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Spice cake

Spice cake is a type of cake that is traditionally flavored with a mixture of spices. The cake can be prepared in many varieties. Predominant flavorings include spices such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg.

Description
In Medieval cuisine, a spice cake, also called spice bread, was a flavorful, sweetened yeast bread. They were typically sweetened with honey, as sugar was largely unavailable in Europe until the 1600s, and cooked over an open fire. By the 17th century, spice cake was something similar the modern raisin bread, usually having spices, sugar, dried fruit, eggs, and butter in the yeast dough. The sizes ranged from individual buns to ordinary loaves to the great cake, which was a very large cake, sometimes weighing more than 50 lb that was baked for holidays and important celebrations. (Because these cakes often included both dried fruit and spices, most of them can also be classified as fruit cakes. )

With the development of the sugar trade, spice cakes were still popular, and were coated in white icing on special occasions. French chefs hired by Charles II of England in the mid-1600s baked elaborate spice cakes coated in white icing. This decoration style became popular for wedding cakes, and having a white coating over a darker cake was the first meaning of a white cake.

The modern spice cake, a type of butter cake or layer cake, appeared in the latter part of the 19th century. Brown sugar, molasses, and a generous quantity of dark-colored spices were used to produce a dark brown cake. By the middle of the 20th century, various kinds of spice cake were the second most popular cake flavors in the US.

Variations
A maple spice cake is an American variation that adds maple syrup or maple flavoring. The recipe was a New Hampshire specialty that started at the beginning of the 19th century. It often tastes like cinnamon or apple cider, and is a fall classic.

Sometimes, spice cake is combined with layers of lighter colored cakes, to produce a multi-flavored, multi-colored cake. Names for this included ribbon cake, metropolitan cake, Neapolitan cake, Prince of Wales cake, and Harlequin cake.

During times of food rationing or to keep costs down, spice cakes lent themselves towards replacing expensive ingredients, such as eggs and butter, with more economical choices, such as pureed fruit.

Marble cake is sometimes made with spice cake for the darker colored batter.

Notable versions

 * Applesauce cake
 * Banbury cake
 * Carrot cake
 * Election cake
 * Gingerbread
 * Gâteau de Sirop
 * Kruidkoek
 * Parkin
 * Pork cake
 * Singing hinny
 * Spekkoek

title: Spice cake


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Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (NYRE), billed since 2008 as Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, is a New Year's Eve television special broadcast by ABC. The special broadcasts primarily from New York City's Times Square and prominently features coverage of its annual ball drop event hosted by television personality Ryan Seacrest, along with live and pre-recorded musical performances by popular musicians from Times Square and Hollywood. Since 2016–17, the special has regularly included performances and coverage of midnight festivities from other U.S. locations, including New Orleans (Central Time, from 2017–2024) and San Juan (Atlantic Time, from 2021–2022).

Its creator and namesake was the entertainer Dick Clark, who conceived New Year's Rockin' Eve as a youthful competitor to Guy Lombardo's popular and long-running New Year's Eve specials on CBS. The special first aired on December 31, 1972; its first two editions were broadcast by NBC, and hosted by Three Dog Night and George Carlin, respectively, with Clark anchoring coverage from Times Square. In 1974–75, the program moved to its current home of ABC, and Clark assumed the role of host. Since 2000–01, the special has broadcast segments in prime time alongside the main late-night broadcast; initially occupying the 10:00 p.m. ET/PT hour, from 2011–12 onward the special has occupied the entirety of ABC's primetime and late-night schedule on New Year's Eve.

Following the death of Guy Lombardo and the decline of CBS's specials, New Year's Rockin' Eve grew in popularity and became the dominant New Year's special on U.S. television. New Year's Rockin' Eve has consistently remained the highest-rated New Year's Eve special broadcast by the United States' major television networks; its 2012 edition peaked at 22.6 million home viewers—not including viewers watching from public locations, which were not yet measured by Nielsen at the time. The series has most recently been renewed through at least 2028–29.

Dick Clark hosted New Year's Rockin' Eve annually from 1973 through 1999 and from 2001 through 2004. For 2000, Clark participated in ABC News' day-long ABC 2000 Today telecast, joining overall host Peter Jennings for coverage from Times Square. In December 2004, Clark suffered a stroke, which resulted in Regis Philbin serving as guest host. Due to lingering speech impediments from the stroke, Clark ceded hosting duties to Ryan Seacrest the following year, but he continued to make limited appearances as a co-host until his death in 2012. Hosting solo since the 2012–13 edition, Seacrest was joined for the 2023–24 edition by Rita Ora as co-host and correspondent from Times Square, and Jeannie Mai as host of the Los Angeles-based concert segments.

Format
New Year's Rockin' Eve is primarily broadcast from Times Square in New York City, providing coverage of the New Year's Eve festivities held there, and culminating with the long-running ball drop approaching midnight. The lead-up to the program features performances by popular musicians; some of these performances (particularly headlining acts) originate live from a stage in Times Square, but the majority of the performances are presented via segments (billed as the "Billboard Hollywood Party") recorded in Los Angeles.

Since 2005, Ryan Seacrest has hosted the live show outside in Times Square, joined by a celebrity correspondent providing additional reports from attendees. From his return and until his death, Dick Clark hosted a limited number of segments from Times Square Studios throughout the broadcast, including the countdown. Clark carried on with his tradition of kissing his wife, Kari Wigton, at midnight.

Since the 2000–01 edition, the special has begun with a segment in prime time, which was initially branded as Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve, and is currently billed for ratings purposes as "Primetme – Part 1". Initially airing at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, the prime time block was extended to 8:00 p.m. ("Part I", with the remaining primetime block billed as "Part II") beginning with the 2011–12 edition. From 2011–12 to 2013–14, "Part I" primarily featured retrospective countdowns drawing from the Dick Clark Productions library, including the top New Year's Rockin' Eve performances of all-time (in honor of the special's 40th anniversary), and the top women in music.

Following a break for late local programming (such as late-night newscasts), the second block of the program is broadcast, which begins at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (previously at 11:30 p.m. from 1972–73 through 2021–22), and features coverage of midnight celebrations in the Atlantic Time Zone from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico at 10:59 p.m. ET and in the Eastern Time Zone from the Times Square ball drop at 11:59 p.m. ET. Until the addition of the prime time block, this segment served as the main block (and from 1997–98 onward, "Part I") of the entire Rockin' Eve telecast. From 2016–17 through 2022–23, the late-night block also featured coverage from the Jackson Square fleur-de-lis drop in New Orleans at 12:59 a.m. ET.

After the conclusion of live coverage, the show continues into its final block, which features the remainder of the pre-recorded concert segments. Debuting with the 1997–98 edition, the secondary late-night segment runs up to approximately 2:10 a.m. ET/PT, and has lasted as late as 3:00 a.m. ET/PT in the past.

Conception and premiere
Prior to the premiere of New Year's Rockin' Eve, the most well-known New Year's Eve program was the annual big band remote of bandleader Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, broadcast from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Guy Lombardo hosted 48 straight New Year's Eve broadcasts on CBS until his death in 1977, beginning on radio in 1928 (and for a period, splitting with NBC Radio following midnight ET), and on CBS Television from 1956 to 1976 (which also featured coverage of the ball drop in Times Square). Lombardo was also well known for his band's performance of the song "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight, which helped make the standard synonymous with the New Year's holiday in North America.

At the time, Dick Clark was well known as the host of American Bandstand, a music program produced from the studios of Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV) and broadcast by ABC (which itself aired a New Year's Eve special on December 31, 1959).

In the 1970s, Clark felt that Guy Lombardo's New Year's specials were outdated and did not appeal well to younger viewers; he believed that only older viewers would be interested in big band music accompanied by "people dancing cheek-to-jowl in their tuxedos and funny hats". In response, he decided to produce a more youthful New Year's Eve special of his own to compete. Clark's new program would be known as New Year's Rockin' Eve, a name chosen to signify the major contrast between his special and the more formal atmosphere of Guy Lombardo's special. The first edition, Three Dog Night's New Year's Rockin' Eve, was aired by NBC on December 31, 1972, and was hosted by the members of the rock band Three Dog Night. The special featured pre-recorded musical performances from the ballroom of the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California by Helen Reddy, Billy Preston, and Three Dog Night. Clark served as a reporter from Times Square for live coverage of the ball drop and arrival of 1973.

The second special, New Year's Rockin' Eve '74, also on NBC, was hosted by comedian George Carlin and featured pre-recorded musical performances by The Pointer Sisters, Billy Preston, Linda Ronstadt and Tower of Power once again from the Queen Mary ballroom. Beginning with the 1974 edition, the program moved to ABC and Clark assumed hosting duties; billed as Chicago's New Year's Rockin' Eve 1975 and seen as part of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment late-night block, the first ABC edition was headlined by the rock band Chicago, with guests The Beach Boys, The Doobie Brothers, Herbie Hancock and Olivia Newton-John, in segments pre-recorded at MGM Studios in Hollywood.

Rise in popularity
Following Guy Lombardo's death in 1977, CBS and the Royal Canadians attempted to continue their New Year's Eve broadcasts from the Waldorf-Astoria for 1977–78. However, the effects of Lombardo's absence led to a decline in viewership, allowing New Year's Rockin' Eve to overtake the Royal Canadians in viewership in only its sixth year on-air. The threat of the new special also prompted CBS to drop the Royal Canadians entirely in 1979 in favor of a new special, Happy New Year, America, which premiered for New Year's Eve 1979–80. With its recent success, Clark began hoping that New Year's Rockin' Eve would become a television tradition of its own, lamenting that "Lombardo would always win [in New York] because of the Waldorf and 35 years of tradition, but we finally got it wrested." Clark's hopes soon became reality, as New Year's Rockin' Eve had displaced Guy Lombardo as the most popular and most-watched New Year's Eve special on American television in the years following.

The 1980 edition was co-hosted by Erin Moran and John Schneider of Happy Days and The Dukes of Hazzard respectively, and continued with Clark's goal to showcase acts that represented the previous year by featuring Barry Manilow, Blondie, Chic, The Oak Ridge Boys, and the Village People as performers. The 1988 edition was co-hosted by China Beach cast members Marg Helgenberger and Brian Wimmer from the Cocoanut Grove club at the Ambassador Hotel. In 1990, New Year's Eve fell on a Monday; on that night, ABC was scheduled to broadcast a Monday Night Football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints. Fearing that his special would not be able to start on time (as ABC usually began its Monday Night Football coverage at the time at 9:00 p.m. ET, which regularly delayed local and network late-night programming), Clark asked ABC to move the game's start time one hour early to 8:00 p.m., so that Rockin' Eve would run at its normal time.

