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Wes Hall

Sir Wesley Winfield Hall (born 12 September 1937) is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969. Hall's opening bowling partnership with fellow Barbadian Charlie Griffith was a feature of the strong West Indies teams throughout the 1960s. Hall was one of the most popular cricketers of his day and was especially popular in Australia, where he played two seasons in the Sheffield Shield with Queensland.

A wicket-keeper/batsman as a schoolboy, Hall did not take up fast bowling until relatively late. He was included in the West Indies squad to tour England in 1957 having only played one match of first-class cricket. He made his Test cricket debut against India in 1958 and was instantly successful. He took a Test hat-trick in Pakistan in 1959, the first West Indian cricketer to do so. Hall bowled the final over in two famous Test matches, the Tied Test against Australia in 1960 and the Lord's Test against England in 1963. Years of non-stop cricket and resultant injury reduced Hall's effectiveness in the latter part of his Test career.

After his playing days Hall entered Barbadian politics, serving in both the Barbados Senate and House of Assembly and appointed Minister of Tourism in 1987. He was also involved in the administration of West Indies cricket as a selector and team manager and served as President of the West Indies Cricket Board from 2001 to 2003. Hall was later ordained a minister in the Christian Pentecostal Church. He is a member of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and the West Indies Cricket Hall of Fame. In the 2012 Birthday Honours he was knighted for services to sport and the community.

Early life and career
Hall was born in Saint Michael, Barbados—"just outside the walls of [HM Prison] Glendairy"—to a teenaged mother, his father a sometime light-heavyweight boxer. Hall began his schooling at St Giles' Boys' School and later obtained a place at the renowned Combermere School thanks to a free scholarship. At Combermere, he played for the school cricket team initially as a wicketkeeper/batsman. At the time the leading schools in Barbados played against grown men in the elite Division 1 of the Barbados Cricket Association and Hall was exposed to a high standard of cricket at an early age. One of his teammates at Combermere was the school groundskeeper, the West Indian Test cricketer Frank King.

After completing his schooling, Hall found employment with the cable office in Bridgetown. Hall played for the Cable Office cricket team and it was there that Hall took up fast bowling. In a match against Wanderers, Hall was asked to fill in when his team's regular opening bowler was absent. He took six wickets that day and decided that bowling would be his path to the West Indies team. His talent was soon recognised and in 1956 he was included in the Barbados team to play E. W. Swanton's XI in 1956. Hall, still very young and inexperienced, did not take a wicket in the match, his first-class cricket debut. Hall was unlucky, however, not to pick up a wicket having Colin Cowdrey dropped by Kenneth Branker at first slip. Despite the lack of success Hall did catch the eye of Swanton who marked him down as a bowler of "great promise".

Based partly on this promise, Hall was selected in the West Indian squad to tour England in 1957. Despite great enthusiasm, Hall struggled in the unfamiliar surroundings, unable to pitch the ball anywhere near the wicket. Hall remarked later "When I hit the softer wickets I was like a fish out of water." Hall did not play in any of the Test matches and in first-class matches on the tour as a whole took 27 wickets at an average of 33.55. Hall's lack of success in England saw him overlooked for the entire home Test series against Pakistan in 1957–58.

Debut and hat-trick
Originally left out of the West Indies team to tour India and Pakistan in 1958–59, Hall was called into the team as a backup for the Trinidadian Jaswick Taylor after the all-rounder Frank Worrell withdrew from the team at a late stage. Hall met with some success an early match against Baroda, taking 5 wickets for 41 runs (5/41) in Baroda's second innings. This performance saw Hall overtake Taylor to become the first-choice partner of Roy Gilchrist in the Test team. The pair had a highly successful Test series against the Indians with Wisden Cricketers' Almanack describing the duo as "two fearsome opening bowlers reminiscent of the days of [Manny] Martindale and [Learie] Constantine."

Hall made his debut in the first Test against India at Brabourne Stadium at Bombay and met with almost instant success. He dismissed the Indian opener Nari Contractor for a duck and quickly followed than with the wickets of Pankaj Roy and Vijay Manjrekar. In what ended as a dour draw, Hall finished with 3/35 in the first innings and 1/72 in the second. When Gilchrist was dropped from the second Test at Modi Stadium in Kanpur, Hall—in only his second Test match—was given the responsibility of leading the West Indies bowling attack. Hall was equal to the task, playing "a decisive part in India's downfall" taking 11 wickets in the match. Over the entire five Test series—won by the West Indies three Tests to nil—Hall and Gilchrist terrorised the Indian batsman, who had neither the "experience or the physical capacity" to stand up to the West Indian fast bowling duo.

The West Indies were not as successful in the three Test series against Pakistan, losing the first two Tests before winning the final Test—the first time Pakistan had lost a Test match at home. Hall bowled well in both the matches, however. In the second Test at Dacca, Hall relied on movement through the air rather than sheer pace and had Pakistan reeling on stage, five wickets down for only 22 runs made (22–5) In the third Test at Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore, Hall made history by becoming the first West Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. His victims were Mushtaq Mohammad (aged 15 and in his debut Test match, at the time the youngest cricketer to play Test cricket), Nasim-ul-Ghani and Fazal Mahmood.

Hall once again performed well when England toured the West Indies in 1959–60. Wisden remarked that Hall "with a lovely action, genuine speed and remarkable stamina" was "always the biggest threat to England." Hall came close to winning the third Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica for the West Indies on the first day when England were reduced to 165/5 at stumps, Hall having captured five of the wickets to fall. Only Colin Cowdrey was able to stand in his way with Hall finishing the innings with 7/69, his best bowling figures in Test cricket. In the third Test in a placid pitch at Bourda in British Guiana, Hall again broke the back of England's batting taking six wickets for 90 runs in the England first innings. This included bowling M. J. K. Smith out for a duck for the second Test in a row. Hall played alongside his great partner Charlie Griffith in Test cricket for the first time in the fifth Test at Port of Spain. By this stage, Hall had "burned himself out" and he bowled only four overs in the England second innings as the West Indies pushed for a series-equalling win. Unfortunately for the West Indies and Hall, England held on for a draw and won the series one Test to nil.

In April 1960, Hall began the first of his three seasons as a professional with Accrington Cricket Club in the Lancashire League. Hall was first offered a contract by Accrington for the 1959 season, which he turned down through loyalty to his employer in Barbados who had provided him with leave to tour England. Hall was a success in League cricket, capturing 100 wickets in the 1960 season, 106 wickets in the 1961 season (when Accrington won the Lancashire League championship) and 123 wickets in the 1962 season, falling just short of the then-League record. Hall also managed to capture 10 wickets in an innings on two occasions with Accrington, 10/57 against Burnley and 10/28 against Bacup. Hall left Accrington in 1964 to take up a less restrictive contract with Great Chell Cricket Club in the Staffordshire League. During the 1964 season, Hall married his childhood sweetheart Shurla in Liverpool.

Success in Australia
"Remember, Wes, if you bowl a no-ball you'll never be able to go back to Barbados!"

- Frank Worrell to Hall before the final ball of the Tied Test

The 1960–61 Test series against Australia is one of the most famous in the history of Test cricket and Hall played a major role in its outcome. The first Test in the series at the Gabba in Brisbane had a thrilling finish. The West Indies set Australia a target of 233 runs to win the match. Hall broke through early, taking the wickets of Bob Simpson and Neil Harvey, followed, after some stubborn resistance, by Norm O'Neill. The West Indies captain Frank Worrell then dismissed Colin McDonald before Hall struck again for his fourth wicket, Les Favell caught by Joe Solomon. Australia were 57/5 and the West Indies seemed set to win the match. After the sixth Australian wicket fell with Australia having made only 92 runs, the Australian captain Richie Benaud came to the crease to join Alan Davidson. Together the pair took Australia to 226/7 and now Australia looked assured victors with only 7 runs to get. Joe Solomon then turned the game again with a direct hit on the stumps to run out Davidson. Hall was entrusted by his captain Worrell to bowl the last over of the day with Australia needing four runs and West Indies needing three wickets to win the game. In one of the most exciting finishes in Test match history, Hall had Benaud caught behind, then dropped a catch and two Australian batsmen were run out trying to make the winning run. The match finished in a tie, the first in Test cricket.

Hall bowled well in the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, taking 4/51 in the first innings and another two wickets "bowling at his fastest" in the second innings in which Australia comfortably made the 70 runs they needed to win the Test. The pitches used in the remaining three Test of the series favoured slow bowling and Hall did not play as large a role from that point on. West Indies won the third Test, the fourth Test was a thrilling draw but Australia won the final Test, at Melbourne again, to win the series two Tests to one. Over the course of the series both teams had striven to play bright, attractive cricket and the Australian public took the West Indian team to their hearts. Hall and the West Indies were farewelled with a ticker-tape parade through the streets of Melbourne. Hundreds of thousands of Australians keen to express their appreciation for the team brought the city to a standstill and reportedly brought Hall and his teammates to tears. Hall later described the spontaneous display of affection from the public as one usually "reserved for royalty or the Beatles".

His popularity in Australia saw Hall invited to play with Queensland for the 1961–62 Sheffield Shield season. Hall enjoyed an immensely successful season with Queensland and a key part of the team's second place in the Sheffield Shield competition—behind perennial powerhouse New South Wales. Hall took 43 wickets for the season at an average of 20.25, trailing only Richie Benaud of New South Wales in the season aggregate. Hall's 43 wickets set a new record for a Queensland bowler in a first-class cricket season. Hall returned for a second season with Queensland in 1962–63, taking 33 wickets for the season as Queensland again finished runner-up in the Sheffield Shield, this time to Victoria. Towards the end of Hall's second season, it became clear that the demands of playing cricket 12 months of the year were starting to take a toll on Hall. Queensland were keen to see Hall return for another season in 1963–64 but Hall declined, fearing his body would not stand up to the strain.

