soul singer who dueted with jools holland on 2015 album

Francella Ruby Turner MBE (born 22 June 1958) is a British Jamaican R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and actress.

Ruby Turner

In a music career spanning more than 30 years, Turner is best known for her albums and single releases in Europe and North America. She is also known for her work as a session backing vocalist, artists she has worked with include Bryan Ferry, UB40, Steel Pulse, Steve Winwood, Jools Holland, and Mick Jagger. She has written songs that have been covered by artists including Lulu, Yazz and Maxi Priest.[1]

Turner achieved the rare feat, for a British singer, of reaching no. 1 on the US R&B chart, with "It's Gonna Be Alright" in February 1990. Between 1986 and 1995, eight of her singles appeared in the UK Singles Chart with "I'd Rather Go Blind" being the most successful, reaching no. 24 in 1987.[2] Turner performed at the Birmingham Heart Beat 86 concert,[3] which featured George Harrison; and also sang on BBC Television's Jools' Annual Hootenanny, from 2007 to 2016 inclusive. She has also appeared as an actress on stage, film and television.

Ruby Turner was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica,[1][4] and moved at the age of nine with her family to Handsworth, Birmingham, England, in 1967.[1]

Turner came from a musical family as her grandfather sang the lead in one of Jamaica's gospel groups. In the early 1980s, she worked with blues musician Alexis Korner, and in 1983 she recorded with UB40. In the mid-1980s, Turner's major break came when she was asked to sing with Culture Club at the height of their popularity. She received an offer of a solo recording contract soon afterward and signed to Jive Records, part of the Zomba Group.[5]

Turner achieved her solo recording contract with Jive Records after singing backing vocals on Culture Club's From Luxury to Heartache.[1] She released four albums and a "Best of" Compilation Album over the next few years. Her first solo album Women Hold Up Half the Sky, was released in 1986 to critical acclaim[1] and produced hit singles such as a cover version of the Staple Singers song "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)", a duet with Jonathan Butler, and the Etta James standard "I'd Rather Go Blind".[1][2]

In March 1987, Turner sang on the Ferry Aid single, "Let It Be".[6] Around this time she also released the album, The Motown Songbook, on which she performed with Motown and others including the Four Tops, the Temptations and Jimmy Ruffin. In 1988, Turner appeared on Corey Hart's album, Young Man Running on the duet "Spot You in a Coalmine".

Turner achieved a no. 1 R&B chart success in the US in February 1990 with "It's Gonna Be Alright",[7][8] becoming one of the few British artists to top that chart.[9] Four other US R&B chart entries followed in 1990 and 1991, including "Paradise" from the movie Dancin' thru the Dark.[7][8]

In 1998, she recorded the album, Call Me by My Name, with British rhythm and blues veterans Boz Burrell, Zoot Money, Bobby Tench, and Stan Webb. On New Year's Eve 1999, she sang the National Anthem for Queen Elizabeth II, Prime minister Tony Blair and other dignitaries at the opening of the Millennium Dome, in London.[9]

Turner sang backing vocals on Mick Jagger's 2001 album, Goddess in the Doorway, and performed "Nobody But You" on the 2002 album Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues.[10] In 2007, Turner presented a documentary Shout Sister Shout about Sister Rosetta Tharpe for BBC Radio 2.[11] She sang on Seasick Steve's album, I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left (2008). In September 2009, Turner released her first gospel music album, I'm Travelling On.[11] Her rendition of "Jesus on the Mainline" appears on a compilation CD that accompanied the book British Black Gospel by Steve Alexander Smith.[12]

On 4 June 2012, Turner was one of the performers at the Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in London, where she joined Jools Holland on stage.[13]

Turner was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music.[14]

As an actress, Turner has appeared in productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Carmen Jones, and Fame.[1] She has also appeared in One Love, by Kwame Davies, at the London's Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. She appeared in a successful run in the London West End production of the musical Simply Heavenly, which was nominated for 'Outstanding Musical' at the 2005 Laurence Olivier Awards.[11]

Turner has appeared in a number of films, including Love Actually (2003), Reggae Britannia (2011) and Famous Fred (1996). In 2006 Turner made an appearance in Little Britain Abroad, where she played the Sheriff Judy.[15] On 12 October 2007, she appeared as a guest star (as herself) in the BBC One soap opera Doctors.[1] The episode title was entitled "Raising The Roof". In 2009, Turner appeared in the BBC drama Hotel Babylon.[16]

In 2011, Turner narrated the BBC Four documentary Reggae Britannia, which chronicled the history of British reggae music. In 2012, Turner, along with Ralph Allwood and Manvinder Rattan, was a judge on the BBC Two series The Choir: Sing While You Work.[17] In 2013, Turner was a guest judge on the BBC Songs of Praise gospel choir competition.[18] In 2015, it was announced that she would appear as Mrs. Blip in the made-for-TV movie The Land of Sometimes.[citation needed]

Turner has been engaged twice, but not married and has said "Many women I know, must have a man in their life.... They seem programmed to find a man and must get married. Marriage is a priority for them. Not for me. I am not built that way."[19]

Her parents are separated and her father lives in the US. Her mother Violetta lives near Turner and sang on her 2009 album I'm Travelling On.


who sang first cut is the deepest first

"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in May 1967. Stevens' own version originally appeared on his album New Masters in December 1967.

The First Cut Is the Deepest

The song has been widely recorded and has become a hit single for five different artists: P. P. Arnold (1967), Keith Hampshire (1973), Rod Stewart (1977), Papa Dee (1995) and Sheryl Crow (2003).

Stevens made a demo recording of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" in 1965, but originally hoped to become a songwriter.[1] He wrote the song earlier to promote his songs to other artists, but did not record it as his own performance until early October 1967 with guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, and it did not appear until his second album, New Masters, was released in December 1967. He sold the song for Â£30 to P.P. Arnold, and it became a huge hit for her,[2] as well as an international hit for Keith Hampshire, Rod Stewart, and Sheryl Crow. The song has won Stevens songwriting awards, including two consecutive ASCAP songwriting awards for "Songwriter of the Year" in 2005 and 2006.[3]

American expatriate singer P. P. Arnold had the first hit with the song, reaching number 18 on the UK Singles Chart[4] with her version in May 1967, well ahead of the song appearing on Stevens' album. The Arnold hit featured an up-tempo, soulful vocal set against harpsichord, horns, and strings. It also appeared in the feature film Seven Psychopaths.

Keith Hampshire had the first chart-topping hit of the song when his recording of it became a number one hit in Canada in 1973, reaching the top of the RPM 100 national singles chart on 12 May of that year.[5] It also topped the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart.[6] This recording also charted in the US, albeit outside the top 40.

Stewart recorded the song at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, United States, and it appeared on his 1976 album A Night on the Town. It was released as a double A-side single with "I Don't Want to Talk About It". It was a huge success, and spent four weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in May 1977,[7] number 11 in April in Canada, and also reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. In a departure from the original, Stewart excludes the concluding "But when it comes to being loved, she's first" from the refrain. In 1993, he recorded a live version during a session of MTV Unplugged. This was included on the album Unplugged...and Seated.

Swedish rap, ragga and dancehall musician Papa Dee recorded a reggae cover of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" in 1995. It remains his most commercially successful track and was a big hit in Europe.

Music & Media wrote about the song: "Dee-lightfully our Swedish Papa tackles the old Cat Stevens hit in a pop dance-infused reggae style with a snappy ragga interlude. Radio, club and dub edits are
available too."[15]

Sheryl Crow's version of "The First Cut Is The Deepest" is the first single released from her 2003 compilation album The Very Best of Sheryl Crow. It became one of Crow's biggest radio hits, remaining 36 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, and was also Crow's first Top 40 solo country hit, following the success of her hit duet with Kid Rock, "Picture".[citation needed] The song topped the airplay charts in the US and became a platinum seller, also reaching No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and went to number one on the AC chart for two nonconsecutive weeks.

Crow's version appears in the soundtrack of the 2005 romantic comedy film Must Love Dogs. It was also featured during an episode of HBO's The Sopranos and The CW's One Tree Hill, in which she also guest starred.