Mark Curry and Holly Robinson of the ABC sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper co-hosted for 1993–94, with segments at Walt Disney World featuring performances by acts such as Brooks and Dunn and Kiss, along with the marriage of two California firefighters, Laura Turpin and Bob Hutnyan. The 1994–95 edition was co-hosted with Margaret Cho and Steve Harvey (then respectively starring in the ABC sitcoms All-American Girl and Me and the Boys, both of which would be cancelled by the end of that television season), and included musical performances from Melissa Etheridge, Hootie & the Blowfish and Salt-N-Pepa.

The 1996–97 edition was co-hosted by Stacey Dash and Donald Faison of the ABC comedy series Clueless, and included performances by Jann Arden, Kiss, "Weird Al" Yankovic, The Presidents of the United States of America, and The Tony Rich Project. This edition also marked the 25th anniversary of New Year's Rockin' Eve; Clark marked this accomplishment by discussing the greatest challenges he had faced hosting the special; including being unable to hear his director over the loud crowds of Times Square, harsh weather conditions, and a year where the emcee had to contend with a group of 30 nude attendees in the background. Clark aimed to continue hosting the special through the year 2000. Ultimately, Clark hosted the program nearly uninterrupted through 2004. The late-night portion of the 1997–98 edition was followed by a second, hour-long special at 1:05 a.m., After New Year's Eve, which was hosted by David Sanborn and featured Boz Scaggs, Isaac Hayes, Dr. John, Joan Osborne, Lou Reed, and Naughty by Nature.

The popularity of New Year's Rockin' Eve also resulted in Clark making appearances on other television series to reference his role. During a Y2K-themed short in The Simpsons' 1999 Halloween special "Treehouse of Horror X", Clark made a cameo appearance hosting a New Year's Eve event in Springfield. The Y2K bug caused the emcee to melt, exposing him as a robot. In an interview following the episode's airing with its writer, Ron Hauge, Clark said that the episode gave the "biggest response" he had ever gotten from anything he had ever done. Clark made a further appearance during the pilot episode of fellow Matt Groening series Futurama, "Space Pilot 3000", where Clark's head (as preserved in a jar) hosts New Year's Rockin' Eve 3000. In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, footage of Clark from the first edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve is seen on a television at a bar during a scene of the film taking place on New Year's Eve in 1972. New Year's Rockin' Eve itself was the subject of an episode of the sitcom Friends, "The One with the Routine", in which Janine Lecroix invites Joey, Ross, and Monica to attend its studio taping as audience members.

ABC 2000 Today

On December 31, 1999, in lieu of New Year's Rockin' Eve, ABC News presented ABC 2000 Today, a day-long telecast hosted by Peter Jennings which, as part of a consortium of broadcasters, presented coverage of international and U.S. festivities celebrating the arrival of the year 2000. Clark joined Jennings and ABC News reporter Jack Ford as correspondents for coverage from Times Square. They were among the key members of the team of more than 1,000 members of the ABC News division in New York, London, and elsewhere around the world that were part of the broadcast, which also included correspondents/anchors Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, and Sam Donaldson and London Bureau chief Rex Granum. They were all under the direction of ABC's Roger Goodman. The ABC 2000 Today telecast overall also received a Peabody Award. Reflecting on the event, Clark was enthusiastic about his participation, feeling that New Year's Eve 2000 was one of the biggest nights he had ever spent in Times Square.

2001 primetime expansion
New Year's Rockin' Eve returned to ABC the following New Year's Eve for the arrival of 2001. The 2000–01 edition also introduced a new primetime hour at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, which featured additional segments and music performances to lead into the main program. Clark felt positive about the program's expansion into primetime – believing that viewers, no matter where they were, wanted to know what was going on in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Clark was joined by Fox & Friends anchor Steve Doocy, and Madison Michelle as reporters in Times Square. Comedian Wayne Brady hosted concert segments in Hollywood, which included performances by 98 Degrees, Baha Men, Boyz II Men, Lonestar, and Third Eye Blind among others.

The 2002 edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve, its 29th edition, featured pre-recorded concert performances from tours by Aerosmith, Destiny's Child, and Elton John during the primetime hour, followed by studio segments (again hosted by Wayne Brady) featuring performances by Blink-182, Bush, Busta Rhymes, Jessica Simpson, LFO, The O'Jays, and Pink. The primetime hour of New Year's Rockin' Eve 2002 was also preceded by ABC 2002, a follow-up to the ABC 2000 Today special, hosted by Peter Jennings from the Rose Center for Earth and Space. The three-and-a-half-hour special featured a "meaningful and reflective" view on New Year's celebrations from around the world, and also included performances by Arlo Guthrie, Sting, and U2. Clark personally felt that 2002, since it was the first in the wake of the September 11 attacks, was the most "nerve-racking" New Year's Eve he had ever experienced.

2005: Dick Clark's stroke and effects on Rockin' Eve
On December 8, 2004, it was reported that Clark had been hospitalized after suffering from a minor stroke. Despite Clark indicating his participation in New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005 in a prepared statement, reports soon surfaced that the stroke may have been serious enough to prevent him from hosting at all. It was officially announced on December 14 that Dick Clark would not be hosting, and that Regis Philbin would fill in for Clark. In a statement, Clark said that he was thankful that Philbin was able to quickly step in on short notice to host the show, and hoped that he would do a good job. Philbin was optimistic about his role, considering it the "best temp job ever".

Various personalities paid tribute to Clark throughout the night on New Year's Eve; the New Year's Rockin' Eve broadcast featured special celebrity messages for Clark, and revelers in Times Square were seen with signs saluting Clark. During CNN's coverage, revelers in Times Square told CNN's Jason Carroll that Philbin was "all right" filling in for Clark (but that they still had Anderson Cooper and Carroll too). Mayor Michael Bloomberg also spoke with Philbin on Clark's absence during the show, noting that "it isn't that we don't like Regis, but we want [Clark] back next year."

Philbin's hosting received mixed reviews: Richard Huff of the New York Daily News noted that Philbin's hosting was "stiff" at first, and suggested that he would have performed better if he had a co-host to interact with like his daytime talk show Live with Regis and Kelly. In conclusion, he considered Philbin's performance to be "suitable – although not spectacular". Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times believed that Philbin was feeling "surprisingly nervous" in his role at host, and felt that "rowdy crowds" (which Philbin chose to avoid by staying in the studio) and the success of Rod Stewart's career (which Philbin pounced on to promote his new album, "When You're Smiling") were bothering him.

2006: Dick Clark's return
In August 2005, ABC announced that Dick Clark would return to New Year's Rockin' Eve for its 2006 edition, marking his first television appearance since the stroke. For that broadcast, it was also announced Clark would be joined by a new co-host, media personality and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest had previously hosted Fox's competing New Year's Eve Live—which, ironically, would be hosted by Philbin that year. Speaking to USA Today, Seacrest reminisced on having watched New Year's Rockin' Eve in his childhood, stating that "I knew when I was on other shows, I knew we weren't going to beat Dick Clark. He is New Year's Eve." As a part of a long-term deal with Dick Clark Productions, Seacrest also became an executive producer for the special. In an interview with People Magazine in December 2005, Seacrest revealed that while Clark had not completely recovered from the stroke, and that his speech was not exactly like how it was beforehand, Clark had made great progress since the original diagnosis.

Alongside pre-recorded performances from Hollywood hosted by actress and pop singer Hilary Duff, the 2006 edition also featured a live performance by Mariah Carey directly inside Times Square – the first such performance in the show's history. Live performances from Times Square became a regular feature during future editions of New Year's Rockin' Eve.

During the program, Clark made limited on-air appearances, but still conducted his traditional countdown, and also recollected on his recent experiences: Last year I had a stroke. It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there.

Public curiosity over Clark's condition and his return to television helped Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2006 draw in over 20 million viewers throughout the night, and score a 7.1 audience share among the key demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds. Reaction to Clark's appearance was mixed. While some TV critics (including Tom Shales of The Washington Post, in an interview with the CBS Radio Network) felt he was not in good enough shape to do the broadcast, stroke survivors and many of Clark's fans praised the emcee for being a role model for people dealing with post-stroke recovery. The New York Times Brian Stelter compared Seacrest's new role as co-host of Rockin' Eve to being like a "traffic cop", "tossing to bands and correspondents and to Mr. Clark for the countdown".

2007–2011: Ryan Seacrest becomes host
Following the 2006 edition, Dick Clark Productions announced that Seacrest had agreed to remain a host for future editions of New Year's Rockin' Eve. As he was still afflicted with speech impediments that resulted from dysarthria, a lingering effect of his stroke, Clark's role in the special was reduced; he continued to make limited on-air appearances from Times Square Studios as co-host near midnight, and still conducted his traditional countdown, but Seacrest hosted the majority of the program outside in Times Square itself.

The 2008 edition featured live performances from Times Square by Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, and the Jonas Brothers. Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas hosted concert segments from Hollywood, which also featured performances by Akon, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Kingston, OneRepublic, Plain White T's, Taylor Swift and will.i.am. Seacrest's increased role as host was recognized beginning on the 2009 edition, as the special was officially renamed Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest. It featured live performances by the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, and Lionel Richie, with Kellie Pickler serving as a correspondent. Hollywood segments featured performances by Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney, Natasha Bedingfield, Ne-Yo, The Pussycat Dolls, Solange, Robin Thicke and will.i.am.

For its 2010 edition, headlining performances in Times Square included Daughtry, and Jennifer Lopez (who infamously wore a dark-colored catsuit for her performance to mixed reviews), while Melissa Rycroft served as a correspondent. Fergie hosted concert segments on-location from Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring performances by her group The Black Eyed Peas, Colbie Caillat, Robin Thicke, Keri Hilson, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, David Guetta, and Orianthi. American Idol season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert stated that he was also reportedly scheduled to perform, but dropped from both Rockin' Eve and a scheduled appearance on fellow ABC program Jimmy Kimmel Live! in response to his controversial performance at the American Music Awards (which are also produced by Dick Clark Productions). Neither ABC nor Dick Clark Productions ever confirmed whether or not Lambert had been booked at all, however.

