18:29+00:00 | Aubergine was a restaurant in Chelsea, London. Owned by A-Z Restaurants, it was opened under chef Gordon Ramsay in 1993. Aubergine was awarded two Michelin stars in 1997, which it held until Ramsay left the restaurant in July 1998 following the sacking of Marcus Wareing from sister restaurant L'Oranger. It subsequently reopened and held a single Michelin star under William Drabble until he left the restaurant in 2009. Aubergine closed in 2010, pending a relaunch as an informal Italian restaurant.
The restaurant was opened by A-Z restaurants in 1993. The company was owned by Claudio Pulze, Franco Zanelleto and Giuliano Lotto. The company also opened a second, unrelated restaurant, called Memories of China, during 1993.
Marco Pierre White knew the owners of the restaurant, and introduced his protégé, Gordon Ramsay, to them. The 26-year-old Ramsay was subsequently hired as head chef and given a 25% stake in the restaurant.
Marcus Wareing was hired in 1993 as a sous chef, and Angela Hartnett joined the restaurant in 1994, both later leaving to join sister restaurant L'Oranger. Mark Sargeant joined the team at the restaurant in 1997, and would later become head chef under Ramsay at Claridge's in 2001.
In 1998, a helmet-wearing motorcyclist entered the restaurant, grabbed the reservations book and drove off. This was the only place where the restaurant's reservations were recorded. Despite blaming his former mentor White as the person behind the theft at the time, and claiming that he was being stalked by the person who stole the book, Ramsay later admitted in 2007 that he was behind it, saying, "I nicked it. I blamed Marco. Because I knew that would fuck him and that it would call off the dogs... I still have the book in a safe at home." Ramsay had believed at the time that his bosses at A-Z Restaurants were planning to replace him with White, who had always denied the theft, saying after Ramsay's admission that "it bothered me that I'd been accused of theft. But it was totally inconceivable – implausible. What would my gain have been to behave like that?" White later threatened legal action against Ramsay, and considered a libel case as Ramsay blamed White for the incident in his autobiography Humble Pie.
After A-Z Restaurants sacked Wareing from L'Oranger in May 1998, the following month Ramsay orchestrated a walkout of the entire staff of both L'Oranger and Aubergine. Ramsay didn't quit himself, but instead handed in his notice and was subsequently told that he wasn't required to work it. Ramsay later described the walkout as "Black Friday". A-Z restaurants subsequently sued Ramsay for £1 million citing lost revenue and breach of contract, but eventually settled out of court. The closure of the two restaurants was thought to be costing A-Z Restaurants around £15,000 a day in lost income.
Ramsay's departure from Aubergine was documented in the first episode of the Channel 4 television series Boiling Point, and he subsequently opened Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on the former site of La Tante Claire. Ramsay was succeeded at Aubergine by executive chef William Drabble, who had previously worked at the Michelin-starred Nook. Following Ramsay's departure, the restaurant reopened on 11 September 1998.
The restaurant was expanded to a sister site in 2009 at the Compleat Angler Hotel, Marlow. Miles Nixon, who was previously a sous chef under Drabble at the main restaurant, headed up the kitchen. It served the same dishes as the Chelsea restaurant but was able to charge less due to lower overheads. From agreeing to the lease at the hotel to opening the restaurant took two months. Drabble left the restaurant later that year. He was replaced by Nixon as executive chef, who remained working at the Marlow restaurant. Christophe Renou was brought in as head chef for Aubergine in London. After a year, it was announced that the restaurant's owners were considering closing the restaurant to refurbish it and relaunch it as an informal Italian restaurant. It is now owned by Gordon Ramsay and operates as Gordon Ramsay Maze Grill Park Walk.
In 2000, Nigel Farndale visited the restaurant for The Daily Telegraph. He "wasn't too sure" about the theatricality of the waiters in presenting some of the dishes, but thought that the menu was good value and saw it as a positive experience despite taking along a companion who was not impressed with several of the dishes.
Whilst under Ramsay, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star for the first time in 1995, and was awarded a second star in 1997. It held the second star for a further year until Ramsay left the restaurant, and dropped down to a single star once more in 1999 under Drabble, who kept the star until his departure. It was voted the best French restaurant in London at the London Restaurant Awards in 2000. |
25884594 | Brit Awards 2010 | 2010-01-20 22:54:59+00:00 | Brit Awards 2010 was the 30th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual Brit Awards. The awards ceremony was held at Earls Court in London for the last time. The ceremony was broadcast live on ITV on Tuesday 16 February 2010. It was hosted by Peter Kay with Fearne Cotton doing the side of stage coverage. ITV2 broadcast an after show highlights programme immediately after the main broadcast. BBC Radio 1 had official radio coverage throughout the day in the run up to the evening's show, with Scott Mills and Greg James on the Red Carpet.
The ceremony was broadcast live, but with a short delay to enable any offensive language to be cut. This occurred several times during the course of the evening, most notably when Liam Gallagher collected the Best Album of 30 Years award and also during Lily Allen's acceptance speech for Best British Female.
The ITV show drew 5.8 million viewers between 8pm and 10pm, which was a 21.9% share of the evening, topping the 5.18 million (21.7%) drawn in for the 2009 ceremony, but still down on the 6.07 million (24.4%) of 2008. The ITV2 Brits Encore show at 10pm drew 776,000 viewers, a 3.8% share.
