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Leslie Van Houten

Leslie Louise Van Houten (born August 23, 1949) is an American convicted murderer and former member of the Manson Family. During her time with Manson's group, she was known by aliases such as Louella Alexandria, Leslie Marie Sankston, Linda Sue Owens and Lulu.

Van Houten was arrested and charged in relation to the 1969 murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Van Houten was convicted and sentenced to death, but a 1972 California Supreme Court ruling found the death penalty unconstitutional, resulting in her sentence being commuted to life in prison. Her conviction was overturned in a 1976 appellate court decision which granted her a retrial. Her second trial ended with a deadlocked jury and a mistrial. At her third trial in 1978, she was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy and sentenced to seven years to life in prison. After spending 53 years in prison that included two dozen parole hearings and parole rejections by two California governors, Van Houten was paroled in 2023.

Early life
Van Houten was born on August 23, 1949, in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena to Paul Van Houten and Jane (née Edwards). Her father is of Dutch descent, and her mother is of Irish, English, Scottish, and German descent. She grew up in a middle-class churchgoing family along with an older brother and two adopted siblings, a brother and a sister, who were Korean. Her mother and father divorced when she was 14. She began smoking marijuana, and around the age of 15, began taking LSD. At 17, she ran away with her boyfriend, but returned to complete high school, graduating from Monrovia High School (in Monrovia, California) in 1967. According to Van Houten, she discovered that she was pregnant and was ordered by her mother to undergo an abortion and bury the fetus in their backyard. Van Houten stated that after that event, she felt very removed from her mother and harbored intense anger toward her. She had a period of interest in yoga and took a year-long secretarial course, but became a hippie, living at a commune.

Manson Family
After a few months in a commune in Northern California, Van Houten met Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil and moved in with them and another woman during the summer of 1968. The four broke up after jealous arguments, and Share left to join Charles Manson's commune. Van Houten, then aged 19, followed Share. At that time, she phoned her mother to say she was dropping out and would not be making contact again.

Manson decided when they would eat, sleep, and have sex, and with whom they would have sex. He also controlled the taking of LSD, giving followers larger doses than he himself took. According to Manson, "When you take LSD enough times, you reach a state of nothing. Of no thought." According to Van Houten, she became "saturated in acid" and could not grasp the existence of those living a non-psychedelic reality.

From August 1968, Manson and his followers were based at the Spahn Ranch. Manson ostensibly ran his Family based on hippie-style principles of acceptance and free love. At the remote ranch, where they were isolated from any other influences, Manson's was the only opinion heard. At every meal he would lecture repetitively. Van Houten said Manson's attitude was that she "belonged to Bobby". According to Van Houten she and other Manson followers looked to 14-year-old Family member Dianne Lake as the "empty vessel", the epitome of what women were supposed to be in the Manson system of values. When Barbara Hoyt spoke at Van Houten's parole hearing in 2013, she said that Van Houten was considered a "leader" in the Family.

Murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca
On August 9, 1969, Van Houten, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Linda Kasabian, Susan Atkins, Clem Grogan and Manson went to the house of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. Manson entered the house with Watson, then left with Kasabian, Atkins, and Grogan.

Van Houten and another woman held down Rosemary LaBianca as Watson stabbed Leno LaBianca. After stabbing Rosemary, Watson gave Van Houten a knife, and she stabbed the woman at least 14 more times. She testified in 1971, “And I took one of the knives, and Patricia [Krenwinkel] had one – a knife – and we started stabbing and cutting up the lady.”

Motive
Manson, who denied responsibility, never explained a motive for the murders. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi suggested Manson was attempting to start a racial civil war. The racial nature of the motive for the murders Van Houten was convicted of was later adduced by a judge, increasing the gravity of her offense.

Trial
Manson was accused of orchestrating both attacks, but the only defendants at the trial whose murder charges were for actually inflicting injuries on the LaBiancas were Van Houten and Krenwinkel. Unlike the others, Van Houten was not accused of the murders of Tate and her friends.

Manson opposed his three female co-defendants running a defense that he had asked them to commit killings. Van Houten did not appear to take the court seriously (later claiming to have been supplied with LSD during the trial) and giggled during testimony about the victims. She testified to committing the murders she was charged with and denied that Manson had been involved. An often-cited example of how he seemed to exert control over Van Houten and the others was when Manson carved an X on his forehead and she and the other two women defendants copied him. In the latter stages of the trial they stopped mimicking him, Bugliosi suggested, because they realized it was making the extent of his influence over them apparent.

Van Houten dismissed three defense lawyers in succession for claiming her actions were attributable to Manson's control over her. When Ronald Hughes, her attorney, was asking an expert witness about the effect of LSD on judgment, Van Houten shouted that, "This is all such a big lie. I was influenced by the war in Vietnam and TV."

On March 29, 1971, she was convicted of murder along with the other defendants. During the sentencing phase of the trial, in an apparent attempt to exonerate Manson, Van Houten testified that she had committed a killing in which she was not, in fact, involved. She told a psychiatrist of beating her adopted sister, leading him to characterize her as "a spoiled little princess" and a "psychologically loaded gun", and was adamant that Manson had no influence over her thought processes or behavior. Van Houten also told the psychiatrist that she would have gone to jail for manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon without ever meeting Manson. When her lawyer, attempting to show she felt remorse, asked if she felt sorrow or shame for the death of Rosemary LaBianca, Van Houten replied "sorry is only a five-letter word" and "you can't undo something that is done." In cross-examination, Van Houten aggressively implicated herself in inflicting wounds while the victim was living, and severely wounding the victim, severing her spine, which might have been fatal by itself. She vehemently denied acting on instructions from Manson, and said a court-appointed attorney who "had a lot of different ideas on how to get me off" had told her to claim Manson ordered the killings.

Van Houten was sentenced to be executed; she was the youngest woman ever condemned to death in California. No death row for female prisoners existed, and a special unit was built. The death sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision resulted in the invalidation of all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. With a first degree murder conviction she was eligible for parole once she had served seven years. In order to be released after seven years, she would have had to have been granted parole at her first parole hearing. (The governor would not have been able to rescind that parole, since California governors did not gain that power until Proposition 89 was passed by the voters on November 8, 1988.) In his bestselling book Helter Skelter, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said that "his guess" was that all three women would be released after 15–20 years.

Re-trial
Van Houten was granted a retrial in 1977 due to the failure to declare a mistrial when Ronald Hughes, her lawyer, died. Her defense argued that Van Houten's capacity for rational thought had been diminished due to LSD use and Manson's influence. The jury could not agree on a verdict. According to what the jury foreman later told reporters, they thought it was difficult on the basis of the evidence to determine whether Van Houten's judgment had been unimpaired enough for a verdict of first degree murder rather than manslaughter.

It was reported in the news media that because of time already served, Van Houten could go free that year if she was convicted of manslaughter. By law, prosecutors are not allowed to mention the possibility of the defendant being released on parole when arguing for a murder rather than manslaughter conviction because it is considered highly prejudicial to the defendant.

Second re-trial
The prosecution in 1970–71 had emphasized that the motive had nothing to do with robbery and the killers ignored valuable pieces of property. At Van Houten's second re-trial, the prosecution, who were now being aided by a specialist in diminished responsibility, altered the charges by using the theft of food, clothing and a small sum of money taken from the house to add a charge of robbery, whereby the felony murder rule tended to undermine a defense of reduced capacity. She was on bond for six months before being found guilty of first-degree murder. Van Houten was given a life sentence that entailed eligibility for parole, for which the prosecutor said she would one day be suitable.

Post-trial events
After the first trial, Van Houten and her female co-conspirators Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel were housed in a special housing unit built at the California Institution for Women. They were initially kept separate from the prison population, because they were viewed as a threat to the other inmates.

In the early 1970s, Van Houten, Atkins and Krenwinkel worked with a social worker, Karlene Faith, who sought to help them re-establish their identities separate from the Manson Family. Faith later wrote a book about her work with the women, The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten. In the book, Faith tells how two of the women believed that they would "grow wings and become fairies" after the expected race war had occurred. The women told Faith that they obtained that belief from Manson. Faith viewed all three of the Manson women as victims, and lobbied for their early release from prison. Faith's work with the Manson women was later portrayed in the feature film, Charlie Says.

Van Houten was also befriended by film director John Waters. He also campaigned for her early release from prison.

In 1975, the Manson women were moved to the general population at the California Institution for Women.

