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Sheree Fitch

Sheree Lynn Fitch (born 3 December 1956) is a Canadian writer and literacy advocate. Known primarily for her children's books, she has also published poetry and fiction for adults.

Biography
Fitch was born on 3 December 1956 in Ottawa, Ontario, where her father was serving with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Her father was originally from Nova Scotia, and her mother was from Sussex, New Brunswick. Sheree is the eldest of three children. When she was less than a year old, the family moved to Miramichi, New Brunswick. Three years later they moved to Moncton, where they lived for ten years, and then to Fredericton. Fitch graduated from Fredericton High School in 1974 as her class's valedictorian. She married while still in her teens and had two sons, whom she raised as a single parent after divorcing at the age of 24.

Fitch attended St. Thomas University in Fredericton as a mature student and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1987. She earned a Master of Arts in English from Acadia University in 1994. Her MA thesis was entitled '' "The Sweet Chorus of Ha, Ha, He!" Polyphony in utterature: A collection of writings on children's poetry''. In it she coined the term "utterature" to refer to "all literature which depends upon the oral tradition and community of listeners".

In the 1990s Fitch was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her second husband Gilles Plante worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 2001 he was transferred to Washington, D.C., and she spent almost 10 years there. Fitch and her husband moved to River John, Nova Scotia, when he retired from the CBC. Gilles Plante died in March 2024.

Writing for children
Fitch is best known as the author of children's poetry books characterized by "exuberant wordplay and humour". She began writing poems for her own young sons, and took creative writing courses to develop her skills. She performed her poems at schools and libraries for several years before her first book, Toes in My Nose, with illustrations by Molly Bobak, was published in 1987. Her second book, Sleeping Dragons All Around, was published in 1989 and won that year's Atlantic Booksellers' Choice Award. Its title comes from a line in the poem The Eve of St. Agnes, by John Keats.

During the 1990s Doubleday Canada published several of Fitch's books of children's poetry, a number of which won awards. In 1992 There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen won the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Mr. Christie's Book Award for a book for children eight years and under. Her 1995 book Mabel Murple won the Ann Connor Brimer Award, and in 2000 she was awarded the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, which is presented to a Canadian author for a "body of work (at least four books) that, in the opinion of the judges, demonstrates the highest literary standards". If You Could Wear My Sneakers: A Book about Children's Rights, which was published in 1998, was commissioned by UNICEF. Its 15 poems are based on some of the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the rights to education, privacy, free speech and protection from war. Canadian journalist and broadcaster Peter Gzowski wrote the foreword for the book, which won the Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch Award and the Atlantic Canadian Hackmatack Children's Choice Award.

In the 2000s Fitch continued to publish books for young children, including her first board book, Kisses Kisses Baby-O, which was presented to the families of all babies born in Nova Scotia in 2008 as part of a family literacy program. She also expanded her range to the young adult fiction audience with her 2002 novel One More Step, followed by The Gravesavers in 2005.

In addition to poetry and novels, Fitch has written two non-fiction books for children who are aspiring writers: Breathe, Stretch, Write: Learning to Write with Everything You've Got, and Writing Maniac: How I Grew up to be a Writer (And You Can Too).

Writing for adults
In 1993 Fitch's book of poetry for adults, In This House are Many Women, was published. It deals with serious issues in the lives of working-class women. The title refers to a sequence of poems set in a shelter for women escaping domestic violence. The author identifies strongly with the women in her poems, who are presented as survivors. Like her work for children, the adult poems play with words, but the material is darker, as in "Civil Servant", in which a receptionist in an unemployment office imagines herself as Saint Peter at the Pearly gates, asking her clients "Can I have your sin?" (i.e. social insurance number). An expanded edition of In This House are Many Women was published in 2004.

Fitch's first novel for adults, Kiss the Joy as it Flies, was published in 2008. The heroine is a single parent and a writer with "realistic financial and familial problems, who experiences dark times without losing her playfulness and humour". Kiss the Joy as it Flies was shortlisted for the 2009 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.

Literacy advocacy and honours
Fitch is active in the promotion of literacy, both through her writing and performing for children, and through her support of literacy organizations. In the 1990s she was a frequent guest and member of a discussion panel on Peter Gzowski's Morningside radio program on CBC Radio One. As a result, she became involved in the Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI) golf tournaments, which raise funds for literacy organizations. She has often acted as the PGI tournament's poet laureate, including several times when the event was held in the Arctic.

She is the Honorary Patron of the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick (LCNB). The LCNB's Fitch Adult Learner Scholarship Awards, which are awarded annually, honour her commitment to the cause of literacy. She is also Honorary Spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Read to Me program. She sponsors the annual Sheree Fitch Prize for Young Writers awarded by the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick to a writer between 14 and 18 years old.

Fitch was granted an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Saint Mary's University in Halifax in May 1998. In May 2004 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Acadia University. St. Thomas University awarded her an honorary doctorate in May 2010, citing her contributions as an author, educator, and "tireless advocate for literacy".

Fitch was appointed to the Order of Canada in June 2023 with the rank of Officer. She lives in River John, Nova Scotia.

For children

 * Toes in My Nose and Other Poems. Illustrated by Molly Bobak. Toronto, Doubleday, 1987. ISBN 0-385-25106-8
 * Sleeping Dragons All Around. Illustrated by Michelle Nidenoff. Toronto, Doubleday, 1989. ISBN 0-385-25165-3
 * Merry-Go-Day. Illustrated by Molly Bobak. Toronto, Doubleday, 1991. ISBN 0-385-25244-7
 * There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen. Illustrated by Marc Mongeau. Toronto, Doubleday, 1992. ISBN 0-385-25470-9
 * I Am Small. Illustrated by Kim LaFave. Toronto, Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 0-385-25455-5
 * Mabel Murple. Illustrated by Maryann Kovalski. Toronto, Doubleday, 1995. ISBN 0-385-25480-6
 * If You Could Wear My Sneakers. Illustrated by Darcia Labrosse. Toronto, Doubleday, 1997. ISBN 0-385-25597-7
 * The Hullabaloo Bugaboo Day. Illustrated by Jill Quinn. East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 1997. ISBN 1-895900-10-7
 * There's A Mouse In My House!. Illustrated by Leslie E. Watts. Toronto, Doubleday, 1998. ISBN 0-385-25561-6
 * If I Were The Moon. Illustrated by Leslie E. Watts. Toronto, Doubleday, 1999. ISBN 978-0-385-25744-2
 * The Other Author, Arthur. Illustrated by Jill Quinn. East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1-895900-20-0
 * Everybody's Different on Everybody Street. Illustrated by Laura Jolicoeur. Halifax, Nova Scotia Hospital Foundation. 2001. ISBN 978-0-9681578-1-7
 * No Two Snowflakes. Illustrated by Janet Wilson. Victoria, B.C., Orca, 2001. ISBN 978-1-55143-227-4
 * Persnickety Pete (The Cleanest Boy in the World). Illustrated by Jane Wallace-Mitchell. Melbourne, Pearson Education Australia, 2003. ISBN 978-0-12-360257-2
 * Pocket Rocks. Illustrated by Helen Flook. Victoria, B.C., Orca, 2004. ISBN 978-1-55143-289-2
 * Peek-a-Little Boo. Illustrated by Laura Watson. Victoria, B.C., Orca, 2005. ISBN 1-55143-342-7
 * If I Had A Million Onions. Illustrated by Yayo. Vancouver, Tradewind Books, 2005. ISBN 978-1-896580-78-4
 * Kisses Kisses Baby-O!. Illustrated by Hilda Rose. Halifax, Nimbus, 2008. ISBN 978-1-55109-646-9
 * Night Sky Wheel Ride. Illustrated by Yayo. Vancouver, Tradewind Books, 2013. ISBN 978-1-896580-67-8

