text:
Southern Military Institute

The Southern Military Institute was a proposed all-male Christian military academy. It was proposed as a response to the court decisions allowing women into Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and The Citadel. The proponents wish to create an environment similar to that of VMI in the 19th century. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has labeled it a neoconfederate group. Its head is Col. Michael J. Guthrie, Ph.D. (USA Ret.) of Madison, Alabama, a research physicist and retired National Guard Officer. Guthrie has been criticized by the national media and the SPLC for being a former member of the League of the South and for having promoted the school at a convention of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

It was once planned to be built in Shelbyville, Tennessee, but the proponents were not able to raise sufficient funds to purchase the property. Subsequently, the group sought to purchase another site in Middle Tennessee, the old Franklin County High School (FCHS) in Winchester, Tennessee, but that effort was ended July 2006. Earlier attempts at purchasing the former campus of Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas and Morristown College in Morristown, Tennessee were also unsuccessful. SMI is currently exploring the possibility of acquiring the old Tennessee Military Institute (TMI) property in Sweetwater, Tennessee and other opportunities in Franklin County, Tennessee. To date, no property has been acquired for the campus, although fundraising and planning continues.

title: Southern Military Institute


text:
Gunstar Super Heroes

Gunstar Super Heroes (ガンスタースーパーヒーローズ) (also known as Gunstar Future Heroes in Europe) is a run and gun video game for the Game Boy Advance developed by Treasure and published by Sega in 2005. It is the sequel to the 1993 Sega Genesis game Gunstar Heroes, with the story taking place after the events of the original game and featuring an expanded combat system over its predecessor.

Story
Taking place after the destruction of the "God of Ruin" (also known as Golden Silver, the final boss) at the end of Gunstar Heroes, the explosion created four moons orbiting the Earth. However, many years later, the creation of a fifth moon reveals a plan to resurrect the malevolent Empire and Golden Silver once again.

Protagonists Red and Blue, named as such in tribute to the legendary warriors from the original Gunstar Heroes, combat the Empire as part of an organization called "The Third Eye". Together with Yellow, the Gunstars must travel to the moons, stop the resurrected Empire, and recapture the Treasure Gems, four mystical stones with an unknown power that drove the story of the previous game. Super Heroes has different storylines based on what difficulty is chosen and which character the player is playing as.

Most of Gunstar Super Heroes's characters are named after characters from the original Gunstar Heroes, and while many of these new characters bear distinct resemblances to the equivalent characters from the first game, one notable exception is Red, who is female, unlike the original Gunstar Red, who was male.

Gameplay
The gameplay makes a number of changes from the original Gunstar Heroes. The controls for Red and Blue no longer distinguish by the Free and Fixed Shot and both have more advanced, equal and versatile controls. The Throw from the original is taken out, and various melee attacks are now performed by using the A and B buttons in combination with the D-pad. The ability to combine different weapons is temporarily absent - instead, the player has the option to select from three weapon types at any time in the game. The game also uses a supercharge meter that fills as the player defeats enemies, using this energy allows the player to fire a powerful attack.

Reception
The game was almost universally praised by critics as a compelling action game and received high scores, even receiving several "Best GBA Game Of E3 2005" awards. However, the game still didn't sell very well, and Nintendo Power has urged gamers on numerous times to get the game, disappointed that it didn't appear in the top selling GBA games list.

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

title: Gunstar Super Heroes


text:
Laurean Rugambwa

Laurean Rugambwa (July 12, 1912 – December 8, 1997) was a Tanzanian prelate who was the first modern native African cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Dar es Salaam from 1968 to 1992, and was made a cardinal in 1960 by Pope John XXIII.

Biography
Laurean Rugambwa was born to an aristocratic family in Bukongo, Tanganyika (present-day Kagera Region of Tanzania), and baptized with his parents at age 8, on March 19, 1921. After studying at Katigondo National Major Seminary in Uganda, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Burcardo Huwiler, MAfr, on December 12, 1943. Rugambwa then did missionary work in West Africa until 1949, when he went to Rome to study at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, from which he obtained his doctorate in canon law.

On December 13, 1951, Rugambwa was appointed titular bishop of Febiana and the first Apostolic Vicar of Lower Kagera. The youngest of Africa's bishops, he received his episcopal consecration on February 10, 1952, from Archbishop David Mathew, with Bishops Joseph Kiwanuka, MAfr, and Joseph Blomjous serving as co-consecrators. When his apostolic vicariate was elevated to a diocese on March 25, 1953, Rugambwa was named Bishop of Rutabo by Pope Pius XII. He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Francesco a Ripa by Pope John XXIII in the consistory of March 28, 1960. He was the first native African cardinal of the modern era. On the following June 21, his diocese was renamed Bukoba.

Described as a progressive, Rugambwa attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. He strongly pushed for the Roman Curia to be internationalized. He was also an advocate of inter-Christian ecumenism.

After Vatican II Rugambwa was active in implementing its reforms. He was one of the cardinal electors in the 1963 papal conclave that elected Pope Paul VI. Advanced to Archbishop of Dar es Salaam on December 19, 1968, he later participated in the conclaves of August and October 1978, which elected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II respectively. Rugambwa resigned as Dar es Salaam's archbishop on July 22, 1992, after twenty-three years of service, during which he founded the first Catholic hospital in Ukonga and a female Roman Catholic religious institute, the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi.

Death
Rugambwa died in Dar es Salaam at the age of 85. He was buried in the cathedral of the Bukoba diocese after his remains were transferred from a parish church in the Kagera Region. His death left just two cardinals created by John XXIII, Raul Silva Henriquez and Franz König.

Trivia

 * In 1961, the Cardinal received an honorary doctorate in laws from the University of Notre Dame.
 * Before returning to Tanzania after the August 1978 conclave, he visited the United States, where he then received word of Pope John Paul I's death.

title: Laurean Rugambwa


text:
Carmacks, Yukon

Carmacks is a village in Yukon, Canada, on the Yukon River along the Klondike Highway, and at the west end of the Robert Campbell Highway from Watson Lake. The population is 588 (Canada Census, 2021), an increase from the Census of 2016. It is the home of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation, a Northern Tutchone-speaking people.

History
The name of the community comes from George Washington Carmack, who found coal near Tantalus Butte (locally called Coal Mine Hill) in the early 1890s. He built a trading post near the present site of Carmacks and traded with locals before opening a coal mine in the south bank of the Yukon River. The focus of his entrepreneurial energy switched a few years later when he or his wife, Kate Carmack, discovered gold with her brother, Keish (Skookum Jim), and Dawson Charlie (Tagish Charlie) at what was to become the Discovery Claim, near Dawson City, which started the Klondike Gold Rush. Carmacks incorporated as a village on November 1, 1984.

Geography
The community consists of the Village of Carmacks and the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation. Carmacks Landing Settlement is within the Village of Carmacks.

Carmacks is situated at the confluence of the Nordenskiold and Yukon rivers, approximately 180 km north of Whitehorse and 360 km south of Dawson City on the North Klondike Highway. It is the site of one of the four bridges over the Yukon River. The Campbell Highway also intersects the community and carries on to Faro, Ross River and Watson Lake, providing a gateway to the Canol Road and some of Yukon's most spectacular scenery.

