where does mad max video game take place

Mad Max is an action-adventure video game based on the Mad Max franchise. Developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in September 2015. Feral Interactive published the game's macOS and Linux versions. In the game, players control Max Rockatansky as he progresses through the wasteland building a vehicle, his "Magnum Opus", to do battle with a gang of raiders, led by Scabrous Scrotus, and to reach the storied "Plains of Silence", where he hopes to find peace. Mad Max emphasizes vehicular combat, in which players can use weapon and armor upgrades on their car to fight enemies. It is set in an open post-apocalyptic wasteland consisting of deserts, canyons, and caves.

Mad Max (2015 video game)

Two other Mad Max games, developed by Cory Barlog and Interplay Entertainment respectively, were in production before the announcement of this game, but neither of them were successfully released. Although Mad Max is not based on the film series, it was inspired by its universe, and franchise creator George Miller was consulted during the game's pre-production. Avalanche Studios found developing a vehicular-combat video game a challenge because of their inexperience with creating that type of game. Announced at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game was re-tooled during development and the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were canceled.

Originally planned for release in 2014, it was released in September the following year, several months after the theatrical release of Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film in the series. Mad Max received overall mixed reviews from critics. Although the game's environment, direction, vehicular combat, and graphics were praised, its quest design and story were criticized. The game became the eighth best-selling retail game in the US in September 2015.

Mad Max is an action-adventure game set in an open world post-apocalyptic environment, emphasizing vehicular combat, in which the player is the eponymous Mad Max (Bren Foster). According to its publisher, up to 60 percent of the game focuses on driving.[2] Some weapons and tools, including flamethrowers and turbo boosts, are mounted directly onto the Magnum Opus, while others, such as a grappling hook and sniper rifle, are used in conjunction with the vehicle by Chumbucket, Max's assistant, or Max himself. Max's Magnum Opus, with its V8 engine and powerful ramming ability, can destroy enemies' vehicles and weaponry.[3] When simultaneously driving and aiming, the game changes to slow motion[4] to allow the player to toggle between targets. Although Mad Max primarily uses a third-person perspective, the player can switch to first-person view when fighting enemies while driving the Magnum Opus.[5] Chumbucket repairs the car when instructed to do so or when the player exits.[6]

To encourage exploration, the Magnum Opus can be upgraded with materials scavenged from the desert, by hijacking enemies' cars or collecting their car parts.[2][7] An enemy can jump on top of the Magnum Opus to make it explode, but the player can avoid that by surrounding the car with hazards such as spikes.[3] The player can access the garage screen throughout the game, allowing them to customize the Magnum Opus. Max's garage can change and modify the car's engine, chassis, wheels, body work, paint job, and its "shell".[8] Upgrading one aspect of the car will negatively affect other aspects; upgrading the engine will allow Max to drive faster, but handling will be more difficult.[9] The sound produced by the engine changes when the player changes, adds, or remove parts of the Magnum Opus.[10] Max, his armor, and weapons are customisable;[11] the player can unlock new skills and upgrades for him as he progresses through the game and earns experience points.[12] Max is also customisable, with his clothing, appearance, fighting skills, and weapons being modifiable. Griffa, a wasteland wanderer, also offers Max tokens which can be used to upgrade his abilities.[13]

Although the game has many choices (such as playing stealthily or aggressively), it emphasizes action over stealth.[14] Mad Max features a variety of weapons, including Max's iconic shotgun, but ammunition is scarce and the game emphasizes melee combat over firearms.[15] One weapon is the explosive Thunderstick, which can be lanced into an enemy's chest.[16] The game has a free-flow combat system combining professional wrestling attacks and boxing techniques, similar to Warner Bros.' previous Batman: Arkham video-game series (in which indicators on enemies' heads remind the player when to strike, counter or make finishing moves). Attacks by Max during his "frenzied" state are more powerful than usual.[17][18]

Mad Max's landscape consists of canyons, caves, deserts, and abandoned wastelands. The game's world is divided into several regions, with each having its own backstory and landscape. Unique landmarks and ruins can be discovered in each region. Side activities such as races, time trials,[19] invading enemy fortresses, and eliminating enemy convoys can be found in each region. A region's threat level is lowered by completing these activities, facilitating its navigation.[17] Each region has a boss, who can be found and defeated in their base.[20] Some of the game's strongholds are friendly, and eliminating hostile strongholds gives Max additional quests and rewards.[21] These strongholds can be upgraded, offering Max different benefits such as helping Max to collect scraps when the game is turned off, or restoring Max's health and shotgun ammo upon visits.[22] Max can ascend in a hot-air balloon (permanently attached to the ground) to look for new objectives and locations. After seeing the objectives through binoculars, they are highlighted on the map.[7] Max can be guided by Chumbucket in strategically completing his objectives.[23][24] Max is accompanied by a dog companion called Dinki-Di, who can help players detect land mines.[25] Max has limited climbing abilities, and objects that he can climb are highlighted in yellow.[22]

Most resources in the game are scarce except for gasoline, which is needed for driving. The player can collect one jerrycan at a time, storing it in the back of the Magnum Opus,[26] and can find collectibles (history relics) throughout the game. The relics are primarily photos and notes of the wasteland before the apocalypse.[27] Food and water are vital to Max's survival; the player can collect them in the wasteland and use them to replenish their health.[28] Max can also eat small animals, such as rodents, and maggots from decomposing corpses, to replenish his health, and areas where he can find food and supplies have crows flying around them.[29] The player can venture into the Big Nothing, an uncharted, volatile area of the wasteland with dangerous sandstorms and no food or water in which rare parts for the Magnum Opus can be found. According to Avalanche, due to the "Big Nothing", the game's map is infinite.[30] A dynamic day-night cycle, a weather system and a variety of environmental hazards are included in the game,[31] whose terrain is affected by weather and natural disasters.[2]

In search of fuel, highway patrol officer-turned-survivalist Max Rockatansky journeys to the Plains of Silence. His voyage takes an unexpected turn when he runs into a group of War Boys led by Scabrous Scrotus (Travis Willingham), psychotic son of Immortan Joe (Fred Tatasciore) and ruler of Gastown. Scrotus and the War Boys run Max off the road and steal his clothes, supplies, weapons and car, leaving him to die in the desert. Max chases them and challenges Scrotus to a duel on the Land Mover. Scrotus sticks his dog on Max but fails and is brutally kicked off the moving Land Mover by him. He stabs Scrotus in the head with his own chainsaw but is no match for Scrotus, who kicks Max and his dog out of the Land Mover.[32]

With his dog, Max obtains a weapon and clothes from a dead Wastelander. Wandering around the desert, Max finds an overzealous, hunchbacked mechanic named Chumbucket (Jason Spisak) who calls him the Driver. Chumbucket leads Max to Scrotus and the War Boys and tells him that he built a car, the Magnum Opus, which has a few missing parts; Max agrees to search for them. Max must first liberate Wasteland leaders' territories from the War Boys: Jeet (Josh Keaton), whose stronghold is in an old lighthouse, and Gut Gash (Liam O'Brien), whose followers believe that they will be protected from a flood in their ship stronghold. His stronghold is the remains of an oil tanker. He must penetrate the Jaw, a massive gate protected by War Boys, with the Magnum Opus outfitted with the Thunderpoon (an exploding harpoon). Max and Chumbucket must then save Pink Eye (Adrienne Barbeau), a woman whose mechanical skill rivals Chumbucket's, from an invasion led by Stank Gum—one of Scrotus' Top Dogs—of her silo base.

Searching for a V8 engine for the Magnum Opus, Max learns about a race in Gastown with a Big Chief V8 as a prize. After winning the race against Stank Gum (Yuri Lowenthal) and defeating the fighter Tenderloin in a Thunderdome duel, Max receives the engine and the concubine Hope (Courtenay Taylor). His victory is short-lived; Scrotus delivers the prize and attacks him. After he is shot with a crossbow and thrown down a mine shaft Max is saved by Hope, who takes him to the Organic Mechanic and Scab (Orion Acaba)â€”also known as the Bloodbag. While Max is undergoing surgery, he has a hallucination that his wedding to Hope is officiated by Chumbucket and a man with a dog's head. When he wakes up, he and Hope steal the Big Chief; they drive to the temple of Deep Friah (Robin Atkin Downes), a friendly fire cultist.

At the temple Hope asks Max to find her daughter, Glory (Madison Carlon), who had fled to Buzzard territory. He eventually agrees, and travels to the Underdune. After Max rescues Glory from the Buzzards he returns to the temple to discover that Chumbucket, in a fit of jealous rage, had brought the Magnum Opus back to his old home in the south. Max follows him in one of Deep Friah's cars, but learns that Scrotus and Stank Gum had arrived first. They tortured Chumbucket, who revealed Hope and Glory's location and their ties to Max. Max kills Stank Gum, rushes back to the temple and finds Hope hanged to death and Glory (who had also been tortured) on the floor. Glory soon dies too, and Max swears vengeance against Scrotus.

He returns to Gastown and learns Scrotus' location from Scab. Max and Chumbucket find Scrotus driving around the Purgatory Flatlands, an area far away from the Great White and use the Magnum Opus to crash the Land Mover, which is pushed to the edge of a cliff. Max wants to push the Mover off the cliff with the Magnum Opus but is opposed by Chumbucket, who considers himself the car's protector. Ignoring Chumbucket, he rams the Mover at full speed; Chumbucket dies, and the Land Mover and Magnum Opus are destroyed. Scrotus escapes with the Interceptor, Max's car at the start of the game, and challenges him. Max wins the battle, pulling the chainsaw blade out of Scrotus' head and killing him. The game ends with Max entering the Interceptor and placing a picture of his family on the dashboard before he leaves for parts unknown.