For young adults

 * One More Step. Victoria, B.C., Orca, 2002. ISBN 978-1-55143-248-9
 * The Gravesavers. Toronto, Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 978-0-385-66073-0
 * Pluto's Ghost. Toronto, Doubleday, 2010. ISBN 978-0-385-66590-2
 * I Died on a Hot June Day. Halifax, Fierce Ink Press, 2013. E-book

For adults

 * In This House There Are Many Women, and Other Poems. Fredericton, N.B., Goose Lane, 2004. ISBN 978-0-86492-416-2
 * Kiss The Joy As It Flies. Halifax, Nimbus, 2008. ISBN 978-1-55109-653-7

Educational

 * Writing Maniac: How I Grew Up to Be a Writer (And You Can, Too!). Markham, Ontario, Pembroke Publishers, 2000. ISBN 978-1-55138-121-3
 * The Poetry Experience: Choosing and Using Poetry in the Classroom . Sheree Fitch and Larry Swartz. Markham, Ontario, Pembroke Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-1-55138-223-4
 * Breathe, Stretch, Write: Learning to Write with Everything You've Got. Markham, Ontario, Pembroke Publishers, 2011. ISBN 978-1-55138-256-2

title: Sheree Fitch


text:
Jonathan Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 1950s, he came to prominence in the early 1960s in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett.

Miller began directing operas in the 1970s. His 1982 production of a "Mafia"-styled Rigoletto was set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan. In its early days, he was an associate director at the National Theatre. He later ran the Old Vic Theatre. As a writer and presenter of more than a dozen BBC documentaries, Miller became a television personality and public intellectual in Britain and the United States.

Early life
Miller grew up in St John's Wood, London, in a well-connected Jewish family. His father Emanuel (1892–1970), who was of Lithuanian descent and suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, was a military psychiatrist and subsequently a paediatric psychiatrist at Harley House. His mother, Betty Miller (née Spiro) (1910–1965), was a novelist and biographer who was originally from County Cork, Ireland. Miller had an elder sister, Sarah (died 2006) who worked in television for many years and retained an involvement with Judaism that Miller, as an atheist, always eschewed. As a child Miller had a stammer and was attention-seeking, compensating for his stammer by speaking in foreign accents. He also developed an astonishing talent for mimicry, including chickens and steam trains. The young Miller was assessed by several child psychiatrists, including Donald Winnicott. He had many sessions, as a teenager with the psychiatrist Leopold Stein. Miller enjoyed the sessions and said that they "simply conversed about philosophy and Hughlings Jackson's early neurological theories."

Miller moved between several different schools prior to attending Taunton School, including for a time at the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (a Waldorf school) where he was taught by two of Ivy Compton-Burnett's sisters and says of that time that he "never learnt anything at all". Miller concluded his secondary school education at St Paul's School, London where he developed an early (and ultimately lifelong) interest in the biological sciences. While at St Paul's School at the age of 12, Miller met and became close friends with Oliver Sacks and Sacks's best friend Eric Korn, friendships which remained crucial throughout the rest of their lives. In 1953, before leaving secondary school, he performed comedy several times on the BBC radio programme Under Twenty Parade. Miller studied natural sciences and medicine at St John's College, Cambridge (MB BChir, 1959), where he was a member of the Cambridge Apostles and one of cast’s three Granta cartoonist, before going on to train at University College Hospital in London.

While studying medicine, Miller was involved in the Cambridge Footlights, appearing in the revues Out of the Blue (1954) and Between the Lines (1955). Good reviews for these shows, and for Miller's performances in particular, led to his performing on a number of radio and television shows while continuing his studies; these included appearances on Saturday Night on the Light, Tonight and Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He qualified as a physician in 1959 and then worked as a hospital house officer for two years, including at the Central Middlesex Hospital as house physician for gastroenterologist Francis Avery Jones.

1960s: Beyond the Fringe
Miller helped to write and produce the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in August 1960. This launched, in addition to his own, the careers of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Miller quit the show shortly after its move from London to Broadway in 1962, and took over as editor and presenter of the BBC's arts programme Monitor in 1965. The Monitor appointment arose because Miller had approached Huw Wheldon about taking up a place on the BBC's director training course. Wheldon assured him that he would "pick it up as he went along".

Miller's first experience of directing a stage-play was for John Osborne, whose Under Plain Cover he directed in 1962. In 1964, he directed the play The Old Glory by the American poet Robert Lowell in New York City. It was the first play produced at the American Place Theatre and starred Frank Langella, Roscoe Lee Brown, and Lester Rawlins. The play won five Obie Awards in 1965 including an award for "Best American Play" as well as awards for Langella, Brown and Rawlins.

He wrote, produced, and directed an adaptation for television of Alice in Wonderland (1966) for the BBC. He followed this with Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968) starring Michael Hordern, a television adaptation of M. R. James's 1904 ghost story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad". He produced a National Theatre Company production of The Merchant of Venice starring Laurence Olivier. He later resigned as associate director.

1970s: Medical history and opera
Miller held a research fellowship in the history of medicine at University College London from 1970 to 1973. In 1974, he also started directing and producing operas for Kent Opera and Glyndebourne, followed by a new production of The Marriage of Figaro for English National Opera in 1978. Miller's other turns as an opera director included productions of Rigoletto (in 1975 and 1982) and the operetta The Mikado (in 1987).

Miller drew upon his own experiences as a physician as writer and presenter of the BBC television series The Body in Question (1978). The series was nominated for two 1979 BAFTAs: Best Factual Television Series and Most Original Programme/Series and caused some controversy for showing the dissection of a cadaver. For a time, he was a vice-president of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. In 1971, he defended multiracial immigration to the UK at length with Enoch Powell on The Dick Cavett Show.

1980s: Shakespeare and neuropsychology
In 1980, Miller was persuaded to join the troubled BBC Television Shakespeare project (1978–85). He became producer (1980–82) and directed six of the plays himself, beginning with a well received Taming of the Shrew starring John Cleese. In the early 1980s, Miller was a popular and frequent guest on PBS' Dick Cavett Show.

Miller wrote and presented the BBC television series, and accompanying book, States of Mind in 1983 and the same year directed Roger Daltrey as Macheath, the outlaw hero of the BBC's production of John Gay's 1728 ballad opera, The Beggar's Opera. He also became chair of Edinburgh Festival Fringe board of directors. In 1984, he studied neuropsychology with Dr. Sandra Witelson at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, before becoming a neuropsychology research fellow at the University of Sussex the following year.