Climate
Carmacks has a subarctic climate (Dfc) with short but mild summers and long, severely cold winters.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Village of Carmacks had a population of $588$ living in $263$ of its $302$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $493$. With a land area of 36.87 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

As a designated place in the 2021 census, Carmacks Landing Settlement had a population of 206 living in 86 of its 95 total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of 168. With a land area of 2.41 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Carmacks has a 91.4% First Nations population the majority of which belong to the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nations. The local language of the LSCFN community is Northern Tuchone, which is carried on both by the elders and taught to all students at the local Tantalus Elementary/high School.

Economy
The area around Carmacks has abundant mineral resources, including coal, copper, and gold. Various mining activities are taking place on mineral sites around Carmacks. There is a small zinc-copper mine in production near Carmacks operated by Western Silver and a gold property northwest of Carmacks currently in the exploration stage operated by Northern Freegold Resources based out of Whitehorse.

Attractions
The Carmacks Recreation Centre is at the east end of River Drive between the nursing station and visitor centre, and is a community focal point for youth. There is a youth drop in daily with a computer access, video games, table games and other activities, often funded by Yukon grant programs. The gymnasium is host to adult floor hockey and other sports. The Recreation Centre also holds a three lane curling rink, fully loaded fitness gym and a full kitchen for all occasions.

Carmacks also has an indoor swimming pool that is open to the community from June to September.

Infrastructure
Carmacks is served by the Klondike Highway by cars and Carmacks Airport by air.

It has been proposed as a hub for an extension of the Alaska Railroad, and historically for an extension of the White Pass and Yukon Route from Whitehorse.

Sports
Every February, Carmacks hosts a checkpoint for both the long-distance Yukon Quest sled dog race and the Yukon Arctic Ultra foot/ski/bike race.

title: Carmacks, Yukon


text:
Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin

Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin (December 12, 1913 – March 19, 1995) was an American anthropologist and poet. As a poet he was an influential member of the Memphis, Tennessee literary community. As an anthropologist he specialized in the folk literature of First Peoples in North America, and published multiple monographs on myths and legends of the Sioux and Blackfoot peoples.

Life and career
Born in Elmira Township, Michigan in 1913, Beaudoin graduated from Memphis State College (1935) before attending Louisiana State University in 1936 and 1937.He pursued further studies at Loyola University New Orleans in 1940, and then in New York City at The New School for Social Research from 1944 through 1946.

As a poet, Beaudoin is best known for inventing the "eye poem," a poetic form that combined words and pictures. Throughout his career, Beaudoin met and corresponded with a wide range of better-known poets, such as William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, Randall Jarrell, and Ezra Pound. Beaudoin also had an important influence as leader of the Memphis literary community, presiding over a literary circle described by Memphis author James Conaway in his memoir Memphis Afternoons.

During the Depression era, Beaudoin lived in New Orleans and he was head of the Louisiana Historical Records Survey from 1936 through 1940. He later ran an art gallery for several years in Greenwich Village, New York.

Beaudoin pioneered the "eye poem" in the 1940s, and one newspaper account of his career states that Beaudoin produced thousands of eye poems over a ten-year period. A folio edition of 6,000 poems was published by Archangel Press in 1947. His work appeared in over 100 publications. Beaudoin also founded the Poetry Society of Tennessee.

Beaudoin served as a kind of father figure to many Memphis writers, and his house on the Mississippi River was the site of his literary salon. Memphis poet and artist Frances Cowden, a member of Beaudoin's circle, later recalled that Inisfree, as he called his home on the river, was a place where local poets would gather to talk about, and read, poetry with Beaudoin: "We would all go down there and read poetry and listen to him talk about poetry.  And if you had a big decision you needed to make in your life,  you  would  go  and talk to Kenneth about it first because he always gave good advice." Beaudoin was named "Poet Laureate of the River" in 1976 at the Mid-South Festival.

Beaudoin was also known for the "gemstone awards" he would give to poets.

Starting in the 1950s, Beaudoin supported himself as chief clerk in criminal intelligence with the Memphis Police Department. Beaudoin considered the job a source of rich insight into human nature. In a 1981 newspaper interview Beaudoin explained, "My police job kept me close to human beings in tense situations.... From a poet's point  of  view, it was perhaps the most important job I could have had. When  you associate with people on a day-to-day basis, there's nothing exciting  about  it.  You don't even remember it. But when people are under pressure,  you  can  talk  to  them  differently and the experience becomes memorable.  Where  else could you learn as much about people as at a police station?" Beaudoin retired from his police job in 1980, due to blindness.

Beaudoin was a charter member and officer of the Memphis Archaeological and Geological Society that was formed in 1951. The Society performed and reported on the first house excavation at Chucalissa Indian Village. The Society was heavily involved with early archaeological and geological surveys and excavations in eastern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, northeastern Alabama and western Tennessee.

Beaudoin's papers are housed at the University of Memphis Special Collections Department.

title: Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin


text:
Talk:James Bond (ornithologist)

Daniel Craig related to James Bond
On Facebook of all places I read that Daniel Craig is a relative of James Bond. Anyone know that to be true or false? If true, I think it should be trivia here...

The name story
I read somewhere that in return for using his name, Fleming gave Bond permission to use his name. He even wrote to Bond's wife: "I hope your husband finds a very ugly and repulsive bird he wants to name Ian Fleming." But Bond never had the chance to do that. Is this true? — J I P | Talk 16:16, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Not to my knowledge, but then again I don't know much beyond whats written about this already (see James Bond also). I'll look into it. The quote you wrote though sounds a lot like Fleming, I wouldn't be surprised if theres truth to it. K1Bond007 21:27, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, I guess its true. I've seen two websites now claim this (one ABCnews). Apparently James Bond (the ornithologist) "didn't know about his fictional namesake until the early 1960s when he read an interview in which Fleming explained the origin of his character's name."
 * In 1961, Bond's wife, Mary, wrote Fleming with a tongue-in-cheek threat to sue him for defamation. Fleming replied, "I most confess that your husband has every reason to sue me. In return, I can only offer your James Bond unlimited use of the name Ian Fleming for any purpose he may think fit."" K1Bond007 21:39, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)
 * I've heard the first version from my father, also a birder, who knew this James Bond. bd2412  T 05:46, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Future reference
I just wanted to write here for future reference that many websites state that James Bond (sometimes referred to as Jim Bond), the ornithologist, is really named "Terence James Bond". This is not true. There is a Terrence James Bond and yes he happens to be an ornithologist, but he is someone else entirely. K1Bond007 21:47, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)

Book Title
I know this has been changed before (I wasn't involved in the original title of the book, either). The correct title of Bond's famous book is Birds of the West Indies. It is further subtitled: "A Field Guide to All the Birds of the Caribbean Islands". I have made the change, and am planning on creating an article on the book itself.
 * I don't think so. Amazon lists it as "A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies" as do many other websites. It might say "Birds of the West Indies" on the front cover, but on the back it's called "A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies." I believe that to be the proper title. There are a number of other books titled "Birds of the West Indies" - are you sure? Amazon, British ver K1Bond007 02:41, August 27, 2005 (UTC)
 * My copy (Second Edition) states "Birds of the West Indies". The complete series on the back lists the other books as "A Field Guide to...", but not for this particular book.  Nowhere in the book does it call it "A Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies".  I think the first edition's version (which, presumably would be what Bond himself called it) would be the official version.  The current version is by Peterson, the older version is not.  I am assuming Peterson retitled it to fit with the others.Rt66lt 01:24, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Bond photo
The Los Angeles Times carried an obituary of James Bond, complete with photo. My copy went astray some time back, but it should be available via library microfilm. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.175.225.5 (talk • contribs).