A video game set in the Mad Max universe was mentioned by franchise creator George Miller in a 2008 interview.[33] Miller joined God of War II director Cory Barlog to develop the game after Barlog left Sony Computer Entertainment. The project was originally intended as a tie-in with a Mad Max animated film which would be released simultaneously. The film's production was suspended to allow adequate production time for the game.[34] After Barlog announced in 2008 that a publisher for the game was being sought, no further information about the project was forthcoming.[35] In 2010, Barlog was a consultant for Avalanche Studios, leaving in 2012 for Crystal Dynamics.[36] A Fury Road tie-in video game was in development by Interplay Entertainment, but was scrapped when Electronic Arts acquired the franchise's video-game rights for $20 million.[37]

On 14 February 2013, a blurry screenshot of the game was released by Avalanche Studios founder and CEO Christofer Sundberg.[38] The game was announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on 10 June at Sony's press conference, with a scheduled 2014 release for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.[39] Although Sundberg said during the expo that Miller and Barlog's project was not the Mad Max game announced by Avalanche, he later said that Barlog had worked on a Mad Max game at Avalanche.[40] Despite the unclear relationship between the projects, according to the game's design director, Miller had collaborated with Avalanche during the game's pre-production in mid-2011.[35] Despite having Miller to offer input, Warner Bros. inclined to give lots of creative freedom to Avalanche. Full production of the game began before May 2012.[41]

In April 2014, Avalanche announced that Mad Max would be delayed until the following year,[42] making it one of the titles released during Avalanche's "biggest year since [its] inception".[43][44] The game was retooled during development.[45][46] Despite its release that year, the game is not directly connected to 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road and was not intended to be a tie-in;[47] its setting and story are original.[14] This decision was made because the game's publisher, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, believed that a standalone game was more beneficial to players than a "play-the-movie game" after the success of its Batman: Arkham series.[45] Locations which have appeared in the films, such as Gas Town and Thunderdome, are featured in the game.[48][49] Unlike previous Avalanche games, such as Just Cause 2, the game's tone is more mature[50] and its narrative is emphasized.[51]

Similar to the films, Max seldom speaks or expresses emotion; his thoughts are reflected by his actions. The team aimed at developing a complex character and personality for him. According to the game's director, Max is traumatized by past experiences (such as losing his family); this makes him "insane", "unstable", and "mad". These qualities are reflected in the game's "rage" mode, in which Max inflicts additional damage on enemies.[52] Chumbucket, Max's mechanic and companion, is obsessed with the Magnum Opus; according to the game's lead writer, he "has a pseudo-religious/sexual relationship with engines".[53] Scabrous Scrotus, the game's main antagonist, is a warlord designed as a "bloodthirsty monster that only can find solace from his own pain through the suffering of others".[54] Enemies' faces are painted and scarred; according to game director Frank Rooke, their appearance "is kind of the approach of how this civilization merged into this kind of state".[54]

Lead designer Emil Krafting said that gameplay was the top priority during development. Like the Just Cause series, Mad Max's developer aimed to give players autonomy by providing tools to create their own events.[55] The studios intended to build a dynamic world, creating "a seamless series of events".[26] The game was inspired by the atmosphere of the Mad Max universe, rather than a particular film in the series. According to Avalanche, they did not plan to be influenced by other post-apocalyptic video games such as Fallout, Rage, and Borderlands since most of those games were inspired by the original Mad Max.[32] The company said that the game's vehicular combat posed a challenge because of their inexperience with that type of game.[32] The car customization system was designed to increase the game's fun factor and give players more freedom.[56]

The game's world was inspired by the Just Cause series, which features large sandboxes for players to explore. Avalanche Studios CEO Christofer Sundberg hoped that players would compare Mad Max's desert setting to the western setting of Red Dead Redemption. The game world is scaled according to gameplay density and frequency; the development team emphasized creating a world with choices and distractions, rather than focusing on size.[45] Designed as dead, threatening, and hostile, it is also exciting and engaging (encouraging exploration).[57] One challenge faced by the developers was building a wasteland with a variety of environments, since Mad Max is Avalanche's first post-apocalyptic game.[32] They spent most of their time designing ground and terrain variations to minimize repetition in the landscape.[45] Since the game is set in a desert, the team used vibrant colors for the sky.[58] Avalanche Studios sent a team to a Costa Rican jungle to inspect local landscapes and environments in preparation for creating the world of Mad Max, particularly its sky.[59] Like the films, the game does not identify the apocalypse; its developers wanted to give "a sense of mystery" to the wasteland so players could imagine how the wasteland evolved.[60] Garages allowing players to upgrade and repair their cars were originally intended to be featured in the game. The idea was later scrapped, since the studio thought the element "interfered with gameplay".[29]

Mad Max is powered by Apex Engine (formerly known as Avalanche Engine), an in-house proprietary engine developed by Avalanche and also used in Just Cause 2.[61] According to lead graphics designer Alvar Jansson, new graphical features were introduced to the engine during the development of Mad Max and it was designed and optimized for open-world games.[62] The team also worked on improving the world's draw distance and ensuring that gameplay across the three major platforms have no significant difference.[56]

Gaming journalists invited to preview a private gameplay demonstration at E3 2013 noted that Max had an American accent, rather than the Australian accent of the film series, and fans protested his new American voice; Avalanche Studios later confirmed that he would have an Australian accent.[63][64][65][66] The game's setting is described as "wasteland creole", with elements of a number of civilizations, so its characters have a variety of accents.[67]

Mad Max was released on 1 September 2015 in North America and the United Kingdom, 2 September in Australia, 3Â September in New Zealand and 4 September in Europe for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.[68][69] It was announced on 3 May 2015 that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions had been cancelled due to hardware restrictions, but a Linux port was announced.[70] The game was released for Linux and macOS on 20 October 2016.[71]

Players who pre-ordered the game could receive the Ripper, an additional Magnum Opus design.[72] The Ripper, a steelbook, collector's box, mini-license plate and Blu-ray copy of Mad Max: Fury Road were included in the Post-Apocalypse Edition.[73] PlayStation 4-version purchasers could access a Road Warrior Survival Kit,[74] with twelve hood ornaments for the Magnum Opus,[75] exclusively until 30 November 2015.[76] To promote Mad Max, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment sponsored launch events. In Australia, the company invited artists to create artwork on their vehicles with dust.[77] They joined Uber for a Seattle promotion in which Uber users could access a free ride "straight from the post-apocalypse". The offer was free, since "dollars are worthless in the wasteland".[78]

Before release, Mad Max received positive reviews. Game Revolution called its gameplay "exhilarating, fast, violent, and fun" and said it would be the title that fans of the series would want to play.[79] Hardcore Gamer thought the game could be "the biggest surprise of 2015" and praised its vehicle customization, which it compared to the ship customization of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.[80] According to IGN, Mad Max was 2015's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.[81] PC Gamer expressed concern that the game "is trying to be too many things at once"[20] and some critics compared it negatively to the critically acclaimed film Mad Max: Fury Road.[82][83]

Mad Max received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[84][85][86]

Its story received a mixed response. Brandin Tyrrel of IGN found the story surprising and genuine, despite most of the action occurring later in the game. Tyrrel wrote that the characters have different personalities and distinct qualities, and considered them the "true star" of the game.[55] According to Chris Carter of Destructoid, the game's story engages the player.[87] Leon Hurley of GamesRadar found the overall story weak and "barely exist[ing] for the majority of the game", but thought the game's climax was exciting.[90] Matt Bertz of Game Informer also criticized the story, calling it thin and light, and called the voice actors' performances uneven.[89]

Mad Max's world design received generally positive reviews. According to Brandin Tyrrel, it captured the films' savage tone and the game's sandbox was a "gorgeous" setting for players to explore.[93] GamesRadar's Leon Hurley praised the game's scale, which he compared to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.[90] Martin Robinson of Eurogamer compared its scale favorably to Avalanche's previous Just Cause game series, and opined that Avalanche had successfully combined the Mad Max universe with an open-world game design.[88] Matt Bertz praised the game's inhospitable atmosphere, commending Avalanche for adding a variety of styles and a vibrant sky to an otherwise-boring sandbox. Daniel Bloodworth of GameTrailers echoed Bertz, calling each region unique and distinct. Bloodworth also praised Avalanche for its efforts in crafting the world. Peter Brown of GameSpot praised Mad Max's natural disasters, writing that it set a new standard for in-game weather effects.[91] Philip Kollar of Polygon criticized the game's layout, writing that every location in the game feels identical and its bland environments discourage exploration.[94]

Tyrrel considered the vehicular combat one of the game's best elements, adding a layer of creativity. Brown praised the car action, calling it intense, complex, and unpredictable, but criticized the over-simplistic and shallow on-foot combat.[91] Carter compared the game's vehicular controls to the best racing games, and commended its handling. He also praised the car mechanics, writing that it has offered players a cinematic experience.[87] Tyrrel liked the additions to the game's combat (such as the introduction of weapons and the Fury mode), writing that they added depth to the combat.[93] Hurley praised the game's progression system, which he found satisfying, and the balance between vehicular and on-foot combat.[90] Bloodworth wrote that the melee combat used a "tried-and-true system" which worked well, despite awkward camera angles. Kollar criticized the boss fights, which he thought lacked variety.[94]