The 2011 edition featured live performances by Kesha, Taio Cruz and the supergroup NKOTBSB (the combined Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block), and actress Jenny McCarthy served as a reporter from Times Square. Fergie reprised her role as host for the pre-recorded Hollywood segments, which included performances by Avril Lavigne (featuring the world premiere of "What the Hell", the first single from her then-upcoming album Goodbye Lullaby), Natasha Bedingfield (who performed her latest single "Strip Me"), Jennifer Hudson, Ne-Yo, Train, Mike Posner, Willow Smith, Jason Derülo, Far East Movement, La Roux, Kesha, and Drake. Viewership for the 2011 edition peaked at around 19 million viewers.

2012: 40th anniversary
The 2011–12 edition was once again hosted by Seacrest, with Clark co-hosting what would become his final appearance on the program. Fergie co-hosted for the sixth consecutive year for the pre-taped Hollywood segments, while Jenny McCarthy returned for her second year corresponding from Times Square. Musical guests in Times Square included Lady Gaga (who also joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg in activating the ball drop), Justin Bieber, Pitbull and Hot Chelle Rae. Performers in the Hollywood segments included Taio Cruz, Nicki Minaj, Blink-182, Florence and the Machine, LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes, OneRepublic (at Disneyland), The Band Perry, will.i.am, Christina Perri, and Robin Thicke. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve aired in 1972, the primetime portion of the show was preceded by a two-hour retrospective special focusing on memorable music performances from the show's history.

New Year's Rockin' Eve 2012 brought ABC's highest ratings on New Year's Eve since ABC 2000 Today; an average 8.4 million viewers watched the retrospective segment, the primetime hour brought in 12.9 million viewers, and the first hour of the main broadcast peaked at 22.6 million viewers. These numbers excluded viewership from locations such as bars and New Year's Eve parties, as Nielsen ratings do not account for out-of-home viewership (however, the company announced on October 24, 2016, that it would begin to offer out-of-home ratings data to broadcasters in April 2017).

2013–2016: Death of Dick Clark and aftermath
On April 18, 2012, Dick Clark died after suffering a heart attack following surgery to fix an enlarged prostate. Neither ABC or Dick Clark Productions immediately commented on the future of the program.

In August 2012, ABC confirmed via a press release that New Year's Rockin' Eve would return for its 2012–13 edition. The primetime hour of this edition was preceded by a two-hour tribute special, New Year's Rockin' Eve Celebrates Dick Clark. Clark's legacy was also recognized by the Times Square Alliance, organizers of the ball drop: a triangular Waterford Crystal panel engraved with Dick Clark's name was presented to his widow Kari Wigton and installed on the ball.

On October 23, 2013, Dick Clark Productions confirmed the 2013–14 edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve, and announced that Ryan Seacrest had signed a multi-year deal of unspecified length to continue serving as host and executive producer of the special. Seacrest stated that he would "forever be both sentimental and grateful" about his involvement in the special, and that he was "excited to work together to create new traditions and fun moments on the show that only live television can deliver." Fellow producer Allen Shapiro credited Seacrest's involvement in New Year's Rockin' Eve for its "extended and expanded" success. That year, the special was aired in simulcast in Canada for first time by Citytv, replacing its coverage of concert festivities at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square (the network's local station continued to sponsor the event, however). While viewership was down by 5%, New Year's Rockin' Eve was still the highest-rated among the New Year's specials.

On February 7, 2014, ABC announced that it had renewed New Year's Rockin' Eve through 2024. The 2016 edition featured One Direction's final U.S. television appearance before their planned hiatus. That year, New Year's Rockin' Eve was once again the highest rated of the New Year's Eve specials across the major networks; for the late-night portion, while overall household viewership was down by 7%, ratings in the 18–49 demographic were up by 3%.

2017–2020: New Orleans expansion, Mariah Carey incident and return

The 2017 edition expanded to feature coverage of New Year's Eve festivities in New Orleans hosted by Lucy Hale, with performances by Jason Derulo and Panic! at the Disco from the Sugar Bowl's Allstate Fan Fest concert, and Jackson Square's fleur-de-lis drop at midnight in the Central Time Zone. The segments are subsidized by New Orleans and the state of Louisiana as a means of promoting tourism. While household ratings for the late-night portion of the broadcast were down by 9% in comparison to 2016, New Year's Rockin' Eve was once again the highest-rated New Year's special across the major networks, with a 9.0 rating in metered markets, and a 6.8 rating among adults 18–49.

Mariah Carey was one of the Times Square headliners for the 2017 edition. Her performance was notably marred by technical issues; when opening with "Emotions", Carey remarked throughout the song that she was unable to hear her backing track. On her second song, "We Belong Together", she briefly sang the song with a backing track before abruptly stopping. A representative of the singer claimed that Carey had alerted production staff that her in-ear monitors were not working, but that they refused to address the situation, and alleged that they were "[setting] her up to fail". Dick Clark Productions denied any wrongdoing, stating that they "had no involvement" in the incident, and that the allegations by Carey's management that they had intentionally sabotaged her performance were "defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd".

New Jersey's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) had announced plans for a live performance from Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall by an unannounced artist, but these plans fell through, citing "scheduling conflicts and other considerations". The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the CRDA's contract to host the DCP-produced Miss America pageant in Atlantic City contained provisions allowing "promotional accommodations" for the city in other DCP-produced programming, such as New Year's Rockin' Eve and the Billboard Music Awards. Robert Mulcahy, chairman of the board for the CRDA, explained that Live Nation (which was to fund the broadcast using cash left over from cancelled beach concerts) were unable to find an act that met the approval of DCP, and added that local casinos declined to fund the performance, as they preferred to host their own parties rather than book major acts.

Despite the previous year's incident, Carey was subsequently invited to perform in Times Square again for New Year's Rockin' Eve 2018, in what media outlets described as an attempt at "redemption". The 2018 edition saw major ratings gains, especially in primetime; the 8:00–10:00 p.m. primetime segment reached 10.5 million viewers with a 3.1/13 rating among 18-49s, and the 10:00 p.m. hour reached 15.7 million viewers and a 5.0/20 rating among 18-49s—the highest ratings to date for the 10:00 p.m. segment. New Year's Rockin' Eve's only major competitor on English-language network television was Fox's inaugural New Year's Eve with Steve Harvey, as NBC was committed to air Sunday Night Football if the NFL shifted a Week 17 game with playoff implications into primetime (however, the NFL decided against doing so, and NBC thus aired rerun programming in primetime instead).

On November 13, 2018, it was announced that YouTube Music would be a presenting sponsor of the 2019 edition. The service is also presenting sponsor of the DCP-produced American Music Awards. With the return of NBC's New Year's Eve after a hiatus, the 2019 edition experienced a decline in ratings to an 8.3 household share for its late-night portion, but was once again the top-rated among the New Year's specials.

On October 7, 2019, Jenny McCarthy stated on Live with Kelly and Ryan that she would not appear as the Times Square correspondent for the 2020 edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve, citing a desire to spend the holiday with her family, and her commitments to season 3 of Fox's The Masked Singer. Lucy Hale would serve as Times Square correspondent in place of McCarthy, and Billy Porter of the FX series Pose hosted the New Orleans segments in place of Hale, and also performed his song "Love Yourself". Ciara again hosted the Hollywood concert segments. Longtime ABC News journalist Barbara Walters (via file footage) and other ABC personalities also played into a social media meme involving her longtime intro to the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, by noting in a segment that "This is 2020". The broadcast also introduced a sponsored segment featuring a "first millionaire of 2020" promotion by the Powerball lottery.

2021–present
Hale and Porter were named Times Square correspondents for the 2021 edition. Cyndi Lauper performed a duet with Porter—who had been a cast member for her Broadway musical Kinky Boots. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both the Times Square and New Orleans celebrations televised by the special were held with no public attendance (with the former featuring a limited audience of essential workers and their families). The special featured an on-air interview between Seacrest and President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden. Big Freedia hosted the New Orleans segments of the special.

In December 2020, it was reported that Mayor of New Orleans LaToya Cantrell had sent a letter to DCP requesting that Lauren Daigle (a Christian singer from Louisiana who had seen recent success as a pop crossover) not appear as a New Orleans-based performer for the special, citing her recent guest appearance during a worship event organized by Sean Feucht that was not approved by the city, and violated COVID-19-related public health orders. After criticism of the letter by state lieutenant governor Billy Nungesser (who maintained that Daigle had mistaken it for a legitimate event), a DCP staff member told The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate that Daigle had not actually been booked at all.

On December 16, 2021, it was announced that Seacrest had signed a multi-year extension with DCP's parent company MRC to continue his role as host and EP of New Year's Rockin' Eve. (MRC discontinued Dick Clark Productions as a studio imprint in September 2021, and moved all of its productions under the MRC Live & Alternative banner; this change was reversed after the merger of MRC and Eldridge Industries' media properties was unwound in 2022.)

The 2022 edition—which marked the 50th anniversary of the first edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve—added coverage from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, consisting of segments from Distrito T-Mobile in San Juan, Puerto Rico hosted by Roselyn Sánchez and headlined by rapper Daddy Yankee, and the special's first broadcast of midnight celebrations in the Atlantic Time Zone to conclude the primetime block at 11:00 p.m. ET. Billy Porter returned as host of the New Orleans segments, while Liza Koshy reported from Times Square. D-Nice also made guest appearances for the Los Angeles segments alongside Ciara. While LL Cool J was originally announced as one of the headlining acts in Times Square, he was dropped on December 29 due to a COVID-19 infection. Chlöe was also dropped from the special for unspecified reasons. On December 31, ABC announced that Karol G had dropped out, but that Ashanti and Ja Rule had also joined the lineup.

ABC confirmed that Koshy, Porter, Ciara, and D-Nice would all return in their respective roles for the 2023 edition. To promote its upcoming "100 Years of Wonder" events for The Walt Disney Company's centennial year, concert segments were also filmed at Disneyland in Anaheim. The special also returned to Puerto Rico, with Farruko as featured performer and Dayanara Torres as host. In a major change in scheduling emulating what NBC implemented the previous year for its newly-introduced special (Miley's New Year's Eve Party), "Part 1" of the primetime block now ended at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT rather than 11:00, and resumed with "Part 2" at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (after late local programming), which now straddled between prime time and late-night, and addressing a minor controversy from 2022 where the midnight Atlantic San Juan countdown was not seen on several stations due to automation from affiliate master controls inadvertently kicking those stations into local newscasts and pre-empting it entirely. The 11:30 p.m.—12:36 a.m. block containing the Times Square ball drop was now billed as "Part 1" of the late-night broadcast. Viewership for the Times Square leg of the special saw a major year-over-year decline, falling from 19.6 million to 13.2 million viewers. However, ABC still finished first overall in total and key demographic audience share.