''Bond was once denied access onto an aircraft when he showed his passport to the staff, bearing his name. It took quite a bit of explaining.''
 * - This is amusing, but I highly doubt it's true. There's no conceivable reason why security staff should deny entry to a passenger because he happens to share a name with a fictional character. A source would be needed for such a far-fetched claim. Palefire 21:47, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, Ted Kennedy was detained at an airport as a suspected Irish terrorist. I think this is probably true.--Jack Upland (talk) 06:13, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Effects of fictional namesake?
Given that the real James Bond lived long enough to see his name become widely recognised through his fictional namesake especially after the film series had taken off, I wonder if suddenly having such a widely recognised name did have any significant effects on his life (such as the mentioned but unconfirmed case of passport confusion, or possibly being asked for autographs if people discovered his name), and especially on his book sales, in particular the sales of Birds of the West Indies. If anybody has read anything about this, I would simply be curious to know. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 23:18, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

The location of Dr. No's island lair.
I had the impression that this was located in the Pedro Bank.RichardBond (talk) 09:35, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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Bond's 1964 visit to Fleming
The article states:

"In 1964 during his annual winter stay at Goldeneye in Jamaica, James Bond and his wife visited Fleming unexpectedly."

This suggests that it was Bond who had the annual winter stay at Goldeneye, but surely it was Fleming? I will edit the article accordingly, but if anyone disagrees, feel free to revert. Mike Marchmont (talk) 07:40, 13 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:James Bond (ornithologist)


text:
Fat rascal

A fat rascal, closely related to the historical turf cake, is a type of cake, similar to a scone or rock cake in both taste and ingredients. It originated in Yorkshire at least as early as the 19th century.

History
Fat rascals were known in the Yorkshire region in the nineteenth century as a form of tea cake containing butter and cream. An 1859 Charles Dickens story identifies the fat rascal with the singing hinny of Northumberland. A fat rascal could also be baked as a turf cake, a buttery, flat cake baked in a covered pan among the ashes of a peat fire, and the terms fat rascal and turf cake are sometimes used interchangeably. A Yorkshire cookery book of 1973 had plain flour, baking powder, butter and currants as the ingredients. A 1980 Yorkshire cookbook described fat rascals as a means of using leftover pastry, typically consisting of scraps of shortcrust pastry, sugared, sprinkled with currants and rolled into thick flat cakes before baking. Fat rascals, whatever their composition, do not appear to have been widely known outside the Yorkshire region until the 1980s, although there are occasional mentions in other regions, such as in Rye, Sussex in Ford Madox Ford's 1931 memoirs.

There is a recipe for fat rascals in a book called "The Presidents' Cook Book" by Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks, published in 1968 by Funk and Wagnalls in the USA. They say "In Edith Roosevelt's most cherished cook book .... is this recipe for hot biscuits." This cook book now rests on a shelf in the parlour of Sagamore Hill.

Bettys
A widely recognised version of the fat rascal was introduced by Bettys Café Tea Rooms in North Yorkshire in 1983. This is a plump, fruity scone with a 'face' made from cherries and almonds based on a rock cake recipe, developed by Helen Frankel, then a buyer and marketing assistant at Bettys. Following its launch, the fat rascal quickly became Bettys' best known and best-selling bakery product, selling over 375,000 per year. Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate own the registered trademark for the name 'fat rascal'.

title: Fat rascal


text:
Mackey topology

In functional analysis and related areas of mathematics, the Mackey topology, named after George Mackey, is the finest topology for a topological vector space which still preserves the continuous dual. In other words the Mackey topology does not make linear functions continuous which were discontinuous in the default topology. A topological vector space (TVS) is called a Mackey space if its topology is the same as the Mackey topology.

The Mackey topology is the opposite of the weak topology, which is the coarsest topology on a topological vector space which preserves the continuity of all linear functions in the continuous dual.

The Mackey–Arens theorem states that all possible dual topologies are finer than the weak topology and coarser than the Mackey topology.

Definition for a pairing
Given a pairing $$(X, Y, b),$$ the Mackey topology on $$X$$ induced by $$(X, Y, b),$$ denoted by $$\tau(X, Y, b),$$ is the polar topology defined on $$X$$ by using the set of all $\sigma(Y, X, b)$-compact disks in $$Y.$$

When $$X$$ is endowed with the Mackey topology then it will be denoted by $$X_{\tau(X, Y, b)}$$ or simply $$X_{\tau(X, Y)}$$ or $$X_{\tau}$$ if no ambiguity can arise.

A linear map $$F : X \to W$$ is said to be Mackey continuous (with respect to pairings $$(X, Y, b)$$ and $$(W, Z, c)$$) if $$F : (X, \tau(X, Y, b)) \to (W, \tau(W, Z, c))$$ is continuous.

Definition for a topological vector space
The definition of the Mackey topology for a topological vector space (TVS) is a specialization of the above definition of the Mackey topology of a pairing. If $$X$$ is a TVS with continuous dual space $$X^{\prime},$$ then the evaluation map $$\left(x, x^{\prime}\right) \mapsto x^{\prime}(x)$$ on $$X \times X^{\prime}$$ is called the canonical pairing.

The Mackey topology on a TVS $$X,$$ denoted by $$\tau\left(X, X^{\prime}\right),$$ is the Mackey topology on $$X$$ induced by the canonical pairing $$\left\langle X, X^{\prime} \right\rangle.$$

That is, the Mackey topology is the polar topology on $$X$$ obtained by using the set of all weak*-compact disks in $$X^{\prime}.$$ When $$X$$ is endowed with the Mackey topology then it will be denoted by $$X_{\tau\left(X, X^{\prime}\right)}$$ or simply $$X_{\tau}$$ if no ambiguity can arise.

A linear map $$F : X \to Y$$ between TVSs is Mackey continuous if $$F : \left(X, \tau\left(X, X^{\prime}\right)\right) \to \left(Y, \tau\left(Y, Y^{\prime}\right)\right)$$ is continuous.

Examples
Every metrizable locally convex $$(X, \nu)$$ with continuous dual $$X^{\prime}$$ carries the Mackey topology, that is $$\nu = \tau\left(X, X^{\prime}\right)$$ or to put it more succinctly every metrizable locally convex space is a Mackey space.

Every Hausdorff barreled locally convex space is Mackey.

Every Fréchet space $$(X, \nu)$$ carries the Mackey topology and the topology coincides with the strong topology, that is $$\nu = \tau\left(X, X^{\prime}\right) = \beta\left(X, X^{\prime}\right).$$

Applications
The Mackey topology has an application in economies with infinitely many commodities.

title: Mackey topology


text:
International Conference of Reformed Churches

The International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC) is a federation of Reformed or Calvinist churches around the world. The ICRC convenes international meetings every four years.

The ICRC was founded in 1981 at Groningen in the Netherlands.

The theology of the ICRC is more conservative than the larger World Communion of Reformed Churches and is similar to that of the World Reformed Fellowship. The participating churches endorse the four Reformed confessions: the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort, and Westminster Confession of Faith.

In 2023, the moderator of the ICRC is Reverend Dr Dick Moes.

List of members

List of ICRC Members in 2023:

Candidates
In 2020, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Peru expressed interest in joining the ICRC, requesting support from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to do so.

In 2023, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America approved Opening 2, which determined that the denomination also applies for membership in the ICRC.

Former members
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) and Free Reformed Churches of Australia were founding denominations of the ICRC. However, none of them are currently part of the CIIR.

In 2017, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) began to allow women's ordination, which is completely rejected by the other members of the organization. Consequently, the ICRC suspended the denomination's membership rights, and urged it to reverse its decision.