The Sheryl Crow music video for "The First Cut Is the Deepest" was directed by Wayne Isham. Filmed in southern Utah, the video features Crow in a rocky desert singing with her guitar, riding horses and interacting in a cowboy environment[21]. Crow's single was nominated for a Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards,[22] losing to "Sunrise" by Norah Jones.


where is sleeping giant state park in connecticut

Sleeping Giant (also known as Mount Carmel) is a rugged traprock mountain with a high point of 739 feet (225 m), located 8 miles (13 km) north of New Haven, Connecticut. A prominent landscape feature visible for miles, the Sleeping Giant receives its name from its anthropomorphic resemblance to a slumbering human figure as seen from either the north or south. The Giant is known for its expansive clifftop vistas, rugged topography, and microclimate ecosystems. Most of the Giant is located within Sleeping Giant State Park.[1] The mountain is a popular recreation site: over 30 miles (48 km) of hiking trails traverse it including 5 miles (8 km) of the 23-mile (37 km) Quinnipiac Trail.[2][3] Quinnipiac University is located at Mount Carmel's foot in Hamden.

Sleeping Giant (Connecticut)

The Sleeping Giant, 2.75 miles (4.43 km) long by 1.75 miles (2.82 km) wide, is located in Hamden with its eastern edge falling into Wallingford. The Giant's profile features distinct "head," "chin," "chest," "hip," "knee," and "feet" sections topographically represented by traprock outcrops and ridge crests. The highest point is the Left Hip, 739 ft (225 m), followed by the Chest, 710 ft (220 m), and the Left Knee and Right Leg, 700 ft (210 m) each, and so on. The Giant's Head, 670 ft (200 m), is marked by a 400 ft (120 m) cliff. A stone observation tower located on the Left Hip, built by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s,[4] offers 360° views of the surrounding Mill and Quinnipiac River valleys. An old rock quarry, closed since 1933 and now part of the state park, has left scars on the Giant's Head.[4]

It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. The Metacomet Ridge extends west and south from Sleeping Giant as Rocky Top and West Rock Ridge. The west side of Sleeping Giant drains into the Mill River thence to New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound; the east side into the Quinnipiac River, thence to New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound.[5]

Sleeping Giant, a fault-block ridge that formed 200 million years ago during the Triassic and Jurassic periods, is composed of traprock, also known as basalt, an extrusive volcanic rock. Minor earthquakes have also been measured by seismographs and reported by residents.  Basalt is a dark colored rock, but the iron within it weathers to a rusty brown when exposed to the air, lending the ledges a distinct reddish appearance. Basalt frequently breaks into octagonal and pentagonal columns, creating a unique "postpile" appearance. Huge slopes made of fractured basalt scree are visible beneath many of the ledges of Sleeping Giant. The basalt cliffs are the product of several massive lava flows hundreds of feet deep that welled up in faults created by the rifting apart of North America from Eurasia and Africa. These basalt floods of lava happened over a period 20 million years. Erosion occurring between the eruptions deposited deep layers of sediment between the lava flows, which eventually lithified into sedimentary rock. The resulting "layer cake" of basalt and sedimentary sheets eventually faulted and tilted upward. Subsequent erosion wore away the weaker sedimentary layers at a faster rate than the basalt layers, leaving the abruptly tilted edges of the basalt sheets exposed, creating the distinct linear ridge and dramatic cliff faces visible today. One way to imagine this is to picture a layer cake tilted slightly up with some of the frosting (the sedimentary layer) removed in between.[6]

Sleeping Giant hosts a combination of microclimates unusual in New England. Dry, hot upper ridges support oak savannas, often dominated by chestnut oak and a variety of understory grasses and ferns. Eastern red cedar, a dry-loving species, clings to the barren edges of cliffs. Lower eastern slopes tend to support oak-hickory forest species common in the surrounding lowlands. Narrow ravines crowded with eastern hemlock block sunlight, creating damp, cooler growing conditions with associated cooler climate plant species. Talus slopes are especially rich in nutrients and support a number of calcium-loving plants uncommon in eastern Connecticut. Because the ridge generates such varied terrain, it is the home of several plant and animal species that are state-listed or globally rare.[7] Sleeping Giant is also an important seasonal raptor migration path.[2]

According to Native Americans of the Quinnipiac Tribe, the giant stone spirit Hobbomock (or Hobomock), a prominent wicked figure in many stories (see Pocumtuck Ridge and Quinnipiac), became enraged about the mistreatment of his people and stamped his foot down in anger, diverting the course of the Connecticut River (where the river suddenly swings east in Middletown, Connecticut after several hundred miles of running due south). To prevent him from wreaking such havoc in the future, the good spirit Keitan cast a spell on Hobbomock to sleep forever as the prominent man-like form of the Sleeping Giant.[8]

In the title story of Eleanor Estes's 1948 collection, The Sleeping Giant and Other Stories, the Giant decides to get up and leave.[9] The Native American legend is retold (with a few liberties) by Jason J. Marchi in his illustrated children's book The Legend of Hobbomock: The Sleeping Giant, published in 2015.[10]

During the mid-19th century, spurred by the painters of the Hudson River School and transcendentalist philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, an interest in mountains as a respite from industrialization and urbanization took hold in New England.[2] Summer cottages were built on the Sleeping Giant and many other locations on the Metacomet Ridge. In 1888, John H. Dickerman built a carriage road on the Giant and opened what he called Blue Hills Park. He held picnics with ice cream on the ledges for local residents.[8]

Conservation of the Giant began in 1924 with the creation of the Sleeping Giant Park Association (SGPA) by a group of local residents concerned with ongoing traprock quarrying on the Giant's head. A cottage owner, Judge Willis Cook, had leased his property  to the Mount Carmel Traprock Company for the purpose of quarrying traprock for building materials. The blasting away of what was a beloved landscape feature resulted in public outrage, well reported by local newspapers at the time. Under the leadership of James W. Toumey, a Yale University forestry professor, the SGPA undertook a ten-year struggle with the traprock operation. The property was purchased by the SGPA in 1933, during the Great Depression, for $30,000; the money was raised through private donations and the property became the Sleeping Giant State Park.[13]

Sleeping Giant State Park was created in 1924, when the SGPA donated 600 acres to the Park and Forest Commission. The state added an additional 65 acres that year, purchased at a cost of $7025.00.[14]

In 1936, the Sleeping Giant Tower was built at the top by the Works Progress Administration. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of the Connecticut State Park and Forest Depression-Era Federal Work Relief Programs Structures.[15]

On May 15, 2018, an EF1 tornado caused significant damage to the park, forcing officials to close the park for the entire summer season.

Sleeping Giant State Park is a popular outdoor recreation destination among residents and visitors of the greater New Haven region. The clifftops offer long views of much of New Haven County and some of Hartford County over more than 270 degrees of the compass, and (atmospheric conditions permitting) across Long Island Sound to the Shoreham area on Long Island.[16]

The state park is open until sunset year-round. During warm weather months, a parking fee is charged on weekends and holidays ($4 to $15 in 2016).[17] Activities permitted on the Giant include hiking, rock climbing, snowshoeing, picnicking, bird watching, and other passive pursuits. Trails specifically designed for horseback riding and cross-country skiing are located on the lower reaches of the Giant, and fishing is allowed in the abutting Mill River. Rock climbing, closed on the Giant in 1953 because of accidents,[18] was permitted as of 2015.[19] Youth camping only is allowed on the Giant (by permit). Seasonal facilities include restrooms, a picnic shelter, and picnic tables. The 23-mile (37 km) Quinnipiac Trail—the oldest trail in the 700-mile (1,100 km) blue blazed trail system managed by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association—traverses the length of the Giant from the Quinnipiac River west over the Giant's high points to the Mill River then continues north over West Rock Ridge and Mount Sanford.[16][1]

Most, but not all, of the Sleeping Giant has been conserved. The trails and facilities on Sleeping Giant are collaboratively maintained by the Sleeping Giant Park Association and the State of Connecticut, with the bulk of the trail maintenance done by the association. Sleeping Giant State Park encompasses 1,500 acres (6.1Â km2); the SGPA remains active in securing additional parcels to add to the property. The SGPA has also been instrumental in defeating attempts to log the Giant, build communications towers on its summits, and close the state park altogether. SGPA runs a regular recreational and interpretive hikes on the Giant and volunteer trail maintenance programs. The Connecticut Forest and Park Association also has a working investment in the conservation of the Giant and trail building on it.[16]


who wrote yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery

She had a really smart and famous quot: "The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present." from the book: 'Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday'. I think it will be reasonable to add this quote somewhere in the page. Or in WikiQuote with link. Thanks. Censored (talk) 00:47, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Talk:Alice Morse Earle

She did not say that.[1] The book "Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday" is available online[2], and there is no mention of tomorrow being a mystery or today being a gift or a present. There is a delightful section on sun-dial mottoes, but that quote is not among them.