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Robbie Williams
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At the 2010 Brits, Liam Gallagher made a surprise appearance to accept his award for Best Brits album of the past 30 years. After thanking all of his former bandmates (apart from brother Noel) and declaring his fans "the best fans in the fucking world", he gave his award to a lucky fan and hurled his microphone into the audience; a search for the microphone caused a 10‑minute delay. After walking off stage, host Peter Kay reacted to Liam's actions by saying "what a knobhead". |
25769493 | 63rd British Academy Film Awards | 2010-01-11 19:10:45+00:00 | The 63rd British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 21 February 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2009. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2009.
The nominees were announced on 21 January 2010. Three films received the most nominations in eight categories; Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker. District 9 followed with seven. The Hurt Locker took home the most awards with six. This year marked the first year of the new Academy President, William, Prince of Wales, who presented the BAFTA Fellowship award to Vanessa Redgrave, alongside Uma Thurman.
Jonathan Ross hosted the ceremony for the fourth consecutive year.
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Vanessa Redgrave
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Joe Dunton
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Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface. |
26295786 | 6th British Academy Games Awards | 2010-02-22 14:10:16+00:00 | The 6th British Academy Video Game Awards (known for the purposes of sponsorship as GAME British Academy Video Games Awards) awarded by British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), was an award ceremony honouring achievement in the field of video games in 2009. Candidate games must have been released in the United Kingdom between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2009. The ceremony took place in the London Hilton on 19 March 2010.
Both publishers and developers were eligible to enter their games in fifteen categories, fourteen of which were awarded by a panel of judges. The categories are: Gameplay, Casual, Sports, Story and Character, Strategy, Best use of Audio, New Talent, Multiplayer, Best Technical Achievement, Original Score, Handheld, People's Choice (the only award voted for by the public), Artistic Achievement, Best Action and Adventure and Best Game.
Winners are shown first in bold.
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Shigeru Miyamoto
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38527354 | Cyberattack during the Paris G20 Summit | 2013-02-15 04:25:19+00:00 | The cyberattack during the Paris G20 Summit refers to an event that took place shortly before the beginning of the G20 Summit held in Paris, France in February 2011. This summit was a Group of 20 conference held at the level of governance of the finance ministers and central bank governors (as opposed to the 6th G20 summit later that year, held in Cannes and involving the heads of government).
Unlike other well-known cyberattacks, such as the 2009 attacks affecting South Korean/American government, news media and financial websites, or the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia, the attack that took place during the Paris G20 Summit was not a DDoS style attack. Instead, these attacks involved the proliferation of an email with a malware attachment, which permitted access to the infected computer.
Cyber attacks in France generally include attacks on websites by DDoS attacks as well as malware. Attacks have so far been to the civil and private sectors instead of the military.
Like the UK, Germany and many other European nations, France has been proactive in cyber defence and cyber security in recent years. The White Paper on Defence and National Security proclaimed cyberattacks as "one of the main threats to the national territory" and "made prevention and reaction to cyberattacks a major priority in the organisation of national security". This led to the creation of the French Agency for National Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) in 2009. ANSSI's workforce will be increased to a workforce of 350 by the end of 2013. In comparison, the equivalent English and German departments boast between 500 and 700 people.
The attacks began in December with an email sent around the French Ministry of Finance. The email's attachment was a 'Trojan Horse' type consisting of a pdf document with embedded malware. Once accessed, the virus infected the computers of some of the government's senior officials as well as forwarding the offensive email on to others. The attack infected approximately 150 of the finance ministry's 170,000 computers. While access to the computers at the highest levels of office of infiltrated departments was successfully blocked, most of the owners of infiltrated computers worked on the G20.
The attack was noticed when "strange movements were detected in the e-mail system". Following this, ANSSI monitored the situation for a further several weeks.
Reportedly, the intrusion only targeted the exfiltration of G20 documents. Tax and financial information and other sensitive information for individuals, which is also located in the Ministry of Finance's servers, was left alone as it circulates only on an intranet accessible only within the ministry.
The attack was reported in news media only after the conclusion of the summit in February 2011, but was discovered a month prior in January.
While the nationalities of the hackers are unknown, the operation was "probably led by an Asian country". The head of ANSSI, Patrick Pailloux, said the perpetrators were "determined professionals and organised" although no further identification of the hackers was made. |
48366953 | Hexamastix coercens | 2015-10-26 02:38:50+00:00 | Hexamastix coercens is a species of parabasalid.
Martinez-Girón, Rafael, and Hugo Cornelis van Woerden. "Lophomonas blattarum and bronchopulmonary disease." Journal of Medical Microbiology62.Pt 11 (2013): 1641-1648. |
55629124 | Nanum amicum | 2017-10-26 06:20:10+00:00 | Nanum is a genus of bicosoecids, a small group of unicellular flagellates, included among the heterokonts. It includes the sole species Nanum amicum, previously known as Nanos amicus but modified because the name Nanos was already occupied by a species of beetle. |
48702592 | Pythium camurandrum | 2015-12-01 20:04:39+00:00 | Pythium camurandrum is a plant pathogen, first isolated in Canada.