However, the Liberated Reformed Churches did not respond to the ICRC's request and continued to ordain women. Consequently, in 2022, the ICRC approved the definitive expulsion of the organization's denomination.


text:
Hsu and Chan

Hsu and Chan is a comic strip created by Jeremy "Norm" Scott that appeared in the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly from November 1999 until the September 2008 issue. The strip has appeared at 1UP.com until September 30, 2009 when the blog ended and Norm promised to continue the comic at spookingtons.com. Full-length comic books of Hsu and Chan have also been published by Slave Labor Graphics, as well as a trade paperback collecting the first five issues of the comic.

Norm began publishing a spin-off comic of Hsu and Chan, titled Game Critter Super-Squad!, in 2003. Following the adventures of 11-year-old Jimmy "Milhouse" Patton, Game Critter Super-Squad! ran for a year in GameNOW. More recently, animated shorts of the characters were produced and are available at the Spookingtons website. Additional comics and videos were produced in 2017 through Patreon funding.

Background
Hsu and Chan follows the misadventures of the brothers Hsu and Chan Tanaka, who own and operate a company called "Tanaka Bros. Game Development" that specializes in knock-offs of popular titles. For example, Bad Milage 2000, a knock-off of Gran Turismo appears in the strip "Hsu and Chan in: Chan Turismo!"

Tanaka Bros. Game Development has other, less seen employees, including Arnie, a ground squirrel bearing a striking resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog, Gila Mobster, a brutish Charmander parody who can be seen wearing a black fedora with a lighter grasped in the end of his tail, and Chernobyl, the radioactive chipmunk who is a take on Pikachu.

The name Dirk appears frequently as a replacement for a random name ("Ledger of Zelda") or for anagrams and codenames ("Pocket Morons: Platinum"; "Sonic Boobs"). Many comics also make references to Cheez-its, usually with characters noticing crumbs (This was also done in "The Otters: The Survivors"). Many references are made to the Tomb Raider series, usually referring to the newer games as crimes against humanity.

The first comic to spin off from Hsu and Chan was Game Critter Super-Squad!, which ran in EGM's now-defunct sister magazine, GameNOW. This strip follows the midadventures of 11-year-old Jimmy "Milhouse" Patton (a human) and the Game Critter Super-Squad, a team consisting of Arnie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gila Mobster, and X, an anthropomorphic, green letter X who works for Microsoft.

Slave Labor comics
After three years with EGM, Norm contacted Slave Labor Graphics about making a standalone, full-length Hsu and Chan comic book. Slave Labor agreed, with eight issues of the comic published between 2003 and 2009. A collection of the first five of these along with extra bonus material was released in 2004 and titled Hsu and Chan: Too Much Adventure.

Since the EGM strips are typically one page long, they are self-contained stories that parody a specific video game, usually the title on that month's cover of EGM. The Slave Labor comics, on the other hand, are considerably longer and more reliant on plot. The Slave Labor comics are also less video game-centric and feature Hsu and Chan battling supernatural foes and their arch-rivals at the competing video game company, Yamamoto Games, Inc.

Norm's naturally wordy dialogue is slightly toned down for the EGM strip, a necessary compromise given the single page nature of the strip. In the Slave Labor comic, the characters are more verbose.

Despite the separate focuses of the two different strips, they exist within the same universe. In the Slave Labor comics Hsu's right hand is severed and replaced with a prosthetic appliance; the change was reflected in the EGM strip.

Video game parodies
The following games have been featured and parodied in the Hsu and Chan EGM strips:
 * Driver - (Drivel)
 * Final Fantasy - (Final Fantasize)
 * Kingdom Hearts - (Hearts o' Darkness)
 * Grand Theft Auto - (Hsu Crime Stories)
 * James Bond 007 series - (Thunderblarg)
 * Resident Evil - (Zombierama)
 * The Lord of the Rings - (Lords of the Bling, Hoard of the Things)
 * Gran Turismo - (Chan Turismo)
 * Metal Gear - (Secret Agent Chan)
 * Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney - (Jerk Simpkins, Ace Attorney [Under Fire])
 * Super Mario Bros. - (Down the Drain)
 * Pokémon - (Pocket Morons, Pocket Morons Platinum)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog - (Sonic Boobs, Sonic Weirdos)
 * Castlevania - (Symphony of the Nut)
 * The Legend of Zelda - (The Ledger of Zelda)
 * Halo - (Combat: Involved!)
 * Soul Calibur - (The Soul Still Burns, Low Calibur)
 * Halo 3 - (Halo How Are You?)
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl - (Prelude to a Brawl)
 * SOCOM: Confrontation - (So Conned)

title: Hsu and Chan


text:
Eyes (TV series)

Eyes is an American crime drama television series starring Tim Daly as Harlan Judd that aired on ABC from March 30 to April 27, 2005.

In May 2005, having rescheduled the sixth episode twice, ABC announced that they would not be airing the remaining episodes until June at the earliest. They later announced that it would not be picked up for a second season and that the remaining episodes would remain unaired.

New Zealand television station TV2 picked up this show and aired the complete series, all twelve episodes, in the second half of 2005. These episodes appeared online via BitTorrent soon after. The show was also partially aired on Singapore television station Mediacorp Channel 5, with the pilot episode and episodes #106 to #112 being skipped. Episode #111 ("Burglary") was an exception, and was aired as the fifth episode. The show was also aired in full on France cable television station Canal Jimmy in 2006. In the beginning of 2008 the show was aired in full on Polish television station TVN 7. The series was scheduled to be shown on the Nine Network in Australia in late 2005 but the network declined to air the series due to its cancellation in the US.

Episodes could formerly be seen for free on the website In2TV. Not all episodes were available (including the pilot episode), but most unaired episodes were online.

In March 2009 American satellite broadcaster DirecTV announced a deal made with Warner Bros. to show all episodes of the series on its The 101 Network channel. Eyes airing on DirecTV began on September 15, 2009.

Premise
The series follows the firm of Judd Risk Management in Los Angeles,California which uses marginally legal means to investigate individuals and crimes where law enforcement would fall short. With the help of high-tech gadgets, Harlan Judd and his employees recover money for victims as well as investigate individuals for clients but still manage to keep plenty of secrets from one another.

Cast and characters

 * Tim Daly as Harlan Judd
 * Garcelle Beauvais as Nora Gage
 * A. J. Langer as Meg Bardo
 * Laura Leighton as Leslie Town
 * Eric Mabius as Jeff McCann
 * Rick Worthy as Chris Didion
 * Natalie Zea as Trish Agermeyer

title: Eyes (TV series)


text: User talk:82.35.29.89

title: User talk:82.35.29.89


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Félix María Zuloaga

Félix María Zuloaga Trillo (1813–1898) was a Mexican conservative general and politician who played a key role in the outbreak of the Reform War in early 1860, a war which would see him elevated to the presidency of the nation. President Zuloaga was unrecognized by and fought against the liberals supporters of President Benito Juarez.

Zuloaga's forces quickly gained control over the capital, and the central states of the nation, winning every major engagement during the first year of the war, and even temporarily capturing Juarez and his entire cabinet, but in the end, the liberals were not decisively defeated, still controlled large parts of the nation's periphery, and Juarez remained securely entrenched in the strategic port of Veracruz.