Finest hour
After his first season with Queensland, Hall returned to the Caribbean to join the West Indies team in their Test series against India in 1962. Hall took up where he left off against the Indians two years before. The Indians were a better batting side than the one Hall destroyed in the sub-continent in 1960 but they were still unable to come to terms with his pace. The West Indies won the series 5 Tests to nil and Hall took 27 wickets at an average of 15.74. When the second Test at Sabina Park was heading towards what looked to be a tame draw on a placid pitch, Hall broke the game wide open with some "grand bowling", taking 6/49 and West Indies won the match by an innings. In the fourth Test at Queens Park Oval, Hall was part of a 93-run partnership for the last wicket, making 50 runs himself. He then scythed through the Indian top order, taking the first five wickets of the innings to have India at 30/5 at one stage, a position they could not recover from. "Possessing a long hostile run-up to the wicket, with an equally long follow-through, Hall bowled as though he meant to take a wicket with every delivery. Nobody will ever forget his famous last day in the Test at Lord's when he bowled on and on, hour after hour."

- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack These efforts led him to achieve the No. 1 ranking in ICC Test Bowlers ranking for 1962.

The success of Hall and his fast bowling partner Griffith saw the arrival of the West Indies pace duo in England for the 1963 Test series "greeted with the public awe and press build-up formerly accorded to [the Australians] Ted McDonald and Jack Gregory or Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller." Before the tour, Hall and fellow professional cricketers Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai threatened to withdraw from the team unless paid the equivalent of their professional earnings they had forsaken. Only the intervention of captain Frank Worrell saw the three join the tour. The West Indies, with their "sparkling batting, bowling and fielding", won the series three Tests to one and captured the imagination of the English public. While Hall had a successful series—taking 16 wickets at an average of 33.37—it was Griffith who was the main destroyer for the West Indies. Hall was "the ideal foil" for Griffith and played an invaluable support role. As a partnership, Hall and Griffith were "the centre of attraction and the key to victory".

Analysis of film footage at this time showed Hall bowling at 103 mph. With Griffiths bowling from the other end batsmen had nowhere to hide.

Perhaps Hall's greatest performance of the English summer was in the second Test at Lord's. On the final day of the Test, Hall bowled unchanged for 200 minutes, broken only by the tea interval. As in the Tied Test in Brisbane three years earlier, Hall found himself bowling the final over of the match with both sides still capable of winning. In the innings as a whole Hall bowled 40 overs for a return of 4/93 but despite Hall's brave efforts, England managed to hold on for a draw—the England batsman Colin Cowdrey returned to the crease with a broken arm to help save the match. The Times said of Hall that day, "His energy was astonishing, his stamina inexhaustible, his speed awesome, from the first ball to the last". Hall himself claimed that it was his "finest hour". There was a sour note in the final Test at The Oval when Hall was informally warned about intimidatory bowling. Hall bowled two successive bouncers to the England opening batsman Brian Bolus, prompting umpire Syd Buller to speak with West Indies captain Worrell saying, "We don't want this sort of bowling to get out of hand otherwise I will have to speak to the bowler." Later than innings, Griffith was formally warned by the same umpire.

The Australian tour of the West Indies in 1964–65 was somewhat overshadowed by concerns about the bowling action of Griffith, whom the visitors considered a "chucker". Regardless, Hall again started a Test series strongly. In the first Test at Sabina Park—Hall's favourite hunting ground—Hall took 5/60 in the first innings and then 4/45 in the second to play a leading role in the West Indies victory. Wisden  was of the opinion that Hall "probably never bowled faster or straighter." It was "the most important single contribution of bowling in the five Tests" but Hall was not as effective in the remainder of the series, taking only seven wickets in the following four Tests. West Indies held on to win the series two Tests to one—the first time the West Indies defeated Australia in a Test series.

Exhausted volcano
"The picture of Wesley Hall in full flow as he ran towards the wicket is still treasured in the memories of all but the opposing batsman—and maybe in theirs as well."

- Clayton Goodwin

As a result of their huge support in 1963, the West Indies were invited to tour England again only three years later. Despite the England press and public fearing the impact of Hall and his partner Griffith, it was soon clear that their powers had waned somewhat since 1963. Hall's "action was as poetic as ever and his commitment was just as great, but something was missing." He captured 18 wickets in the five Tests at an average of 30.83. However, Hall was still considered "the key man of the [West Indies] attack" and on occasion was still as damaging as ever. His finest moment of the series was in the fourth Test at Headingley where a "spell of eighty minutes by Hall at his fastest and best destroyed England" aiding his team to win the match by an innings and 55 runs and wrap up the series and the Wisden Trophy.

In 1966, the Trinidad-based company West Indian Tobacco (WITCO) engaged Hall on a three-year contract to promote youth cricket in Trinidad and Tobago, including playing for the Trinidad and Tobago national team in the Shell Shield, the West Indies first-class cricket championship. One of Hall's first roles for WITCO was to promote the Wes Hall Youth Cricket League, a new nation-wide junior cricket league.

Hall was a member of the West Indies team that toured India and Ceylon in 1966–67 but was a shadow of the bowler that cut a swathe through India in earlier series. He injured his left knee during a net session early in the tour and the sub-continental pitches neutered his speed. Hall started the first Test of the series at Bombay in style, capturing two early wickets in a "superb" spell, "worthy of a great fast bowler" but did not take another wicket in the match. Wisden said of Hall's efforts in the series; "He could not bowl with the sustained hostility of old, and his form was erratic."

The slow decline of Hall as an effective Test match bowler became clearer after the home series against England in 1967–68. Hall "bowled with his old enthusiasm" in the second Test at Kingston, albeit on a pitch described by Wisden as "crazy paving" but as the series continued the England batsmen took a heavy toll on Hall and his long-time partner Griffith. Still, such was their prestige and their perceived psychological advantage over the English that the West Indies selectors stuck with the pair for the entire series. In the four Tests he played, Hall took only 9 wickets and those at an average of 39.22. In a summary of the tour Wisden said "In the event Hall proved to be little more than a shadow of the great fast bowler he had been. His pace was no longer to be feared ..."

The West Indies captain Garry Sobers had to fight with the selectors to have Hall included in the West Indies team to tour Australia and New Zealand in 1968–69. The West Indies Test selection panel told Sobers that Hall was "past his best" and that he would be left out of the team. Sobers still considered Hall one of the best bowlers in the Caribbean and insisted on his selection, threatening to withdraw from the tour himself if he did not get his man in the squad. The selectors eventually conceded and Hall was included in the touring party but—according to Sobers — one of the selectors was told to tell Hall he was only picked because of pressure from the captain. As it turned out Hall only played in two of the Tests in Australia with Wisden noting that "old age, as cricketers go, had finally had its say". The once fearsome pair of Hall and Griffith now "resembled exhausted volcanoes." Hall played the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland. Hall sustained an injury and was not able to complete the match, having bowled only 16 overs for the match and taking a solitary wicket. Hall was still unfit to play by the time the second Test started and never again played Test cricket.

After Test cricket

After the New Zealand tour, Hall joined the Barbados team for a short tour of England. Hall played two first-class matches on the tour, capturing two wickets at an average of 53.00. Hall then returned to Trinidad to complete his last season in the Shell Shield and his contract with WITCO. Hall met with moderate success, taking 15 wickets for Trinidad at a respectable average of 22.46. Hall's last first-class match was for Barbados against the touring Indians in 1971.

Before Hall left Trinidad in 1970, Gerard Pantin — a Catholic priest in the Holy Ghost Fathers order — asked Hall if he would assist him in forming a humanitarian program to assist the poor and marginalised residents of the Laventille community. Hall agreed and together the two men walked through the dangerous neighbourhood, simply asking the residents how they could help them. This mission grew to become the SERVOL (Service Volunteered For All) voluntary organisation that now operates throughout Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere in the Caribbean. While Hall returned to Barbados three months after the program started, he is recognised as one of SERVOL's co-founders.

Hall has served Barbados and West Indian cricket in a variety of roles since the end of his playing days including chairing the West Indies selection panel for some years. Hall also accompanied many touring West Indies teams as manager, including the ill-fated 1995 tour of England, marred by player unrest. In 2001 Hall was elected president of the West Indies Cricket Board. During his time as president Hall was instrumental in attracting the 2007 Cricket World Cup to the West Indies. Hall also developed a system of collective bargaining with the West Indies Players Association. Hall chose not to stand for re-election in 2003, citing health problems. Hall was a member of the board of directors of the Stanford 20/20 cricket project. "You think my run up was long. Now you should hear my speeches."

- Wes Hall, after his appointment as a Senator

At the end of his career as a cricketer, Hall reflected, "I realised that I’d been playing for ten years, and I was married with three children and I didn’t have any money." After working with SERVOL in Trinidad, Hall "knew from that moment on, [he] would commit [his] life to service." He studied Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management at the Industrial Society in London and then returned to Cable and Wireless in Barbados to take a role as Regional Staff Welfare Manager. As well as his role with WITCO in Trinidad, Hall also had high-profile roles in private enterprise with Banks Barbados Brewery and Sandals Resorts.

Hall became involved in Barbadian politics, joining the Democratic Labour Party. First appointed to the Barbados Senate, Hall was later elected to the House of Assembly. Hall was elected as the representative for the Assembly constituency of St. Michael West Central in 1986 and re-elected in 1991. In 1987, Hall was appointed Minister of Tourism and Sports in the Government of Barbados. As Tourism Minister, Hall has been given credit for developing the sports tourism market in Barbados.

On a visit to Florida in 1990, Hall attended a Christian religious service. Impressed by the preacher, during the service, Hall "made a very serious decision to give [his] heart and life to God." Hall attended Bible school and was later ordained a minister in the Christian Pentecostal Church. Notably, Hall ministered to fellow Barbadian fast bowler Malcolm Marshall while Marshall was dying from colon cancer.