On November 20, 2023, ABC and Dick Clark Productions announced that it had renewed New Year's Rockin' Eve through 2028–29. The 2023–24 edition will feature several major changes. Coverage from New Orleans was discontinued—removing a formal Central Time Zone countdown from the broadcast—due to a lack of local tourism and municipal subsidies to put on the ceremony. Rita Ora was announced as the new Times Square co-host, with Jeannie Mai now hosting the Hollywood segments. An audio simulcast of the special was carried by iHeartMedia hot adult contemporary and top 40 stations, as an extension of the company's recent partnership with ABC to broadcast its iHeartRadio Music Festival and Jingle Ball Tour specials. Seacrest has been associated with iHeartMedia's syndication arm Premiere Networks, where he hosts the morning show On Air with Ryan Seacrest, and the American Top 40.

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

title: Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve


text:
Horseshoe kidney

Horseshoe kidney, also known as ren arcuatus  (in Latin), renal fusion or super kidney, is a congenital disorder affecting about 1 in 500 people that is more common in men, often asymptomatic, and usually diagnosed incidentally. In this disorder, the patient's kidneys fuse to form a horseshoe-shape during development in the womb. The fused part is the isthmus of the horseshoe kidney. The abnormal anatomy can affect kidney drainage resulting in increased frequency of kidney stones and urinary tract infections as well as increase risk of certain renal cancers.

Fusion abnormalities of the kidney can be categorized into two groups: horseshoe kidney and crossed fused ectopia. The 'horseshoe kidney' is the most common renal fusion anomaly.

Signs and symptoms
Although often asymptomatic, the most common presenting symptom of patients with a horseshoe kidney is abdominal or flank pain. However, presentation is often non-specific. Approximately a third of patients with horseshoe kidneys remain asymptomatic throughout their entire life with over 50% of patients having no medical issues related to their renal fusion when followed for a 25-year period. As a result, it is estimated that approximately 25% of patients with horseshoe kidneys are diagnosed incidentally with ultrasound or CT imaging.

Associated conditions
Patients with a horseshoe kidney can develop sequelae related to the abnormal anatomy and present with symptoms related to them.

Individuals that have a horseshoe kidney may be at increased risk for conditions that generally fall within the following categories:
 * Kidney obstruction – commonly causes ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJ) which is a blockage at the area where the ureter connects to the renal pelvis. This can lead to urinary stasis which can promote infection and stone formation.
 * Kidney infections – associated with vesicoureteral reflux (present in approximately 50% of all patients with renal fusion) which is an abnormal reflux of urine back into the ureters that increases risk of urinary tract infections.
 * Kidney stones – deviant orientation of kidneys combined with slow urine flow and kidney obstruction may increase the risk of developing kidney stones. Treatment is further complicated if patient possesses aberrant skeletal anatomy. It is estimated 36% of patients with horseshoe kidneys will develop kidney stones.
 * Kidney cancer – increased frequency of certain renal cancers such as transitional cell tumors, Wilms tumors, and carcinoid tumors.
 * Heart abnormalities – ventricular septal defect.
 * Neurological abnormalities - encephalocoele, myelomeningocele, spina bifida.
 * Skeletal abnormalities - kyphosis, scoliosis, hemivertebra, and micrognathia.
 * Genitourinary abnormalities - septate vagina, bicornuate uterus, hypospadias, undescended testis, adult polycystic kidney disease, and more than two kidneys.
 * Genetic abnormalities - Turner syndrome, Down syndrome, Patau syndrome, Edward syndrome, and orocraniodigital syndrome.

Cause
There have been several proposed factors that may contribute to the development of a horseshoe kidney. Different exposures to the developing fetus such as different teratogens (e.g. thalidomide, ethanol, ACE inhibitors, cocaine, gentamicin, corticosteroids, NSAIDs, and vitamin A) have been hypothesized. Impairment of a developing embryo's nephrogenic cell migration or abnormal migration of the kidneys due to fetal structural abnormalities is another potential factor. However, no definitive genetic cause has been identified.

Pathophysiology
Kidneys are normally located in the retroperitoneal space between the T12 and L3 vertebrae after ascending from the pelvis during development to rest underneath the adrenal glands. In patients with this condition, the horseshoe kidney ascent is commonly arrested by the inferior mesenteric artery due to the central fusion of the kidneys. However, this is present in only 40% of cases, and, in 20% of cases, the fused kidney remains in the pelvis. Its ascension may also be restricted by its own renal artery. Additionally, during normal development, the kidneys undergo a 90 degree medial rotation while ascending. However, due to the renal fusion, this rotation is impaired resulting in abnormal placement of the ureters. This in turn can lead to urinary stasis and drainage issues. Furthermore, approximately 70% of kidneys in normal individuals are supplied by a single renal artery with the remaining 30% having embryonic collateral or accessory arteries. With horseshoe kidneys, the majority are supplied by derivatives of the abdominal aorta or common illiac arteries depending on the final position of the kidneys.

Diagnosis
Horseshoe kidneys are commonly diagnosed incidentally on abdominal imaging. The diagnosis can be made with many different imaging modalities such as ultrasound, intravenous pyelogram, CT, and MRI.

Common features that can be found on imaging include:
 * Midline symmetrical fusion (present in 90% of cases) or lateral asymmetric fusion (present in 10% of cases) of the lower poles
 * Position of fused kidneys are lower than normal with incomplete medial rotation
 * Renal pelvis and ureters are positioned more anteriorly and ventrally cross the isthmus
 * Isthmus that may be positioned below the inferior mesenteric artery
 * Variant arterial supply that can originate from the abdominal aorta or common illiac arteries
 * Lower poles of kidney that extend ventromedially and may be poorly defined

Treatment
Symphysiotomy, which involves separating the fused isthmus in order to release the kidneys, used to be a recommended treatment for this condition but has fallen out of favor due to complications and minimal benefit. Furthermore, kidneys can remain in their original abnormal location after the surgery. Instead, management focuses on treating the sequelae should the patient become symptomatic.

While treatment typically does not differ from that of patients with normal kidney anatomy, kidney stones can warrant a different approach. Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, a possible treatment for kidney stones, can be less effective in patients with horseshoe kidneys due to the abnormal anatomy causing difficulties with localizing the energy to the stones. Also, due to the kidney obstruction that can commonly occur with this renal fusion, clearance of the resulting stone fragments can also be impaired. For this reason, prior to any treatment with shockwave lithotripsy, a UPJ obstruction must first be ruled out as it significantly impair successful treatment. For stones that are less than 1.5 cm, ureteroscopy and shockwave lithotripsy can be first utilized. For stones larger than 1.5 cm or when previous treatment has failed, the stones can instead be removed through a minimally invasive procedure known as percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

Compared to patients with normal kidneys, patients with horseshoe kidneys who undergo treatment with percutaneous nephrolithotomy experience no difference in complications or stone clearance.

Patients will also typically require imaging before any abdominal surgery as the vascular supply to the abnormal kidney can be highly variable between patients. Additionally, the horseshoe kidneys can have a close association with colon which can increase risk of bowel injury.

Epidemiology
There is an incidence of 1 in every 500 individuals within a normal population.

Males are more likely to develop a horseshoe kidney with a preponderance of 2:1.

Certain genetic diseases can predispose patients to developing a horseshoe kidney:
 * Edwards Syndrome: 67%
 * Turner Syndrome: 14-20%
 * Down Syndrome: <1%

Notable cases

 * Mel Gibson is affected with this condition.
 * Sam Kinison, an American comedian, also had this condition.
 * Robert Rowan a member of the Anglican clergy was afflicted by the condition.

title: Horseshoe kidney


text:
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea is a Protestant church denomination located in Papua New Guinea that professes the Lutheran branch of the Christian faith. The Church is incorporated by a 1991 Act of the Parliament of Papua New Guinea and it has a baptized membership of approximately 900,000 members.

It is a member of the:
 * Lutheran World Federation (LWF) (1976)
 * World Council of Churches
 * Pacific Conference of Churches
 * and is in fellowship with the Lutheran Church of Australia.

History
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea grew out of the work of the Neuendettelsau Mission Society (1886) and the Rhenish Missionary Society (1887), both from Germany. During World War II all missionaries left the area, and many mission stations, churches, schools and hospitals were damaged. In spite of this, the indigenous church leaders and local Christians stood firm in the work of the church. After the war the Lutheran churches in Australia and North America were asked to help reconstruct the church in Papua New Guinea, working together as the Lutheran Mission New Guinea. In 1956 expatriate missionaries and indigenous church leaders gathered and formed the present indigenous church. At the time of its founding the church was called Evangelical Lutheran Church of New Guinea (ELCONG), and its founding bishop was an expatriate missionary from the American Lutheran Church. The first indigenous bishop was elected in 1973. In 1975, on the eve of the country's independence, the name of the church was changed to Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELCPNG). In 1977 the church was officially declared autonomous and another local Lutheran church organized by the Australian Lutheran Mission joined with the ELCPNG. It has long had close relations with the Gutnius Lutheran Church, largely in Enga Province, whose origins were American Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, and shares clergy college in Lae.

Aims and Beliefs
The ELCPNG believes that the church is the body of Christ on earth so that people can grow in faith and live as brothers and sisters. This function of the church is seen in the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments, bringing people closer to God so that they may inherit eternal life. The church teaches that the Holy Spirit enables and strengthens this work. The stated aims of the church are :

 * to strengthen fellowship among members - koinonia
 * to strengthen the practice of worship - liturgia
 * to strengthen the work of evangelism - martyria
 * to strengthen the work of holding fast to the word of God as proclaimed by the Apostles - theology and confession - theologia
 * to strengthen the work of service and welfare - diakonia.