1990s
In 1990, Miller wrote and presented a joint BBC/Canadian production titled, Born Talking: A Personal Inquiry into Language. The four-part series looked into the acquisition of language, and complexities surrounding language production, with special focus on sign language used by deaf people. This interest was contemporaneous with his friend Oliver Sacks' immersion in, and writing/publishing a book about Deaf Culture and deaf people entitled Seeing Voices. Miller then wrote and presented the television series Madness (1991) and Jonathan Miller on Reflection (1998). The five-part Madness series ran on PBS in 1991. It featured a brief history of madness and interviews with psychiatric researchers, clinical psychiatrists, and patients in therapy sessions. In 1992, Opera Omaha staged the United States premiere of the Gioachino Rossini's 1819 opera Ermione, directed by Miller.

2000s: Atheism and return to directing
In 2002 Miller directed Cosi fan tutte at Rønne Theater (1813) in Rønne, Bornholm in Denmark. In 2004, Miller wrote and presented a television series on atheism entitled Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (more commonly referred to as Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief) for BBC Four, exploring the roots of his own atheism and investigating the history of atheism in the world. Individual conversations, debates and discussions for the series that could not be included due to time constraints were aired in a six-part series entitled The Atheism Tapes. He also appeared on a BBC Two programme in February 2004, called What the World Thinks of God appearing from New York. The original three-part series aired on public television in the United States in 2007.

In 2007, Miller directed The Cherry Orchard at The Crucible, Sheffield, his first work on the British stage for 10 years. He also directed Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Manchester and Bristol, and Der Rosenkavalier in Tokyo and gave talks throughout Britain during 2007 called An Audience with Jonathan Miller in which he spoke about his life for an hour and then fielded questions from the audience. He also curated an exhibition on camouflage at the Imperial War Museum. He appeared at the Royal Society of the Arts in London discussing humour (4 July 2007) and at the British Library on religion (3 September 2007).

In January 2009, after a break of 12 years, Miller returned to the English National Opera to direct his own production of La bohème, notable for its 1930s setting. This same production ran at the Cincinnati Opera in July 2010, also directed by Miller.

2010s
On 15 September 2010, Miller, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK. In April and May 2011, Miller directed Verdi's La traviata in Vancouver, Canada, and in February and March 2012, Mozart's Così fan tutte in Washington, D.C.

On 25 November 2015, the University of London awarded Miller an honorary degree in Literature.

Personal life
Miller married Rachel Collet in 1956. They had two sons and a daughter. From 1961 to his death he lived on Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town, north London. On 27 November 2019, Miller died at the age of 85, following a long battle with Alzheimer's.

Parodies and representations

 * Stevie Smith, a friend of his mother Betty Miller, "rather disloyally" included a thinly disguised and uncomplimentary version of the nine-year-old Miller, "precocious and brattish... constantly demanding attention", in her short story 'Beside the Seaside: A Holiday with Children' (1949).
 * Private Eye (which had a falling-out with Miller ) occasionally lampooned him under the name "Dr Jonathan", depicting him as a Dr Johnson-like self-important man of learning.
 * In the film for television Not Only But Always about the careers of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Jonathan Aris played Jonathan Miller as a young man; Aris reprised the role in the BBC Radio 4 play Good Evening (2008) by Roy Smiles.
 * Along with the other members of Beyond the Fringe, he is portrayed in the play Pete and Dud: Come Again by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde.
 * In the BBC Radio Four series The Burkiss Way edition 35, broadcast on 2 April 1979, he was impersonated by Nigel Rees in a fairly lengthy parody "The Blood Gushing All over the Screen in Question", in which the history of nasty diseases was traced and the style of Miller's presentation was sent up. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick.
 * In the 1980s a puppet of Miller appeared frequently in Spitting Image sketches, most notably "Bernard Levin and Jonathan Miller Talk Bollocks".

Honours and awards

 * Special Tony Award (1963), with co-stars Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, "for their brilliance which has shattered all the old concepts of comedy" in the musical revue Beyond the Fringe.
 * Distinguished Supporter, Humanists UK.
 * Honorary Associate, National Secular Society.
 * Honorary Fellow, University College London.
 * Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Art.
 * Associate member, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
 * Honorary Fellow, St John's College, Cambridge (1982).
 * Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Physicians (London and Edinburgh).
 * Honorary D.Phil., University of Cambridge.
 * Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE; 1983).
 * Nomination: Best Director Tony Award (1986), for his revival of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night.
 * Knight Bachelor (2002), for services to music and the arts.
 * Nominated artist of honour at Bornholm thanks to his instruction in Rønne Theater (Opera Island Bornholm; 2003).
 * Foreign Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
 * President, Rationalist Association (2006–2019)
 * Lifetime Achievement Award, Medical Journalists' Association (2012)

Books

 * (1994 Jonathan Cape [pop-up book])
 * (pop-up book intended for children)
 * (The Applause Acting Series)
 * (University Research Lecture Series No. 5)
 * [collection of his photographs]
 * (1994 Jonathan Cape [pop-up book])
 * (pop-up book intended for children)
 * (The Applause Acting Series)
 * (University Research Lecture Series No. 5)
 * [collection of his photographs]
 * (The Applause Acting Series)
 * (University Research Lecture Series No. 5)
 * [collection of his photographs]
 * [collection of his photographs]
 * [collection of his photographs]
 * [collection of his photographs]

Contributor

 * – Jonathan Miller: "King Lear in Rehearsal: A Talk" and seven other essays
 * . Essays by Jonathan Miller Geoffrey O'Brien, Charles Rosen, Tom Stoppard and Garry Wills
 * – Jonathan Miller: "King Lear in Rehearsal: A Talk" and seven other essays
 * . Essays by Jonathan Miller Geoffrey O'Brien, Charles Rosen, Tom Stoppard and Garry Wills
 * . Essays by Jonathan Miller Geoffrey O'Brien, Charles Rosen, Tom Stoppard and Garry Wills
 * . Essays by Jonathan Miller Geoffrey O'Brien, Charles Rosen, Tom Stoppard and Garry Wills

Introductions and forewords

 * (directors note)

Actor

 * Bridge on the River Wye (1962 Parlophone LP; as American Announcer, American G.I., American Lieutenant, British Sergeant)

Actor

 * Beyond the Fringe (1964), TV version.
 * One Way Pendulum (1964)
 * Sensitive Skin (as "Dr Cass", 2 episodes, 2005)

Director

 * Alice in Wonderland (1966; BBC television drama; Also writer and producer; Provides commentary track on DVD version)
 * Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968; BBC television drama).
 * Take a Girl Like You (1970, starring Hayley Mills).
 * BBC Television Shakespeare (1978–85):
 * The Taming of the Shrew (1980), starring John Cleese.
 * Timon of Athens (1981), starring Jonathan Pryce.
 * Antony and Cleopatra (1981), starring Colin Blakely.
 * Othello (1981), starring Anthony Hopkins and Bob Hoskins.
 * Troilus and Cressida (1981).
 * King Lear (1982), starring Michael Hordern.
 * The Beggar's Opera (1983; BBC television opera), starring Roger Daltrey and Bob Hoskins.