Petkowski, J. E., et al. "Pythium species associated with root rot complex in winter-grown parsnip and parsley crops in south eastern Australia."Australasian Plant Pathology 42.4 (2013): 403–411. |
48702589 | Pythium emineosum | 2015-12-01 20:04:19+00:00 | Pythium emineosum is a plant pathogen, first isolated in Canada.
Long, Yan-Yan, et al. "Two new species, Pythium agreste and P. wuhanense, based on morphological characteristics and DNA sequence data." Mycological progress 13.1 (2014): 145–155. |
37178595 | 2:54 | 2012-09-30 22:00:38+00:00 | 2:54 is an alternative rock band from London, comprising the sisters Colette and Hannah Thurlow.
The Thurlow sisters were born in Ireland but spent much of their childhood in Bristol, England after moving there at an early age. In 2007 they formed the punk rock band The Vulgarians, and in mid-2010 formed 2:54, named after the timestamp of a drum fill in "A History of Bad Men" by Melvins.
They first came to public attention in 2010 after putting one of their demos online, "Creeping". Their debut single, "On a Wire", was released in 2011 and was followed with "Scarlet"EP on Fiction Records. They toured with Warpaint, Wild Beasts, The Big Pink, The Maccabees, and The xx, and played at several festivals including South by Southwest. The sisters were joined for live shows in 2011 by bassist Joel Porter and drummer Alex Robins.
Their self-titled debut album, recorded with producer Rob Ellis and mixed by Alan Moulder, was released in May 2012 on Fiction in the UK and Fat Possum Records in the US. It received an 8/10 rating from the NME.
The group played a headlining tour in Autumn of 2012. Touring the UK, Europe, and North America. They performed at festivals across the UK, including Reading and Leeds Festival.
In July 2014, 2:54 announced they had signed to the independent record label Bella Union. They released their second album later in the year, "The Other I", produced by Hannah and Colette with James Rutledge. Initially making available a stream of the track "Orion". They embarked upon a UK tour in November 2014. The band also played festivals in mainland Europe. In January 2015, 2:54 released the video for, "Crest".
In March 2015, 2:54 embarked upon a headline tour of North America. The band also performed at South by Southwest that year.
In October 2017, the band played a show at The Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate, followed by another in November at The Pickle Factory, London. The band was showcasing new music.
Sian Rowe of The Guardian described them as "a little bit shoegaze, with bursts of heavy riffing and the odd psychedelic meander". They have been compared to bands such as Curve, the Cure and Garbage.
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2:54 (2012), Fiction/Fat Possum
1. "Revolving" – 04:01
2. "You're Early" – 04:08
3. "Easy Undercover" – 03:47
4. "A Salute" – 04:24
5. "Scarlet" – 04:41
6. "Sugar" – 04:06
7. "Circuitry" – 04:10
8. "Watcher" – 04:25
9. "Ride" – 03:23
10. "Creeping" – 04:54
The Other I (2014), Bella Union
1. "Orion"
2. "Blindfold"
3. "In The Mirror"
4. "No Better Prize"
5. "Sleepwalker"
6. "Tender Shoots"
7. "The Monaco"
8. "Crest"
9. "Pyro"
10. "South"
11. "Glory Days"
12. "Raptor"
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"On a Wire" (2011), House Anxiety
"Scarlet" (2011), Fiction
"Creeping" (2012), Fiction
"You're Early" (2012), Fiction
"Sugar" (2012), Fiction
"Orion" (2014), Bella Union |
35040000 | 7icons | 2012-03-12 03:15:14+00:00 | 7icons ( or Indonesian pronunciation: [aykens]) is an Indonesian girl group formed on 28 October 28, 2010. The group originally consisted of seven members: A.Tee, Gc, Linzy, Mezty, Natly, PJ, and Vanila who departed in 2013; T-Sha was then added to the group after an audition. The group was disbanded in 2014 and reunited in 2020 with members Gc, Mezty, PJ, Vanila, and T-Sha.
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The group was formed by friends from three big cities in Indonesia:
Surabaya (Angel/A.Tee, Vanila, PJ, Natly)
Jakarta (Linzy, Grace/Gc)
Bandung (Mezty)
Members of the group came from various professions: model, fashion designer, dancer, presenter, teacher, college student, and disc jockey. After the initial idea for the group was suggested by A.Tee, they decided to move to Jakarta and bought a small apartment as their headquarters. Whilst searching for a music label, 7icons hired a personal dance coach and took vocal lessons, all of which were self-financed. As the group had large expenditure (for coaches, studio, etc.) and no income, Mezty sold her car to help the group's finance. They later signed a contract with Keci Music.
7icons officially debuted with their first single "Playboy" on 18 April 18, 2011 in music show "Derings" on Trans TV. 7icons also starred in their own teen drama series Go Go Girls on Trans TV, with "Playboy" as its opening and closing theme. The single was well received, reaching number two on the national music chart in its first week, and then became a TVC jingle in their first TV commercial with Telkom Indonesia. The group's schedule became tighter as their popularity grew and they performed almost weekly.
Their second single "Jealous" was released later that year, along with "Penjaga Hati". They held a mini-concert, themed as a pyjama party, as the launch of their mini-album, "Lovable". Their fan base grew through Indonesia; a fanclub, "ICONIA", was established by their fans. Until the end of the year, 7icons had successfully performed throughout Indonesia. 7icons was the only female group who performed at the concert Road to 2011 Southeast Asian Games, held in Borobudur. To close the year, the group released "The Journey of Love", the first full album from an Indonesian girl band, on 21 December 2011. The album is not sold by conventional methods, but via special booths in Naughty Accessories.