Parole requests
Under California law, some life sentences are eligible for parole, and a parole board rejection of an application does not preclude a different decision in the future. Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel (who were originally convicted along with Van Houten and Manson at the main trial) had both been found guilty of the most notorious crime, the murder of five people at 10050 Cielo Drive. In addition, Krenwinkel was also convicted of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, while Atkins was also convicted of murdering Gary Hinman.

Only one other member of the Manson Family has been convicted of murder and later released: Steve "Clem" Grogan. Grogan, convicted and given a death sentence by the jury for the torture-murder of Donald Shea with Manson, was freed in 1985. Bruce M. Davis, also an accomplice of Manson in the killing of Shea, and with a second conviction for the Gary Hinman killing, was given a parole board recommendation for release in 2010 although very few inmates with even a single conviction on a charge of murder had been able to obtain parole in California before 2011. In each case, the sitting governor ordered a review or reversed the decision. Tex Watson was denied parole for the 15th time on October 27, 2016.

After receiving her 13th rejection, in which the hearing concluded she posed "an unreasonable risk of danger to society", Van Houten took legal action. Judge Bob Krug ordered the board to re-hear the application because their reasoning turned solely on the unalterable gravity of her offense and effectively gave her life without parole, "a sentence unauthorized by law". The judgment was overturned by a higher court, which said although parole hearings must consider evidence for an inmate being rehabilitated, a hearing had discretion to deny parole based solely on a review of the circumstances of the crime, if "some evidence" supported their decision.

In 2013, Van Houten was denied parole for the 20th time at a hearing. In announcing a decision to deny parole, the commissioner of the hearing board said that she had failed to explain how someone of her good background and intelligence could have committed such "cruel and atrocious" murders.

On April 14, 2016, a two-person panel of the California Parole Board recommended granting Van Houten's parole request, but California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the release on the grounds that: "Both her role in these extraordinarily brutal crimes and her inability to explain her willing participation in such horrific violence cannot be overlooked and lead me to believe she remains an unacceptable risk to society if released."

On September 29, 2016, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan issued an 18-page ruling upholding the governor's reversal earlier in the year of a parole board's decision to release Van Houten. Ryan wrote that there was "some evidence" that Van Houten presents an unreasonable threat to society. On December 21, the California Supreme Court denied Van Houten's petition to hear the case.

Van Houten has long since renounced Manson, who died in prison in November 2017. She has expressed remorse for her crimes, and at her 2013 parole hearing, her attorney argued that her value system was completely different from what it was in 1972. She expressed that she "takes offense to the fact that Manson doesn't own up" to his role in the murders. She told Vincent Bugliosi, the man who sent her to prison, "I take responsibility for my part, and part of my responsibility was helping to create him." She has written several short stories, once edited the prison newspaper and did some secretarial work at the prison.

Van Houten was again recommended for parole at her 21st parole hearing on September 6, 2017. The two-member panel found that Van Houten had radically changed her life in the more than 40 years she had been incarcerated. Governor Jerry Brown again denied her parole on January 19, 2018. Her legal team stated they would fight the decision. On June 29, 2018, Van Houten's parole was once again vetoed. The judge was again William C. Ryan, who said: "Unless the inmate can demonstrate that there is no evidence to support the governor's conclusion that the inmate is a current danger to public safety, the petition fails to state a prima facie case for relief and may be summarily denied."

On January 30, 2019, during her 22nd parole hearing, Van Houten was recommended for parole for the third time. But on June 4, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom overruled the parole board's recommendation, claiming the then 69-year-old Van Houten was still a "danger to society" and that she had "potential for future violence". She appealed the governor's decision, but on September 21, 2019, the appeals court panel ruled 2–1 in the governor's favor.

Van Houten was recommended for parole for the fourth time at a 23rd parole hearing on July 23, 2020, and a 120-day legal review period began. On November 28, Governor Newsom again rejected the board's recommendation and vetoed Van Houten's parole. Among his reasons for denial, Newsom stated the then 71-year-old Van Houten "currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison". Again, her lawyer, Rich Pfeiffer, said they would appeal the governor's latest decision.

On November 9, 2021, Van Houten was recommended for parole by a parole board. On March 29, 2022, Governor Newsom overruled the parole board's recommendation.

Her request for review was rejected by the California Supreme Court on February 9, 2022.

On May 30, 2023, a California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles set aside Governor Newsom's denial of Van Houten's parole, thus making her the first Manson family member to have a court rule in her favor for a parole recommendation. On July 7, 2023, Governor Newsom announced that he would not file an appeal with the California Supreme Court to block her parole, paving the way for her release. Van Houten was released on parole on July 11, 2023. To date, Krenwinkel and Watson remain imprisoned.

In the media
Van Houten's parole hearings have appeared on Court TV and attracted nationwide media attention. They have featured comments from former prosecutors, relatives of her victims, and relatives of the victims of other killers. John Waters advocated for Van Houten's parole.

Van Houten told her story on the podcast Ear Hustle in the 2021 episode 'Home for Me Really is a Memory.'

Dramatic portrayals
Van Houten was first portrayed by actress Cathey Paine in the 1976 made-for-TV film Helter Skelter. San Francisco-based actress Connie Champagne portrayed Van Houten in Dude Theater's long-running 1989 stage play The Charlie Manson Story, first at Climate Theater and then Theatre Artaud, a black comedy directed by Christopher Brophy. The production was the first to de-glamorourize the Manson-myth and to question Manson's belief in the so-called "Helter Skelter". The 2009 film Leslie, My Name Is Evil (released in some countries under the titles Manson Girl and Manson, My Name Is Evil) is partially based on Van Houten's early life and stars actress Kristen Hager as Van Houten. In Helter Skelter (2004 remake of the 1976 film) Van Houten was portrayed by actress Catherine Wadkins. A year earlier, in 2003, Amy Yates portrayed Leslie Van Houten in the film The Manson Family. In the 2015 NBC fictional series Aquarius, which centers on the Los Angeles Police Department and the Manson murders, Emma Dumont portrays a character named "Emma", who is loosely based on Van Houten. Tania Raymonde portrayed Van Houten in Susanna Lo's 2016 film Manson Girls. Later in 2016, Greer Grammer portrayed Van Houten in Leslie Libman's film Manson's Lost Girls, which starred MacKenzie Mauzy as Kasabian. In 2018 she was portrayed by Gabrielle Klobucar in the made-for-TV documentary Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes. Also in 2018, English actress Hannah Murray played Van Houten in the feature movie Charlie Says. In 2019, Van Houten was played by Victoria Pedretti in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

title: Leslie Van Houten


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Powai Lake

Powai Lake (Pronunciation: [pəʋəiː]) is an artificial lake, situated in Mumbai, in the Powai valley, where a Powai village with a cluster of huts existed. The city suburb called Powai shares its name with the lake. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, one of the premier institutions of science and technology in India, is located to the east of the lake. Another famous institution, the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), is also located close to the lake. Housing complexes and plush hotels are developed all around the lake periphery. Population around the lake has thus substantially increased over the years. When it was built, the lake had an area of about 2.1 km2 and the depth varied from about 3 m (at the periphery) to 12 m at its deepest.

The Powai Lake has gone through many stages of water quality degradation. The lake water which used to supply drinking water for Mumbai has been declared unfit to drink. The lake remains a tourist attraction.

History
Before the lake was built by the British, in 1799 AD, the estate where the lake is now was leased on a yearly rent to Dr. Scott. After his death in 1816, the government took control of the estate in 1826 and leased it to Framaji Kavasji, then the vice-president of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Western India after whom the lake was named when it was built in 1891.

A stream tributary of the Mithi river, which served the Powai village's water needs, was dammed in 1891, during the British period. It was initially to augment water supply to Bombay city (now called Mumbai), by constructing two dams of 10 m to store the rain water flowing from the lower slopes of the Western Ghats and streams from the eastern and northeastern slopes of hills. It was planned as an antiwater famine measure, to the southeast of Vihar Lake (a much larger lake) also for water supply to Mumbai city. The scheme was taken in hand in 1889. Though it was completed within a year at an initial cost of more than Rs. 6,50,000 and started providing two million gallons of water per day, it had to be abandoned due to the hue and cry against the quality of the water. Five lakhs of rupees more were spent on the scheme in 1919 in an attempt to restore the supply at least for the suburbs but this, too, was given up with the development of the Tansa works.