Presenter-writer

 * Monitor (1962; also editor).
 * The Zoo in Winter (1969), BBC, directed by Patrick Garland.
 * The Body in Question (1978–79), 13 episodes.
 * Equinox - Prisoner of Consciousness (1986)
 * Born Talking: A Personal Inquiry into Language (1990), 4 episodes.
 * Madness (1991).
 * Equinox - Moving Pictures (1991)
 * Jonathan Miller's Opera Works (1997), 6 episodes.
 * Jonathan Miller on Reflection (1998).
 * Absolute Rubbish with Jonathan Miller (2004)
 * Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (2004), 3 episodes.
 * The Atheism Tapes (2004).

Interviewee

 * In 1988 Miller made an extended appearance on the discussion programme After Dark, described here.
 * Miller appears on the Puccini and Bach DVDs of this BBC series. In the Bach episode, he discusses his affection for the famous "Erbarme Dich" aria of the St Matthew Passion.
 * Miller appears in this one-hour program on the painter.

Musical revue

 * Beyond the Fringe (performer, writer, producer; Edinburgh Festival; 1960).
 * Beyond the Fringe (performer, writer; Fortune Theatre, London; 1961–62).
 * Beyond the Fringe (performer, writer; John Golden Theatre. NYC; 27 October 1962 to 30 May 1964; 667 performances).

Oratorio

 * St Matthew Passion (Director; St. George's Theatre, London, February 1994) with Paul Goodwin. A dramatised production of J. S. Bach's masterpiece, recorded for BBC Television. This production was also revived at London's National Theatre in September/October 2011 with Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Goodwin.

Drama

 * The Old Glory (Director; American Place Theatre, 1964) starring Frank Langella, Roscoe Lee Brown, and Lester Rawlins.
 * The Merchant of Venice (Director; Cambridge Theatre, 1970) starring Laurence Olivier.
 * Danton's Death (Director; 1972) starring Christopher Plummer.
 * Long Day's Journey into Night (Director; Broadhurst Theatre, 28 April to 29 June 1986; 54 performances), starring Jack Lemmon.
 * Camera Obscura (Director; Almeida Theatre, 13 May to 8 June 2002; Theatre Royal, Bath, 11 to 15 June 2002; Theatre Royal, Winchester, 18 to 22 June 2002; The Oxford Playhouse 25 to 29 June 2002, starring Peter Eyre, and Diana Hardcastle.
 * King Lear (Director; Vivian Beaumont Theater 4 March to 18 April 2004; 33 performances).
 * The Cherry Orchard (Director; Crucible Theatre, 2007).

Opera
Over four decades, Miller has directed more than 50 operas in cities including London, New York, Florence, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Valencia and Tokyo.

 * Così fan tutte (Stage director; Kent Opera, 1974). The first of seven operas Miller directed for Kent Opera.
 * Rigoletto (Stage director; 1975). Set in the 19th century.
 * The Cunning Little Vixen (Producer; Glyndebourne, 1975).
 * Le nozze di Figaro (Stage director; English National Opera, 1978). A televised version was made in 1991.
 * Rigoletto (Stage and video director; English National Opera, 1982). Set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan.
 * The Mikado (Stage and video director; English National Opera, 1987) starring Eric Idle.
 * La traviata (Stage director; Glimmerglass Opera, 1989).
 * Kát'a Kabanová (Stage director and producer; Metropolitan Opera, 1991).
 * La fanciulla del West (Stage and video director; 1991).
 * Pelléas et Mélisande (Stage director and producer; Metropolitan Opera, 1995).
 * Rodelinda (Stage director; Salomons Science Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, 1996).
 * The Rake's Progress (Stage director and producer; Metropolitan Opera, 1997).
 * Le nozze di Figaro (Stage director and producer; Metropolitan Opera, 1998).
 * Die Zauberflöte (Stage and video director; 2000).
 * Tamerlano (Stage and video director; 2001).
 * Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Stage and video director; 2003).
 * Falstaff (Stage director; New National Theatre Tokyo, 2004).
 * Jenůfa (Stage director; Glimmerglass Opera with New York City Opera in Cooperstown, New York, 29 July to 29 August 2006).
 * L'Elisir d'Amore (Stage director; New York City Opera, October 2007).
 * L'Orfeo (Stage director; Manchester and Bristol productions, 2007).
 * Der Rosenkavalier (Stage director; New National Theatre Tokyo, 2007).
 * La traviata (Stage director; Glimmerglass Opera, 2009).
 * La bohème (Stage director; Cincinnati Opera, 2010).
 * Pelléas et Mélisande (Stage director; Metropolitan Opera, 2005 and 2010).
 * La traviata (Director; Vancouver Opera, 2011)).
 * Miller's most recent opera productions in England were Cosi fan tutte and Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House (both revived in 2012) and La bohème and L'elisir d'amore at the English National Opera. His production of Rigoletto at the ENO is still being revived after 28 years and his production of The Mikado is about to return in its 25th year. His 1987 ENO production of The Barber of Seville has often been revived, most recently in 2017.

Museum and gallery exhibitions

 * Miller curated an exhibition on "Reflexion" (1998) at the National Gallery and one on "Motion in Art and Photography" at the Estorick Gallery in Islington.
 * Miller had three exhibitions of his own art work at Flowers East, the Boundary Gallery and at the Katz Gallery in Bond Street, London.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Jonathan Miller


text:
Modern Jive

Modern Jive is a dance style derived from swing, Lindy Hop, rock and roll, salsa and various other dance styles, the main difference being the simplification of footwork by removing syncopation such as chasse. The term "French Jive" is occasionally used instead, reflecting the origins of the style, as is the term "Smooth Jive". The word "modern" distinguishes it from ballroom Jive.

History
Modern Jive was developed in the United Kingdom during the 1980s at three London clubs: Ceroc, Le Roc, and Cosmopolitan Jive. The style was based on a type of Jive that evolved in France after World War II when American dances such as the jitterbug were popular due to the presence of the American military.

Modern Jive was not created in France, but its origin owes something to the French version of Le Bop. The dance commonly known as Modern Jive is different from Le Bop, a high tempo dance. Michel Ange Lau played a major role in the change from Le Bop to Modern Jive at a club called Centre Charles Peguy). Two British people, James Cronin and Christine Keeble, saw Le Bop in France and wanted to learn the dance when they returned to London. They were among Lau's students. The style of music played at discos was changing, and high tempo dances like Rock and Roll and Le Bop were becoming less popular.

The change in music prompted the birth of Modern Jive; in 1980 Lau and the Le Bop dancers changed the timing of Le Bop, causing a revolution in the dance. This change in timing not only allowed Lau and his students to dance to a much larger variety of music but also to create more intricate moves.

What is Modern Jive?
Modern Jive adapts moves from other dance styles such as West Coast Swing, Salsa, Ballroom and Latin. The key to understanding Modern Jive is the beginner moves. These 20-plus moves continually reinforce the absolutes to the dance. The consistencies allow modern jive dancers to dance together, despite their preferences.