In 2012, The Journey of Love was marketed by Naughty Accessories. The group approved the fanclub "ICONIA" to become their official fan club, "Official ICONIA". 7icons also played as guests on several private television stations in Indonesia. They had the opportunity to collaborate with Bebi Romeo through his song "Cinta Cuma Satu", on the album Bebi Romeo Mega Hits, received several awards in the fields of music and appearance, and were appointed as "Ambassador(s) of the Environment" 2012. 7icons also had the opportunity to do a concert collaboration between countries, held in Gangnam, South Korea. They performed "Playboy" and "Cinta Cuma Satu", with "Cinta Cuma Satu" translated into Korean.
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In early January 2013, Vanila announced she's departing the group on her wedding day, 31 January 2013. The group begin an audition in February for a new member and T-Sha was later selected to replace Vanila. The group got their second own television series, Cinta 7 Susun, a musical-comedy soap opera. The series tells the story of a fictionalized version of the group as they struggle to debut. Vanila appeared on its first three episodes, while new member T-Sha was introduced later on the series. The series premiered on 28 January 2013, three days prior to Vanila's official departure, and concluded on 10 May 2013.
On the same year, they underwent an image change with the theme of "rebirth". The idea was to go from the reborn phase of life to meet the mature phase. The concept was launched simultaneously with the launch of their first American single, "Outta Diz World" in March 2013. The single was included on 7icons' compilation album, which is their second album and the first album to be released in the U.S.
The single "Cinta 7 Susun" was also a winner in the television musical program "TOP POP", earning "Top Song of the Day" on 28 May 2013. "Playboy (Bali mix)" won "Top Song of the Day" on 12 June 2013, and single "Cinta Cuma satu (Korean Mix)" did so on 5 July 2013. In a "Suka Suka Uya" (a talk show on the MNCTV channel) interview with Uya Kuya, Pj (Cute Icon) revealed 7icons's term "Captain Class", their term for the leader of the group; PJ is the Captain in 7icons. 7icons covered Feliz Navidad, included on the Keci Music Christmas Songs Compilation.
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Following issues with Keci Music in early 2014, 7icons decided to left the label and started working self-managed. On 19 August 2014, they released their first single under their own label, "Mana Tahan", an electropop dance single created by Andi from the group 'Beage' and Dwi Andri.
However, on November, PJ announced the disbandment of the group following the departure of A.Tee, T-Sha, and Linzy. It was also announced the remaining members will rebrand the group as The Icons (stylized as 7he Icons). According to an interview, the group will change their musical style from K-pop to Western with 1980s and 1990s appearances and musical style. It was also revealed that the group is producing their first single. However, in 2015, Mezty announced her departure from the group, citing that other members were abandoning the group.
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Former members Grace Fransin (Gc) and Natalia Shasanti (Natly), along with Instagram celebrity Marisha Chacha, formed a creative pop girlband, Icons. The group is said to be a "reincarnation" of 7Icons. Their sole single, "Playboy Beautiful", was produced in America and released on 21 March 2016. The group was last seen on mid 2017.
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The group announced their reunion on 28 October 2020 with a new single to be released. The reunion involves PJ, Gc, Mezty, Vanila, and T-Sha. Former member A.Tee won't be coming back due to her contract with another label, while Linzy is now married and Natly wears hijab. The single "Night and Day" and its music video was released on 25 November 2020. They also launched their own beauty product, Iconskin, at the peak of Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale.
Their first appearance after a 6-year vacuum was on Pagi-Pagi Ambyar, a variety program which aired on Trans TV. The group has then made several media appearances, but Vanila was never present due to her living in Kalimantan. They released their second single after the reunion in May 2022.
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The Journey of Love (2012)
Cinta 7 Susun (2013)
7icons & Friends (2013)
Kisah Cinta 7icons (2014)
In 2012 Mezty received a certificate from the Indonesian Minister of the Environment, naming her as an "Ambassador for the Environment". |
38463396 | 14th (band) | 2013-02-08 17:13:44+00:00 | 14th is an English electronic music duo consisting of Tracey Duodu (vocals) and Tom Barber (production), based in London, England.
Duodu and Barber first met at the University of Sussex while studying. In 2011 they located to London and created 14th. In November 2011, they released their debut EP entitled Hide Yourself. The EP received critical acclaim from The Times
, Mixmag, RWD Magazine, Soul Train, and further plaudits from The Guardian Music Blog, Dazed and Confused, Time Out, The Fly (magazine) and Music Week. Amongst radio performances, they were invited to play a live session at the BBC's Maida Vale studios for Rob Da Bank's flagship Radio 1 show.
In February 2012, they followed their EP release with the single "Take Me There", which received support on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from Annie Mac, MistaJam, Kissy Sell Out, Skream and Benga and earned 14th their first daytime radio plays from Fearne Cotton.
The duo went on to tour the UK, culminating at Club NME at London's KOKO (venue), and played a string of live dates at festivals around Europe over the Summer. After supporting producer and multi-instrumentalist Jakwob on tour, 14th collaborated with him on his EP "The Prize", alongside artists including Ghostpoet, Kano, Mr Hudson and Roses Gabor.