After the drinking water supply objective was abandoned in the early 1890s, in view of poor quality of the water due to pollution, water hyacinth and weeds, untreated sewage and large silt deposit, the lake was leased to the Western India Fishing Association, a quasi government organisation, who used it for fish culture and angling. Later, the Bombay Presidency Angling Association was formed in 1936. In 1955, under the Societies Registration Act 1860, it was registered as the Maharashtra State Angling Association (MSAA) and the lake is now under their control. Realising the gravity of the environmental pollution, the MSAA has revised its constitution "to actively care for, clean, develop, maintain, and beautify the Environment at Powai Lake."

MSAA is now involved with
 * removal of water hyacinth infestation
 * supporting research with Fisheries Department for conservation of the Indian mahaseer
 * water quality analysis
 * augmenting security.

Access
The lake is about 40 km from Mumbai's downtown by road and is approached via Kurla or through Santa Cruz and Andheri. Kanjurmarg on the Central Line (Mumbai Suburban Railway) of the  Mumbai Suburban Railway is the nearest railway station to the lake. The airport is also nearby.

Hydrology and water quality
It is reported that the average rainfall at Powai is about 2540 mm, and the lake overflows for about sixty days each year. The overflow from the lake flows into the Mithi River. Silt studies conducted in 1995 estimates in that 4500 lakh cubic metres of silt has been deposited in the lake since its construction. It supplied two million gallons of water to Bombay (now Mumbai) when it was built. Following the construction of the Tansa dam and creation of the reservoir, in 1892, Powai waters were used for irrigation. The lake drains a catchment of 6.61 km2 (part of the Powai-Kanheri hill ranges which also drain into the adjoining Vihar Lake and Tulsi Lake). The dam, built in stone masonry has a height varying from 3 m to 6m with top level of the dam kept at E.L. 58.5 m (with Town hall datum). Government of Maharashtra reports that due to eutrophication of the lake water from untreated sewage and garbage from nearby residential and slum colonies, the lake water is unfit for drinking water use. Hence, the lake is now used for recreation, gardening, cattle washing and fishing. The water of the lake is also supplied to Aarey colony and Larsen & Toubro for non domestic uses. Dissolved Oxygen (DO) level at the bottom of the lake is reported to be 0.71 mg/litre and at surface 4.11 mg/litre, average value of pH is 7.2 and COD is 42.70 mg/litre on the surface and 119 mg/litre at the bottom of the lake.

Lake rejuvenation
Appreciating the problem of silting, growth of water hyacinth, weed, and eutrophication of the lake, the IIT Bombay's Class of 1980 launched a "Revitalization of Powai Lake" with the objective of restoring the lake to its original pristine and sustainable form by adopting Eco-friendly designs and materials for the restoration works.

Some of the tasks proposed to be undertaken with the funds donated by IIT, Bombay included:

 * Removing water hyacinth and weeds from the lake in parts nearest to the campus
 * Starting a publicity and an awareness program in the area
 * Building embankments, walkways and pathways to the lake
 * Constructing a large gazebo for an evening (or morning or afternoon) by the lake
 * Planting trees, and creating a garden
 * Installing docks, deploying boats and canoes
 * Allocating funds for annual maintenance

The project was proposed to be professionally managed with a project manager working under directives of IIT Bombay with an "Oversight Committee" to monitor objectives set for the restoration work.

In 1995, the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoE&F), Government of India, reviewed the condition of Powai Lake and included the Lake in its list of ten major lakes in the country for revival and improvements. The restoration/revival programme, fully funded by the NLCP, was launched in April 2002, and implemented by Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) now called Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Government of Maharashtra and as a result the status of the lake has undergone a major shift from the hypertrophic condition to mesotrophic condition by adopting a novel technique of aeration and bioremediation. This has resulted in the lake being used for fishing and recreational purposes.

Desilting project
The Lake's water depth is reported to have reduced to as little as 0.33 m at some locations, on account of the large inflow of sewage, domestic waste water and silt from surrounding residential and industrial areas.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has therefore plans to desilt the Powai Lake at a cost of US$9 million.

Fauna
Many crocodiles have been seen on the lake side. White-throated kingfisher, small blue kingfisher, Indian spot-billed duck, spotted dove, a few purple swamphens, purple-rumped sunbirds, bronze-winged and pheasant-tailed jacanas, ashy prinias, brahminy kite, red-vented, red-whiskered and white-browed bulbuls, cormorants, lesser whistling ducks, grey, purple and Indian pond herons, little, intermediate egret and great egrets, peregrine falcon, greater coucal, rose-ringed and Alexandrine parakeets, Eurasian marsh harrier (possibly winter visitor), woolly-necked stork (winter visitor) hoopoe and whiskered terns. butterflies, honey bees, bumble bees and beetles have also been sighted.

Flora
Balsam bushes, in their full bloom, in pink-purple color are seen around the lake periphery, like a carpet.

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

title: Powai Lake


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Sapporo Snow Festival

The Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり) is a festival held annually in Sapporo, Japan, over seven days in February. Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome are the main sites of the festival.

In 2007 (57th festival), about two million people visited Sapporo to see the hundreds of snow statues and ice sculptures at the Odori Park and Susukino sites, in central Sapporo, and at the Satoland site. An International Snow Sculpture Contest has been held at the Odori Park site since 1974, and 14 teams from various regions of the world participated in 2008.

The subject of the statues varies and often features an event, famous building or person from the previous year. For example, in 2004, there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who at that time played for the New York Yankees. A number of stages made out of snow are also constructed and some events including musical performances are held. At the Satoland site, visitors can enjoy the long snow and ice slides as well as a huge maze made of snow. Visitors can also enjoy a variety of regional foods from all over Hokkaidō at the Odori Park and Satoland sites, such as fresh seafood, potatoes, corn, and fresh dairy products.

Every year the number of statues displayed is around 400 in total. In 2007, there were 307 statues created at the Odori Park site, 32 at the Satoland site and 100 at the Susukino site. A good view of the creations can be had from the TV Tower at the Odori Park site.

History
The Snow Festival began as a one-day event in 1950, when six local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. In 1955 the Japan Self-Defense Forces from the nearby Makomanai base joined in and built the first massive snow sculptures, for which the Snow Festival has now become famous. Several snow festivals existed in Sapporo prior to the Sapporo Snow Festival, however, all of these were suspended during World War II.

On 4 February 1966, a flight from Sapporo to Tokyo crashed into Tokyo Bay killing all 126 passengers and 7 crew on board. Many of the passengers were returning to Tokyo after visiting the snow festival. Owing to the Energy crisis of 1974, snow statues were built using drums. This was due to the shortage of gasoline caused by the crisis and unavailability of trucks used to transport snow to the site. In the same year, the International Snow Statue Competition started and since that year many snow statues built by teams from other countries have featured; especially from sister cities of Sapporo such as Munich.

In years when the accumulated snowfall is low, the Self-Defense Force, for whom participation is considered a training exercise, brings in snow from outside Sapporo. The Makomanai base, one of three main sites from 1965, hosted the largest sculptures, with an emphasis on providing play space for children. Use of the Makomanai site was suspended in 2005 and moved to the Sapporo Satoland site located in Higashi-ku from 2006. In 2009, the Satoland site was moved to the Tsudome (つどーむ) site. The Tsudome, located close to the Sapporo Satoland, is a dome for multiple sports events.

Nakajima Park was established as one of the festival sites in 1990. However, it was removed as a site in 1992. The third site, known as the Susukino Ice Festival (すすきの氷の祭典), is situated in the night-life district of Susukino and includes predominantly ice carvings. The site was approved as one of the festival sites in 1983. Every year, the Susukino Queen of Ice, a female beauty contest, is held at the site.

On 7 February 2012 (63rd Festival), a snow sculpture of Snow Miku (Hatsune Miku) collapsed on the Odori Park 6th Venue, where a female tourist was injured. This accident was the first injury in the history of the Snow Festival from the collapse of a snow sculpture. The collapse was likely due to imbalance caused by disproportionately thin supporting legs to the main mass of the sculpture. Additionally, the temperature on February 6 was 3.3 degrees Celsius, and the temperature on 7th was 2.2 degrees Celsius, likely causing it to become brittle and more prone to collapse. In response to this, the executive committee demolished all or part of the heavy snow sculptures and ten civilian snow sculptures as there was a risk of collapse.

title: Sapporo Snow Festival


text: Template:History of Japan

title: Template:History of Japan


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William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham

William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham (c. 1510 – 12 January 1573) was an English diplomat and military leader. He served four monarchs, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, in various official capacities, most notably on diplomatic missions and as Lord Admiral and Lord Chamberlain of the Household.