Other gameplay aspects received mixed reviews. Tyrrel praised the customization system for Max and the Magnum Opus, since the customization impacts the gameplay and makes the overall experience more rewarding;[93] Kollar echoed this.[94] Brown criticized the game for failing to offer much challenge or a sense of accomplishment to players. He called the health system a redundant addition in which resources, such as water and food, play an insignificant role and can be neglected by players. Brown also criticized the scrap-collecting system, writing that it frustrated most players and slowed the game's pace.[91] However, Robinson wrote that those elements reflect the barbarian nature of the wasteland. He praised its world design (which he thought echoed the films), describing it as "a world of twisted metal and sudden violence that's there to be survived rather than conquered".[88] Bloodworth criticized the game's stronghold system, which he called repetitive. Brown criticized the game's lack of a climbing system, which hinders movement;[89] this was echoed by Carter.[87]

Mad Max's quest design also received mixed reviews. Tyrrel praised the content and activities scattered across the world, calling the activities engaging for most players. However, he disliked the repetition which dragged down their replay value.[93] Hurley found it easy for players to become confused in the game's early stages, since the objectives are unclear.[90] Brown criticized the structure of several quests which force players to use a certain method, removing freedom and creativity.[91] Chris Carter of Destructoid wrote that the game brought nothing new to the genre, and its quests and features were too similar to typical Ubisoft open-world design.[87]

The game had some technical problems when it was released. Tyrrel noted an unstable frame rate and occasional texture pop-up,[93] and Kollar identified audio problems.[94]

Mad Max was the second-best selling game in the United Kingdom in its first week of release on the UK software retail chart, only behind Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which was released the same day.[95] According to the NPD Group, it was the eighth-best selling game in the US in September 2015.[96]


is there a toll on the midtown tunnel in norfolk

The Midtown Tunnel crosses the main channel of the Elizabeth River in the South Hampton Roads area of Virginia where it is one of two tunnels that link the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. It carries U.S. Highway 58 and operated without tolls until February 1, 2014.

Midtown Tunnel (Virginia)

The two-lane Midtown Tunnel was completed September 6, 1962, supplementing the Downtown Tunnel and the Berkley Bridge. It was the second fixed crossing directly between Portsmouth and Norfolk across the Elizabeth River. It was financed and built by the Elizabeth River Tunnel Commission with toll revenue bonds. In 1988 and 1989, during an expansion of I-264, the Downtown Tunnel and the Berkley Bridge were rebuilt and expanded. Tolls were also removed from the Midtown and Downtown tunnels at that time. Prior to 2007, the westbound lane of US Route 58, right before the tunnel's entry, had an HOV lane that spanned a total of 25 yards. Until its removal during construction in 2007, this lane allowed HOV traffic to merge in right at the tunnel entrance. There is some speculation that this might have been the shortest HOV lane in the United States, and possibly the world.

During its first year of operation, 8,400 vehicles per day crossed through the tunnel. As port traffic expanded between Norfolk International Terminals and Portsmouth Marine Terminal during the 1980s, tunnel volumes increased year over year, reaching 40,000 vehicles per day in 2013, 3% of which is at least a truck with one trailer (as is typical of trucks leaving the port).[1] As this number greatly exceeds its original capacity, hours of congestion are both a routine and daily occurrence at the crossing.[2]

In September, 2003, the Midtown Tunnel was flooded and seriously damaged by Hurricane Isabel. The facility is equipped with floodgates designed for closure to protect it from flooding during extreme weather conditions such as East Coast hurricanes. As flood waters were rising during the storm, workers were unable to remove plates that were both bolted and tack-welded to the roadbed. As a result, the flood gates could not be completely closed and the tunnel filled with an estimated 44 million gallons of water. The tunnel suffered substantial electrical and mechanical damage, but was not damaged structurally. It was closed for nearly four weeks as water and sediment was pumped out, systems inspected, and essential repairs were completed.[3] It was later determined that managers of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) had failed to adequately test the floodgates. VDOT revamped its operating procedures at all of its tunnels in the wake of the incident. Studies of additional harbor crossings have also gained additional attention since then.

The need for expanded capacity at the Midtown Tunnel location has been well known and documented for decades, but developing a successful funding strategy to expand the tunnel has remained elusive over time. In 2006, the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) undertook a study to determine the feasibility of utilizing toll financing to support the regionâ€™s high priority unfunded transportation projects, which included the Midtown Tunnel Project. This analysis concluded that the development and enhancements of the Midtown Tunnel and MLK Freeway Extension projects could be financially feasible if tolls were also collected to supplement inadequate public funds. This would include tolling the parallel Downtown Tunnel to create a congestion management plan to prevent the diversion of potential Midtown Tunnel traffic to a competing free facility.

After numerous studies and legislative attempts to fund the project publicly, Governor Bob McDonnell and VDOT in 2011 contracted with Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC) to build a new Midtown Tunnel, rehabilitate the existing Midtown Tunnel as well as the Downtown Tunnels, and extend the Martin Luther King Freeway. Under the agreement VDOT retained ownership and oversight of the tunnels, however ERC will finance, build, operate and maintain the facilities for a 58-year concession period. ERC will also assume risk of delivering the project on a performance-based, fixed-price, fixed-date contract, protecting users and taxpayers from cost overruns and delays.[4][5] Funding is expected from tolls, private equity, contributions from the Commonwealth and a low-interest Federal Highway Administration loan.[6] Operation of the tunnel system was turned over to ERC on July 12, 2012.[7]

Fabrication on the new Midtown Tunnel began in November 2012 in Sparrows Point, Maryland. The tunnel's 11 concrete elements are towed down the Chesapeake Bay to the Project site in Portsmouth for immersion and placement under the Elizabeth River. As of March 2015, the first six elements are in place and production of the remaining five tunnel elements is in progress. Upon completion of construction, traffic in the existing Midtown Tunnel will be converted to one-way eastbound from Portsmouth to Norfolk and the new 2-lane tunnel will carry westbound traffic from Norfolk to Portsmouth. Rehabilitation work will also begin in the existing tunnel once the new tunnel is opened. The new, westbound tunnel opened to traffic at 1:40pm EST on June 17, 2016, with rehabilitation on the eastbound tunnel to be completed mid-2018.[8][9]

As a part of the funding structure for the project, tolls were established by ERC. Tolls were originally scheduled to begin in late-summer 2012 (in conjunction with ERC assuming operation and maintenance duties in July 2012), however the McDonnell administration authorized a $100 million buydown suspension of the tolls until January 2014. This also gave time for a civil lawsuit to work its way to the Virginia Supreme Court who ruled on the case in November 2013, allowing tolling to begin in February 2014. It will continue through April 13, 2070.

Tolls were originally scheduled to begin at rates of $1.59/non-peak hours and $1.84/peak for cars and $4.77/non-peak and $7.34/peak for heavy vehicles.[5] However, as part of an agreement with ERC, Governor Terry McAuliffe and VDOT agreed to pay ERC $82 million to reduce the toll rates to 75¢/off-peak and $1/peak for cars, and $1.50/off-peak and $4.00/peak heavy vehicles in 2014, with a 25¢ increase every year until the new Midtown Tunnel opens (or until the end of 2017), at which time the toll rates would then return to their originally scheduled rates.[10][11]

After that, rates will increase annually by a factor equal to the greater of changes to Consumer Price Index or 3.5 percent.[12]


where did the measurement of a mile come from

With qualifiers, "mile" is also used to describe or translate a wide range of units derived from or roughly equivalent to the Roman mile, such as the nautical mile (now 1.852 km exactly), the Italian mile (roughly 1.852 km), and the Chinese mile (now 500 m exactly). The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 feet but the greater importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile then spread to the British-colonized nations who continue to employ the mile. The US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile (6336/3937 km) continues to see some use. While most countries replaced the mile with the kilometre when switching to the International System of Units, the international mile continues to be used in some countries, such as Liberia, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a number of countries with fewer than one million inhabitants, most of which are UK or US territories, or have close historical ties with the UK or US.

Mile

The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344Â metres by international agreement in 1959.

The mile was usually abbreviated m. in the past but is now sometimes written as mi to avoid confusion with the SI metre; road signs in the United Kingdom continue to use m as the abbreviation for mile. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be universally abbreviated as mph, mpg, and so on.

The modern English word mile derives from Middle English myl and Old English mīl, which was cognate with all other Germanic terms for "miles". These derived from apocopated forms of the Latin mīlia or mīllia, the plural of mīle or mīlle,[n 1] literally "thousand" but used as a clipped form of mīlle passus or passuum, the Roman mile of one thousand paces.[1]

The present international mile is usually what is understood by the unqualified term "mile." When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, the international mile may also be described as a "land mile" or "statute mile."[2] In British English, the "statute mile" may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament which set it as a distance of 1,760Â yards. Under American law, however, the "statute mile" refers to the US survey mile.[3] Foreign and historical units translated into English as miles usually employ a qualifier to describe the kind of mile being used but this may be omitted if it is obvious from the context, such as a discussion of the 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary describing its distances in terms of "miles" rather than "Roman miles."

The mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, and mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi in order to avoid confusion with the SI metre (m) and millilitre (mL).[4] Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada as mph, mpg, etc. rather than mi/h or mi/gal. The BBC style holds that "There is no acceptable abbreviation for'miles'" and so it should be spelt out when used in describing areas.[5]

The Roman mile (mille passus, lit. "thousand paces"; abbr. m.p.; also milia passuum[n 2] and mille) consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the total distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would often push a carved stick in the ground after each 1,000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles. The distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippa's establishment of a standard Roman foot (Agrippa's own) in 29 BC,[7] and the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet. Surveyors and specialized equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra then spread its use.[8] In modern times, Agrippa's Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about 1,481 metres (4,851 English feet or 1,617 English yards) in length.[9] In Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile (Greek: μίλιον, mílion) was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet. The mílion continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was also used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire, the Milion, located at the head of the Mese near Hagia Sophia.