In late 2012, 14th produced a remix of Lana Del Rey track "Ride" which was included on her "Ride Remixes EP" released by Interscope Records.
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29714674 | The 20/20 Project | 2010-11-23 05:33:16+00:00 | The 20/20 Project was a Canadian hip hop trio from Toronto, Ontario, formed in 2010. The group consisted of MCs D-Squared (real name Dev Sarathy) and producer DJ Unknown (real name Colin Ojah-Maharaj). Their style is old school hip hop; their songs, which are mainly produced and mixed by DJ Unknown, focus on wordplay and storytelling.
Their debut EP, Employees of the Year received generally positive reviews, and consistently charted in the top 10 on a number of Campus Radio Stations across Canada. It peaked #1 on Ottawa's CHUO 89.1 hip hop charts the week ending November 16, 2010.
In 2015, The 20/20 Project released the album Tapes and Crates. The band has been inactive since.
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Employees of the Year EP (2010), Independent
Tapes and Crates (2015) |
32241106 | Armenia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 | 2011-06-28 15:22:15+00:00 | Armenia selected their Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 entry by a national final. The winner was Vladimir Arzumanyan with "Mama", which represented Armenia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 on 20 November 2010.
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A submission period for artists was held until 5 August 2010. 31 entries were received, and 25 entries were chosen for the national final.
Quarter-final 1
The first quarter-final was held on 2 September 2010, hosted by Anahit Sargsyan and Artak Vardanyan. Twelve songs competed and the top eight advanced to the semi-final based on the votes from an "expert" jury.
Quarter-final 2
The second quarter-final was held on 3 September 2010, hosted by Anahit Sargsyan and Artak Vardanyan. Thirteen songs competed and the top eight advanced to the semi-final based on the votes from an "expert" jury.
Semi-final
The semi-final was held on 4 September 2010, hosted by Anahit Sargsyan and Artak Vardanyan. Sixteen songs competed and the top ten advanced to the final based on the votes from an "expert" jury.
Final
The final was held on 5 September 2010, hosted by Anahit Sargsyan and Artak Vardanyan. Ten songs competed and the winner was chosen by a 50/50 combination of televoting and the votes from an "expert" jury.
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29217615 | Belgium in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 | 2010-10-16 18:03:05+00:00 | Belgium was represented by Jill Van Vooren and Lauren De Ruyck in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Get Up!".
Jill & Lauren will compete for Belgium at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010, to be held on 20 November in Minsk, Belarus.
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Belgium selected their Junior Eurovision Song Contest entry for 2010 through Junior Eurosong, a national selection consisting of 8 songs.
Before the final, four semi-finals were held with two songs each. A five-member jury panel consisting of Walter Grootaers, Jelle Van Dael, Stan Van Samang, Ralf Mackenbach (Dutch representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009) alongside one guest juror in each semi-final selected the winning entry of each semi-final to qualify for the final. In the final, the winner was selected via a 50/50 combination of jury voting and public televoting.
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 27 September 2010. Two of the competing entries performed, and the five-member jury panel selected the winning entry to qualify for the final. The guest juror was Laura Omloop (Belgian representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009).
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 28 September 2010. Two of the competing entries performed, and the five-member jury panel selected the winning entry to qualify for the final. The guest juror was Eva Storme (Belgian representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007).
Semifinal 3
The third semi-final took place on 29 September 2010. Two of the competing entries performed, and a five-member jury panel selected the winning entry to qualify for the final. The guest juror was Laura Omloop (Belgian representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009).
Semifinal 4
The fourth semi-final took place on 30 September 2010. Two of the competing entries performed, and a five-member jury panel selected the winning entry to qualify for the final. The guest juror was Thor Salden (Belgian representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006).
Final
The final took place on 1 October 2010. The winner was selected via a 50/50 combination of jury voting and public televoting. The jury panel that voted in the final consisting of Walter Grootaers, Jelle Van Dael, Stan Van Samang, Ralf Mackenbach, Laura Omloop, Eva Storme and Thor Salden.
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32241114 | Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 | 2011-06-28 15:22:44+00:00 | Georgia participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 which took place on 20 November 2010, in Minsk, Belarus. Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) was responsible for organising their entry for the contest. Mariam Kakhelishvili was externally selected to represent Georgia with the song "Mari Dari". Georgia placed fourth with 109 points.
Prior to the 2010 Contest, Georgia had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest three times since its debut in 2007. They have never missed an edition of the contest, and have won at the 2008 contest.
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Georgia selected their Junior Eurovision entry for 2010 through a national final consisting of 11 songs. The winner was Mariam Kakhelishvili, with the song, "Mari Dari".
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The winning contestant, Mariam Kakhelishvili, is a singer from Georgia managed by composer Giga Kukhiadnidze and Bzikebi Studio.
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"Mari Dari" is a song by Georgian singer Mariam Kakhelishvili. It represented Georgia during the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. It is composed by Giga Kukhianidze with lyrics from both Kukhianidze and Kakhelishvili. Although it consists of mostly meaningless words, it contains a few words in Georgian, including dari, meaning sunshine.
During the running order draw which took place on 14 October 2010, Georgia was drawn to perform tenth on 20 November 2010, following Belgium and preceding Malta.