Modern Jive absolutes and consistencies
Due to Modern Jive's unique timing it has the ability to be danced to a wide variety of tempos (extremes 60bpm - 180bpm, typically 110bpm - 140bpm, although this varies considerably with geography), and the dance is generally danced to 2 beats in 4. It's danced to the stressed beats 1, 3, 5, & 7; it's on these beats the dancers are in position (moving through the less-stressed beats 2, 4, 6, & 8), e.g. a classical Yo Yo has 8 positions danced to 16 beats of music.

The step back at the start of each move: this was derived from the Rock Step and changed to a simple step back when the timing changed. The step back creates the in & out or concertina motion that many people consider to be an essential part of the dance style; both dancers step away from each other at the start of a move / pattern, to achieve tension and compression/extension in the connection point. This extension assists lead and follow technique, but perhaps more importantly the step back into extension is the consistent part that allows an infinite number of moves to be joined in any order, depending on which handhold or other connection the lead is using.

The follow's right hand is key to the dance, each beginner move starts with the follow's right hand (sometimes both hands), whenever the follow spins or the hand is released it's the right hand that they need to offer.

The motion of the dance: for the majority of the beginner moves the follow steps in to the lead's right side on count two (this is not always consistent at intermediate level moves, and the lead often signals with their right hand behind their back to bring the follow down the left side) e.g. Pretzel. (A lead technique can also be developed to bring the follow down the left hand side).

Off phrase dancing: Modern Jive is a 'off phrase' dance. This means a move does not always have to start on a particular beat e.g. beat 1 or beat 2 (Cha Cha) of the music – this allows the massive flexibility, diversity, and high level of musicality that's often seen in the dance. Moves often have varying numbers of beats to them, e.g. Catapult 8 counts (16 beats of music), Octopus 7 counts (14 beats of music).

Dancing to slower tempos
Slower tempos in Modern Jive (in some groups referred to as Modern Jive Blues) allows for more styling and musical interpretation. The slower tempo allows the follower to indicate when they want freestyle time, the dance can also use body leads at slower tempos and dancers often dance a lot closer. Dancing to slower music allows for a lot more two way communication, allowing more freedom, and music interpretation, however good Modern Jive dancers should be able to adapt their dancing and dance to a full spectrum of tempos. At higher tempos timing becomes more of a skill, where two way communication is reduced, at higher tempos musicality (e.g. hitting the music phrasing / breaks and interpreting the music), is more difficult to achieve as both dancers have to be in tune together but also with the music. Most dancers dancing Modern Jive Blues originate from Modern Jive and are familiar with Modern Jive Beginners moves and associated absolutes.

Rotating slot
In the classical form, Modern Jive naturally rotates (normally clockwise). This is due to 2 or 3 consistencies that can be seen in the beginner moves and more often than not in the intermediate moves. a) the follow continually steps into the leads right side, causing a clockwise rotation – rarely to the leads left side, b) Often on count three the follow is turned or spun clockwise (1st move basic, Yo Yo, Hatchback.....), c) a lot of the beginner moves finish with an anti clockwise return – causing the follow to stabilise on the left foot stepping slightly to her left (clockwise), instead of directly back. This is Modern Jive danced in its natural form, and should not be confused with a really bad technique where the follow continually skips around the lead (also known as 'Roundy Roundy' in the UK), despite his lead. This 'Roundy Roundy' style is often found at higher tempos by inexperienced follow dancers and is totally different from the slightly rotating slot (of the natural dance).

Slotted dancing
Over roughly the last decade, Modern Jive has been influenced by West Coast Swing, an American partner dance developed from Lindy Hop with the addition of the 'slot' meaning it is danced up and down an imaginary line. As WCS teaching tends to be more technique focused, it tends to attract experienced dancers from Modern Jive, who then bring elements of the dance back into M-J. The slot concept is one that has taken a hold in Modern Jive and is now very often taught even from beginner level, although more commonly in the Ceroc franchise venues and other groups that run competitions, than independents such as LeRoc.

Dancing slotted allows the follow (and lead) to always complete a full turn, which helps to avoid dizziness, and has many other technical advantages. However, some dancers find that at high tempos (140BPM and above) it is easier to abandon the slot and revert to a rotational style. These dancers find that many of the older Modern Jive moves done in the classical form, such as the YoYo, the Catapult and the Push Spin work better at higher tempos, and are less suitable for slow tempos (100BPM or lower) where other moves and a more elastic style of dancing are more appropriate.

When Modern Jive tends to be danced rotationally, it is still often taught on stage in two directions, to allow large classes to observe the instruction and instructors often compensate to be seen. In these classes, directional leads are often not taught effectively at beginner level (even at intermediate level), and so as soon as the class goes to freestyle dancing the dancers start to rotate in a rotating slot style. For these groups, dancing in the slot is an advanced technique / preference that can be developed and adds another dimension to Modern Jive, and it also looks impressive when a group of dancers are dancing slotted in the same area in the same direction.

Where Modern Jive tends to be danced slotted by default, slotted dancing tends to be taught rather more effectively, and it's reinforced in social dancing where it is possible to pack many more people onto a dance floor more safely if they are all dancing slotted. These groups have also tended to modify older moves slightly from the classical form, in order to take advantage of the known direction of momentum and other technical advantages of the slotted form.

Presenting forward / blocking
Presenting forward is a skill often developed by professionals, competition dancers and showcase dancers and requires further skills and additional techniques. Here the dancers develop the skill of presenting in one consistent direction (usually forward or towards an audience as compared to facing each other). Dips, drops, poses, exiting moves / lifts and even smiling consistently in one direction in order to present the best possible picture to spectators, judges and/or audiences are all factors.

Branding
The term Modern Jive was coined in 1990 by Christine Keeble on a program called 'How to Jive', designed to promulgate this new style of jive. At that time the dance was known variously as Ceroc, LeRoc, or French Jive. Christine Keeble used the term 'modern jive' to encompass all of these names.

The term 'modern jive' was adopted, despite the absence of chasse or triple step (typical of "real" jive forms). Various clubs used the umbrella term as the dance spread out from its two earliest centres of London and Bristol and it later became accepted as a generic term for the dance. It is now used by a large number of independent teachers across the UK and internationally. It is also used by many of the franchise operators, although these companies often still prefer to use their own branding.

Organizations
In the English-speaking world, Modern Jive classes and events are often franchised or run under various brand names, including, Jive Addiction, Blitz, DanceJive, ViBe Dance Nights, "Revolution Dance" Northwest, Ceroc, LeRoc, Ginger Jive, Mo'Jive, Cloud9, Jiveasy, South Coast Modern Jive, The Thing, and others. Beyond the bounds of the English-speaking world, modern jive has still to make a significant impact. In Europe there are JiveNation Poland in Poland, M-Jive and Jive.Berlin in Germany and Leroc Zürich and Modern Jive Zürich in Switzerland which are slowly bringing the dance style to a wider audience.