Church Governance and Functions
The church has seven departments: evangelism, education, lands and properties, ministerial training, medical services, development services, finance. There are 17 districts divided according to geographical and population needs. Circuits cover smaller areas within the districts; within the circuits are the local parishes/congregations. The church runs 81 health centres, 224 primary schools, 18 high schools, 6 secondary schools, 3 community school one teacher training college, 3 nursing college, 5 girls' Bible schools, 3 seminaries and a training centre for evangelists.

Literature

 * Flierl, John: Forty-Five Years in New Guinea: Memoirs of the Senior Missionary. Translated by M. Wiederanders. Second and Revised Edition ed. The Lutheran Book Concern: Columbus, Ohio 1931. 204 pp.
 * Flierl, Joh.: Christ in New Guinea: Former Cannibals Become Evangelists by the Marvellous Grace of God: A Short History of Missionwork Done by the Native Helpers and Teachers in the Lutheran Mission New Guinea. Auricht's Printing Office: Tanunda, S.A. 1932. 298 pp.
 * Flierl, Johann: My Life and God's Mission: An Autobiography by Senior Johann Flierl: Pioneer Missionary and Field Inspector in New Guinea. Flierl, Erich, Editor & Translator. Board for Church Cooperation in World Mission, Lutheran Church of Australia: Adelaide 1999. 255 pp.
 * Albert C. Frerichs: Anutu conquers in New Guinea, Wartburg Press: Columbus, Ohio 1957. 271 pp. + 1 map.
 * Wendy Flannery: All Prophets: Revival Movements in the Catholic and Lutheran Churches in the Highlands. In: Catalyst 10 (1980) 229–257.
 * Herwig Wagner - Hermann Reiner (eds.), The Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea. The First Hundred Years 1886–1986, second printing, Lutheran Publishing House: Adelaide (Australia) 1987, 677 pp., ISBN 0-85910-382-X
 * Brian Schwarz (ed.), An Introduction to Ministry in Melanesia. A Handbook for Church Workers, point Series No. 7, The Melanesian Institute, Goroka 1985, 304 pp.
 * Rufus Pech, The Acts of the Apostles in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, in: B. Schwarz (ed), An Introduction to Ministry in Melanesia, Point Series No. 7, The Melanesian Institute: Goroka, PNG 1985, 17–71.
 * Gernot Fugmann, The Birth of an indigenous church : letters, reports and documents of Lutheran Christians of Papua New Guinea, Point series, no. 10, Melanesian Institute: Goroka, Papua New Guinea 1986.
 * Herwig Wagner - Gernot Fugmann - Hermann Janssen (eds.), Papua Neuguinea. Geschichte und Kirche. Ein ökumenisches Handbuch, Verl. der Ev.Luth. Mission: Erlangen, 1989, 464 pp. + 16 Bildseiten, ISBN 3-87214-193-7
 * Müller, Klaus Wilhelm: Peacemaker: Missionary Practice of Georg Friedrich Vicedom in New Guinea (1929–1939): A Presentation Based Mainly on His Own Writings. [Ph.D. Dissertation]. Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen; 1993. 27, 284, 7, 523 pp.
 * Paul Steffen: Missionsbeginn in Neuguinea. Die Anfänge der Rheinischen, Neuendettelsauer und Steyler Missionsarbeit in Neuguinea. (Studia Instituti Missiologici S.V.D. - 61) Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1995, ISBN 3-8050-0351-X.
 * Heinrich Zahn,  Mission and Music: Jabem Traditional Music and the Development of Lutheran Hymnody, translated by Philip W. Holzknecht, Edited by Don Niles, Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Boroko, Port Moresby (PNG) 1996, 492 pp., ISBN 9980-68-032-6.
 * Traugott Farnbacher: Gemeinde verantworten : Anfänge, Entwicklungen und Perspektiven von Gemeinde und Ämtern der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche von Papua-Neuguinea, LIT Verlag: Munster - Hamburg - London 1998, 500 pp., ISBN 3-8258-3848-X.
 * Ian Breward: A History of the Churches in Australasia, (The Oxford History of Christian Churches), Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, Reprinted 2008, 474 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-927592-2.
 * Paul B. Steffen, Die katholischen Missionen in Deutsch-Neuguinea, in: H.J. Hiery (ed.), Die deutsche Südsee. Ein Handbuch, 2nd improved and enlarged edition 2002, Schöningh: Paderborn 2001, 343–383, ISBN 3-506-73912-3, 341-383.
 * Rufus Pech: Deutsche evangelische Missionen in Deutsch-Neuguinea 1886–1921, : H.J. Hiery (ed.), Die deutsche Südsee. Ein Handbuch, 2nd improved and enlarged edition 2002, Schöningh: Paderborn 2001, 343–383, ISBN 3-506-73912-3, 384–416.


text:
I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon

"I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" is a short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. The short story was first published in Playboy in December 1980, under the title "Frozen Journey".

Plot summary
In the story, a man (Victor Kemmings) regains consciousness during a failed attempt at cryosleep on board a spaceship. The ship's artificial intelligence cannot repair the malfunction and cannot wake him, so Kemmings is doomed to remain conscious but paralyzed through the ship's entire ten-year-long journey. To maintain his sanity, the A.I. replays Kemmings's memories to him. But when this goes awry, the ship's A.I. asks Kemmings what he wants most -- and the answer is that Kemming wants the trip to be over and to arrive at his new home. The A.I. constructs such a scenario for Kemming and plays it to him over and over for the next ten years. When the ship finally arrives at its destination, Kemming cannot accept reality and believes his arrival to be yet another construction.

Like most of Philip K. Dick's work, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon involves a questioning of what it is to be human and of what reality is. The story also has a theme of guilt, as the memories of the passenger are spoiled by the guilt he retains about his past actions.

title: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon


text:
Built for Speed (Stray Cats album)

Built for Speed is a compilation album by American rockabilly band Stray Cats, released as the band's first album in the United States in June 1982 by EMI America Records.

Built for Speed is essentially a compilation of 12 tracks taken from the band's first two British album releases: six from Stray Cats (February 1981) and five from Gonna Ball (November 1981), plus the title track, "Built for Speed", which had not previously been released in the United Kingdom.

It was the most successful record for the band, earning a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the music videos for songs such as "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" reaching MTV regular rotation status.

Critical reception
Reviewing Built for Speed for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau said that, despite Brian Setzer's exotic, modernistic guitar touches, "the mild vocals just ain't rockabilly. You know how it is when white boys strive for authenticity—'57 V-8 my ass". Rolling Stone's David Fricke found Stray Cats' self-production "spiritless" and their original compositions "mostly average", remarking that the band only "gets it dead right" on the tracks produced by Dave Edmunds.

In a retrospective review, Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote that the melodies and playing are strong enough to withstand datedness on what is "song-for-song the group's strongest album, despite the cut-and-paste manner in which it was created".

Track listing
Note: "Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie" is often miscredited as having been written by Mike Chapman, who recorded a song of the same name with his band Tangerine Peel. However, Chapman's "Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie" is a completely different song from the one the Stray Cats recorded; they just happen to share the same title. The Stray Cats' "Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie" was originally performed by Eddie Cochran, and was written by George Motola and Ricky Page (regardless of what the original Built for Speed album or other various Stray Cats collections may claim).

Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.

Stray Cats
 * Brian Setzer – guitars, lap steel guitar, vocals
 * Slim Jim Phantom – drums, vocals
 * Lee Rocker – bass, electric bass, vocals

Production
 * Dave Edmunds – production
 * Hein Hoven – production
 * Stray Cats – production
 * Wally Traugott – mastering

Design
 * Charles Novick Studios – design
 * Gavin Cochrane – front cover photography
 * Francesca – design
 * Guido Harari – back cover photography
 * Sheila Rock – back cover photography

Charts
Album

Single

title: Built for Speed (Stray Cats album)


text:
Central United States

The Central United States is sometimes conceived as between the Eastern and Western as part of a three-region model, roughly coincident with the U.S. Census's definition of the Midwestern United States plus the western and central portions of the U.S. Census's definition of the Southern United States. The Central States are typically considered to consist of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama.

Geography
Chicago is the area's largest city and metropolitan area; other large cities with large metropolitan areas include New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, Topeka, Wichita, Omaha, Nebraska and Lincoln, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Madison and Milwaukee, St. Louis, Louisville, Lexington, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton, Rockford, Peoria, Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne and South Bend.

Four of nine Census Bureau Divisions have names containing "Central", though they are not grouped as a region. They include 20 states and 39.45% of the U.S. population as of July 1, 2007.

Almost all of the area is in the Gulf of Mexico drainage basin and most of that is in the Mississippi Basin. Small waterways near the Great Lakes drain into the Great Lakes, and eventually the St. Lawrence River. The Red River Valley is centered on the North Dakota-Minnesota border and drains to Hudson Bay. Floods have been a problem for the region during the 20th and early 21st century.

The Central Time Zone includes portions of the Florida Panhandle, upper portions of Michigan, parts of Indiana, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, all of Texas except El Paso, and extends to the westernmost fringes of Great Plains states.

Central regions defined by organizations
Different organizations define the central regions of the United States in a variety of ways:
 * YPO Only 6 central states of the Midwest, plus KY
 * CERI All of Midwest and South including MD, DE
 * NOAA Midwest minus OH, plus KY, CO, WY
 * HSUS Midwest minus ND, SD, KS, plus KY
 * USGS West North Central States, South Central United States, 4 eastern Mountain states
 * Adventure Camp Midwest plus South minus Atlantic states, AL, WV
 * Geography of the Interior United States
 * MLB's National League Central Division, members in PA, OH, WI, IL, MO; TX through 2012
 * MLB's American League Central Division, members in OH, MI, IL, MN, MO
 * NBA's Central Division, members in OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, former members from NC, FL, GA, LA and Ontario (Canada)
 * NHL's Central Division, members in CO, MN, TN, TX, IL, MO and Manitoba (Canada), former members in MI, AZ, OH and Ontario (Canada)
 * The NFL's former National Football Conference Central Division, members in FL, MI, IL, WI, and MN
 * The NFL's former American Football Conference Central Division, members in MD, PA, FL, OH, TN, former member from TX

Geographic center of the United States
The geographic midpoint of the contiguous 48 states of the United States falls within the boundaries of the Central United States and is located about two miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas. The spot is located at 39 degrees 50 minutes latitude and 98 degrees 35 minutes longitude.

title: Central United States


text:
USCG Deployable Pursuit Boat

The 11.6 m (38 ft) Deployable Pursuit Boat (DPB) gives the United States Coast Guard a new capability in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. About 85% of the cocaine smuggled through those areas travels on "go-fasts", 9 to 12 m (30 to 40 ft) high speed craft which each carry 1,000 to 2,000 kg of illegal narcotics. Working with other Coast Guard assets, DPB crews are able to intercept and board "go-fasts", and significantly reduce the flow of drugs through the transit zone.

title: USCG Deployable Pursuit Boat


text:
Bang Rak district

Bang Rak (บางรัก, ) is one of the fifty districts (khet) of Bangkok, Thailand. It lies on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, beyond Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem, which marked the old city boundary. Originating from riverside settlements dating from before the city's foundation, Bang Rak grew inland as new roads and canals were constructed through the area during the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth, attracting communities of expatriates and developing into a major commercial district.