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During the final, Mariam Kakhelishvili performed amongst four background dancers, who wore white outfits and pink gloves and wigs. Mariam Kakhelishvili placed fourth at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010, receiving 109 points for her song "Mari Dari".
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29217742 | Latvia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 | 2010-10-16 18:19:29+00:00 | Latvia participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 which took place on 20 November 2010, in Minsk, Belarus. The Latvian broadcaster Latvijas Televīzija (LTV) selected the Latvian entry for the 2010 contest internally.
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On 30 July 2010, LTV announced that they had selected the winner of Balss pavēlnieks, Šarlote Lēnmane, to represent Latvia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Her song "Viva la Dance (Dejo tā)" was presented on 8 October 2010.
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29387268 | Lithuania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 | 2010-10-28 13:55:38+00:00 | Lithuanian broadcaster LRT announced their participation for Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in August 2010. The National Final, "Vaikų Eurovizija" chose Bartas, the 14‑year-old singer to represent Lithuania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010.
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The national selection show Vaikų Eurovizijos nacionalinė atranka consisted of two semi-finals held on 12 and 19 September 2010 and a final held on 26 September 2010.
The results of the semi-finals were determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and public televoting. In the final, the winner was chosen in two rounds of voting - the first to select the top three by the 50/50 combination of jury voting and public televoting, and the second to select the winner by the jury.
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final was held on 12 September 2010. 10 songs competed and 7 qualified to the next round instead of the initially-planned 5 due to a three-way tie for fifth place.
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final was held on 19 September 2010. 10 songs competed and 5 participants qualified, since there was no tiebreak.
Final
The final was held on 26 September 2010 at the LRT TV Studios in Vilnius, where 12 participants competed instead of the initially-planned 10, as this was the first time that a qualify-rule was broken due to the first semi-final having seven finalists. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. In the first round the top 3 were chosen by televoting (50%) and a nine-member "expert" jury (50%), while in the second round the winner was chosen by the "expert" jury.
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31785787 | Ben NanoNote | 2011-05-15 20:44:35+00:00 | The Ben NanoNote (officially the 本 NanoNote) is a pocket computer using the Linux-based OpenWrt operating system. An open-source hardware device developed by Qi Hardware, it has been called possibly "the world's smallest Linux laptop for the traditional definition of the word.". In addition, the Ben NanoNote is noteworthy for being one of the few devices on the market running entirely on copyleft hardware.
The computer takes its name from the Chinese character běn (本), translated as "an origin or the beginning place."
Originally the hardware was developed by a third party as a digital dictionary. After the effort of several Qi Hardware developers, the design was freed as open source hardware while using free and open source software.
The product used to be manufactured by Qi hardware and Sharism At Work Ltd. As of 2011, more than 1,000 units had been sold.
The device is shipped with the OpenWrt software stack; the custom compilation includes a graphical menu called gmenu2x, with other graphical and command line applications available from the menu.
OpenEmbedded is also available through the Jlime distribution. The Pyneo software stack, a Debian-like distribution aimed for mobiles has been ported. The MIPS architecture port of Debian Linux can be run on the NanoNote. Additionally there is NanoNixOS, a cross-compiled distribution based on the Nix package manager.
After the 2010 introduction of the Ben NanoNote, reviewers praised its small size and low cost (US$99), but also criticized the device for its initial lack of any networking capability and for its extremely modest data storage and RAM capabilities in comparison to other contemporary devices.
Because the device lacked wireless connectivity, implementing this was one of the first goals for the Qi Hardware movement. This add-on, the Ben WPAN, was developed by Werner Almesberger, and mainly consists of an IEEE 802.15.4 subsystem, made up of two boards: a USB dongle (ATUSB) connected to the computer and another card connected to the SDIO port of the device (ATBEN).
All source code, documentation and test procedures, software and hardware schematics are available under copyleft licenses.
UBB, or Universal Breakout Board, is a PCB shaped like a microSD card, focused on DIY projects and general purpose interfacing using the available MMC/SDIO port.
So far two hacks had been published: one of them, the integration with a 443 MHz RF transceiver for power sockets control purposes and later a mix of bit banging and SDIO/DMA features turning the SD card slot into a VGA port.
As the Ben NanoNote uses an Ingenic JZ4720 processor it supports booting from USB without use of the NAND flash memory.
The SIE board is an adaptation of the NanoNote. It has twice the memory and features a XC3S Xilinx FPGA on board. It is based on the XBurst JZ4725 SoC, which has more I/O pins available due to not having a keyboard.
Melanson, Donald ( March 15, 2010). "Qi Hardware's tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping." AOL Engadget. |
25734533 | Boxee Box | 2010-01-09 00:56:57+00:00 | Boxee Box by D-Link (officially "D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380") is a Linux-based set-top device and media extender that first began shipping in 33 countries worldwide on 10 November 2010. Designed to easily bring Internet television and other video to the television via Boxee's software, it comes pre-installed with Boxee media center software. The hardware is based on the Intel CE4110 system-on-a-chip platform (that has a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom CPU with a PowerVR SGX535 integrated graphics processor), 1 GB of RAM, and 1 GB of NAND Flash Memory. The DM-380 features an HDMI port (version 1.3), optical digital audio (S/PDIF) out, an RCA connector for analog stereo audio, two USB ports, an SD card slot, wired 100BASE-TX Ethernet, and built-in 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi. The Live TV dongle, which started shipping in February 2012, enables users to watch digital OTA or Clear QAM cable television channels with EPG.