Following a different but similar evolutionary path, dance styles such as Discofox (in Germany and Switzerland and derived from Foxtrott ) and Bugg (found in Sweden) may sometimes be indistinguishable from the Modern Jive found in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Dance moves
While these forms of Modern Jive have Swing and Rock-and-Roll dance moves in common, moves from many forms of dance including Salsa and Tango may be included, according to the specific franchise or even the particular dance teacher. Because of its eclectic nature there are hundreds of moves and variations that can be learnt, introduced or adapted.

Although dance routines are developed and rehearsed for competitions, Modern Jive is most frequently danced freestyle, providing additional challenges to more advanced dancers in terms of musical interpretation and expression; which is why some Modern Jive dancers prefer Blues Music, drawing out the move and allowing the follow to improvise and partake in the dance (as opposed to being dragged around the floor).

Move naming
Different franchises or teachers often have different names for identical moves, and different signals to indicate the next move. The Man's Spin taught at one venue may be identical to the Man's Pass taught by a different venue. Due to its origins, Modern Jive moves may be similar to moves from other dance styles; the First Move Triple Steps in Modern Jive is similar to the Lindy Hop Jockey, for example. Despite this there is rarely a problem dancing with people who have been taught other styles, at least with the less advanced moves. A solid lead is better than using a signal (which may only be suited to one dance style); thus allowing good follows to dance regardless of the learning style.

Lead variations
Like many Western partner dances, Modern Jive is most often a male-led dance. The gender of the lead is irrelevant to the technique required, however many moves are more easily led by a taller lead on a shorter follow, and thus a shorter lead will need to modify their lead and the move to allow for the differences in angle, or choose different moves that are more easily led by them.

Modern Jive is also occasionally danced by three dancers, with one lead and two followers (a variant known as "Double Trouble" in the UK or "Triples" in Australia/New Zealand).

It can also be danced with two leads smoothly and continuously swapping with each other to dance with one follow, or two follows doing the same with one lead (known in the UK as "Tag", and in Australia/New Zealand as "Swaps 'n' Steals")

Step footwork vs rock footwork
Many of the Australian offshoots of Ceroc transitioned to a footwork coined "Step" in about 1995.

The original "rock" footwork specifies a step back with either foot, transferring the weight to the moved foot on each of the odd numbered beats (1, 3, 5, 7) The moved foot is returned to its starting position on the even beats. (2, 4, 6, 8).

"Step" footwork specifies that the leader takes a step back with the right foot on the half beat or "and" count and "closes", stepping backwards with the left foot on the numbered count. "closing" implies that the feet end up close together. On the next count the leader steps forward with their right foot on the "and" count and closes with their left on the numbered count. The follower mirrors this by stepping back on their left and "closing" with their right and then stepping forward with their left and closing with their right.

Rock footwork was originally offered as a "beginner" footwork in Australia. More recently it has been dropped. The reason for it being dropped is pedagogical. The problem appeared to be that the transition from beginner to intermediate dancer (so-called) meant one had to "unlearn" one and then "re-learn" another rhythm and weight change components of the dance. Unfortunately, the "rock" footwork is actually more suited to fast music (leaning towards "advanced" dancers) as it reduces the number of weight changes required during any rhythm unit. Thus, the preference for "step" footwork has reduced the "terminal velocity" modern jive can be danced at - because it forces a weight change every beat.

Music
Modern Jive is generally danced to music with four beats to the bar (Quadruple or Common time), from latest chart hits to big band music and everything between, in a wide variety of tempos from slow to very fast. Some teachers or franchises may concentrate on particular musical styles, such as swing. Music is typically between 108 and 160 bpm. Experienced jivers occasionally dance to music outside those broad constraints.

Weekenders
Around the world there are a number of "weekenders" (short dance-focused holidays, typically running from Friday - Monday) running annually.

Jive Time originally started weekenders in the UK but now Ceroc run the majority of the weekenders; with independent organisers still running a number of other weekender events, such as the Jive Addiction, Jive Time or MJ Roc events.

Competitions
Modern Jive competitions are typically judged based on the following criteria:
 * Musicality
 * Content and execution
 * Style and technique
 * Presentation

Depending on how the scoring is done, the judges may award marks for each of these, or may just give an overall mark or place, based on considering each of these factors.

UK competitions
As of 2015, Modern Jive Competitions in the United Kingdom include:

 * UK Contemporary Blues & Smooth Dance Champs, Huddersfield (February)
 * World Modern Jive Champs, Blackpool (March)
 * English Modern Jive Champs Horsham (April)
 * Ceroc Champs, London (May)
 * Ceroc Northern Champs, Manchester (June)
 * International Open Modern Jive Championships, Dorking (July)
 * Ceroc Welsh Champs, Cardiff (September)
 * European Blues Open Championships, (Ceroc Breeze) (October)
 * Britroc, London (October)
 * Ceroc Scotland Champs, Edinburgh (November)
 * UK Modern Jive Champs, Whitby (November)
 * Ceroc Midlands Champs, Stoke-on-Trent (November)

New Zealand competitions
As of 2019, Modern Jive Competitions in New Zealand include:

 * Cerocmania Weekend, Auckland (March)
 * Christchurch Modern Jive Champs, Christchurch (April)
 * Waikato Ceroc Champs, Tamahere (May)
 * Ceroc Coast to Coast Weekend, Tauranga (June)
 * iDance Classic Champs, Wellington (June)
 * Auckland Ceroc Champs, Auckland (September)
 * iDance Simply Dance Weekend, Wellington (October)
 * Ceroc Jurassic Jam, Auckland (October)
 * Ceroc NZ National Champs, Auckland (November)

Australian competitions
As of 2019, Modern Jive Competitions in Australia include:

 * SummerJive, Canberra (February)
 * Victorian Modern Jive Championships, Melbourne (May)
 * Australian Ceroc Dance Championships, Sydney (June)
 * Gold Coast Champs, Gold Coast (July)
 * IGNITE Queensland Modern Jive Championships, Gold Coast (August)
 * DanceMAD, Melbourne (November)

Other competitions
Ceroc Pan Asia Dance Championships, various (October)

Some competition categories are more serious (Freestyle and Dance With A Stranger) while others are more about having fun (Battle of the Sexes, Steals).

title: Modern Jive


text:
SkyOS

SkyOS (Sky Operating System) is a discontinued prototype commercial, proprietary, graphical desktop operating system written for the x86 computer architecture. As of January 30, 2009 development was halted with no plans to resume its development. In August 2013, developer Robert Szeleney announced the release of a public beta on the SkyOS website. This allows public users to download a Live CD of the SkyOS operating system, for testing and to optionally install the system.

History

Development started in 1996, with the first version released in December 1997. Up until version 4.x, the OS was freely available. Starting with beta development of SkyOS 5 in 2003, users were required to pay US$30 to get access to beta releases. SkyOS adapted new filesystem SkyFS based on OpenBFS in 2004, and its graphics subsystem was improved in 2006 with support for desktop compositing, including double buffering and transparency. The OS also moved to ELF binaries then. The last beta build 6947 was released in August 2008, and there was no status update for several months. As the OS was mainly the work of one man, Robert Szeleney, there was increasing difficulty to add new device drivers. Considering lack of development under Robert Szeleney, going open source was viewed by the tech press as the best option for SkyOS. Although Szeleney tried to bypass the lack of drivers by using a new kernel based on Linux or NetBSD, and reported some progress in this regard, development has not resumed. SkyOS website disappeared in 2013 and final public build from August 2008 was released for free shortly thereafter.