Hall is a member of the West Indies Cricket Hall of Fame. and the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. For his work in tourism, Hall has been awarded the Caribbean Tourism Organisation's Lifetime Achievement Award. The University of the West Indies awarded Hall an honorary Doctorate of Laws in 2005. Hall and fellow Barbadian fast bowler Charlie Griffith have a grandstand at Kensington Oval named after them—the Hall & Griffith Stand. Hall was knighted in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to sport and the community.

Style and personality
"Hall had a magnificent, bounding approach, eyes bulging, teeth glinting, crucifix flying, climaxing in a classical cartwheel action and intimidating followthrough."

- David Frith

Hall was a tall and muscular cricketer, 6 ft tall and bearing the "physique and strength of a bodybuilder." He had a graceful, classical action and one of the longest run-ups in Test cricket. A genuinely fast bowler, he was timed at 91 mph. Hall was able to sustain pace and hostility for very long spells—during the Test against England at Lord's in 1963 he bowled unchanged for over three hours on the final day. While Hall was an aggressive fast bowler, he was not one to set out to injure the batsman. The England cricketer Ted Dexter—himself hit several times by Hall—said "there was never a hint of malice in [Hall] or in his bowling". Hall himself said after one of his deliveries fractured Australian cricketer Wally Grout's jaw "It made me sick to see Wal leaving and it made me sicker to hear some jokers in the crowd ranting on as though I had intentionally hurt [Grout]".

While Hall could never be described as an all-rounder, on occasions he was an effective batsman. His one century in first-class cricket was against Cambridge University Cricket Club at Fenner's—scored in 65 minutes, the fastest century of the 1963 English season. Wisden said of this innings, "[Hall's] batting promised so much ... [he] made his runs in the classic mould, not in the unorthodox manner usually adopted by fast bowlers." With his characteristic humour, Hall said of this innings, "Ah, but it wasn't any old hundred, it was against the intelligentsia."

Hall was one of the most popular cricketers of his day. The Australian commentator Johnnie Moyes described Hall as "a rare box-office attraction, a man who caught and held the affections of the paying public." Hall was particularly popular in Australia. When invited back to play for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield in 1961–62, Hall arrived in Brisbane to "scenes more in keeping with the arrival of a pop star, a thousand people jamming the old terminal building at Eagle Farm airport to welcome him." Hall was fond of a bet and was a keen follower of horseracing. Hall is known as a good humoured man; C. L. R. James observed "Hall simply exudes good nature at every pore." Tony Cozier states "[Hall] is renowned for his entertaining, if prolonged oratory, as well as for his tardiness."

Publications

 * Pace Like Fire (1965)
 * Answering The Call, autobiography of Sir Wes Hall

title: Wes Hall


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User:MioK

I am a PhD student in chemistry. I'm interested in inorganic chemistry. Now I'm studying about the synthesis and properties of proton-responsive D(donor)-A(acceptor) complexes.

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Pixel Perfect

Pixel Perfect is a 2004 American science fiction comedy film released as a Disney Channel Original Movie. It aired in the United States on January 16, 2004, and in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2004.

Plot
Teenager Roscoe is trying to help his best friend, Samantha. Sam's band, the Zetta Bytes, is struggling. Despite her vocal talents and guitar skills, Sam is told that she needs to dance in order for their band to succeed. Roscoe uses his father's computerized holographic equipment to create a sentient, autonomous humanoid hologram called Loretta to dance for the band.

At their first gig, a school dance, Loretta is a big hit with the audience. The entire band loves her, except for Sam, who is jealous of Loretta's "perfection," and suspects that Roscoe likes Loretta more than her. Despite her feelings, Sam agrees to take care of Loretta to keep Roscoe's father from finding and deleting her. The Zetta Bytes second performance goes well - until the very end when Loretta starts to lose her pattern, and the crowd realizes she is a hologram. After a moment of silence, the crowd erupts in applause. The novelty of a holographic rockstar catapults the Zetta Bytes to fame. Sam becomes jealous of the attention Loretta is receiving while Loretta struggles with her identity as a software computer program and hologram. She wants to experience life as a real human being. After a major argument with Roscoe, Loretta escapes into the internet, and emails herself to Sam's computer. Roscoe becomes frantic, and rushes to Sam's place for help.

During which, Sam confronts him on his real feelings for Loretta. Sam reminds him that Loretta is not real. When Roscoe rebuffs her statement asking "What is real, anyway?" Sam responds by stating that she is real and she has always been there. Sam then kisses Roscoe, but when he does not respond to her affection, Sam is left hurt. She gives him Loretta and leaves. Later on, Roscoe realizes that Sam was right and soon realizes he may return his feelings for Sam.

Roscoe and his father attend a meeting with Harshtone Records, the company that is recording The Zetta Bytes's first CD. Harshtone informs Roscoe that they have decided to team up with Skygraph, his father's company, and make more holographic rock stars. But when Roscoe realizes that they are planning to rob the holograms of their individuality, he argues that Loretta is not just a computer program, but a sentient, autonomous person with a mind and will of her own sensations, thoughts, personality, feelings, and emotions. Despite Roscoe's father siding with him, Loretta is taken from them. At the last moment Daryl Fibbs, an employee at Harshtone, has a change of heart and decides that every performer, including holograms like Loretta, should have a choice. He gives her the option to stay at Harshtone or escape into the internet. Loretta goes into the internet a second time, and Fibbs quits Harshtone.

The Zetta Bytes cannot find Loretta before their next concert. Sam tries to replace Loretta on stage, but falls, slipping into a coma. When Loretta comes back out of the web and sees that Sam is unconscious, she enters Sam's brain through an EEG machine in an effort to help her. She arrives in Sam's mind, finding Sam caught in her own depression. Loretta shows Sam that she hates that everyone thinks she is perfect, and that she envies Sam's humanity. They discover that there is only enough room for one of them in Sam's brain at a time. Sam wakes from her coma, with Loretta inside of her mind, in a real body for the first time. Loretta steps outside into the rain, understanding that this situation must stop immediately after realizing how far the events have progressed. Sam is struck by lightning, and when she awakens, it seems that Loretta has fled her brain and is no longer there as a forever damaged hologram, forever in Roscoe's computer as an AI program.

Sam sings about Loretta being permanently nonexistent during the Zetta Bytes' closing show. She and Roscoe have started dating. The group discovers there was an additional person singing the chorus after Sam has finished singing. Roscoe remarks that The Zetta Bytes have a guardian angel after seeing a glimpse of Loretta in the limelight.

Cast

 * Ricky Ullman as Roscoe, an intelligent 16-year-old boy whose father works for SkyGraph.
 * Leah Pipes as Samantha, Roscoe's best friend who harbors a secret crush on him. She is a skilled vocalist and plays guitar for her band The Zettabytes.
 * Spencer Redford as Loretta Modern, a humanoid artificial holographic intelligence, Loretta is incredibly skilled and intelligent. She is an excellent dancer and is often perceived as a perfect Holographic Rockstar. Despite this, she frustrated by her inability to interact with the physical world and her own limitations as a programmed entity. Loretta is capable of traveling along the internet and interacting with electronic devices. When she is present in the physical world, passing through doors or glass distort her pattern, revealing her holographic nature. Loretta's name may have been taken from a lyric from The Beatles' number one single "Get Back."
 * Chris Williams as Daryl Fibbs
 * Porscha Coleman as Rachel
 * Tania Gunadi as Cindy
 * Brett Cullen as Xander
 * Nate Stevens as Max McAllister
 * Joyce Cohen as Dr. McAllister
 * Anthony DiMaria as Weldon Giles
 * Max Robinson as Moxley

Soundtrack
On January 13, 2004, the soundtrack to Pixel Perfect was released on CD by Walt Disney Records. The CD contains eight tracks as follows:

Track listing
 * 1) "Perfectly" - performed by Huckapoo (3:39)
 * 2) "Nothing's Wrong With Me" - performed by the Zetta Bytes (3:00)
 * 3) "Notice Me" - performed by the Zetta Bytes (3:34)
 * 4) "Get Real" - performed by the Zetta Bytes (2:19)
 * 5) "When the Rain Falls" - performed the Zetta Bytes (4:01)
 * 6) "If You Wanna Rock" - written by Jay Lazaroff and Erik Isaacs, performed by Lalaine (3:33)
 * 7) "Don't Even Try It" - written by Andrew Lane and Douglas Shawe, performed by Jai-Da (3:46)
 * 8) "Tru Blu" - Performed by Lil' J featuring Chase (2:25)

The following music from Pixel Perfect does not appear on the soundtrack album:

 * "Polka Dots" - written by R. Durrant, N. Pynn and S. Holland
 * "Long Boards, Short Summer" - written by William Pearson, performed by William Pearson
 * "Driving With the Top Down" - written by William Pearson, performed by William Pearson
 * "Arabian Romance" - written by Crispin Merrell
 * "And Then One Day" - performed by Vitamin A

title: Pixel Perfect


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Landers Center

The Landers Center is an 8,400-seat multi-purpose arena in Southaven, Mississippi. It is home to the Memphis Hustle of the NBA G League, a minor league basketball team affiliated with the Memphis Grizzlies.

History
The center was built in 2000. On January 4, 2012, Memphis-based Landers Auto Group purchased the naming rights. The name was changed to the Landers Center. Several now-defunct teams have called the arena home. These teams include the Memphis Xplorers of the AF2, the Memphis Houn'Dawgs of the American Basketball Association, and the Mississippi RiverKings (previously called the Memphis RiverKings) of the Central Hockey League and Southern Professional Hockey League. Current sports tenants include the Memphis Hustle of the NBA G League and the new Memphis Americans of the new National Indoor Soccer League.

The center houses a 17,000 square foot convention center and 400 seat performing arts center. It is used as a concert venue, boxing arena, and for ice shows and circuses. Since 2009, the Mid-South Fair has been held at the Landers Center. Formerly, the fair was held in midtown Memphis at the Fairgrounds.