The Boxee Box also ships with a small two-sided RF remote control with four-way D-pad navigation and a full QWERTY keypad as standard. This remote was also being sold separately with a USB receiver as "D-Link Boxee Box Remote DSM-22" that can be used with Boxee installed on a computer (so that one can use this remote without owning D-Link's Boxee Box). The look of both the case and remote prototypes for the Boxee Box was designed by San Francisco–based Astro Studios, the designer of the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Zune.
On 16 October 2012, the Boxee team announced intention to discontinue distribution. |
30353100 | Brix (database) | 2011-01-07 13:42:22+00:00 | BriX is a database containing some protein fragments from 4 to 14 residue from non-homologous proteins.
There are very few loops registered in Brix, so to address this issue, Loop Brix was added to the system to help structure non-regular elements. These are organized with clustering of end to end elements, and their distance between residues that flank the top of the peptide. Currently, the system also encourages user submitted structures to be uploaded, so long as they match Brix classes. |
49661529 | Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement | 2016-03-06 18:27:35+00:00 | The Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (also known as APTTA) is a bilateral trade agreement signed in 2010 by Pakistan and Afghanistan that calls for greater facilitation in the movement of goods amongst the two countries.
The 2010 agreement supersedes the 1965 Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement, which granted Afghanistan the right to import duty-free goods through Pakistani seaports, mostly notably from Karachi. The 1965 agreement did not offer Pakistan reciprocal rights to export goods to the Soviet Union, nor to the Central Asian Republics after the fall of the USSR.
Trade in goods smuggled into Pakistan once constituted a major source of revenue for Afghanistan. Pakistan official goods imported into Afghanistan under the 1965 Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement were often immediately smuggled back into Pakistan over the porous border that the two countries share, often with the help of corrupt officials. In addition to illegal transfer of goods back into Pakistan, items declared as Afghanistan-bound were often prematurely offloaded from trucks and smuggled into Pakistani markets without paying requisite duty fees. This resulted in the creation of a thriving black market, with much of the illegal trading occurring openly, as was common in Peshawar's bustling Karkhano Market, which was widely regarded as a smuggler's bazaar. In Pakistan clamped down in 2003 on the types of goods permitted duty-free transit, and introducing stringent measures and labels to prevent smuggling. re-routing of goods through Iran from the Persian Gulf increased significantly resulting in steep decreases of smuggled goods in Pakistani markets. The 2003 measures lead to drastic declines in the number of undocumented jobs related to the transit and sale of smuggled goods; jobs and revenues of which also helped fuel the black economy, often intertwined with the drug cartels, of both countries.
The ATTA did not grant Pakistan reciprocal rights to export goods across Afghan territory to neighbouring countries. Pakistani attempts to access the Central Asian markets were frustrated by political instability in Afghanistan that had been ongoing since the late 1970s. As Afghanistan became increasingly dangerous as a transit corridor, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan in 1995 devised a separate treaty named the "Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement" (QTTA), and signed the treaty in 2004. Despite signing of the QTTA, the agreements full potential was never realised, largely on account of poor infrastructure links between the four countries.
The United States emphasised the importance of a revised transit agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan to revive trade route along the ancient Silk Road between South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. As a result of the shortcomings of the ATTA, a new treaty between Afghanistan and Pakistan was necessary that would permit Afghanistan access to Indian markets, and Pakistan reciprocal access to Central Asian markets via Afghanistan – which by 2010 had been far more stable than it had been in the previous 20 years.
In July 2010, a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) was reached between Pakistan and Afghanistan for the Afghan-Pak Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), which was observed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The two states also signed an MoU for the construction of rail tracks in Afghanistan to connect with Pakistan Railways (PR), which has been in the making since at least 2005.
In October 2010, the landmark APTTA agreement was signed by Pakistani Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, Afghan Ministry of Commerce. The ceremony was attended by Richard Holbrooke, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a number of foreign ambassadors, Afghan parliamentarians and senior officials.
The 2010 APTTA allows for both countries to use each other's airports, railways, roads, and ports for transit trade along designated transit corridors. The agreement does not cover road transport vehicles from any third country, be it from India or any Central Asia country.
Afghan trucks are to enter Pakistan via border crossings at Torkham, Ghulam Khan, and Chaman to transit Afghan goods across Pakistani territory, and to import goods from Pakistani ports in Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar. The signed Agreement permits Afghanistan trucks access to Wagah border with India, where Afghan goods will be offloaded onto Indian trucks, but does not permit Indian goods to be loaded onto trucks for transit back to Afghanistan.
The APTTA agreement allows Afghan trucks to transport exports to India via Pakistan up to the Wagah crossing point, but does not offer Afghanistan the right to import Indian goods across Pakistani territory, out of fear that Indian goods would end up on the Pakistani black market in the same manner that was common under the 1965 ATTA. Instead, Afghan trucks offloaded at Wagah may return to Afghanistan loaded only with Pakistani, rather than Indian goods, in an attempt to prevent the formation of a black market for Indian goods in Pakistan.