Bangkok's rapid economic growth in the late twentieth century saw the areas along Si Lom and Sathon roads transformed into one of the city's main business districts, teeming with skyscrapers. The district, officially recognised at least since 1908, covers an area of 5.54 km2, and has a registered population of 48,227 (as of 2019).

History
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, water formed the primary mode of transport in the lower Chao Phraya plains, and most people lived along the banks of rivers and canals. Settlements had formed along the Chao Phraya River since the Ayutthaya Kingdom (14th century – 1767), and some Buddhist temples in and around Bang Rak date to the period. Bangkok became the capital city with the foundation of the Thonburi Kingdom in 1767, and was re-established as the Rattanakosin Kingdom in 1782; riverside areas beyond the fortified city of Rattanakosin Island developed into fringe neighbourhoods settled by various ethnic communities. Downstream of the city and just beyond the Chinatown area, the waterfront stretch that is now Bang Rak Subdistrict was home to Thais, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malays, Lao, Tavoyans, and descendants of Portuguese, among others. A Catholic church (now in the adjacent Talat Noi neighbourhood), dedicated to the Lady of the Rosary, was established by the Portuguese community in 1787. French priests then moved into the area for missionary work, followed by Protestants, mostly from the United States.

As international trade increased in the nineteenth century, the neighbourhood developed into one of many port areas along the river.

By the time of King Mongkut's reign (Rama IV, 1851–1868), the city had outgrown its original defensive walls, and the King ordered the digging of Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem to serve as a new outer moat surrounding the city proper. The canal separated Bang Rak, on the far side from the city, from the Chinatown area, and as the country began modernizing and opened to the West under Mongkut's reign, European visitors began establishing themselves here. The Bowring Treaty was signed with the British in 1855, liberalizing trade and granting diplomatic concessions, and other Western countries followed suit. Consulates, trading companies and expatriate communities were established in the waterfront area, which became the city's European quarter.

The Westerners also indirectly set off the city's transformation. They petitioned Mongkut to build roads for their use, first to the Phra Khanong area (to where they planned to relocate but later abandoned the idea), then to serve the waterfront community in Bang Rak. The King obliged, and had Thanon Trong (also known as Hua Lamphong Road and later to become Rama IV Road) constructed in 1857 and Charoen Krung Road in 1862. Si Lom Road soon followed, linking the two. The introduction of land-based transport transformed the city, and Charoen Krung became its main thoroughfare, bringing commerce and spurring development.

In the 1890s and 1900s, during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868–1910), enterprising businessmen engaged in land development by buying up land and building roads through the area. The resulting Sathon, Surawong, and Si Phraya roads ran roughly parallel to Si Lom, and, together with a few connecting roads between them, have since formed the district's main road network.

The development attracted businesses, which established numerous shops along the roads, as well as newly wealthy residents, who made their homes in villas. Emerging ethnic communities were formed by migrants arriving from Western colonies, who found advantage in the treaties' extraterritorial provisions. Among them were Javanese Muslims, and Hindus, Muslims, and Jains from India, who established places of worship in their neighbourhoods, joining the Christian churches as the missionaries continued to expand their work through the founding of schools and hospitals. The roads were soon augmented by rail transport, as the Paknam Railway (the country's first line) opened along Thanon Trong in 1893, and electrified trams began running on Charoen Krung Road the following year. Another tram line, along Si Lom Road, opened in 1925.

Bang Rak District gradually proceeded to fill up with development, and in the post-World War II period, increasing numbers of foreign businesses moved from the waterfront area into newer premises, especially along Si Lom Road. In 1963, the trams were discontinued, and the canal that ran alongside Si Lom road was filled in for its expansion, further incentivizing its development as a business street. (Many of the roads had originally been built with canals running alongside, using the excavated earth. The Paknam Railway was also discontinued, in 1960.) The Dusit Thani Hotel, the city's first high-rise building, opened in 1970, initiating a wave of high-rise construction along Si Lom and Sathon as the economy boomed through the early 1990s. While the 1997 financial crisis put an end to the boom, the economy eventually recovered.

The earliest government proclamation naming Bang Rak as a district dates to 1908, and it was re-established with boundaries near its present form in 1915. Its status, along with Bangkok's other districts', was later changed from amphoe to khet in 1972. The district is named Bang Rak after the original waterfront settlement. While bang is a common place name prefix for villages situated on a rivers, the origins of the second word are unclear. Early documents variably spelled the name as บางรัก or บางรักษ์; the first (and current) spelling fits with the theory that it derived from that of the rak (Gluta usitata) tree, a large trunk of which had been found in the area, while the second favours the idea that the name came from the word rak (รักษ์ 'heal'), after hospitals operated by the area's missionaries. Today, as rak is also a homonym alternatively meaning "love", the name makes the district office a popular place for marriage registrations, especially on Valentine's Day.

Geography and administration
Bang Rak District occupies 5.536 km2 in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon side, on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. It is bordered by Pathum Wan district to the northeast across Rama IV Road, Sathon to the southeast across Khlong Sathon (in the middle of Sathon Road), Khlong San to the west on the other side of the Chao Phraya, and Samphanthawong to the northwest, across Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem.

The district's main thoroughfares, in addition to Rama IV and Sathon roads, which serve as its borders, are Charoen Krung Road, which runs roughly alongside the river, and (from north to south) Si Phraya, Surawong and Si Lom roads, which run in a southwest–northeast direction, roughly parallel to Sathon, linking Rama IV and Charoen Krung. They divide the district into five subdistricts (khwaeng). Bang Rak Subdistrict is on the riverside west of Charoen Krung. East of it, from north to south, are Maha Phruettharam, Si Phraya, Suriyawong, and Si Lom. Together, they have a registered population of 48,227 as of 2019.

Several streets run between the parallel roads, forming links between them. The only one to cross all of them is Maha Nakhon–Maha Set–Mahesak–Surasak, each section of which is known by a different name as it runs from Rama IV at Maha Nakhon Intersection to meet Sathon Road at Sathon–Surasak Intersection, with the elevated Si Rat Expressway running nearby. Others include Sap and Naret roads between Si Phraya and Surawong, Decho Road between Surawong and Si Lom, and Sala Daeng, Convent, Pan and Pramuan roads between Si Lom and Sathon. These are relatively small streets, except Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra Road, which runs alongside Khlong Chong Nonsi from Surawong through Sathon, continuing southeastward towards Rama III Road in Yan Nawa district. On the other side of Bang Rak, Maha Phruettharam Road runs alongside Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem, also linking between Rama IV (at Hua Lamphong Intersection) and Charoen Krung (at Phitthayasathian Bridge).

Neighbourhoods
Bang Rak District contains some highly developed areas. Commercial development is most concentrated around Si Lom and Sathon roads, while the areas towards Maha Phruettharam are quieter and mostly residential. Development also fronts Rama IV Road, especially around the neighbourhoods surrounding its intersections: Saphan Lueang (where it is met by Banthat Thong Road in Pathum Wan District), Sam Yan (where Si Phraya Road meets Phaya Thai), Henri Dunant (Surawong and Henri Dunant), Sala Daeng (Si Lom and Ratchadamri), and Witthayu (Sathon and Witthayu).

The side streets of Si Lom Road form several distinctive neighbourhoods, several of which, like Sala Daeng and Convent, feature restaurants and open spaces nestled behind office towers fronting the main road. Near Si Lom's east end, on the north side (in Suriyawong Subdistrict), several side streets are home to a concentration of nightlife venues. Among them, the Patpong neighbourhood is well known as a red-light district catering to foreigners. On the south side (in Si Lom Subdistrict), near Si Lom–Naradhiwas Intersection, Soi Lalai Sap is a popular office worker's shopping street. Towards the road's Charoen Krung end (Bang Rak Junction), the office towers peter out, and the neighbourhood is marked by the historic Tamil Indian presence; the area around Mahesak Road (between Si Lom and Surawong) is also known as a jewellery district.

Sathon Road, meanwhile, has a more sterile appearance, with office towers, hotels, and religious, educational and health institutions occupying large blocks along the road. Sathon–Naradhiwas Intersection, near the middle of the road's length, is in particular surrounded by gleaming glass-walled skyscrapers. While establishments line the road on both sides, Bang Rak District only covers those on the north; the road's south side is in the area of Sathon District. The combined Si Lom–Sathon business district generates a large amount of economic activity and employment. Despite being among the country's smallest districts by area, Bang Rak has Bangkok's largest number of jobs, with over 170,000 positions based in the district as of 2016, according to a job-seeking service company.

The flurry of activity, however, doesn't reach the waterfront area along Charoen Krung Road (mostly covered by Bang Rak Subdistrict), which retains much of its historic architecture. While commercially the area had long been eclipsed by newer development, revitalisation efforts since the 2010s have aimed to revive the neighbourhood as a creative district. The area's side streets, such as Soi Charoen Krung 36 and Captain Bush Lane, feature heritage buildings that serve as cultural tourism destinations.