The Roman mile also spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below.

Also arising from the Roman mile is the "milestone". All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire – 50,000 miles of stone-paved roads. At every mile was placed a shaped stone, on which was carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the center of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one always knew how far one was from Rome.

The Italian mile (miglio, pl.Â miglia) was traditionally considered a direct continuation of the Roman mile, equal to 1000 paces,[10] although its actual value over time or between regions could vary greatly.[11] It was often used in international contexts from the Middle Ages into the 17th century[10] and is thus also known as the "geographical mile",[12] although the geographical mile is now a separate standard unit.

The Arabic mile (الميل, al-mīl) was not the common Arabic unit of length; instead, Arabs and Persians traditionally used the longer parasang or "Arabic league". The Arabic mile was, however, used by medieval geographers and scientists and constituted a kind of precursor to the nautical or geographical mile. It extended the Roman mile to fit an astronomical approximation of 1 arcminute of latitude measured directly north-and-south along a meridian. Although the precise value of the approximation remains disputed, it was somewhere between 1.8 and 2.0 km.

The "old English mile" of the medieval and early modern periods varied but seems to have measured about 1.3 international miles (1.9 km).[13] The English long continued the Roman computations of the mile as 5000 feet, 1000 paces, or 8 longer divisions, which they equated with their "furrow's length" or furlong.[14]

The origins of English units are "extremely vague and uncertain",[15] but seem to have been a combination of the Roman system with native British and Germanic systems both derived from multiples of the barleycorn.[n 3] Probably by the reign of Edgar in the 10th century, the nominal prototype physical standard of English length was an arm-length iron bar (a yardstick) held by the king at Winchester;[16][18] the foot was then one-third of its length. Henry I was said to have made a new standard in 1101 based on his own arm.[15] Following the issuance of Magna Carta, the barons of Parliament directed John and his son to keep the king's standard measure (Mensura Domini Regis) and weight at the Exchequer,[15] which thereafter verified local standards until its abolition in the 19th century. New brass standards are known to have been constructed under Henry VII and Elizabeth I.[19]

Arnold's c. 1500 Customs of London recorded a mile shorter than previous ones, coming to 0.947 international miles or 1.524 km.[14]

The English statute mile was established by a Weights and Measures Act of Parliament in 1593 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The act on the Composition of Yards and Perches had shortened the length of the foot and its associated measures, causing the two methods of determining the mile to diverge.[20] Owing to the importance of the surveyor's rod in deeds and surveying undertaken under Henry VIII,[21] decreasing the length of the rod by  1⁄11 would have amounted to a significant tax increase. Parliament instead opted to maintain the mile of 8 furlongs (which were derived from the rod) and to increase the number of feet per mile from the old Roman value.[22] The applicable passage of the statute reads: "A Mile shall contain eight Furlongs, every Furlong forty Poles,[n 4] and every Pole shall contain sixteen Foot and an half."[24] The statute mile therefore contained 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.[14] The distance was not uniformly adopted. Robert Morden had multiple scales on his 17th-century maps which included continuing local values: his map of Hampshire, for example, bore two different "miles" with a ratio of 1 : 1.23[25] and his map of Dorset had three scales with a ratio of 1 : 1.23 : 1.41.[26] In both cases, the traditional local units remained longer than the statute mile.

The Welsh mile (milltir or milldir) was 3 miles and 1470 yards long (6.17 km). It comprised 9000 paces (cam), each of 3 Welsh feet (troedfedd) of 9 inches,[27] usually reckoned as equivalent to the English inch. Along with other Welsh units, it was said to have been codified under Dyfnwal the Bald and Silent and retained unchanged by Hywel the Good.[28] Along with other Welsh units, it was discontinued following the conquest of Wales by the English under Edward I in the 13th century.

The Scots mile is longer than the English mile,[30] as mentioned by Robert Burns in the first verse of his poem "Tam o' Shanter". It comprised 8 (Scots) furlongs divided into 320 falls or faws (Scots rods).[31] It varied from place to place but the most accepted equivalencies are 1,976 Imperial yards or 1.81 km, i.e., 1.123 statute miles.

It was legally abolished three times: first by a 1685 act of the Scottish Parliament,[32] again by the 1707 Treaty of Union with England,[33] and finally by the Weights and Measures Act 1824.[30] It had continued in use as a customary unit through the 18th century but had become obsolete by its final abolition.

The Irish mile (míle or míle Gaelach) measured 2240 yards: approximately 1.27 statute miles or 2.048 kilometres.[34] It was used in Ireland from the 16th century plantations until the 19th century, with residual use into the 20th century. The units were based on "English measure" but used a linear perch measuring 7 yards (6.4 m) as opposed to the English rod of 5.5 yards (5.0 m).

The international mile is precisely equal to 7003160934400000000♠1.609344 km (or 25146/15625 km as a fraction).[41] It was established as part of the 1959 international yard and pound agreement reached by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa,[42] which resolved small but measurable differences that had arisen from separate physical standards each country had maintained for the yard.[43] As with the earlier statute mile, it continues to comprise 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet.

The old Imperial value of the yard was used in converting measurements to metric values in India in a 1976 Act of the Indian Parliament.[44] However, the current National Topographic Database of the Survey of India is based on the metric WGS-84 datum,[45] which is also used by the Global Positioning System.

The difference from the previous standards was 2 ppm, or about 3.2 millimeters ( 1⁄8 inch) per mile. The U.S. standard was slightly longer and the old Imperial standards had been slightly shorter than the international mile. When the international mile was introduced in English-speaking countries, the basic geodetic datum in America was the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27). This had been constructed by triangulation based on the definition of the foot in the Mendenhall Order of 1893, with 1 foot = 1200/3937 metres and the definition was retained for data derived from NAD27, but renamed the U.S. survey foot to distinguish it from the international foot.[46][n 5]

The exact length of the land mile varied slightly among English-speaking countries until the international yard and pound agreement in 1959 established the yard as exactly 0.9144 metres, giving a mile exactly 1,609.344 metres. The U.S. adopted this international mile for most purposes, but retained the pre-1959 mile for some land-survey data, terming it the U. S. survey mile. In the United States, statute mile normally refers to the survey mile,[47] about 3.219 mm ( 1⁄8 inch) longer than the international mile (the international mile is exactly 0.0002% less than the U.S. survey mile).

While most countries replaced the mile with the kilometre when switching to the International System of Units, the international mile continues to be used in some countries such as Liberia, Myanmar,[48] the United Kingdom[49] and the United States.[50] It is furthermore used in a number of countries with vastly less than a million inhabitants, most of which are UK or US territories, or have close historical ties with the UK or US: American Samoa,[51] Bahamas,[52] Belize,[53] British Virgin Islands,[54] Cayman Islands,[55] Dominica,[55] Falkland Islands,[56] Grenada,[57] Guam,[58] The N. Mariana Islands,[59] Samoa,[60] St. Lucia,[61] St. Vincent & The Grenadines,[62] St. Helena,[63] St. Kitts & Nevis,[64] the Turks & Caicos Islands,[65] and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[66] The mile is even encountered in Canada, though this is predominantly in rail transport and horse racing, as the roadways have been metricated since 1977.[67][68][69][70]

The U.S. survey mile is 5,280 survey feet, or about 1,609.347 metres.[71] In the United States, statute mile formally refers to the survey mile,[3] but for most purposes, the difference between the survey mile and the international mile is insignificant—one international mile is 6999999998000000000♠0.999998 U.S. survey miles—so statute mile can be used for either. But in some cases, such as in the U.S. State Plane Coordinate Systems (SPCSs), which can stretch over hundreds of miles,[72] the accumulated difference can be significant, so it is important to note that the reference is to the U.S. survey mile.

The United States redefined its yard in 1893, but this resulted in U.S. and Imperial measures of distance having very slightly different lengths.

The North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83), which replaced the NAD27, is defined in meters. State Plane Coordinate Systems were then updated, but the National Geodetic Survey left individual states to decide which (if any) definition of the foot they would use. All State Plane Coordinate Systems are defined in meters, and 42 of the 50 states only use the metre-based State Plane Coordinate Systems. However, eight states also have State Plane Coordinate Systems defined in feet, seven of them in U.S. Survey feet and one in international feet.[72] State legislation in the U.S. is important for determining which conversion factor from the metric datum is to be used for land surveying and real estate transactions, even though the difference (2Â ppm) is hardly significant, given the precision of normal surveying measurements over short distances (usually much less than a mile). Twenty-four states have legislated that surveying measures be based on the U.S. survey foot, eight have legislated that they be based on the international foot, and eighteen have not specified which conversion factor to use.[72]

The nautical mile was originally defined as one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth.[73] Navigators use dividers to step off the distance between two points on the navigational chart, then place the open dividers against the minutes-of-latitude scale at the edge of the chart, and read off the distance in nautical miles.[74] The Earth is not perfectly spherical but an oblate spheroid, so the length of a minute of latitude increases by 1% from the equator to the poles. Using the WGS84 ellipsoid, the commonly accepted Earth model for many purposes today, one minute of latitude at the WGS84 equator is 6,046 feet and at the poles is 6,107.5 feet. The average is about 6,076 feet (about 1,852 metres or 1.15 statute miles).