Kernel
SkyOS is a Unix-like operating system with a monolithic kernel. The OS supports multiple users and symmetric multiprocessing.

Graphics and GUI
SkyOS has an integrated graphics subsystem with support for desktop compositing including double buffering and transparency. SkyOS GUI also allows system-wide mouse gestures.

SkyFS
SkyFS is a fork of the OpenBFS filesystem.

SkyOS can also be run from the following filesystems:
 * FAT32/FAT16/FAT12
 * ISO 9660

Fast searching
SkyOS offers real-time file content query searches with multiple keywords (comparable to Beagle in Linux or Spotlight in macOS), including indexing of files and programs.

Porting applications
Most command-line applications that were written to be compiled with the GNU Toolchain can be ported to SkyOS with little or no modification.

SkyOS contains several frameworks for creating applications (including Mono port). Ported applications include Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Nvu, GIMP and AbiWord. There was also a monetary incentive for porting applications as the SkyOS community voted for desired programs and then supported developers with donations.

Reception
Although SkyOS includes many interesting features, limited application and hardware support are among its weaknesses (e.g. only a few graphics cards allow 2D acceleration). Kernel and drivers updates were solely worked on by Szeleney, and because of this he was unable to keep up with new devices. This was one of the reasons the development ended for this project. In the end, the OS was not able to expand beyond a small albeit dedicated user community. Apart from a short early open source time period, the OS had a proprietary licence with a commercial model based on paid beta-testing. This led to some controversy as SkyOS developers were accused of unauthorized use of open source software. No proof of any wrongdoing was given, but the public image of the OS was tarnished nevertheless.

title: SkyOS


text:
Wu Guanzheng

Wu Guanzheng (born August 11, 1938), also spelled as Wu Kuan-cheng is a former Chinese politician and one of the major leaders of the Chinese Communist Party during the administration of Hu Jintao. He served on the Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top ruling body, from 2002 to 2007. During that time he also served as the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party, the party's anti-graft body. He had a lengthy political career, having served as mayor of Wuhan, Governor then Party Secretary of Jiangxi, then party chief of Shandong. Wu retired in 2007 and left public life.

Career
Wu was born in Yugan County, Jiangxi province to a poor peasant family. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in March 1963. Wu graduated from the department of thermal engineering at Beijing's Tsinghua University in 1968, where he studied thermal measurement and automated controls. He was then sent to Wuhan during the Cultural Revolution to work as a shop floor technician at the Gedian Chemical Engineering factory, where he was promoted to supervisor a few years later.

Wu served as the mayor of Wuhan from 1983 to 1986. He became the governor of his native province Jiangxi in 1986 after the removal of Ni Xiance by the provincial People's Congress. He was later promoted to Jiangxi party chief and served between 1995 and 1997. He moved to Shandong in 1997 to become the party chief of the province and was made a full member of the Politburo the same year. It was said that Zeng Qinghong, a major confidant of then party General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin, was fond of Wu's work, and recommended him for further elevation, resulting in his promotion to the Politburo in 1997.

Thereafter, Wu was known to have cultivated good relationships with both Jiang Zemin and his putative successor Hu Jintao. Wu and Hu graduated in the same year, both of them alumni of Tsinghua University. Some sources considered him to be Hu's ally, while other consider him to be Jiang's. As a result, he was sometimes included in the list of people in the Shanghai clique. In 2002, Wu joined the Politburo Standing Committee as the head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's anti-graft agency. Wu was seen as an easy compromise candidate since he had "cross-factional appeal". During Wu's time in office on leading CCDI, Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu has been investigated and arrested by CCDI.

Wu Guanzheng retired from Standing Committee and Central Commission for Discipline Inspection after the 17th Party Congress in October 2007.

title: Wu Guanzheng


text:
Puffbird

The puffbirds and their relatives in the family Bucconidae are tropical tree-dwelling insectivorous birds that are found from South America up to Mexico. Together with their closest relatives, the jacamars, they form a divergent lineage within the order Piciformes, though the two families are sometimes elevated to a separate order Galbuliformes. Lacking the iridescent colours of the jacamars, puffbirds are mainly brown, rufous or grey, with large heads, large eyes, and flattened bills with a hooked tip. Their loose, abundant plumage and short tails makes them look stout and puffy, giving rise to the English name of the family. The species range in size from the rufous-capped nunlet, at 13 cm and 14 g, to the white-necked puffbird, at up to 29 cm and 106 g.

Taxonomy
Puffbirds get their common name from their fluffy plumage. In Spanish, they have been nicknamed bobo ("dummy") from their propensity to sit motionless waiting for prey. American naturalist Thomas Horsfield defined the Bucconidae in 1821. The family was classified as part of the Piciformes by Alexander Wetmore in his work A Systematic Classification for the Birds of the World (1930, revised in 1951 and 1960). The placement of the combined puffbird and jacamar lineage was in question, with some bone and muscle features suggesting they may be more closely related to the Coraciiformes. Analysis of nuclear DNA in a 2003 study placed them as sister group to the rest of the Piciformes, also showing that the groups had developed zygodactyl feet (two toes facing forward and two aft) before separating. Per Ericson and colleagues, in analysing genomic DNA, confirmed that puffbirds and jacamars were sister groups and their place in Piciformes. The lineage is sometimes elevated to order level as Galbuliformes, first proposed by Sibley and Ahlquist in 1990.

The phylogenetic relationship between the puffbirds and the eight other families that make up the order Piciformes is shown in the cladogram below. The number of species in each family is taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC).

Molecular investigation of the Bucconidae in 2004 indicated that the nunlets (genus Nonnula) diverged from the common ancestor of other puffbirds an estimated 25 million years ago, with the genus Malacoptila the next to branch off around 19.1 million years ago. A fossil right wing recovered from Lower Eocene beds in Lincoln County Wyoming was initially classified as a puffbird and given the name Primobucco mcgrewi. The discovery of more complete specimens, including twelve in 2010, shows that Primobucco was instead an early type of roller.

Distribution and habitat
Puffbirds are found from Mexico to southern Brazil, with the greatest variety of species found in the Amazon Basin. They live in forested or wooded habitats, including lowland, foothills, and open woodland. The white-faced nunbird is the only member of this species known to live in highlands. The swallow-winged puffbird also lives in more open country. No species of puffbirds have been recorded of moving any significant distance beyond its home territory.

Description
Generally dull-plumaged birds, puffbirds may have brightly colored bills, eyebrows and irises. They have large heads, short wings and strong bills, with short legs and diminutive feet. There is some sexual dimorphism; the female is slightly larger and slightly duller-plumaged than the male. Juvenile birds have shorter beaks.