American recording artist Kelly Clarkson performed in the arena on February 9, 2019, during her Meaning of Life Tour to a sold-out crowd of over 7,000 patrons and grossed over $400,000. This was her first show in the state of Mississippi in over seven years since her Stronger Tour in 2012.

During the 2021–22 NBA G League season, the Landers Center served as one of the temporary home arenas for the Capitanes de Ciudad de México during their inaugural season at the NBA G League despite also being temporarily stationed at Fort Worth, Texas at the time due to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bluegrass star Billy Strings and his band performed in the arena on 4/13/2023.

title: Landers Center


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Osmoconformer

Osmoconformers are marine organisms that maintain an internal environment which is isotonic to their external environment. This means that the osmotic pressure of the organism's cells is equal to the osmotic pressure of their surrounding environment. By minimizing the osmotic gradient, this subsequently minimizes the net influx and efflux of water into and out of cells. Even though osmoconformers have an internal environment that is isosmotic to their external environment, the types of ions in the two environments differ greatly in order to allow critical biological functions to occur.

An advantage of osmoconformation is that such organisms don’t need to expend as much energy as osmoregulators in order to regulate ion gradients. However, to ensure that the correct types of ions are in the desired location, a small amount of energy is expended on ion transport. A disadvantage to osmoconformation is that the organisms are subject to changes in the osmolarity of their environment.

Invertebrates
Most osmoconformers are marine invertebrates such as echinoderms (such as starfish), mussels, marine crabs, lobsters, jellyfish, ascidians (sea squirts - primitive chordates), and scallops. Some insects are also osmoconformers. Some osmoconformers, such as echinoderms, are stenohaline, which means they can only survive in a limited range of external osmolarities. The survival of such organisms is thus contingent on their external osmotic environment remaining relatively constant. On the other hand, some osmoconformers are classified as euryhaline, which means they can survive in a broad range of external osmolarities. Mussels are a prime example of a euryhaline osmoconformer. Mussels have adapted to survive in a broad range of external salinities due to their ability to close their shells which allows them to seclude themselves from unfavorable external environments.

Craniates
There are a couple of examples of osmoconformers that are craniates such as hagfish, skates and sharks. Their body fluid is isosmotic with seawater, but their high osmolarity is maintained by making the concentration of organic solutes unnaturally high. Sharks concentrate urea in their bodies, and since urea denatures proteins at high concentrations, they also accumulate trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) to counter the effect. Sharks adjust their internal osmolarity according to the osmolarity of the sea water surrounding them. Rather than ingesting sea water in order to change their internal salinity, sharks are able to absorb sea water directly. This is due to the high concentration of urea kept inside their bodies. This high concentration of urea creates a diffusion gradient which permits the shark to absorb water in order to equalize the concentration difference. The crab-eating frog, or Rana cancrivora, is an example of a vertebrate osmoconformer. The crab-eating frog also regulates its rates of urea retention and excretion, which allows them to survive and maintain their status as osmoconformers in a wide range of external salinities. Hagfish maintain an internal ion composition plasma that differs from that of seawater. The internal ionic environment of hagfish contains a lower concentration of divalent ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, SO4 2-) and a slightly higher concentration of monovalent ions. Hagfish therefore have to expend some energy for osmoregulation.

Biochemistry
Ion gradients are crucial to many major biological functions on a cellular level. Consequently, the ionic composition of an organism's internal environment is highly regulated with respect to its external environment. Osmoconformers have adapted so that they utilize the ionic composition of their external environment, which is typically seawater, in order to support important biological functions. For instance, seawater has a high concentration of sodium ions, which helps support muscle contraction and neuronal signaling when paired with high internal concentrations of potassium ions.

title: Osmoconformer


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Brookshire Grocery Arena

The Brookshire Grocery Arena (formerly CenturyLink Center, CenturyTel Center, and Bossier City Arena) is a 14,000-seat multi-purpose arena, in Bossier City, Louisiana. The naming rights were purchased by the company Brookshire Grocery Group of Tyler, Texas in 2021.

History
Opened in 2000 during the administration of then Bossier City Mayor George Dement, the center is among several projects financed in part from revenues derived from three casinos in the city.

The center was home to the Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings AFL team and the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs CHL team.

It hosted the Southland Conference men's basketball tournament in 2001. In 2011, the CenturyLink Center with the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters hosted 1st and 2nd-round games for the NCAA women's basketball tournament including the first two games of eventual champion Texas A&M.

UFC 37: High Impact was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City, Louisiana on May 10, 2002.

On September 28, 2002, the NHL came to the arena, for a pre-season game, between the Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers.

On January 14, 2007, the CHL All-Star game was played at the arena, for the first time ever, hosted by the Mudbugs.

On October 24, 2014, CLC held an NBA preseason game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.

On October 1, 2016, CLC held another NBA preseason game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.

On September 29, 2023, Brookshire Grocery Arena was the site of the relaunch of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus after a six-year hiatus

title: Brookshire Grocery Arena


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Doliana

Doliana (Δολιανά) is a community of the municipality North Kynouria, in eastern Arcadia, Greece. It consists of the villages Kato Doliana, Ano Doliana, Dragouni, Kouvlis, Prosilia and Rouneika. The population of the community is 723 (2021 census). The largest village of the community is Kato Doliana. It serves as the winter residence of the population of Ano Doliana. It is considered a traditional settlement.

Olive oil production is the main source of income for the inhabitants.

Geography
The village is situated on the left bank of the river Tanos, on the south slopes of mountain Zavitsa. It is surrounded by an extensive olive trees plantation. The natural caves that have formed due to the erosion of the terrain caused by the flow of the river are of particular interest. They divide the settlement into two neighborhoods. The upper neighborhood is called Palamidi.

Attractions
The ancient Villa of Herodes Atticus at Eva is the most notable landmark. One can also visit the ancient settlements of Kourmeki and Tsiorovos and the women's Byzantine Monastery of Loukou.

People

 * James Pantemis, Canadian professional goalkeeper of Greek descent, from his grandmother's side.

title: Doliana


text:
The Frost

The Frost was an American psychedelic rock band from Alpena, Michigan in the late 1960s, led by singer-guitarist Dick Wagner, who went on to play with Ursa Major, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel in the 1970s. The rest of the band consisted of Gordy Garris (bass guitar), Bob Rigg (drums), and Don Hartman (guitar).

History
The band formed from the remains of The Bossmen. Dick Wagner had just been rejected from the band Blood, Sweat, and Tears so he fully devoted his time to The Frost. The band's first large-scale performance came at Meadowbrook Theatre in front of a crowd of 10,000. MC5 and The Stooges were also performing but the Frost was noted as being a standout among the rest. Record companies heavily pursued the band for a record deal as they noticed their growing popularity. The Frost recorded three albums for Vanguard Records: Frost Music, Rock and Roll Music, and Through the Eyes of Love.

The Frost were one of the top Detroit area bands of the era; however, substandard album cover artwork and poor distribution and promotion by Vanguard hampered the band, causing them to miss the national success that other bands like Ann Arbor's Bob Seger, Detroit's Ted Nugent and Flint's Grand Funk Railroad were to achieve.

There have been several Frost reunion concerts over the years, especially while Wagner still lived and performed in Michigan. The reunions have included Wagner, Hartman and Rigg.

The Frost was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2008.

Singles

 * "A Rainy Day" / "Bad Girl" 1967 (Date 1577) - as Dick Wagner and The Frosts
 * "Sunshine" / "Little Girl" 1968 (Date 1596) - as Dick Wagner and The Frosts
 * "Mystery Man" / "Stand in the Shadows" 1969 (Vanguard 35089)
 * "Sweet Lady Love" / "Linda" 1969 (Vanguard 35099)
 * "Rock and Roll Music" / "Donny's Blues" 1969 (Vanguard 35101)
 * "Help Me Baby / Black Train" 1970 (Vanguard [France] 119020)
 * "Black as Night" / "A Long Way from Home" 1970 (Vanguard 35115)

Albums

 * Frost Music 1969 (Vanguard VSD-6520)
 * Rock and Roll Music 1969 (Vanguard VSD-6541)
 * Through the Eyes of Love 1970 (Vanguard VSD-6556)
 * Live at the Grande Ballroom 1969 2001 (Vanguard [Italy] VSD-6553)

Compilation albums

 * Early Frost 1978 (Vanguard VSD-79392)

title: The Frost


text:
Selland Arena

Selland Arena is a multi-purpose arena built in 1966 that makes up part of a four-venue complex of the Fresno Convention and Entertainment Center in Fresno, California. It is named after former Fresno mayor Arthur L. Selland and has had over 10 million people walk through its doors in its over 50-year history. The arena originally had a 6,582 seating capacity, but a US$10 million expansion project in 1981 increased the seating to its current capacity of 10,132. Before the 1997-1998 Fresno State basketball season, capacity was increased to 10,220. The Selland Arena underwent an additional $15 million renovation in November 2006, that included the installation of new seats, a new video replay scoreboard, message boards and a new ice-cooling system for hockey games.

Currently, the arena is operated by ASM Global under contract from the City of Fresno.

Tenants
The arena is home to the Fresno Monsters junior ice hockey team of the United States Premier Hockey League. On January 27, 2010, the Monsters hockey team agreed to a contract extension to play at the arena through the 2012–13 hockey season. The arena hosted a combined 32 home games between the organization's North American Hockey League (NAHL) and Western States Hockey League (WSHL) teams during the 2012–13 hockey season. After the 2012–13 season, the NAHL Monsters' franchise was relocated to Wenatchee, Washington, to take the place of the original Wenatchee Wild and the Tier III WSHL Monsters began playing at the lower capacity Gateway Ice Center. The WSHL Monsters returned to Selland in 2018 for 21 of their 23 home games in the 2018–19 season and then full-time in the 2019–20 season. The Monsters left the WSHL and joined the USPHL after the 2019–20 season.