In the United States the nautical mile was defined in the 19th century as 6,080.2 feet (1,853.249 m), whereas in the United Kingdom, the Admiralty nautical mile was defined as 6,080 feet (1,853.184 m) and was about one minute of latitude in the latitudes of the south of the UK. Other nations had different definitions of the nautical mile, but it is now internationally defined to be exactly 1,852 metres (6,076.11548556 feet).[75]

The nautical mile per hour is known as the knot. Nautical miles and knots are almost universally used for aeronautical and maritime navigation, because of their relationship with degrees and minutes of latitude and the convenience of using the latitude scale on a map for distance measuring.

The data mile is used in radar-related subjects and is equal to 6,000 feet (1.8288 kilometres).[76] The radar mile is a unit of time (in the same way that the light year is a unit of distance), equal to the time required for a radar pulse to travel a distance of two miles (one mile each way). Thus, the radar statute mile is 10.8 μs and the radar nautical mile is 12.4 μs.[77]

The geographical mile is based upon the length of a meridian of latitude. The German geographical mile (geographische Meile) was previously  1⁄15° of latitude (7.4127 km).[78]

Cities in the continental United States often have streets laid out by miles. Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Miami, are several examples. Typically the largest streets are about a mile apart, with others at smaller intervals. In the Manhattan borough of New York City "streets" are close to 20 per mile, while the major numbered "avenues" are about six per mile. (Centerline to centerline, 42nd Street to 22nd Street is supposed to be 5250 feet while 42nd Street to 62nd Street is supposed to be [clarification needed] 5276Â ft 8 in.)[citation needed]

The informal term "metric mile" is used in sports such as track and field athletics and speed skating to denote a distance of 1,500 metres (4,921 ft). In United States high-school competition, the term is sometimes used for a race of 1,600 metres (5,249 ft).[79]

The Scandinavian mile (mil) remains in common use in Norway and Sweden, where it has meant precisely 10Â km since metrication occurred in 1889.[35] It is used in informal situations and in measurements of fuel consumption, which are often given as litres per mil. In formal situations (such as official road signs) and where confusion may occur with international miles, it is avoided in favour of kilometres.

The Swedish mile formerly varied by province from 6–14.485 km. It was standardised in 1649 as 36,000 Swedish feet or 10.687 km.[35] Prior to metrication, the Norwegian mile had been 11.298 km. (The traditional Finnish peninkulma was translated as mil in Swedish and also set equal to 10 km during metrication in 1887, but is much less commonly used.)

A comparison of the different lengths for a "mile", in different countries and at different times in history, is given in the table below. Leagues are also included in this list because, in terms of length, they fall in between the short West European miles and the long North, Central and Eastern European miles.

Similar units:

Even in English-speaking countries that have moved from the Imperial to the metric system (for example, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand), the mile is still used in a variety of idioms. These include:


on whose birthday is the *engineer's day* celebrated on *september 15* in india

Sir Mokshagundam Vishweshvaraya KCIE, FASc[1] also spelled as Sir Mokshagondam Vishweshwarayya, popularly known as Sir MV (15 September 1860 â€“ 12 April 1962)[2][3] was an  Indian Chief civil engineer, scholar, statesman, politician [4] and the 19th Diwan (Governor) of Mysore, who served from 1912 to 1919.[5] He received India's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the British Indian Empire (KCIE) by King George V for his contributions to the public good. 15 September is celebrated as Engineer's Day in India in his memory. He is held in high regard as a pre-eminent Engineer of India. He was chief engineer responsible for the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in the North-West suburb of Mysuru city and chief engineer of the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad.[6]

M. Visvesvaraya

Mokshagundam Vishweshvaraya was born on 15 September 1861.[7] His father, Mokshagundam Srinivasa Sastry, was a school teacher and a noted Sanskrit scholar,[8] while his mother, Venkatalakshamma, was a homemaker. Visvesvaraya was born in Muddenahalli village (now located in Chikkaballapura District, but part of Kolar district at the time of his birth) in the princely state of Mysore (now Karnataka), India.[9]

Visvesvaraya lost his father at the age of 12. He attended primary school in Bandahalli Primary school, Chickballapur and high school in Bangalore. In 1881, he received a BA degree from Central College, Bangalore, (then an affiliate of the University of Madras), a rare accomplishment in the India of that era. He then enrolled at College of Engineering, Pune.[10][11] He received LCE (Licenciate in Civil Engineering) equivalent to DCE (Diploma in Civil Engineering) from the University of Bombay to which the College of Engineering was affiliated.

Visvesvaraya took a job with the PWD of Bombay and later was invited to join the Indian Irrigation Commission. He implemented an extremely intricate system of irrigation in Deccan.

He designed and patented a system of automatic weir water floodgates that were first installed in 1903 at Khadakvasla Reservoir near Pune. These gates were employed to raise flood supply level of storage in reservoir to the highest level likely to be attained without causing any damage to the dam. Based on the success of these gates, the same system was installed at the Tigra Dam in Gwalior and Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mandya/Mysore, Karnataka.

In 1906â€“07, Government of India sent him to Aden to study water supply and drainage systems. The project prepared by him was implemented in Aden successfully.[12]

Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system for city of Hyderabad. He was instrumental in developing a system to protect Visakhapatnam port from sea erosion.[13] This dam created the biggest reservoir in Asia when it was built.[14] Visvesvaraya gave his valuable technical advice for the location of Mokama Bridge over Ganga in Bihar. At the time, he was over 90 years old.[15][16]

He was called "Father of Modern Mysore State". During his service with the government of Mysore State, he was responsible for founding of (under the patronage of the Mysore government) Mysore Soap Factory, Parasitoid Laboratory, Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now known as Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) in Bhadravathi, Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic, Bangalore, Bangalore Agricultural University, State Bank of Mysore, Century Club, Mysore Chamber of Commerce (presently known as the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI) the apex Chamber of Commerce in Karnataka, University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering Bangalore and numerous other industrial ventures. He encouraged private investment in the industry during his tenure as Diwan of Mysore. He was instrumental in charting out the plan for road construction between Tirumala and Tirupati.[17][18][19] There were no single accident and rockfall occurred till today on the road between Tirumala and Tirupati.This shows his Expertise.

Once Hyderabad was affected with floods,and there was a huge loss occurred over there.Then Sir M.V,constructed a dam and designed a flood protection drinage system to Hyderabad.From then onwards there are no floods in Hyderabad.So he was the person responsible for turning Hyderabad into a floodless city.This shows the highest level of quality engineer present in him.

He was known for sincerity, time management, and dedication to a cause. Bangalore Press and Bank of Mysore were established during his tenure. A very important part of his nature was his love for Kannada. He set up the Kannada Parishat for the upliftment of Kannada. He wanted seminars for Kannada lovers to be instituted and conducted in Kannada itself.[7]

Visvesvaraya is known to have designed and planned the entire area of Jayanagar in south Bangalore. The foundation of Jayanagar was laid in 1959. It was one of first planned neighbourhoods in Bangalore and, at the time, the largest in Asia. It is believed that locality, designed by Visvesvaraya, is one of the best-planned layouts in Asia.

After opting for voluntary retirement in 1908, he took a foreign tour to study industrialised nations. After, for a short period, he worked for the Nizam of Hyderabad, India. He suggested flood relief measures for Hyderabad town, which was under constant threat by the Musi river.  During November 1909, Visvesvaraya was appointed as chief engineer of Mysore State. Further, during 1912, he was appointed as diwan (second minister) of the princely state of Mysore. He was diwan for seven years.[5]

With the support of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore, Visvesvaraya made good contribution as diwan to the all-round development of Mysore state. Not only the achievements listed above, but many other industries and public works owe their inception or active nurturing to him.

He was instrumental in the founding of the Government Engineering College at Bangalore in 1917, one of the first engineering institutes in India.[23] This institution was later named the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering after its founder.  He commissioned several new railway lines in Mysore state.

Visvesvaraya was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1911.[24] In 1915, while he was the Diwan of Mysore, Visvesvaraya was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by the British for his myriad contributions to the public good.[25] After India attained independence, he was awarded the nation's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955.[26] Sir M.V. was awarded honorary membership of the London Institution of Civil Engineers.[27] He was awarded a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science (based in Bangalore). He was awarded several honorary doctoral degrees including D.Sc., LL.D., D.Litt. from eight universities in India. He was president of the 1923 session of the Indian Science Congress. He was the most popular person from Karnataka, in a newspaper survey conducted by Prajavani.

On 15 September 2018, to celebrate his 157th birthday anniversary Visvesvaraya was honored with Google Doodle.[28]

Visvesvaraya has received recognition in many fields, most notably the education and the engineering sectors. Visvesvaraya Technological University which is based in Belagavi (to which most engineering colleges in Karnataka are affiliated) has been named in his honour, as well as prominent colleges like University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore, Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore and Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur.

College of Engineering, Pune, his alma mater, has erected a statue in his honour.[29]

The Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum in Bangalore is named in his honour.

Two metro stations in India, one in Bengaluru on the Purple Line (Sir M. Visvesvaraya Station, Central College), and another one in Delhi on the Pink Line (Sir Vishveshwaraiah Moti Bagh), have been named after him.[30]

The Visvesvaraya National Memorial Trust manages a memorial of Visvesvaraya at his birthplace Muddenahalli. The memorial exhibits his awards, titles and personal belongings, including his living room, spectacles, cups, books and a block with which his visiting cards were printed. Models of the Krishna Raja Sagar dam, which Visvesvaraya designed and supervised the construction of, are exhibited. The memorial is adjacent to his house, which was refurbished and regarded as a temple by the locals.[31][32]


what is the size of the goliath bird eating spider

These spiders can have a leg span of up to 28 cm (11 in), a body length of up to 11.9 cm (4.7 in) and can weigh up to 175 g (6.2 oz).[7] Birdeaters are one of the few tarantula species that lack tibial spurs, located on the first pair of legs of most adult males.