In December 1858, a moderate faction of the conservatives overthrew Zuloaga, hoping to come to a compromise with Juarez. Manuel Robles Pezuela then ascended to the presidency. The liberal government rejected all offers of compromise, and the conservatives then elected Miguel Miramon as president. The ousted Zuloaga, still clinging to his claims of the presidency, endorsed Miramon's election and officially passed the presidency on to him.

Zuloaga remained somewhat active in Miramon's government but eventually retired from the scene. He emerged after the war ended to claim the presidency while conservative guerillas were still active in the countryside, but this came to nothing, and Zuloaga subsequently left the country. He would return during the Second Mexican Empire, but unlike many of his conservative colleagues, Zuloaga played no political or military role within the Empire. After the fall of the Empire in 1867, Zuloaga was exiled to Cuba and returned to civilian life, eventually returning to Mexico, where he lived until his death in 1895.

Early life
Felix Zuloaga was born on 31 March 1803 in Álamos, Sonora.

On 8 October 1834, he received the rank of colonel of the national guard and was engaged in campaigns against Indians until 1837, when he left the department of Chihuahua, having previously been granted the rank of lieutenant of engineers.

He defended the government during the Federalist Revolt of 1840, during which a group of militants seized the National Palace and took President Anastasio Bustamante hostage in order to try and overthrow the government and restore the Constitution of 1824. The following year he joined the Bases of Tacubaya which intended to revise the then current constitution, the Siete Leyes. He was promoted to captain on 5 November 1841 and fought in Yucatán as part of the Caste Wars, after which he moved to Tabasco and was granted the rank of lieutenant colonel.

During the Mexican–American War, he was in charge of fortifications in Monterey and in Saltillo, and in 1847 contributed to setting up the defenses on the route from Veracruz to Mexico City.

In July 1848, he retired to Chihuahua where he was elected alderman in 1852 and remained in that post until March, 1853 when he returned to service in the military. In November he was promoted to colonel and was named president of the council of war for judging thieves at which post he remained for a few months. In the following two years he served the Santa Anna's campaign against the liberal revolutionaries of the south led by Juan Alvarez. He fell prisoner at the Hacienda de Nuzco, and the rebel commander Ignacio Comonfort protected him from being sent to a firing squad and actually recruited him to join the liberal cause. When the Plan of Ayutla triumphed, and Santa Anna's dictatorship was overthrown, Zuloaga was given command of Comonfort's forces and assigned to the campaign of Sierra de Querétaro.

La Reforma
Zuloaga's old commander Ignacio Comonfort ascended to the presidency in December, 1856, and proceeded to administer over one of the most eventful presidencies in 19th century Mexican history. A convention finished drafting a new constitution for the nation in early 1857, only to encounter extreme opposition from conservatives over its unprecedented reforms aimed against the army and the church. Most notable was the opposition to the constitutional codification of the Ley Lerdo, a law which forced collective entities to forcibly sell their properties, affecting both the Catholic Church, and Mexico's Indigenous communities, who had a tradition of farming on communal lands. Further controversy was inflamed when the government mandated that all civil servants swear an oath to the constitution or lose their jobs. Many Catholics did refuse the oath, but those who did not were excommunicated.

Zuloaga was initially loyal to the moderate liberal government of Ignacio Comonfort. He helped command a government effort to put down a conservative rebellion in Puebla. As tensions over the constitution rose, Comonfort left the capital and temporarily resided in Tacubaya where his defenses were commanded by Zuloaga.

However, by December, Zuloaga was among those being suspected of plotting against the government, and he was even indicted.

Plan of Tacubaya
The suspicion was well placed as Zuloaga was plotting with conservative conspirators. After coming to an arrangement with certain governors, the conspirators in a suburb of Mexico City declared the Plan of Tacubaya on the morning of December 17 to set aside the national constitution. The supreme control of the government was to be entrusted to Ignacio Comonfort who was to convoke within three months another constitutional congress for framing another constitution more in line with the national will, to be submitted to a national plebiscite and in the event of its non acceptance to be returned to the congress for an amendment. The president was tso rule with a consultative council composed of one representative from each state.

On 17 December, congress made a solemn protest against the Plan of Tacubaya, and declared the Comonfort's authority had now come to an end. Zuloaga's brigade occupied the capital and dissolved the congress. Benito Juarez, president of the Supreme Court and Isidoro Olvera, president of the congress were arrested. The ayuntamiento of Mexico City was also dissolved. On 19 December, Comonfort officially announced that he had accepted the Plan of Tacubaya. He released a manifesto explaining his motives, expounding that he viewed the Plan of Tacubaya as an opportunity for a moderate compromise and viewing the alternative as anarchy.

Seventy deputies reassembled in Querétaro and aired their protests. A council of state was installed on 25 December in which skeptical voices opined that it was impossible to bring about the reconciliating that Comonfort sought. On 30 December, the strategic state of Vera Cruz abandoned the Plan of Tacubaya, convincing Comonfor that his new government's position was precarious. Comonfort would resign, passing the presidency over to Benito Juarez whom Comonfort had also released. He gathered his loyal troops and engaged in skirmishes with the Zuloaga government, but most of the loyal garrison eventually abandoned Comonfort, leading him to flee the capital, and eventually the nation.

Presidency
After triumphing in the minor skirmish with Comonfort, Zuloaga on January 21, published a manifesto promising order in the capital. He then named the individuals who had been chosen to be a part of the junta that was meant to choose the new head of state according to the Plan of Tacubaya. On the 22nd the junta met in the senate chambers and Felix Zuloaga was chosen by twenty six votes, one vote going to Santa Anna, and one vote going to General Echeagaray. The junta then drafted an oath of office, which Zuloaga read the following day, promising to uphold and protect, independence, religion, and unity between all Mexicans, echoing the promises made in the Plan of Iguala.

The newly established conservative government was recognized by the foreign diplomatic corps at the capital with the exception of the United States.

On the 24th, Zuloaga named his ministers. Luis Gonazaga Cueva was made Minister of the Interior, Hilario Elguero was made Ministry of Government, Manuel Larrainzar was made Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, and Jose de la Parra was made Minister of War, and Jose Hierro Maldonado was made Minister of Development. Zuloaga then named a council of government made up of two representatives from each state.

On 28 January, a decree was published nullifying the Ley Lerdo, and calling for the property which had been seized by the church to be returned. Other decrees published on the same day restored to their former employment all civil servants who had lost their jobs in refusing to swear an oath to the constitution of 1857, and also nullified the Ley Juarez. On 31 January, President Zuloaga directed a letter to Pope Pius IX reaffirming his country's adherence to the Catholic faith.

States were declaring their loyalty to either Juarez or Zuloaga and their respective armies were preparing for war. After hostilities broke out Zuloaga, knowing the strategic importance of Veracruz, tried to win over the governor of the state, Gutierrez Zamora, who however affirmed his support for the government of Juarez. In the meantime liberal forces in the north were being organized by Santiago Vidaurri while Manuel Doblado led a liberal coalition in the interior headquartered in the town of Celaya. On 10 March 1858, the liberals lost the Battle of Salamanca, which opened up the interior of the country to the conservatives.

Juarez at this point was in Guadalajara, when part of the army there mutinied and imprisoned him, at one point threatening his life, until fellow liberal minister and prisoner Guillermo Prieto dissuaded the hostile soldiers from shooting Juarez. As rival factions struggled to control the city, Juarez and other liberal prisoners were released on agreement after which Guadalajara was fully captured by conservatives by the end of March. Juarez now made Santos Degollado the head of his armies, and then decided to head towards Veracruz, embarking from Manzanillo, crossing Panama, and arriving in Veracruz on May 4, 1858.