The agreement provided Pakistan access to every country bordering Afghanistan, with access to Iran via the Islam Qila and Zaranj borders, Uzbekistan via the Hairatan border, Tajikistan via Ali Khanum and Sher Khan Bandar crossings, and Turkmenistan via the Aqina and Torghundi border crossings. Pakistani imports and exports are granted permission to enter Afghanistan via border crossings at Torkham, Ghulam Khan, and Chaman.
The APTTA calls for various measures to counter smuggling of duty-free goods into both Pakistan and Afghanistan by mandating: tracking devices of goods, banking guarantees and special bonded carrier licenses for transit trucks, vehicular tracking systems, and container security deposits.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Authority (APTTCA) was created to coordinate the Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement and meetings are held.
Implementation of the treaty has been inconsistent, with both sides complaining of continued barriers to trade.
Owing to tensions between the government of Hamid Karzai and Pakistan, much of the APTTA provisions remained unexploited after 2010. Pakistan is Afghanistan's largest trading partner, and Afghanistan is Pakistan's fourth-largest export market. Banking contacts between the two countries remain under developed, although Pakistan's commerce minister in 2015 pledged to improve such contacts.
Afghanistan has complained that anti-smuggling security measures agreed in the APTTA are restrictive cost-prohibitive, and that banking guarantee fees are excessively high and time-consuming, ranging from 100,000 to 150,000 Pakistani rupees per carrier. Banks from both countries have also refused to offer such guarantees, further delaying customs clearances.
The required truck-tracking systems have been implemented in Pakistan, while the Afghan side has yet to install such systems on their own trucks. Further, the reliability of Pakistani and Afghan trucks to travel through mountainous terrain in both countries has been called into question, while Afghan trucks frequently enter Pakistani territory without requisite insurance, thereby violating the terms of APTTA. Afghanistan also has not yet notified Pakistan of its customs transit rules required under the APTTA, despite repeated requests by Pakistan and assurances by the Afghan government.
Afghanistan also refuses to grant Pakistan the right to import and export goods from Central Asia across Afghan territory. The 2010 APTTA agreement allowed for Afghan goods to be exported to India via Pakistan territory, but did not permit Indian goods to in turn to be exported to Afghanistan across Pakistani territory.
During the visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to India in April 2015, he stated "We will not provide equal transit access to Central Asia for Pakistani trucks" unless the Pakistani government included India as part of the 2010 Afghanistan–Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement to allow Indian goods to be transported across Pakistani territory, directly contradicting Article 5 of the Agreement which explicitly excludes Indian exports from the Agreement. Pakistan has rejected calls for India's inclusion, as the signed Agreement specifically denies Indian goods the right to transit across Pakistan.
While Afghan importers and exporters have full access to Pakistani seaports under APTTA, Afghanistan has alleged that Pakistani officials frequently stall shipments and cause unnecessary delays, especially after the 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan. In November 2010, the two states formed a joint chamber of commerce to expand trade relations and solve the problems traders face in this and other regards.
In July 2012, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to extend APTTA to Tajikistan in what will be the first step for the establishment of a north–south trade corridor. The proposed agreement will provide facilities to Tajikistan to use Pakistan's ports and the Wagah Border for its imports and exports while Pakistan would be granted rights to transit goods across Tajik territory to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
In April 2015, Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani announced that Tajikistan cannot be included in the trade agreement until Indian goods are offered the right to export goods to Afghanistan across Pakistani territory, which is in direct contradiction of Articles 5 and 52 of the signed Agreement which specifically forbids Indian goods and transporters this right.
In April 2015, China and Pakistan agreed to construct various infrastructure projects worth approximately $46 billion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is part of China's ambitious proposed 21st century Silk Road initiative. Projects currently under construction include the a system of motorways and upgraded roads from the Pakistani coastal cities of Karachi and Gwadar, all the way to the Chinese border and onwards to Kashgar in China's Xinjiang province. From Kashgar, transport links to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have been upgraded, while seasonal road access to Tajikistan is provided by the Pamir Highway. Upgrading of Pakistan's roadway network is under way, and will allow Pakistan access to those states via China rather than Afghanistan by 2020.
The Pakistani government continued to be frustrated by Afghanistan's refusal to allow Pakistani goods access to Central Asian markets until Afghan exports were granted reciprocal access to Indian markets. Owing to this frustration, and ongoing construction of roadway projects to China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Pakistani Government in February 2016 signalled its intention to completely bypass Afghanistan in its quest to access Central Asia by announcing its intent to revive the Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement so that Central Asian states could access Pakistani ports via Kashgar instead of Afghanistan, thereby allowing the Central Asian republics to access Pakistan's deep water ports without having to rely on a politically unstable Afghanistan as a transit corridor. However, the QTTA would not allow Pakistan access to Turkmenistan and Iran across Afghan territory as the APTTA does.
In early March 2016, the Afghan government reportedly acquiesced to Pakistani requests to use Afghanistan as a corridor to Tajikistan, after having dropped demands from reciprocal access to India via Pakistan. The revised transit trade agreement is expected to be signed by April 2016.
On 23 October 2017, the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani announced that "The Afghanistan and Pakistan Trade Agreement (APTA) has expired" and issued a decree banning Pakistani trucks from entering the country via the Torkham and Spin Boldak border crossings, TOLOnews reported. |