Notable events
Selland Arena has hosted concerts, conventions, ice shows, youth sports, professional sports, motocross, rodeo, religious events, graduations, and community events.

Notable events that have taken place at the arena include: the tour opening July 19, 1974 Grateful Dead show, WWF Royal Rumble 1996, Fully Loaded 1998, concerts by many major rock and popular music groups and talents, including Kiss, Deep Purple, Yes, Elvis Presley, Elton John, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Tina Turner, ABBA, David Bowie, Los Bukis, Sammy Hagar, and Garth Brooks.

Van Halen performed at Selland during its For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour on May 14–15, 1992, and the shows were recorded and later released as a live album, entitled Live: Right Here, Right Now.

It also has hosted the California Interscholastic Federation Central Section Basketball Finals since 2004.

California Future Farmers of America Association hosted its annual State Conference. The last conference was hosted in April 2017. The leadership conference was moved to Anaheim Convention Center for the years 2018 and 2019, and to Sacramento for the years 2020 and 2021, as Selland Arena was too small for it to keep hosting the annual conference.

title: Selland Arena


text:
This Nation's Saving Grace

This Nation's Saving Grace is the eighth studio album by the English post-punk band the Fall, released in 1985 by Beggars Banquet. In contrast to the band's earlier albums, This Nation's... is noted for its pop sensibilities and guitar hooks, and John Leckie's accessible production. This Nation's... was recorded in London  between June and July 1985, and is the second of the three consecutive Fall albums produced by John Leckie. The album was accompanied by the singles "Couldn't Get Ahead" and "Cruiser's Creek", and tours of Europe and America.

Guitarist Brix Smith and bassist Steve Hanley consider This Nation's Saving Grace to be one of the band's best albums, an opinion widely shared by critics. According to The Guardian, it shows the band "operating just on the edge of the mainstream and at the peak of their accessibility and yet strangeness". In 2002, Pitchfork placed it as their 13th best album of the 1980s.

Background and line-up
The Fall's line-up had been relatively stable for a number of years until the late 1984 promotional tour of their preceding album "The Wonderful and Frightening World of...", when long-time members and brothers drummer Paul Hanley and bassist Steve Hanley both quit the band in November 1984. Their departures were triggered by an incident on the first of that month when the band's equipment was stolen from a van left parked after a gig in Cardiff's New Ocean Hotel. Although replacement equipment was arranged, Smith blamed the musicians for the loss and the following night, while hitting their tour-bus headrests with a stick, shouted "You fuckers...what were you thinking? Who the fuck would be stupid enough to leave a fucking van outside a hotel with all the fucking gear in it." After this, both brothers decided to leave the band. Paul Hanley's departure became permanent, leaving Karl Burns the band's sole drummer, while Steve Hanley was eventually persuaded by Smith to come back after taking a paternity leave for several months. According to Brix, the bassist's exit left Smith "chastened...for probably the only time I have ever seen". Hanley was replaced in the interim by Simon Rogers, a classically trained musician whom Smith knew from an earlier collaboration with the dancer-choreographer Michael Clark. The self-taught Hanley has since admitted to being disillusioned by being replaced by a multi-instrumentalist, composer of ballets who had scored the 1982 top 20 hit "Cacharpaya" with folk music group Incantation. After Hanley's return in the midst of recording sessions for the new album, Rogers remained in the band but switched to guitar and keyboards. Smith marked Hanley's rejoining the band with the words "S Hanley! He's Back" etched into the run-out groove on Side 1.

The Fall recorded their eighth Peel session on 14 May 1985. The recordings contain early versions of three songs from This Nation's... ("Couldn't Get Ahead", "Spoilt Victorian Child" and "Gut of the Quantifier") as well as a version of "Cruiser's Creek". Their ninth session, recorded on the 29 September, includes recordings of "L.A." and "What You Need" that writer Steve Pringle describes as "brighter and sharper" than the album versions.

Recording
The album was recorded between June and July 1985 at the London studios the Music Works and the Workhouse on Old Kent Road. John Leckie had produced the band's 1984 album The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... and had built a strong working relationship with Smith. Leckie's approach to the project was to both retain the Fall's rough edges and solid rhythm section, while emphasising Brix's more pop orientated guitar parts. His production created a heavier wall of sound than their earlier releases and Smith praised his ability to bring forward the drum and bass parts. Smith later said that what he and Leckie were trying to achieve was a "well produced bedroom sound".

Music and lyrics
Steve Hanley had often been the group's main riff writer on earlier albums, but due to his absence in the lead up to the album, Brix and rhythm guitarist Craig Scanlon wrote most of the song's foundation riffs. Hanley later said that on earlier recordings the whole group had contributed music, but for This Nation's most of the work was done by Brix and Scanlon, in a 60/40 ratio by his estimation. As Brix had begun her career as a bass player, most of her musical ideas were simple one-string riffs played on lead guitar but closely resembling bass lines. Although in awe of his playing when she had joined the band in 1983; on his return she told Hanley "I'll show you the bass line on my guitar and you Steve Hanley it up."

Smith's lyrics are typically caustic throughout; the music critic John Mulvey wrote that at times the "vile is positively phantasmagoric".

Side one
The album opens with "Mansion", one of the Fall's few instrumentals, which the band often opened their live sets with. It is built around a guitar riff from Brix that evokes early horror and sci-fi film music and is clearly influenced by The Deviants' 1969 song "Billy the Monster". The following track "Bombast" is again dominated by Hanley's bass. Smith's vocals promise to "bring wrath" to "bastard idiots" (including Lloyd Cole, whom Smith described in the September Peel session version of "Crusier's Creek" as having a "brain and face...made out of cowpat. We all know that)", and are at times sung through a megaphone.

"What You Need" is built around Scanlon's circular guitar riff. The line "slippery shoes for your horrible feet" and song title are taken from an episode of The Twilight Zone. "Spoilt Victorian Child" incorporates unused lyrics intended for the Fall's 1979 debut album Live at the Witch Trials, but had been held back until the band found suitable "daft English music". The jerky and stuttering guitar riff written by Rogiers is in 6/4 time, a signature Brix initially found difficult to master. Smith's lyrics contain a number of Victorian era reference points, including Pop-up books, aqueducts, poxes and the Cottingley Fairies.

The 1985 cassette version contains the bonus track "Vixen", a melodic surf music song written and sung by Brix, which although well-regarded by fans, is described by Pringle as "rather slight". It was never played live.

Side one ends with Brix's "L.A.", written while the Smiths spent an extended stay in the city. Mark had a poor impression of the city and said that he "Hated it...Horrible town. If you like a beer, you are regarded as a tramp." The track was described in 2011 as an "electro-goth groove" by critic Martin Aston. It contains prominent keyboards by Simon Rogers. While the lead vocals are sung by Brix, Smith added backings which he said reflect his impression of the city as "more haunted than any old place". Dave Haslam ranked it as "the sexiest song of 1985" in City Life, an assessment Smith disagreed with yet claimed to understand; he credited its sex appeal to Brix's contribution and noted how the song was popular among women—"Except," he clarified, "that the Fall are probably the most unpopular group among women ever. We've never had a good review from a woman journalist in the whole world."

Side two
Side two opens with "Gut of the Quantifier", whose central bassline is reminiscent of the Doors's The Changeling. "My New House" details the Smiths' purchase of a semi-detached in Sedgley Park, Prestwich, close to Mark's childhood home where his parents still lived. A number of visitors remarked how unusual the house was, in particular the blue/grey colour scheme used each room. Although credited to Mark Smith alone, the track originates from a riff by guitarist Scanlon. The lyrics are humorous and sardonic with lines such as "no rabbit house about it, I bought it off the Baptists, I get the bills, and I get miffed". Although a fan favourite, and described by the Daily News' David Hinkley as "near-hypnotic", it was dropped from their live set after 1986.

"Paint Work" is widely considered the album's highpoint. It consists of a semi-acoustic tape collage, stream of consciousness lyrics, Karl Burns' cymbal crashes and "meandering" lead guitar line provided by Scanlon. Credited to Smith, Scanlon and Rogers, it blends studio recordings with sections recorded on a four track in Rogers' flat and audio from Smith's dictaphone. During the mixing, Smith took the master tape home and accidentally erased part of the track with a section from an Open University documentary lecture by the astronomer Patrick Moore on "red giants stars". The sudden jump between lo-fi home taped and studio recordings fitted the mood of the track, and he and Leckie decided to include on the finished version. The lyrics are mostly series of "enigmatic" and often disconnected lines and phrases, with the central hook "Hey Mark! You're spoiling all the paintwork" based on a complaint made by a decorator just after the Smiths had moved into the "new house" detailed in the preceding track. The track was described in 2019 as "absolutely sublime" by Vulture, as "mildly psychedelic" in 2011 by critic Mick Middles, and as "a thing of true wonder" by writer Steve Pringle in 2022.

The drum heavy "I Am Damo Suzuki" is a tribute to the Japanese ex-pat vocalist Damo Suzuki of the Krautrock group Can, who Smith has often described as an early and major influence. The lyrics describe and evoke Suzuki's stage presence and singing style and are accompanied by Brix's descending chords and Burns' metronomic drums. The music is heavily influenced by the 1971 Can song "Oh Yeah", but also contains elements (especially the descending chords, which are similar to their earlier track "Elves" (also written by Brix) and based on the Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog") of other Can tracks such as "Bel Air" (1973), "Gomorrah" (1974) and "Midnight Men" (1977). The song was described in 2022 as a "hypnotic art-rock anthem befitting of [Can's] name", while in 2019 Suzuki biographer Paul Woods wrote that "MES took the 'Oh Yeah' riff and overrode it with a speed-freak surrealist tribute to Can and Damo himself while throwing in an oblique reference to Fritz Leiber, one of a number of supernatural horror authors who also obsessed him."