On 24 July, Miramon captured Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosi was captured by the conservatives on 12 September. Vidaurri was defeated at the Battle of Ahualulco on 29 September. By October the conservatives were at the height of their strength.

The conservatives controlled the most populous cities of the republic, and the liberal capital of Vera Cruz was cut off from the interior of the country. The liberals however still had the loyalty of significant parts of the north and the south of the country. Juarez was determined to sustain the conflict, entrenched in the strategic port of Vera Cruz, which the conservatives did not have the forces to carry out a naval blockade of.

Despite his significant victories in the first few months of the war, the Zuloaga government's position was far from entirely secure. An attempt to revive the unitary organization of the country by reducing the states to departments as they existed during the Centralist Republic of Mexico, proved to be unpopular. The conservatives were also divided into three factions: the Santanistas, named after supporters of Santa Anna, wanted a more authoritarian government as had exited during the dictatorship of Santa Anna from 1853 to 1855, the Zuloaguistas wanted to retain Zuloaga, and the Fusionists wanted to compromise with the liberals. The Zuloaga government was also struggling to find funds, the contributions of the clergy, forced loans, and increased tariffs not being sufficient to sustain government expenses. The seizure of property was irritating both citizens and foreigners.

The Plan of Tacubaya had called for a congress to be summoned in order to draft a constitution, but this was proving to be impractical in the middle of the war. Zuloaga's cabinet drafted a provisional constitution.

In July 1858, the failure of achieving a final victory over the liberals led to a shuffling of the cabinet. Joaquin Castillo y Lanzas was named Minister of Relations. Fernandez de Jauregui was made Minister of Government, Javier Miranda was made Minister of Justice, J. M. Garcia was made Minister of War, Pedro Jorrin was made Minister of the Treasury, and Jose M. Zaldivar was made Minister of Development. A law against conspirators was passed along with restrictions on the press.

The conservatives kept achieving victory and on July 24, Miramon captured Guanajuato. Some moderate liberals now wished to compromise with the conservatives. On 29 September, the conservatives won a significant victory at Ahuahulco against Santigo Vidaurri. By October, 1858, the conservatives were at the height of their strength.

In early November, Zuloaga's minister of Government Jarequi offered to resign but it was not accepted. The liberals then took Guadalajara causing alarm in Mexico City. Zulaoga was holding frequent conferences with the British and French foreign representatives, and the two powers showed themselves disposed to help blockade Juarez. Juarez, however had long gained the good will of the United States, whose minister Forsyth had refused to recognize Zuloaga's government.

On 20 December 1858, about a year since he first came to power, Zuloaga had to face a pronunciamiento against himself. Echeagaray pronounced at Ayutla with a plan to summon a congress to frame a constitution suitable for the nation. Zuloaga passed measures to put down the revolt, assuming personal command of the forces at the capital, and forbidding all interaction with the rebels. He passed a manifesto condemning Echeagaray who was stripped of his post in the army. Manuel Doblado was also arrested.

A modified form of the Ayotla Plan was proclaimed by Manuel Robles Pezula on 23 December, and found some military support in the capital. Zuloaga offered to resign if the objection was to him personally, but would not assent if the plan was meant to overthrow his conservative principles. Miramon was offered command of the plan, but he rejected it.

As loyal troops kept defecting, Zuloaga resigned before midnight and sought asylum with the British legation in spite of the insurgents promises to keep Zuloaga unharmed. The Plan of Ayotla was actually an offshoot of the aforementioned fusionist party, a moderate faction, which did not seek to abandon conservative principles, but did seek an end to the war by seeking compromise with the liberals. Manuel Robles Pezuela arrived at the national palace on the morning of 24 December, when he assumed the presidency.

Robles Pezuela sent commissioners out to gain adherence to his plan, and began to assemble a junta of representatives ignoring, however the conservative hero Miguel Miramon, upsetting conservative hardliners. Robles, however eventually conceded in granting Miramon representation.

The Junta assembled on 30 December 1858, and proceeded to elect a president. Miramon won with 50 votes against Robles' 46, though the latter was authorized to act as provisional president until Miramon arrived in the capital.

Meanwhile, Zuloaga had taken back his previous resignation, but due to the circumstances, agreed to officially pass on the presidency to Miramon on 31 January 1859. To keep him from changing his mind, Miramon had him sent to the interior. Zuloaga then left the government.

Miramon would go on to wage the war energetically and make two attempts to capture Juarez's capital at Vera Cruz. His second attempt in March 1860, would see his naval forces intercepted by the U.S. navy which was protecting Juarez. Liberal victories then accumulated until Juarez took back the capital in January 1861, though conservative guerilla's most notably Leonardo Marquez remained active in the countryside.

Later life
It was amidst this situation, with conservative forces still active, that Zuloaga once more publicly emerged in 1861, once more claiming the presidency, but to no effect. He left the country again the following year. He returned to Mexico in August 1864, during the Second Mexican Empire, but no longer played any role in politics. He survived the fall of the Empire but was exiled to Cuba, returning to his country after the death of Benito Juarez. Zuloaga became a tobacco merchant, living until 1895.

title: Félix María Zuloaga


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Agro (puppet)

Agro is an Australian puppet and media personality, not owned although operated by comedian and voice artist Jamie Dunn. He was especially prominent on Australian television in the 1990s due to his co-hosting opposite Ann-Maree Biggar and Terasa Livingstone of Agro's Cartoon Connection, a children's program that was aired from 1989 to 1997 on weekday mornings on the Seven Network.

Name and personality
The word "agro" (also spelled "aggro" ) is Australian slang for "aggression" or "aggravation". Agro is sometimes said to have the surname Vation, though the puppet is rarely credited with a surname.

Agro's humour tends to be adult, with much sexual suggestion, cursing and uninhibited behaviour. He has often appeared with an innocent-acting female offsider, who is subjected to mocking and innuendo. His pre-taped performances in shows intended for a juvenile or family audience were vetted before broadcast, but in the adult-oriented shows (and in the Christmas tapes of Agro's Cartoon Connection) his largely uncensored antics were given full rein. Unlike many characters, particularly children's puppets, Agro often broke the fourth wall, making reference, for example, to the facts that he was a puppet, that his limbs did not move, and that a hand was up his back.

Agro is a fan of the Australian rugby league footballer Wally Lewis, writing and singing many songs about him. He is a patron of the Shandar Smith Foundation, a charity for children with cancer.

The Agro puppet eventually produced by Fisher-Price was unusual in its construction. The puppeteer could open and close the mouth, and could also manipulate the eyebrows via a plastic lever in the head. This allowed Dunn to create a sexually-suggestive leering expression, which he often used. The eyes and limbs do not move. In 2001 Channel Seven Productions enlisted puppeteer and puppet builder Warren Duxbury to rebuild Agro because the original Agro had deteriorated beyond repair. The new puppet was built for use on the short-lived revival of dating show Perfect Match that aired the following year. The nose of the new puppet was noticeably different from the old one.

Television
The original Agro puppet was created in 1981 by BTQ-7 employee Garry Rhodes, who was a floor manager at the time. Although it is often joked that he is made from a bathmat (Agro frequently describes himself as a "talking bathmat"), the Agro puppet was an altered vintage 1978 Fisher-Price puppet of Animal from The Muppet Show. Later, the producer of Agro's Cartoon Connection claimed that Agro had been "altered by the Red Cross", after Jim Henson's Muppets made a claim regarding copyright. It was Rhodes who coined the concept of "eating flies" and other naughty quirks that later continued as part of the puppet's character.