Goliath birdeater

The Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) belongs to the tarantula family Theraphosidae. Found in northern South America, it is the largest spider in the world by mass and size, but it is second to the giant huntsman spider by leg-span.[1] It is also called the Goliath bird-eating spider; the practice of calling theraphosids "bird-eating" derives from an early 18th-century copper engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian that shows one eating a hummingbird. It only rarely preys on birds.[2]

The goliath birdeater is native to the upland rain forest regions of northern South America: Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. Most noticeable is in the Amazon rainforest, the spider is terrestrial, living in deep burrows, and is found commonly in marshy or swampy areas. It is a nocturnal species.[3] The spider is part of the local cuisine in northeastern South America, prepared by singeing off the urticating hairs and roasting it in banana leaves. The flavor has been described as "shrimplike".[4]

Unlike other species of spider/tarantula, females do not eat the males during mating. Females mature in 3 to 6 years and have an average life span of 15 to 25 years. Males die soon after maturity and have a lifespan of 3 to 6 years. Colors range from dark to light brown with faint markings on the legs. Birdeaters have hair on their bodies, abdomens, and legs. The female lays anywhere from 100 to 200 eggs, which hatch into spiderlings within six to eight weeks.[5][6]

In response to threats, Goliath birdeaters stridulate by rubbing setae on their pedipalps and legs.[8] Also when threatened, they rub their abdomen with their hind legs and release hairs that are a severe irritant to the skin and mucous membranes. These urticating hairs can be harmful to humans, and the species is considered by some to have the most harmful tarantula urticating hair of all.[citation needed]

Like all tarantulas, T. blondi have fangs large enough to break the skin of a human (1.9–3.8 cm or 0.75–1.50 in). They carry venom in their fangs and have been known to bite when threatened, but the venom is relatively harmless and its effects are comparable to those of a wasp's sting. Tarantulas generally bite humans only in self-defense, and these bites do not always result in envenomation (known as a "dry bite").

"The spider has three lines of defense. By rubbing its legs against its abdomen, it produces a cloud of tiny, barbed hairs that get in the eyes and mucous membranes and cause extreme pain and itching for days. It has two-inch-long fangs strong enough to pierce a mouse's skull. And it can make a hissing sound by rubbing its hairs together, which sounds like pulling Velcro apart." [9]

Despite its name, it is rare for the Goliath birdeater to actually prey on birds; in the wild, its diet consists primarily of other large arthropods, worms, and amphibians.[10] However, because of its size and opportunistic predatory behavior, it is not uncommon for this species to kill and consume a variety of insects and small terrestrial vertebrates. In the wild, T. blondi has been observed feeding on rodents, frogs, toads, lizards, and even snakes.[11]


who played mamie on the young and the restless

Mamie Johnson is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. The role was originated in 1980 by Marguerite Ray, who was replaced in 1990 by Veronica Redd. Redd departed the series in 1995, and returned from 1999 to 2004. Mamie was the series' first regular African American character.

Mamie Johnson (The Young and the Restless)

Jabot Cosmetics founder, John Abbott, was left alone to raise his three adolescent children when his wife Dina Mergeron left him. The Abbott children were mostly raised by long-time family maid, Mamie Johnson, whom they thought of as their mother.

Mamie was at John's side after his heart attack, which was caused by Jack almost selling Jabot out from under him. When John married Jill Foster, Mamie disapproved. She kept a sharp eye on Jill, was suspicious when Jill mysteriously "fell" from a ladder and miscarried, and kept John up to date on her. Mamie nursed John back to health from the stroke caused when John discovered Jill had a one-night stand with his son, Jack, so the baby could have been his. Then she stood by his side during his divorce and the crushing settlement which gave Jill one-fourth of Jabot Cosmetics, a seat on the board of directors, and a cushy executive position with Jabot at $150,000 a year.

Mamie's niece, Drucilla Barber, a teen runaway who had been missing for years, showed up desperately looking for her aunt at the Abbotts' door. Mamie talked John into letting Dru live with her in the servants' quarters. John took a liking to Dru, and got her a job in the Jabot mailroom. Mamie was there as a sounding board and problem solver for Dru over the years, and Dru ended up a successful fashion model. The same was true for niece Olivia Barber, who was a doctor at Genoa City Memorial, and Olivia's son Nate and Dru's daughter Lily.

Mamie approved when John fell in love and married Jessica Blair. Even though Jessica had AIDS, she was a wonderful woman and Mamie thought she was good for John. Mamie once again stood by John's side when Jessica died too soon afterward. Another heart attack nearly killed John when Jabot was taken over by Newman, thanks to Jack's taking the company public.

Years later, Mamie and John's children were equally appalled to find that Jill wormed her way back into John's heart, and they remarried. Jill wanted to have a baby, though John felt he was too old. But Jill managed to get pregnant and gave birth to William "Billy" Abbott, whom John eventually accepted and came to love. Jill's affair with Jed Sanders due to John's impotence caused John to file for their second divorce. It resulted in a bitter custody battle over Billy, which was interrupted by another stroke for John. Mamie nursed him back to health and admitted to John that she was in love with him. John returned her feelings, but later lapsed into a coma. Jill, who was making an 11th hour effort to get back in John's good graces, overheard them, fired Mamie, and tried to pay her to leave town. When John came to, he devastated Mamie by agreeing to remain married to Jill for Billy's sake. The broken-hearted Mamie accepted Jill's million dollars and left on a world cruise with debonair Chancellor executive Trent Jordan. Of course, it wasn't long before John divorced the ever-intolerable Jill. John got custody of Billy and, unable to bear Jabot being owned by Newman, moved to New York City.

Years later, John returned to Genoa City with his then 16-year-old son, Billy, to head up the again family-owned Jabot in its fight for survival. Not long after John returned, he happily welcomed Mamie at his front door. Mamie looked great! Being rich had been very good for her. She explained that her liaison with Brent didn't work out, but she wanted to help Jabot financially to get them out of debt. John and Jack refused her money, but Mamie remained living with them as a guest for a long while after. She helped out when needed, taking care of Jack's toddler son, Kyle, and Ashley's daughter, Abby, and sometimes cooking a special family dinner, but sitting down to the table as part of the family instead of a being a servant.

When last heard from, Mamie was not able to attend John Abbott's funeral nor Drucilla's memorial service.


fastening of one part of rope to other poet of rope is known as

Rope splicing in ropework is the forming of a semi-permanent joint between two ropes or two parts of the same rope by partly untwisting and then interweaving their strands. Splices can be used to form a stopper at the end of a line, to form a loop or an eye in a rope, or for joining two ropes together.[1] Splices are preferred to knotted rope, since while a knot typically reduces the strength by 20â€“40%,[2] a splice is capable of attaining a rope's full strength.[3] However, splicing usually results in a thickening of the line and, if subsequently removed, leaves a distortion of the rope. Most types of splices are used on 3-strand rope, but some can be done on 12-strand or greater single-braided rope, as well as most double braids.
While a spliced 3-strand rope's strands are interwoven to create the splice, a braided rope's splice is constructed by simply pulling the rope into its jacket.

Rope splicing

Splices are often tapered  to make the thicker splice blend into the rest of the line. There are two main types of tapering, the standard and the "West Coast Taper".

A fid is a hand tool made from wood, plastic, or bone and is used in the process of working with rope. A variety of fid diameters are available depending on the size of rope being used. Styles of fid designs include:[11]

A Marlinspike is a tool, usually made of steel and often part of a sailor's pocketknife, which is used to separate strands of rope from one another. They can range in size anywhere from 3 inches to 5 feet long, with a round or flattened point.[12]

A pulling fid is often used for smaller diameters of braided ropes. Also a Softfid is a great tool when dealing with tightly braided ropes.


what is the name of russell crowe's band

In early 2005, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts as a group had "dissolved/evolved" with Crowe feeling his future music would take a new direction. He began a collaboration with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea, and with it a new band emerged: The Ordinary Fear of God which also involved some members of the previous TOFOG line-up. A new single, Raewyn, was released in April 2005 and an album entitled My Hand, My Heart which was released and is available for download on iTunes. The album includes a tribute song to actor Richard Harris, who became Crowe's friend during the making of Gladiator.

Russell Crowe

Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor, film producer and musician. Although a New Zealand citizen, he has lived most of his life in Australia.[1] He came to international attention for his role as the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which Crowe won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, an Empire Award for Best Actor and a London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and 10 further nominations for best actor.

Crowe appeared as the tobacco firm whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in the 1999 film The Insider, for which he received five awards as best actor and seven nominations in the same category. In 2001, Crowe's portrayal of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash in the biopic A Beautiful Mind brought him numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

Crowe's other films include Romper Stomper (1992), L.A. Confidential (1997), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Cinderella Man (2005), American Gangster (2007), State of Play (2009), Robin Hood (2010), Les Misérables (2012), Man of Steel (2013) and Noah (2014). In 2015, Crowe made his directorial debut with The Water Diviner, in which he also starred. Crowe's work has earned him several accolades during his career and including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three consecutive Academy Award nominations (1999–2001), one Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. Crowe has also been the co-owner of the National Rugby League (NRL) team South Sydney Rabbitohs since 2006.