The word "Yarbles" in the title of "To NK Roachment: Yarbles" is borrowed from the novel A Clockwork Orange as Nadsat for testicles. The track is a reprise of "Mansion", but according Pringle has a "softer and gentler tone." Both the vocal melody and lyrics "Every day you have to die some / Every day you have to cry some / All the good times are past and gone" are based on the 1963 Arthur Alexander song "Every Day I Have To Cry".

1988 bonus tracks
Four bonus tracks were included on the 1988, 1990 and 1997 CD releases. The music for the album's second single "Cruiser's Creek" is built around another circular and twangy guitar riff by Brix, while the lyrics detail a debauched office-party. Writing for The Guardian in 2014, critic Dave Simpson described the song as "leftfield and outsiderly, yet the insistent tune is surely as catchy as anything by the Beatles." For Hinkley, the song is reminiscent of Dire Straits. It was released on 11 October 1985, and was accompanied by a music video directed by both Mark and Cerith Wyn Evans, and stars Leigh Bowery in a role Smith described as resembling "a clerk on acid, like he was from some alternative world".

The other two bonus tracks are a cover of Gene Vincent's rockabilly song "Rollin' Dany", and the original "Couldn't Get Ahead", which was recorded before Steve Hanley rejoined and has Rogers playing bass.

Release
This Nation's Saving Grace was released on 23 September 1985 by Beggars Banquet Records. The label took out full-page adverts in the UK Music press, showing the album's bleak city-scape of Manchester's centre drawn by Michael Pollard with a horse-pulled chariot in the clouds above the city buildings drawn by Claus Castenskiold. A full-page advert in Melody Maker shows the album cover and includes details of their October and November 1985 UK tour, and mention of the cassette version of the album, that featured bonus tracks. This Nation's Saving Grace reached number 54 on the UK Albums Chart. After tours of the north of England and the US, the Fall recorded the double A-sided single "Couldn't Get Ahead"/"Rollin' Dany" and subsequent single "Cruiser's Creek" with Rogers standing in on bass guitar.

Reception
This Nation's Saving Grace was highly praised by the UK music press on release. The NME's David Quantick wrote the Fall had managed to create "one of their most accessible LPs yet" which was yet "infinitely more peculiar than almost anything else released this year." In a very positive review for Sounds, Chris Roberts wrote "Oh, to be thirteen again and have this be the first record one heard". In contrast to the prevailing view of the Fall's development after recruiting Brix, Music Week suggested the album offered more of the same but lacked potential for mainstream crossover.

Critics generally praised Brix's direction and songwriting. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice noted how the "Yank guitarist...righted husband Mark E.'s feckless avant-gardishness" and said that the record was "cunningly sloppy, minimally catchy Hawkwind/Stooges with each three-chord drone long enough to make an avant-gardish statement but stopping short of actual boredom." In a 1986 article on the band in Creem, Renaldo Migaldi said "The Fall have been around since 1977, but only in the last couple of years have they achieved their fullest creative flowering" on This Nation's Saving Grace and their preceding album, noting that her contributions had been "integral to how the band sounds now. Namely, better." Conversely, a blurb on the album in Cashbox was dismissive: "This is post wave rock 'n' roll for the depressed teenager."

NME ranked "TNSG" as the sixth best album of 1985. Listeners of John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show voted six songs from This Nation's Saving Grace to the annual Festive Fifty list: "Cruiser's Creek" (no. 3), "Spoilt Victorian Child" (no. 23), "Gut of the Quantifier" (no. 33), "Couldn't Get Ahead" (no. 39), "L.A." (no. 42), and "Rollin' Dany" (no. 55). Jim Sullivan of The Boston Globe and Kristine McKenna of the Los Angeles Times also ranked the album in their top ten best albums of the year.

Retrospective evaluation
Bruce Tiffee of Pitchfork described the album as "one of the strongest" Fall releases and "perhaps the best record to emerge from the Beggars Banquet Fall era". In 2011 Dave Simpson of The Guardian wrote that the album showcased the Fall "thrillingly subverting the notion of what pop music is", while John Mulvey of Uncut wrote that it contained the band's strongest configuration "in all their menacing and utilitarian finery".

In 2002, This Nation's... was listed by Pitchfork as the 13th best album of the 1980s, while it appeared at number 46 on Spins list of the 100 greatest albums from 1985 to 2005, and as number 93 on Slant Magazines 2012 list of the best albums of the 1980s. NME placed the album as number 400 on their 2013 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The record was ranked number 441 in the third edition of writer Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000), a list based on a poll of more than 200,000 people. According to Larkin's Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Brix's "partly melodious sheen ... brought an air of 60s subculture to the group's post-industrial rattle", without compromising the band's "stubbornly maverick" roots, as the album "shows the Fall extending stylistic barriers without sacrificing their individuality."

In his 2022 book "You Must Get Them All: The Fall On Record", Steve Pringle describes the album as the "perfect marriage of The Fall's increasing accessibility and their more challenging qualities". According to Pringle "it contains a flawless balance of everything the group did exceptionally well: aural barrage and grinding repetition, off-kilter pop-hooks, sonic experimentation and audacious weirdness."

Legacy
James Murphy—best known as the frontman of New York dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem—purchased This Nation's Saving Grace the year of its release and said its aesthetic initially "terrified" him. He later said it was a formative influence: "I was completely blown away. At the time, all I could hear on the radio was synth pop and then here comes this band that sound broken and wrong. I'd never heard anything like it—the idea of someone taking the time to go into a studio and record a singer [who] may or may not be in tune. It opened a lot of abstract paths to me because before that I was looking at abstract art and saying, 'This is garbage! What's the point?' But I started to get into abstract art because of the Fall ... I started to realise that people's aesthetic goals were not necessarily to achieve perfection." Murphy said the album inspired him to take greater risks in his music and, more specifically, noted its impact on the lo-fi intro to "Yr City's a Sucker" from LCD Soundsystem's 2005 self-titled debut album, akin to the tape experimentation of "Paint Work". On the band's 2017 album American Dream, the song "Other Voices" alludes to "L.A." with the line, "This is what's happening and it's freaking you out".

Reissue
An extended version of the album was issue in 2011 on the Beggars Banquet reissue imprint "Beggars Archive". The 42-track box-set was accompanied by a 48-page colour booklet and two discs of rough studio mixes and Peel sessions.

2011 Omnibus Edition
Disc 1 – This Nation's Saving Grace
 * As per original UK LP

Personnel

 * The Fall
 * Mark E. Smith – vocals, violin on "I Am Damo Suzuki", guitar; harmonica on "Couldn't Get Ahead"
 * Brix Smith – guitar, vocals
 * Steve Hanley – bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Craig Scanlon – guitar, backing vocals
 * Karl Burns – drums, backing vocals
 * Simon Rogers – keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drum machine, backing vocals
 * Technical
 * John Leckie – production, engineering
 * Joe Gillingham – engineering
 * Michael Pollard – cover
 * Claus Castenskiold – cover

title: This Nation's Saving Grace


text:
Payne Arena

The Payne Arena is a multi-purpose complex, in Hidalgo, Texas. It was formerly known as Dodge Arena from 2003 until February 2010, State Farm Arena from 2010 to September 2018, and then State Farm Hidalgo Arena for one year.

Capacity
The arena seats up to 5,500 persons in its configuration for ice hockey, indoor football and indoor soccer, and up to 6,800 persons in its center stage concert configuration, which has also been used for boxing events. The arena also features 25 suites, 500 club seats, 2,200 on-site surface parking spaces, an adjacent 2000 sqft lounge with access from outside the arena, as well as a 1000 sqft bar and a 300 sqft pro shop.ory

History
The arena was built in 2003, at a cost of $23 million, and is owned by the City of Hidalgo Municipal Facilities Corporation. The former DaimlerChrysler Corporation, at that time the owner of the Dodge brand, purchased the naming rights to the arena. Country music star Alan Jackson gave the first concert at the arena.

On February 4, 2010, State Farm Insurance bought the naming rights for the arena. In June 2014, State Farm extended their naming rights deal for another five years. State Farm does not plan on renewing the naming rights deal once it expires.

In September 2019, local car dealership Payne Auto Group assumed the arena's naming rights.

Events
Payne Arena was the home to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League. The team was based at the arena from 2007 until 2018 when their new home, Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg, was completed.

The professional minor league Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees ice hockey team of the Central Hockey League called the arena home from 2003 to 2012. In 2013 a junior ice hockey team of the same name began play as a member of the North American Hockey League and played there until the team relocated to Aston, Pennsylvania, for the 2015–16 season. In 2018, another junior level Killer Bees returned to the Rio Grande Valley in the USA Central Hockey League, but the league folded after six weeks of operation. The Rio Grande Valley Dorados of arena football's AF2 league were tenants from 2004 until 2009, when the team folded along with the league. The Rio Grande Valley Magic of the Lone Star Football League played in the arena from 2011 through 2012. The Rio Grande Valley Flash of the Major Arena Soccer League were founded in 2012, renamed, as Hidalgo La Fiera in July 2013, and then ceased operations mid-season in December 2014.

One notable State Farm Arena concert took place in 2009, when Mexican singer Gloria Trevi performed before a soldout crowd. Trevi has been a resident of the Rio Grande Valley in recent years and presently resides in nearby McAllen. Another notable concert featured country music star George Strait in 2014 as the second-to-last show of his farewell "The Cowboy Rides Away Tour". On October 19, 2014, the arena hosted an NBA pre-season game between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors. In 2016, UFC Fight Night: Poirier vs. Johnson was held at the arena.

title: Payne Arena


title: File:JLAearth2.jpg


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The Marshals (NIFL)

The Marshals were a professional indoor football team based out of Dayton, Ohio. They played their 2007 home games out of Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio, but are more famous for playing as the Cincinnati Marshals at U.S. Bank Arena for two seasons. The Marshals played their 2004 inaugural season in Waco, Texas, as the Waco Marshals.