After a falling out with Seven led to Rhodes' resignation, several different operators were involved in working the puppet. Struggling songwriter Jamie Dunn was eventually hired by Seven as a permanent replacement after they received a song demo recorded by Dunn about Agro which included an impression of the character. It was Dunn who took the character to greater heights and created an iconic part of Australian television history. Dunn's marketing prowess resulted in the Agro concept becoming a lucrative career for him. Dunn has never appeared alongside Agro, as a typical ventriloquist might. When Agro appears on camera or on stage, Dunn is always hidden, often by furniture.

Agro initially appeared on the children's television shows Boris' Breakfast Club and Wombat, which later spun off into the Super Sunday Show, and the Super Saturday Show on Seven. When the Saturday morning timeslot was replaced by Saturday Disney, Seven created the daily morning children's programme Agro's Cartoon Connection in 1990, hosted by Agro and Ann-Maree Biggar. Agro's Cartoon Connection would continue until 1997. Agro would later go on to become a co-host on Seven's revival of Perfect Match in 2002. Throughout the early 1990s Agro became increasingly popular, appearing on Tonight Live with Steve Vizard, the Logie Awards, advertisements for Queensland Transport, and contending on Family Feud with his extended puppet family. Agro appeared in a wide range of merchandise including his own showbag at the Brisbane Ekka an arcade video game, and numerous novelty albums.

Agro's on-camera roles became less frequent in the late 1990s and into the 2000s as Dunn's radio commitments grew and the novelty of the character had worn off.The puppet itself was seldom seen during the 2000s. Dunn said at one point that Agro was "in a suitcase somewhere". In 2008 Agro appeared in promotional material for Zinc 96.

After Agro's rise to fame there was some dispute between Rhodes and Jamie Dunn because Dunn attempted to claim creative ownership of the puppet. A court case loomed, but BTQ-7 and the parties involved reached a settlement that allowed Jamie Dunn to retain the rights. However, Agro officially belongs to Channel Seven.

In March 2009, Agro returned to television screens in South East Queensland to promote a $7,000 cash giveaway on Radio Station 4BC. From August 2013, Agro started appearing on the Channel 7 program The Daily Edition, interacting with the panel and answering viewer questions. In 2017, Agro appeared in several ads for "sellmycar.com.au", and has continued as the voice of the radio advertisement. In 2020 he appeared in several ads for Uber Eats. In 2021 Agro made a cameo appearance on the second episode of Holey Moley.

As of 2024, Jamie Dunn regularly does public appearances with Agro, sometimes with former Agro's Cartoon Connection co-hosts like Ranger Stacey.

Radio
From 1990, Agro appeared in the morning radio segment for Brisbane station B105 FM, The Morning Crew. One notable segment was Agro to the Rescue, where Jamie Dunn in the Agro character would perform fundraising and charitable events for Queensland residents in need.

When Agro performed on radio Jamie Dunn would sit in the studio and provide the Agro voice without actually operating the puppet. Often Dunn would perform dual roles as himself or Agro, and it was often implied through the use of soundboard noises that Agro would "enter" the studio to talk to him. Dunn aspired to become a show-business personality in his own right, and so in time he appeared in promotional material for the B105 FM Morning Crew as himself. He used the Agro character as a kind of alternative, more uninhibited personality (for example, when making prank telephone calls).

Television host
Agro hosted the following Australian television shows:
 * Boris' Breakfast Club (? – 1989)
 * Wombat (1983–1990)
 * Agro's Cartoon Connection (1990-1997)
 * Super Sunday Show (aka Super Saturday Show & Seven's Super Saturday)
 * Perfect Match (2002 revival)

Agro was a guest host for Tonight Live with Steve Vizard on four occasions. He also appeared many times as a guest on Tonight Live.

Television appearances
Agro has also appeared as a guest on the following television shows:
 * The Don Lane Show
 * Everybody
 * Hey Dad..!
 * Home And Away
 * Hey Hey It's Saturday
 * Wheel of Fortune (often appearing as the partner and mouthpiece for Fat Cat on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune)
 * Family Feud (with his "family" father Star, mother Ellie and younger brother Neville)
 * The Main Event
 * Talk With the Animals
 * Concentration
 * The Daily Edition

Agro has also appeared on a number of Australian telethons, particularly those that raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane. Agro has also occasionally appeared as a panel member on the Channel Seven Perth Telethon, but usually after 10 p.m.

Radio host
Agro's radio credits include:

 * The Morning Crew (1990–2005), B105 FM's breakfast show. Agro performed prank telephone calls and also presented a segment Agro to the Rescue, in which he would provide money or resources to a family or individual in trouble. Eventually the Agro performances were credited to Jamie Dunn, and the Agro character was marginalised.
 * The Zinc Morning Zoo (2006–), with Ian Calder and Courtney Burns on Sunshine Coast FM radio station Zinc 96.

Merchandising
At his height of popularity extensive Agro merchandising included four recorded studio albums (of which three were nominated for ARIA Awards), a Game Boy game (Agro Soar), an arcade game (Agro's Fantastic Video Game), and a range of other merchandise including action figures, snap cards, stickers, lunchboxes, and children's clothing, and annual showbags at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. For a period of time, an Agro ice cream similar to Bubble O' Bill was produced by Pauls.

Logie Awards
He also received a Penguin Award for "Best Presenter of Light Entertainment".

title: Agro (puppet)


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Beyond Blunderdome

"Beyond Blunderdome" is the eleventh season premiere of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States on September 26, 1999 and was watched in around 8.1 million homes during the broadcast. In the episode, the Simpsons are given free tickets to a preview screening of Mel Gibson's new film, a remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Gibson laments his current non-violent role and wants someone to give him criticism. When Homer sees Gibson talking with Marge, he gives him a brutal review, leading Gibson to believe that Homer is the only man brave enough to give suggestions. As a result, he hires him to create a better ending. However, when the ending proves to be too controversial, Gibson and Homer end up on the run from studio executives with the film.

The episode was written by then-showrunner Mike Scully and directed by Steven Dean Moore. The story was a parody of the film industry and its practice with test screenings and overly violent films. It featured several references to various films as well as other popular culture. Gibson guest starred as himself, and Jack Burns voiced a film studio executive named Edward Christian. Since airing, the episode has received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Gibson was praised for his performance. It was released on the DVD collection The Simpsons Film Festival in 2002, and The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season in 2008.

Plot
Homer test drives (and destroys) a new electric car so that he can get a free gift, which turns out to be—to his disappointment—free tickets to a preview screening of the new Mel Gibson film, a remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Homer is also disconcerted to discover that Marge thinks Mel is very attractive. At the screening, which Gibson attends unannounced, the audience members are given comment cards to fill in. Homer, incensed by Mel's apparent flirting with Marge, makes the only critical comment; Gibson thinks Homer is the only person brave enough to tell the truth.

Gibson invites Homer and his family to come with him to Hollywood to improve the film. Homer and Gibson work together while the rest of the family explores Hollywood, but Homer's ideas are not useful, and Gibson begins to wonder whether he made a mistake. However, he is enthusiastic when Homer tells him his ideas for the famous "filibuster" scene at the end. The next day, they show the producers the new ending, in which Mr. Smith slaughters not only the President but also every member of the United States Congress in a mindless action movie sequence. The producers are horrified at this, saying that the film was meant to be the studio's prestige picture. They attempt to burn the new ending, but Homer and Gibson, determined to save their film, run away with it.