On-TechDan (talk) 13:19, 24 June 2016 (UTC)On-TechDan


what was the outcome of the evian conference

The result of the failure of the conference was that many of the Jews had no escape and so were ultimately subject to what was known as Hitler's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Two months after Évian, in September 1938, Britain and France granted Hitler the right to occupy the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, which made a further 120,000 Jews stateless. In November 1938, on Kristallnacht, a massive pogrom across the Third Reich was accompanied by the destruction of over 1,000 synagogues, massacres and the arbitrary arrest of tens of thousands of Jews. In March 1939, Hitler occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia, which now took in a further 180,000 Jews, while in May 1939 the British issued the  White Paper which barred Jews from entering Palestine or buying land there. Following their occupation of Poland in late 1939 and invasion of Soviet Union in 1941, the Germans embarked on a program of systematically killing all Jews in Europe.  In this, the Nazis had local assistance in at least some cases.  Sémelin argued that local help was virtually always required to identify and organize the removal of Jews.[9]

Évian Conference

Collaborators during World War II

The Évian Conference was convened 6–15 July 1938, at Évian-les-Bains, France, to discuss the Jewish refugee problem and the plight of the increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution by Nazi Germany. It was convened at the initiative of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt who perhaps hoped to obtain commitments from some of the invited nations to accept more refugees, although he took pains to avoid stating that objective expressly. Historians have suggested that Roosevelt desired to deflect attention and criticism from American policy that severely limited the quota of Jewish refugees admitted to the United States.[1]

The conference was attended by representatives from 32 countries, and 24 voluntary organizations also attended as observers, presenting plans either orally or in writing.[2] Golda Meir, the attendee from British Mandate Palestine, was not permitted to speak or to participate in the proceedings except as an observer. Some 200 international journalists gathered at Ã‰vian to observe and report on the meeting.

Adolf Hitler responded to the news of the conference by saying essentially that if the other nations would agree to take the Jews, he would help them leave:

I can only hope and expect that the other world, which has such deep sympathy for these criminals [Jews], will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships.[3]

The conference was ultimately doomed, as aside from the Dominican Republic, delegations from the 32 participating nations failed to come to any agreement about accepting the Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich. The conference thus inadvertently proved to be a useful propaganda tool for the Nazis.[4]

The Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews, who were already persecuted by the Hitler regime, of their German citizenship. They were classified as "subjects" and became stateless in their own country. By 1938, some 450,000 of about 900,000 German Jews were expelled or fled Germany, mostly to France and British Mandate Palestine, where the massive wave of migrants led to an Arab uprising. When Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938, and applied German racial laws, the 200,000 Jews of Austria became stateless.

Hitler's expansion was accompanied by a rise in vicious and violent anti-Semitic fascist movements across Europe and the Middle East. Significantly antisemitic governments came to power in Poland (from 1935 the government boycotted its own Jewish population), Hungary and Romania, where Jews had always been second class citizens. Thus the numbers of Jews trying to leave Europe was in the millions, while Jews were perceived as an undesirable and socially damaging population with popular academic theories arguing that Jews damaged the "racial hygiene" or "eugenics" of nations where they were resident and engaged in conspirative behaviour.

Before the Conference the United States and Britain made a critical agreement: the British promised not to bring up the fact that the United States was not filling its immigration quotas, and any mention of Palestine as a possible destination for Jewish refugees was excluded from the agenda.[5] Britain administered Palestine under the terms of the Mandate for Palestine.

Conference delegates expressed sympathy for Jews under Nazism but made no immediate joint resolution or commitment, portraying the conference as a mere beginning, to the frustration of some commentators. Noting "that the involuntary emigration of people in large numbers has become so great that it renders racial and religious problems more acute, increases international unrest, and may hinder seriously the processes of appeasement in international relations", the Ã‰vian Conference established the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (ICR) with the purpose to "approach the governments of the countries of refuge with a view to developing opportunities for permanent settlement." The ICR received little authority or support from its member nations and fell into inaction.

The United States sent no government official to the conference. Instead Roosevelt's friend, the American businessman Myron C. Taylor, represented the U.S. with James G. McDonald as his advisor. The U.S. agreed that the German and Austrian immigration quota of 30,000 a year would be made available to Jewish refugees. In the three years 1938 to 1940 the US actually exceeded this quota by 10,000. During the same period Britain accepted almost the same number of German Jews. Australia agreed to take 15,000 over three years, with South Africa taking only those with close relatives already resident; Canada refused to make any commitment and only accepted a few refugees over this period.[6] The Australian delegate T. W. White noted: "as we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one".[7] The French delegate stated that France had reached "the extreme point of saturation as regards admission of refugees", a sentiment repeated by most other representatives.

The only countries willing to accept a large number of Jews were the Dominican Republic, which offered to accept up to 100,000 refugees on generous terms, and later Costa Rica.[4][8] In 1940 an agreement was signed and Rafael Trujillo donated 26,000 acres (110 km2) of his properties near the town of Sosúa for settlements. The first settlers arrived in May 1940: only about 800 settlers came to Sosúa, and most later moved on to the United States.[8] The Sosúa Virtual museum is a living memorial to the settlers.

In her autobiography My Life (1975), Golda Meir described her outrage being in "the ludicrous capacity of the [Jewish] observer from Palestine, not even seated with the delegates, although the refugees under discussion were my own people...." After the conference Meir told the press: "There is only one thing I hope to see before I die and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore."[10] Chaim Weizmann was quoted in The Manchester Guardian as saying: "The world seemed to be divided into two parts â€“ those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."[11][12]

In July 1979, Walter Mondale described the hope represented by the Evian conference:

"At stake at Evian were both human lives â€“ and the decency and self-respect of the civilized world. If each nation at Evian had agreed on that day to take in 17,000 Jews at once, every Jew in the Reich could have been saved. As one American observer wrote, 'It is heartbreaking to think of the...desperate human beings... waiting in suspense for what happens at Evian. But the question they underline is not simply humanitarian... it is a test of civilization.'"[13]

The international press was represented by about two hundred journalists, chiefly the League of Nations correspondents of the leading daily and weekly newspapers and news agencies.[23]


what natural feature forms most of the border between laos and thailand

The eastern border with Vietnam extends for 2,130 kilometres, mostly along the crest of the Annamite Chain, and serves as a physical barrier between the Chinese-influenced culture of Vietnam and the Indianized states of Laos and Thailand. These mountains are sparsely populated by tribal minorities who traditionally have not acknowledged the border with Vietnam any more than lowland Lao have been constrained by the 1,754-kilometre Mekong River border with Thailand. Thus, ethnic minority populations are found on both the Laotian and Vietnamese sides of the frontier. Because of their relative isolation, contact between these groups and lowland Lao has been mostly confined to trading.

Geography of Laos

Laos is an independent republic, and a landlocked nation in Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam. It covers 236,800 square kilometers in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula and it is surrounded by Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam. About seventy percent of its geographic area is made up of mountain ranges, highlands, plateaux, and rivers cut through.

Its location has often made it a buffer between more powerful neighboring states, as well as a crossroads for trade and communication. Migration and international conflict have contributed to the present ethnic composition of the country and to the geographic distribution of its ethnic groups.

Geographic coordinates:
18°00′N 105°00′E / 18.000°N 105.000°E / 18.000; 105.000

Most of the western border of Laos is demarcated by the Mekong River, which is an important artery for transportation. The Dong Falls at the southern end of the country prevent access to the sea, but cargo boats travel along the entire length of the Mekong in Laos during most of the year. Smaller power boats and pirogues provide an important means of transportation on many of the tributaries of the Mekong.