History
The Marshals started out as the Waco Marshals in 2004, but finished their inaugural season with a disappointing 2–8 record. For the next season they relocated to Cincinnati and became the Cincinnati Marshals.

Waco/Cincinnati Marshals players and coaches of note: Brett Dietz, Ickey Woods, Ray Jackson, Wayne Walker, Ed Biles, Lew Carpenter, Odell James, Ron Carpenter, Hubbard Alexander, Rayshawn Askew, Louis Fite.

The 2004 season
The NIFL took over operations midway through the 2004 season after realizing that the ownership had "floated" a phony check for the franchise and the league had to assume financial burden to a team that had never paid a penny to even join the league due to the fraudulent payment by ownership. The league then agreed to sell the rights to Tony Williams and Manuel Ramos, who was serving as the Defensive Coordinator and Special Teams Coordinator respectively, at the time. Williams and Ramos reign as owners didn't last much longer after it was found that they could not make payments either to the H.O.T. and had bounced employee paychecks, did not pay bills to companies for services and did not have the required insurance for the players; same as their predecessors. Several new players were signed, as the NIFL managed the Marshals for the remainder of the 2004 season.

The 2005 season
In 2005, owner H. P. Patterson first surrendered the team after he did not pay players for well over a month, and then fled the United States entirely after being suspected of money laundering. The mismanagement resulted in the resignation of the team's head coach, former Houston Oilers head coach Ed Biles, and the dissolution of the Diamond Deputies cheerleading squad, after they claimed weeks of unpaid game checks. In addition, the Assistant Coaches Hubbard Alexander and Lew Carpenter, as well as the Equipment Director Josh Reasoner followed Coach Biles out.

Despite all this, new head coach Tony Wells, quarterback Brett Dietz and running back Rayshawn Askew led the team to the finish of an 8–6 record, which tied them for 2nd in their division with the Dayton Warbirds. In the First round of playoffs they upset the River City Rage, who was ranked first in the same division as the Marshals with the Marshals with 67 points and the Rage with 64 points. In the next playoff round they defeated the Fayetteville Guard 70 to 69. In the Atlantic Conference Championship they had no such luck, falling to the Rome Renegades 51 to 41.

In 2005, Rayshawn Askew broke or tied many league records that year en route to being named an All-Star. He tied the single season touchdown record of 46 when he scored three touchdowns against Wyoming on July 4, 2005. The three touchdowns allowed Askew to set a new league record for scoring with 282 points, overcoming the mark of 276 points set by Baron Dockery of the Ohio Valley Greyhounds in 2002. Askew finished the regular season leading the league in scoring (282 points), touchdowns (46), rushing yards (719 yards) and all-purpose yards (2236 yards)

Former Cincinnati Marshals quarterback Brett Dietz would move up to play for the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League. He won Co-Rookie of the Year in the AFL for the 2007 season. The Marshals have been mentioned on ESPN when they talk about Dietz's career.

The 2006 season
In the following months, the team's status was left largely undetermined. On December 20, 2005, after many months of speculation, the Marshals announced a return to the NIFL for the 2006 season with a new ownership group led by Doug Hortman and P.J. Conboy, a new coaching staff led by head coach Steve Carpenter and the return of the Diamond Deputies. Former NFL star Ickey Woods served as an assistant coach in 2006 and former Tennessee Titan Ray Jackson led the Marshals in rushing. The team matched their 2005 regular season output, going 8–6 in the season, and clinched the #5 seed in the Atlantic Conference playoffs.

2006 playoffs
The Marshals could not avoid the game of "musical teams" that seemed to doom the league (the consequence of a failed expansion project) even before the playoffs began. Cincinnati's 5th seed was supposed to equal a road trip to a rematch of a late-season loss to Osceola. Osceola, however, commenced a tug-of-war with the league and the Marshals regarding the site of the game. Osceola's home arena was hosting a rodeo the weekend of the first round, and asked Cincinnati to host the game. However, Cincinnati had been thrown out of their arena due to setup for a concert. Osceola offered a compromise, where the Marshals would travel to Lakeland, Florida, but team ownership shot down the idea and forfeited the game.

A few days after the announced forfeit, it was revealed that Osceola failed to file paperwork so they could advance into the playoffs. Osceola was given a choice: either play Cincinnati in St. Louis with the winner playing the River City Rage the next night, or forfeit the game and allow Cincinnati to advance to play River City. Osceola declined, and Cincinnati was allowed to advance. With only three days and one practice to prepare for the game, Cincinnati traveled to St. Louis, where the Rage defeated the Marshals at Scottrade Center, 43–30, ending the Marshals' season.

The 2007 season
On October 18, 2006, it was announced that the AF2 had granted a new expansion team to the U.S. Bank Arena, in the form of the Cincinnati Jungle Kats, who took over the indoor football contract for the arena. As a consequence, the Marshals had no arena to call their own. It was originally thought that they were moving to Wall2Wall Soccer in nearby Mason for 2007,. However, they moved to Hara Arena in Dayton for 2007, and changing their name to The Marshals. .

The announcement was even more of a shock to players and staff, seeing as no formal conference was given, no owner-team meeting was ever held, and all but owner Doug Hortman and his assistant were made to research the information through a short press release on a skeletal form of the Marshals website, leaving fans irate. The Marshals went quietly up to Dayton, a move similar to the 1983 overnight move of the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis.

The 2007 season was played, but was not completed in full, due to the collapse of the NIFL. At the time the team was 2–4. Owner Doug Hortman was interviewed by the Dayton Daily News, in which he accused the NIFL of lying to him and other owners about league development and scheduling. Hortman would then go on to promise the return of the team for 2008, which proved to be a lie. This was the same promise Hortman had made when he announced during halftime of the final home game in 2006 that the team would return to Cincinnati in 2007.

However, the promise was once again kept unfulfilled, and the team went away quietly, along with the rest of the NIFL.

Season-by-season
Won Atlantic Semi-Final (Fayetteville) Lost Atlantic Final (Rome) Lost Atlantic Semi-Final (River City) !Totals || 23 || 27 || 0
 * colspan="6" align="center" | Waco Marshals
 * 2004 || 2 || 8 || 0 || 5th Atlantic Southern || –
 * colspan="6" align="center" | Cincinnati Marshals
 * 2005 || 8 || 6 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic Eastern || Won Atlantic Conference Quarter Final (River City)
 * colspan="6" align="center" | Cincinnati Marshals
 * 2005 || 8 || 6 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic Eastern || Won Atlantic Conference Quarter Final (River City)
 * 2005 || 8 || 6 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic Eastern || Won Atlantic Conference Quarter Final (River City)
 * 2005 || 8 || 6 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic Eastern || Won Atlantic Conference Quarter Final (River City)
 * 2006 || 8 || 6 || 0 || 2nd Atlantic Eastern || Won Atlantic Quarter Final (Osceola Football) (Forfeit)
 * 2006 || 8 || 6 || 0 || 2nd Atlantic Eastern || Won Atlantic Quarter Final (Osceola Football) (Forfeit)
 * colspan="6" align="center" | The Marshals
 * 2007 || 2 || 5 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic || –
 * 2007 || 2 || 5 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic || –
 * 2007 || 2 || 5 || 0 || 3rd Atlantic || –
 * colspan="2"| (including playoffs)

title: The Marshals (NIFL)


text:
Talk:Alaska Airlines

"Alaska Airlines picketing incident" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Alaska Airlines picketing incident and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 May 2 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. signed,Rosguill talk 18:15, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

Alaska Air Mileage Plan image
That image has always struck me as being out-of-place, like an old advertisement that somebody forgot to take down, like a Pepsi machine featuring The Phantom Menace. Does its presence really enhance this page?  BOTTO ( T • C ) 21:08, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

 * Feel free to WP:BOLDly remove it if you think it doesn't enhance the page (I've no strong opinion either way), but I'll note that the image itself is in the public domain because it's below the threshold of originality, so the image doesn't seem to be problematic from an WP:NFCC standpoint. Mz7 (talk) 20:12, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

Usage of the Word Eskimo
What do we think about changing Eskimo to Inuit here? Vitalen1 (talk) 01:37, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

 * @Vitalen1, I would not recommend it. The Iñupiat of Alaska are not Inuit speakers, speaking the Iñupiaq language instead.  Name Omitted (talk) 03:08, 30 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Alaska Airlines’ quasi-official name for the logo is “the Eskimo” so it would feel strange to not use the name at least once. Beyond that, if repeated use doesn’t feel right, might I recommend the more generic Alaska Native. RickyCourtney (talk) 04:23, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Alaska Destination Tables
These need to be split into three sections because of Alaska mainline Alaska horizon and Alaska SkyWest. Lucthedog2 (talk) 01:19, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alaska Airlines


text:
Coralville Chaos

The Coralville Chaos are a professional indoor football team based in Coralville, Iowa. They will play their home games at the Xtream Arena in Coralville starting in 2025.

They previously played home games as the St. Louis Renegades, then the RiverCity Rage at the Family Arena in Saint Charles, Missouri, part of the metropolitan area of St. Louis, Missouri, in past seasons, played in the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis in the 2006 season, and returned to the Family Arena for the 2007 UIF season.

They were set to move to Council Bluffs and play at the Mid-America Center for 2024. However, they relocated to Coralville and decided to rebrand as the Chaos.

Started as the Renegades and Rage
The Chaos began play in 2001 as the St. Louis Renegades of the Indoor Professional Football League, finishing fourth in the league with a 2–11 record. After the IPFL folded, the team moved to the National Indoor Football League in 2002 and became the RiverCity Renegades. The team finished its first season in the NIFL with a 1–13 record. For 2003–2004, the team was renamed the Show-Me Believers. In the first season under the new name, the team finished with a 4–10 record that showed improvement, despite being a losing record. In 2004, the team's skill increased vastly, and completed the season with a winning record for the first time at 9–5. In 2005, the team was renamed the RiverCity Rage. The Rage won the 2005 East Atlantic Conference Division with a record of 10–4. With this record, the team was locked in a three-way tie for the best regular-season record; however, the team lost its Conference Quarter Finals game 67 to 64 to the Cincinnati Marshals.