Early life
William Howard was born about 1510, the ninth son of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, later 2nd Duke of Norfolk. He was the eldest son of Surrey by his second wife, Agnes Tilney.

Howard was brought to court at a young age after completing his education at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Embassies
In 1531, Howard was sent on an embassy to Scotland by King Henry VIII, and accompanied the King to Boulogne in October 1532. In May 1533, as deputy to his half-brother, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, he served as Earl Marshal at the coronation of his niece, Anne Boleyn, the daughter of his half-sister, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire. On 10 September 1533, Howard bore the canopy over his great-niece Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I). In 1534, he went to Scotland. His instructions included getting the measurements of James V of Scotland from the Bishop of Aberdeen, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. Then Howard's tailor would make Henry VIII's nephew a new suit of clothes as a present. Howard would then broach the subject of the two kings meeting in person.

In February 1535, he was sent again to Scotland to invest James V with the Order of the Garter and brought a present of "great horses". Howard met James V at Stirling Castle on Good Friday. They discussed a possible meeting of the two Kings at Newcastle at Michaelmas. Margaret Tudor praised his abilities and wrote that her son James V, "lykkis hym right weill."

In June 1535, he was in France as a member of the English embassy authorized to negotiate with the French Admiral, Philippe de Chabot. In February 1536 he was again in Scotland, this time for the purpose of persuading James V to adopt Henry VIII's religious policy. He returned to Scotland again in April when he heard rumours from Margaret Tudor and others that James V intended to marry his mistress, Margaret Erskine, Lady Lochleven. He was again in France in 1537. On 11 December 1539, he was among those who welcomed King Henry VIII's fourth bride, Anne of Cleves at Calais.

While on an embassy to France in 1541, William Howard was charged with concealing the sexual indiscretions of his young niece, Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, and was recalled to England to stand trial. On 22 December 1541, Howard, his wife, and a number of servants who had been alleged witnesses to the Queen's misconduct were arraigned for misprision of treason, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods. He and most of the others were pardoned after Queen Catherine's execution on 13 February 1542.

Military career
In 1544, Howard accompanied the Earl of Hertford's forces in the invasion of Scotland. It was reported that he was hurt in the cheek by an English arrow during fighting on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. In July of that year he took part in the siege of Boulogne. On 27 May 1545, the King's Council ordered Howard to "repayre to serve uppon the sees". Later orders show that he detained several foreign vessels while patrolling the English Channel. In May 1546, he was entrusted with the sum of £12,000 to pay the English army at Calais. In connection with these duties, he was referred to as "vice-admiral" to the then Lord Admiral, Viscount Lisle. When Lisle's attendance was required in May 1546 at negotiations which resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Ardres on 7 June 1546, he turned command of the English fleet over to Howard.

Howard's career received a check in 1547 with the downfall of his half-nephew Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. However, the setback was temporary. He was an ally of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, then Earl of Warwick, in his coup against the Protector Somerset in October 1549, and on 19 March 1551, received the manor of Effingham, Surrey, and other properties by way of reward. On 29 October 1552, Northumberland secured Howard's appointment as Lord Deputy and Governor of Calais, and in the same month he was sworn of the Privy Council. When the young King Edward VI died on 6 July 1553, Howard held Calais for Queen Mary I against the supporters of her rival, Lady Jane Grey.

On 2 January 1554, he was appointed to meet the Spanish ambassadors who had come to London to negotiate a marriage between Queen Mary I and King Philip II of Spain. Wyatt's rebellion broke out on 25 January, and Howard was among those who raised the militia to defend London. On 7 February 1554, he held Ludgate, preventing the rebels from entering the city and leading to their surrender a few hours later. He was appointed to Queen Mary's Privy Council on 3 January 1554, and on 11 March, was created Baron Howard of Effingham. On 20 March 1554, he was granted a patent as Lord Admiral, replacing Lord Clinton. On 9 October of that year, he was made a Knight of the Garter. Around this date, there was a masque at court, featuring mariners' costumes made of gold and silver cloth, which Francis Yaxley thought was Howard's production.

As Lord Admiral, Howard, with a fleet of 28 ships, met King Philip II on his arrival in England in 1555, and in August of that year escorted the King to Flanders. In 1557 Howard's fleet transported a force under the command of the Earl of Pembroke to Calais. Lord Howard's support for the accession of his great-niece, Elizabeth, exposed him to suspicion, although he was never considered disloyal by Queen Mary. In February 1558 Howard's patent as Lord Admiral was revoked, and on 12 February 1558, the office was restored to Lord Clinton. Howard was compensated by a grant of the reversion of the office of Lord Chamberlain of the Household and an annuity of 200 marks, effective the previous September.

Landholdings
Howard inherited a number of manors and estates, some from the Howard family, some through his first wife Katherine, and others by gift of the Crown. These included lands at Broughton in Buckinghamshire; Billeshurst, Bletchingley, Kingswood, Little Bookham and Tillingdown in Surrey; Lowick in Northamptonshire; Shaw-cum-Donnington in Berkshire; and Tottenham in north London.

In 1566, Howard had some financial difficulties, and handed some of his Surrey estates to his great-nephew Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, retaining Little Bookham for his second wife, Margaret.

Final years
After Queen Elizabeth's accession on 17 November 1558, Howard succeeded Edward Hastings as Lord Chamberlain and was appointed to the Privy Council. In early 1559 he was among those who negotiated the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. In August 1564 he accompanied the Queen on a visit to Cambridge, where he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts; on 6 October 1566 he was awarded a similar degree by the University of Oxford. According to McDermott, he was a "near constant attendee at privy council meetings during the 1560s", but by the latter part of 1572 he could no longer discharge his duties as Lord Chamberlain because of ill health, and the Queen appointed his nephew, the Earl of Sussex, to replace him, appointing Howard as Lord Privy Seal. Howard died at Hampton Court Palace on 12 January 1573, and was buried on 29 January at Reigate.

Whitgift School currently stands on the site of the former Howard estate in Croydon.

Family
William Howard married firstly, before 18 June 1531, Katherine (died 23 April 1535), the daughter of John Broughton (died 23 January 1518) of Toddington, Bedfordshire, by Anne Sapcote (died 14 March 1559), the daughter and heir of Sir Guy Sapcote by Margaret Wolston, daughter and heir of Sir Guy Wolston. They had one daughter, Agnes Howard, who married William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester. Katherine (née Broughton) was buried in the parish church of St Mary at Lambeth, where there is a monument to her memory.

He married secondly, on 29 June 1535, Margaret Gamage (died 1581), the third daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage of Coity, Glamorganshire and his wife, Margaret Saint John, the half-second cousin of Henry VIII - her paternal grandfather, John, was a half-sister of Margaret Beaufort - and the daughter of Sir John Saint John of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, by whom he had four sons and five daughters.

 * Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham
 * Sir William Howard of Lingfield his great grandson was Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham
 * Edward
 * Henry
 * Douglas (wife firstly of John Sheffield, 2nd Baron Sheffield of Butterwick, Lincolnshire, secondly, of Sir Edward Stafford of Grafton),
 * Mary (wife of Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley, and Richard Mompesson)
 * Frances (wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford)
 * Martha (wife of Sir George Bourchier)
 * Katherine.
 * anne or agnes wife of William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester


text:
MSB

MSB may refer to:

 * Main Support Battalion, part of the U.S. Army logistics
 * Maritime Services Board, former government agency in New South Wales, Australia
 * Marshall Swift-Boeckh, a cost estimation services provider and subsidiary of CoreLogic
 * Le Mans Sarthe Basket a French basketball team
 * The Magic School Bus, series of children's books about science
 * Media Stream Broadcast, a proprietary, multicast communications protocol owned by Microsoft
 * 1,4-Bis(2-methylstyryl) benzene, also known as p-Bis(o-methylstyryl) benzene and abbreviated Bis-MSB, a wavelength shifting compound used in liquid scintillators
 * Microsoft Surface Book
 * Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Military Investigation and Statistics Bureau), the military intelligence agency of the Republic of China before 1946.
 * Millennium Seed Bank, an international conservation project for storing plant seeds
 * Molecular Systems Biology, an open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal
 * Money services business, a legal term used by financial regulators to describe businesses that transmit or convert money
 * Most significant bit, the bit with the highest significance in a word
 * Most significant byte, the highest byte in a multi-byte number
 * Mrs. Stewart's Bluing, a brand of fabric bluing agent that whitens fabrics with a dye called Prussian blue (ferric hexacyanoferrate)
 * Myanmar Standard Bible, a translation of the Bible into the Burmese language
 * Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
 * MSB, the Southern Railway station code for Chennai Beach railway station, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Educational institutions

 * Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University
 * Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary
 * McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University
 * Mediterranean School of Business, is the first Business School of South Mediterranean University (SMU) in Tunisia
 * Michigan School for the Blind
 * Minnesota School of Business & Globe University
 * Mississippi School for the Blind
 * Missouri School for the Blind, Saint Louis (established 1851)
 * MSB Educational Institute, a world-wide network of Islamic schools.
 * Mount St Benedict College

Music

 * "Megalo Strike Back", a song by Toby Fox on the album "EarthBound: I Miss You (2012)"
 * Melbourne Staff Band, the premier brass band of the Salvation Army in Australia
 * Michael Stanley Band, a heartland rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, USA
 * MSB (album), a 1982 studio album by Michael Stanley de Devendra rajput

Video games

 * Mario Slam Basketball, a 2006 video game for the Nintendo DS; aka Mario Hoops 3-on-3
 * Mario Superstar Baseball, a 2005 video game for the Nintendo GameCube

title: MSB


text:
Filing system

Filing system may refer to:
 * Filing cabinet, a piece of office furniture
 * File system, a method of storing and organizing computer files and their data
 * Sorting, any process of arranging items systematically
 * Taxonomy (general), the science and practice of classification

title: Filing system


text:
Talk:Municipalities of Iceland

Mayors
The list of mayors isn't updated (and it should preferably be done in one edit to avoid confusion about what is updated and what isn't). Does anyone know where we can find a comprehensive list of the newly elected municipal managers/mayors?--Batmacumba (talk) 05:12, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * As for mayors, I am not aware of the source. Maybe ask the user that added them in the first place? He/she might know. My view is that it's better to have a ~ >90% accurate listing than none at all, but if your views differ, then please feel free to share them, although I don't see why you would want them to be taken off entirely. Thank you for contributing. A Red Cherry (talk) 19:18, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I have never argued the entries about mayors should be deleted, just that they should be updated. There was a municipal election earlier this year and a lot of the mayors/municipal managers are no longer in office.--Batmacumba (talk) 22:02, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

 * Thanks for your clarifying. Sorry I don't know of any sources for a mayors' list. Do you have any leads? A Red Cherry (talk) 01:45, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Ten times too big
All the municipalities have been made ten times too big. The editor has seemingly not used common sense when making this edit. E.g. Fljótsdalshérað is now bigger than the entire island of Ireland... (whereas in reality all of Iceland is only about 20% bigger than Ireland).--Batmacumba (talk) 05:04, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I have reverted the edit. It may have included some valuable sources, but the inflated area size is a very embarrassing error that needed correcting.--Batmacumba (talk) 09:17, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Sorry about that, I realized the mistake now and fixed it, but I just saw this post and your edit on the talk page. Weird how my watchlist only showed up with the revisions on the main page but not those here. Anyways, I simply divided each by ten and re-added the new (updated) areas that way. A Red Cherry (talk) 19:18, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
 * And yes, I absolutely do think this was necessary, since it included quality information and population statistics for 2018, both versions of English and Icelandic names, the (now) accurate sizes for each mun, because a lot of boundaries have changed since last update, which took place over a decade ago, etc. Please message me back if you have any further concerns. A Red Cherry (talk) 19:26, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

Comments
Please add the counties to which the municipalities belong.

I can add the counties yes but I'm not sure whether I should go by this list of counties because these actually don't exist anymore as administrative jursdictions. Today Iceland is divided between several County Magistrates and their jurisdictions generally follow the traditional county lines but not completely. If I were to add the counties, should I use the traditional counties or the modern day division? The problem with the traditional counties is that it is a purely historical division. But the problem with the modern division is that it is rather complicated and I wouldn't use tho old county names but rather the name of the town were the appropriate Magistrate has office. For instance, Dalvík has its magistrate in Akureyri but Ólafsfjörður has its own magistrate but yet both Dalvík and Ólafsfjörður are in the traditional county of Eyjafjarðarsýsla, to complicate it further, Glæsibæjarhreppur is traditionally a part of S-Þingeyjarsýsla county but today has its magistrate at Akureyri which is in Eyjafjarðarsýsla as previously mentioned.

I could also use other divisions such as the general assembly constituencies or the district court jurisdictions, those are a lot simpler. Perhaps I could use both the magistrate jurisdictions and the constituencies. Such a table might look like this: deleted table as it was messing with the page Biekko 01:04, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I would prefer to have (also?) a list of the cities and villages as we have it in the German version. For example, I would not have known which municipality the town of Selfoss belongs to. The list could be by alphabetical order. The German list is around the country against clockwise direction.

Reykholt 19:26, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Such a list already exists at List of cities in Iceland, the German page should link to that page, not this one as municipalities and cities are not the same thing. --Biekko 21:09, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Indeed    I'm thinking now that the Iceland gov has split the cities (for statistical collection and census data purposes, though not for administrative duties/functions/power/roles) into localities/urban nuclei, whether we should have a separate page for each. Thoughts? A Red Cherry (talk) 19:33, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

The main article on Iceland says there are 104 municipalities, yet I see only 101 listed here. What's up with that? A-giau 04:14, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Some of them merged in 2004. --Bjarki 13:20, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Where is Bæjarhreppur ? I can't see it on the list...151.52.43.26 (talk) 17:57, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
 * It doesn't exist anymore. It merged with Húnaþing vestra in 2012. Stefán Örvar Sigmundsson (talk) 18:27, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok, Thank you ! I thought about a mistake... Someone has to update the page about that former hreppur...151.52.59.177 (talk) 09:22, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Municipalities of Iceland


text:
Beautiful Life (Japanese TV series)

Beautiful Life (ビューティフルライフ) is a drama of "Toshiba Nichiyo Gekijo (東芝日曜劇場 Tōshiba Nichiyō Gekijō)" on TBS Television. It was first shown in Japan from 16 January to 26 March 2000. Beautiful Life was a massive success, achieving a TV rating of 41.3% -- a record it held until it was eclipsed by Hanzawa Naoki in 2013 (42.2%)

Cast

 * Takuya Kimura (木村 拓哉 ) as Shuji Okishima
 * Takako Tokiwa (常盤 貴子) as Kyoko Machida
 * Miki Mizuno (水野 美紀) as Sachie Tamura
 * Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as Takumi Okabe
 * Atsuro Watabe (渡部 篤郎) as Masao Machida
 * Takanori Nishikawa (西川 貴教 ) (T.M.Revolution) as Satoru Kawamura
 * Koji Matoba as Kozo Miyama
 * Chiaki Hara as Mayumi Ozawa
 * Koyuki (加藤 小雪) as Nakajima Satsuki

Characters

 * Shuji Okishima – A hairstylist. His father wanted him to take over the Okishima hospital but he ignored his family. He becomes a Top Stylist (one of the best hairstylists in the salon where he works) and is occasionally picked up in magazines.
 * Kyoko Machida – Works at a library. Her disease first started manifesting itself when she was 17 and since then she has had to use a wheelchair.
 * Sachie Tamura – Kyoko's best friend who also works at the library. She often offers encouragement to Kyoko.
 * Takumi Okabe – Shuji's assistant. He respects Shuji.
 * Masao Machida – Kyoko's brother. He lives with his parents and works at the liquor store they own. He is close to Kyoko and is protective of her.
 * Satoru Kawamura – A hairstylist. He works at the same shop as Shuji and is a very popular person.
 * Kozo Miyama – A volunteer. He likes Kyoko and often comes to the library.
 * Mayumi Ozawa – Another Top Stylist. She works at the same shop as Shuji.

Plot
One day, Shuji on his motorbike and Kyoko in her car meet at the crossroads—they get into a small argument over her driving. They don't have any interest in each other at that moment but at the library where Kyoko works. Shuji sees Kyoko using a wheelchair. That was how they first met. They begin to talk and Kyoko feels regarded because Shuji never looked at her as a disabled person. Gradually, her feelings change and she waits for Shuji to come to the library.