They meet up with the rest of the family at a car museum, where they steal a replica of the main villain's car from The Road Warrior and engage in a car chase through the streets of Hollywood, with the film executives on their trail. Homer, taking an idea he believes to be from Braveheart, moons the executives along with Gibson so that they will stop their car out of disgust. Homer and Gibson then attend the film's premiere in Springfield, but at the end the entire audience walks out disgusted, and Jimmy Stewart's granddaughter threatens to sue them. Homer then tries to apologize to Gibson, who does not blame him, concluding there is no place for violence-lovers like themselves in Hollywood; however, after Homer suggests too many more worthless film ideas, Gibson kicks him out of his limousine.

Production and themes

"Beyond Blunderdome" was written by then-showrunner Mike Scully and directed by Steven Dean Moore, airing as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000). It was Scully's first writing credit since he took over as showrunner for the show. In comparison with other episode scripts, the staff writers did not change much of the original writing. The plot revolves around Mel Gibson doing a remake of the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay analysed the episode and wrote in the book The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield that "the episode is able to critique the practice of test screening, violence in film, and one of movies' favorite standards – the car chase", calling it "a ridiculous parody of an action-film violence orgy". Staff writer Tom Gammill came up with the idea for the violent version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Gibson throwing his Senator badge away at the end of the film, is a reference to the ending of the film Dirty Harry from 1971. The idea for the set piece with electric cars at the beginning of the episode came from Kevin Nealon, who was a friend of former showrunner David Mirkin. One day, he came by and demonstrated his electric car for the writing staff.

The episode featured Mel Gibson as a guest voice. Scully had previously met him while writing jokes for a school fundraiser along with his wife Julie Thacker. Gibson and Daniel Stern were the hosts and needed jokes for the event. It turned out that Gibson was a fan of the show and watched it with his children. With that knowledge, it did not take Scully long to invite him to do a part. Gibson was willing to do the job and even came in on three separate occasions to do retakes – mostly because he knew his children would be watching. Unlike most guest voices, Gibson recorded the show along with the cast. On one occasion, it turned out that a joke written for Gibson actually did happen in real life. The writing staff wanted Gibson to say that he would urinate behind a dumpster, because it sounded like it would not be a classy thing to do for a movie star. He had, however, already done that during a couple of film premieres because he can feel trapped in a public toilet with a lot of fans. Gibson was surprised the writers knew about the story, but it turned out to be a coincidence. Otherwise, the episode frequently references films Gibson appeared in. After the studio cart crashes, Gibson says to Homer, "I'm getting too old for this crap," a reference to a line said by Danny Glover's character Roger Murtaugh to Gibson's character Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon film series. A poster for his film Braveheart is on the wall in the editing room and the Road Warrior car from the 1981 film Mad Max 2 is also featured. In addition to Gibson, Jack Burns guest starred in the episode, voicing a film studio executive named Edward Christian. His frequent use of the terms "Huh?" and "You know what I mean?" is a reference to a comedy routine performed by Burns and Avery Schreiber. The episode also features John Travolta, in whose private jet Gibson flies to Springfield, but his voice was imitated by Dan Castellaneta.

Cultural references
The Elec-Taurus car used the name of the Ford Taurus though its design and concept is more similar to the General Motors EV1 an electric car that was leased by General Motors between 1996 and 1999 in select U.S. markets.

In the episode, there are many references to popular culture. The title to the episode is a reference to the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The character Rainier Wolfcastle is seen filming Saving Irene Ryan, which is a reference to the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, with The Beverly Hillbillies actress Irene Ryan. Homer says, "You had me at 'hello'," a quote from the film Jerry Maguire (1996), when Gibson asks for his help on his film. The airport is called "George Kennedy Airport", which is a reference to actor George Kennedy, and his role in the film Airport (1970) and its three sequels; Airport 1975 (1974), Airport '77 (1977) and The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979).

When Homer asked Gibson to drive, He said to him. "I'm tired of running away. Did Braveheart run away? Did Payback run away? Did Ransom run away? It's time we showed those suits what we're made of."

When Homer and Gibson are being hunted by the executives they enter a car museum. The museum features the Batmobile from the television series Batman, General Lee from the series The Dukes of Hazzard, Herbie the Love Bug from the 1968 film The Love Bug and later films, the Monkeemobile from the series The Monkees, the Munster Koach from the series The Munsters, and the car from the series The Flintstones.

At one point, Marge notices Robert Downey Jr. shooting at the police and thinking he's filming a new action movie before Bart points out that he doesn't see any cameras, alluding to how, at the time the episode was made, Downey was repeatedly in trouble with the law. Both Nine Months and the Brown Derby were alluded to during the tour. Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres also make a cameo, where they declared their lesbianism, alluding to DeGeneres coming out a few years earlier. Marge also briefly expresses disgust when the tour guide mentions an infamous spot involving Hugh Grant prior to her making clear she's referring to the filming of Nine Months, indirectly referencing Grant's scandal involving Divine Brown at Sunset Boulevard.

Release and reception
The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 26, 1999, as the premiere of the eleventh season of The Simpsons. In its original broadcast, "Beyond Blunderdome" finished 48th in the ratings for the week of September 20–26, 1999, with a Nielsen rating of 8.0—equivalent to approximately 8.1 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, beating shows such as Futurama and King of the Hill. In comparison, the previous season premiere episode, "Lard of the Dance", drew a Nielsen rating of 7.2 points with 7.1 million households watching. The episode had a lower rating than the overall rating for the entire eleventh season, which averaged 8.2 million households. On March 12, 2002, the episode was released in the United States on a DVD collection titled The Simpsons Film Festival, along with the episodes "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" (season four), "22 Short Films About Springfield" season seven) and "A Star is Burns" (season six). On October 7, 2008, "Beyond Blunderdome" was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Scully, George Meyer, Ron Hauge, Matt Selman and Moore participated in the DVD audio commentary. The episode had an alternate ending in which Apu suggests that they sell the failed film to India, since the people of India love violent, action-packed American films. This ending was included on the eleventh season DVD set.

Since airing, the episode has received generally mixed reception from critics. The day after the premiere, Mark Lorando of The Times-Picayune wrote that while it was "not the laugh riot The Simpsons have spoiled us to expect – our appetite for showbiz parodies is waning – the episode did have its moments." He further added that he especially liked "the sign posted outside the movie studio gate: 'No Artistic Integrity Beyond This Point.'" While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented on the episode, writing that "Gibson actually does a good job here, and it’s amusing to see Homer’s terrible movie ideas. This isn’t classic Simpsons, but it starts the season on a pretty good note." However, an article in Salon magazine from 2000 points to "Beyond Blunderdome" as the greatest precursor to that Homer would be more predominant as "Jerkass Homer" in the Scully era as showrunner, a Homer who "is not only dumb, but [has also become] disgusting and semi-sociopathic. This is the Homer who, in the season opener ['Beyond Blunderdome'], showed Marge's wedding ring to Mel Gibson and stated, 'This is a symbol that as per our marriage, she's my property and I own her.'" Gibson's performance has generally been praised. Simon Crerar of The Times listed his performance as one of the thirty-three funniest cameos in the history of the show. Similarly, Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked Gibson's performance as the seventh best guest appearance in the show's history in a list of twenty people, calling it "Another ace self-effacing appearance from a Hollywood high-flyer".

Ford reportedly pulled advertising from the premiere of the episode yet did not give a reason as to why they did so. The ad instead aired during that night's episode of King of the Hill.

title: Beyond Blunderdome