The next season, the team finished in a four-way tie for the regular season record at 13–1, and advanced to the Atlantic Conference championship game, losing to the Fayetteville Guard.

After the 2006 season, the Rage announced they were joining United Indoor Football for 2007. The Rage continued their membership in the United Indoor Football for 2008.

In 2008, the RiverCity Rage struggled through a seven-game losing streak before winning three of their last four games to make the playoffs. They won (37–33) by a last minute touchdown in a home playoff game against the Sioux City Bandits, but lost the Conference Finals on the road to the Bloomington Extreme, 33–7.

In 2009, the Rage played in the Indoor Football League, a new league created out of the merger between the UIF and the Intense Football League. On August 15, 2009, the Rage lost the United Bowl to the Billings Outlaws by the score of 71–62.

Jeff Sprowls, who also owned the IFL team Omaha Beef, announced about a month after the Rage's loss in the IFL Championship game that the RiverCity Rage would be ceasing operations and will not play in the 2010 season, due to financial issues in Omaha.

According to the Indoor Football League website the RiverCity Rage could return in 2011, if new owners are found. In the team's final season, leading the way at quarterback was former two-time ArenaBowl champion John Dutton.

Return of the Rage, then rebranding as the Chaos (2024)
The Rage will return to the field in 2025 under new ownership of Dominic Montero and were announced as one of the newest members of the relaunched American Indoor Football league. They initially announced that they would be playing at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs for 2024. However, due to careful analysis of the financial outlook of the team, the Rage announced that they will play in the AIF starting in the 2025 season at the Xtream Arena in Coralville. , rebranding themselves the Coralville Chaos on March 26, 2024. However, the AIF folded before they could officially join.

title: Coralville Chaos


text:
User talk:AbinoamJr

Test

Interwiki
Abinoam, quando a gente só acrescenta um interwiki para o português, o costume é colocar no sumário o texto +pt. Patrick-br 11:15, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Veja também que uma imagem carregada para o commons pode ser utilizada em qualquer wikipédia. Acrescentei sua foto ao artigo Rafting em inglês. Ah, a propósito, acrescente lá no commons que você é o autor da foto. Patrick-br 11:19, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Category
Assuming you are a doctor I have placed a caregory physician on your userpage. --Nomen Nescio 01:18, August 28, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:AbinoamJr


text:
Oliver Parker

Oliver Parker (born 6 September 1960) is a British film director, screenwriter, and former actor. He is known for writing and directing the film adaptations of Shakespeare's Othello (1995) and Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), and for his role as Peloquin in the cult film Nightbreed (1990).

Biography
Parker was born in Plymouth, the second of three sons of Jillian, Lady Parker, a writer and GP (general practitioner), and Sir Peter Parker, formerly chairman of British Rail.

His brothers include the public relations executive Sir Alan Parker (born 1956) and the actor Nathaniel Parker (born 1962). They also have a sister, Lucy.

Television

 * Matlock (1 episode, 1987) – Man at Butler's School
 * The Bill (1 episode, 1989) - Glen Phelps
 * Agatha Christie's Poirot (The Million Dollar Bond Robbery, 1991) - Philip Ridgeway
 * Casualty (18 episodes, 1993-94) - Mark Calder
 * Lovejoy (Day of Reckoning, 1994) - Desmond Dexter

title: Oliver Parker


text:
Quintessence (Borknagar album)

Quintessence is the fourth studio album by Norwegian heavy metal band Borknagar. It was recorded at The Abyss Studios in January 2000 and mixed by Peter Tägtgren.

According to the members of the band, this album was initially meant to be a relatively straightforward black metal release, as indicated by the production quality and the emphasis on harsh vocals rather than clean singing.

Vocalist Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnæs plays bass guitar on the album, following the departure of former bassist Kai K. Lie prior to recording sessions for the album. Original keyboardist Ivar Bjørnson and drummer Eric "Grim" Brødreskift were also replaced by Lars A. Nedland and Asgeir Mickelson respectively. Quintessence would also be the last Borknagar album to feature Hestnæs, who left to join Dimmu Borgir (reportedly due to an ultimatum on Øystein Brun's part), until his return in 2010.

Borknagar

 * Simen Hestnæs (credited as "ICS Vortex") – vocals, bass guitar
 * Øystein G. Brun – electric guitar
 * Jens F. Ryland – guitar
 * Lars A. Nedland – keyboards
 * Asgeir Mickelson – drums, percussion

Production

 * Borknagar - production, arrangements
 * Peter Tagtgren - production, mixing, engineer
 * Lars Szoke - engineer
 * Tom Kvallsvoll - mastering
 * Christophe Szpajdel – logo

title: Quintessence (Borknagar album)


text:
Weylan Harding

Weylan Harding (born 1972-01-05 in Houston, Texas) is the former head coach of the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League.

High school years
Harding attended Klein High School in Spring, Texas and was a student and a letterman in football. In football, he was an All-Conference selection and an All-Greater Houston selection. He attended Iowa State University, where he played defense on the school's football team. He majored in English.

Playing career
In his playing career, he was a defensive specialist for the Iowa Barnstormers (now the Dragons), the former Nashville Kats (now the Georgia Force), the now-defunct Portland Forest Dragons, and the Buffalo Destroyers (now the Columbus Destroyers). He retired as a player in 2000.

Coaching career
At the start of the 2005 season, Harding's first year leading the Dragons, he was 33 years old, making him the second youngest head coach in the history of the league. He had previously worked in the Buffalo Destroyers organization starting in 2000. After the Destroyers moved to Columbus, Ohio he became the team's defensive coordinator in 2002 and returned in 2004.

title: Weylan Harding


text: Category:Weapons of Korea

title: Category:Weapons of Korea


text: Category:Military of North Korea

title: Category:Military of North Korea


text:
Fayetteville Guard

The Fayetteville Guard was a professional indoor football team in the National Indoor Football League (NIFL) and American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). They played home games at the Cumberland County Crown Coliseum from 2005 to 2010.

The Guard were replaced by the Fayetteville Force in the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) for the 2011 season. After a 3–0 start to the 2011 SIFL season, the Force collapsed and was eventually sold to the AIFA. The Force did not return in 2012 and were replaced the Cape Fear Heroes expansion team as part of American Indoor Football.

Stingrays
The teams began play in 2003 as the Myrtle Beach Stingrays of the National Indoor Football League in the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, compiling a 6–8 record in their inaugural season. After two games in the 2004 season, the NIFL shut down the team due to the team owners, April Coble and Jack Bowman, failing to pay the players and other obligations. However, local investors including then head coach Terry Smith, saved the team in time to schedule a third game at the Staten Island Xtreme the last weekend of April. On April 29, the team was moved to Florence, South Carolina, for the remainder of the season as the Carolina Stingrays with seven home games at the Florence Civic Center. The relocated team finished with a 3–6 record in Florence and a final 5–7 record in their second season.

Guard
The following year, the team was purchased again and moved to Fayetteville to replace af2's Cape Fear Wildcats, who had moved to Albany, Georgia, as the South Georgia Wildcats. The new team had originally been called the Fayetteville Heat, but later changed their name to the Fayetteville Guard. The team started their season 0–5, but went 7–2 in their final nine regular season games, earning a 7–7 record and a playoff berth. The team defeated the Dayton Warbirds in the first round, but lost to the Cincinnati Marshals in the divisional round.

The Guard did better in 2006, posting a 13–1 record in the regular season, then defeating the Lakeland Thunderbolts and River City Rage en route to Indoor Bowl VI, where they lost to the Billings Outlaws.

In August 2006, it was reported that the Guard were moving to the World Indoor Football League. However, the Guard denied these rumors by announcing that they were staying in the NIFL in a press conference two months later. During the 2007 season, the Guard and Wyoming Cavalry organized with owners of other independently owned NIFL teams to ensure they had a complete season, but without the approval of the rapidly falling apart NIFL management, which led to a midseason schedule split between the league-owned teams and the independent teams. Both the Guard and Cavalry were subsequently expelled from the NIFL before the post season. They played against each other in the Budweiser Indoor Football Championship Bowl, where the Guard won 48–34. Both teams joined the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA) the following 2008 season.

Force
Following the 2010 AIFA season, the league split into two leagues: the AIFA West and East. The AIFA East, of which Fayetteville was a member, then merged into the Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) for the 2011 season. However, a new Fayetteville-based sports marketing group claimed the rights to field a SIFL team in the Fayetteville market and the Guard did not return for the 2011 season. The new team, not affiliated with the Guard or its owners, were called the Fayetteville Force. After a 3–0 start to the 2011 SIFL season, the team collapsed.

The AIFA entered into an asset purchase agreement of selected assets of the Fayetteville Force from Fanteractive, LLC, the Force's parent company, but the AIFA did not purchase the corporation that was operating the Force. Under the agreement the AIFA retained the Force name, logo, likeness, playing equipment, and the artificial turf. The AIFA guaranteed that it would play the remaining four Force games with the Southern Indoor Football League.

Due to contractual issues between the previous owner and his players and coaches at the time, the AIFA was unable to take over those contracts. On two-day notice before the Erie away game, the AIFA had to assemble a team of available players from a group of former indoor players and rookies. The AIFA selected as head coach Matt Steeple, a veteran indoor coach from the Indoor Football League for the balance of the 2011 season. The new Fayetteville Force never won a game and has the dubious distinction of setting a record for the largest single-game losing margin and points allowed in the history of indoor football – in any league – following a 0–138 loss to the Erie Explosion on May 21, 2011.

The AIFA reorganized as American Indoor Football (AIF) after the SIFL folded following its lone 2011 season. The Force did not return in 2012 and were replaced the Cape Fear Heroes expansion team in the AIF.

title: Fayetteville Guard