Shuji works as a hairstylist at a popular hair salon called HOT LIP. A fashion magazine asks the salon to choose its best haircut for an article, and the owner says that both Shuji and Satoru should find a cut model themselves and that he will choose the best haircut. After some thought, Shuji asks Kyoko to be his cut model. She first says no, worried about her appearance and her disability, but Shuji tells her that he will be her ‘barrier free’ so she does not need to be anxious about it.

Shuji's haircut is chosen for the magazine, but Kyoko feels ashamed when she sees it. Everyone thinks the magazine chose Shuji's design because Kyoko was in a wheelchair in the photo, just because of the 'impact' it makes. But soon, Sachie tells Kyoko she shouldn't care about her appearance.

Satoru feels jealous of Shuji because Shuji is becoming more popular. Satoru steals Shuji's haircut design and says it is his. But Shuji becomes a Top Stylist so he forgets about the stealing.

Gradually, Shuji and Kyoko get close. But still, Kyoko doesn't trust Shuji from her heart. Shuji is now the best hairstylist at HOT LIP and he is very busy. They don't have time to see each other.

Sachie and Masao are getting close too. At first they are both scared to speak because they like each other, but slowly, they get to know each other.

Kyoko is worried because she and Shuji live in completely different worlds. She thinks about breaking up with him. On the other hand, Takumi was resisting Shuji but he realizes that Shuji was the one who was right and forgets about all the jealousy.

Sachie gets pregnant but Masao tells her he can't marry yet because he is worried about Kyoko's disease. Kyoko's mother tells Shuji about her disease that she doesn't know how much of her life is left and she can die at any time.

The story is getting closer to the end now and Kyoko's condition is getting very bad. She is told to enter the hospital but soon after, knowing that it is not good for her body, she leaves the hospital and starts to live together with Shuji. Masao, Sachie, and Kyoko's parents all support Shuji and Kyoko.

Her sickness is getting worse every day. But one day, Shuji takes part in a fashion show as a hairstylist. Kyoko asks if she could go and see the show but her brother Masao and Sachie both tell her that her body will not be able to bear it. But in the end, the three of them go to the show.

Kyoko faints while watching the show and she is carried to the hospital. Soon, she passes away.

The series ends with a scene from a few years later. Shuji has opened a hair salon at the seaside and is living with the memory of Kyoko.

title: Beautiful Life (Japanese TV series)


text:
Akagi (manga)

Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai (アカギ 〜闇に降り立った天才〜) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. First published in 1991 in Takeshobo's weekly magazine Kindai Mahjong, it is a spin-off prequel to the author's previous work Ten. It revolves around Shigeru Akagi, a boy who defeats yakuza members well versed in mahjong at 13. He returns to the game six years later, carrying a mythical status and still impresses his opponents.

It was adapted as two V-Cinema live-action films directed by Kenzō Maihara in 1995 and 1997. A 26-episode anime television series directed by Yūzō Satō was broadcast on Nippon Television from October 2005 to March 2006. Two live-action television dramas directed by Mitsuru Kubota aired on BS SKY PerfecTV! between July 2015 and June 2018. The series has also spawned several companion books, spin-off manga, video games, and other merchandise.

By February 2017, the Akagi manga series had over 12 million copies in circulation.

Plot
The story revolves around the mahjong gambling exploits of Shigeru Akagi (赤木 しげる) (voiced by Masato Hagiwara in the anime adaptation). After a death-defying game of chicken one evening in 1958, Akagi nonchalantly enters a yakuza mahjong parlor to shake the police's trail. Although he is unfamiliar with the rules of mahjong, his gambling intuition saves a small-time gambler, (voiced by Rikiya Koyama), and grants him a seat at the gambling table. As the night progresses, the stakes are raised both within the game and for Akagi, who is under the suspicion of the local policeman, (voiced by Tessho Genda). However, Akagi manages to defeat (voiced by Wataru Takagi)—despite Yagi's cheating during the game—and impresses the members of the gambling house. Yasuoka arranges a new match against other yakuza members, in which Akagi defeats (voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka), a blind professional mahjong player with very accurate hearing. After defeating him, Akagi gains mythical status at 13 but then disappears, becoming a legendary figure all over Japan.

Six years later, Yasuoka orders (voiced by Ginpei Sato) to pretend to be Akagi to impress some yakuza bosses and make money. Meanwhile, Nangō finds the real Akagi, now aged 19 and working at a toy factory. Akagi, however, does not need to play with Hirayama as Hirayama is defeated by (voiced by Morio Kazama), a professional mahjong player for another yakuza group who is later defeated by Akagi. Akagi's ultimate rival is (voiced by Masane Tsukayama), an old man who has made a lot of money and become one of the most powerful people in the Japanese underworld. Having built up massive funds from shady dealings in Japan's post-war era, Washizu tempts people to bet their lives for the chance to win a large amount of money. Washizu and Akagi play mahjong in an unusual way that Washizu calls "Washizu Mahjong," in which transparent glass tiles replace most of the tiles and make the game different in many ways. Three years after the fight with Washizu, Akagi is last seen winning big in Tehonbiki, a gambling game that leaves no room for chance, and wandering around local gambling dens with (voiced by Yūdai Satō), a freckled young coworker from the toy factory they used to work at.

Manga
Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai, written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, is a spin-off of Fukumoto's 1989 manga series, Ten: Tenhōdōri no Kaidanji. Its first chapter was published in Takeshobo's magazine Kindai Mahjong on June 1, 1991. The manga's first (collected volume) was released by Takeshobo on April 24, 1992. Some volumes—26 and 28—were published both on a regular and a special edition. The former had a 13-year-old Akagi plush doll as a bonus and the latter included a Zippo lighter in the format of a mahjong tile engraved with Akagi's and Washizu's faces. Its latest volume—the 36th—was published on June 27, 2018.

In February 2017, Takeshobo started to display eight different posters at 15 major railway stations on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo to announce the series planned conclusion on February 1, 2018. However, the series editor said it did not mean the manga would really reach its conclusion but that it would continue irregularly. To announce it one year before the ending was in fact a marketing strategy to attract the readers who quit reading the series and those who did not read it yet. A three-on-one edition featuring new cover illustrations started to be published on February 15, 2017, and marked the start of what the editor called their one-year "grace period" as part of their tactic to attract readers. The 33rd and latest volume of this edition was published on December 26, 2017.

Related books and spin-offs
Several related books and spin-off manga have been released. A series of three mahjong commentary books illustrated by Makoto Fukuchi and titled Akagi Akuma no Senjutsu (アカギ悪魔の戦術) were released between May 17, 1999, and January 27, 2001. An anthology written by several other manga artists, including Clamp, Shinobu Kaitani and Mikio Igarashi, was released on July 27, 2011. An Akagi-themed mahjong introduction guide was released on two parts on July 27, 2011, and July 17, 2013. A character book was released on July 17, 2012, and an anthology compiling written at 2013 Comiket was released by Broccoli Books. Several crossovers between Akagi and Ten as well as between Akagi and Hero, another series by Fukumoto, have also been published by Takeshobo.

, a spin-off manga written and illustrated by Keiichirō Hara focusing on Iwao Washizu's past escapades, was serialized in Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original starting on June 28, 2008. The series spawned eight volumes released between February 17, 2009, and January 26, 2013. Washizu: Enma no Tōhai was also published as two "B6 Series" released on October 27, 2012, and January 17, 2013. A one-shot on Washizu was also drawn by Clamp for Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original and released on August 8, 2008. On November 8, 2012, Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original published the first chapter of Washizu: Tenka Sōsei Tōhairoku (ワシズ 天下創世闘牌録), a sequel to Enma no Tōhai, and it moved to the magazine Kindai Manga in May 2014. The spin-off series concluded as the fourth volume was released on May 15, 2015.

A "chapter 0" of a manga titled Yami-ma no Mamiya (闇麻のマミヤ), written by Fukumoto, was published in Kindai Mahjong on May 1, 2019. The story is set 20 years after the events of Ten. The series started a regular serialization in the same magazine on July 1, 2019.

A prequel manga, titled Akagi: Nyūmon no Tōhai Zero (アカギ 入門の闘牌ZERO), by Tomoki Miyoshi and Yoshiaki Seto, with collaboration from Fukumoto, was published in Kindai Mahjong on April 1, 2024.

Anime
An anime adaptation of roughly 13 volumes of the manga, titled Tōhai Densetsu Akagi: Yami ni Maiorita Tensai (闘牌伝説アカギ 〜闇に舞い降りた天才〜), premiered in Japan on NTV on October 5, 2005, and ran for 26 episodes until March 29, 2006. Produced by NTV, VAP, Forecast Communications and Madhouse, the series is directed by Yūzō Satō, with Hideo Takayashiki handling series composition, Takahiro Umehara designing the characters and Hideki Taniuchi composing the music. The anime's opening theme is by Furuido and its two ending themes are "Akagi" by Maximum the Hormone and "S.T.S." by Animals. In September 2013, streaming service Crunchyroll announced the licensing of the anime in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbeans, and South and Central America. The first six episodes were available in these countries from September 10, 2013, with five more episodes streamed every week thereafter.

VAP compiled the series and released it as two DVD box sets on March 24, and May 24, 2006. Several types of tie-in merchandise were also released, such as an official guidebook published by Takeshobo on March 29, 2006 and a 35-track official soundtrack album published by VAP on January 25, 2006.

V-Cinema
Two V-Cinema film adaptations of Akagi have been released, produced by George Iida, directed by Kenzō Maihara, written by Mitsuru Tanabe, and composed by Yoshihiro Ike. Tōhai-den Akagi (闘牌伝アカギ), an adaptation of the Ryūzaki/Yagi arc, was released November 11, 1995, while Janma Akagi (雀魔アカギ), an adaptation of the Urabe arc, was released July 25, 1997. Takeshobo rereleased both films in DVD format on January 27, 2006. A video game based on the first film was released by Micronet for PlayStation on January 19, 1996.

Video games
Warashi adapted Akagi into a PlayStation 2 game released by D3 Publisher on December 12, 2002. It was rereleased as part of the budget-priced "Simple series" on October 14, 2004. In 2006, Taito released two mobile games based on the anime. Two video games based on the anime series were developed and published by Culture Brain. The first, a Game Boy Advance game, was released on March 3, 2006, and the second, for Nintendo DS, was released on August 9, 2007. Fujishoji released a pachislot machine in 2008, which was adapted by Sunsoft into a mobile version released in 2009. Okumura Yuuki released its first pachinko machine in 2008, which was followed by another in 2012. A smartphone game was developed by Imagineer and made available from March 5, 2014, while Gloops released a social network game for Mobage on August 1 of the same year. A new pachislot machine by Universal Entertainment was made available from April 24, 2017.

Drama

A Japanese television drama that adapts the manga starting from its eighth volume aired on the channel BS SKY PerfecTV!. A ten-episode first season, directed by Mitsuru Kubota, Hitoshi Iwamoto and Hiroshi Itō, produced by Itō and Atsushi Nagauchi, and written by Mitsuru Tanabe and Eizō Kobayashi, was broadcast from July 17 to September 18, 2015. Kanata Hongō and Masahiko Tsugawa play Akagi and Washizu respectively, while its theme song, "Don't Be Afraid," is performed by Shōnan no Kaze. Crunchyroll licensed the drama for streaming it in about 150 countries. Pony Canyon released the series into a DVD box on March 2, 2016.

A five-episode sequel, Akagi: Ryūzaki–Yagi-hen / Ichikawa-hen (アカギ「竜崎・矢木編 ／市川編」), directed and produced by the same staff and written only by Tanabe, was broadcast on the same channel from October 13 to November 11, 2017. A three-episode sequel titled Akagi: Washizu Mahjong Kanketsu-hen (アカギ～鷲巣麻雀完結編～) was directed by Kubota, produced by Nagauchi and Itō, and written by Tanabe. Shōnan no Kaze announced a different theme song,, for the second sequel. The latter was broadcast from May 25 to June 8, 2018. A DVD box containing this two latter series was released by Pony Canyon on August 17, 2018.

Public response
By February 2017, the Akagi manga had over 12 million copies in circulation worldwide. Individual volumes have been featured in Oricon's weekly charts of best-selling manga in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016. References for each year:
 * The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.
 * The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.
 * The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.
 * The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.
 * The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.
 * The series has a cult following, and has aroused interest for mahjong in the West, especially in Russia, where it "ignited a boom". Nevertheless, Akagi has been surpassed in popularity by Fukumoto's other work, Kaiji.

Critical response
English-language reviewers have analyzed the anime adaptation more than the manga. David Cabrera of Otaku USA called Akagi a "nihilistic badass," highlighting how he can "psychologically dismantle a man." Both John Oppliger of AnimeNation and Anime News Network's Michael Toole compared it to Kaiji. Oppliger, however, stated that Kaiji relies on events but Akagi is based on "skilled gamesmanship." He opined that the series is "engrossing and addicting because of its smart, suspenseful writing." Toole found it reminiscent of a period piece due to the 1950–60's setting, calling it a "cool series" because of this. He also declared that "Akagi isn't about whether or not the title character will win—he will definitely win. It's about the joy of seeing how he wins, about observing a young man who seriously does not give a fuck relentlessly picking off bad guy after bad guy."

Bradley Meek wrote for THEM Anime Reviews how it differed from traditional sports anime, describing it as a "hard-boiled, grimy" anime in which "there's a tangible sense of danger". Concluding that "it has an appealing package, but not a lot of entertainment value. This anime is a dark tale about characters who gamble for very high stakes illegally in smoke filled rooms guarded by bulky men in sunglasses. There's a tangible sense of danger in this anime; when characters sweat over what their next move will be, they have a good reason". He also mentioned the fact that one layperson cannot understand the jargon of the mahjong matches; that Akagi plays. UK Anime Network's Elliot Page gave the anime series a 8 out of 10, he argued that mahjong's understanding was not necessary, as the entertainment is not provided by the mahjong itself, but by the characters' attitudes, and highlighted how the narrator provides further tension in the events. Page praised the uncommon animation style that, "while not amazing by any metric, are tuned to be highly expressive, dragging you into the action and the intensity of the moment". He also mentioned that the last arc does not finish in the anime series, and concluded with, "arguably this isn't very important in the grand scheme - as the main joy of the series is watching the mind games on display as the opponents try and mentally dismantle each other, which it does still deliver in spades".

title: Akagi (manga)


text:
Dorian mode

Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different but interrelated subjects: one of the Ancient Greek harmoniai (characteristic melodic behaviour, or the scale structure associated with it); one of the medieval musical modes; or—most commonly—one of the modern modal diatonic scales, corresponding to the piano keyboard's white notes from D to D, or any transposition of itself.

Greek Dorian mode
The Dorian mode (properly harmonia or tonos) is named after the Dorian Greeks. Applied to a whole octave, the Dorian octave species was built upon two tetrachords (four-note segments) separated by a whole tone, running from the hypate meson to the nete diezeugmenon.

In the enharmonic genus, the intervals in each tetrachord are quarter tone–quarter tone–major third.

In the chromatic genus, they are semitone–semitone–minor third.

In the diatonic genus, they are semitone–tone–tone.

In the diatonic genus, the sequence over the octave is the same as that produced by playing all the white notes of a piano ascending from E to E, a sequence equivalent to the pattern of the modern Phrygian mode, although the temperament differs by small amounts.

Placing the single tone at the bottom of the scale followed by two conjunct tetrachords (that is, the top note of the first tetrachord is also the bottom note of the second), produces the Hypodorian ("below Dorian") octave species: A | B C D E | (E) F G A. Placing the two conjunct tetrachords together and the single tone at the top of the scale produces the Mixolydian octave species, a note sequence equivalent to modern Locrian mode.

Medieval Dorian mode
The early Byzantine church developed a system of eight musical modes (the octoechos), which served as a model for medieval European chant theorists when they developed their own modal classification system starting in the 9th century. The success of the Western synthesis of this system with elements from the fourth book of De institutione musica of Boethius, created the false impression that the Byzantine octoechos was inherited directly from ancient Greece.

Originally used to designate one of the traditional harmoniai of Greek theory (a term with various meanings, including the sense of an octave consisting of eight tones), the name was appropriated (along with six others) by the 2nd-century theorist Ptolemy to designate his seven tonoi, or transposition keys. Four centuries later, Boethius interpreted Ptolemy in Latin, still with the meaning of transposition keys, not scales. When chant theory was first being formulated in the 9th century, these seven names plus an eighth, Hypermixolydian (later changed to Hypomixolydian), were again re-appropriated in the anonymous treatise Alia Musica. A commentary on that treatise, called the Nova expositio, first gave it a new sense as one of a set of eight diatonic species of the octave, or scales.