Places
Among the best known features of Bang Rak District are the skyscrapers of Si Lom and Sathon, some of which—Mahanakhon, State Tower, and Jewelry Trade Center—are among the tallest buildings in the country. They stand in contrast to colonial-era historic buildings such as the Neilson Hays Library and the British Club on Surawong Road, and the Sathon Mansion near Sathon–Naradhiwas Intersection. Other historic buildings are concentrated in the waterfront Charoen Krung area, including the nineteenth-century Portuguese and French embassies, Customs House, East Asiatic Building, and original Author's Wing of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Dating later, from 1940, the General Post Office building on Charoen Krung Road now houses the Thailand Creative & Design Center, a sponsor of the Creative District project. From the same period, the Bangkokian Museum and Bang Rak District Local Museum, on a side street of Charoen Krung near Maha Set Road, showcases a middle-class family home of the time and features exhibits about the district's history. Some of Bang Rak's most noticeable points of interest are places of worship, the diversity of which reflect the area's multicultural history. While the district is home to centuries-old Buddhist temples including Wat Maha Phruettharam (on the same-named road), Wat Hua Lamphong (at Sam Yan Intersection), and Wat Suan Phlu and Wat Muang Khae on the waterfront, it is the outsize representation of minority religious communities that generate special interest. The Sri Mahamariamman Temple on the corner of Si Lom and Pan roads is the city's largest Hindu temple, serving the Tamil community, while Soi Phuttha-osot off Maha Set Road is home to two Jain temples and the Tamil Muslim Bangkok Mosque. Other mosques include the Javanese Masjid Mirasuddeen on Soi Si Lom 20, and the Ban Oou and Haroon mosques, which anchor their historic communities in the riverside area.

The influence of the Christian missionaries is clearly observable in Bang Rak, not least from their churches—the Assumption Cathedral near the river is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok, while over a dozen Protestant churches are located in the district—but also through the schools and hospitals they founded. The Catholic Church operates Assumption College, Assumption Convent and Assumption Suksa schools, all near the cathedral, as well as Saint Joseph Convent School, situated off Si Lom on Convent Road, opposite the Carmelite Monastery.

Also on Convent Road, on its corner with Sathon, is the historic Christ Church Bangkok, today a parish church of the Anglican Church in Thailand. The country's main Protestant denomination, the Church of Christ in Thailand, operates Bangkok Christian College, the country's oldest school, which sits on the corner of Sathon and Pramuan roads, as well as the Bangkok Christian Hospital on Si Lom. Other hospitals also have histories related to the Western presence: Lerdsin Hospital (on Si Lom Road, near Bang Rak Intersection) was first headed by Thomas Heyward Hays, a doctor with the Presbyterian mission, while BNH Hospital was founded as a nursing home by the British community. The other hospital in the district is Mahaesak Hospital, and other secondary schools include the state-run Mahapruttaram Girls' School and Buddhajak Wittaya School.

Transport
Bang Rak is served by the Silom Line of the BTS Skytrain and the Blue Line of the MRT, as well as the Chao Phraya Express Boat and regular bus services. The Si Rat Expressway has ramps at Rama IV and Si Lom/Sathon roads.

The MRT runs under Rama IV Road along the district's northern border, with Hua Lamphong, Sam Yan, Si Lom (at Sala Daeng Intersection), and Lumphini (at Witthayu) stations serving the respective neighbourhoods. The Si Lom MRT Station has a link to the BTS's Sala Daeng Station, from where the elevated railway runs along Si Lom Road before turning into Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, where Chong Nonsi Station is. It continues onto Sathon Road, serving the Saint Louis, Surasak, and Saphan Taksin stations. The last sits on Taksin Bridge, a major road link across the river, and provides a connection to the express boat's Sathorn Pier. Other piers for the boat service are Oriental, Wat Muang Kae, and Si Phraya.

title: Bang Rak district


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Esboço

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was Speedied. Golbez 06:27, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

Esboço
Err, Im not sure what the policy is on deleting foreign language pages and I dont know the language this is written in, so Im putting it on here for now CunningLinguist 17:04, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * The policy is that you list them on Pages needing translation into English rather than here, but never mind. The translation from Portuguese is as follows: "I liked this page very much.. it gave me a ampler vision of geography...". I have asked for a Speedy delete. Physchim62 17:31, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * speedied. Just no-context nonsense in a foreign language. Fawcett5 17:43, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages.  Please do not edit this page .

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Esboço


text:
Tenpai Wangchuk, 8th Panchen Lama

Tenpai Wangchuk (1855–1882) was the eighth Panchen Lama of Tibet.

8th Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk, also known as Namgyal Wangdui Gyaltsen, was born in 1855 in Namling County (རྣམ་གླིང་རྫོང་། 南木林), Shigatse prefecture, western Tibet. He was born into an aristocratic family of Nyingma school. One member of his family was an incarnation of Nyingma school. The fact that the new Panchen Lama came from a different tradition created a discontent among the Tashilhunpo Monastery monks (who profess the Gelug tradition). His father's name was Tenzin Wangjia and his mother's name was Zhaxila (Chinese transcription).

In 1857 Tenpai Wangchuk was identified as the eighth incarnation of the Panchen Lama. He was the first Panchen Lama to be identified by drawing a lot from the Golden Urn. In 1860 Tenpai Wangchuk (aged 5), in the presence of Reting Rinpoche Hutukthu, was finally enthroned as the 8th incarnation of Panchen Lama in the Tashilhunpo Monastery.

In 1877 (or 1878) Tenpai Wangchuk along with regent Tenzin Hutukthu identified the 13th Dalai Lama using the Golden Urn. The 8th Panchen Lama died in 1882 in the age of 27.

All the tombs from the Fifth to the Ninth Panchen Lamas were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and have been rebuilt by the 10th Panchen Lama with a huge tomb at Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, known as the Tashi Langyar.

title: Tenpai Wangchuk, 8th Panchen Lama


text:
Coney Island Cyclone

The Cyclone, also called the Coney Island Cyclone, is a wooden roller coaster at Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The roller coaster is on a plot of land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street. The Cyclone reaches a maximum speed of 60 mph and has a total track length of 2640 ft, with a maximum height of 85 ft.

The roller coaster operated for more than four decades before it began to deteriorate, and by the early 1970s the city planned to scrap the ride. On June 18, 1975, Dewey and Jerome Albert, owners of the adjacent Astroland amusement park, entered an agreement with New York City to operate the ride. The roller coaster was refurbished in the 1974 off-season and reopened on July 3, 1975. Astroland Park continued to invest millions of dollars in the Cyclone's upkeep. The roller coaster was declared a New York City designated landmark in 1988 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. After Astroland closed in 2008, Cyclone Coasters president Carol Hill Albert continued to operate it under a lease agreement with the city. In 2011, Luna Park took over the Cyclone.

History
Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States from about 1880 to World War II, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height, it contained three amusement parks (Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park) and many independent amusements. The Cyclone site was occupied by the Giant Racer from 1911 to 1926.

Early history
The success of the Thunderbolt and Tornado roller coasters, which respectively opened in 1925 and 1926, led Irving and Jack Rosenthal to acquire land at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 10th Street for a coaster of their own. The Rosenthal brothers leased a land lot for 19 years from the Coast Holding Company, a syndicate composed of "many prominent business and amusement men of Coney".

With a $100,000 investment, they hired leading coaster designer Vernon Keenan to design a new ride. Harry C. Baker supervised the construction, while local companies provided the material, including steel contractor National Bridge Company and lumber contractor Cross, Austin, & Ireland. Its final cost was reportedly $146,000 to $175,000. When the Cyclone opened on June 26, 1927, a ride cost 25 cents, except on Sundays and holidays, when the Rosenthals charged 35 cents. With the success of the Cyclone, the Rosenthals installed a similar ride at Golden City Park in Canarsie, Brooklyn, in 1928.

In 1935, the Rosenthals took over the management of New Jersey's Palisades Park. The Cyclone was placed under the supervision of Christopher Feucht, a Coney Island entrepreneur who had built Drop the Dip in 1907. Feucht performed minor retracking work on the Cyclone The ride's first drop was reduced by 5 ft in 1939. By that time, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses planned to clear a 100 ft area inland of the Riegelmann Boardwalk, which would have required the relocation or closure of the Cyclone. These plans were subsequently modified to preserve the amusement area there. The ride remained extremely popular. A person with dwarfism would originally zap disembarking riders with an electric paddle, a practice which ended during the 1950s.

Decline
Sylvio and Al Pinto acquired the Cyclone in March 1959. By the 1960s, attendance at Coney Island was declining. Increased crime, insufficient parking, poor weather, and the post-World War II automotive boom were all cited as contributing factors in the decline. Coney Island's last remaining large theme park, Steeplechase Park, was closed in 1964 and subsequently demolished. The Cyclone was sold to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) in 1965. Around that time, the New York City government wanted to construct an expansion to the New York Aquarium, which had been constructed east of the Cyclone in 1954. The city began planning to acquire the Cyclone via eminent domain in 1967. Its owners, East Coaster Corporation, unsuccessfully fought the city; they did minimal long-term maintenance, enough to keep the ride operating safely. The city bought the Cyclone for $1.2 million in 1969.

The Cyclone was then operated under contract by East Coaster Corporation while the city worked with the New York Aquarium on plans to redevelop the site. There was a lack of long-term maintenance by the city, and the coaster soon received 101 safety violations. In 1972, aquarium officials announced that they would replace the Cyclone with a swamp display. Opponents of the plan organized a "Save the Cyclone" campaign to contest the proposed demolition of the coaster. This created a conflict between the aquarium, which supported the Cyclone's demolition, and the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, which opposed it. The owners of the AstroWorld theme park in Houston were considering buying the Coney Island Cyclone and moving it to Houston. This was eventually rejected as being too expensive, and AstroWorld's owners instead built a replica, which they branded as the Texas Cyclone.

By 1974, city officials doubted their decision to purchase the Cyclone and considered leasing the coaster to a private operator. The proposed demolition of the Cyclone was seen as potentially disastrous to Coney Island's economy. The city changed its plans to dismantle the coaster and, in April 1975, invited sealed bids to lease operation of the ride. The owners of the Astroland amusement park won the lease, with a bid of $57,000 per year. After Astroland spent $60,000 to refurbish the Cyclone, the coaster reopened on July 3, 1975.

Preservation
During the 1986 season, insurance disputes forced the Cyclone to stay closed until July. The Cyclone remained in operation as a separate enterprise following the 2008 closure of Astroland and during the single operating season of Dreamland in 2009.

The adjacent Luna Park took over management of the Cyclone in 2011 and began a major refurbishment of the coaster during the off-season. The ride had not been refurbished since the 1970s, and various planks and other elements of the structure had come loose. Although Luna Park officials said the Cyclone's maximum speed and layout would remain unchanged, roller coaster enthusiasts expressed concern that the refurbishment would make the ride experience smoother, saying that the Cyclone's roughness was a major characteristic of the ride. Luna Park hired Great Coasters International (GCI) to refurbish the roller coaster. The roller coaster remained largely intact after the surrounding area was flooded during Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. GCI completed its refurbishment of the Cyclone in 2016. The Cyclone did not operate during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City; it reopened during the 2021 season.