The Mekong has thus not been an obstacle but a facilitator for communication, and the similarities between Laos and northeast Thai society—same people, almost same language—reflect the close contact that has existed across the river for centuries. Also, many Laotians living in the Mekong Valley have relatives and friends in Thailand.

Prior to the twentieth century, Laotian kingdoms and principalities encompassed areas on both sides of the Mekong, and Thai control in the late nineteenth century extended to the left bank. Although the Mekong was established as a border by French colonial forces, travel from one side to the other has been significantly limited only since the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR, or Laos) in 1975.

Laos shares its short—only 541 kilometres—southern border with Cambodia, and ancient Khmer ruins at Wat Pho and other southern locations attest to the long history of contact between the Lao and the Khmer. In the north, the country is bounded by a mountainous 423-kilometre border with China and shares the 235-kilometre-long Mekong River border with Burma.

The topography of Laos is largely mountainous, with the Annamite Range in the northeast and east and the Luang Prabang Range in the northwest, among other ranges typically characterized by steep terrain. Elevations are typically above 500 metres with narrow river valleys and low agricultural potential. This mountainous landscape extends across most of the north of the country, except for the plain of Vientiane and the Plain of Jars in the Xiangkhoang Plateau.

The southern "panhandle" of the country contains large level areas in SavannakhÃ©t and Champasak provinces that are well suited for extensive paddy rice cultivation and livestock raising. Much of Khammouan Province and the eastern part of all the southern provinces are mountainous. Together, the alluvial plains and terraces of the Mekong and its tributaries cover only about 20% of the land area.

Only about 4% of the total land area is classified as arable. The forested land area has declined significantly since the 1970s as a result of commercial logging and expanded swidden, or slash-and-burn, farming.

Laos has a tropical monsoon climate, with a pronounced rainy season from May through October, a cool dry season from November through February, and a hot dry season in March and April. Generally, monsoons occur at the same time across the country, although that time may vary significantly from one year to the next.

Rainfall varies regionally, with the highest amounts—3,700 millimeters (150 inches) annually—recorded on the Bolovens Plateau in Champasak Province. City rainfall stations have recorded that Savannakhét averages 1,440 millimeters (57 inches) of rain annually; Vientiane receives about 1,700 millimeters (67 inches), and Louangphrabang (Luang Prabang) receives about 1,360 millimeters (54 inches).

Rainfall is not always adequate for rice cultivation and the relatively high average precipitation conceals years where rainfall may be only half or less of the norm, causing significant declines in rice yields. Such droughts often are regional, leaving production in other parts of the country unaffected.

The average temperatures in January, coldest month, are, Luang Prabang 20.5 °C (minimum 0.8 °C), Vientiane 20.3 °C (minimum 3.9 °C), and Pakse 23.9 °C (minimum 8.2 °C); the average temperatures for April, usually the hottest month, are, Luang Prabang 28.1 °C (maximum 44.8 °C), Vientiane 39.4 °C). Temperature does vary according to the altitude, there is an average drop of 1.7 °C for every 1000 feet (or 300 meters). Temperatures in the upland plateux and in the mountains are considered lower than on the plains around Vientiane.

Agriculture in Laos is the most important sector of the economy. Five million out of 23,680,000 hectares of Laos's total land area is suitable for cultivation, and seventeen percent of the land area, between 850,000 and 900,000 hectares, is cultivated. Rice is the main crop grown during the rainy season both upland and wet. There is also a significant amount of fishing.

Agricultural cultivation is possible during with varying weather on a small portion of land area apart from the Vientiane plain and the lowlands along the Mekong Valley. These cultivated areas are situated in the valley cuts by the rivers or the plateau regions of Xieng Khouang in the North and in the Bolovens in the south. Typically there are only two ways to cultivate: either the wet-field paddy system practiced among the Lao Loum or lowland in Lao, or the swidden cultivation system practiced in the hills.

Laos has a smaller population than most countries in South East Asia. The first comprehensive national population census of Laos was taken in 1985; it recorded a population of about 3.57 million. In 1987, the population was officially stated as 3,830,000 and the capital city, Vientiane, had a population of 120,000. The annual growth was estimated at between 2.6 and 3.0 percent. The national birth rate is estimated at about forty-five per 1,000, while the dead rate estimates at around sixteen per 1,000. The fertility rates are higher between ages twenty and forty which highlights the average woman giving birth to an average of 6.8 children.

The overall population density was only eighteen persons per square kilometer, and in many districts the density was fewer than ten persons per square kilometer Population density per cultivated hectare was considerably high ranging from 3.3 to 7.8 persons per hectare. The population is ethically diverse, but a complete classification of all ethnic groups has never been undertaken. Discrepancies in the number of groups resulted from inconsistent definitions of what constitutes an ethnic group as opposed to a subgroup, as well as incomplete knowledge about the groups themselves.

Because of its mountainous topography and lack of development, Laos has few reliable transportation routes. This inaccessibility has historically limited the ability of any government to maintain a presence in areas distant from the national or provincial capitals and has limited interchange and communication among villages and ethnic groups.

The Mekong and Nam Ou are the only natural channels suitable for large-draft boat transportation, and from December through May low water limits the size of the draft that may be used over many routes. Laotians in lowland villages located on the banks of smaller rivers have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, and visiting up and down the river for limited distances.

Otherwise, travel is by ox-cart over level terrain or by foot. The steep mountains and lack of roads have caused upland ethnic groups to rely entirely on pack baskets and horse packing for transportation.

The road system is not extensive. A rudimentary network begun under French colonial rule and continued from the 1950s has provided an important means of increased inter-village communication, movement of market goods, and a focus for new settlements. In mid-1994, travel in most areas was difficult and expensive, and most Laotians traveled only limited distances, if at all. As a result of ongoing improvements in the road system started during the early 1990s, it is expected that in the future villagers will more easily be able to seek medical care, send children to schools at district centers, and work outside the village.

In October 2015 the first highway through the country was completed connecting southern China to Thailand.[1]

Inland waterways, including the Mekong River, is the second most important source of transport network. About 4,600 kilometers of navigable waterways are located within the Mekong, the Ou, and nine other rivers. The Mekong River is only navigable for about seventy percent of its length due to rapids and low water levels in the dry season.

Residents in the lower lands and villages of smaller river banks have traditionally traveled in pirogues for fishing, trading, or visiting up and down the river for limited distances. The public and private trade associations handle river traffic. There are a series of warehouses and ports in Savannakhet, Xeno, and Vientiane. The river transportation has improved since government policy expanded trade with Vietnam and other rural regions.

Expanding commercial exploitation of forests, plans for additional hydroelectric facilities, foreign demands for wild animals and nonwood forest products for food and traditional medicines, and a growing population have brought new and increasing attention to the forests. Traditionally, forests have been important sources of wild foods, herbal medicines, and timber for house construction.

Soils are found commonly throughout the floodplains. Typically, soils are formed from alluvium deposited by the rivers as either sandy clay in light colors or sand clay with gray or yellow colors. Upland soils derive from granitic, schistose, or sandstone parent rocks more acidic and less fertile. Southern Laos has areas of laterite soils, and basaltic soils in the Bolovens Plateau.

Plant Life and Animals

The north of Laos has tropical rain forests with broader leaved evergreens and monsoon forests of mixed evergreen and in the south is filled with deciduous trees. In the monsoon forest the ground is covered with tall, coarse grass. The trees mostly only reach their secondary growth. Typically there is an abundance of bamboo, scrub, and wild banana. Laos is also home to hundreds of species of orchids and palms.

Forests and fields serve as support for wildlife. Wildlife in Laos includes nearly 200 species of mammals, about the same number for reptiles and amphibians, and about 700 varieties of birds. Common mammals are gaurs (wild oxen), deer, bears, and monkeys. Endangered animals include elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, several types of wild oxen, monkeys, and gibbons. Snakes, skinks, frogs, and geckoes are abundant. Warblers, babblers, woodpeckers, thrushes, and large raptors inhabit the canopy and floor of the forest. Numerous of birds live in the lowlands. Lastly, several of Laos's birds are threaten including most hornillo, ibises, and storks.

Even into the 1990s, the government viewed the forest as a valued reserve of natural products for noncommercial household consumption. Government efforts to preserve valuable hardwoods for commercial extraction have led to measures to prohibit slash-and-burn agriculture throughout the country. Further, government restrictions on clearing forestland for slash-and-burn cropping in the late 1980s, along with attempts to gradually resettle upland slash-and-burn farming villages (ban) to lowland locations suitable for paddy rice cultivation, had significant effects on upland villages.

Traditionally, villages rely on forest products as a food reserve during years of poor rice harvest and as a regular source of fruits and vegetables. By the 1990s, however, these gathering systems were breaking down in many areas. At the same time, international concern about environmental degradation and the loss of many wildlife species unique to Laos has also prompted the government to consider the implications of these developments.

Despite forestation, some large areas are still covered by forest. The forest contains a rich diversity of species and which varies according to the terrain in the surrounding areas. The timber and other mineral sources from these areas have not yet been fully surfaced and the exploration for gold and petroleum has not been fully developed.

Several species, such as the Asian elephant, red panda, giant Mekong catfish, tiger, and clouded leopard are at risk as more land, forests, and mines rich in resources are sold off to neighboring countries.

Natural resources: timber, hydropower, gypsum, tin, gold, gemstones

Land use:
arable land: 6.2%
permanent crops: 0.7%
permanent pasture: 3.7%
forest: 67.9%
other: 21.5% (2011)

Irrigated land: 3,100 km² (2005)

Total renewable water resources: 333.5Â km3 (2011)

Area:
total: 236,800 km²
land: 230,800 km²
water: 6,000 km²

Area - comparative: slightly larger than Minnesota  slightly smaller than half of Yukon  slightly smaller than the United Kingdom

Land boundaries:
total: 5,083 km
border countries: Burma 235 km, Cambodia 541 km, the People's Republic of China 423 km, Thailand 1,754 km, Vietnam 2,130 km

Coastline: 0Â km (landlocked)

Maritime claims: none (landlocked)

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Mekong River 70 m
highest point: Phou Bia 2,817 m

Natural hazards: floods, droughts, blight and earthquakes in the northern areas.

Air pollution agricultural burning ("slash and burn"), garbage burning

Environment - current issues: unexploded ordnance; deforestation; soil erosion; a majority of the population does not have access to potable water

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Ptorocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements


who died in the cast of family matters

Michelle Doris Thomas (September 23, 1968 – December 22,[2][3][4] or 23,[1][5] 1998) was an American actress and comedian. She was best known for her roles as Justine Phillips on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1988–90), and Myra Monkhouse, Steve Urkel's girlfriend on the ABC/CBS sitcom Family Matters (1993–98).[1]

Michelle Thomas

Thomas was born in Brookline, Massachusetts[6] on September 23, 1968 to Dennis Thomas, a member of music group Kool & the Gang, and Phynjuar Thomas, a stage actress.[1] Thomas grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and was an alumna of West Essex High School; graduating in 1987.[7][1] She was crowned Miss Talented Teen New Jersey in Hal Jackson's Talented Teen pageant, and in July 1984, at the age of 15, became International Queen in the International competition in Montego Bay, Jamaica.[8][9][10]

From 1988 to 1990, Thomas portrayed Justine Phillips, the girlfriend of Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show. She later appeared on various television programs during the late 1980s and 1990s including A Man Called Hawk and Thea. Thomas had a role in Dream Date in 1989. In 1991, she had a small role in Hangin' with the Homeboys. Thomas also appeared in music videos for Boyz II Men, Mint Condition, Dru Hill, and Chubb Rock.

In 1993, Thomas won the role of Myra Monkhouse in Family Matters. In 1997, Thomas served as a guest host of the weekly music series Soul Train. After Family Matters ended in 1998, Thomas portrayed Callie Rogers Stark, an aspiring singer on The Young and the Restless. In October 1998, Thomas took a medical leave.[1]

In August 1997,[5] Thomas was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, intra-abdominal desmoplastic small-round-cell tumor.[11] She underwent surgery to remove a lemon-sized tumor shortly before landing her The Young and the Restless role in the spring of 1998. In October 1998, she underwent surgery after a second cancerous growth ruptured. After being released from the hospital, Thomas flew home to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with her family.[5]

On December 22,[12] or 23,[1] 1998, aged 30, she died surrounded by her family and friends in New York City at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,[13][12][14][1][3][5][11] On December 26, 1998, a Muslim funeral service was held, as per her request. She was buried in Montclair, New Jersey.[5]


the oldest museum in america the pennsylvania academy of fine arts was founded in

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the first and oldest art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Its archives house important materials for the study of American art history, museums, and art training.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) was founded in 1805 by painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other artists and business leaders. The growth of the Academy of Fine Arts was slow. For many years it held its exhibitions in an 1806 building, designed by John Dorsey with pillars of the Ionic order. It stood on the site of the later American Theater at Chestnut and 10th streets. The academy opened as a museum in 1807 and held its first exhibition in 1811, where more than 500 paintings and statues were displayed. The first school classes held in the building were with the Society of Artists in 1810.

The Academy had to be reconstructed after the fire of 1845. Some 23 years later, leaders of the academy raised funds to construct a building more worthy of its treasures. They commissioned the current Furness-Hewitt building, which was constructed from 1871. It opened as part of the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition.[4]

In 1876, former Academy student and artist Thomas Eakins returned to teach as a volunteer. Fairman Rogers, chairman of the Committee on Instruction from 1878 to 1883, made him a faculty member in 1878, and promoted him to director in 1882. Eakins revamped the certificate curriculum to what it used to be today. Students in the certificate program learned fundamentals of drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking (relief, intaglio, and lithography) for two years. For the next two years, they had conducted independent study, guided by frequent critiques from faculty, students, and visiting artists.

From 1811 to 1969, the Academy organized important annual art exhibitions, from which the museum made significant acquisitions. Harrison S. Morris, Managing Director from 1892 to 1905, collected contemporary American art for the institution. Among the many masterpieces acquired during his tenure were works by Cecilia Beaux, William Merritt Chase, Frank Duveneck, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, and Edmund Tarbell. Work by The Eight, which included former Academy students Robert Henri and John Sloan, is well represented in the collection. It provides a transition between 19th- and 20th- century art movements.

From 1890 to 1906, Edward Hornor Coates served as the tenth president of the Academy. In 1915, Coates was awarded the Academy's gold medal.[5] Painter John McLure Hamilton, who began his art education at the Academy under Thomas Eakins, in 1921 described the contributions Coates made during his tenure:

The reign of Mr. Coates at the Academy marked the period of its greatest prosperity. Rich endowments were made to the schools, a gallery of national portraiture was formed, and some of the best examples of Gilbert Stuart's work acquired. The annual exhibitions attained a brilliancy and éclat hitherto unknown... Mr. Coates wisely established the schools upon a conservative basis, building almost unconsciously the dykes high against the oncoming flow of insane novelties in art patterns... In this last struggle against modernism the President was ably supported by Eakins, Anschutz, Grafly, [Henry Joseph] Thouron, Vonnoh, and Chase... His unfailing courtesy, his disinterested thoughtfulness, his tactfulness, and his modesty endeared him to scholars and masters alike. No sacrifice of time or of means was too great, if he thought he could accomplish the end he always had in view—the honour and the glory of the Academy. It was under Mr. Coates' enlightened direction that was fulfilled the expressed wish of Benjamin West, the first honorary Academician, that "Philadelphia may be as much celebrated for her galleries of paintings by the native genius of the country, as she is distinguished by the virtues of her people; and that she may be looked up to as the Athens of the Western World in all that can give polish to the human mind."[6]

During World War I, Academy students were actively involved in war work. "About sixty percent of the young men enlisted or entered Government service, and probably all of the young women and all the rest of the young men were directly or indirectly engaged in war work."[7] A war service club was formed by students and a monthly publication, The Academy Fling, was sent to service members. George Harding, a former PAFA student, was commissioned captain during the war and created official combat sketches for the American Expeditionary Forces.

The 1844 Board of Directors' declaration that women artists "would have exclusive use of the statue gallery for professional purposes" and study time in the museum on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings signified a significant advance towards formal training in art for women.[8] Prior to the founding of the Academy, there were limited opportunities for women to receive professional art training in the United States. This period between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries shows a remarkable growth of formally trained women artists.

By 1860 female students were allowed to take anatomy and antique courses, drawing from antique casts.[9] In addition, women enjoyed their newly acquired library and gallery access. Life classes, the study of the nude body, were available to women in the spring of 1868 with female models; male models were added for study six years later. This came after much debate on whether it was appropriate for women to view the nude male form.

It took 24 years before women could take full advantage of all aspects of training at the prestigious institution.[10] After 1868 women took more active leadership roles and achieved influential positions. For example, in 1878 Catherine Drinker, at the age of 27, became the first woman to teach at the academy.[11] One of her pupils, her younger cousin Cecilia Beaux, would leave a lasting legacy at the academy as the first female faculty member to instruct painting and drawing, beginning in 1895.[12] By the 1880s women artists competed with men for top accolades and recognition. Not until much later, however, did the academy gain its first woman on the Board of Directors in 1950.

Even as women artists were making progress in the United States, they had difficulty studying in Europe. Women who chose to travel overseas typically studied the works of master artists in the galleries, not in classes. In this regard, the U.S. was more progressive than Europe at the time.[citation needed]

In 2010, The Academy acquired the Linda Lee Alter Collection of Art by Women, nearly 500 works by female artists, from collector Linda Lee Alter. Artists in the collection include those of international renown, such as Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Louise Nevelson, Kiki Smith and Kara Walker, as well renowned Philadelphia artists including Elizabeth Osborne. In 2012, The Academy featured the collection in the exhibition The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World. [13]

Since its founding, the Academy has collected works by leading American artists, as well as works by distinguished alumni and faculty of its school. Today, the Academy maintains its collecting tradition with the inclusion of works by modern and contemporary American artists. Acquisitions and exhibition programs are balanced between historical and contemporary art, and the museum continues to show works by contemporary regional artists and features annual displays of work by Academy students. The collection is installed in a chronological and thematic format, exploring the history of American art from the 1760s to the present.

The Academy was well known for its longstanding 4-year Certificate Program. Since 1929, qualified students were able to apply for and receive a coordinated Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Pennsylvania. Another BFA degree program is offered exclusively in-house (a recent addition) its Master of Fine Arts program, a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Graduate Studies, and extensive continuing education offerings, as well as programs for children and families.

In 2005, the Academy received the National Medal of Arts recognizing it as a leader in fine arts education.[2]

In January 2007, the Academy, in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, purchased Thomas Eakins's work The Gross Clinic from the Jefferson Medical School.[citation needed] This seminal American work will be displayed at both institutions on a rotating basis.

In January 2009, PAFA signed a historic transfer agreement with Camden County College, New Jersey.[14] The "Camden Connection" allows for the transfer of liberal arts and studio classes as well as providing, on a competitive basis, for partial merit scholarships specifically for Camden County College students. Other transfer agreements are now in place with the following community college art departments:[citation needed] Community College of Philadelphia, Montgomery County Community College, Atlantic Cape Community College, and Northampton Community College.

In 2013, PAFA received Middle States Commission for Higher Education (MSCHED) accreditation.

PAFA had offered a major in the Certificate and the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program.

Starting in Summer 2015,PAFA began offering a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program.

Since Fall 2015, PAFA offers courses in fine arts illustration, which complements painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture courses.

The current museum building began construction in 1871 and opened in 1876 in connection with the Philadelphia Centennial. Designed by the American architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt, it has been called "One of the most magnificent Victorian buildings in the country."[4] The building's facade draws from a number of different historical styles, including Second Empire, Renaissance Revival and Gothic Revival, amalgamated in an "aggressively personal manner".[4] The building's exterior coloration combines "rusticated brownstone, dressed sandstone, polished pink granite, red pressed brick, and purplish terra-cotta."[4]

The inside of the building is equally varied, combining "gilt floral patterns incised on a field of Venetian red;... [a] cerulean blue ceiling sprinkled with silver stars", and plum, ochre, sand and olive green gallery walls. The building's structure combines brick, stone and iron; because of fire-proofing concerns, some of the iron i-beams were left uncovered.[4]

The newly-built Academy of Fine Arts will bear comparison with any institution of its kind in America. It has a front of one hundred feet on Broad Street and a depth of two hundred and fifty-eight feet on Cherry Street. Its situation, with a street on each of its three sides, and an open space along a considerable portion of the fourth, is very advantageous as regards lighting, and freedom from risk by fire.

It is built of brick, the principal entrance, which is two stories high, being augmented with encaustic tiles, terra-cotta statuary, and light stone dressings. The walls are laid in patterns of red and white brick. Over the main entrance on Broad Street there is a large Gothic window with stone tracery. The Cherry Street front is relieved by a colonnade supporting arched windows, back of which is the transept and pointed gable.

Beyond the entrance vestibule is the main staircase, which starts from a wide hall and leads to the galleries on the second floor. Along the Cherry Street side of the Academy are five galleries arranged for casts from the antique; and, further on, are rooms for drapery painting, and the life class. These have a clear north light which can never be obstructed.

On the south side, there is a large lecture room, with retiring rooms, and back of these are the modeling rooms and rooms devoted to the use of students and professors.

On the second floor is the main hall, which extends across the building, and is intended for the exhibition of large works of art. This story is divided into galleries, which are lighted from the top. Through the center runs a hall which is set apart for the exhibition of statuary, busts, small statues, bas-reliefs, etc. On each side of this hall are picture galleries, which are so arranged in size and form as to admit of classification of pictures, and which can be divided into suits where separate exhibitions may be held at the same time.

The art collections of the gallery are considered the most valuable in America. They comprise the masterpieces of Stuart, Sully, Allston, West, and others of our early artists, the Gilpin gallery, fine marbles, and facsimiles of famous statues, as well as a magnificent gallery from the antique.[15]

The Academy building is Furness's best known work, and served to establish him as one of the country's top architects.[16] Despite being initially praised by critics, by the turn of the century, tastes had changed and the building was not considered appealing. Eventually, steps were taken to obscure its ornamentation to "modernize" it.

In the post-World War II era, the building was newly appreciated again, with the growth in the historic preservation movement making people more aware of treasures from the past. The building is now considered a masterpiece, one of the greatest buildings in Philadelphia and arguably Furness's greatest work. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.[17] In 1976 the building was fully restored, both its interiors and exteriors, to coincide with its centennial and with the United States bicentennial. The restoration work was conducted through Day and Zimmerman Associates, and headed by Human Myers.[18]

In 2002, Dorrance H. Hamilton made a large donation to the Academy for its expansion. It purchased the former automobile factory at 128 N. Broad Street, immediately adjacent to the original building. This had also been adapted for use as a federal office building for some years.

The structure was renamed in memory of her husband, Samuel M.V. Hamilton. It was renovated and the School of Fine Arts of the Academy completed its move there in September 2006. The building also contains a special exhibition space called the Fisher Brooks Gallery, named after James R. Fisher, an artist who attended PAFA in the late 1880s, and Leonie Brooks. They are the grandfather and mother, respectively, of Marguerite Lenfest, a philanthropist and PAFA board member. The Hamilton building also houses Portfolio, the museum's gift shop.

Notable Academy students, faculty and leaders include:

The Carol H. Beck Gold Medal was awarded to the best portrait by an American artist exhibited at PAFA's annual exhibition. It was awarded from 1909 to 1968.

The Mary Smith Prize was awarded to "the Painter of the best painting (not excluding portraits) exhibiting at the Academy, painted by a resident woman Artist."[22] It was awarded from 1879 to 1968.

The Joseph Temple Fund Gold Medal was awarded to the best oil painting by an American artist exhibited at PAFA's annual exhibition. It was awarded from 1883 to 1968.

The Academy established the George D. Widener Gold Medal for sculpture in 1912. Widener was a businessman and director of the Academy who died on the RMS Titanic. The award recognizes the "most meritorious work of Sculpture modeled by an American citizen and shown in the Annual Exhibition".[23]

In 2013, the Academy put up for sale East Wind Over Weehawken (1934), one of two Edward Hopper paintings in its collection, to start an endowment fund to buy contemporary art. About 25 percent of the endowment will be dedicated to filling gaps in the collection of historic art, but approximately three quarters of new investments are planned to be in contemporary art of undetermined value with hopes for dramatic increases in the future.[24] The painting was sold at auction for $40,485,000.[25] This added significantly to the museum's then-current endowment of approximately $23.5 million,[26] but raised new questions about the museum's mission and whether such deaccessionings are in the public interest.


who is the main character in catch 22

Captain John Yossarian is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 and its sequel Closing Time, and the protagonist of both books. In Catch-22, Yossarian is a 28-year-old Captain and B-25 bombardier in the 256th Bombardment Squadron of the Army Air Corps, stationed on the small island of Pianosa off the Italian mainland during World War II. Yossarian's exploits are based on the experiences of the author; Heller was also a bombardier in the Air Corps, stationed on an island off the coast of Italy during World War II.

List of Catch-22 characters

The following is a list of characters in the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

Tappman (also called R. O. Shipman in some editions) is a naÃ¯ve Anabaptist minister from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who is tormented throughout the novel by his rude, manipulative atheist assistant, Corporal Whitcomb. Easily intimidated by the cruelty of others, the Chaplain is a kind, gentle, and sensitive man who worries constantly about his wife and children at home.

A full colonel, Chuck Cathcart is a group commander at the U.S. Army Air Corps base in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As such, he does whatever it takes to please his superiors, in particular, by repeatedly raising the number of missions the men have to fly to complete a tour of duty beyond that normally required by other outfits. This becomes the bane of Yossarian's life, as every time he comes close to obtaining the target number of missions for being sent home, Colonel Cathcart raises the number again.

Dr. Dan Daneeka is the squadron flight surgeon and a friend of the novel's protagonist, Yossarian. Doc Daneeka's main motivation is for his own welfare, whether that be making money or protecting his own life. He generally forgets his moral duty as a physician except in the most extreme of circumstances. Doc Daneeka feels the military is responsible for him being drafted into the war effort and putting him in harm's way, because they were distrustful of him when he lied on his drafting papers about his health. He is constantly scared of upsetting his superiors who may see fit to then ship him off to the far more dangerous South Pacific. Already he sees it as military cruelty to have been assigned to the Air Corps even though he is scared of flying.

First Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is the mess officer at the U.S. Army Air Corps base and he becomes obsessed with expanding mess operations and trading goods for the profits of the syndicate (in which he and everyone else "has a share"). Milo is a satire of the modern businessman, and beyond that is the living representation of capitalism, as he has no allegiance to any country, person or principle unless it pays him and profit is generated. Milo even begins contracting missions for the Germans, fighting on both sides in the battle at Orvieto and bombing his own squadron.

Nately's family originally enlisted him to serve in the Air Corps, believing the war would be over by the time he finished his training and that he would mingle with "gentlemen." Therefore, Nately could gain the pride of enlisting without actually having to fight. Instead, he mingled with Yossarian and Dunbar, and was sent overseas. He lives in a tent with McWatt next to Havermeyer's tent. His most notable contribution in the book is his involvement with a whore, "Nately's Whore," who is for the most part uninterested in him until he saves her from a sleepless night with generals and so she gets an opportunity to get some sleep. He is often filled with American optimism, shown by his desire to marry his whore and send her kid sister to a respected college in the United States. He is killed on a mission when Dobbs flies his plane into Nately's. Nately's Whore blames Yossarian and spends the rest of the book trying to murder him.

A bomber pilot in the squadron who is continually being shot down and having to crash land in the sea. Described as "a warm-hearted, simple-minded gnome," Orr is the only person in the group considered to be crazier than his good friend Yossarian, with whom he shares a tent. He is declared MIA halfway through the book after crashing his plane in the Mediterranean but by the end it's revealed that he had rowed to the neutral zone in Sweden to escape the army, at which point Yossarian realizes that Orr's constant crashes had been part of his plan. Orr's survival inspires Yossarian to finally escape the army.

Snowden is a radio-gunner, a member of Yossarian's crew; when their aircraft is hit by anti-aircraft fire and Snowden is wounded, Yossarian attempts to treat his visible wounds, but misses a terrible, fatal, wound hidden by his clothing. Snowden's death acts as the catalyst for the change in Yossarian's mentality.

Captain Aardvaark (called Aarfy) is the navigator in Yossarian's B-25 bomber (but only when Yossarian is flying in the lead ship â€“ hence Aarfy's sporadic appearances in the air in the novel). He is oblivious to incoming flak, repeatedly gets lost on missions, and always smokes a pipe. He befriends Nately in the hope of working for Nately's wealthy father after the war. Aarfy sees himself as moral and protects well-connected women from the sexual advances of other officers, but he ends up raping and murdering the innocent maid Michaela, and when asked by Yossarian why he didn't simply hire a prostitute, repeats his common admonition that "Old Aarfy has never paid for it." He shows no remorse for these crimes until he begins to worry that he might be brought to justice for them.


who plays shane in transformers age of extinction

In January 2013, Reynor was cast as Shane, an Irish race car driver, in Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth film in the Transformers series.[5][6][7] The film was released in June 2014 and co-starred Mark Wahlberg and Nicola Peltz. He, Wahlberg and Peltz are contracted for three films, beginning a new Transformers trilogy. The feature shattered worldwide box office records, making just over $1.1 billion and becoming the highest grossing movie in Chinese history.[8]

Jack Reynor

Jack Reynor (born 23 January 1992) is an Irish-American actor. His notable roles include the lead in Lenny Abrahamson's film What Richard Did (2012), for which he won an IFTA Award for Best Film Actor; the blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction; Glassland, for which he won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival; Macbeth; and Sing Street.

Reynor was born in Longmont, Colorado, and initially lived in Boulder with his mother, Tara, a native of Ireland.[1] When he was two years old, he moved with her to Valleymount, County Wicklow, Ireland.[1][2] He went to primary school in the local village and spent his formative years in the rural countryside with his mother and maternal grandparents, Pat and Damien Reynor.[3] His interest in acting began when he played an altar boy on the set of Country, directed by Kevin Liddy, in 1999. He moved to Dublin in 2004 to attend Belvedere College, a private Jesuit school, where he performed onstage in numerous theatrical productions.

In early 2010, he was cast as Robbie, "the boy next door", in the live format, unscripted Dollhouse, directed by Kirsten Sheridan, which premiered at Berlinale 2012.[4] He depicted Richard Karlsen in Lenny Abrahamson's feature What Richard Did, which screened at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. The film portrays the fall of a high school rugby star and golden boy whose world unravels after his involvement in an act of careless violence. Reynor earned the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) award for best actor in 2013 for his performance, which paved the way for his booking as a smiling barista in the DreamWorks comedy-drama Delivery Man opposite Vince Vaughn.

Days after wrapping the T4 global press tour, Reynor travelled to London to shoot Andy Serkis' Netflix film, Mowgli, alongside Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The feature uses cutting-edge facial recognition technology that has been specifically invented for the project. Also that year, Reynor starred in upcoming writer/director Gerard Barrett's film Glassland with Toni Collette and Will Poulter, in which he plays a young taxi driver who struggles to instill a sense of structure in his life while his mother suffers from severe alcoholism. The film was released early 2015 and earned Reynor the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival.[9] After Glassland, Reynor shot Julian Jarrold's romantic comedy, A Royal Night Out.[10] His role opposite Sarah Gadon was the character RAF airman Jack, the young Princess Elizabeth's fictional romantic interest during the V.E. Day celebrations in 1945.

Reynor starred with Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and David Thewlis as Malcolm Canmore,[11] the rightful heir to the throne, in The Weinstein Company's feature film Macbeth,[12] directed by Justin Kurzel, which earned an unprecedented ten-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival[13] and premiered in Edinburgh in September 2015. Following on from the Scottish Film, Reynor next completed shooting John Carney's project playing Brendan in Sing Street,[14] set in 1980s Dublin. It premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Reynor has a younger brother and sister.[15] Reynor owns homes in Detroit, Los Angeles and Ireland. He is engaged to Irish fitness and fashion model Madeline Mulqueen.[16][17]


who gets their leg eaten in the walking dead

As the feast dies down, Bob steps outside the church weeping, having not told the group he was bitten by a walker at the food bank. He is knocked out by a hooded figure, and when he wakes, finds himself watched by Gareth (Andrew J. West), Martin (Chris Coy), and four other Terminus members, all seeking revenge towards Rick's group as their actions forced them to abandon Terminus and wander. Gareth says they have devolved into "hunters" and the shot expands to show that they have cut off Bob's leg and are eating it. Gareth casually states, "If it makes you feel any better, you taste much better than we thought you would".

Strangers (The Walking Dead)

"Strangers" is the second episode of the fifth season and 53rd episode overall of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on October 19, 2014. The episode was written by series creator Robert Kirkman and directed by David Boyd. In the episode, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln)'s group encounters a priest, Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam), who provides them solace in his church, while Rick contemplates Abraham Ford's (Michael Cudlitz) proposition to escort Dr. Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) to Washington, D.C. to cure the walker virus.

"Strangers" features the debut of Father Gabriel Stokes, a major protagonist of the graphic novels of the same name. Commentators gave the overall episode positive reviews, but most gave an alarmed response to the episode's ending scene, with some calling it one of the show's most shocking moments.

Upon airing, the episode was watched by 15.14 million viewers and received an 18-49 rating of 7.7, down a whole ratings point from the previous episode, which attained an 18-49 rating of 8.7.

Rick's (Andrew Lincoln) group continues to flee from Terminus, though Daryl (Norman Reedus) senses someone is following them. They rescue Father Gabriel Stokes (Seth Gilliam) from a horde of walkers, and Gabriel shows them to his church, where he has been living in solitude since the onset of the apocalypse, surviving on canned food from a food drive just prior. Rick is suspicious of Gabriel, and warns his son Carl (Chandler Riggs) that he should never let his guard down.

Gabriel suggests that Rick's group help scour a nearby food bank that is overrun by walkers. Rick, Michonne (Danai Gurira), Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green) join Gabriel as he leads them there. They start to deal with the walkers, when Rick sees Gabriel seemingly ready to submit to a female walker, but Rick dispatches the walker first. Bob is also attacked by a walker, but rescued by Sasha. As they collect the salvagable food, Rick realizes Gabriel knew the person that became that walker. The other members of the group do their own supply runs, and Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) find a working car nearby, which they plan to save as "backup". When Rick returns with his group, Carl shows him writing scratched into the woodwork of a windowsill outside the church: "you'll burn for this".

The group celebrates that night with a feast. Rick announces that he has decided to follow Abraham's (Michael Cudlitz) proposal to head to Washington, D.C. to deliver Eugene (Josh McDermitt) there to help work a cure for the outbreak. Gabriel sneaks off to be alone in his office, sadly looking at a photo of himself with the woman that became the walker from the food bank. Carol, who is still coming to terms with being exiled from the group previously, leaves to walk alone outside, and comes to find Daryl in the car they found. As she is about to talk to him, they see a car race by with a white cross in its back windshield, which Daryl recognizes as the car that took Beth. The two get in the car and set off to follow without telling the others.

Actor Andrew J. West addresses Gareth's presence in the episode, saying: "I read that script and when I got the last couple pages, I was just shocked â€” but in a good way. I was smiling from ear to ear. All Scott [M. Gimple] had told me was that I was in episode two. I kept reading and got to the final pages and my God. I'm a fan of the comic book, too, so that was informing what I was reading and I recognized certain things. But it was a huge surprise and a pleasant one at that for me to be able to get to do something like that."[1]

Certain elements of this episode were produced to resemble certain elements in "Volume 11", "Issue #63" of the comic book series, including:

Actor Andrew Lincoln (and others working with the show) insisted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that "It’s a grown-up show this season. And some of the violence is moving into a territory where it’s human violence, the most scary aspect of this show."[3]

Upon airing, the episode was watched by 15.143 million American viewers, with 9.796 million viewers aged 18-49 watching it, which translates to an 18-49 rating of 7.7.[4]

Commentators gave the episode very positive reviews, with many commenting on the introduction of Father Gabriel and the ending scene featuring Bob and Gareth. Rebecca Hawkes of The Telegraph gave the episode 4 stars out of 5, calling the episode "beautifully surreal."[5] She continued to say that the show "often excels at action-packed high drama, but it’s the quieter episodes that really reinforce the reality of life in a post-apocalyptic world – the idea that survival is one long slog."[5]

Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode an 8.8 out of 10, saying "Normally, since most of my issues with The Walking Dead involve character beats and decisions, I tend to dread the "come down" episodes a little bit. But "Strangers" managed to juggle the large ensemble very well while also keeping the story fresh and dangerous. The episode also raised legitimate questions about how to handle new faces on the road now that it's a clear given that people are far worse than the undead in this new world."[6]

The ending scene was given alarming reaction from critics. Andrew J. West's performance as Gareth was highly praised and liked how close it played to the comic. Kyle Ryan of Entertainment Weekly said "Last week’s explosive (literally) episode piled on the gore, pyrotechnics, and emotion so relentlessly that what followed it couldn't help but slow the pace considerably. But that doesn’t make "Strangers" slow or easy to watch: The gross-out scene Greg Nicotero giddily anticipated delivered in suitably nasty fashion, and the ending pulled a nice fake-out with Bob before delivering him to the former Terminans, now all but officially known as the Hunters."[7] Allen St. John of Forbes pondered whether or not this was the most shocking moment ever on the series, saying "Yes, I know that this is a show in which a 13-year-old kid shoots his mother to keep her from turning into a walker. And one in which Rick bit open the neck of a would-be killer. And the less said about what happened at The Grove, the better. And somehow, this moment has been worse than any of them. Bob being eaten alive by a hipster. (Before writing poor Bob’s obituary, note that Hershel survived a good long time on one leg.)"[8] Terri Schwartz of Zap2it gave similar comments, saying "surprisingly Father Gabriel Stokes wasn't the biggest arrival in the episode. Though he is a man who -- as is repeatedly said in the series -- clearly has something to hide, it's the reveal that Gareth and the Terminans have turned into the Hunters from "The Walking Dead" comics that is the most skin-crawling, stomach-turning moment in the episode;"[9] Lisa Respers France of CNN simply stated "how gross was that?"[10] Patrick Kevin Day of The Los Angeles Times compared Bob's fate to that of Mrs. Landingham's from The West Wing, saying "the former army medic who has battled his demons in the past, but seemed to have at long last found love with Sasha [...]. Suddenly, Bob was everywhere this episode, smiling and smooching and looking like the love in his heart was enough to fight back the apocalypse around him. We should have known that he was about to get Mrs. Landingham-ed."[11]


who plays lucas in days of our lives

Bryan Ronald Dattilo (born July 29, 1971)[1] is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Lucas Horton on the NBC daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives.

Bryan Dattilo

Dattilo was born in Kankakee, Illinois, subsequently moving to West Palm Beach, Florida after his parents' divorce. He later moved to Los Angeles. At the age of 9, he began taking acting lessons with his sister, Kristin. A short time later, he landed his first acting job in a re-curring role on HBO's Not Necessarily The News.

Dattilo has one brother, Brent, one sister, Kristin, and three half-sisters, Tiffany, Anna, and Tess.[2]

In 1989, Dattilo graduated from Beverly Hills High School. He attended Santa Monica College in Santa Monica and majored in Psychology.[2]

Dattilo was married to Jessica Denay and they have a son, Gabriel (Gabe), who has high-functioning autism. He is actively involved with Autism charities and "raising Autism awareness".

On July 12, 2011, Dattilo married Elizabeth Cameron in Palos Verdes, California.[3]

Along with his regular appearance on the soap, he has starred in a number of independent films, including the award-winning short film, Gaydar. He has also had numerous guest starring roles on a variety of television programs including Saved by the Bell, CSI: NY, California Dreams, Doogie Howser, M.D., In the Heat of the Night, and Charles In Charge.

He returned to the role of Lucas Horton on Days Of Our Lives in February 2012.[4]