Voice
Puffbirds are one of the most silent birds in the Neotropics and vocalize very rarely. The most vocal species are the nunbirds and those in the genus  Nystalus. When calling they mostly do so at dawn and dusk. The main vocalizations consist of repeated and high-pitched whistles. The nunbirds are the most vocal of the family; they have a wide repertoire of calls and often give very loud shouts.

Behavior
Puffbirds are by nature arboreal. Mostly secretive, they are found singly or in small family groups. Species of the genus Monasa, known as nunbirds, are more gregarious and found in flocks.

Feeding
Puffbirds are sit-and-wait hunters, perching unmoving for long periods, while watching for insect prey. As well as arthropods, they may eat small lizards and plant material. Arthropod exoskeletons are regurgitated as pellets. The swallow-winged puffbird is the only member in the family that is known to capture insects from open perches.

Breeding
The breeding behaviour of puffbirds is not well known. Nests are burrows in dirt, rotten wood or termite mounds. Puffbirds are known to lay clutches of two or three eggs. The eggs are round, small, and white. The incubation period is around 15 days, and performed by both parents. Born blind and naked, the young can crawl to the entrance of the nest burrow at one or two days of age. There, their mother feeds them partly chewed insects. They fledge at around 20 to 21 days.

title: Puffbird


text:
Judith Fitzgerald

Judith Ariana Fitzgerald (11 November 1952 – 25 November 2015) was a Canadian poet and journalist. Born in Toronto, Ontario, she attended York University (where she earned her BA and MA; she did her doctoral work at the University of Toronto). She authored over twenty books of poetry, as well as biographies of musician Sarah McLachlan and Marshall McLuhan. She died in her home in Northern Ontario, at the age of 63.

Poetry

 * 1970: Octave. Toronto: Dreadnaught
 * 1972: City Park. Agincourt, ON: Northern Concept
 * 1975: Journal Entries. Toronto: Dreadnaught Press
 * 1975: Victory. Toronto: Coach House Press
 * 1977: Lacerating Heartwood. Toronto: Coach House Press
 * 1981: Easy Over. Windsor: Black Moss Press
 * 1983: Split/Levels. Toronto: Coach House Press
 * 1984: The Syntax of Things. Toronto: Prototype
 * 1983: Heart Attack[s]. Canada: privately published
 * 1984: Beneath the Skin of Paradise: The Piaf Poems. Windsor: Black Moss Press
 * 1985: My Orange Gorange. Windsor: Black Moss Press
 * 1985: Given Names: New and Selected Poems 1972–1985. Ed. Frank Davey. Windsor: Black Moss Press
 * 1986: Whale Waddleby. Windsor: Black Moss Press
 * 1987: Diary of Desire. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press
 * 1991: Rapturous Chronicles. Stratford, ON: Mercury Press
 * Ultimate Midnight. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press
 * 1992: Habit of Blues: Rapturous Chronicles II. Stratford, ON: Mercury Press, 1993
 * 1993: walkin' wounded. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press
 * 1995: River. Toronto: ECW Press
 * 1999: 26 Ways Out of This World. Ottawa: Oberon
 * 2003: Iphigenia's Song (Adagios Quartet vol. 1). Ottawa: Oberon Press
 * 2004: Orestes' Lament (Adagios Quartet vol. 2). Ottawa: Oberon Press
 * 2006: Electra's Benison (Adagios Quartet vol. 3). Ottawa: Oberon Press
 * 2007: O, Clytaemnestra! (Adagios Quartet vol. 4). Ottawa: Oberon Press

Prose

 * 1997: Building A Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan and Lilith Fair. Kingston, ON: Quarry Music Books
 * 2000: Sarah McLachlan: Building a Mystery. Kingston, ON: Quarry Music Books, Millennial Edition
 * 2001: Marshall McLuhan: Wise Guy. Montreal: XYZ

Edited

 * 1982: Un Dozen: Thirteen Canadian Poets. Windsor, ON: Black Moss
 * 1986: SP/ELLES: Poetry by Canadian Women. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press
 * 1988: First Person Plural. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press
 * 2000: Bagne, or, Criteria for Heaven, by Rob Mclennan. Fredericton, NB: Broken Jaw Press

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy Brock University.

title: Judith Fitzgerald


text: User talk:68.16.134.146

title: User talk:68.16.134.146


text:
User:Foos

American, software engineer, variety of interests including politics, football (soccer), and technology.

title: User:Foos


text:
VideoLAN

VideoLAN is a non-profit organization which develops software for playing video and other media formats. It originally developed two programs for media streaming, VideoLAN Client (VLC) and VideoLAN Server (VLS), but most of the features of VLS have been incorporated into VLC, with the result renamed VLC media player.

The VideoLAN project began as a student endeavor at École Centrale Paris (France), but after releasing the software under the free software/open source GNU General Public License, the project is now multinational with a development team spanning 40 nations. The project has been completely separated from École Centrale Paris since 2009 when it was constituted as a non-profit organization.

The current President of the VideoLAN non-profit organization is Jean-Baptiste Kempf, who is also one of the project's developers.

VLC
VLC (standing for VideoLAN Client) is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats. It is one of the most platform-independent players available, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Linux, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, ChromeOS, and is widely used with over 4.2 billion downloads as of October 2022.

VLMC
VLMC (standing for VideoLAN Movie Creator) is a cross-platform, non-linear, video editing software application based on the VLC Media Player. The software is still in early development. The latest version is 0.2.0 (released 2014-10-30), released under the GPLv2 license.

VLS
The VLS (standing for VideoLAN Server) project was originally intended to be used as a server for streaming videos. It has since been merged with the VLC project, and use of VLS is not encouraged.

Codecs
The VideoLAN project also hosts several audio/video decoding and decryption libraries, such as libdvdcss which allows the content of CSS protected DVDs to be unscrambled, x264 which can encode H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video, x265 which can encode HEVC video, x262 which can encode MPEG-2 video, dav1d which can decode AV1 video, libdca which can decode DTS audio, and the git repository of the multimedia framework FFmpeg.

VLMa
A new project has been developed, called VLMa (standing for VideoLAN Manager). VLMa is an application to manage broadcasts of TV channels, received through digital terrestrial or satellite ways. Its interface is provided as a web-site written in Java. It is also capable of streaming audio and video files. VLMa consists of a daemon (called VLMad) and a web interface (called VLMaw). VLMa is released under the GNU General Public License like VLC media player.

VLC media player Skin Editor
The VLC Skin Editor is a simple program developed by VideoLAN. The simple interface allows users to create new skins for the VLC media player without knowledge of the VLC Skins2 XML System. The program lets users change features on the main window, playlist window, and equalizer window.

Commercial use
In May 2008, Neuros Technology and Texas Instruments began work on a port of VideoLAN to their next generation open set-top box.

VLC is currently used in products through the use of libVLC and also as raw or customized VLC for Android versions on devices. Some features have been publicly merged, such as 360° support.

Opposition to software-bundling
VideoLAN developers have expressed dismay at how users searching for their products see search advertising from websites that use unwanted software bundling to modify official download files with wrappers that include unwanted programs. VideoLAN does not have the resources to sue the many companies abusing their trademarks.

title: VideoLAN