In medieval theory, the authentic Dorian mode could include the note B♭ "by licence", in addition to B♮. The same scalar pattern, but starting a fourth or fifth below the mode final D, and extending a fifth above (or a sixth, terminating on B♭), was numbered as mode 2 in the medieval system. This was the plagal mode corresponding to the authentic Dorian, and was called the Hypodorian mode. In the untransposed form on D, in both the authentic and plagal forms the note C is often raised to C♯ to form a leading tone, and the variable sixth step is in general B♮ in ascending lines and B♭ in descent.

Modern Dorian mode
The modern Dorian mode (also called "Russian minor" by Balakirev, ) by contrast, is a strictly diatonic scale corresponding to the white keys of the piano from D to D (shown below)

or any transposition of its interval pattern, which has the ascending pattern of whole steps and half steps as follows:

 * whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole

Thus, the Dorian mode is a symmetric scale, since the pattern of whole and half steps is the same ascending or descending.

The modern Dorian mode can also be thought of as a scale with a minor third and seventh, a major second and sixth, and a perfect fourth and fifth, notated relative to the major scale as:

 * 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, 6, ♭7, 8

It may be considered an "excerpt" of a major scale played from the pitch a whole tone above the major scale's tonic, i.e., a major scale played from its second scale degree up to its second degree again. The resulting scale is, however, minor in quality, because, as the D becomes the new tonal centre, the F a minor third above the D becomes the new mediant, or third degree. Thus, when a triad is built upon the tonic, it is a minor triad.

The modern Dorian mode is equivalent to the natural minor scale (or the Aeolian mode) but with a major sixth. The modern Dorian mode resembles the Greek Phrygian harmonia in the diatonic genus.

It is also equivalent to the ascending melodic minor scale with a minor seventh.

Notable compositions in Dorian mode

"Hit songs in Dorian include, "Evil Ways..., "I Wish"..., "Lowdown"..., "Foxy Lady"..., "Owner of a Lonely Heart"..., "Moondance"..., "Billie Jean"..., and many others."

Traditional

 * "Drunken Sailor"
 * "Scarborough Fair"
 * "Noël nouvelet" (15th century French Christmas carol, often sung in English as "Sing We Now of Christmas")

Medieval

 * "Ave maris stella", Gregorian chant (Marian hymn)
 * "Dies irae" (original setting in Gregorian chant, sequence).
 * "Victimae paschali laudes", Gregorian chant (sequence)
 * "Veni Sancte Spiritus", Gregorian chant (sequence)
 * Alle Psallite Cum Luya, an anonymous three-part Latin motet from the late 13th or early 14th century, recorded in the Montpellier Codex and thought to have originated in France.
 * Chominciamento di gioia, a 14th-century monophonic Italian estampie in five sections (British Library, Add MS 29987, No. 78).
 * Lamento di Tristano, a 14th-century monophonic Italian dance in two parts, with the second section designated "La Rotta" (British Library, Add MS 29987, No. 91).
 * La Manfredina, a 14th-century monophonic Italian dance in two parts, with the second section designated "La Rotta della Manfredina" (British Library, Add MS 29987, No. 92).
 * The Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo of Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady), a polyphonic mass composed before 1365 by French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377).
 * "Personent Hodie", Medieval Latin Christmas carol

Renaissance

 * "Il est bel et bon", a madrigal by Pierre Passereau

Baroque

 * "Chorale prelude for organ in Dorian mode, BuxWV 180: Christ, unser Herr zum Jordan kam", an organ piece by Dieterich Buxtehude.
 * "Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538", an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach (also informally known as "the Dorian" to distinguish it from the better known "Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565"). Although Bach left no explicit indication, the piece is commonly assumed to be in the Dorian mode, since it bears no key signature.

Romantic

 * The "Et incarnatus est" in the Credo movement of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.
 * The "Royal March of the Lions" from Camille Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals suite uses Dorian mode to evoke a "Persian style."
 * Large portions of the Symphony No. 6 by Jean Sibelius are in the Dorian mode.
 * In "La Brise" (from the Mélodies Persanes, Op. 26), Saint-Saëns uses an E Dorian scale in the first half of the song.

Jazz

 * "Maiden Voyage" by Herbie Hancock – The composition takes an AABA form with chords in the "A" sections in D Dorian and the "B" section in E♭ Dorian.
 * "Milestones" by Miles Davis
 * "Oye Como Va" by Tito Puente, popularized by Santana
 * "So What" by Miles Davis – The composition takes an AABA form with the "A" sections in D Dorian and the "B" section in E♭ Dorian.

Popular

 * "Born Under a Bad Sign" written by Booker T. Jones and William Bell. The song is a simple but atypical I7-V7-IV7 12-bar progression with a key signature corresponding to C♯ major but with every B♯ and E♯ lowered to B♮ and E♮, making the song C♯ Dorian.
 * "Dorian" by First of October. The song uses the modern Dorian scale on the piano during the choruses to build tension, while staying in the key of D minor for the verses and melody.
 * "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles is often cited as a Dorian modal piece, and while the melody line in places uses the major sixth scale degree, the chord progression is in Aeolian (I–♭VI and ♭VI–I).
 * The chord sequence i–III–VII–IV is sometimes used in pop songs, where the harmonic rhythm leads the listener to think of it as a minor song. In the final chord of the sequence, however, the third is a major sixth above the tonic, as in the Dorian scale. Examples include: "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.
 * "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams (B Dorian)
 * "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" (1973) by Vicki Lawrence
 * "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang is often written in E minor with a persistent C♯ accidental, but is actually played in E Dorian. It shares a key signature (F♯, C♯) with its relative key, D major.
 * "Tick Tock" by Clean Bandit (and Mabel) sounds heavily pentatonic, but is in fact (nominally) in the 'D' Dorian mode.
 * "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons (B Dorian)
 * "Autumn Sweater" by Yo La Tengo (D Dorian)
 * "Adiemus" by Karl Jenkins performed with Miriam Stockley, Mary Carewe and London Philharmonic Orchestra (D Dorian)
 * "Mad World" by Tears for Fears (F♯ Dorian, F Dorian cover by Gary Jules )
 * "Karma Police" by Radiohead (A Dorian)
 * "Everything Means Nothing To Me" by Elliott Smith (B♭ Dorian)
 * "I Me Mine" by the Beatles (A Dorian, then briefly D Dorian #4)
 * "15 Step" by Radiohead (G♯ Dorian)
 * "Don't Bother Me" by the Beatles (E Dorian)
 * "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead (verse; D Dorian)
 * "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson (verse; F♯ Dorian)
 * "Blinding Lights" by the Weeknd (F Dorian)
 * "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (C♯ Dorian)
 * "Riders on the Storm" by the Doors (E Dorian)
 * "Breathe" by Pink Floyd (E Dorian)
 * "Lucky" by Radiohead (chorus; E Dorian)
 * "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix (E Dorian)
 * "I Can't Dance" by Genesis (B♭ Dorian)
 * "Great Gig in the Sky" by Pink Floyd (G Dorian)
 * "Give It to Me Baby" by Rick James (D Dorian)
 * "Blue Jeans" by Lana Del Rey (F Dorian)
 * "Love Me Again" by John Newman (G Dorian)
 * "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell (E♭ Dorian)
 * "Supersonic" by Oasis (E Dorian)
 * "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin (C♯ Dorian)
 * "Money" by Pink Floyd (B Dorian)
 * "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" by the Beatles (chorus; E Dorian)
 * "Stairway To Heaven" by Led Zeppelin (chorus; A Dorian)
 * "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles (D Dorian)
 * "What Goes Around... Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake (A Dorian)
 * "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak (B Dorian)
 * "Burn it Down" (D Dorian) and "New Divide" (F Dorian) by Linkin Park
 * "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana (G♯ Dorian)
 * "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" by Ylvis (C♯ Dorian)
 * "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars (D Dorian)
 * "Feather" by Sabrina Carpenter (B Dorian)

Other

 * Kimigayo, the national anthem of Japan
 * The Halo theme, taking significant inspiration from the aforementioned medieval Gregorian chants to effect an "ancient and mysterious" sound, is written in E dorian
 * The Angry Birds theme

title: Dorian mode