Crowe was born on 7 April 1964 in the Wellington suburb of Strathmore Park,[2][3] the son of Jocelyn Yvonne (née Wemyss) and John Alexander Crowe,[4] both of whom were film set caterers; his father also managed a hotel.[3] Crowe's maternal grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer who was named an MBE for filming footage of World War II.[5] Crowe's paternal grandfather, John Doubleday Crowe, was from Wrexham, Wales,[6][7] while one of Crowe's maternal great-great-grandmothers was Māori.[4][8] Crowe also has English, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Scottish, Swedish, and Welsh ancestry.[9][10][11][12][13] He is a cousin of former New Zealand cricket captains Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe,[14] and nephew of cricketer Dave Crowe.[15] Russell has built a cricket field named for his uncle.[citation needed]

When Crowe was four years old, his family moved to Sydney, Australia, where his parents pursued a career in set catering.[4] The producer of the Australian TV series Spyforce was his mother's godfather, and Crowe (at age five or six) was hired for a line of dialogue in one episode, opposite series star Jack Thompson (in 1994 Thompson played the father of Crowe's character in The Sum of Us).[citation needed] Crowe also appeared briefly in the serial The Young Doctors.

Crowe was educated at Vaucluse Public School but later moved to Sydney Boys High School.[4] When he was 14, his family moved back to New Zealand where, along with his brother Terry, he attended Auckland Grammar School with cousins Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe. He then continued his secondary education at Mount Roskill Grammar School, which he left at the age 16 to pursue his ambition of becoming an actor.[citation needed]

Crowe began his performing career as a musician in the early 1980s, under guidance from his good friend Tom Sharplin, when he performed under the stage name "Russ Le Roq". He released several New Zealand singles including "I Just Want To Be Like Marlon Brando", "Pier 13", "Shattered Glass", none of which charted.[16] He managed an Auckland music venue called "The Venue" in 1984.[17] When he was 18, he was featured in A Very Special Person..., a promotional video for the theology/ministry course at Avondale College, a Seventh-day Adventist tertiary education provider in New South Wales.[18]

Crowe returned to Australia at age 21, intending to apply to the National Institute of Dramatic Art. "I was working in a theatre show, and talked to a guy who was then the head of technical support at NIDA", Crowe has recalled. "I asked him what he thought about me spending three years at NIDA. He told me it'd be a waste of time. He said, 'You already do the things you go there to learn, and you've been doing it for most of your life, so there's nothing to teach you but bad habits.'"[19] From 1986 to 1988, he was given his first professional role by director Daniel Abineri, in a New Zealand production of The Rocky Horror Show.[4] He played the role of Eddie/Dr Scott.[4] He repeated this performance in a further Australian production of the show, which also toured New Zealand.[20] In 1987, Crowe spent six months busking when he could not find other work.[citation needed] In the 1988 Australian production of Blood Brothers, Crowe played the role of Mickey.[citation needed] He was also cast again by Daniel Abineri in the role of Johnny, in the stage musical Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom in 1989.[citation needed]

After appearing in the TV series Neighbours and Living with the Law, Crowe was cast by Faith Martin in his first film, The Crossing (1990), a small-town love triangle directed by George Ogilvie. Before production started, a film-student protégé of Ogilvie, Steve Wallace, hired Crowe for the film Blood Oath (1990) (aka Prisoners of the Sun), which was released a month earlier than The Crossing, although actually filmed later. In 1992, Crowe starred in the first episode of the second series of Police Rescue. Also in 1992, Crowe starred in Romper Stomper, an Australian film which followed the exploits and downfall of a racist skinhead group in blue-collar suburban Melbourne, directed by Geoffrey Wright and co-starring Jacqueline McKenzie. For the role, Crowe won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for Best Actor, following up from his Best Supporting Actor award for Proof in 1991.[4]
In 2015 it was reported that Crowe had applied for Australian citizenship in 2006 and again in 2013 but was rejected because he failed to fulfill the residency requirements.[1] However, Australia's Immigration Department said it had no record of any such application by Crowe.[21]

After initial success in Australia, Crowe first starred in a Canadian production in 1993, For the Moment, before concentrating on American films. He co-starred with Denzel Washington in Virtuosity (the duo later appearing together in American Gangster) and with Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead in 1995.[4] He went on to become a three-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award as Best Actor in 2000 for Gladiator.[4] Crowe was awarded the (Australian) Centenary Medal in 2001 for "service to Australian society and Australian film production."[22]

Crowe received three consecutive best actor Oscar nominations, for The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind.[4] Crowe won the best actor award for A Beautiful Mind at the 2002 BAFTA award ceremony, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for the same performance. Although nominated for an Academy Award, he lost to Denzel Washington.

All three films were also nominated for best picture, and both Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind won the award. Within the six-year stretch from 1997 to 2003, he also starred in two other best picture nominees, L.A. Confidential and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In 2005, he re-teamed with A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard for Cinderella Man. In 2006, he re-teamed with Gladiator director Ridley Scott for A Good Year, the first of two consecutive collaborations (the second being American Gangster co-starring again with Denzel Washington, released in late 2007). While the light romantic comedy of A Good Year was not greatly received, Crowe seemed pleased with the film, telling STV in an interview that he thought it would be enjoyed by fans of his other films.[23]

In recent years, Crowe's box office standing has declined.[24] The Hollywood stock market (HSX) share Russell Crowe (RCROW), issued in 1998, however maintains constant accretion.[25] Crowe appeared in Robin Hood, a film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and released on 14 May 2010.[26]
Crowe starred in the 2010 Paul Haggis film The Next Three Days, an adaptation of the 2008 French film Pour Elle.[27]

After a year off from acting, Crowe played Jackknife in The Man with the Iron Fists, opposite RZA. He took on the role of Inspector Javert in the musical film of Les Misérables (2012),[28] and portrayed Superman's biological father, Jor-El, in the Christopher Nolan produced Superman film, Man of Steel, released in the summer of 2013. In 2014, he played a gangster in the film adaptation of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel Winter's Tale, and the title role in the Darren Aronofsky film Noah.[29] In June 2013, Crowe signed to make his directional debut with an historical drama film The Water Diviner, which he also starred in alongside Jacqueline McKenzie, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney.[30] Set in the year 1919, the film was produced by Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Keith Rodger.[31] Crowe also starred in The Mummy (2017).

In the 1980s, Crowe, under the name of "Russ le Roq", recorded a song titled "I Want To Be Like Marlon Brando".[32]

In the 1980s, Crowe and friend Billy Dean Cochran formed a band, Roman Antix, which later evolved into the Australian rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (abbreviated to TOFOG). Crowe performed lead vocals and guitar for the band, which formed in 1992. The band released The Photograph Kills EP in 1995, as well as three full-length records, Gaslight (1998), Bastard Life or Clarity (2001) and Other Ways of Speaking (2003). In 2000, TOFOG performed shows in London, Los Angeles and the now famous run of shows at Stubbs in Austin, Texas which became a live DVD that was released in 2001, called Texas. In 2001, the band came to the US for major press, radio and TV appearances for the Bastard Life or Clarity release and returned to Stubbs in Austin, Texas to kick off a sold out US tour with dates in Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City and the last show at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God set out to break the new band in by performing a successful sold out series of dates of Australia in 2005, and then in 2006, returned to the US to promote their new release My Hand, My Heart with another sold-out US Tour and major press, radio and television appearances.
In March 2010, Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God's version of the John Williamson song "Winter Green" was included on a new compilation album The Absolute Best of John Williamson: 40 Years True Blue, commemorating the singer-songwriter's milestone of 40 years in the Australian music industry. As of May 2011, there are plans to release a new Russell Crowe & The Ordinary Fear of God recording (co-written with Alan Doyle) and for a US tour which would be the first live dates in the US since 2006.

On 2 August 2011, the third collaboration between Crowe and Doyle was released on iTunes as The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol III, featuring nine original songs followed by their acoustic demo counterparts (for a total of 18 tracks). Danielle Spencer does guest vocals on most tracks. The release coincided with a pair of live performances at the LSPU Hall in St. John's, Newfoundland.[33] The digital album was released as download versions only on Amazon.com, iTunes, spotify. The album has since charted at No. 72 on the Canadian Albums Chart.[34]
On 26 September 2011, Crowe appeared on-stage at Rogers Arena in Vancouver in the middle of Keith Urban's concert. He sang a cover of Folsom Prison Blues, before joining the rest of the band in a rendition of "The Joker".[35] On 18 August 2012, Crowe appeared along with Doyle at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík, Iceland as part of the city's Menningarnótt program. They also appeared at downtown bars, Gaukurinn and Kex.[36]

During location filming of Cinderella Man, Crowe made a donation to a Jewish elementary school whose library had been damaged as a result of arson.[37] A note with an anti-Semitic message had been left at the scene.[38] Crowe called school officials to express his concern and wanted his message relayed to the students.[39] The school's building fund received donations from throughout Canada and the amount of Crowe's donation was not disclosed.[40]

On another occasion, Crowe donated $200,000 to a struggling primary school near his home in rural Australia. The money went towards an $800,000 project to construct a swimming pool at the school. Crowe's sympathies were sparked when a pupil drowned at the nearby Coffs Harbour beach in 2001, and he felt the pool would help students become better swimmers and improve their water safety. At the opening ceremony, he dove into the pool fully clothed as soon as it was declared open. Nana Glen principal Laurie Renshall said, "The many things he does up here, people just don't know about. We've been trying to get a pool for 10 years."[41]

Crowe began an on-again, off-again relationship with Australian singer Danielle Spencer in 1989, when they co-starred in the 1990 film The Crossing.[42] In 2000, Crowe was romantically involved with his co-star Meg Ryan while on the set of their film Proof of Life.[43] Crowe and Spencer reconciled in 2001, and married in April 2003 (on Crowe's 39th birthday) at his cattle property in Nana Glen, New South Wales.[42][44] They have two sons: Charles Spencer Crowe (born 21 December 2003)[45] and Tennyson Spencer Crowe (born 7 July 2006).[46] In October 2012, it was reported that Crowe and Spencer had separated;[47][48] they divorced in April 2018.[49]

Crowe resides in Australia.[50] In 2011, he and his family moved to a house in Sydney's affluent Rose Bay.[51] Crowe also owns a house in the North Queensland city of Townsville, purchased in May 2008.[52] He is reportedly frugal with money, and is known to drive an old Jeep.[53]

In the beginning of 2009, despite not having Australian citizenship, Crowe appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called "Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors. He, Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series, once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-winning character.[54]

Crowe stated in November 2007 that he would like to be baptised as a Christian and felt that he had put it off for too long. "I do believe there are more important things than what is in the mind of a man", he said. "There is something much bigger that drives us all. I'm willing to take that leap of faith."[55]

In June 2010, Crowe, who started smoking when he was 10, announced he had quit for the sake of his two sons.[56] In November 2010, Crowe told David Letterman that he had smoked more than 60 cigarettes a day for 36 years, and that he had fallen off the wagon the previous night and smoked heavily.[57]

On 9 March 2005, Crowe revealed to GQ magazine that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents had approached him prior to the 73rd Academy Awards in March 2001, and told him that the terrorist group al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap him.[58] Crowe recalled: "It was something to do with some recording picked up by a French policewoman, I think, in either Libya or Algiers... It was about taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as a sort of cultural destabilisation plan."[59]

Between 1999 and 2005, Crowe was involved in four altercations which gave him a reputation for having a bad temper.[60]

In 1999, Crowe was involved in a scuffle at the Plantation Hotel in Coffs Harbour, Australia, which was caught on security video.[61] Two men were acquitted of using the video in an attempt to blackmail Crowe.[62]

Four years later, when part of Crowe's appearance at the 2002 BAFTA awards was cut out to fit into the BBC's tape-delayed broadcast, Crowe used strong language during an argument with producer Malcolm Gerrie. The part cut was a poem in tribute to actor Richard Harris, and it was cut for copyright reasons. Crowe later apologised, saying "What I said to him may have been a little bit more passionate than now, in the cold light of day, I would have liked it to have been."[63]

Later that year, Crowe was alleged to have been involved in a brawl with businessman and fellow New Zealander Eric Watson inside the London branch of Zuma, a fashionable Japanese restaurant chain. The fight was broken up by British actor Ross Kemp.[64][65]

In June 2005, Crowe was arrested and charged with second-degree assault by New York City police after he threw a telephone at the concierge of the Mercer Hotel, who refused to help him place a call when the system did not work from Crowe's room. He was also charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (the telephone).[66] The concierge was treated for a facial laceration.[67] After his arrest, Crowe underwent a perp walk, a procedure customary in New York City, exposing the handcuffed suspect to the news media to take pictures. This procedure was under discussion as potentially violating Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Crowe later described the incident as "possibly the most shameful situation that I've ever gotten myself in...".[68] Crowe pleaded guilty and was conditionally discharged. Before the trial, he settled a lawsuit filed by the concierge, Nestor Estrada.[69][70] Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but amounts in the six-figure range have been reported.[71]

The telephone incident had a generally negative impact on Crowe's public image, an example of negative public relations in the mass media, although Crowe had made a point of befriending Australian journalists in an effort to influence his image.[72] A professional public image as "The Gladiator" had to compete alongside one as "the telephone throwing actor". For example, the South Park episode, "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer" revolves around a lampooning of his aggressive tendencies. Crowe commented on the ongoing media perpetuation in November 2010, five years into the process, during an interview with American television talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose: "it affected me psychologically" (...) "it indelibly changed me."[73]

Crowe says he follows New Zealand's rugby union team, the All Blacks, and Australia in any other sport.[74] Two of his cousins, Martin Crowe and Jeff Crowe, captained the Black Caps New Zealand international cricket team.[75]

Crowe has been a supporter of the rugby league football team the South Sydney Rabbitohs since childhood. Since his rise to fame as an actor, he has continued appearing at home games, and supported the financially troubled club. Following the Super League war of the 1990s Crowe made an attempt to use his Hollywood connections to convince Ted Turner, rival of Super League's Rupert Murdoch, to save the Rabbitohs before they were forced from the National Rugby League competition for two years.[76] In 1999 Crowe paid $42,000 at auction for the brass bell used to open the inaugural rugby league match in Australia in 1908 at a fund-raiser to assist Souths' legal battle for re-inclusion in the League.[77] In 2005, he made the Rabbitohs the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film, when he negotiated a deal to advertise his film Cinderella Man on their jerseys.[78]
On 19 March 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney club voted (in a 75.8% majority) to allow Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court to purchase 75% of the organisation, leaving 25% ownership with the members. It cost them A$3 million, and they received four of eight seats on the board of directors. A six-part television miniseries entitled South Side Story depicting the takeover aired in Australia in 2007.[79]
On 5 November 2006, Crowe appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to announce that Firepower International was sponsoring the South Sydney Rabbitohs for $3 million over three years.[80] During a Tonight Show with Jay Leno appearance, Crowe showed viewers a Rabbitoh playing jersey with Firepower's name emblazoned on it.[81]

Crowe helped to organise a rugby league game that took place at the University of North Florida, in Jacksonville, Florida, between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the European Super League champions Leeds Rhinos on 26 January 2008 (Australia Day).[82] Crowe told ITV Local Yorkshire the game was not a marketing exercise.[83]
Crowe wrote a letter of apology to a Sydney newspaper following the sacking of South Sydney's coach Jason Taylor and one of their players David Fa'alogo after a drunken altercation between the two at the end of the 2009 NRL season.[84]
Also in 2009 Crowe persuaded young England international forward Sam Burgess to sign with the Rabbitohs over other clubs that were competing for his signature, after inviting Burgess and his mother to the set of Robin Hood, which he was filming in Britain at the time.[85]

Crowe's influence helped to persuade noted player Greg Inglis to renege on his deal to join the Brisbane Broncos and sign for the Rabbitohs for 2011.[86]
In 2010, the NRL was investigating Crowe's business relationships with a number of media and entertainment companies including Channel Nine, Channel Seven, ANZ Stadium, and V8 Supercars in relation to the South Sydney Rabbitohs' salary cap.[87]

In 2011, Souths also announced a corporate partnership with the bookmaking conglomerate Luxbet.[88]
Previously, Crowe had been prominent in trying to prevent gambling being associated with the Rabbitohs.[89]
In May 2011, Crowe helped arrange to have Fox broadcast the 2011 State of Origin series live for the first time in the United States, in addition to the NRL Grand Final.[90]
In November 2012 the South Sydney Rabbitohs confirmed that Russell Crowe was selling his 37.5 percent stake in the club.[91]
At the Rabbitohs Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2013, Chairman Nick Pappas claimed Crowe "would not be selling his shareholding in the short-to-medium term and at this stage has no intention of selling at all".[92]

Crowe was a guest presenter at the 2013 Dally M Awards[93] and presented the prestigious Dally M Medal to winner Cooper Cronk.[94] Russell was present at the 2014 NRL Grand Final when the Rabbitohs won the NRL premiership for the first time in 43 years.[95]

Crowe watches and plays cricket, and captained the 'Australian' Team containing Steve Waugh against an English side in the 'Hollywood Ashes' Cricket Match.[96] On 17 July 2009 Crowe took to the commentary box for the British sports channel, Sky Sports, as the 'third man' during the second Test of the 2009 Ashes series, between England and Australia.[97] He is friends with Lloyd Carr, the former coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines American football team, and Carr used Crowe's movie Cinderella Man to motivate his 2006 team following a 7–5 season the previous year. Upon hearing of this, Crowe called Carr and invited him to Australia to address his Rugby league team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which Carr did the following summer. In September 2007, after Carr came under fire following the Wolverines' 0–2 start, Crowe travelled to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Wolverines' 15 September game against Notre Dame to show his support for Carr. He addressed the team before the game and watched from the sidelines as the Wolverines defeated the Irish 38–0.[citation needed]
Crowe is also a fan of the National Football League. On 22 October 2007, Crowe appeared in the booth of a Monday night game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars.[98]

Crowe has appeared in 43 films and three television series since his career began in 1985. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Gladiator (2000) and was nominated twice more for The Insider (1999) and A Beautiful Mind (2001), making him the ninth actor to receive three consecutive Academy Award nominations.[4] He has also received five Golden Globe Award nominations (winning one), three BAFTA Award nominations (winning one), and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations (winning one).


how many episodes in mcleod's daughters season 1

The first season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 8 August 2001 and concluded on 22 March 2002 with a total of 22 episodes. Created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton, the format is produced by Millennium Television and Nine Films and Television for the Nine Network distributed by Southern Star Group.

McLeod's Daughters (season 1)


what is the airport in cabo san lucas mexico

Cabo San Lucas International Airport (Spanish: Aeródromo Internacional de Cabo San Lucas) (ICAO: MMSL) is a small international airfield (officially it's an "aerodrome") located 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northwest of Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Cabo San Lucas International Airport

The airport has air taxi service. Recently, the runway was enlarged and lengthened to 7,000 ft. Also, new navigation aids were installed, along with new air traffic control equipment, control tower, lighting, PAPI visual aids, and a new FBO with all the ground support equipment.

It handled 1,198 passengers in 2017.