Characteristics
The wooden roller coaster covers 75 ft at 834 Surf Avenue and 500 ft on West 10th Street, which is owned by NYC Parks. The former concession stands (built into the coaster's structure) was home to the Coney Island History Project, which was moved to a space near the Wonder Wheel. A souvenir stand selling Cyclone-based shirts, hats, and on-ride photos remains. The Cyclone is considered an "irreplaceable" structure, since timber-supported coasters can no longer be built under modern New York City building codes.

The track is 2640 ft long, including six fan turns and twelve drops. The ride's top speed is 60 mph, and each ride takes about one minute and fifty seconds. The brown wooden track has red wood fencing alongside it and has a white structural framework, giving it a distinctive appearance. The steel framework is composed of vertical I-beams, horizontal tie bars, and diagonal cross-bracing beams, connected by riveted steel plates. "Cyclone" appears in large, red, incandescent letters on the east and west sides of the lift hill;  the letters on this sign were originally 10 ft high. The coaster is surrounded by a fence. Before 2000, the Cyclone's 58.1-degree initial drop was the third-steepest drop of any wooden coaster in the world. , it has the ninth-steepest drop of any wood coaster worldwide.

The Cyclone has three trains, each with three cars; one train can run at a time. Riders are arranged two across in four rows, for a total of 24 riders per train. The trains have bench seating (rather than individual seats for each passenger), and a single-position lap-bar restraint system which drops across the entire row. The seats do not have headrests.

Each ride in Luna Park charges a number of credits for admission, with each credit typically costing $1. , each ride on the Cyclone costs 10 credits ($10); free and reduced-price re-rides have been eliminated. Ride admission is also included in Luna Park's fixed-date and any-date passes. "Bonus credits" accumulated by the purchase of ride credits cannot be used for the coaster. The station is accessed from the ticket booth on West 10th Street. It consists of two wooden platforms, one on each side of the track; the outer (western) platform is for riders who are boarding, and the inner (eastern) platform is for exiting riders. The station is under a gable roof canopy supported by a steel arch frame, which has segmented arcades along its sides. A mechanical room is partly underneath, and next to, the platform. Outside the station is a vertical sign with incandescent letters spelling "CYCLONE", which measures 45 ft high.

Ride experience
The train leaves the station heading north and immediately turns right at an almost 180-degree angle, which leads to an 85 ft lift hill. It then moves over the first 58.1-degree drop; as the train reaches the bottom of the drop, it comes close to the track above for a headchopper effect. The train then ascends into the first high-speed U-turn to the left, descending again beneath the lift hill and rising to the second 70 ft U-turn to the right. It descends parallel to the lift hill, enters a camelback hill and rises to a smaller banked right U-turn, where it dives under the first high-speed curve. After the third U-turn, the train enters a second camelback hill with a fan turn and a smaller airtime section as it approaches a fourth U-turn to the right. The train hops several times more, paralleling the second drop, before entering a final right curve. It drops slightly, ascends into a tunnel with a small left fan turn, and enters a brake run just before re-entering the station.

Incidents

At least three people have died after riding the Cyclone. On May 26, 1985, a 29-year-old man was killed when he stood up and hit his head on a crossbeam. On August 23, 1988, a 26-year-old maintenance worker, riding in the back seat during his lunch break, was killed after falling 30 ft from the coaster and landing on a crossbeam of a lower section of track. The ride was closed after the incident but reopened a day later after safety inspectors concluded it was safe. Keith Shirasawa, a 53-year-old man, suffered several crushed vertebrae in his neck while riding the Cyclone on July 31, 2007, and died four days later due to complications during surgery.

On June 12, 2008, a woman rode the Cyclone and later claimed that she had been seriously injured due to the ride. She was awarded $1.5 million in damages in 2015, despite being found partly at fault.

Notable riders and records
Aviator Charles Lindbergh was said to have ridden the Cyclone two years after it opened, and reportedly called the experience "greater than flying an airplane at top speed". Emilio Franco, a mute coal miner with aphonia, visited Coney Island in 1948 and reportedly screamed while going down the Cyclone's first drop. Franco also reportedly said, "I feel sick" as his train returned to the station. According to multiple accounts, he fainted after realizing that he had spoken. Although one version of the story reported that Franco had been mute since birth, a contemporary New York Times story said that he had been mute for five years.

Michael Boodley set a record in 1975 for the most consecutive trips on the Cyclone, riding it 1,001 times over a 45-hour period. Nineteen-year-old Richard Rodriguez broke the record from August 18 to 22, 1977, riding the coaster for 104 hours. He took short bathroom breaks between rides, eating hot dogs and M&Ms and drinking shakes during the ride itself. Rodriguez broke his own record for the longest roller-coaster marathon in 2007, riding for 405 hours and 40 minutes at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the United Kingdom. In 2009, the Coney Island History Project gave an award to Howie Lipstein, who had ridden the Cyclone for fifty consecutive years. In 2019, Luna Park honored him for riding for sixty consecutive years.

Impact
The Cyclone was named a city landmark in 1988 and a National Historic Landmark in 1991. An ACE Coaster Classic and Coaster Landmark, it inspired the name of the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team, which plays at nearby Maimonides Park.

Replicas
The popularity of the Cyclone has inspired eight replica coasters that share (or mirror) a similar layout. Four replicas of the Cyclone were built at Six Flags parks: Viper at Six Flags Great America; Psyclone at Six Flags Magic Mountain; the Texas Cyclone at Six Flags AstroWorld;  and the Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia. Of these, only Viper is still operational in its original state. International replicas include Bandit at Movie Park Germany; the defunct White Canyon at Yomiuriland in Japan, and the defunct Aska at Japan's Nara Dreamland.

The Riverside Cyclone, built in 1983 at Riverside Amusement Park (now Six Flags New England), was inspired by the design of the Coney Island Cyclone. Later known as the Cyclone, it was closed in 2014 and replaced with Wicked Cyclone, constructed by Rocky Mountain Construction. Despite the shared name, the Riverside Cyclone was not a replica of the Coney Island Cyclone.

title: Coney Island Cyclone


text:
Petri

Petri is a surname derived from Latin Petrus, and may refer to:

Surname

 * Adam Petri, Renaissance printer who founded a Basel publishing house
 * Alexandra Petri, humor columnist for The Washington Post, daughter of Tom
 * Carl Adam Petri, who introduced Petri nets
 * Edward P. Petri, American politician and businessman
 * Egon Petri, Dutch pianist and composer
 * Elio Petri, Italian director
 * Ellen Petri, Belgian beauty queen
 * Franziska Petri, German actress
 * György Petri, Hungarian poet
 * Heather Petri, American water polo player
 * Heinrich Petri, better known by his Latin name Henricus Petrus
 * Johannes Petri, uncle to Adam Petri, both printers of Basel
 * Julius Richard Petri, German bacteriologist, inventor of the Petri dish
 * Laurentius Petri, Swedish clergyman, first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden
 * Luca Petri, Italian football player
 * Luis Petri, Argentine politician
 * Maria Petri, English association football supporter
 * Mario Petri, Italian operatic bass
 * Michala Petri, Danish recorder player
 * Mike Petri, American rugby player
 * Olaus Petri, Swedish clergyman
 * Petrus Petri, Spanish medieval architect
 * Scott Petri, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
 * Tom Petri, U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 6th congressional district

title: Petri


text:
Wurm

The Wurm (Worm ) is a river in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It rises in the Eifel mountains and flows for 57 kilometres before discharging into the Rur.

Geography
The Wurm is a left (western) tributary of the Rur (Roer). The Rur is a tributary of the Meuse.

The sources of the Wurm are several brooks in the forests southwest of Aachen, which form the Wurm after the Diepenbenden reservoir. From there the Wurm nowadays flows through canals through the city of Aachen, until it resurfaces again at the Europaplatz in the east of Aachen. North of Aachen (between Kerkrade and Herzogenrath) the river forms the border with the Netherlands for approximately 10 km. It flows into the Rur near Heinsberg.

Other towns on the river Wurm are Würselen, Übach-Palenberg and Geilenkirchen.

The name Wurm is thought to originate from the German word warm (same meaning in English), as the source brooks were fed from the thermal springs in Aachen.

title: Wurm


text: Talk:No Come Down

title: Talk:No Come Down


text:
Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats

Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats is the third studio album by American rockabilly revivalist band Stray Cats, released in 1983 by EMI America. It was produced by Dave Edmunds. The album featured the No. 5 hit "(She's) Sexy + 17", Top 40 hit "I Won't Stand in Your Way" (#35) and "Look At That Cadillac" (#68).

Critical reception
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "B−" and said that its "bigger and rawer" sound was an improvement over "Built for Speed's prettification", but felt that, despite his improved guitar playing, Brian Setzer was a poor songwriter and "a preening panderer, mythologizing his rockin' '50s with all the ignorant cynicism of a punk poser". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that the album "sounded identical" to Built for Speed and was just as strong because of the hits "(She's) Sexy + 17" and "I Won't Stand in Your Way".

Track listing
All tracks composed by Brian Setzer; except where indicated
 * 1) "Rebels Rule"
 * 2) "Too Hip, Gotta Go"
 * 3) "Look at That Cadillac"
 * 4) "Something's Wrong With My Radio" (Setzer, Slim Jim Phantom, Lee Rocker)
 * 5) "18 Miles to Memphis"
 * 6) "(She's) Sexy + 17"
 * 7) "Dig Dirty Doggie"
 * 8) "I Won't Stand in Your Way"
 * 9) "Hotrod Gang"
 * 10) "How Long You Wanna Live, Anyway?" (Setzer, Slim Jim Phantom, Lee Rocker)
 * 11) "Lucky Charm (Ooh Wee Suzy)" (Japan Release Bonus Track)

Personnel

 * Brian Setzer - guitar, vocals
 * Lee Rocker - bass, vocals
 * Slim Jim Phantom - drums
 * 14 Karat Soul - background vocals
 * Mel Collins - saxophone
 * Geraint Watkins - piano
 * David Thurmond - background vocals
 * Russell Fox II - background vocals
 * Gavin Cochrane - Photography

title: Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats